SAP integration and development

caff · 8 Feb 2008 at 12:15

Hi,

My present employer is adopting SAP.

I'm interested in knowing how easy it is to write applications / websites that link into SAP. I'm assuming SAP sits on a standard relational database, but I don't know how complex or accessible this is.

I'd want to link in bespoke systems (desktop or web apps) into the core customer data held in SAP. Can I use any language (e.g. .NET), or do I have to use SAP-specific tools? Can I just make some sort of ODBC / SQL database connection?

Any kind of advice would be great, I'm completely new to SAP.

Thanks

Beansprout · 8 Feb 2008 at 15:50

The full implementation of SAP's database has 23,000 tables

Sic · 8 Feb 2008 at 17:14

SAP will graciously hire out contractors to your company to implement (supersede) your current/future applications. Stay as close as you can to the development team whilst implementing it, because those guys make a mint!

akakjs · 8 Feb 2008 at 18:57

Beansprout said:
The full implementation of SAP's database has 23,000 tables

holy cow. I thought dynamics GP was bad!

akakjs

Thrash · 8 Feb 2008 at 22:45

We have just started the realisation phase of a major SAP implementation. SAP ERP is huge and can run on a number of different databases including SQL Server, DB2 and Oracle. From what I understand most modifications to the application are written in ABAP by means of user exists. SAP development is a skill in its own right with a lot of people around the world doing only that.

I am dealing with the data migration aspect and have been using LSMW (legacy system migration workbench) to perform test uploads of master data objects. Some of the objects are more complex and will probably require a program written to handle them.