SIMPLIFY, OPTIMIZE, AND INNOVATE WITH SAP ERP

By
Amit M. Rampure Abhishek Goyal Khalid

Index

1. 2. 3. 4.

Introduction03 Objectives...04 Scope..05 SAP09 i. Evolution ii. Products iii. SAP Today SAP R/3..12 i. Structure SAP ERP18 SAP Enterprise SOA/NetWeaver...20 Implementation of SAP..22 Conclusion..31

5.

6. 7. 8. 9.

10. Bibliography...33

1. Introduction
There has always been a lot of buzz around ERP and the value it brings to businesses. But what exactly is ERP? How does it benefit businesses? Some have dubbed it "the operating system for business; sounds a lot better than "ERP. Whatever you call it, it's easy to see the charm of Enterprise Resource Planning. A well-integrated ERP system manages all sorts of back-office functions, from payroll and human resources to finance, procurement, manufacturing and logistics. It connects all those departments with supply chain and customer management applications. And it helps businesses share information both inside and outside the company in the most effective manner... However, the ERP system was not always the fast growing form of managing businesses that it is today. There were many systems before SAP and other ERP systems that would help in managing the various functions of a business. The introduction of ERP systems into business management was a revolution that is rapidly on the rise today. Over the past four decades, since the inception of ERP, this new system of management has been growing and is now fast eclipsing the other known forms of integrating and managing any business, be it a large enterprise or a small startup business. The reason for this success is simple: Over the past decades ERP has managed to adopt and adapt itself to the ever changing needs of business. As e-business and e-commerce have evolved, ERP has evolved with it.

2. OBJECTIVES
SAP was founded in 1972 as Systems Applications and Products in Data Processing by five former IBM engineers Dietmar Hopp, Hans-Werner Hector, Hasso Plattner, Klaus Tschira, and Claus Wellenreuther. Today, SAP is the recognized leader in providing collaborative business solutions for all types of industries and for every major market. SAP software has been developed to be modular, scaleable, open and flexible, allowing companies to tailor it specifically to their needs to provide up-to-the-minute, real-time information. SAP provides integration tools and methods for linking legacy and distributed systems as well as a host of third party software solutions, to get your information into the right hands, internally and externally. SAP ERP addresses the core business software requirements of the most demanding midsize and large organizations in all industries and sectors. Simplified SAP ERP user interfaces help ensure employee productivity by providing quick access to critical processes and information. SAP has also developed the SAP NetWeaver platform, which allows our customers to achieve more value from their IT investments. We will attempt to trace some of the history of its evolution. But, what exactly is SAP? Why is it that today many business prefer SAP over other ERP systems? What makes SAP so successful? How is it used and implemented? What is its scope in a business? In this article, we will attempt to answer these and other related questions.

3. SCOPE
To understand any ERP we should understand first business process without ERPs and change in business process with ERP and also change in way of conducting business To understand this better let us take the example of a company which manufactures cars. We have a common scenario where a customer calls in to place the order for a car. We examine the process first without ERP system and then see how all the functions can be integrated with SAP.

Here we can see the evident confusion when a customer has placed the order and each individual department processes the order according to their priorities without keeping in mind the whole picture. As a result this is usually the outcome:

End result: One customer lost. One customer lost means 10 customers lost and business opportunity lost.

However when we integrate this very business with and ERP system like SAP, the end result is always a very satisfied customer resulting from the work of an organization which works like a well oiled clock.

Business with ERP

HR MARKETING PURCHASE

PP

SHOP FLOOR

FINANCE

QUALITY

CONTROL

MAINTENANCE

PROJECTS

SALES

WAREHOUSES

MFG

PLANTS

INSURANCE

ASSETS

Some Facts about SAP: Currently, more than 12 million users work each day with SAP solutions. There are now 121,000 installations worldwide, more than 1,500 SAP partners. Over 25 industry-specific business solutions. More than 41,200 customers in 120 countries. SAP employs more than 41,900 people in more than 50 countries. SAP is the world's third-largest independent software vendor. Worlds largest business software company.

These facts show the importance of the ERP and also the SAP as ERP package. The managers and employees working in the organizing use SAP ERP to do business transactions with ease. SAP integrates all functions of organization. We shall further examine the nature and scope of SAP for a business in the next few topics.

