User:BarnumBailey

= SAP ECC =

SAP's ECC is a major part of the SAP suite of applications. It stands for Enterprise Central Component and is the basis for most SAP installations. ECC, in simplest terms, is basically the newest version of SAP R/3. There are many differences, however; the differences are covered in this article.

=Evolution of SAP=

R/2 and R/3
SAP is first introduced as and Enterprise Resource Planning program as SAP R/2. SAP stands for Systems, Applications and Programs. R/2 basically meant mainframe at the time of introduction. What was R/1? There wasn't one. R/3 was, initially, the client-server version of of SAP. Over time, people came to think of R/3 as SAP's base program.

Modules
SAP R/3 originally was the framework upon which SAP applications were built. On top of R/3, users could add modules, such as Materials Management (MM), Warehouse Management (WM) and Sales and Distribution (SD).

The Evolution of Non R/3 Programs
Eventually, SAP developed many different systems, some of which were outside of R/3. While these programs were developed separately from R/3, they were integrated with R/3. These included Business Warehouse (BW) and Process Integration (PI).

Add-On Programs
As well as external systems, SAP also developed Add-On-Programs. These programs were closely related to the previous concept of modules. Add-ons included such applications as Financials and Controlling (FICO) and other add-ons which were industry-specific such as IS-OIL for the oil and gas business and IS-U which is specific to the utilities business.