What is SAP?

In today's fast-paced business world, companies must continually keep pace with change ... change in the marketplace, change with competitors and change in technology.

SAP is a market and technology leader in client/server enterprise application software, providing comprehensive solutions for companies of, all sizes and all industry sectors. SAP enables users to continually improve upon best business practices by empowering people to respond quickly and decisively to dynamic market conditions, helping businesses achieve and maintain a competitive advantage. How does it work?

SAP constitutes a radical shift from traditional fragmented business computer systems. In the past, each business unit or department might have maintained their own separate computer system which were often incompatible with others in the company. As a result, the prospect of synchronizing processes, sharing information, and communicating results was inefficient at best and often impossible to achieve. Furthermore, resources were wasted on redundant activities.

SAP, on the other hand, is an enterprise-wide software solution that links an entire organization together with one comprehensive system. That means that SAP can handle a wide range of tasks, from keeping track of manufacturing levels to balancing the books in accounting, and then tie it all together effectively streamlining the data flow between different parts of a business.

The goal is a company where information gets entered into a computer once, and only once. A sales representative, let's say, books an order for a product and enters it into SAP. After that, the software makes sure everyone stays informed. When the factory begins assembling the order, shipping can check its progress on-line and calculate the expected transport date. The warehouse can check its stock of parts and fill whatever bins the factory has depleted. Once the order gets shipped, the information goes directly into the sales reports for the folks at the top.

The bottom line is that SAP allows businesses to share information in realtime with employees, suppliers, and distributors no matter what the size of the organization. This kind of streamlining has a direct and positive effect on productivity, customer service, overall quality, and ultimately the profitability of the company.