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#1
01-26-2009, 07:22 AM
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Accelerated SAP
AcceleratedSAP AcceleratedSAP is a comprehensive solution for the implementation of the R/3 System, comprising a proven methodology, tools and a range of services for the rapid implementation and ongoing optimization of R/3 installations.
The AcceleratedSAP Roadmap and accompanying Project Plan provide a standard implementation "how-to guide" that fills in the gaps of diverse methodologies and varying individual implementation s****s and experiences. The effectiveness of AcceleratedSAP has been demonstrated many times over at companies around the world. The Business Engineer plays a central role in AcceleratedSAP projects, being used for completion of configuration tasks. Fig. XX: Breakdown of ASAP phases in the Implementation Assistant The AcceleratedSAP Roadmap covers the different aspects and phases of an implementation. In the Roadmap, a detailed project plan is included for the five phases. The Roadmap provides a standard repeatable procedure for implementing the R/3 System, including project management, configuration of business processes, technical, testing and training aspects. The Roadmap serves as a backbone to AcceleratedSAP. It is located within the Implementation Assistant, a PC-based navigation tool that also contains the AcceleratedSAP accelerators. The ASAP Accelerators represent a collection of descriptions, how-to's, templates and examples on all subjects relating to the implementation of the R/3 System. Some are short information texts on a particular subject, others are longer texts such as white papers. There are also a number of predefined and empty templates or forms which you can use when carrying out your implementation. The SAP Simplification Group's guidebooks are included. There are about 350 accelerators for AcceleratedSAP 4.0, and they can be accessed from an alphabetical list, as well as being linked to the individual roadmap How-to's. There are four levels to the roadmap – phase, work package, activity, task. As you dig deeper into the levels, you will find more detailed information, from an overview description at the phase level down to a "how-to" procedure, role assignment, triggers, and tips and tricks. It is essential that you create a project plan when starting your ASAP implementation project. Project plans have three parts:
It is now possible to implement more than one ASAP project at a time. During installation, Rel. 4.0 of ASAP asks you to specify a project name that will apply to the files being installed. In a multi-project environment a new Project Selector icon on your desktop allows you to set the active project, remove projects and review file locations. You can select installed components such as the Implementation Assistant and Q&Adb in the respective projects as required. Each project is completely separate from the others, so in fact projects installed on the same server could be at different update levels. AcceleratedSAP is a complete implementation solution. This means that in addition to the Roadmap, the AcceleratedSAP solution contains numerous tools and also references SAP education and services to ensure maximum time savings and a high quality implementation. AcceleratedSAP uses the Business Engineer implementation tools at all relevant steps. In the figure below, for example, the conceptual design is based on the R/3 Reference Model in Phase 2 (Business Blueprint), whereas the Implementation Guide is accessed from ASAP Phase 3 (Realization). Fig. 2: AcceleratedSAP Implementation Roadmap and R/3 Business Engineer Service and Support ASAP leverages SAP's service and support offering, that is, all the services relating to the SAP R/3 environment. EarlyWatch® Services, concept reviews, and GoingLiveTM checks are just part of the service palette which ensure total quality and let you effectively tune your R/3 System. At appropriate steps in the Roadmap, service products are mentioned and decision support is provided to determine whether you need a particular service. For example, if you have a high volume of transactions, certain tuning services can assist you in optimizing system performance. Crucial to a fast and cost-effective R/3 implementation are well-trained project teams and highly competent consultants. SAP's innovative R/3 Info Database (InfoDB) ensures that customer and partner employees involved in implementing, servicing and using R/3 have all the qualifications they need. The InfoDB refers to a new training concept based on a new curriculum, which also includes multimedia courses.
The positive motivation of employees is a key factor in ensuring a successful implementation project. However, most organizations know, or will at least assume that the R/3 implementation will trigger wider changes in the organization. Left unmanaged, these expected impacts could be viewed negatively. Therefore, any change management program must minimize the implementation risks, acccelerate the implementation process, and align SAP with the customer's organization. ASAP's Change Management is done via a risk assessment tool, by which assessments carried out will help a customer's team deal with issues of credibility, organizational impact, and individual impact of R/3 implementation. Implementing change management procedures involves accelerating the implementation by means such as a matrix that defines the degree to which jobs and responsibilities will be changed after R/3 implementation. The other aspect is to work with executive sponsors to redesign the organization's structure or reporting relationships, for example. The ASAP change management methodology enables you to review and revise the types and sequencing of change tasks, change activities, change packages and change accelerators.
