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Enhancing SAP Lean Order Management for SAP


Retail Part 1
 JULY 26, 2016
 ADHINGRA
 1 COMMENT
 SAP CONSULTANTS BLOG, SAP CUSTOM DEVELOPMENT, SAP FUNCTIONAL, SAP
RETAIL, SAP TECHNICAL
 ABAP, LEAN ORDER MANAGEMENT, SAP, SAP GUI, SAP LOM, SAP RETAIL, WEB DYNPRO

Editor Update: This article originally published in 2012. If you are looking for
ways to enhance order processing for your SAP Solution click here OMS+
Simple Order Management for SAP and check out DataXstream’s OMS+
Solution.
The objective of this series is to provide quick reference which may be used as a guide
while enhancing Lean Order Management built with Web Dynpro and based on Floorplan
Manager.

This is the first of three blog posts that discuss SAP LOM functionality. The first provides a
high level introduction to LOM and how to modify the SAP table value help process to
display available values. These are the value lists usually accessible using the F4 key in
the SAP GUI.

The second post discusses how to configure LOM, and the third posting discusses the
enhancement framework that allows you to build custom views and dynamically control
screen content.

Enhancements in Lean Order Management


Before we start a discussion the technical aspects of SAP’s Lean Order Management
(LOM) we need to understand the goal of order management itself.

Wider Goals of Order Management


 To ensure or create coherence between tasks, organizations, functions and
information systems (both manual and electronic) in the customer order flow
 To ensure or create awareness of time consumption, bottlenecks, changes of
responsibility and costs in the administration and at the shop floor
 To remove non value-adding activities and non-value-adding information by
reorganizing structures, tasks and systems towards lean principles
With order management is the necessity to simplify and streamline the process for
taking an order from a customer. In my opinion, many companies spend more time (man-
hours & lead-time) on order processes than production.
In many companies more time (man-hours & lead time) are spent on order processing
than on production.
Sales Order Management with SAP
More and more, companies are opting for SAP and with it comes the standard way of
managing the sales order using transactions VA01, VA02 and VA03, followed by VF01 for
billing and VL01N for delivery. The standard SAP way of order management can bring a
lot of complexity which many end users do not want or need. Every user who has
executed VA01 has an opinion – “Oh it’s way too busy a screen with too many options in
terms of menus, double clicks and multiple options for the same process.”

SAP delivers a very elegant solution to address many of these concerns: Lean Order
Management. It’s a Web Dynpro-based application which works on Internet Explorer. It’s
available on ECC6.0.

The ECC Lean Order Interface (LORD API) allows access to all the logic within the ECC
Sales Order process without the effort of having to re-define processes, logic and
configuration within other applications. Lean order management is based on Floor Plan
Manager, which provides a framework for developing new Web Dynpro ABAP application
interfaces consistent with SAP UI guidelines. FPM currently supports technical
consultants who want to create and configure user interfaces.

Advantages of Using LOM


 No need to re-implement order logic and functionality of the native GUI, all
configurations are present in LOM as well
 Light LOM configuration
 Re-use of ECC pricing functionality
 Global ATP solution (gATP) called from ECC
 Enhancements – BADI / user exits available in GUI are available in LOM as well
Where is Lean Order Management Located?
Execute transaction code SE80 –> Repository Browser –> Package –>ERP_SLS_LO_OIF
Providing F4 Help on Existing Standard SAP Fields in Lean
Order Management
Oftentimes one of the first few requests you get is to change the help values on input
fields better known as F4 helps. The F4 help can be changed in table LORD_MAPPING
which is a Mapping Table for the Lean Order Interface.

Let’s try to understand this with an example: consider a scenario where only certain
order reasons are to be displayed for a particular store. In this case we want order
reason Excellent Price to be displayed for store 1001.

Execute the transaction SM30, input the table name LORD_MAPPING and hit Maintain.
Get the standard help attached to the field AUGRU which is H_TVAU
Change the search help to ZH_TVAU and save it.

Copy the search help to H_TVAU to ZH_TVAU. This is something you would typically do
in a customer name space.

Start changing the custom search help – ZH_TVAU.

