Glossary Information Technology has many key words and SAP R/3 has introduced many others. In order to understand the field of SAP even better you should keep those terms in mind. ALE (Application Link Enabling) It provides integration for separate R/3 systems, keeping full interaction. This makes possible distributed enterprise applications. Application server The application server is used to run the business application programs in the R/3 client/server concept. The application modules are loaded from the data base server to the application server as required. Thus the application server requires only storage capacity to accommodate UNIX, Swapping and the SAP runtime environment. Batch Input A technique to input data safely. It ensures application data integrity for background interfaces. It pretends to be someone typing. See also direct input. to the application server as required. Thus the application server requires only storage capacity to accommodate UNIX, Swapping and the SAP runtime environment. Batch Input A technique to input data safely. It ensures application data integrity for background interfaces. It pretends to be someone typing. See also direct input.