The Knowledge Corner contains alphabetized information on all aspects of AcceleratedSAP as well as a lot of tips and tricks for configuration. The information provided here is very helpful during requirements gathering and configuration. The goals of the Knowledge Corner are:
Primary components of AcceleratedSAP are available in German and English, as well as Spanish, French and Portuguese. Accelerated Quality Review SAP's Accelerated Quality Review provides an independent and objective management review of your R/3 implementation project and identifies any risks to the project goals. This service is standard in all TeamSAP projects. Among others, the benefits are early recognition of potential risk areas, improved adherence to project schedules, lower cost, and faster implementation times. Fig. 7: Checking and quality tools around ASAP The Quality Review program offered by SAP is not a review of the project for conformance to the ASAP tools and templates, but rather assists the executive management and project manager at customer sites in providing a second opinion of the implementation progress towards achieving the project goals. The scope of the review is to investigate the application, technical and project management areas of the implementation. The review looks for good implementation practices while following a prescribed methodology. TeamSAP TeamSAP refers to the coordinated network of people, processes and products from SAP and partners that delivers continuous, fast, integrated and assured solutions. AcceleratedSAP is the main process component of TeamSAP.
TeamSAP supports the concept of business change as a continuum. The goal is to offer SAP customers a full complement of TeamSAP resources to enable rapid technology upgrades or change-outs for access to new functionality. With respect to ASAP, this means that TeamSAP partners are available to carry out implementations, as well as ASAP-certified partners to carry out "Powered by ASAP projects". TeamSAP projects refer to projects carried out by TeamSAP partners, the use of ASAP or Powered-By implementation methodology, Project Quality Review, the assignment of an SAP Coach, and SAP's support on the project's steering committee. All of these are factors contributing to a successful implementation. The following key benefits will enable you to carry out a more effective R/3 implementation and make effective use of your available resources:
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#2
01-26-2009, 07:23 AM
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Phase 1: Project PreparationPhase 1: Project Preparation
In this phase of the ASAP Roadmap, decision-makers define clear project objectives and an efficient decision-making process. A project charter is issued, an implementation strategy is outlined, and the project team as well as its working environment are established. The first step is for the project managers to set up the implementation project(s). They draw up a rough draft of the project, appoint the project team and hold a kickoff meeting. The kickoff meeting is critical, since at this time the project team and process owners become aware of the project charter and objectives and are allocated their responsibilities, lasting throughout the project. Initial Project Scope/Technical Requirements As the reference point for initial project scope, and updates or changes to the R/3 implementation, the project team can use the Enterprise Area Scope Document to compare the enterprise’s requirements with the business processes and functions offered by R/3. In this way the project scope is roughly defined from a business and IT view. The former view concentrates on the enterprise’s business processes that are to be supported by IT; the latter focuses on the IT required, down to the network and memory requirements. Project Organization and Roles One of the first work packages in Phase 1 is the definition of the overall project team and the specification of project roles to be assumed during implementation. The main roles in an implementation project are that of the project manager, the application consultants, the business process team leader, the technical project leader/systems adminstrator, and the development project leader.
