What This Chapter Is About

This chapter is dedicated to the most distributed parts of an SAP infrastructure, the front-end executing the presentation layer and printers. It does not, however, cover the details of how to set up the SAPGUI or the SAP system to print from a software perspective or other peripheral devices such as faxes, mail gateways, radio-frequency devices, and so on.

In the first part, the various user interfaces provided by SAP are described. The different architectures are discussed together with their pros and cons. The concept of network computer deployment is explained as well as the mySAP.com Workplace. In addition, the new elements of the mySAP.com Workplace GUI will be introduced.

SAP applications generate a multitude of business documents each day. Accurate and timely delivery of these documents is a critical link in the automated business process embodied within an SAP system. Forms are the predominant printed output from SAP R/3 applications. Hence, forms and output management solutions for SAP systems are described in the second part.