What is SAP BASIS? The invisible backbone of SAP explained for beginners

[David_Chaviano]

Have you ever watched a play? A seamless harmony of characters, storyline, lighting, and sound effects coming together to deliver an engaging experience. Yet, have you noticed the people behind the scenes? The backstage crew that designs the set, sets up the equipment, handles lighting, and swiftly resolves any glitches that might occur during the play. They aren't visible to the audience, but without them, the play wouldn't progress a bit. In the world of business software, SAP BASIS plays a role quite similar to that backstage crew.

SAP systems are extensive. They are designed to manage business operations and customer relations, widely used to address the comprehensive needs of many significant industries around the world. To understand where BASIS fits in, it's important to first understand what precisely SAP is.

Systems, Applications and Products (SAP) in data processing is an industry-leading enterprise software solution used by companies of all sizes in every corner of the global economy. Like a play, SAP contains various characters (modules) designed to work together to create an encompassing picture of an entire business's operations. Encompassing finance, sales, production, human resources, and more, these integrated systems provide real-time visibility across an organization.

But who ensures all these modules work together? Who sets the stage for these characters in our SAP drama? That's where SAP BASIS comes into the picture.

BASIS is the invisible backbone of all SAP applications. Like our unseen backstage crew, SAP BASIS sets the stage for all other interacting elements. It represents a set of middleware programs and tools from SAP that provide the underlying base that enables applications to be interoperable and portable across operating systems and database products.

Essentially, SAP BASIS takes care of the nitty-gritty details that make your SAP software run. Its tasks include things like database management, ensuring that the user interface works correctly, tackling network issues, and administering the system. It ensures that everything remains up and running, solves problems as they come up, and optimizes system performance.

While the users of SAP software may not directly interact with BASIS, it is vital for ensuring a smoothly running, efficient system. It's the invisible yet important grease that keeps the SAP machine humming. It not only serves as an essential support function, but its importance is also strategic, providing businesses with the ability to constantly adapt their systems to meet their changing needs.

So, the next time you use an SAP system or watch a play, remember the silent backstage workers. They may not be visible, but neither the play nor the SAP system you're using would run seamlessly without them. 

[David_Chaviano]

@L_Skorwider - I have to think of the movie Inception when I learned about SAP BASIS... SAP S/4HANA itself is the backstage crew running the show of many big brands globally... Now SAP BASIS is the backstage crew of SAP S/4HANA itself 😄

Do you have any recommendations where people can start learning how to use it without breaking anything?

[L_Skorwider]

Hi David,

I really like your analogies to theater and film. Accurate observations. I will stay in this climate for a while.

Backstage has its own characteristics and not everyone is comfortable with such a role. This was clearly demonstrated by the Writers Guild of America strike. On the other hand, thanks to it we also saw very well how important a role these people play.

Before you decide on a career in Basis, consider whether such a role suits you. The work should be consistent with your personality and give you satisfaction. You will have the opportunity to save the world, or at least the business, many times, but don't expect too frequent Oscar nominations.

What qualities predestine you to consider this profession? First of all, the ability to think analytically. More than once you will analyze things on different levels - from strictly technical problems, through installation dependencies, to complex project plans.

Patience. Yes, patience and persistence are extremely important. Many times you will ponder a situation where some small, hard-to-find detail upsets the balance of the universe and causes a grinding in the gears of the business machine. Patient seeking is then the key to success.

This makes me think of stress resistance. Take into account that in such situations many important people can stand over your head and ask every 3 minutes when it will start to work. You must be able to focus on your task despite the pressure.

It would be good if you feel comfortable with technology. The more broadly interested you are in the subject, and the more background from different technical areas you have, the easier it will be for you.

Basis in different companies has slightly different duties. Much depends on the distribution of responsibilities. Sometimes the positions are radically different from each other. I, at the very beginning of my career, came to a company where everything from hardware through operating systems, databases to application and user training was under my care. 

Although this is rather rare. Sometimes you may not even have access to the OS or database. Other times, you may be a member of Basis, which belongs to a special force that solves problems closer to business than technology. Yes, it is also quite common to believe that when it is difficult to assign a task to any known area, surely Basis should take care of it...

It's an interesting job with lots of satisfaction. You just have to like what you do.

How to get started? I hired myself to a company that was implementing SAP at their site. The implementation was a great learning experience. But today you have many more options. You have openSAP with numerous free courses. You have YouTube, where people explain various topics step by step. You have the SAP community with great blogs and a helpful population. You can even install your own sandbox for experiments without much investment, as I recently described. If I may offer some advice - apart from SAP field, learn also Linux and the cloud.

Of course, concerns about the future are also present in this area. We wonder what AI will bring us, or how companies will adopt the SAP Rise initiative. I, however, always see opportunities and challenges, not threats. If you're good, you can always handle everything.

Don't wait, act.

[David_Chaviano]

Thanks for the extra context @L_Skorwider !

Is BASIS one of those job areas in SAP where employers are expecting 10-15 years of experience from the start?

Is this role still applicable to a customer running on the public cloud?

[L_Skorwider]

Hi David,

I think that experience is always appreciated. On the other hand, if you have no experience, then technical background, willingness to learn and being open minded are also appreciated. The company I work for organizes academies from time to time, after which juniors are hired.

Yes, many systems are being migrated to the cloud. At the same time, the customer also has different paths to choose from. Similarly, a Basis consultant can choose different paths of specialization. We are certainly in a place where it is worth choosing our ways wisely.

BR
LS

[David_Chaviano]

Thanks @L_Skorwider - maybe we can get your org to post something here once they start looking for new folks 😀

[L_Skorwider]

Sure, why not. This is an annual and rather local event, but I will talk to the people in charge of the academy how they see it. 🙂

[David_Chaviano]

The career corner would love to see it too!