1. Company Name: SAP
Company Facts (2011):
Headquarters: Walldorf, Germany
Annual Sales: 14.3 billion Euros (~$18.82 billion US)
# of Employees: 55,000+ in 50 countries
Company History:
1972 – SAP is founded by five former IBM employees (DietmarHopp, Hans-Werner Hector,
HassoPlattner, Klaus Tschira, and Claus Wellenreuther) startsSystems, Applications, and
Products in Data Processing (SAP) in Mannheim, Germany. Their vision was to develop a
standard software application for real-time business processing as opposed to the custom-
built solutions being offered by most vendors at the time.
1973 – SAP releases their first financial accounting software, forming the basis for the
continuing development of other software components in what later came to be known as the
“R/1 system.” “R” stands for real-time data processing. These first systems ran on IBM servers
and the IBM DOS operating system.
1975 - SAP introduces integrate purchasing, inventory management and invoice verification to
their software. An SAP trademark starts to emerge; the integration of all of the company’s
applications. Materials management data flows directly into financials accounting on a ‘value’
basis, while invoice verification and posting can be completed in a single step.
1978 - SAP introduces its Asset Accounting module and offers support for foreign languages as
part of a system for John Deere’s operations in France.
1980- SAP has a customer base of approximately 100+ companies, including 50 of the 100
largest German industrial firms. The company also introduces R/2 software, utilizing a two tier
architecture. R/2 was designed to work on mainframe computers, with the application and
database located on the server and users accessing it via ‘dumb’ terminals.
1981 - SAP’s customer base has grown to approximately 200 companies, and with help from
its existing customers, it introduces a production management module.
1983 - The module (RM-PPS) for production planning and control goes into operation at first
customer.
1986 - HR module is introduced after 3 years in development.
1987 - SAP begins development of next generation (R/3) software. SAP employees
approximately 500 people in 1987 with revenues of DM 157 million.
1988 - SAP has grown to nearly 1,000 employees with annual revenues of DM 245 million, and
they gain their 1,000th customer; Dow Chemicals.
1989 - SAP introduces their ABAP programming environment and has grown to 1,400
employees in 15 countries with annual revenue of DM 370 million.
1991 - SAP introduces the R/3 software, which utilizes a 3 tier client/server architecture. This
was the most popular release of SAP and is still used to refer to the product, although no
longer technically applicable. In the R/3 architecture the presentation layer and business logic
reside on a desktop computer with the database running on a database server. The release of

2. the R/3 product triggers a period of rapid growth for SAP. They begin a series of acquisitions
and partnerships, and by the end of 1991, SAP has more than 2,200 customers in 31 different
countries, employees 2,700 and has annual revenues of DM 707 million.
1992 - SAP augments their partner strategy, adding ‘logo partners’, which are independent
consultants supporting customer implementations.
1993 - SAP partners with Microsoft to port R/3 over to the Windows NT OS. 1993 also sees
SAP exceed DM 1 billion in revenue with over 3,600 employees.
1994 - SAP releases SAP R/3 for Windows NT. 1994 also sees IBM adopting SAP as its software,
resulting in the single largest contract that SAP had to date. Revenues top DM 1.8 billion and
employee head count tops 5,300.
1995 - SAP starts to target mid-market companies and is further leveraging third parties to sell
their software. Microsoft and Burger King both join the ranks of SAP users, and sales top DM
2.7 billion with 7,000 employees.
1996 - SAP introduces their joint internet strategy with Microsoft, allowing users to access
data remotely.
1997 - SAP has record growth; revenues grow by 60+% to DM 6 billion, 81% of which is from
outside of Germany. Employee headcount grows by 40% to reach nearly 13,000. Major new
customers in 1997 include General Motors and Daimler-Benz.
1998 – SAP goes public on New York Stock Exchange. Company sees another 50% increase in
its headcount with employee headcount reaching 19,000+ by EOY 1998. HassoPlatner is
named co-CEO with Henning Kagermann.
1999 – SAP announces the “mySAP” strategy, which results in a complete realignment of the
company and its product portfolio by combining e-commerce solutions with existing ERP
functionality using web technology. HP adopts SAP. Employee headcount tops 20,000 with
revenues of 5.1 billion Euros.
2000 – SAP becomes the third largest independent software vendor in the world with a
workforce of over 24,000 and annual revenue of 6.3 billion Euros, and becomes the leading
supplier of e-business software solutions. Nestle signs up with SAP, become the largest single
order to date.
2001 –SAP acquires TopTier, an Israel-based portal software company. SAP had already been
licensing TopTier’s “drag & relate” technology as the heart of their mySAP portal offering. This
technology allows SAP to offer tightly controlled access to selected data from one company’s
system to another. These ‘buffer’ areas, known as Workplaces, are licensed for about $100
per user, which provides an additional revenue stream for SAP (Nestle purchased approx.
230,000 Workplace licenses). Despite the collapse of the ‘internet bubble’ SAP realizes a
revenue growth of 17% in 2001.
2003 – Hugo Platner, the last of the original founders, steps down as co-CEO. SAP announces
release of SAP NetWeaver, a technology intended to provide an enhanced integration and
application platform that supports “end-to-end” business processes, no matter whether they
are based on SAP or come from other providers.
2004 – NetWeaver is adopted by over 1,000 existing customers during its first year in release.
Customer base is over 24,000 total customers running 84,000 SAP installations in 120 different
countries. SAP merges with their consulting subsidiary (SAP SI), to enhance its ability to
provide strategic IT consulting and integration services to its customers.
2005 – SAP enhances its product offering through a series of acquisitions, with a major focus
on retail services. Employee headcount tops 35,800 with annual revenues of 8.5 billion Euros.

