What is SAP?
In simple terms, SAP is a business management software that was developed by a German company (in 1992) that goes by the same name - SAP AG. The software is correctly pronounced as an abbreviation - S.A.P. and not as a word 'sap'. Like Oracle Financials, JD Edwards, Peoplesoft and many others, SAP too is an ERP.
ERP, which is an abbreviation for Enterprise Resource Planning, is principally an integration of business management practices and modern technology. Information Technology (IT) integrates with the core business processes of a corporate house to streamline and accomplish specific business objectives.
The software comes as a base product with generic business processes. These have to be customized as per client's needs.
What kind of jobs?
SAP specialists are generally referred to as Consultants.
SAP has 3 basic roles -
Technical - A person who writes programs/reports etc.
Basis/Security - System Administrators.
Functional - A person who interacts with the client, gathers the requirements and convert them in a suitable form for technical team. This role requires Domain specialization - for eg CA opt for finance domain, someone working with manufacturing industry opts for Materials Management (MM) whereas someone having a Sales experience can become a Sales/Distribution(SD) consultant.
Hope this clarifies some doubts.
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