SAP Basics
Plus Technologies has been providing enhanced print solutions for the on-prem SAP environment for many years. We thought it might be helpful to share some background information about the SAP print environment.
Years ago, the corporate computing environment consisted of mainframe computers (host), dumb terminals (workstations), and line printers. Then, in the late 70s and early 80s, the use of computers started to migrate away from the centralized, mainframe environment, where most applications were batch-based, to a more distributed configuration using personal desktop computers.
With the advent of personal computers came the need to connect the individual PCs together through the use of a local area network, and create a shared data pool (databases) that could be used as “single-source” for the individual reports and applications required by the many organizations and groups within a company.
However, networked PC’s by themselves do not provide the necessary support and scale needed for all business environments. PC’s can not provide ERP (Enterprise Resources Planning) capabilities. Therefore there is a need for combined server and PC architectures.
Two important reasons behind the increasing use of servers is their ability to provide a common repository for a company’s data (data that can be used by
connected PC’s), and the fact that they are designed to function extremely well in the business-oriented applications such as payroll processing, billing, and
order-processing.
SAP
SAP, pronounced S.A.P. is an initialism for “Systemanalyse und Programmentwicklung” (System Analysis and Program Development) and was founded in 1972. SAP is currently headquartered in Walldorf, Germany and is one of the world leaders in the development of collaborative business software applications. For large corporations, SAP’s Enterprise Resource Planning package, SAP R/3, provides the software necessary to operate, manage, track, and maintain all aspects of a modern business. In addition, the SAP R/3 suite also includes a complete application development environment, ABAP (Advanced Business Application programming), in which all R/3 applications are written, and which can be used to develop additional, company-specific applications. The standard SAP R/3 package can be used to support business functions such as human resources, inventory control, accounting, materials management, payroll, production planning, investment management, and sales/distribution.
Most, if not all of these functions require printed output. As a result, print delivery and routing play a very important role in a SAP R/3-equipped enterprise environment.
SAP apps creare all kinds of documents needed for the running of a business (eg. bills of lading, manifests, labels, reports, financial documents, etc). Many of these documents are tied to production or shipping processes and must be printed reliably and on-time or interruptions to manufacturing or shipping processes will occur. Unfortunately, SAP relies on the native utilities embedded in server operating systems such as (AIX, Linux, HP-UX, etc) to actually deliver the print job to printers and MPD’s. These utilities are very basic in function and cannot provide the reliability and functionality needed to fully support mission critical environments.
Accordingly, SAP created a custom interface to allow third party providers such as Plus Technologies to integrate enhanced spooling products like OM Plus into the SAP system. The interface used by OM Plus is called BC-XOM and Plus Technologies had to go through an extensive certification process to be accepted as a value added partner for SAP systems.
OM Plus
Using OM Plus via the BC-XOM interface gives the SAP user a stronger, more functional and more reliable print delivery capability. OM Plus talks to the devices in a bi-directional way so that it knows of actual printer status in real time. OM Plus knows if the print jobs actually printed or not and can report these results back to the SAP system so that SAP users can see confirmed delivery from the SAP UI.
In addition, OM Plus provides numerous value add features provided to enhance the SAP user experience such as automated fail-over in the case of a print error, help desk notification, load balancing to increase capacity, context based routing, label print management, print statistics, security features including encryption and watermarking, pull print and much more.
Please visit our SAP web page https://plustechnologies.com/print-solutions/sap-print-spooling-software/
For more information, please contact Plus Technologies.
Automating Document Related Business Processes
Plus Technologies located in Ohio has been developing enterprise level document and output management software since 1994. Plus Technologies’ focus is on improving business processes affected by documents. We have thousands of customers, tens of thousands of server software installations, and millions of printers under management in 30 countries.
Plus Technologies serves customers of all sizes as our products, licensing, and pricing is scalable upwards and downwards. We have departmental as well as enterprise wide output management software implementations. We have successfully sold into many Fortune 500 organizations.
One reason for our success is our willingness to respond quickly to our customer’s unique requirements. First, we listen to the customer to understand their environment and their needs. Second, we work with the customer to determine the optimal solution. In addition, we are able to quickly make enhancements to our products to meet specific needs. Third, we offer pricing and licensing flexibility to suit our customer’s budget. Lastly, we provide world class support. This recipe has served us well over the years and as a result, we have an extremely loyal customer base.
Please contact us to learn more about our company and products. Moreover, you can count on Plus Technologies to do our best to help you solve your document and output management issues.
