SAP Modules Overview

In the past when people were discussing SAP, the conversation very quickly boiled down to modules, for example:

• SAP training courses were structured along SAP module lines so that you would attend SAP MM 101, 102 and 103. While at the course you would learn many things about MM, but not much about the rest of the SAP system and how SAP MM fits into it.
  

• A conversation with a SAP recruiter might go something like this:
  

  Recruiter … "which SAP Modules do you work with?" Candidate … "well, I have a lot of purchasing process experience" Recruiter … "yes, but which SAP Modules do you work with?" Candidate … "well, it's purchasing functionality … so that would be, umm, SAP MM, SAP FI and SAP CO mainly" Recruiter … "great I have just the job for you" Candidate … "fantastic, is it purchasing?" Recruiter … "well it says here that they want an MM, FI and CO person and that's you, right?"

Not necessarily! A MM, FI, CO role might include Inventory Management (MM), Accounts Receivable (FI) and Profitability Analysis (CO) – none of which a purchasing person is guaranteed to have

• Many programme teams were organised along SAP module lines, so that you would have a FI/CO, an MM and a HR team, for example. Training courses were (therefore) often prepared and delivered along SAP module lines too. The result of this was that solutions were frequently optimised along SAP module lines, and less often well integrated, and as for users, well, they were pretty much trained up in a SAP module and left to get on with it post go-live. Fortunately those days are mostly passed, and more and more programmes (from design to build to training) are being organised along process lines such as:

Order to Cash (including parts of SD, FI-AR and probably TY as well)
Purchase to Pay (including MM-Purchasing and FI-AP)
Record to Report (FI-GL etc)

SAP now are moving away from describing their system as a set of SAP Modules, and now are using the term 'solutions', which is much better, as follows: