What is mySAP?

What is mySAP?

mySAP is not a single product but a suite of products from SAP, including SAP R/3. Originally launched as mySAP.com in May 1999, the strategy realigned SAP’s portfolio to combine e-commerce and Internet technology with the company’s existing ERP applications. Employees, customers, suppliers, and other business partners can work together across company borders — anytime, anywhere — over the mySAP platform.

SAP R/3, first released in 1992 and regularly updated since, is the market leader in the ERP category. R/3 ships many modules — HR, Finance, MM, SD, PP, CO, and more — that cover every core enterprise function. The “3” in R/3 stands for three-tier architecture: Presentation tier, Application (logic) tier, and Database tier.

Other products in the mySAP suite include SRM (Supplier Relationship Management), CRM (Customer Relationship Management), PLM (Product Lifecycle Management), and SCM (Supply Chain Management). The video below walks through the SAP product suite.

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Brief History of mySAP

SAP’s product line evolved in clear stages. Each release added scope on top of the previous one.

1. 1972 — SAP is founded in Weinheim, Germany, by five former IBM engineers.
2. 1979 — SAP R/2 ships as a mainframe ERP suite for large enterprises.
3. 1992 — SAP R/3 launches on client-server three-tier architecture and quickly becomes the ERP market leader.
4. 1999 — mySAP.com is announced. The strategy adds Internet, e-commerce, and cross-company collaboration on top of R/3.
5. 2004 — SAP NetWeaver arrives as the technical platform that ties mySAP components together.
6. 2006 — SAP ERP (ECC) replaces R/3 as the ERP anchor product.
7. 2007 — SAP acquires Business Objects, adding BI and enterprise performance management.
8. 2009 — SAP Business Suite 7 groups ERP, CRM, SRM, SCM, and PLM as a single release.
9. 2015 — SAP S/4HANA launches as the successor to R/3, ECC, and Business Suite 7, running only on SAP HANA.
10. 2027 — Mainstream maintenance for SAP Business Suite 7 ends, accelerating the S/4HANA move.

Components of the mySAP Suite

The mySAP suite bundles five core applications. Each targets a different enterprise process.

• SAP R/3 (later ECC, now S/4HANA): The ERP anchor. Handles HR, Finance (FI), Controlling (CO), Materials Management (MM), Sales & Distribution (SD), Production Planning (PP), Plant Maintenance (PM), and Quality Management (QM).
• SAP CRM (Customer Relationship Management): Runs sales, marketing, service, and interaction-centre workflows. Handles leads, opportunities, service tickets, and campaign execution. Now largely delivered by SAP Sales Cloud and Service Cloud.
• SAP SRM (Supplier Relationship Management): Automates the supplier side — self-service procurement, catalogue management, sourcing, contract management, and supplier evaluation. Modern replacement is SAP Ariba.
• SAP SCM (Supply Chain Management): Covers planning (APO / IBP), execution (EWM, TM), and network collaboration. Handles demand planning, distribution, transportation, and warehouse management end to end.
• SAP PLM (Product Lifecycle Management): Manages the full product life cycle — engineering change, BOMs, project systems, and quality. Ties into CAD systems and now feeds SAP Digital Product Passport scenarios.

The Three-Tier Architecture of SAP R/3

The “3” in R/3 refers to the three physical tiers that split the workload. Splitting them makes the system scale horizontally and lets each tier run on hardware sized for its job.

• Presentation tier: SAP GUI (SAP Logon Pad) on the user’s desktop, or the Fiori launchpad in a browser. Handles screen rendering and user input.
• Application tier: One or more ABAP application servers. Runs the business logic — ABAP programs, function modules, and dialog work processes. Multiple app servers can share load through a message server.
• Database tier: A single database instance (Oracle, DB2, MaxDB, SQL Server, or in modern systems SAP HANA). Stores all persistent data — master data, transactions, config, and cluster tables.

Compared to R/2’s mainframe model, the R/3 split let customers add app-server capacity without touching the database, and it opened SAP to a much wider range of hardware and operating systems.

mySAP vs SAP Business Suite vs SAP S/4HANA

The three names describe the same product line at different points in time. Confusing them is common — the table below spells out the differences.

Common mySAP Modules and What They Do

Within the R/3 / ECC anchor, most projects staff by module. Consultants pick a module and specialise for years.

• FI (Financial Accounting): General Ledger, Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable, Asset Accounting, Bank Accounting. The statutory-books module.
• CO (Controlling): Cost centres, internal orders, profit centres, product costing, profitability analysis (COPA). Management accounting.
• MM (Materials Management): Purchasing, inventory, invoice verification, vendor master, purchase orders (ME21N).
• SD (Sales & Distribution): Sales orders (VA01), pricing, delivery, billing, credit management.
• PP (Production Planning): BOMs, routings, MRP, production orders, capacity planning.
• QM (Quality Management): Inspection lots, results recording, quality notifications, batch management integration.
• PM (Plant Maintenance): Equipment master, maintenance orders, preventive maintenance schedules.
• HR / HCM (Human Capital Management): Personnel administration, payroll, time management, organisational structure. Now largely SAP SuccessFactors.

Where mySAP Fits?

The mySAP name is retired from SAP’s product catalogue, but every module the suite originally introduced still ships today under a modern equivalent. Understanding the mySAP lineage helps you read older documentation and blueprint documents without getting lost.

• The R/3 anchor is now SAP S/4HANA — on-premise, Private Cloud, or Public Cloud.
• CRM is delivered by SAP Sales Cloud and Service Cloud on the SAP Business Technology Platform (BTP).
• SRM lives on as SAP Ariba plus SAP Business Network for suppliers.
• SCM splits into SAP Integrated Business Planning (IBP), SAP Extended Warehouse Management (EWM), and SAP Transportation Management (TM).
• PLM is packaged as SAP Enterprise Product Development plus S/4HANA Cloud for PLM.

The AI layer — SAP Joule, and Microsoft 365 Copilot connectors for SAP — sits above all of these modules and treats the mySAP-era functional split as its business context.

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