Delete the Selection method


Create a search help exit FM ZF4IF_SHLP_H_TVAU.
In the FM define the following Changing and table parameters:
Copy the Following Code:
Implementation now complete, if a sales order is opened for site 1001 the order reason
field looks like this:
Before the implementation, if a sales order was opened for site 1001 the order reason
field looked like this:
By using this functionality within LOM you can tailor the list of values displayed in
dropdown lists to meet specific business needs while leaving the underlying application
module configuration in place. Clearly this is a powerful tool that can be used to help
manage the end user experience.

In the next blog post we will discuss how to customize screens by adding tabs and
buttons to streamline and enhance the business process.

Disclaimer and Liability Notice


This document may discuss sample coding or other information that does not include
SAP official interfaces and therefore is not supported by SAP. Changes made based on
this information might not be supported and can be overwritten during an upgrade.
DataXstream will not be held liable for any damages caused by using or misusing the
information, code or methods suggested in this document, and anyone using these
methods does so at his/her own risk.
DataXstream offers no guarantees and assumes no responsibility or liability of any type
with respect to the content of this technical article or code sample, including any liability
resulting from incompatibility between the content within this document and the
materials and services offered by DataXstream. You agree that you will not hold, or seek
to hold, DataXstream responsible or liable with respect to the content of this document.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Amit Dhingra was a consultant with DataXstream from 2011 to 2014 and was influential
on projects specifically those requiring SAP modules such as Material Management (MM),
Sales and Distribution (SD), Finance and Controlling (FI/CO) as well as WebDynpro
applications and Lean Order Management. For current information regarding Amit please
refer to his Linkedin profile.

Related Posts
 Enhancing SAP Lean Order Management for SAP Retail Part 2: Configuring LOMJuly
26, 2016
 Enhancing SAP Lean Order Management for SAP Retail Part 3: Enhancement
FrameworkJuly 26, 2016
 ABAP Tricks: CTRL is the Key for Code Hinting!November 17, 2015
 ABAP Tricks: Read Table With No StructureNovember 16, 2015

1 Comment
1. Enhancing SAP Lean Order Management for SAP Retail Part 2: Configuring
LOM | SAP Experts: Consulting | Integration | Virtualization - DataXstream
July 31, 2012 at 9:05 am · Reply

[…] the previous blog post, I discussed how to tailor the contents of field level help
dropdown lists. This kind of […]

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Integrating the Best Run Businesses
 HOME
 ABOUT
 OMS+
 XSTREAM CONNECTOR
 SAP SERVICES
 BLOG

Enhancing SAP Lean Order Management for SAP


Retail Part 2: Configuring LOM
 JULY 26, 2016
 ADHINGRA
 NO COMMENTS
 SAP CONSULTANTS BLOG, SAP CUSTOM DEVELOPMENT, SAP FUNCTIONAL, SAP
RETAIL, SAP TECHNICAL
 ABAP, LEAN ORDER MANAGEMENT, LOM, SAP, SAP LOM, SAP RETAIL, WEB DYNPRO

Editor Update: This article originally published in 2012. If you are looking for
ways to enhance order processing for your SAP Solution click here OMS+
Simple Order Management for SAP and check out DataXstream’s OMS+
Solution.
In the previous blog post, I discussed how to tailor the contents of field level help
dropdown lists. This kind of customizing is very specific, detailed and should always be
thought through carefully. In this post I discuss a higher level of customization of Lean
Order Management, namely the look, feel and flow of the end user transaction screens.
This in turn influences the process flow and can be used to ensure the end user actions
occur in the required sequence.
SAP often gets a bad rap for their GUI design, whereas other companies (can you think of
a crisp, golden delicious fruit?) are lauded for their GUI design. This doesn’t happen by
accident and it isn’t easy. “Intuitive” designs can be anything but intuitive and
understanding your end user audience, their skills, expectations and willingness to learn
is imperative when designing with LOM functionality.

In this regard, a recurring theme with LOM is to think it through before acting: LOM is a
powerful tool and, to paraphrase, with that power comes responsibility. Ideally, any LOM
development work is preceded by detailed whiteboard sessions to map out the screen
flow, the required buttons and actions, pop-up windows and possible responses,
otherwise it is easy to end up doing basic design on the fly – and that rarely ends well.

