SAP Cross Application

An Introduction to CATS

noreply@blogger.com (Sappy Guy) — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 16:52:00 +0000

CATS is a standardized, cross-application tool for recording the times of both internal and external employees.

The basic idea behind the time sheet is to record working times for individual persons. Both internal employees and external service providers can enter their own attendance and absence times in the system, or the data can be maintained in a central data entry office.

Employees enter their working times together with information on the work order, purchase order, and so on. Based on these working time attributes, the data can then be passed on to the relevant SAP applications.

The SAP time sheet is a cross-application development. You do not need to use a specific SAP application to benefit from its functionality.

Target applications

The time sheet provides the following applications with information on employees’ working times:

CO: Activity Allocation

HR: Time Management

MM: Services

PM: Plant Maintenance/Confirmations

PS: Project System/Confirmations

SM: Service Management/Confirmations

The time sheet is used to enter information on the duration and reference object of working times but not on quantities (units, liters, and so on). The user does not have to be familiar with the functions of the target application to enter data. You can determine which fields for working time attributes appear on the entry screen when you customize the time sheet.

Depending on which working time attributes you specify, data is passed on for further processing to Human Resources (HR), Logistics, and/or Accounting.

The user can also enter data for the following applications:

MM: Material withdrawal

The time sheet has a function that allows you to branch straight to the MM Enter Goods Issue transaction.

HR: Trip costs

You can also branch directly to the HR transaction Maintain Trip Data: Framework Data from the time sheet. Working times that were part of a business trip are indicated by a trip number.

Transferring data

Data is not transferred as you enter it, but can be transferred periodically. Data is supplied to the target applications by means of interface tables.

The HR application is an exception: It is possible to transfer data immediately to HR once the data has been released or approved.

Entering data

The layout of the time sheet and the procedure for entering data have been kept as simple as possible. This means that even users with little or no experience of the SAP R/3 System can maintain data easily.
Simple, user-oriented operation is made possible by the following functions:

Pre-allocation of working time attributes from the employee’s master data

Task- and goal-related entry models

Employee-specific worklists

Copy functions

and lots more

Users enter the data with a personnel number and the relevant working time attributes. If required, specially authorized users can check the recorded times in a follow-up approval procedure. A special SAP business workflow facilitates this procedure.

You can also use the time sheet to enter working times centrally. A screen is provided for entering data for several persons at once. If you choose this option, administrators in a central data entry office copy information from paper time sheets to the time sheet in the system.

DMS - Glossary

noreply@blogger.com (Sappy Guy) — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 14:27:00 +0000

content

SAP Business Information Warehouse (BW)
Application documents administrated by the SAP Knowledge Provider

Example

An HTML page contains a GIF. This means the document consists of two files; an HTML
file and a GIF file. Together, they make up the content of the HTML page, which is
administrated as a physical document. The two files are two units of content.

--------------------------------------------------
content category

Document Management Services (R/3) (BC-SRV-KPR-DMS) The category enables a logical
view of the application to the physical storage data of the contents of the physical
documents. This makes the administration data of the physical documents independent
of the storage medium used. Precisely one content cateogry is assigned to each
physical document. To go from the physical document to the storage data, each
content category is mapped to precisely one content repository.

Example

The SAP Knowledge Warehouse defines different content categories for different
languages and releases. When a new physical document is created, the SAP Knowledge
Warehouse can specify the abstract concept of the content category angeben, without
having to take into account the special characteristics of the underlying storage
medium. For the application it does not matter, whether at runtime the content of
the physical documents are stored in a database or in an external archive

--------------------------------------------------
Content Management Service

Content Management Service (BC-SRV-KPR-CMS)
Element of the SAP Knowledge Provider (KPro).

The Content Management Service allows the application-specific and problem-related
integration and administration of different types of content and cache servers.
--------------------------------------------------
content model

Document Management Services (R/3) (BC-SRV-KPR-DMS)
Definition of the meaning of the concept of the document in the context of a
particular document management system. Definition of the relationship of
administrative data to documents.
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content object

SAP Knowledge Warehouse (BC-DOC-IWB)
Info object containing any kind of content information.
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content relationship

Document Management Services (R/3) (BC-SRV-KPR-DMS)
An example of a special relationship class which has been pre-defined by SAP
Knowledge Provider (KPro).

If changes to the content of an existing physical document result in the creation of
a new physical document, a relationship is created in KPro between these two
physical documents. This is defined as a content relationship. Both physical
documents have to belong to the same logical document.
--------------------------------------------------
content repository

Content Management Service (BC-SRV-KPR-CMS) The Repository is an SAP Knowledge
Provider administration unit for mapping physical storage media.
Different storage media can be accessed. (e.g. database, archive), that represent
different types of content repositories. Only one content server can be assigned to
one content repository. But there can be several content repositories assigned to
one server.
--------------------------------------------------
content repository

SAP Knowledge Warehouse (BC-DOC-IWB)
Storage place for information objects within the Knowledge Workbench. There are
three types of repository: Knowledge Warehouse Local Repository Local System

--------------------------------------------------

content server

Content Management Service (BC-SRV-KPR-CMS)
Physiscal view of storage device.

The SAP Knowledge Provider (KPro) can use different physical storage devices. These
are called content servers. One content server can be used for several content
repositories.

Example:

If the texts created for the SAP System Application Help are stored on an HTTP
content server, this represents a content server together with all the software
components required to access the documents. Several content repositories may exist
at the same time on the same system.

----------------------------------------------------
Content Server Cache

Content Management Service (BC-SRV-KPR-CMS)
Server that is used when access requests are being processed to gain quick access to
document content.

----------------------------------------------------
content unit

Content Management Service (BC-SRV-KPR-CMS)
Smallest unit of a document managed by the SAP Knowledge Provider (KPro)

On the administration only one component is assigned to each content unit.

Example:

An HTML file is a content unit.
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content version

Document Management System (CA-DMS)
Version of an original application file. A content version is saved automatically by
the system.

When you define document statuses for a document type, you define when a content
version is created. You can list all the content versions of a document by
displaying the status log.
----------------------------------------------------
content version

SAP Knowledge Warehouse (BC-DOC-IWB)
Version created when a content object is maintained
----------------------------------------------------
content versioning

Document Management Services (R/3) (BC-SRV-KPR-DMS)
Function for saving and managing physical documents in SAP which are created by
changing the content of the component of an already existing physical document.

Content relationships are used to create the content versioning.
----------------------------------------------------
context

SAP Knowledge Warehouse (BC-DOC-IWB)
Set of parameters used in the SAP Knowledge Warehouse to control which document
versions (language, release, and so on) can be accessed.
----------------------------------------------------

Cross Application Components

noreply@blogger.com (Sappy Guy) — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 14:21:00 +0000

The CA(Cross Application Components include all SAP functions and tools that are not directly related to a unique part of the system. Some of them are as follows:

Document Management System (CA-DMS)
Cross Application Timesheets (CATS)
SAP Business Workflow (BW)
Data Archiving and ArchiveLink
SAP Business Wrokplace (Formerly SAPOffice)
CAD Integration
Classification Guide
ALE or Application Link Enabled technology
EDI
external system communication interfaces