1. Monojit Banerjee [email_address] SAP General Terms

15. These linkages of activities across business processes necessitate the sharing of data across those processes, regardless of which process created the data initially. Example: data related to a finished product may be initially created in the production process , but the data are also required in the procurement process and, of course, in accounting/controlling for costing purposes , as well as in calculating pay based on work production hours .

16. SAP as an integrated ERP system utilizes the principle of a common data record for a given object that can be accessed by any process that has need of the various attributes contained in that common record.

17. Business processes are often viewed as elements of a logistics value chains. From this perspective the operational processes are defined as sales logistics , production logistics , and procurement logistics .

19. Control or configuration data include system and technical functions of the SAP system itself. These data drive the logic of the applications within the system and is primarily used for defining the details of business processes. For many training “cases”, all control/configuration data have been pre-established so that no configuration is necessary to complete the case exercises.

20. Master data represent the various business entities present in the system, both internal and external . The attributes of the fields within master data are relatively stable .

23. Transaction data describe a business event or may be the result of a business process . Example: A sales order would contain transaction data that have resulted from a customer placing an order to purchase a product from the company.

25. While the customer master data for this transaction would be the same for various sales orders to that customer, the other data such as items wanted, quantities, delivery dates, etc. would most likely vary from order to order. For this reason, transaction data vary from event to event .

26. Transaction data may also arise as the result of the outcome of a completed business process. Example: The system may process an inquiry to determine the current stock quantity level for a raw material . That inquiry is a transaction that extracts the data for the quantity on hand in the warehouse. This too, of course, will vary over time. Other examples, pertaining to human resources, would involve the hiring of employees and pay transactions .

27. From one perspective, therefore, transaction data can be viewed as resulting from the events or activities that are taking place in the business . The transaction data represent the recorded attributes, elements, and results or outcomes of business events and activities , and, as a result is the most volatile and frequently used data in day to day business operations.

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