First of all we have to know that “SAP is an ERP” system.

Then what is ERP? ; ERP means “Enterprise Resource Planning” , ERP used for software that controls whole organization with all different departments and operations.

SAP is not alone in this ERP world also we can give some other ERP examples like Oracle, People Soft, Epicor, JD Edwards … But SAP is a leader software in this ERP world.

Now let’s learn what is SAP mean ; SAP stands for “Systeme, Andwendungen, Produkte in der Datenverarbeitung” for German and translated to English means “Systems, Applications, Products in Data Processing”

SAP handles an organizations’s Production, Controlling, Finance, HR, Sales, Distribution, Material management, Warehouse,  Security, Research and many other departments.

Also SAP has a special industry specific solutions for almost all industries, for example; Oil, Manufacturing, Chemistry, Insurance, Finance etc.

Most important modules are , FI & CO for finance and controlling , SD for sales and HR for human resource departments.

You can find the whole module list below

SAP FI Module- FI stands for Financial Accounting

SAP CO Module- CO stands for Controlling

SAP PS Module – and PS is Project Systems

SAP HR Module – HR stands for Human Resources

SAP PM Module – where Plant Maintenance is the PM

SAP MM Module – MM is Materials Management -

SAP QM Module -  QM stands for Quality Management

SAP PP Module – PP  is Production Planning

SAP SD Module – SD is Sales and Distribution

SAP BW Module – where BW stands for Business (Data) Warehouse

SAP  EC Module – where EC stands for Enterprise Controlling

SAP TR Module – where TR stands for Treasury

SAP    IM Module – where IM stands for Investment Management

SAP   QM Module – where QM stands for Quality Management

SAP – IS where IS stands for Industries specific solution

SAP – Basis

SAP – ABAP

SAP – Cross Application Components

SAP – CRM where CRM stands for Customer Relationship Management

SAP – SCM where SCM stands for Supply Chain Management

SAP – PLM where PLM stands for Product Life Cycle Management

SAP – SRM where SRM stands for Supplier Relationship Management

SAP – CS where CS stands for Customer Service

SAP – SEM where SEM stands for STRATEGIC ENTERPRISE MANAGEMENT

SAP – RE where RE stands for Real Estate

What about the company? The company  SAP AG was founded in year 1972 and is headquartered in Walldorf, Germany.
SAP provides business solutions to companies of all sizes of businesses. More than 190,000 customers in over 120 countries use its products. SAP has more than 58000 employees and in more than 50 countries worldwide.

SAP had 16,22 billion Euro revenue for the year 2012

What about version history ;

SAP R/1
The first version of SAP was released in 1972  and known as the “R/1 system” R stands for real-time data processing.

One tier system works one server for Presentation ,  Application and Database

SAP R/2
Second version of SAP R/2 was released in 1979 with IBM’s database and a dialogue-oriented business application.

Two tier system works one server for  Presentation and second server for Application and Database

SAP R/2 also handle different languages and currencies

SAP R/3
SAP R/3 is the client & server version of the software and it is 3 tier architecture.

Three tier system works on three servers/systems for Presentation , Application and Database