Implementation Scope Phase 1 includes a scoping document called the Enterprise Area Scope Document, which is based on the R/3 Reference Model and can be generated using the Project Estimator. It contains high-level user-defined views of the scope of the project, as well as defining the corresponding plants, sites, distribution channels, and legal entities. This scoping document maps to the Question & Answer Database (Q&Adb), which is used in Phase 2 to determine the detailed process and development requirements. ASAP includes many document and reporting templates, as well as examples that can be used to help determine implementation standards and procedures. Procedures for scope changes, issue resolution, and team communication need to be defined. AcceleratedSAP provides you with instructions, examples and templates to put these procedures in place. One of the most important procedures to be defined in Phase 1 is how to carry out project documentation, in particular R/3 System design documentation. For information on project decisions, issue resolution, or configuration changes required at a later date, good project documentation is invaluable. The following types of documentation should be defined in this phase and maintained throughout the project:
System Landscape and Technical Requirements In Phase 1, the project team decides on the system landscape, as well as on the high-level strategies for creating R/3 clients, implementing new releases and transporting system settings. One R/3 System can be divided into multiple clients as needed, thus allowing for the handling of separate enterprises in one R/3 installation. The technical requirements for implementing R/3 include defining the infrastructure needed and procuring the hardware and the necessary interfaces. For this purpose, you can make use of the Quick Sizing Service, which can be accessed via SAPNet. The Quick Sizing Tool, or Quick Sizer calculates CPU, disk and memory resource categories based on the number of users working with the different components of the R/3 System in a hardware and database independent format. The tool intends to give customers an idea of the system size necessary to run the required workload, and therefore provides input for initial budget planning. It also offers the possibility of transactional/quantity-based sizing, therefore enabling customers to include their batch load in the sizing as well. The Quick Sizing Service should be used as an input for hardware partners to identify your hardware needs and also get an idea of the probable size of the needed hardware configuration for project and budget planning reasons. The archiving concept is drawn up in Phase 1. Regular, targeted archiving optimizes your hardware use and avoids performance problems. With the Remote Archiving Service, SAP enables you to outsource all the tasks associated with archiving the data in your R/3 System and have them performed by SAP specialists. As part of this service, SAP also customizes the archiving configuration in your system or verifies the current configuration. However, the Remote Archiving Service cannot provide the concept for your archiving strategy - it must be worked out as part of your implementation project. It might seem too early to discuss archiving at this stage. However, eperience has shown that it is important to define the strategy as early as possible to ensure that archiving can be carried out when needed later. Issues Database Managing and resolving issues that come up during the project is an essential responsibility of the project manager and is fundamental to the success of an implementation. The focus of the manager should be to resolve or prevent issues. However, escalation procedures need to be in place in case an issue cannot be solved by the project team. Typically, issues must be resolved before phase completion or before beginning the next phase. Issues can be regarded as hurdles that are identified during a project and may influence the success of the project. They can be:
Concept Check Tool ASAP also includes a concept check tool to evaluate the system concept and configuration and alert you to potential performance or design issues. Using the tool checklists, you can analyze the project and implementation work either by yourself or with the assistance of your SAP consultant. The check focuses on project organization and the configuration of the R/3 applications. Fig. Xxx: The Concept Check Tool The checklists are designed dynamically, that is, as each question is answered, the following questions are selected so that you only answer those questions relevant to your system configuration. The checklists are used in the first two phases AcceleratedSAP, as it is advisable to deal with questions relating to each phase of the project as they arise. IDES – the R/3 Model Company The R/3 International Demo and Education System (IDES) is an additional R/3 system/client which is supplied with predefined system settings and master data. It is an integrated, fully configured, fully functional model company with an international scope and sample product range, which you can use early in your implementation. It is used, for example, in Phase 2 as a reference for R/3 processes and functionality. After defining the corresponding link, you can branch directly from the business process transactions of the Q&Adb to the live transaction in IDES. In order to get started with the R/3 System quickly, you can use IDES to help visualize your own solution. During the planning phase, you can try out all the business scenarios to find the design best suited to your requirements. IDES also forms the basis for SAP’s entire R/3 training program, including examples and exercises, and is the ideal way of preparing for release changeovers.
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#3
01-26-2009, 07:24 AM
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Phase 2: Business Blueprint
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:
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:
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.
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:
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:
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:
For more information, see the section on R/3 Customizing under Phase 3.
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.