3. 2006 – SAP announces two major releases; the first is the “Duet” software, the result of an
SAP/Microsoft partnership, which allows users to quickly integrate Microsoft Office
functionality. Duet is hugely successful, with partners selling 200,000 licenses within the first
90 days. The second is the release of the next generation SAP software – SAP ERP, which
replaces SAP R/3. SAP also realizes significant growth with midmarket companies, with 30% of
its annual revenues coming from companies with less than 2,500 employees.
2007 –SAP continues to acquire numerous smaller software firms. Announces release of SAP
“Business by Design” , a product design specifically for small & midsized businesses.
2008 – SAP acquires Business Objects, a provider of business intelligence software.
2009 –Impact of economic downturn that started in 2008 increases. SAP announces SAP
Business Suite 7, which is designed to help customers optimize performance and reduce IT
costs. Long-time CEO Henning Kagermann retires and is replaced by Leo Apotheker.
2010 – Bill McDermott and Jim Snabe are named as co-CEOs. SAP announces acquisition of
Sybase, a software company the produces databases and enterprise mobility products. At EOY
2010 SAP has revenues of 12.5 billion Euros and a headcount of just over 53,500 employees.
2011 – SAP releases SAP HANA, an “in-memory” product that allows them to analyze data in
seconds rather than in days. SAP also starts to ship mobile applications that permit users to
access SAP functionality from out in the field. Annual revenues hit 14.3 billion Euros with a
headcount of over 55,500 employees.
Product History:
Following the history of the SAP product is challenging given the range of products that they’ve
marketed over the years and the degree to which they’ve replaced, renamed or re-packaged products
along the way.It is really more accurate to think of SAP’s product offering as a combination of a major
“umbrella” product combined with secondary enabling products. Just like Microsoft ‘bundled’ related
or complementary software functionality into modules under the “umbrella” of Microsoft Office, SAP
has done the same with ERP functionality. Historically, major SAP releases indicate significant
technology-driven architectural changes more than radical new functionality. Functional improvements
have historically been developed in conjunction with willing customers, then modularized, and then
offered up to the larger customer base.
Starting with R/1, the “main” product was a modular core of base ERP functionality that included
business financials. 1980 saw the release of the R/2 product and the broadening of the functionality to
include production planning. The “umbrella” continued to grow over time as SAP developed and
introduced additional functionality over the life of the R/2 product and through the introduction and
maturing of the R/3 product. As noted previously, the changes from R/2 to R/3, at least initially, were
more around architectural rather than functionality changes. The 1991 release of R/3 was really about
SAP embracing technological changes that made it practical to have the workstation host the

