SAP ERP is enterprise resource planning software developed by the German company SAP SE. SAP ERP incorporates the key business functions of an organization. The latest version (SAP ERP 6.0) was made available in 2006. The most recent Enhancement Package (EHP8) for SAP ERP 6.0 was released in 2016. Business Processes included in SAP ERP are Operations (Sales & Distribution, Materials Management, Production Planning, Logistics Execution, and Quality Management), Financials (Financial Accounting, Management Accounting, Financial Supply Chain Management), Human Capital Management (Training, Payroll, e-Recruiting) and Corporate Services (Travel Management, Environment, Health and Safety, and Real-Estate Management)..

Implementation

AP ERP consists of several modules, including Financial Accounting (FI), Controlling (CO), Asset Accounting (AA), Sales & Distribution (SD), Material Management (MM), Product Planning (PP), Quality Management (QM), Project System (PS), Plant Maintenance (PM), Human Resources (HR). SAP ERP collects and combines data from the separate modules to provide the company or organization with enterprise resource planning.

Typical implementation phases:

• Phase 1 - Project Preparation
• Phase 2 - Business Blueprint
• Phase 3 - Realization
• Phase 4 - Final Preparation
• Phase 5 - Golive Support

Companies planning to implement or upgrade an SAP ERP system should pay strict attention to system integration to save their SAP ERP implementation from failure. With system integration in place, data flows move completely and correctly among various SAP ERP components, thereby not only streamlining business processes but also eliminating or minimizing redundant data entry efforts.

Analyst firm Gartner estimates that 55% to 75% of all ERP projects fail to meet their objectives…Of the top 10 barriers to a successful ERP journey, 5 can be addressed by developing and implementing a structured change management program.