Introduction

The Internet Demonstration and Evaluation System (IDES) is the implementation of a fictitious company that has been set up in an R/3 System for training, evaluation, and practice. The IDES corporate group comprises a number of companies in several countries, 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.

Learning with IDES

Virtually all the training in SAP is made utilizing IDES. 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. Also it is an excellent way to learn ERP systems, because the implementation of IDES on SAP was not designed only to demonstrate its functionality, but the business processes and their integration.

The company group has all the data necessary to practice several business scenarios as they occur in real-life situations, making use of business practices from a wide diversity of sectors, such as Banking and retailing.

From discrete production through to process industries, from engineering-to-order to repetitive manufacturing, the opportunities to learn using IDES are immense. For example, there are practices on Human Resources, Financial Accounting, Product Cost Planning, Overhead Management, Profitability Analysis, Planning, Sales and Distribution, Materials Management, Production, and much, much more.

The system further facilitates the transfer of knowledge by providing extensive data and process descriptions for cross-application business processes.

IDES documentation

IDES is shipped with extensive documentation aimed to demonstrate the integration of business process on the R/3 system. Realistic business processes have been set up as self-learning independent units in IDES. Practices are self-contained, with all the data and pre-processes needed from start to finish. This online help can also be used as a basis for developing internal training courses and holding R/3 presentations.

Other uses of IDES

Besides being extensively used in training, IDES can also be used to facilitate prototyping. Companies can implement improved business processes using IDES to analyze their feasibility and convenience. IDES can also be used as a marketing tool and to assist in decision making. With IDES is easy to demonstrate the look and feel of new business practices and evaluate the risks and benefits of business reengineering.