Answers, Explained.

ABAP (Advanced Business Application Programming language)

SAP’s proprietary, fourth-generation  programming language used to develop custom processes in SAP’s ERP systems.

AMS (Application Management Services)

AMS providers are organizations that offer IT  and application management expertise for other companies.

ASUG (Americas’ SAP Users Group)

ASUG is an independent community of SAP  professionals in North America that delivers events, education, and networking to its members.

ATC (ABAP Test Cockpit)

The ABAP Test Cockpit (ATC) is the standard tool for checking the quality of ABAP development objects using static checks and ABAP unit tests.

BANT (Budget, Authority, Need, Timeline)

A method for qualifying sales prospects.

BAU (Business As Usual)

Typically refers to a customer’s current system  for SAP.

BTP (Business Technology Platform)

SAP Business Technology Platform is an innovation platform optimized for SAP applications in the cloud. It brings together  application development and automation, data and analytics, integration, and AI capabilities in  one unified environment.

DDIC (ABAP Data Dictionary)

DDIC is a central repository in the SAP system  where all the metadata related to the database  objects are stored. The DDIC is used to manage  and maintain the definitions of the database  objects such as tables, views, structures, data elements, and domains.

DevOps

DevOps is the combination of philosophies, practices, and tools that breaks down the walls between development and operations and seeks to optimize both the productivity of developers and the reliability of operations.

When practiced well, DevOps increases an  organization’s ability to deliver applications and  services at high velocity: evolving and improving  products at a faster pace than organizations  using traditional software development and  infrastructure management processes.

ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning)

An ERP software system is a set of integrated  applications or modules for managing a company’s core business processes, including  finance and accounting, supply chain, HR, procurement, sales, inventory management,  and more. ERP modules are integrated into one complete system and share a common database  to streamline processes and information across  the enterprise.

HANA (High-performance ANalytic Appliance)

SAP’s proprietary multi-model database that stores data in its memory instead of keeping  it on a disk. The column-oriented in-memory  database design allows you to run advanced analytics alongside high-speed transactions–in a single system.

POC (Proof of Concept)

A pilot project which demonstrates that a design  concept or technology solution is feasible.

S/4HANA (SAP Business Suite 4 SAP HANA)

SAP’s most recent ERP system, released in 2015.

SBX (Sandbox environment for SAP System)

The typical SAP environment is a three-system  landscape with one DEV system, one QAS  system, and one PRD system. Many customers  supplement a three system landscape with  additional environments, such as a sandbox  (SBX) that is used for testing learning, and  destructive testing.

SoH (Suite on HANA)

SoH is SAP ECC running on the HANA database.

SPDD/SPAU

Transactions for checking modifications to the Data  Dictionary (SPDD) and to code objects (SPAU).

During a technical SAP system upgrade or  conversion, it is necessary to review modification adjustments to data dictionary and code objects  for compatibility with the upgrade. Modification adjustments involve changes to standard objects  that SAP overwrites during the upgrade where  prior adjustments have been applied. These prior  modifications may include changes for specific  customer requirements or may be modifications  that were applied through the application of  specific OSS notes as part of maintenance to  resolve issues and ensure feature compatibility. Appropriate processing of SPDD/SPAU is crucial  to ensuring the upgraded system functions as  expected.

Unicode

The Unicode Standard is a character coding system designed  to support the worldwide interchange, processing, and display of written text of the diverse languages and technical  disciplines of the modern world.  Support of Unicode forms the foundation for the representation of languages and symbols in all major operating systems, search  engines, browsers, laptops, and  smart phones—plus the Internet  and World Wide Web. Earlier versions of SAP applications and  custom code were not Unicode  compliant. Current and future versions must be.

The benefits of Unicode include: 

• Allows text data from different languages to  be stored in one repository. 

• Enables a single set of source code to  be written to process data in virtually all languages. 

• Simplifies addition of new language support  to an e-business application since character  processing and storage remains unchanged. 

• Lowers cost and increases speed of implementation