4. SAP i. Evolution of SAP

1. The 1970s: A Real-Time Vision Five former IBM employees Dietmar Hopp, Hans-Werner Hector, Hasso Plattner, Klaus Tschira, and Claus Wellenreuther - launch a company called Systems, Applications, and Products in Data Processing in Mannheim, Germany. One year later, the first financial accounting software is complete; forming the basis for the continuous development of other software components in what later came to be known as the "R/1 system (R stands for real-time data processing.) 2. The 1980s: Rapid Growth SAP moves into the company's first building on Max-Planck-Strasse in an industrial park in Walldorf, near Heidelberg. The SAP R/2 system attains the high level of stability of the previous generation of programs. Keeping in mind its multinational customers by the middle of the decade, SAP founds its first sales organization outside Germany, in Austria. Revenues reach DM 100 million (around $52 million), earlier than expected. With the founding of subsidiaries in Denmark, Sweden, Italy, and the United States, SAP's international expansion takes a leap forward. 3. The 1990s: A New Approach to Software and Solutions SAP R/3 is unleashed on the market. The client-server concept, uniform appearance of graphical interfaces, consistent use of relational databases, and the ability to run on computers from different vendors meets with overwhelming approval. With SAP R/3, SAP ushers in a new generation of enterprise software - from mainframe computing to the three-tier architecture of database, application, and user interface. To this day, the client-server architecture is the standard in business software. By 1996, the company has earned 1,089 new SAP R/3 customers. At the end of the year, SAP R/3 has been installed in more than 9,000 systems worldwide. 4. The 2000s: Innovation for the New Millennium With the Internet, the user becomes the focus of software applications. SAP develops SAP Workplace and paves the way for the idea of an enterprise portal and rolespecific access to information. Today, with enterprise services-oriented architecture and the underlying integration and application platform, SAP NetWeaver, SAP is providing customers with solutions for end-to-end business processes. With SAP NetWeaver, any company can integrate people, information, and processes within the company and beyond.

ii. Products

SAP's products focus on Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), which it helped to pioneer. The company's main product is SAP ERP. The name of its predecessor, SAP R/3 gives a clue to its functionality: the "R" stands for realtime, the number 3 relates to a 3 tier client-server architecture (database layer-application layer-presentation layer) 3-tier architecture: database, application server and client (SAPgui). R/2, which ran on a Mainframe architecture, was the first SAP version. Other major product offerings include Advanced Planner and Optimizer (APO), Business Information Warehouse (BW), Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Supply Chain Management (SCM), Supplier Relationship Management (SRM), Human Resource Management Systems (HRMS), Product Lifecycle Management (PLM), Exchange Infrastructure (XI), Enterprise Portal (EP) and SAP Knowledge Warehouse (KW). The APO name has been retired and rolled into SCM. The BW name (Business Warehousing) has now been rolled into the SAP NetWeaver BI (Business Intelligence) suite and functions as the reporting module. The company also offers a new technology platform, named SAP NetWeaver which replaces SAP Business Connector for Integration/middleware capabilities and offers a systematic approach to Enterprise SOA solutions with a collection of products. While its original products are typically used by Fortune 500 companies, SAP is now also actively targeting small and medium sized enterprises (SME) with its SAP Business One and SAP All-in-One. SAP officials say there are over 100,600 SAP installations serving more than 41,200 companies in more than 25 industries in more than 120 countries.

iii. SAP Today

SAP Headquarters in Walldorf, Germany

SAP is the world's largest business software company and the third-largest independent software provider in terms of revenues. It operates in three geographic regions EMEA, which represents Europe, Middle East and Africa; the Americas, which represents both North America and Latin America; and Asia Pacific Japan (APJ), which represents Japan, Australia and parts of Asia. SAP focuses on six industry sectors -- Process industries, Discrete industries, Consumer industries, Service industries, Financial services, and Public services. It offers more than 25 industry solution portfolios for large enterprises and more than 550 microvertical solutions for midsize companies and small businesses. SAP holds a partnership with Hewlett-Packard. This partnership will expand around new services linked to NetWeaver and Enterprise SOA (service-oriented architecture). The software infrastructure for business applications developed by SAP is to be upgraded by Hewlett-Packard. One of the services to be upgraded is the Discovery System which was launched by SAP earlier this year. SAP competitors are primarily in the Enterprise Resource Planning Software industry. SAP also competes in the Customer Relationship Management, Marketing & Sales Software, Manufacturing, Warehousing & Industrial Software, and Supply Chain Management & Logistics Software sectors and include Oracle and IBM.

5. SAP R/3
SAP R/3 is the former name of the main enterprise resource planning software produced by SAP AG. Its new name is SAP ERP.