Anyway, enough of the preamble – how do we make this magic happen in SAP?
Lean Order Management is based on the SAP Floor Plan Manager (FPM) and follows
Object Instance Floor Plan (OIF) model. You can use the Floor Plan Manager Configuration
editor to combine application-specific views of one or more business applications into a
new Floor Plan Manager application. For locating LOM configuration, you need
to matriculate the following path:

Execute transaction code SE80 –> Repository Browser –> Package –> ERP_SLS_LO_OIF
You can configure different areas of sales order processing, for example, the initial order
screen, the main overview screen, credit card processing screen, partner functions
screen, etc.

For the initial screen and the main screen the configuration application name is
LO_OIF_SDOC. Here is an example of how to add buttons and a tab in this application.

Execute transaction code SE80 –> Repository Browser –> Package ERP_SLS_LO_OIF –>
Web Dynpro –> Web Dynpro Configurations –> LO_OIF_SDOC

Click on the Start Configurator button. This starts the configurator in the browser.

Now create a configuration ID in the customer name space.

Start changing the configuration after providing a transport number.


You will get the following view:

In this configuration you can add buttons on the initial screen and the variant. The
variant has the configuration for the main screen. This configuration is available on the
left pane on the window. Buttons can be added from the add tool bar element.
After a button is added, the attributes can be provided for it. The important attributes are
label, visibility, element ID FPM event ID. How the action is performed on FPM event will
be explained in next section.

Similarly tabs can be added by clicking on Add Main View and tabs within tabs by
clicking on to Add Sub View
From the attributes buttons, either independent view from customer or the standard Web
Dynpro application can be configured.

Using the methods described above is an easy way to add custom tabs to Lean Order
Management.

Different functionalities / screens are configurable in Lean Order Management using this
approach. The detailed functionality can be either an FPM-based application or built via a
custom Web Dynpro application.

From this, you can see that the technical steps using LOM to modify the look and feel of
SAP business transactions are straightforward. It is the upfront design work that drives
successful development and delivery.

Disclaimer and Liability Notice


This document may discuss sample coding or other information that does not include
SAP official interfaces and therefore is not supported by SAP. Changes made based on
this information might not be supported and can be overwritten during an upgrade.
DataXstream will not be held liable for any damages caused by using or misusing the
information, code or methods suggested in this document, and anyone using these
methods does so at his/her own risk.
DataXstream offers no guarantees and assumes no responsibility or liability of any type
with respect to the content of this technical article or code sample, including any liability
resulting from incompatibility between the content within this document and the
materials and services offered by DataXstream. You agree that you will not hold, or seek
to hold, DataXstream responsible or liable with respect to the content of this document.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR


Amit Dhingra was a consultant with DataXstream from 2011 to 2014 and was influential
on projects specifically those requiring SAP modules such as Material Management (MM),
Sales and Distribution (SD), Finance and Controlling (FI/CO) as well as WebDynpro
applications and Lean Order Management. For current information regarding Amit please
refer to his Linkedin profile.

Related Posts
 Enhancing SAP Lean Order Management for SAP Retail Part 1July 26, 2016
 Enhancing SAP Lean Order Management for SAP Retail Part 3: Enhancement
FrameworkJuly 26, 2016
 ABAP Tricks: CTRL is the Key for Code Hinting!November 17, 2015
 ABAP Tricks: Read Table With No StructureNovember 16, 2015

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INTEGRATION SAP ORDER MANAGEMENTSAPPHIRE SAP PISAP PROGRAMMING SAP RETAIL SAP
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Integrating the Best Run Businesses
 HOME
 ABOUT
 OMS+
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Enhancing SAP Lean Order Management for SAP


Retail Part 3: Enhancement Framework
 JULY 26, 2016
 ADHINGRA
 1 COMMENT
 SAP CONSULTANTS BLOG, SAP CUSTOM DEVELOPMENT, SAP FUNCTIONAL, SAP
RETAIL, SAP TECHNICAL
 ABAP, LEAN ORDER MANAGEMENT, LOM, SAO LOM, SAP, SAP RETAIL, WEB DYNPRO

