With the R/3 System release in mid-1992, SAP began to penetrate the mid-size market, and into branches and subsidiaries of large companies. The release of the R/3 client/server system was the most significant event in SAP’s history and started a record of growth that even SAP’s most optimistic planners had not predicted.

SAP took top position among German software vendors in 1993. On an international scale, the company moved to 7th place among software companies, establishing a clear lead in the global business applications software market. Sales surpassed the important DM 1 billion mark for the first time in 1993, and the global customer base stood at 3,500 companies. SAP made an investment in iXOS Software GmbH with the aim of developing and marketing graphical user interfaces and optical archiving of documents.

SAP Business Intelligence (SAP BI) provides a complete view of the company. The solution, which is part of SAP NetWeaver, provides the tools needed to make the right decisions, optimize processes, and measure strategic success: data from all enterprise sources are merged effectively and can be comprehensively analyzed, business-critical factors can be monitored using external and internal benchmarks, the most important KPIs can be passed on to all the relevant forces in a company in real time, strategies can be rapidly adapted to changed market conditions, and the results of analyses can be graphically represented in a wide variety of formats, such as grids, graphs, and maps

SAP continued to grow in 1988 with the international sales network strengthened by the establishment of subsidiaries in Denmark, Sweden, Italy and the US. Other events included: the founding of SAP Consulting GmbH as a joint project between SAP and the consulting firm Arthur Andersen; the opening of an International Training Center in Walldorf; and the welcoming of Dow Chemical as SAP’s 1,000th customer. However, the most significant events of the year were the increase of SAP’s capital stock from DM 5 million to DM 60 million, the subsequent conversion of SAP GmbH into a stock corporation, SAP AG, and the flotation of SAP shares on the stock market. SAP shares were quoted on the securities
exchanges in Frankfurt and Stuttgart.

Use APO Demand Planning (DP) to create a forecast of market demand for your company's products. This component allows you to take into consideration the many different causal factors that affect demand. The result of APO Demand Planning is the demand plan.

Demand Planning is a powerful and flexible tool that supports the demand planning process in your company. User-specific planning layouts and interactive planning books enable you to integrate people from different departments, and even different companies, into the forecasting process. Using the DP library of statistical forecasting and advanced macro techniques you can create forecasts based on demand history as well as any number of causal factors, carry out predefined and self-defined tests on forecast models and forecast results, and adopt a consensus-based approach to reconcile the demand plans of different departments. To add marketing intelligence and make management adjustments, you use promotions and forecast overrides. The seamless integration with APO Supply Network Planning supports an efficient S&OP process.

SAP R/3 is SAP's integrated software solution for client/server and distributed open systems. SAP's R/3 is the world's most-used standard business software for client/server computing.  R/3 meets the needs of a customer from the small grocer with 3 users to the multi-billion dollar companies The software is highly customizable using SAP's proprietary programming language, ABAP/4. R/3 is scalable and highly suited for many types and sizes of organizations.

The R/3 architecture is comprised of application and database servers. The application servers house the software and the database servers handle document updates and master file databases. The system can support an unlimited number of servers and a variety of hardware configurations. For more info. see SAP R/3 Architecture at SAP home page