SAP Technical Consultants

1. Development

At SAP Financial Solutions we advocate a team approach to development. Another approach is for the client to provide the requirements, one consultant to develop the functional specification and one consultant to develop the technical specification. We believe the better approach is to have the all parties included in the design process. The result is better technical solutions to customer requirements. Our bespoke customer applications are at the leading edge of SAP design.

2. Technical Specification

After the functional specification is signed off a technical specification is completed. A good consultant will with the client to validate the technical specification by building a working prototype. This prototype may have 90% of the functionality of the final delivered application. Each development is subject to customer, functional and peer review before being signed off.

3. Programming (ABAP)

The programming language used to build SAP is called ABAP. It is possible to reprogramme any part of the SAP system though in general it is not advisable to change SAP's source code except in exceptional circumstances.

ABAP = Advanced Business Application Programming

Being able to use ABAP effectively requires more than just knowledge of the program. A good programmer needs to have an understanding of the architecture of the SAP NetWeaver Application Server ABAP and how specific fundamental concepts are implemented in ABAP and its infrastructure.

Our technical consultants are all experienced ABAP programmers combining years of coding SAP functionality with the desire to build world class applications of which they can be proud. In fact the standard SAP package includes code our experts have submitted to SAP to correct bugs and provide additional functionality.

RIEF Objects

These are the technical developments common to all projects.

1. Reports

SAP provides thousands of standard reports within its package. At the very least these should be customised to the customers specific needs which can be done by either the functional or technical consultant.

Customer specific reporting is created by the technical consultant in tandem with the functional consultant or directly from functional specifications provided. It is possible to report on any data held within the SAP database and to present it in a single report. It is also possible to automate the production and delivery of any report.

2. Interfaces

SAP provides automated real time interfaces between all its standard modules: eg Asset module to General ledger module. All other interfaces have to be developed individually. It is recommended that a standard approach to interfacing is implemented to save on future maintenance costs. SAP provides tools to facilitate modern interface development.

3. Extensions

Extensions are client specific developments that SAP has usually created the base functionality but need to be programmed individually for each client's needs. Common extensions include Electronic Bank Statement functionality, Special Ledgers and Substitution and Validation of accounting documents. All these developments are created via the standard SA programming language.

4. Forms

SAP provides examples of most of the standard forms required. In general every standard form will need to be modified or replaced for each client. Forms like customer invoices are specified by marketing departments. Cheque remittances are specified by banking organisations. SAP provides the technical consultant the tools to recreate any form, in any format, the customer requires.