a. What
is ERP? - ERP is a concepts for the integrated management of business, for
effective use of management resources, to improve the efficiency of an
enterprise. Initially, ERP was targeted for manufacturing industry mainly for
planning and managing core business like production and financial market. As
the growth and merits of ERP package ERP software is designed for basic process
of a company from manufacturing to small shops with a target of integrating information
across the company.
b. Different
types of ERP? - SAP, Oracle Financials, Micosoft Dynamics etc. Most of the
companies implemented or trying to implement SAP because of number of
advantages over other ERP packages.
c. What
is SAP? - SAP is the name of the company founded in 1972 under the German name
(Systems, Applications, and Products in Data Processing) is the leading ERP
(Enterprise Resource Planning) software package.
d. Explain
the concept of “Business Content” in SAP Business Information Warehouse? -
Business Content is a pre-configured set of role and task-relevant information
models based on consistent Metadata in the SAP Business Information Warehouse.
Business Content provides selected roles within a company with the information
they need to carry out their tasks. These information models essentially
contain roles, workbooks, queries, InfoSources, InfoCubes, key figures,
characteristics, update rules and extractors for SAP R/3, mySAP.com Business
Applications and other selected applications.
e. Why
do you usually choose to implement SAP? - There are number of technical reasons
numbers of companies are planning to implement SAP. It’s highly configurable,
highly secure data handling, min data redundancy, max data consistency, you can
capitalize on economics of sales like purchasing, tight integration-cross
function.
f.
Can BW run without a SAP R/3 implementation? -
Certainly. You can run BW without R/3 implementation. You can use pre-defined
business content in BW using your non-SAP data. Here you simply need to map the
transfer structures associated with BW data sources (InfoCubes, ODS tables) to
the inbound data files or use 3rd part tool to connect your flat files and
other data sources and load data in BW. Several third party ETL products such
as Acta, Infomatica, DataStage and others will have been certified to load data
in BW.
g. What is IDES? – Internal Demonstration and
Education System. A sample application provided for faster learning and
implementation.
h. What
is WF and its importance? - Business Work Flow: Tool for automatic control and
execution of cross-application processes. This involves coordinating the
persons involved, the work steps required, the data, which needs to be processed
(business objects). The main advantage is reduction in throughput times and the
costs involved in managing business processes. Transparency and quality are
enhanced by its use.
i.
What is SAP R/3? - A third generation set of
highly integrated software modules that performs common business function based
on multinational leading practice. Takes care of any enterprise however diverse
in operation, spread over the world. In R/3 system all the three servers like
presentation, application server and database server are located at different
system.
j.
What are presentation, application and database
servers in SAP R/3? - The application layer of an R/3 System is made up of the
application servers and the message server. Application programs in an R/3 System
are run on application servers. The application servers communicate with the
presentation components, the database, and also with each other, using the
message server. All the data are stored in a centralized server. This server is
called database server.
k. What
should be the approach for writing a BDC program? - Convert the legacy system
data to a flat file and convert flat file into internal table. Transfer the
flat file into sap system called “sap data transfer”. Call transaction(Write
the program explicitly) or create sessions (sessions are created and processed
,if success data will transfer).
l.
Explain open SQL vs native SQL? - ABAP Native
SQL allows you to include database-specific SQL statements in an ABAP program.
Most ABAP programs containing database-specific SQL statements do not run with
different databases. If different databases are involved, use Open SQL. To
execute ABAP Native SQL in an ABAP program, use the statement EXEC. Open SQL
(Subset of standard SQL statements), allows you to access all database tables
available in the R/3 System, regardless of the manufacturer. To avoid conflicts
between database tables and to keep ABAP programs independent from the database
system used, SAP has generated its own set of SQL statements known as Open SQL.
m. What
are datasets? - The sequential files (processed on application server) are
called datasets. They are used for file handling in SAP.
n. What
are internal tables check table, value table, and transparent table? - Internal
table: It is a standard data type object, which exists only during the runtime
of the program. Check table: Check table will be at field level checking. Value
table: Value table will be at domain level checking ex: scarr table is check
table for carrid. Transparent table: - Exists with the same structure both in
dictionary as well as in database exactly with the same data and fields.
o. What
are the major benefits of reporting with BW over R/3? Would it be sufficient
just to Web-enable R/3 Reports? - Performance — Heavy reporting along with
regular OLTP transactions can produce a lot of load both on the R/3 and the
database (cpu, memory, disks, etc). Just take a look at the load put on your
system during a month end, quarter end, or year-end — now imagine that
occurring even more frequently. Data analysis — BW uses a Data Warehouse and
OLAP concepts for storing and analyzing data, where R/3 was designed for
transaction processing. With a lot of work you can get the same analysis out of
R/3 but most likely would be easier from a BW.
p. How
can an ERP such as SAP help a business owner learn more about how business
operates? - In order to use an ERP system, a business person must understand
the business processes and how they work together from one functional area to
the other. This knowledge gives the student a much deeper understanding of how
a business operates. Using SAP as a tool to learn about ERP systems will
require that the people understand the business processes and how they
integrate.
q. What
is the difference between OLAP and Data Mining? - OLAP - On line Analytical
processing is a reporting tool configured to understand your database schema
,composition facts and dimensions . By simple point-n-clicking, a user can run
any number of canned or user-designed reports without having to know anything
of SQL or the schema. Because of that prior configuration, the OLAP engine
“builds” and executes the appropriate SQL. Mining is to build the application
to specifically look at detailed analyses, often algorithmic; even more often
misappropriate called “reporting.
r.
Define Meta data, Master data and Transaction
data - Meta Data: Data that describes the structure of data or MetaObjects is
called Metadata. In other words data about data is known as Meta Data. Master
Data: Master data is data that remains unchanged over a long period of time. It
contains information that is always needed in the same way. Characteristics can
bear master data in BW. With master data you are dealing with attributes, texts
or hierarchies. Transaction data: Data relating to the day-to-day transactions
is the Transaction data.
s. Name
some drawbacks of SAP - Interfaces are huge problem, Determine where master
data resides, Expensive, very complex, demands highly trained staff, lengthy
implementation time.
t.
What are variables? - Variables are parameters
of a query that are set in the parameter query definition and are not filled
with values until the queries are inserted into workbooks. There are different
types of variables which are used in different application: Characteristics
variables, Hierarchies and hierarchy node, Texts, Formulas, Processing types,
User entry/Default type, Replacement Path.
u. What
are the different types of source system? - SAP R/3 Source Systems, SAP BW,
Flat Files and External Systems.
v. What
is Extractor? - Extractors is a data retrieval mechanisms in the SAP source
system. Which can fill the extract structure of a data source with the data
from the SAP source system datasets. The extractor may be able to supply data
to more fields than exist in the extract structure.
http://mysap.spasher.com
