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In this phase youdocument and define the scope of your R/3 implementation and create the Business Blueprint. The Business Blueprint is a detailed documentation of your company's requirements in Winword format. Application consultants and the Business Process Teams achieve a common understanding of how the enterprise intends to run its business within the R/3 System, by carrying out requirements-gathering workshops.
During Phase 2, the project team completes R/3 Level 2 training; this is recommended as early as possible and before the workshops start.

Fig. : Elements of the Business Blueprint
The project team selects the processes that best fit your business from R/3's functional offering, using the following tools:

• AcceleratedSAP Implementation Assistant
• Question and Answer Database (Q&Adb)
• Business Process Master List (BPML)
• R/3 Structure Modeler
• Business Navigator and external modeling tools

Project Management
Establishing a proper cycle of project management activities ensures that the implementation project stays on target. Project Management includes all project planning, controlling and updating activities. The activities in this work package are:

• Conducting Status Meetings for the Project Team

In the status meetings each project team’s status is reported on, and important information is shared among the different project teams, so that there is a complete picture of the implementation process and progress. Progress impacts budget, scheduling and resources, and also the go-live date. It is important to coordinate integration aspects between the different project teams.

• Conducting the Steering Committee Meetings

These meetings update the Steering Committee on the project status and obtain decisions about project issues that cannot be resolved by the project team (for example, changing the schedule or obtaining additional resources).

• General Project Management

ASAP makes sure that additional tasks that support the implementation project or form the basis of further project planning are not overlooked.

• Addressing organizational issues relating to organizational Change Management.

Project Team Training
Training the project team should reflect the scope of the R/3 implementation and the needs of the individual team members. You want to conduct project team training in order for team members to obtain R/3 functional and technical knowledge to be effective members of the implementation project team. In the Business Blueprint phase, project team members attend Level 2 training courses.
Developing the System Environment
At this point, you install and technically configure the quality assurance and development systems. Within this work package, you define and test system administration procedures for the development system.
The foundations of the technical design are laid by the work done in the project preparation phase. The definitions of the implementation scope and the system landscape are used for a detailed analysis of your hardware, operating system, database, and network requirements.

• ASAP assists in evaluating the impact of the implementation scope on the hardware or network infrastructure with the organization.

• You also check whether processes used at particular workplaces call for special hardware requirements (for example, different screen sizes, PC configurations).

It is also important to define the strategy for maintaining the system landscape in more detail. This should include steps on how to provide R/3 release upgrades, integrate hot packages, along with operating system and database upgrades.
The technical design is presented to the steering committee to be signed off at the end of the Business Blueprint phase.
Even though the development system environment is not needed by the business process teams until the end of the Business Blueprint phase, it is recommended that the development system (and possibly a test/quality assurance system) be installed as early as possible. This will enable the technical team to have a few weeks to work with the R/3 System prior to any development or Customizing activities. AcceleratedSAP provides a checklist for installing the hardware and the R/3 System, and for verifying the R/3 configuration.
The next step is to install and configure the development system clients. During this activity you set up R/3 clients to reflect the business process and organizational decisions.
There are a number of pre-configured systems that are designed for different enterprise and business types. These systems are described in more detail at the end of this chapter. They should however be installed as part of the system landscape before the start of the Realization phase. If you are using the Ready-to-Run R/3 (RRR), this represents an accelerator for this work package, because R/3 is pre-installed and the parameters of the Basis System are preconfigured.
The R/3 Systems Operations Manual for the system adminstrator is begun to be put together here. It contains the documentation on the system installation and system administration procedures/policies, with detailed descriptions, persons responsible and escalation management plans for all R/3 System management activities.
The Pre-Configured Remote Link is a service used to simplify the setup of the OSS link between the customer and SAP. The setup is not difficult, but entails extensive logistical organization. The customer receives the hardware, OSS IDs, software and hardware configuration, and training and support for this area.
This service can save many days of effort for the customer at the beginning of the project. Among other things, the "rcPack" as it is called, contains an analysis of network and telecommunications infrastructure, a determination and proposal for an optimal mode of transmission, application forms and documents required by carriers, and purchase and delivery of necessary hardware.
After the R/3 System is installed, it is necessary to configure the operational enviroment for the development system. This should include the backup/restore procedures along with the CCMS (Computing Center Management System) settings. These tasks are an ongoing process throughout the Business Blueprint Phase.
AcceleratedSAP provides a list of daily checks and reports that should be run to help administer and maintain the development environment. The Guidebook "System Administration Made Easy", written by the R/3 Simplification Group for both Windows NT and Unix, is available as an accelerator.
The Implementation Guide is described in detail in the Realization phase. At this point in the project, however, it should be created for the enterprise based on the implementation scope. The IMG is used as a reference at the last stages of the business process definition, therefore, you will want to have this in place before beginning the business process definition.
Defining the Organizational Structure
An important step during the implementation of R/3 is the mapping of enterprise-specific structures and requirements using R/3 organizational units. Decisions on the use of specific organizational units are influenced by various factors relevant to the organization itself and the implementation goals it is pursuing.