Editor Update: This article originally published in 2012. If you are looking for
ways to enhance order processing for your SAP Solution click here OMS+
Simple Order Management for SAP and check out DataXstream’s OMS+
Solution.
Creating Custom Views, Events, and Controlling the Visibility of Data Elements
In my previous two posts in this series, I discussed how to control field level help
information and how to influence the look, feel and flow of the end user experience. In
this entry, I will discuss some of the LOM capabilities for controlling what happens behind
the scenes to manage technical events as well as screen content. For example, during
transaction processing the system locks table entries to prevent other users from
updating data while you are processing it. As in many technical endeavors, good
housekeeping and cleaning up after yourself is always appreciated. To quote Roger
Manifold, “Good manners don’t cost nothing”.
The enhancement framework concept is used to create custom views, handling of those
custom views and dynamically controlling the visibility of different elements within Lean
Order Management.

The FPM (Floor Plan Manager) with the Web Dynpro application interface provides you
with methods to allow the application to participate in all FPM events that happen during
the entire lifetime of the application.

Within the package ERP_SLS_LO_OIF, the main Web Dynpro component is


LO_OIF_MAIN_COMP. Open this Web Dynpro application using transaction code SE80. The
first step is to create an enhancement by clicking the enhance button or CTRL+F4 key.
Provide the enhancement name and click the check mark icon to continue.

Now using this enhancement you can add custom code, views, methods, etc. to the Web
Dynpro component.

For enhancing the component controller methods, double click on component


controller and go to the methods tabs. Here you are provided Pre-exit, Post-exit and
Overwrite. Click on Pre-exit / Post-exit / Overwrite as per your need and you will be
provided with the enhancement method.
Some of the important methods are:

AFTER COMMIT: You can perform cleanup activities such as releasing database locks,
releasing other resources, and triggering an event for processing after a successful
commit.
AFTER PROCESS EVENT: It can be used for handling transactional events for example
SAVE or CHECK. Moreover, it can be used to collect messages which are not handled
inside UIBBs and to forward them to the FPM message handler. Here we can intercept the
FPM events and write your own code. The IO_EVENT in the parameter provides you with
the event.
Code Snippet of Post Exit: The following code snippet is used for calling a custom pop
up window.

Code Snippet of Post Exit: The following code snippet is used for controlling the
visibility of a button.
OVERRIDE_EVENT_OIF: In this method you can cancel events, select a variant, adjust
events, read the configuration at runtime, and changing the configuration at runtime.
Since in certain cases UI elements are part of configuration, this method can be used to
control the visibility of screen elements.
Code Snippet of Post Exit: The following code snippet is used for controlling the
visibility of a configured tab.
There are many more methods available which can be enhanced as needed by your
project.

Using the same enhancement custom views can created.


After, you are given an option to create a view which can be embedded in window
created by same enhancement.
Within this view you can design the UI elements.

You can write your code in the custom methods and generated methods.
Depending on your needs, this view can be called inside other Web Dynpro components.

Summary
LOM provides a straightforward way to customize sales order processing. It can be
enhanced with much less effort than the standard SAPGUI transaction VA01. Some very
powerful enhancements can be done in conjunction with the floor plan manager
configuration and the enhancement framework for Web Dynpro ABAP. Using these
capabilities allows you to positively impact a business process that is touched by many
end users in an organization. For example sales order management, which involves
customer service representatives, store associates and sales personnel.

Ensuring business transaction process flow and content matches their needs allows them
to concentrate on making more sales rather than spending time figuring how the system
works.

Comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome and more blogs will be
covering deeper aspects of enhancements in Lean Order Management.

Disclaimer and Liability Notice


This document may discuss sample coding or other information that does not include
SAP official interfaces and therefore is not supported by SAP. Changes made based on
this information might not be supported and can be overwritten during an upgrade.

DataXstream will not be held liable for any damages caused by using or misusing the
information, code or methods suggested in this document, and anyone using these
methods does so at his/her own risk.

