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SAP Implementation in an Organisation
Systems, Applications and Products in Data Processing (SAP) is an enterprise resource planning software product that can perform and integrate a number of business applications, with each application demonstrating a specific business area. When you install Microsoft Excel on your PC, each component of Excel (graphics, drop down menus, printing components, word processing etc) is stored, managed and processed through the hardware of your PC. When a business installs SAP software, each component is stored, managed and processed through the hardware of separate and specialised computer systems.
SAP is usually categorised into three core areas: Development – where most of the work takes place, Quality Assurance – where the final testing is conducted, and Production – where the daily business activities occur.
When configured to an individual business, SAP software is designed to generate changes such as the improvement of communication or an increased return on information and this requires a certain amount of dedication, taking years to build a server that is tailored for all employees. The development stage therefore requires a lot of planning and usually involves a sizing and blueprinting phase where the solution stack is created and training is carried out.
When adapting an SAP product, designers must concentrate on how accessible a programme will be to its end users which means considering any `disaster recovery` requirements, creating a back-up system and installing the SAP components and technological foundations such as a web application server. One of the major factors that must also be considered is cost; if the purpose of SAP is to help a business work more efficiently then the design of the solution must focus on the company`s core business and perform a `cost of ownership analysis` to determine where costs are incurred and how these can be reduced.
Other elements to consider in the designing stage are planning ahead for changes to be made within the organization, creating a SAP operations manual to assist with systems management, plan, script and execute SAP stress tests to ensure expectations of the end users are met and finally, to plan, prepare and execute the `handover` – ensuring that minimal interruption is caused to the business before the final product goes live.
The nature of the work requires SAP professionals to have a thorough knowledge of software and hardware systems, in effect they are computer experts who design and make those complex computer systems that most of us will have at some point used at work. It is unlikely that any one person would be an expert in areas of SAP as the systems vary and are ultimately so vast in the input required to create them; so professionals might find themselves working as SAP network specialists, database administrators, security specialists or even documentation specialists and are likely to be assigned to a particular role in the development f the SAP project early on. Because the work is so specialised, SAP specialists can demand very competitive salaries of anywhere between £30,000 and £100,000 a year. For more information on a career in SAP, search for software engineer jobs here.