SAP is the world's largest business software company and third largest independent software provider in terms of revenue. It has three popular ERP softwares SAP ECC or previously known as R/3, business one and business all in one. SAP has also made its presence in SaaS industry by its SAP by design which is an on demand or hosted ERP.
SAP R/3 best fits for large, complex and multi national company which can utilize this highly flexible ERP solution, SAP R/3 has the best supply chain management and work flow control which can control any type of back office workflow. SAP R/3 works on truly three tier distributed architecture which can work with any database. It provides maximum flexibility and configurability, it has features to automate work flow and business processes and its scalability can accommodate large enterprises to government departments.
SAP R/3 provides solutions to manufacturing companies, discrete manufacturing, process manufacturing, consumer, financial sector, government departments and public sector. SAP R/3 complies with the old computer system of the company, it uses ABAP/4 programming language to conjoin the old computer systems to work as a one compact database. It provides its users, windows and graphical user interface by using SAP GUI which works as a backend interface between user and server. However SAP R/3 is considered as an ERP for large companies and out of reach of small and midsized companies. It is also criticized for its complex and time consuming implementation process.
With SAP business one company tried to penetrate the small and mid size market providing a solution which is low in cost and affordable. It has all the basic features like financial, light manufacturing and distribution and modules like CRM, work flow and human resource are other one's to distinguish it from its competitors. Customization is very easy and fields and tables of information can be added, it takes much less time in implementation compared to SAP R/3, its report writer is flexible and gives options of accessing data with multiple criteria. But business one lacks many important feature like it is not a web based product, multiple bin locations, bar code frequency, radio frequency etc are only available by using third party tools.
SAP business all in one is also designed and developed to target small and medium sized markets and it was released after the acquisition of BI by SAP. It provides all the features available in SAP business one along with better reporting tools and enhanced functionality to some extent.
SAP business by design is SaaS but it has been a troubled journey so far. The cost per user of this ERP is high compared to other solutions available in the market and has not been able to create its base so far. It has other shortcomings like page to page performance, use of Active X which provides internet interface only through IE, use of Netweaver platform rather than other industry standard technology and lacks some important features. It also does not provide offline tools and wireless facility which is available in other products.
