SAP Business Suite

SAP Business Suite is the family of solutions of SAP AG company offering broad functionality, integration, unlimited scalability and interaction within network infrastructures of business.

Being an integral part of the SAP platform for work with data in real time, SAP Sybase ASE adds to SAP solutions the checked DBMS which is used already over 25 years in the industrial environments differing in high requirements and critical degree of importance. SAP Sybase ASE has base more than from 30 thousand clients with an indicator of satisfaction of 97%. It became possible thanks to the high performance, reliability, the first-class technical support and low total cost of ownership. The manufacturing enterprises using SAP Business Suite based on SAP Sybase ASE see these advantages too.

SAP components of Business Suite 6

• Resource management of enterprise / SAP of ERP
• Customer relationship management / SAP Customer Relationship Management (SAP CRM)
• Product lifecycle management / SAP Product Lifecycle Management (SAP of PLM)
• Vendor relationship management / SAP Supplier Relationship Management (SAP SRM)
• Management of logistic network / SAP Supply Chain Management (SAP SCM)
• Personnel management / SAP ERP Human Capital Management, HCM SAP ERP
• Management of finance / SAP ERP Financials
• Product lifecycle management (PLM)/SAP Product Lifecycle Management, SAP of PLM
• Supply management / SAP Supplier Relationship Management, SAP SRM

2009: SAP Business Suite 7

In February, 2009 SAP submitted the new version of Business Suite 7. Its main advantages, according to the developer, is the modular structure which allows users to pay only for functionality necessary for them and to set only selective updates and also orientation to business processes and business users.

The new version contains more than 150 new functionality and is positioned as the flexible and profitable tool in the conditions of an economic crisis. According to representatives of SAP, this software package should become the simplest and at the same time to the least costly for implementation and operation by the solution of the company.

Structure of a system

SAP Business Suite 7 has modular structure. But unlike the previous version, these modules are integrated not in terms of business applications (ERP CRM BI etc.), and in terms of business processes. End-to-end business processes can be beyond separate applications, providing to users a better understanding about specific business challenges or spheres of activity. By the same principle (orientation to business users and to end-to-end tasks and processes) also the user interface is executed.

For such implementation all applications entering a software package should be closely integrated, have the general architecture, but at the same time they should remain rather independent from each other that clients could set them selectively, according to own requirements.

A system already contains in the structure the implemented "best business practices", including industry. In those areas which are critical for specific business these business practices can be adapted, processed. For the solution of other, not so key tasks, standard business processes can be left without changes that, as envisioned by the developer, will allow to accelerate and reduce the price of implementation process. Besides, in SAP applications of Business Suite 7 as it is reported, some analytical opportunities of the products BusinessObjects are built-in (for example, dashboards for heads).

In general the software package is completely executed according to the principles of architecture of SOA (on the basis of SAP NetWeaver) and supports more than 2,800 corporate services.

Updating of a system

Updating of this system will be performed by already tested SAP method - using periodically released packets (Enhancement Packages) which do not require regeneration of a system, and can selectively be established, modifying only functionality, necessary for the specific client (for SAP ERP 6.0 four such service packs were released already). Updates for all products entering into Business Suite 7 will be synchronized among themselves.

At the same time for clients of the previous versions of ERP systems from SAP transition to the new platform can become very labor-consuming and expensive project. Especially it concerns users of "older" SAP R\3 and especially if a system was seriously adapted and processed for many years of operation. However after that "jump" on the new platform further updates as the developer promises, will not have to cause essential difficulties any more.

Strategy of promotion of a product

It is supposed that the new software product will allow SAP to be guided by the conclusion of bigger number of less large contracts that is especially relevant during economic downturn when many companies are forced to reduce costs for IT. Besides, the modular structure is designed to reduce the risks connected with "entry" into a system - at first only some modules, and in process of mastering and emergence of additional financial resources can be purchased, the functionality can be expanded.

Also, according to many experts, the modular structure of a system will be able to facilitate in the future SAP further mastering of the SaaS market - technologies which promise to become shortly rather demanded and in the market of ERP. Though concerning SAP Business Suite 7 heads of SAP do not speak about such opportunity yet. However do not intend to ignore the growing demand for SaaS solutions in SAP - the step in this direction was already taken by the developer thanks to release of the ERP system of Business ByDesign focused on small and medium business.

According to analysts, perhaps SAP will also experience some difficulties with market promotion of the new product now when many clients (by some estimates - more than a third) froze the ERP projects. Anyway, the release of SAP Business Suite 7 is significant already the fact that it allowed SAP to be ahead of the closest competitor of Oracle whose essentially new SOA product Fusion Applications should appear only in 2010-2011.

2013: Release of SAP Business Suite on the SAP HANA platform

In January, 2013 the SAP AG company announced release of a complex of the SAP solutions Business Suite for management of the modern enterprise based on the SAP HANA platform. Now SAP is the only supplier of a complex of business applications for collecting and the analysis of transaction data in real time which work at a single platform for calculations in RAM.