4. presentation layer as well as some business logic. By the late 1990s and early-2000s, the primary
‘functional’ offering of SAP had expanded to include modules that provided:
Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)
Supply Chain Management (SCM)
Product Lifecycle Management (PLM)
Supplier Relationship Management (SRM)
Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
mySAP ERP Edition 2004
Application
mySAP ERP Edition 2003 Additional Components
Self-Service Procurement
Additional Components
Self Services Internet Sales
… and more
Self-Service Procurement
Internet Sales Composite Applications
Strategic Enterprise Management SAP ERP Central Component 5.00
… and more Self Services
SAP R/3 Enterprise SAP R/3 Enterprise Strategic Enterprise Management
SAP Enterprise
SAP R/3 Extension Set
SAP Enterprise Extension Set SAP ECC Extension Set
up to 4.6C
Switch
SAP R/3 Framework
Application SAP R/3 Enterprise Core SAP ECC Core
Enterprise Core
SAP Basis SAP Web SAP NetWeaver™ SAP NetWeaver™ ‘04
Application Server PEOPLE INTEGRATION PEOPLE INTEGRATION
Composite Application Framework
Composite Application Framework
Multi Channel Access Multi Channel Access
Portal Collaboration Portal Collaboration
INFORMATION INTEGRATION
Life Cycle Mgmt
INFORMATION INTEGRATION
Life Cycle Mgmt
Bus. Intelligence Knowledge Mgmt Bus. Intelligence Knowledge Mgmt
Master Data Mgmt Master Data Mgmt
Technology
PROCESS INTEGRATION PROCESS INTEGRATION
Integration Business Integration Business
Broker Process Mgmt Broker Process Mgmt
APPLICATION PLATFORM APPLICATION PLATFORM
J2EE ABAP J2EE ABAP
DB and OS Abstraction DB and OS Abstraction
1999 saw the announcement of the new “mySAP” strategy, which marked the beginning of another
technological transformation for SAP. The “mySAP” strategy was SAP’s recognition of the emerging
demand to embrace e-commerce, and started their drive to provide enhanced integration and
collaboration capabilities. By 2003 SAP is announcing “NetWeaver” which will represent their next
major technological product transformation, providing them with greatly enhanced integration
capabilities and the introduction of Business Warehouse. 2004 sees the “official” replacement of the
R/3 product with SAP ECC or ERP Central Component. SAP’s “mySAP” strategy also marks the adoption

5. of the ‘Suite” terminology (e.g. my SAP Suite), a marketing strategy aimed at broadening the adoption of
SAP functionality beyond core ERP functionality.
SAP Database Support:
Current generation SAP systems support the following databases
Oracle
Microsoft SQL Server
IBM DB2 for Linux, UNIX & Windows
IBM DB2 Universal Database for z/OS &iSeries
IBM Informix
MaxDB
Product Architecture:
SAP R/3 – The SAP R/3 system architecture consists of three layers: Presentation, Application and Data
Storage.

6. Presentation Layer – The Presentation Layer is where SAP users submit input to the R/3 system for the
processing of business transactions. It is also where the output from these transactions appears as
output fields, reports, tables and spread sheets. At the desktop level the user interface is handled via
SAPGUI.
Application Layer – The Application Layer is a „logically independent‟ component that physically resides
on the application server(s). After a user initiates a request at the presentation layer, logic within the
application layer is invoked to service and process the user request. The application logic modules can
reside on one centralized host machine or be distributed over several physical host machines.
Interconnections between the various SAP applications are implemented at the application layer.
Typically, update and „enqueue‟ processes reside on the database server, as do messaging, spooling,
and gateway processes. The database servers may also be referred to as the “central server”.
Data Storage Layer – On the database layer, R/3 uses a relational database from various
manufacturers, including IBM & Oracle.

7. SAP ECC
Finally SAP ECC arrived. ECC stands for ERP Central Component. SAP ECC is based on three tiered architecture
(Presentation Layer, Business Logic Layer, Database Layer).This architecture is very flexible and scalable and would also
support SOA as well. The main strength of SAP ECC in the NetWeaver software running underneath it as a common
technology. SAP ECC is the latest generation of SAP business software
Glossary of Terms
ABAP – Acronym for Advanced Business Application Programming. ABAP was first developed as the
report language for SAP R/2, it was subsequently used by developers of the SAP R/3 platform. It was
also the primary tool used to extend SAP functionality to develop custom reports and interfaces. ABAP,
along with JAVA, continues to be part of the latest SAP development environment, NetWeaver.