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#4
01-26-2009, 07:24 AM
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Process Model
Together, the organizational structure and the model graphic (see below) form a powerful basis for the modeling of all business process requirements and their optimization. Process models are structured hierarchically and contain the following elements:
Fig. 13: Hierarchical structure of business processes in the R/3 Reference Model Industry-specific Reference Model In Release 4.0, the R/3 Reference Model was revised and aligned more closely with different industries’ needs. The R/3 Reference Model now matches many the requirements and business process structures of many industries quite precisely, and more effectively bridges the gap between the business and technical viewpoints. The industry-specific R/3 Reference Model was developed in cooperation with leading industry players using their underlying concepts and language. As a result, you do not have "re-invent the wheel". In the Q&Adb, you can simply choose the scenarios that correspond to your type of business. Moreover, you can mix and match scenarios, and change them to suit your requirements. Examples of industry-specific senarios can be seen in the graphic below. Fig. 23: Industry-specific Reference Model with Enterprise Process Areas and Business Scenarios Visualization of Process Models Process models can be visualized in two different ways: the high-level value chain and the more detailed event-driven process chain (EPC), described below. Value chains can be defined for a particular type of business or industry, showing the overall course of a business process across enterprise process areas. On a very highly aggregated level, the value chains show how business scenarios are linked. Value chains show the integration of business scenarios and processes across departmental boundaries. They therefore offer an ideal opportunity to optimize business structures and routines. Fig. Xx: Value chain for baking goods production Event-driven process chains (EPCs) link data, tasks and organizations, and are therefore an important element in business process design. As well as describing the chronological sequence of steps in a process, they also take into account aspects of the organization and information requirements. Elements of EPCs are explained in more detail below. Fig. 12 (2-5): The basic structure of an event-driven process chain EPCs consist of four basic elements:
You can display the contents of the R/3 Reference Model with the Business Navigator or the Business Navigator Web, which are fully integrated into the R/3 System. You can display the model in either of two hierarchy views, as described above:
Fig.: Process Flow View of Business Navigator The Business Navigator as well as the Business Navigator Web allow you to browse through a model in order to understand its structure and see how processes are related and organized on an enterprise-wide level. In order to start the Business Navigator Web, you must have access to the R/3 Reference Model or to one or more customer-specific models. Fig. 18: Business Navigator Web When an EPC diagram is displayed in the Diagram Viewer of the Business Navigator Web, you can study it by animating it, that is, by walking through each function and choice point in order to observe the flow of control and dependencies in the process represented by that diagram. You can follow the flow of control into different diagrams to see how various processes are connected to one another. To install the web server for the Business Navigator Web, you must have the Microsoft Internet Information Server (IIS) installed on a Windows NT server. A Java-enabled web browser installed on the client machine is also necessary. The R/3 Reference Model can also be viewed and modified as desired for your enterprise with external PC-based graphics and modeling tools. These tools must be licensed separately. Modeling tools available with the R/3 Reference model are:
Question and Answer Database The Question & Answer Database (Q&Adb) contains technical and general business questions, the answers to which are the input for the creation of the Business Blueprint. The questions are designed to determine the enterprise's detailed business requirements in an integrated environment. In conjunction with the Business Process Master List, the Q&Adb is also used to determine the baseline scope, cycle plan and integration testing scenarios used in later phases.
