Perhaps this is the proper forum to ask this question: I simply don't understand what SAP is form? Isn't it just a bunch of forms sitting on top a database? How is it different from Oracle services?
What a fantastic question. SAP is a form on top of a database the way Emacs is a text editor. From a certain point of view that is sort of true, but you only need to scratch the surface to see the gigantic morass lying underneath.
SAP is meant to automate business processes. In particular, it focuses on general business processes that cross industries, plus specific business process that apply generally within an industry.
For instance, cross-cutting processes might be procurement, accounts receivable, accounts payable, asset management, general ledger, invoicing, payroll, time and expense entry, contract management etc. Each of these single functions has a set of common forms that can be customized with the master data of the specific implementation (select box 1 has values Product A, Product B and Product C), plus any custom business rules (field A value X means field B is disabled).
And for your next trick, get everyone to agree on the set of forms, the transitions between forms, the required validations, the exact right set of master data, and other business rules.
From a modern point of view, SAP's architecture feels pretty alien. In a way you're right, and it's a massive amount of forms on top of a database, plus staggering amounts of business logic. But as it was born before the web, it does not render to HTML, but to it's own display system. Most parts are written in ABAP, an interpreted language, and the source code is stored in the database. A quite usable IDE and a debugger are included. The source code is there, so you can read it and explore how things happen.
There's a database abstraction layer, which works around some limitations of the underlying databases. What SAP sees as a table might be a set of tables in the database.
It's popular in the financial sector because of the speed of it's mathematical functions. Back 10 years ago Sybase was the default at the bank I worked at.
Sybase isn't really in the enterprise DB space anymore. That part of the business still exists, but it's not really what they push, as far as I've been told. These days, they primarily do client-server middleware for mobile devices. Device tracking, remote wiping / encryption, that kind of stuff.
Sybase is still quite popular in the investment banking world. GS is a big enough client that their ASE 12.5 installations are still being supported despite it officially being EOL for everyone else...
It used to be true that Sybase stored procs can by converted to MS-SQL with not much effort, but I guess over the years they've drifted apart quite a bit?
SAP own the free DBMS MaxDB - so aren't exactly dependent, although Sybase have a much more diverse product range. Interesting developments in the enterprise space.
[+] [-] omnipath|16 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jbarciauskas|16 years ago|reply
SAP is meant to automate business processes. In particular, it focuses on general business processes that cross industries, plus specific business process that apply generally within an industry.
For instance, cross-cutting processes might be procurement, accounts receivable, accounts payable, asset management, general ledger, invoicing, payroll, time and expense entry, contract management etc. Each of these single functions has a set of common forms that can be customized with the master data of the specific implementation (select box 1 has values Product A, Product B and Product C), plus any custom business rules (field A value X means field B is disabled).
And for your next trick, get everyone to agree on the set of forms, the transitions between forms, the required validations, the exact right set of master data, and other business rules.
And that is barely scratching the surface.
[+] [-] dhoe|16 years ago|reply
There's a database abstraction layer, which works around some limitations of the underlying databases. What SAP sees as a table might be a set of tables in the database.
It's not an unpleasant system to work with.
[+] [-] dailo10|16 years ago|reply
I feel out of touch. The only enterprise DBs I run into these days are Oracle and MSSQL.
[+] [-] stewiecat|16 years ago|reply
[+] [-] manvsmachine|16 years ago|reply
[+] [-] room606|16 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ig1|16 years ago|reply
[+] [-] there|16 years ago|reply
[+] [-] fretlessjazz|16 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Devilboy|16 years ago|reply
[+] [-] imack|16 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jkent|16 years ago|reply
[+] [-] lenni|16 years ago|reply