DataXstream offers no guarantees and assumes no responsibility or liability of any type


with respect to the content of this technical article or code sample, including any liability
resulting from incompatibility between the content within this document and the
materials and services offered by DataXstream. You agree that you will not hold, or seek
to hold, DataXstream responsible or liable with respect to the content of this document.
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 Tumblr
 Pinterest
 Google+
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR


Amit Dhingra was a consultant with DataXstream from 2011 to 2014 and was influential
on projects specifically those requiring SAP modules such as Material Management (MM),
Sales and Distribution (SD), Finance and Controlling (FI/CO) as well as WebDynpro
applications and Lean Order Management. For current information regarding Amit please
refer to his Linkedin profile.

Related Posts
 Enhancing SAP Lean Order Management for SAP Retail Part 2: Configuring LOMJuly
26, 2016
 Enhancing SAP Lean Order Management for SAP Retail Part 1July 26, 2016
 ABAP Tricks: CTRL is the Key for Code Hinting!November 17, 2015
 ABAP Tricks: Read Table With No StructureNovember 16, 2015

1 Comment

1.
christi parks
December 2, 2012 at 5:58 am · Reply

Hello, sir i would like to ask that what is the scope of SAP webdynpro ABAP training what
all topics should be covered and has anyone studies from this
course http://www.wiziq.com/course/8153-sap-web-dynpro-pro-abap-training of SAP
webdynpro ABAP training ?? or tell me any other guidance…
would really appreciate help… and Also i would like to thank for all the information you
are providing on SAP Webdynpro ABAP training.

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Series: Leveraging SAP Business Suite for HANA and
DataXstream OMS+ to Build a Future Proof Omni-
Channel Retail Platform
 NOVEMBER 23, 2015
 TIM YATES
 NO COMMENTS
 OMS+, SAP CONSULTANTS BLOG, SAP RETAIL
 OMNI-CHANNEL, OMS+, SAP OMS, SAP ORDER MANAGEMENT SYSTEM, SAP POINT OF
SALE, SAP POS, SAP RETAIL, TIMOTHY YATES

Leveraging SAP Business Suite for HANA and DataXstream OMS+ to Build a Future Proof
Omni-Channel Retail Platform

The world of commerce and retailing is rapidly evolving and the retail customer
experience is front and center in this evolution! Retailers must reinvent their systems
and processes to remain relevant to customers and stakeholders. Building a system
that is flexible and provides consumers with a consistent Omni-Channel retail
experience is critical to remain competitive!

I have been working with SAP ERP and its technology stack for over 20 years, with a very
diverse set of customers across a variety of industries; Aerospace and Defense,
Manufacturing, Wholesale Distribution, Insurance Industry, Pharma, Retail, and others.
Each time my organization engages with a new customer I marvel at the power and
flexibility of SAP. From the days of R/3 to their most innovative platform yet, SAP S/4 for
HANA SAP’s power to streamline and transform business’s operations is truly
impressive.

SAP solutions lead the market in capability, flexibility, stability and technology
innovation. Over the last 6 years my organization has more narrowly focused on projects
that involve customer facing order processes, in the retail, wholesale, and public sector.
During this time we have helped our customers develop a number of custom Order
Management Systems (OMS) / Point of Sale (POS) overlay solutions for SAP Sales and
Distribution (SAP SD). The experience my organization and I gained working with these
customers and their SAP solutions has allowed me to see just how powerful a platform
SAP is for developing a highly capable, streamlined end to end Omni-Channel retail
delivery platform.

This experience became the catalyst that has led to the development of DataXstream’s
OMS+ solution for SAP. OMS+ overlays SAP’s vast backend ERP capabilities and enables
complex end to end order processes in a simple but highly capable interface. Allowing
users with minimal training to execute complex customer transactions with complete end
to end visibility into the order process and giving the business real time visibility into
every order it transacts.

The power of SAP and DataXstream OMS+ creates a multiplier effect for businesses, by
bringing the feature rich, highly configurable, tightly integrated SAP ERP backend
platform to the store, call center, and e-commerce site in a UI that is simple to use, a
backend process that is easy to maintain and change, and enables new levels of
customer interaction not possible with traditional OMS and POS approaches.

