R/3 Background processing is a method for automating routine tasks and for optimizing use of your organization’s R/3 computing resources. In background processing, you order the R/3 System to run programs for you. You or your users tell the system what program to run and when to run it by scheduling "background jobs."

Background processing lets you and your users move long-running or resource-intensive program runs to periods of low system load. It also lets you and your users delegate the running of reports or programs to the system. Your dialog sessions are not tied up, and reports that run in the background are not subject to the limit on the run time for a dialog step that applies to interactive sessions.

The R/3 System offers sophisticated support for background processing. You can choose from a variety of methods for scheduling and repeating jobs. You can run both R/3-internal and external programs. And, for easier scheduling and management, you can run related internal and/or external programs as "job steps" within a single background processing job. Job steps let a background job represent a complex task that consists of multiple processing steps. Scheduling the job schedules all of the processing activities that have to take place to perform the task.

There are also sophisticated tools, including a graphic monitor, for managing jobs and for diagnosing problems, should any occur. There is also a powerful and easy to use programming interface so that you can add your own background-processing applications, if required.

Finally, the background processing system has an interface to external management tools. You can integrate your R/3 background processing into an external tool, if required. Certified implementations of this interface are expected to be available in the near future in several external system management tools.

This section reviews the implementation of and important concepts in R/3 background processing. After you have read this section, you should have a good understanding of how the background processing system is put together. This knowledge should in turn help you to use the background processing system more effectively and to prevent and/or swiftly diagnose any problems that may occur.