The IDES Organizational Structure and Corporate Structure

The IDES group comprises four areas: IDES Industry, IDES Retail, IDES Services and IDES Banking. Each of these areas consist of subgroups which in turn consist of separate companies. The IDES Industry area comprises, for example, the subgroups IDES Europe, IDES America and IDES Asia. Each of these subgroups consists of separate companies.



Each of these companies has a clear-cut business task within the corporate group. Furthermore, each company is organized in accordance with the legal and country specific requirements of the country in which it is situated. In the companies belonging to the IDES Industry area, industry-specific sales, production, purchasing and accounting processes are presented. The American company and the German company are, for example, defined as producing entities. The French subgroup is solely a sales and marketing entity, whereas the Mexican subsidiary is used to show how the material ledger is used in countries with high inflation rates. The Retail area consists of commercial companies resident in America and Germany which in turn are divided into other concerns. All common commercial processes are shown here. IDES Service illustrates a consulting company resident in America. Here consulting services, amongst other things, are sold, delivered and have their return assessed. The IDES Banking area consists of two banks resident in the USA and Germany. The processes shown here concern typical banking procedures which are based on the standard R/3 System.

IDES Overview

The organizational data contained in the IDES system is maintained and updated by the IDES development team. This team develops planning scenarios with various conditions and aims, performs period-end closing procedures, and generates transaction data so that the information systems in all areas are a true reflection of real-life business. New business scenarios are being added constantly to clearly depict and elucidate the functionality involved.

The R/3 System training courses offered by SAP AG are based on IDES data. Data for the exercises and demonstrations contained in these R/3 training courses is available in the IDES system. This means that course attendees can then use their training materials to work their way through examples and exercises in the R/3 IDES system, and consolidate what they have learned in their own time. They can also explore the system on their own, and thus further their knowledge of it.

IDES is available (in accordance with the conditions set out in the license agreement) free of charge for all SAP AG customers and partners in possession of a valid license. IDES systems are delivered as new installations and can be ordered from SAP AG as a release of an existing installation.

A remote link to the IDES systems in all currently existing releases is available in Walldorf (Customer and Partner System [CPS]).

The IDES system is also available on the Internet from release 4.6 upward. You can work in the IDES system on the Internet without having to install any additional components. The systems reflect the components of the different industry solutions and enable you to expand the R/3 System. See the SAP homepage sap.com for all
relevant information.

A laptop version of IDES is also available so that sales staff and consultants can make flexible use of the R/3 model company when they are on the move. The entire R/3 IDES system is preinstalled on a notebook. The notebook can be used without further system or administrator training. With the development of notebook-specific programs to start and stop the database and the R/3 System, each end user can use their own personal R/3 System.

IDES is available for every release. Hot packages for releases can be imported into IDES, but it is not possible to upgrade to a new release. This means that each new IDES release has to be re-installed. This is the only feasible way of ensuring that IDES users receive new, high-quality master data, transaction data, Customizing settings and documentation that have been tried and tested.

IDES is available in English, German, French, Japanese, Spanish, and Portuguese. This means that you can access all R/3-specific data, and special IDES features such as Customizing, short texts and long texts in all these languages.

The IDES Model Company

The Concept Behind IDES


The International Demonstration and Education System (IDES) contains a fullyfledged model company that has been set up in an R/3 System. The model company is based on a standard R/3 System. The IDES corporate group comprises a number of companies, each with predefined business tasks. All of these companies can be used individually, or in interaction with each other, to demonstrate how the R/3 System is integrated, and the range of functions that are available.

IDES is used principally in internal and external training courses, self-learning programs, and for presentations. It aims to prepare project team members and end users for using the R/3 System in practice. The IDES system provides an ideal learning environment: users get to work in a system that has been fully customized, and contains real-life master data and transaction data. The system further facilitates the transfer of knowledge by providing extensive data descriptions and process descriptions for cross-application business processes.

The realistic business processes of the company group have been set up as self- Online documentation learning units in IDES. The online documentation in IDES plays a central role in this self-learning process. Since integrated process flows are already defined in the system, users can use the IDES online documentation to familiarize themselves gradually with the core functions in any of the R/3 components. Detailed process descriptions and realistic business data mean that even beginners and users without detailed R/3 knowledge can familiarize themselves quickly with the R/3 System. This online help can also be used as a basis for developing internal training courses and holding R/3 presentations.

R/3 System IDES - Function in Details

IDES Logistics

A variety of products are manufactured and sold using the different organizational units within the Logistics area. IDES provides all the resources required for production and assigns them to the corresponding products through bills of materials (BOMs) and routings. Each product or product group represents a particular production type. IDES contains fully-integrated business processes for the production or sale of the following products or product groups:

Product	Process Type
Elevators	Engineer-to-order
Motorcycles	Make-to-order production
Cars	Sales-order-based repetitive manufacturing
Pumps	Make-to-order production
Personal computer	Repetitive manufacturing
Lighting products	Mass production
Paints / solvents	Process industry, Chemicals
Tablets	Process industry, Pharmaceuticals
Food / cosmetics	Retail

You can use IDES to create your own prototypes for business processes. As soon as you are familiar with the SAP System business processes, you can adapt IDES to meet your own individual requirements. The IDES enterprise structure helps you create business scenarios that reflect your own working environment.

You can then implement core business processes for your own company and analyze the various solutions. And IDES offers the additional advantage that you do not need to start from scratch each time. You can use existing IDES processes as a basis, then simply add organizational units and master data step by step until you have created your new, personalized business process.

The Structure of the IDES Group

The IDES group comprises four subgroups. The European subgroup consists of five companies, North America has two. Latin America and Asia each consist of one company. Each of these companies has its own clearly defined business objectives within the consolidated group and is organized according to local business practices and legal requirements. Consolidation takes place across the financial areas. For example, the French subsidiary operates solely as a sales company, or in Mexico, we represent high-inflation methods and the material ledger. The American and German subsidiaries produce goods, as well as carrying out purchasing and sales activities. Accounting and Human Resources for each individual company have been adapted to meet the particular business objectives. Germany and the United States, for example, have been set up to use flexible standard costing, whereas the United Kingdom uses static standard costing based on full costs.

IDES and Training

Many of the demonstrations and exercises used by SAP for the R/3 System training program are based on IDES data. IDES is the perfect compliment to the SAP training program. It enables you to revise training exercises and improve your understanding of the many functions of the R/3 System.