If you cannot tell I am a fan of SAP and you could say I have a small bias. In this series I
am not going to argue the pros and cons of other platforms and combinations of
products, I am going to give you a view of what is possible with SAP and OMS+.

If your organization already runs SAP then you will understand what I am about to say. If
you are new to SAP this is where the foundation of my story is built. There a number of
critical attributes that sets SAP Business Suite apart from other solutions; its ability to
scale to any size organization, its stability when productive, its deep feature set, ability
to adapt to any business process, and its tight end to end integration of transactions
across business functions. These are the core building blocks for developing an
organizations business system platform. While all of these attributes are important to
building a solid business system platform the key attribute for building an Omni-Channel
retail system is the tight end to end integration of transactions across business functions.

In SAP when you do a simple transaction like deliver goods from an order you trigger in
the background a complex series of events across multiple modules. The system updates
inventory within the store, it updates the inventory on the financial ledger, it updates AR
in the case of an on account order or recognizes revenue in the case of cash
transactions, it also updates profit center, cost centers ledgers and in certain cases will
trigger replenishment processes. This entire chain of events started with a simple
delivery. This same level of tight integration applies across all SAP transactions and when
you string them together the various SAP transactions they become the building blocks
for creating any business process you can design.
So you might be asking if SAP has all this amazing capability what value does
DataXstream’s OMS+ solution add to the equation? The answer is Simple! Yes, I
shamelessly stole that from SAP HANA advertising. While SAP has all the transactional
building blocks required to implement any process you can think of, stringing those
building blocks together to create consistent customer facing sales process is complex
and anything but simple. OMS+ removes this complexity by simplifying the interface,
interpreting the building blocks, and adding the required controls to allow anyone with
basic order management skills to run complex highly integrated order processes.
Combined, the two products give your organization the tools it needs to meet the
expectations of your customers today and the flexibility to adapt to their needs in the
future.

So, what are customers looking for from retailers today? They want to shop at any time,
understand products and features, know inventory availability and lead times, pay using
current and future forms of tender, have flexible delivery options and lead times, and get
the same answer regardless of where the question is asked; store, call center, or
ecommerce site. I am no different from any other consumer. These are exactly the things
I am looking for in my shopping experience. Nothing is more frustrating than researching
something online and going to a store to find out that the information I was acting on
does not reflect reality.

In my up and coming posts I am going to outline and demonstrate how to combine SAP
and OMS+ to enable your organization for the future of retail. We will look at the
foundation SAP Business Suite, the game changing capabilities of leveraging SAP HANA
in memory computing, the ability of OMS+ to pull all the pieces together to create a
simple, flexible, tightly integrated end to end retail platform and customer experience. In
my next post we will explore building the foundation of an Omni-Channel retail platform
leveraging SAP. Check back soon or sign up below to get updated on future series posts.
Also feel free to leave me comments or questions and I will be happy to respond. Thank
you for your time.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR


Tim has over 25 years of business experience with the last 20 focused on SAP systems
architecture and program delivery. He has a broad range of experience with a pragmatic,
get the job done approach to engagements. Tim specializes in development of SAP
technical strategies and services for clients having successfully lead multiple programs
and projects. His extensive SAP technical and functional background has enabled him to
thrive in environments of all sizes and complexities.

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SAP Go-Live Lessons Learned


 SEPTEMBER 27, 2011
 TIMOTHY COOPER
 NO COMMENTS
 SAP CONSULTANTS BLOG, SAP PROJECT MANAGEMENT, SAP STRATEGY, SAP TESTING
 DATAXSTREAM, SAP, SAP ECC 6.0, SAP INTEGRATION, SAP TESTING, TIM COOPER

In real estate the key factors in making the sale are location, location and location. In an SAP project I’m
coming round to believing that success requires testing, testing and testing.
A Short Selective Retrospective on Key Constituencies
All project events and project success stem from testing and testing well. I’ve written
about various types of testing before and how that can lead to some confusion because
of issues with definitions. Here I want to discuss some areas where testing really can
make or break a project and ideas for how to minimize the chances of things turning out
badly.
SAP Testing with Project Team Members
Unsung heroes abound on SAP projects and your client’s key business analysts can be
fabulous participants or sacks of rocks you have to carry everywhere for no apparent
benefit. Always choose the former or trade up if you discover you got the latter.
Engaged business analysts are great when they bring business knowledge, a willingness
to learn SAP, insight to the hot-button, day-to-day issues and the understanding that the
consulting team may know a lot, but not necessarily everything. Partnership between
consultants and business analysts can be very fruitful at teasing out mainstream, what
happens 90% of the time, business scenarios and building coherent test cases.

