Doing Business on the Web with SAP R

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Doing Business on the Web with SAP R/

SAP has developed ways R/3 (and even its predecessor, R/2) can be used with the Internet. Version 4. x is Java enabled.

Plain English

Java  

A programming language. Think of it as an extension to your Web browser (Netscape or Internet Explorer). With Java, small programs are sent to you that automatically run inside your browser. Programs written in Java run on any browser that supports it, whether or not the browser is running on a Windows PC, a Macintosh, or a network computer.

With Microsoft, SAP has developed technologies that create numerous opportunities:

• Running the regular SAP-GUI on your PC, with connection being provided through the Internet.

• Connecting a remote user to a central R/3 system through a Web browser. The Java programs that present the SAP R/3 front end run inside your browser. Your SAP R/3 screens are displayed in Netscape or Internet Explorer. This will make it easier to distribute SAP R/3 geographically where no traditional LANs or WANs are in place.

  Plain English

  LAN and WAN  

  Local area network and wide area network, the kinds of networks used by most businesses to connect their in-house desktop computers.

  
  

• Communicating ALE (Application Link Enabling) messages through the Internet.

  Plain English

  ALE  

  Defines standards for coupling SAP R/3 components running in different locations. It's used for things such as consolidating sales data from independent SAP R/3 systems and updating master files on remote systems. ALE messages can be sent within SAP or from SAP to other products.

  
  

• Providing a customer ordering/payment interface. It will be possible, through specially designed interfaces, for customers to create their orders directly on your SAP R/3 system via the Internet. The necessary controls will, of course, be available.

• Providing a customer quotation/information interface. Customers can get product and pricing information through the Internet.

• Providing defined outside access to R/3 applications. You can give your customers immediate access to information regarding their orders, accounts, deliveries, and so on.

• Moving data entry out to the point of capture (the place where the information is created). Suppose that you run a network of retail outlets. You could have the managers directly input the "closing data" every night rather than send in forms. (You could set up special interfaces to SAP R/3 for these employees , so all they would need to know is the point-and-click stuff, not the whole SAP R/3 interface.)

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