Before starting with introduction to SAP Modules one must know that SAP modules are grouped in three main areas, Logistics, Accounting and Human resource. Some of SAP modules fall in one category such as Material Management is in Logistics group while SAP FI or CO in accounting group. Previously SAP used to call these as modules but now these are referred as SAP solutions. SAP ERP contain all the SAP solutions which are linked together which means information entered in one module is available to all modules across the organization.
SAP FI module stands for financials and this module contains features related to financial functioning of any organization. SAP FI has General Ledger, Tax, Accounts receivables, Accounts payables, Asset management, Consolidation and special ledgers. This module gives financial managers the facility to analyze and check financial position of the company at any point of time.
SAP CO module means Controlling and helps the management in controlling the cost or reducing the management cost of the operations within the organization. Cost centers, Cost Elements, Internal Orders, Profit Centers, Activity based accounting, Overhead cost controlling, Product cost controlling, Profitability Analysis and Material Ledger.
SAP HR module deals with human resource management of the organization. Human resource is the most important asset of any organization and HR module of SAP provides complete training, managing, recruiting and retaining solutions to the HR managers which helps them in having efficient and talented work force in the organization. HR module of SAP has features like Employment history, Succession Planning, Training, Payroll, Personnel Administration, Compensation Management, Benefits administration, Time Management, Incentive and Career Management.
SAP MM module or Material Management is part of SAP Logistics and provides features which help in managing the whole activity from requisition to payment. The features of SAP MM are Requisitions, Purchase Orders, Goods Receipt, Accounts Payable, BOM, Inventory Management, Logistics information system, Workflow, Valuations, External services management, Warehouse management, Master of raw material and Master of finished goods.
SAP SD means sales and distribution module of SAP this is a large module and very important one as it covers all the activities related to customer from selling, billing and delivery. SD has features like Master of customer, Sales data, RFQ, Quality management, Pricing, Picking, Packing, Special business transactions, Shipping, Transportation, Credit control, Foreign trade management, web store management and EDI.
SAP BW is also known as SAP BI or Netweaver business intelligence, this module provides Data Warehousing solutions and perform functions like extraction of data from source, transformation of data from source objects to target objects, data storage and reporting. Features of this module are Data warehousing, ODS structures, BI Suite, BI platform, Development technologies, Info Cubes and design building.
SAP ABAP or Advanced Business Application Programming is not a module in fact it is a structured programming language which resides in SAP database for customize development and reporting. It has features like ABAP workbench, Business server pages, Internet application server, Report writer, SAP script, Business workflow, ALE, EDI, Dialog programming and Business connector.
