SAP is the number one choice for enterprise management software. Over 92% of Forbes Global 2000 companies use SAP ERP software for their business processes. The SAP ECC or SAP ERP Central Component collects data digitally from across the organization. It collates it into one platform, enabling leaders to track real-time changes and make quick decisions. SAP ECC forms the base layer of the SAP Business Suite, which also includes SAP CRM and SAP SCM. It’s made up of 10 primary functional components.
What are the Functional Components of SAP ERP?
SAP ECC consists of 10 core components – each module is designed to handle one specific business process. Organizations can study their business requirements and choose the components they want to implement. Each component must be developed, integrated, and tested before being rolled out to end-users. Only thorough testing can guarantee proper implementation and integration of all the applications, keeping future performance issues at bay.
Here are the ten principal components of SAP ERP:
1. Sales and distribution
The SD component deals with all the business processes related to sales and distribution across national and international markets. It also includes tools for handling customer returns, billing, and credit issuance.
2. Materials management
The MM module helps control procurement and inventory tasks. Procurement can happen through multiple vendors located across borders, and the inventory brought in from each of them needs to be tracked and accounted for. With the MM module, organizations can deal with goods issuance, receipt, transfer, and physical reconciliation at the warehouse.
3. Financial Accounting
This module brings all the financial transactions occurring across the organization into one system. This includes sales receivables, payables, procurement, reconciliation, banking, and cash management. SAP ECC ensures that each transaction is logged in, recorded, and represented visually for easy access.
4. Production planning
Planning manufacturing is a crucial business process that can severely affect cash flow if not done correctly. Organizations can align their manufacturing capabilities with customer demands with the PP module to plan their production requirements accurately. This allows them to firm up their supply chain without having to tie up a lot of cash. SAP ERP has some very advanced tools to aid in this matter.
5. Quality management
Quality assurance is the most time-consuming part of development and manufacturing. Each digital or physical product needs to meet industry standards and consumer expectations. Moreover, defects and bugs must be identified and rectified early to avoid cost overruns. With the QM module, QA teams can identify the root cause of production failures and defects. This component integrates with sales, production, materials management, and plant maintenance.
6. Controlling
The CO module primarily deals with cost center accounting, profit center accounting, and internal orders. This component is often coupled with the financial accounting module due to the overlapping roles. When put together with the financial unit, it can also enable financial planning with help from its product costing feature.
7. Customer services
While the CS module is limited in its usability for most companies, it does come in handy for organizations dealing with product service and maintenance. It keeps track of maintenance schedules and payment timelines for fleets of employed repair professionals.
8. Project system
The PS component is specifically designed to manage large, complex projects. The tools available under this component can cover each aspect of such tasks. It can help leaders plan, design, strategize, manage costs, and keep the project on schedule.
9. Plant maintenance
The PM module is perfect for organizations running factories with heavy machinery. The component tracks key machinery and systems via a battery of IoT sensors. It ensures that the production line keeps operating smoothly by scheduling maintenance beforehand and identifying potential issues that can cause disruptions.
10. Human capital management
This HR-related component deals with payroll, employee training, time off, holiday calendars, and other workforce processes.
Why is Test Automation Important for SAP ERP?
SAP ERP is currently the leading enterprise management solution in the market. The combination of modules, dynamic updates, scalability, and customizability make it an enticing choice for organizations. On the other hand, it also spells out a tester’s nightmare. The complex integrations and constant updates make it very cumbersome to test manually. That’s why it’s vital to incorporate test automation into your SAP testing strategy from the very beginning. Robust automated testing solutions shorten the testing cycle, accelerate product release, expand test coverage, enable third-party integrations, and reduce overall testing costs.
Avo Assure is a heterogeneous no-code test automation solution that helps you test SAP applications seamlessly. With pre-build SAP-specific keywords, Avo Assure enables you to fast-forward SAP testing. Other capabilities like parallel execution, smart scheduling, and design studio improve the testing experience by making it simpler and faster.
See how Avo Assure helped a Fortune 500 medical manufacturer achieve 69% testing effort savings, 4x improvement in test coverage, and better end-to-end business process governance.
Schedule a demo today to learn more about how Avo can help your team.