The complex of the SAP solutions Business Suite based on the SAP HANA platform allows to manage business in real time. Transaction processing, data analysis and forecasting in the conditions of unpredictability of modern business are executed in parallel and almost instantly. Such approach gives to the companies unique opportunities for immediate response to any situations, at the same time the complexity decreases and duplication of data and systems is excluded. These advanced innovations allow to create value for business within all business processes, now the companies will run business and to interact with each other in a new way. A large number of business scenarios (for the marketing analysis, financial closure, accounts receivable management, material resource planning, the analysis of consumer behavior and consumer preferences, etc.) and the most often used forms for the operational reporting and analytics were optimized for the purpose of creation of the maximum customer value.

The complex of the SAP solutions Business Suite based on the SAP HANA platform brings maneuverability of business and the innovation activity to essentially new level, before the companies new opportunities for growth open. The companies users can manage all crucial business processes now in real time as for planning and implementation of activity, preparation of the reporting and carrying out the analysis the same significant data arriving in real time are used. New SAP Business Suite is a complex of the solutions working in real time, it contains new category of analytical applications and provides means of preparation of the reporting on the basis of the latest data. The SAP company released a service pack for the purpose of ensuring soft junction and the solution with support of fast deployment that the existing clients could move freely the database on the SAP HANA platform if it is necessary.

This modern platform will help clients of SAP to perform deep transformation of the business in real time without breaks in the current activity – for the purpose of implementation of business innovations, acceleration of business processes and optimization of business communication.

The advanced innovations for business

The companies users can analyze transaction data now and make necessary changes to a business model and business processes.

Acceleration of business processes The complex of the SAP solutions Business Suite based on the SAP HANA platform helps the companies to accelerate considerably basic processes and to transform them to the scenarios executed in real time.

Business communication optimization

Modern users treat technologies as to consumer goods, they want to minimize a time gap between decision making and the corresponding actions. SAP Business Suite simplifies the business communications connected with the information transfer arriving in real time.

Freedom of choice and complex customer support

SAP still supports the clients in questions of the independent choice of suppliers and technologies of management of databases. The solution package of SAP Business Suite will still support all databases certified by SAP company. SAP provides complex services, solutions with support of fast deployment and also the help of experienced consultants for implementation from among the partners entering an extensive ecosystem. The specialized solution with support of fast deployment of SAP will release in the first quarter 2013. Clients will be able to unroll it within 6 months or even quicker. They will receive a complete packet of previously set up solutions and implementation services, content and all necessary components in the fixed volume at the fixed price. In cooperation with clients and user groups the SAP company developed the pricing model similar to that which works upon purchase of databases. It allows to accelerate implementation even more. The price will represent a certain percent from the cost of the application, such model profitable differs from offers of most of competitors.

Similar innovations are also planned for the SAP solutions Business All-in-One that will make the SAP HANA platform available to the companies of any size. In combination with applications from a packet of SAP Business Suite which already work at the SAP HANA platform these solutions will help all partner ecosystem to seize the opportunities which open in the field of sales, service and business in general. To learn that partners in an occasion of today's news, see the section of "Opinion on a complex of the SAP solutions Business Suite based on the SAP HANA platform" think.

2014 Evolution of SAP Business Suite on SAP HANA

Historically the organization of many processes in the Business Suite systems was defined by need of the choice: execute difficult processing of the detailed "crude" data for long time or aggregated – but quickly, thus, the same information could be duplicated in different tables of a system up to 40 times. In addition to need of reconciliation and complexity of making changes, it required the appropriate hardware resources for storage.

Optimization of calculations directly in SAP HANA on the basis of the transaction data which are stored in RAM eliminated bottlenecks in business processes and allowed to have the uniform version of correct data for the operational and analytical reporting and also processes of the integrated planning.

One of the most indicative processes optimized based on the SAP HANA platform is process of management of finance – the most important process of the company which became "leader" of innovations in SAP Business Suite (Simple Finance). Within process the set of tables and procedures was abolished. For example, now in a system the functionality of "instant closing" is implemented. Thanks to elimination of batch processing of data and considerable reduction of runtime of transactions, duration of closing of a financial period is reduced. One of the first clients who tested financial innovations from SAP – the Zurich insurance company – reported that thanks to Simple Finance the cycle of recalculations of controlling was reduced from 5 to 1 o'clock. Runtime of reports on separate positions of the ledger decreased by 1000 times (from 15 min. to 1 sec.). Transactions of revaluation of positions in currency work twice quicker.

Intra group turnovers which needed to be overloaded in a separate repository for reconciliation of counter transactions earlier can be verified in the period in process of entering into the system of invoices now. The main close operations can be reproduced in the simulation mode during the period and to receive the forecast of preliminary results of closing. Balance estimation can be created on the basis of the carried-out data of the actual accounting by means of instruments of forecast modeling of the SAP HANA platform.

