Chapter 2: ERP Technology and ERD's

Development DEV (system landscape)

ERP is installed ERP is configured and customized

Middleware

software that facilitates sharing data and business logic across systems and requires a certain degree of IT support to set up and maintain

Business logic

specifies how business transactions are processed and what data needs to be accessed from the data storage device - validates the data, applies the majority of business rules

Service Level Agreement (SLA)

spells out clearly what is being delivered, how the service is to be measured, and what penalties will ensue

Mobility

the ability to access data and information from a computing device wherever needed

System Landscape

the layout or architecture of the servers

Production PRD (system landscape)

the live system the users will work with

RDBMS

used by ERP systems to store enterprise data

ERD

a graphical representation reflecting the database entities and the relationships among those entities.

Mainframe architecture

all computing intelligence resides within a central host computer that processes data and display the output on dummy terminals (workstations with little to no processing power)

Instance

an installation or erp software and related components on servers

Sandboxes

areas in the DEV environment where members of the implementation team will explore configuration and customization options

data access logic

communication with the database

distributed computing

consists of multiple computers that run together as a single system

Quality Assurance QA (system Landscape)

customizations and configurations will be tested

Cloud computing

data and software code are hosted in a data center and is accessed through a web browser

Presentation Logic

displays the data to the user and accepts input from the user

Entity Integrity Rule

each record must be identified by a PK, PK can not be empty or null

Referential Integrity Rule

ensures that relationships between tables remain valid and consistent - all FK's must have a corresponding PK

graphical user interface (GUI)

helps the user interact with the computer

Fat and Thin clients

look at diagram Figure 2-2

Best of Breed

mix and match of modules from various enterprise software vendors

Software as a service (SaaS)

periodic payments for the software, infrastructure, and maintenance

Three tier client server architechture

places one or more application tiers in between the client tier and the data access tier

Customization

process of fitting the ERP software to the specific needs of the organization by adding code to the ERP software

Configuration

process of selecting parameters that enable a company to tailor a particular aspect of the system to the way it chooses to do business

Client Server architecture

1990's workloads are partitioned between the client and the server which responds to the requests two tier architecture