Fig. Xx: Defining the business process requirements via questions in the Q&Adb You can also add, change, and delete questionnaire content in the Q&Adb. In this way, project teams can customize the requirements gathering process by creating new questions and editing existing ones. The business process questions and customer input template (see below) are oriented along the current release of the R/3 Reference Model, specifically of the process model. Within this framework, what is in and out of scope is determined for the project, by toggling the business scenario or process "in" or "out" of scope in the Q&Adb. There are several reports that you can generate once the questions in your Q&Adb have been completed. One important report is the Enterprise Area Scope Document defined in Phase 1: This is an Excel spreadsheet containing the SAP enterprise areas and scenarios that a company will be implementing. It is used in initial scoping of the project, to assign Business Process Owners, and also as a reference to begin Business Blueprinting. Further reports are the Business Process Master List (Excel file) and the Business Blueprint (Winword file). These are explained in more detail below. You can also generate an Excel spreadsheet of all open issues in the Issues database. Customer Input Template When the business processes are being defined, the Customer Input Template forms a standard structure for gathering specific data on the business processes. The customer input template can be modified to reflect the areas of concern for your implementation project and is used in conjunction with the business process questions. Fig. Xx: The CI template in the Q&Adb The following graphic shows how tools are used in combination to ensure the flow of information through the project. Fig. : Flow of project information through the Q&Adb When a process or a scenario appears more than once, one of the processes or scenarios can be defined as the dominant (representing the 80% case), and the other processes/scenarios are then defined as subordinate. This means that answers given to the dominant will be used as a reference for all subordinates. After the business process workshops have concluded, the results are processed and documented within the Q&Adb. If enterprise-specific processes come to light, they can be added to the Q&Adb at any level, as needed to provide one complete database for your requirements. Completing the Business Blueprint The Business Blueprint serves as your conceptual master plan and is assembled into a detailed written document. This document summarizes and documents the business requirements in detail, and serves as the basis for organization, configuration and, if necessary, development activities. The Business Process Master List (BPML) is the primary activity-tracking and control mechanism used by the project management team during the Realization phase. The BPML is first created at the end of the Business Blueprint phase from the Q&Adb in order to create the Baseline Scope Document and then used during the next phase for monitoring and control of the R/3 configuration and testing activities. You can find more information on the BPML in the next chapter. The baseline scope is generated via the Q&Adb and the Business Process Master List. The amount to be included in this scope will vary based on each individual project implementation. As a guideline, the baseline scope should target to address roughly 80% of the total business requirements. As a last step in this phase, a quality check, the final verification of all deliverables, from this phase should be carried out. You can also use the Concept Check Tool for this. However, it is also important that continuous quality checks be performed throughout the phase as tasks are completed. The Business Blueprint ensures that everybody has an accurate understanding of the final scope of the project regarding business processes, organizational structure, system environment, project team training and project standards. Issues regarding changes in scope, impact on budget and resource planning must be addressed. Together, ASAP and the Business Engineer split up the work of creating the Business Blueprint and configuring R/3 in manageable steps, starting at the top with the overall structure of your business and gradually working down to the details of your business and process requirements. Accelerated Solutions/Preconfiguration SAP's Accelerated Solutions speed up implementations by providing you with two important types of preconfiguration:
Together with AcceleratedSAP, Ready-to-Run R/3 can be used in order to reduce the number of days necessary for technical support and consulting when installing R/3 at the customer site. This turnkey system provides a pre-installed and pre-configured R/3 solution that can save customers up to 25 consulting days. It consists of a complete hardware, software and network infrastructure, as well as a comprehensive operations and support concept. Ready-to-Run R/3 is available from many hardware manufacturers, and uses the Microsoft Windows NT operating system. Preconfigured US and Canadian Clients The preconfigured client is a set of transport files consisting of the most frequently used U.S. and Canadian Customizing settings. Configured features for the U.S./Canadian market:
The preconfigured client can be used as:
Today, much industry-specific know-how is already available. There are written documents, presentations, industry-specific descriptions of how the processes in the R/3 System run, industry-specific system settings, master data, etc. The main goal of preconfigured industry systems is to provide this information on industry-specific solutions in a structured and logical way. Preconfigured systems are available or planned for the following lines of industry:
The preconfigured industry systems show you that SAP has a fundamental knowledge of your industry's business processes and of how to implement these processes in R/3. Using preconfigured industry systems for an R/3 implementation can help to speed up the implementation process and reduce costs, lower the risk of wrong estimates with respect to the time and costs of the implementation, avoid implementation errors and document the implemented functionality. A preconfigured industry system includes the following:
Fig. 21: Preconfigured R/3 Systems for vertical industries SAP is committed to providing preconfigured industry systems for all of the SAP Industry solutions. However, the preconfigured system principle is not limited to those provided by SAP. Partners and enterprises can create their own models for accelerating implementation in particular areas or markets. The concept of preconfigured industry systems also enables software partners or enterprises to include their specific add-ons to the specific preconfigured industry system.
