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BMP and SAP glossary

Also see the main towards one council glossary.

Term Explanation
BMP The Business Management Programme is a multi-million pound programme to transform the finance, procurement, HR, payroll and reporting functions of the new Wiltshire Council.
Client copy Function that allows you to copy a client within the same ERP environment.
Company Code Is a four character code representing a legal entity within an organisation.
Controlling (CO) The SAP module covering management accounting - planning, budgeting, postings to cost centres, etc.  There is a single controlling area.
Cost Centre A way of grouping costs for administrative, infrastructure, technical support.
Cost Object Cost Centre or WBS element (representing a funding source/cost collector).
Credit Control Area An organisational unit that represents an area responsible for granting and monitoring credit – credit and risk management takes place in this area.  
Distribution Channel Represents the channel through which saleable materials or services reach customers.  This does not have typical distribution channels (such as retail and wholesale sales).
Division An organisational unit based on the responsibility for sales or profits from saleable materials or services.  
Document An electronic record of a transaction created in SAP which can be used as an audit trail.  Different transactions produce different types of document which may have different number ranges.  An end-to-end procedure can result in a string of linked documents.
Employee Assignment Employee cost distribution to a cost object.
Employee Self Service (ESS) On-line system which enables staff to update their records, claim expenses, book leave and so on – with on-line manager authorisation, leading to fewer errors and delays.
ERP Enterprise Resource Planning system. An integrated business software system that is capable of managing all aspects of the organisation.
Funds Management A module of the SAP system that allows available funds checking when carrying out transactions such as procurement.
Go-Live

The date when the system is in full use and available for users to logon and carry out transactions in.

GUI Graphical User Interface – a medium by which the user can exchange information with SAP.
Investment Position

Category of investment used in SAP Projects, represents a funding source.

ITSFT Invitation to Submit Final Tender: the Council’s final document setting out its requirements.
Key Figures Values or quantities e.g. revenues, costs, sales quantity, or number of employees, often used in relation to information systems (standard set of reports supplied by SAP).
Local Government Framework (LGF) This is Logica’s approach to transformation programmes and includes a comprehensive repository of re-usable knowledge about best practice use of SAP and associated change management within Local Government, which minimise the risks of the technology and change elements of implementation.
Manager Self Service (MSS) On-line system which enables managers to access up-to-date information and reports and to make authorisations.
Master data Key information that needs to exist before any transaction can be carried out in SAP e.g. customer/vendor information, pricing, material information.
Materials Management (MM) The SAP module for procurement of goods and services, determining source of supply, supplier performance, inventory management.
Material Master records

Central source of material-specific data.  The data contained in the Material Master for the following functions:

  • In purchasing for ordering
  • In inventory management for goods movement postings and physical inventory
  • In invoice verification for posting invoices
  • In sales & distribution for sales order posting
Organisational Structure Describes the mapping of the company’s business to the organisational elements used in SAP.
Plant The plant is used to indicate where goods are planned, produced, procured, stored and maintained (PM).  It can also be used as the area in which stock is valued.  Each unit that holds stock to be a plant in SAP.  Plants that do not hold stock to be nominally attached to a single logical plant but to be represented by an address master record in SAP to ensure goods are delivered to the correct place.
Portal New front-end view, which will provide a “gateway” to systems and information via the Intranet.
Prince2 Project Management methodology.
Profit Centre A unit or subset of a unit with revenue and costs.
Project Closure /Closure Procedure The intermediate step between project completion and archiving.
Project Phases
  • Project Preparation - sets the foundations for the project
  • Blueprinting – workshops to deliver the detailed analysis & documentation of the business & process requirements. Creating the organisational & system design to support the new authority, including the establishment of a shared services team
  • Realisation - the configuration and testing of the system
  • Final Preparation - Preparing for Go-Live, migrating data, training staff
  • Go-Live & Support - Cut-over to live operations & supporting the organisation with the use of the new system & processes

Diagram of phases in the BMP process

Project Record SAP transaction to record project details.
Purchase Order The SAP purchasing order to procure materials or services, producing a reference ‘order number’.
Purchasing Group The purchasing group is a sub-division of a purchasing organisation representing a buyer or group of buyers.  A purchasing group is the point of contact with the vendor.  
Purchasing Organisation Represents the management unit that is responsible for purchasing activities within the organisation.  Although currently all units operate individually, the definition of a single purchasing organisation will support a move towards a more centralised structure in the future – enabling  to take advantage of it’s combined buying power with suppliers.  This will minimise the master data maintenance that is required (for instance on vendor masters) whilst not reducing the functionality that is available or the reporting that is required.
Roles An employee’s position within the organisation and their subsequent profile for SAP.
Sales Area The combination of sales organisation, distribution channel and division forms the ‘Sales Area’. The different combinations determine which channels are permitted to sell which types of product within a sales organisation.  It is possible to prevent sales via some channels by excluding that combination when maintaining data.
Sales & Distribution (SD) The SAP module for credit management, sales orders, pricing goods for sale, billing.
Sales Groups The sales group is an optional organisational element that allows subdivision of a sales office.  A person or group of persons that are responsible for the sales of the goods or services can be represented as a Sales Group.  In order that we strike a balance between sales reporting and reducing the overhead of master data maintenance we will use the sales group to reflect what is currently known as a division or section within a Unit.
Sales Office Sales offices are generally physical locations within sales area such as divisional offices and may be regarded as a subsidiary of sales, which establishes contact between the company and regional customers.
Sales Organisation The selling unit as a legal entity.  It is responsible for product guarantees and other rights to recourse, for example.  
SAP Systems, Applications & Products – one of the leading ERP software packages.
SAP ECC

The main SAP system encompassing the following work modules:

  • FI/CO – Finance/Controlling
  • MM – Purchasing/Procurement
  • PS/IM – Project Systems and Investment management
  • PY – Payroll
  • HR – Human Resources
Sandpit Provides a dummy SAP environment where the user can practice real transactions without fear of corrupting the live system, there can be a sandpit for the project team and also the end user population.
Shared Services Team (SST) Centralised, co-located, integrated teams responsible for the delivery of core business support functions.
Solution Manager This is where all project documentation is stored.
SRM Supplier Relationship Management, the web enabled procurement component of SAP.
TNA Training Needs Analysis.
Transaction An executable process in the SAP ERP system, such as creating a requisition.  There will be a transaction code associated with every transaction.  To execute a transaction starting at the main menu level, you either navigate through the menus by choosing the appropriate menu options, or you enter the appropriate transaction code in the command field and go directly to the task.  The functions a user may access within SAP are limited by the transaction code.
Transaction data In SAP, transaction-specific data is assigned to certain master data. Individual posting documents are called transaction data. For example, transaction data relating to sales can be assigned to a customer's master data.  The total sales to a customer consist of the data of the individual business transactions, i.e. the transaction data.
Transaction User Guide (TUG) Blueprint Guide for specific actions within end-to-end processes.
Valuation Area The valuation area setting is used to calculate total stock value.   will apply plant level valuation area indicating that materials held at different plants can be valued separately.
Vanilla Implementation Implementation of standard processes, without customisation. The principle behind BMP is that all processes should be vanilla unless absolutely necessary to ensure that local customisation is kept to a minimum. Customising can be expensive, particularly for any SAP upgrades.
WBS Element WBS (Work Breakdown Structure) represents the hierarchical breakdown of a project.  
Workflow A sequence of steps within the system that allows messages to individuals informing them of an action that needs to be taken and monitoring the progress of the task.