What a fantastic question. SAP is a form on top of a database the way Emacs is a text editor. From a certain point of view that is sort of true, but you only n

What a fantastic question. SAP is a form on top of a database the way Emacs is a text editor. From a certain point of view that is sort of true, but you only need to scratch the surface to see the gigantic morass lying underneath. SAP is meant to automate business processes. In particular, it focuses on general business processes that cross industries, plus specific business process that apply generally within an industry. For instance, cross-cutting processes might be procurement, accounts receivable, accounts payable, asset management, general ledger, invoicing, payroll, time and expense entry, contract management etc. Each of these single functions has a set of common forms that can be customized with the master data of the specific implementation (select box 1 has values Product A, Product B and Product C), plus any custom business rules (field A value X means field B is disabled). And for your next trick, get everyone to agree on the set of forms, the transitions between forms, the required validations, the exact right set of master data, and other business rules. And that is barely scratching the surface.