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#5
01-26-2009, 07:25 AM
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Phase 3: Realization
Phase 3: Realization
The purpose of Phase 3 is to configure the R/3 System, in order to have an integrated and documented solution which fulfills your business process requirements. In this phase, configuration of your system is carried out in two steps: Baseline and Final Configuration. The Baseline configuration is designed to configure about 80% of your daily business transactions and all of your master data, and organizational structure. The remaining configuration is done in process-oriented cycles. The Business Blueprint is used as the guide for the system configuration, done using the Implementation Guide, which will be described in detail in this chapter. After this, data transfer programs, as well as interfaces, need to be tested. Fig. 3-1: Main work packages of Phase 3 Business Process Master List (BPML) The Business Process Master List (BPML) is initially created in Phase 2 as a report from the Q&Adb. It is used to identify, plan, schedule, and monitor the configuration and testing of all R/3 business scenarios and processes within the scope of an implementation. The Business Process Master List is comprised of Excel worksheets that collectively facilitate the configuration and testing of R/3. The Business Process Master List is a representation of the R/3 business processes and transactions that are contained within the scope of the project. These are refined during the Realization Phase into the project’s applicable business scenarios and R/3 transactions. The Master List is the central data repository that feeds all business process information to all subsequent worksheets. It contains the baseline scope, the cycle plans (you can define up to four configuration cycles), integration testing plans, and further templates. A business process procedure (BPP) is a filled-out template that provides the initial definition for developing User Procedures and Case/Test Procedures. The results of the business definition meetings held with the customer provide an input for the initial business process procedures. Fig. : Business Process Master List (BPML) Business process procedures provide the most detailed level in the BPML and form the basis for defining the scope of your configuration cycles. They also represent a filled-out template attached to the structure you see in the BPML. This template gives you a head start on end user training and documentation. Baseline configuration is performed by the application consultant while the business process team is attending Level 3 training. This will allow the team to get a firm understanding of processes within R/3 and of how the IMG is used to carry out actual configuration. The team will be able to test the Baseline configuration and validate that all the requirements have been met by developing and performing Baseline Scenarios. Baseline Scenarios replicate your key business processes in the R/3 System to check that the Baseline provides the required configuration and business solution platform for the final business solution. The number and detail of Baseline Scenarios depends on the confidence level you want from the confirmation. The goal must be to define scenarios for your key business flows. Final configuration will build upon the Baseline. This configuration is performed by the business process teams. Each configuration core business process is divided into cycles of related business process flows. These can be configured in parallel, for which reports, user procedures, testing scenarios and security profiles need to be developed. The cycles not only provide milestones for the project team, but also provide points at which the business processes can be demonstrated to the user community. This approach provides immediate feedback as well as involves the entire organization in the project. The BPML enables you to manage all the integration testing necessary to validate the system configuration. Integration testing is planned for all the scenarios within the implementation. Multiple cases should be defined and tested to duplicate real business examples across areas. Fig. XX Baseline configuration and testing From the BPML, it is possible to call up an R/3 System, provided you have installed a local GUI. In this way, you can branch to the transaction you want to implement to see its functionality. Also, there is an "outline" icon that allows you to expand and suppress the business process detail, at the enterprise, scenario, case, business process, or BPP level, in order to best facilitate the work that you’re doing. You can also view linked documents, such as the BPP document or the CI template from the BPML. Furthermore, when you need to add the same information to multiple cells in a column, you can use the "Fill Cells of Child Records" icon. This copies the information in the current cell to all its subordinate cells. Lastly, the Business Process Master List has a hypertext documentation linked to it, which guides you through all creation and maintenance steps. Uploading the BPML Scope to R/3 Provided you have created a Customizing project in the R/3 System – without however generating the Project IMG for it – you can upload the scope of your BPML to R/3. The prerequisite for this is the use of at least R/3 Release 4.0 and the maintenance of the corresponding R/3 login information in the BMPL User Profile. You then generate the BPML, and enter the number of the project you have created in the R/3 System. Fig. Xx: Generating a Business Process Master List After the generation run, the system has loaded the scope into the R/3 System. However, in order for the scope to be included in the project, it is now necessary to generate the Project IMG in the R/3 System itself. The advantage