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Introducing the Concept of Clients

Objectives

After completing this lesson, you will be able to:

Illustrate the concept of a client in SAP systems based on ABAP Platform
Summarize the components of a client in SAP systems based on ABAP Platform

The Concept of a Client

SAP's client concept allows you to split an SAP system based on ABAP Platform into multiple logical sub-systems – or clients. You can isolate these sub-systems and operate them as separate business units.

Note

ABAP Platform is the successor of AS ABAP. All statements that refer to ABAP Platform are valid for AS ABAP-based SAP Systems of SAP Business Suite as well.

From a business point of view, the client is a legally and organizationally independent unit, which means that all business data is protected from other clients. The SAP client concept allows you to map each customer to one client, without having to install and administer a separate (physical) system for each customer.
From a technical point of view, clients are identified by a three-figure client number. All data in a system with multiple clients is located in a common database.

As an example, let us assume that an application service provider runs an SAP system that contains two clients for business use, representing two different companies. These two companies are represented by client 007 and 008, respectively. Both companies have their own, independent sets of customer master data. Technically, the general data of the customer master data are stored in the same database table (table KNA1), but with different entries for field MANDT (client).

As SQL statements executed by an SAP application use the client number in the WHERE clause, this allows for data isolation between different clients (companies): a table may contain data from several different clients, however the WHERE clause limits access to particular clients.

Note

The SAP client concept also allows you to integrate several subsidiaries in a single client. It does so using the following methods:

Company Codes: Company codes define the smallest corporate organizational units, for which a complete self-contained set of accounts can be drawn up for external reporting.
SAP Authorization Concept: The SAP authorization concept enables the parent company to access all subsidiaries for report purposes, while subsidiary-specific data is protected against access from other subsidiaries through company code definition.

Components of a Client

Every client in an SAP system based on ABAP Platform (or its predecessor AS ABAP) has its own set of user master data, application data, and Customizing based on table key ranges:

Client-specific Customizing

The term Customizing means the overall procedure to set up one or more SAP systems. In particular, the aim of the procedure is to accomplish the following:

Adapt the non-company specific and industry-specific functions shipped in an SAP system to the specific business requirements of your company.
Enhance SAP functions in your company.
Implement SAP solutions in your company in a fast, reliable, and cost-effective manner.

The majority of business Customizing data is client-specific. This client-specific data includes:

Parameters relating to organizational structures (such as company codes, business areas, and plants), since the organizational structure belongs only to the company.
Parameter tables that control business processes defined in client-specific Customizing (such as settings for central payment in Central Finance, or the decision which fields are copied during the copying process from an existing billing document to a newly created sales document).

Each customer must be able to define this data individually.

Hint

Typical multi-client scenarios will usually combine clients that have very similar requirements, and that do not make changes to the program logic of the SAP system in question.

Application Data

The term application data is comprised of both master data (such as material master data or customer master data) and business transaction data (such as invoices or sales documents). They belong to one specific client.

Hint

Application data depend on the Customizing settings, so that they do not make sense without the corresponding Customizing settings.

User Master Data

User master data – among others – contain the user master records of the users that are allowed to logon to the SAP system, as well as the roles and authorizations and their assignments to user master records. User master data belong to one specific client.

Note

User master data contain – among others – logon data (table USR02), user master authorizations (table USR04), role definitions (table AGR_DEFINE), and the assignment of roles to user master records (table AGR_USERS).

Summary

You should now be able to illustrate the concept of a client in an SAP system based on ABAP Platform, and describe the components that make up a client in SAP systems based on ABAP Platform.

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