These key project team members can provide a sanity check when you try to bring prior
experiences and findings from other clients to the project. A crazy design you built on
the last project may not be relevant here and your BA can save you from any tendency
to over engineer a solution. Conversely, your BA might be the one who sets you down
the path to an unusual design. Either way, it has to be tested and between you and the
BA the bases should be covered.

I’ve found that the BA’s on a project are usually there for one of two reasons: either a
motivated high performer with knowledge and credibility; or someone found the SAP
project was a place to dump a personnel problem. Fortunately, the latter is rare these
days as more and more people turn into high performers out of necessity. Consequently,
your BA is going to know key areas of process and functionality that must work for the
project to be a success and he/she drives you to deliver. Never be afraid to let a BA talk
about the business, what it needs to be able to do and what needs to be tested.
However, the BA probably isn’t going to be using the system as an end user on a day-to-
day basis and can only get you so far with the completeness of testing. This is where
you need to branch out from the immediate project team and into the realm of the end
user.

SAP Testing with End Users


In an ideal world, the systems we build would be foolproof, but there are some smart
fools out there and they don’t always behave the way we want them to. As you probably
know, SAP is not the most intuitive system to navigate and use (would an overhaul of the
GUI make system adoption quicker and easier?) and people don’t always do what they
are told. I know you are shocked to hear this!
If I had a lot more time on my hands I’d love to watch people using systems and seeing
all the various ways people try to do things. It’s a fairly dopey example, but I’m one of
those mouse-and-menu people when I use MS Office. The ALT, CTL, and SHIFT keys are a
tiny part of my repertoire because I learned how to use these products a certain way, but
I know some people who do almost everything with keyboard shortcuts. I can scarcely
follow how they do things, although I can see what they are doing. The fun is seeing
different ways to achieve the same end. SAP is a bit like this in that there are different
ways to approach a task: using menu paths; transaction codes; single session; multiple
sessions; favorites list entries; and different entry points to get to data. Unless you have
really nailed down tightly how to execute tasks users will eventually find all possible
ways, but more importantly, without nailing it down users will find ways to do it wrong
and not realize it. This is a potential disaster in the making.
Despite the best intentions of project team members (business analysts, consultants,
trainers, supervisors) end users will use the system in ways you did not anticipate. After
all, the way you use the system works brilliantly, so no one would think to do it any
differently, would they? Except, they do use it differently.
Including a round or two of real end user testing on the QAS system is probably going to
be quite revealing. Ideally, after a dry run conversion and before going live you want to
let loose on the system and do some serious day-in-the-life and periodic processing. And
you want to back off on your desire to hand hold. This way you can see how a user
actually uses the system, the steps they take when they get into trouble, and what they
try to do as corrective actions. The intuitive and natural screen flow you came up with?
Perhaps its not as intuitive as you thought.

Here’s the point: carving out time in a project to involve end users in testing is
invaluable. Initially they will stick to the script but after a short time they will
extemporize and that is when you find out if you built a robust system that guides people
down the desired path or a mess that allows mistakes and the attendant downstream
problems.

It is better to take the time before you go live to ensure you don’t get downstream
problems than to discover the chaos in production.