The chief financial officer also receives the innovation tools – with the advent of Simple Finance based on SAP HANA need to regularly request the reporting from finance division, to require interpretations in search of deviations and to work with outdated analytics vanishes: in SAP Business Suite there were new analytical applications (Smart Business Cockpits) developed taking into account the business challenges tied to specific roles in the company. Applications provide online analytics on the basis of large volumes of transaction data, since the high-level aggregated key performance indicators (KPI) up to the detailed information of the primary document. It allows the head to identify timely risks and problems, having an opportunity to analyze what factors influenced their emergence and what forecast of succession of events. In an example for process of management of finance as soon as the entering invoice is entered into the system, the total amount of receivables is recalculated also the analytical applications using the latest transaction data provide the updated KPI values (overdue receivables, the 7-day forecast of liquidity, an instant monetary position, etc.).

The SAP company applied innovations of SAP Business Suite on the SAP HANA platform and to the corporate systems within the global project of transformation of financial processes: optimization of the financial module SAP ERP took place in 55 days and allowed to reduce labor costs by processes of financial closure for 400 hours, to eliminate difficult process of reconciliation and to implement complete transparency of financial transactions.

MRP in a new way

As an example of optimization in production processes it should be taken into account logistics planning process (Material Requirements Planning, MRP). According to the statistics, process of MRP includes the second in frequency uses group of the user transactions of the SAP ERP system. The main objective of process – to guarantee timely providing external consumers with material resources and production. Within process there is a comparison of the actual and anticipated demand in materials to the available stocks taking into account the planned deliveries. A system analyzes data for each material and offers the optimal plan for creation of purchase orders and production.

In spite of the fact that the concept does not look difficult, need of processing of a huge number of types of raw materials, assembly units and components represents a difficult computing task and requires considerable time for accomplishment in a traditional system. Materials requirement is dynamic, and, respectively, results of calculations quickly lose relevance and require recalculation. In addition, to the specialist responsible for planning, in the course of the analysis of potential shortage of material it is necessary to use several different transactions, often working with incomplete, inexact and outdated information that does work as less effective and can lead to delays on production and to event of default before clients.

As a result of optimization based on SAP HANA long transactions of batch processing and need of preliminary aggregation were eliminated that allowed to bring closer process of MRP to a real-time mode considerably. The workplace, so-called "Smart Business for MRP" allowing to have always before eyes a number of the important KPIs calculated on the basis of the latest transaction data for timely detection of potential shortage of materials for a requirement covering was developed for planning department specialists of material - the equipment. A system helps the specialist to detect similar situations, defining unsecured requirements (customer orders and the absent components for production), delays in delivery and productions and comparing this information for identification of critical sections and prioritization – in real time for each material.

Besides, the built-in mechanism of simulation on the basis of SAP HANA allows to count ways of solving the problem of timely ensuring need for material resources and offers the user a set of options with assessment of their efficiency. Further directly from the application the specialist can change, for example, parameters of the purchase order, create the order for movement of a stock, etc. Data are presented in the form of easily readable diagrams and interactive dashboards with a possibility of personalisation based on HTML5 that allows to make work of personnel comfortable and effective, and data processing rate in SAP HANA does possible repeatedly and often to start planning process of logistics in a system, without wasting time for long waiting.

For December 16, 2014 several clients of SAP company in Russia already passed to process of MRP to SAP HANA, among them – the large metallurgical company which reached acceleration of calculation for 500 thousand materials more than by 30 times.

Future of business applications

It is possible to give the mass of other examples of process optimization in SAP Business Suite based on SAP HANA as transition to a new paradigm of work with transaction and analytical data affected all basic processes in such systems as SAP ERP SAP CRM SAP SCM , etc. Thanks to an opportunity to build analytical reports on large volumes of transaction data directly on the platform SAP HANA, business users of the systems of SAP do not need to expect completion of loading process of data in the analytical systems any more – the freshest data are always available in reports and dashboards and also the applications of the SAP Fiori group which are specially developed taking into account specifics of roles of business users of SAP Business Suite. Analytics and forecast modeling become a part key business processes that allows to increase quality of decision making, to adapt to dynamics of the market and to create new opportunities for business development, using all potential of the saved-up data.

The specified advantages of a complex of the SAP solutions Business Suite on the SAP HANA platform allow not only to reduce operating expenses, to optimize business processes and to bring experience of interaction of the user with a system to qualitatively new level, but also to simplify a system landscape and process of its administration, to considerably reduce volumes of the stored information due to failure from indexes and units – so, to reduce total cost of ownership information systems for the enterprise.

Besides, Business Suite SAP applications on SAP HANA can be unrolled in cloud infrastructure of SAP company (HANA Enterprise Cloud) and a partner hosting that gives the chance to accelerate process of implementation and to exempt resources of IT department of the company from landscape administration tasks, allowing them to be focused on satisfaction of business needs and implementation of the innovative solutions.

Support will be complete in 2025

On December 31, 2025 the SAP company completes support of SAP Business Suite, or, in other words, SAP R/3, SAP ERP, SAP ECC and other versions with all modules and submodules. After that the SAP company will support only business applications on SAP S/4HANA.