Fig.: R/3 Structure Modeler for displaying organizational structures
The selection, usage specification and linking of the R/3 organizational units should be carried out at an early point in the project, and involves management as well as user departments. Usually there are several different possibilities of mapping enterprise-specific organizational units. You can define alternative organizational structure scenarios in order to compare them and decide on the most suitable one.
Questionnaires and a graphic display support the discussion on organizational units between SAP consultants and their customers. Mapping the enterprise onto R/3 organizational units becomes transparent, and the simple, systematic display supports the interpretation of differences between alternative structure scenarios.
In order to create structure scenarios, SAP has developed the R/3 Structure Modeler, included in AcceleratedSAP. It is used as an add-on under Visio® 5.0 and offers comprehensive support due to its extended graphic functionality (creation, naming and allocating of new instances of the R/3 System, consistency checks, definition of views, scenario-specific documentation, help files). The Structure Modeler is available in German and English. It is integrated in the Knowledge Corner of the ASAP Roadmap.
The use of tile diagrams has proven effective for the graphic display of structure scenarios. Every occurrence (instance) of an R/3 organizational unit is represented as a colored tile. The tiles representing instances of the same R/3 organizational unit have the same color. The positioning of the tiles in several layers enables you to recognize relationships between them.
The Q&Adb enables you to describe the structure of your enterprise on two levels:

• The Business Overview level, with organizational structure questions enabling an analysis of enterprise-specific determining factors, and
• Organizational questions for each enterprise area.

The Structure Modeler also enables you to illustrate your organizational structure in relation to a distributed system infrastructure.
Defining the Business Processes
After you have defined your organizational structure for R/3, the definition of the business process for your Business Blueprint is the next step. You now map the enterprise requirements onto R/3 business processes, in order to create the conceptual design for your R/3 implementation. For this, the following activities need to be carried out:

• Conducting business process workshops
• Completing the Business Blueprint, reviewing it and obtaining management signoff
• Setting up an end user training schedule

Besides determining the R/3 functionality to be implemented, the following types of requirements should be identified in the business process workshops:

• Reporting requirements
• Interface requirements
• Conversion requirements
• Enhancement requirements
• Authorization requirements

Since all the results gathered during the workshops will subsequently create the Business Blueprint, the importance of this step cannot be underestimated. The main tool used to define the business processes is the AcceleratedSAP Question & Answer Database in conjunction with the R/3 Reference Model. In the process, information is gathered using the following tools:

• Business Process Questions (via R/3 Reference Model)
• Customer Input (CI) Template
• Business Process Master List
• Knowledge Corner

R/3 Reference Model
The R/3 Reference Model contains over 1,200 business processes, created on the basis of feedback from R/3 customers on their "best business practices". This structure and visual representation in models support the business process discussions, as well as being used to graphically illustrate a particular area of functionality. There are different types of models available for different target groups and purposes. Project managers, for example, need an overview of all the R/3 components and processes, whereas a team member is more likely to require the details of a process.
The R/3 Reference Model serves as the basis for business engineering and the definition of business process requirements. Using the various types of models, you can quickly identify potential for business process optimization.
Fig. : Different types of models in the R/3 Reference Model
The R/3 Reference Model can be used as the basis for the following:
 Comparing the standard R/3 functionality with your enterprise's own organizational structures and processes, and defining all the relevant processes and functions, in order to create the Business Blueprint
 Creating documentation (including graphics) for the conceptual design
 Optimizing your business processes
 Training the project team and users
 Writing user documentation
The R/3 Reference contains the following types of models designed for different target groups and goals:

• Process model

The main type of model, containing process flow views of the entire R/3 functionality, for example, procurement of consumable materials or purchase order processing. This model is used, among other things, for industry-specific modeling and is described below in greater detail.

• Component hierarchy

In the component hierarchy, you select the R/3 components you want to use in your enterprise to support your business processes. Examples would be the component HR Human Resources, or Accounts Payable from FI Financials. This has a chain of effects throughout the entire R/3 System. The selections made in the component hierarchy also determine the structure of the following:

• Implementation Guide (for R/3 Customizing)

• Session Manager (to define company menu, user-specific menus)
• The Profile Generator (for user authorizations)

Fig. 26: Configuring the IMG by selecting the application components
For more information, see the section on R/3 Customizing under Phase 3.

• The Business Object model, which is a description of about 200 business objects such as customers, vendors, employees, cost centers, etc.

The main purpose of the Business Object Model is the determination of the input/output assignment of business objects. These are lists that tell you which business objects are required as input for a process and which are created as output. It is also used for checking the data and processes in the productive system.
Each object in the system represents something in the real world, for example, a sales order or customer. Business object technology has several merits, not least the integration and synergies between objects from both a technical and a business viewpoint. R/3 Business Objects as real-world entities will emerge more and more to allow enterprises to design parts of their business processes by using objects.
The R/3 Reference Model, together with its process models, business objects, business object models, data models and their data and links, is stored in the R/3 Repository. It also contains technical information such as data definitions, screen definitions and program objects that are used for developing and enhancing the R/3 System. In addition, the R/3 Reference Model, in particular the process model, forms the basis of requirements gathering for the Business Blueprint in the Q&Adb.
The R/3 Reference Model is used to access and link processes and business objects. Since the business objects are used to communicate with the R/3 Repository, both the data model and the structure and contents of the underlying tables can be accessed. This makes interface and enhancement design considerably simpler.