SAP Testing to Make Executives Happy


A final group of people with a vested interest in SAP project success is the executives.
These are rarely the folks who execute transactions on a daily basis; at best they might
run a financial statement or a flash report of some description. Nonetheless, these
people along with departmental heads need to feel confident that the system works in
an abstract way: a little like the way you know the engine in your car is working although
you don’t really understand how all the various components fit and work together. You’re
pretty upset when the car won’t start, or the heater blows hot and cold intermittently, or
you can’t tell if you have an almost empty gas tank. Similarly executives get upset if
they can’t get information that is important to them or they are unable to complete key
tasks: for example, flash reports that don’t run or give “funny” numbers, not being able
to close an accounting period.
These executives can be especially challenging to a project because they have so many
things to worry about that they may only truly pay attention to an SAP project during
times of crisis or around go-live. At earlier times in the project life cycle they may have
deferred to the PMO and existing management structure, but at crunch time things
change. Consequently, a conscious effort to find out from them what they need in order
to feel comfortable with the system is critical: discovering what they need their
organizations to do is critical. Once you know what they want you can build it into
project test plans and activities and show success.

This is one constituency that might be late coming to the party but you can’t ignore
them or chastise them for tardiness – they are probably paying the bill!

Key Ingredients for SAP Success: Testing, Testing & (You


Guessed It) Testing
It is stating the obvious (a core competence of mine) to say that an SAP project is a
complicated endeavor. I’d say there are no easy projects, only less difficult ones and
testing is one of the most difficult areas to do well.

There are groups who judge testing success in different ways and with varying degrees
of thoroughness. A corner cut here and there might be acceptable, but too many cut
corners and it all unravels. By identifying key constituencies, identifying their needs,
building test plans and strategies to address those needs, and executing against them
greatly increases your chances of overall success. And, if you do it right, you ensure
their involvement and make them accountable for the results.

Simple Order Management for Wholesale and the


Distribution Sector, OMS+ for SAP
 JULY 12, 2017
 CAILIN YATES
 NO COMMENTS
 OMS+ BLOG, UNCATEGORIZED
 DISTRIBUTION SECTOR, OMS+, OMS+ FEATURE, ORDER MANAGEMENT FOR SAP, SAP
OMS, SAP POINT OF SALE, SAP SD, SIMPLE ORDER MANAGEMENT, WHOLESALE

Recently I was listening to a call in which members of the DataXstream team were
sharing DataXstream’s OMS+ Simple Order Management for SAP Solution with a sales
team in the ERP space. During the call they were asked, “Can you share a use case for
the distribution sector? The sales experience in wholesale is not a counter experience.”

The answer is “yes, we can.” DataXstream does have customers in


the Wholesale / Distribution Sector and our solution does address the needs specific to
these sales experiences.

Frequently a sales interaction in wholesale and distribution begins with a customer


lookup. OMS+ allows your representative to look up a specific customer and have access
to what we call the customer snapshot. Out of the box the
snapshot feature includes tracking to create a history of interactions with this customer,
previous orders and deliveries, recent purchases, proof of delivery and documentation.
Documentation may vary by industry to include signature capture, hazardous material
documents, shipping documents, delivery to parent company or subcontractor, and a
variety of other specialized needs. The snapshot is designed to offer actionable data to
your representative to facilitate a quote, an order, or a customer service interaction.

Other times the sales interaction begins with a product. Perhaps your customer is
seeking a specific material, and once that material is found your customer wishes to
further specify by additional variables. OMS+ facilitates this material look up and ties it
to actionable data so that your representative can answer questions and offer a quote,
create an order or satisfy other customer service requirements. Those are just two
examples of how an interaction might take place, other ways of tracking may include
searching by contract, by job site, by material lot or dye number for textile and
flooring industries.

In wholesale and distribution the interaction may be between customer and a


counter sales person, or with a call center, or an inside sales person just to name a
few. In the current market successful businesses are generating and
tracking significant amounts of data and OMS+ allows your team to access actionable
data in a friendly User Interface and streamline their sales processes. The solution was
developed to be hardware agnostic, to work with any device, and is uniquely
configurable by customer.
Technology is disrupting nearly every industry, and wholesale distribution today is in the
center of this disruption. Wholesalers that focus on the customer experience and
customer-centric selling processes will position their organizations for success. Connect
your organization with live data and processes. Let us show you how OMS+ on SAP
S/4HANA creates the digital core that will take your organization’s sales operations to
new levels.

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