- [Instructor] The term client in SAP has a unique meaning.
Let's look at clients in the SAP world.
Clients are essentially self-contained business units
within each SAP system.
When we log in to SAP,
we choose the specific client we want to access.
Each client is assigned a three digit number.
In our screenshot, we're logging in to Client 150.
There are different types of clients in SAP,
and we'll look at a few of the most common here.
End users typically log in
to what is called the production client.
The production client is the system
of record for a business.
Another type of client is quality assurance.
This is where system developers can check
on customizations and development changes
and make sure they'll work with other parts of the system.
Next the sandbox client is a place to experiment
with new changes or customizations
before they're moved into production.
Finally, the training client is where
all the end user training can take place.
During training, end users can experiment freely
in the training client without impacting
our production client.
These last three types of clients
are what is often refer to as non-production clients.
Let's take a look at how different SAP clients
may be set up at a large company.
Large companies tend to break their clients up
by either business units or by geographic area.
This example looks at a company
that has different SAP clients
for each of its business units.
Our imaginary company is called Widgets R Us.
Our company has two separate business units:
widget manufacturing, and widget consulting services.
Because our business units are quite different,
it makes sense for us to have different clients
for each business unit.
On the widget manufacturing side
we have Client 100, which is production,
Client 101 for training, Client 102 for quality,
and Client 104 as a sandbox.
The consulting services side
has a different production client.
It's Client 110 in this case,
and a different training client, number 111.
This is a simple example,
but the larger the organization
the more complex the client structure will be.