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18 CHAPTER 1 Introduction to Business Processes

Enterprises of every size, in every industry, all over the world use SAP software
to manage their business operations. Regardless of where you live, nearly every
major corporation, government entity, and nonprofi t organization you are famil-
iar with runs the same SAP software that you will use in this course.
Before you start to think that this book is a marketing brochure for SAP,
you should understand why we have explained SAP’s strategic importance in
business and have selected SAP ERP as the reference system for this textbook.
One of the most lucrative and rewarding careers in the IT industry for nearly
20 years has been that of an SAP consultant. Contrary to what you may have
5
heard, most SAP consultants are not programmers. Rather, they are MIS and
business majors who have developed a process perspective on business
and have become competent in a specifi c capability of the SAP ERP system.
However, even technical programmers who wish to work with SAP must have
a deep understanding of how business works in order to program applications
that enable business processes to operate more effi ciently. In other words, they
are people just like you who have mastered the material in this textbook.
Integrated Business Processes with ERP Systems will incorporate a num-
ber of demonstrations, examples, and hands-on exercises using SAP ERP.
Several other companies offer enterprise systems that have similar capabili-
ties, but it would be very diffi cult to explain how processes are executed in
each of them. We have chosen to include the most prevalent and widely used
ERP system that you are likely to encounter in your career. Although some
of the concepts in this textbook are specifi c to SAP ERP, you can easily trans-
fer nearly everything you learn to whichever system is used in the companies
where you will work.
When SAP fi rst introduced R/3, almost anybody could claim to be an
R/3 expert and thus become a highly paid consultant. Unfortunately, this
practice led to quite a few well-publicized project failures. In response, SAP
introduced certifi cations for the various modules and technical skills required
to be a properly trained consultant. This arrangement enabled consultants
who participated in SAP training programs and demonstrated a high degree of
skill to distinguish themselves for potential employers. Today, SAP provides
more than 100 certifi cation types, classifi ed by solution, focus area, and role.
Each certifi cation type specifi es three levels of skill: associate, professional,
and master. It can take many years and tens of thousands of dollars to progress
up to master-level certifi cation. SAP is very proud of the high level of knowl-
edge and skills that are required to earn certifi cation. As you probably suspect
by now, the SAP testing process is extremely rigorous. Because an SAP cer-
tifi cation is such a highly valued credential, once you have earned one, SAP
provides you with a certifi cation number that can be listed on your resume
or CV and verifi ed by potential employers—the thousands of consulting com-
panies that implement SAP software and the more than 110,000 (in 2010)
companies that run SAP software.
As an added benefi t to students enrolled at universities or technical
schools that are members of the SAP University Alliances Program, SAP
offers special certifi cation academies on campuses around the world where
students can earn the same certifi cation as professionals at a reduced cost. This
textbook and the additional online materials are based on the content in the

5 J. Sahadi, Hot 6-fi gure jobs now, 2007 [Online], CNN/Money. http://money.cnn.com/galleries/
2007/pf/0708/gallery.hot_six_fi g_jobs_now/index.html.

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