of this method is that you can access the R/3 IMG from the BPML, and branch to precisely the activities relevant to a particular process. The project managers have to plan the work in this phase early enough to involve all those affected. For example, as part of the planning of the integration tests, organizational matters such as the equipment required, invitations to employees at other sites, and the testing procedure should not be overlooked. The project manager also has to ensure that the project standards are adhered to, discuss the progress of the project with the Steering Committee, and to ensure that the activities are correctly integrated, especially user documentation and training. On the technical side, the interfaces and enhancements are developed, data is transferred from the legacy systems, and the archiving system is set up. At the end of the Realization phase, you will have an application system tailored to your business needs that has been approved by each department and by management. How this is done in detail is explained further on in this chapter. Customizing R/3 with the Implementation Guide The Implementation Guide (IMG) is the main tool for setting the parameters to configure or "customize" R/3 during this phase. R/3 is configured by the business process teams and/or consultants by following the steps in the IMG. The Implementation Guide is used for: Initial implementation of the R/3 System System enhancement and modifications System maintenance and release upgrades Fig. xx: Component-oriented or process-oriented configuration Using the Implementation Guide, you can:
Configuring the Implementation Guide The IMG contains all configuration tasks necessary to adapt R/3 to your business needs. Therefore, it is important for the speed of your implementation project that the IMG only contains implementation tasks that are really necessary. In order to do this, SAP allows you to configure the IMG and hereby cut down the number of configuraton tasks to a reasonable minimum: 1. An Enterprise IMG is created from the R/3 Reference IMG, which contains the whole range of activities. This defines which R/3 components are to be implemented in which countries. 2. A Project IMG is created for the individual project by selecting countries and application components from the Enterprise IMG.
Fig. 27 (2-10) Reducing the implementation scope All the Customizing activities have attributes that are used to specify the IMG. Each IMG activity has the following attributes:
The structure of the IMG reflects the chronological order in which the Customizing activities are to be carried out. Fig. 14 (3-4): From the Reference IMG to the customer-specific Project IMG You can execute all activities directly from the IMG. In addition, the following functions can be called: IMG documentation The documentation function tells you what the activity is needed for, what effects a change in the configuration will have and what to do. Since the documentation is displayed in a separate window, you can view it while you carry out the instruction steps. Activities This function calls the Customizing activity where you can make the settings you need, for example, for payment conditions. Project management This function enables you to document the project status, schedule and resources.
The R/3 Customizing tables have been bundled into different views in order to make it easier to understand the business concepts behind them. Each change to a Customizing object is automatically recorded in a transport request and can be planned for export to the productive system. This procedure guarantees that the productive system is consistent with the quality assurance system and is easy to maintain. IMG Project Documentation Project documentation, which mostly concerns decisions made about IMG activities, is stored in the Project IMG itself. You can also plan and confirm your schedule and overhead for activities using project documentation. Fig. 28 (2-8) The IMG menu with IMG activities and HTML-based documentation Comprehensive, standardized project documentation enables you to log all implementation plans and changes. There are three types of project documentation:
This documentation is written in SAPoffice, in which you can also store and manage the documents in folders automatically generated by R/3 to match the Reference Model. Customizing documentation Notes are entered and stored in the IMG for each Customizing activity. This ensures that the configuration is easy to understand even after the project has finished. Using the Business Navigator, you can move directly from the processes or functions you want to implement to the corresponding SAPoffice folder. You can also navigate straight from the application components, to which the processes and functions are assigned, to the configuration activities and notes in the IMG. SAPoffice allows you to edit and store all the documents and information that you need during your implementation project. It has interfaces to various PC-based editing tools, for example, Microsoft® Word, Microsoft® Excel, Microsoft® PowerPoint, and Lotus® ScreenCam. Also at your disposal is SAPoffice’s entire mail functionality, which enables you to store your documents in structured folders and exchange them with other members of the project team using distribution lists. This way, you can ensure that the entire project team is kept up-to-date. The methodical recording of all activities and information during the implementation builds a solid basis for the user documentation that is written in the next phase. Together with the Business Process Procedures, the application system documentation and the conceptual design drawn up at the beginning of the project form a considerable part of the user documentation and training materials.
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