SAP solutions have become integral to the foundation of international businesses, as almost half of the world's Fortune1000 companies have implemented ERP solutions from SAP. SAP being the acronym for Systems, Applications, and Products in Data processing. This proprietary enterprise resource planning software helps automate the transactions of an enterprise. Presently SAP has the expertise to implement ERP solutions in more than twenty-five industry verticals. SAP R/3 platform was developed using the ABAP or the Advanced Business Application programming language.

Inspite of stiff competition from Oracle, Baan, JD Edwards and more recently Microsoft; SAP has managed to retain market share and stay ahead of competition. Its core offering the SAP R/3 enterprise resource planning software helps integrate accounting, order entry, manufacturing and similar such functions on to a single framework. SAP has gained immense popularity because it helps organizations migrate several different information systems on to a single framework. SAP ERP solutions provide a reliable means to integrate all these information systems thereby improving process efficiency and operational productivity. SAP ERP solutions have become so popular that it presently has more than 43000 customers in 85 countries.

The advantage of SAP solutions is that they are scalable and can be customized according to the evolving business requirements of an enterprise. SAP Solutions can be easily integrated with future applications giving users a significant competitive advantage in the market. SAP R/3 solutions run on several database Oracle, ADABAS, Informix , DB2/400, Microsoft SQL Server 6.0.With its latest offering my SAP; the company plans to attain a stranglehold grip in the enterprise software market. It plans to drive future growth by migrating existing ERP customers to mySAP. mySAP has helped the company gain significant market share through e- business applications like mySap Customer Relationship Management, mySAP Supply Chain Management, and mySAP Product Lifecycle Management.

SAP has a very bright future in the emerging markets of Asia and Africa as even small and medium enterprises have realized that implementing SAP not only helps manage day to day operations efficiently; it also sharpens business insight by providing real time access to timely information. It can be the source of a sustainable competitive advantage in these days of cutthroat competition.