| SAP Company was founded in Germany in year1972 | | | | market went from nearly zero to 44% of total SAP |
| by five ex-IBM engineers. SAP means Systems, | | | | worldwide sales. SAP is available today in 46 |
| application, products in Data Processing. So now you | | | | country-specific versions, integrating 28 languages |
| know! Being integrated in Germany, the full name of | | | | including Kanji and many other double-byte character |
| parent company is SAP AG. It is situated in Walldorf, | | | | languages. SAP is also coming in 21 industry-specific |
| Germany close to the beautiful town of Heidelberg. It | | | | versions. |
| has subsidiaries in over 50 countries all around the | | | | SAP R/3 is delivered to a client with selected standard |
| world from Argentina to Venezuela. The innovative | | | | procedure turned on, and many several other optional |
| five founders have been very successful that they | | | | processes and features turned off. At the heart of |
| have multiplied lots of times over such that SAP AG is | | | | SAP R/3 are nearly 10,000 tables that control the way |
| now the third leading software manufacturer in the | | | | the processes are carried out. Configuration is |
| world, with more than 17,500 customers (including more | | | | adjusting the settings of these tables to obtain SAP to |
| than half the world's 500 top companies). SAP | | | | run the way you desire it to. Imagine a radio with |
| employs larger than 27,000 people worldwide today, | | | | 10,000 dials to be tuned and you’ll get the picture. |
| and had revenues of $7.34 billion and the Net Income | | | | Functionality integrated is truly venture wide including: |
| of $581 million in FY01.Now there are 44,500 | | | | Financial Accounting (e.g. the general ledger or |
| installations of SAP, in 120 countries, with 10 million | | | | accounts receivable etc), Management Accounting |
| users! | | | | (e.g. the cost centers or profitability analysis etc), Sales, |
| What made this company so victorious? Back in 1979 | | | | Distribution, Production Planning, Manufacturing, Human |
| SAP released SAP R/2 (which also runs on | | | | Resources, Purchasing, and Payroll etc. All of these |
| mainframes) into the German market. SAP R/2 was | | | | modules are firmly integrated which as you will find out |
| the first incorporated, enterprise wide package and | | | | is a big blessing but this brings with it special challenges. |
| was an instant success. For years SAP remained | | | | The SAP applications, built about their latest R/3 |
| within the German borders till it had penetrated | | | | system, offer the capability to manage financial asset, |
| practically every big German company. Looking for | | | | and cost accounting, materials, production operations |
| more and more growth, SAP expanded into Europe | | | | and personnel, plants, and archived documents. R/3 |
| during the 80's. Towards the end of 80's, client-server | | | | system runs on many platforms also including |
| architecture became so popular and SAP responded | | | | Windows 2000 and it also uses the client/server |
| with the release of SAP R/3. The great success of | | | | model. Latest version of R/3 includes a complete |
| SAP R/3 in North America has been nothing but very | | | | Internet-enabled package. |
| stunning. Within a period of 5 year, the North American | | | | |