5.1 History of SAP R/3

The first version of SAP's flagship enterprise software was a financial Accounting system named R/1. (The "R" was for "Realtime data processing"). This was replaced by R/2 at the end of the 1970s. SAP R/2 was a mainframe based business application software suite that was very successful in the 1980s and early 1990s. It was particularly popular with large multinational European companies who required soft-real-time business applications, with multi-currency and multi-language capabilities built in. With the advent of distributed client-server computing SAP AG brought out a client-server version of the software called SAP R/3 that was manageable on multiple platforms and operating systems, such as Microsoft Windows or UNIX since 1999, which opened up SAP to a whole new customer base. SAP R/3 was officially launched on 6 July 1992. SAP came to dominate the large business applications market over the next 10 years.

4.2 Organization
SAP has typically focused on best practice methodologies for driving its software processes, but has more recently expanded into vertical markets. In these situations, SAP produces specialized modules (referred to as IS or Industry Specific) geared toward a particular market segment, such as utilities or retail. Using SAP often requires the payment of hefty license fees, as the customers have effectively outsourced various business software development tasks to SAP. By specializing in software development, SAP hopes to provide a better value to corporations than they could if they attempted to develop and maintain their own applications.

4.3 Technology
SAP R/3 is a client/server based application, utilizing a 3-tiered model. A presentation layer, or client, interfaces with the user. The application layer houses all the business-specific logic, and The database layer records and stores all the information about the system, including transactional and configuration data.

SAP R/3 Architecture SAP R/3 functionality is structured using its own proprietary language called ABAP (Advanced Business Application Programming). ABAP, or ABAP/4 is a fourth generation language (4GL), geared towards the creation of simple, yet powerful programs. R/3 also offers a complete development environment where developers can either modify existing SAP code to modify existing functionality or develop their own functions, whether reports or complete transactional systems within the SAP framework. ABAP's main interaction with the database system is via Open SQL statements. These statements allow a developer to query, update, or delete information from the database. Advanced topics include GUI development and advanced integration with other systems. With the introduction of ABAP Objects, ABAP provides the opportunity to develop applications with object-oriented programming. The most difficult part of SAP R/3 is its implementation. Simply because SAP R/3 is never used the same way in any two places. For instance, Atlas Copco can have a different implementation of SAP R/3 from Procter & Gamble and so forth.

Two primary issues are the root of the complexity and of the differences:

Customization configuration - Within R/3, there are tens of thousands of database tables that may be used to control how the application behaves. For instance, each company will have its own accounting "Chart of Accounts" which reflects how its transactions flow together to represent its activity. That will be specific to a given company. In general, the behavior (and appearance) of virtually every screen and transaction is controlled by configuration tables. This gives the implementor great power to make the application behave differently for different environments. With that power comes considerable complexity.

Extensions, Bolt-Ons - In any company, there will be a need to develop interface programs to communicate with other corporate information systems. This generally involves developing ABAP/4 code, and considerable "systems integration" effort to either determine what data is to be drawn out of R/3 or to interface into R/3 to load data into the system. SAP has several layers. The Basis System (BC) includes the ABAP programming

language, and is the heart (i.e. the base) of operations and should not be visible to higher level or managerial users. Other customizing and implementation tools exist also. The heart of the system (from a manager's viewpoint) are the application modules. These modules may not all be implemented in a typical company but they are all related and are listed below:

R/3 Modules
SAP R/3 is arranged into distinct functional modules, covering the typical functions in place in an organization. The most widely used modules are Financials and Controlling (FICO), Human Resources (HR), Materials Management (MM), Sales & Distribution (SD), and Production Planning (PP). Those modules, as well as the additional components of SAP R/3, are detailed in the next section. Each module handles specific business tasks on its own, but is linked to the others where applicable. For instance, an invoice from the Billing transaction of Sales & Distribution will pass through to accounting, where it will appear in accounts receivable and cost of goods sold. Financial Accounting (FI): Designed for automated management and external reporting of general ledger, accounts receivable, accounts payable and other sub-ledger accounts with a user defined chart of accounts. As entries are made relating to sales production and payments journal entries are automatically posted. Human Resources (HR): Complete integrated system for supporting the planning and control of personnel activities and HR module is sometimes equivalently referred as HCM (Human Capital Management). Materials Management (MM): Supports the procurement and inventory functions occurring in day-to-day business operations such as purchasing, inventory management, reorder point processing, etc. 1. Quality Management (QM): A quality control and information system supporting quality planning, inspection, and control for manufacturing and procurement. Sales and Distribution (SD): Helps to optimize all the tasks and activities carried out in sales, delivery and billing. Key elements are: pre-sales support, inquiry processing, quotation processing, sales order processing, and delivery processing, billing and sales information system.

PP Production Planning (PP): Used to plan and control the manufacturing activities of a company. This module includes; bills of material, routings, work centers, sales and operations planning, master production scheduling, material requirements planning, shop floor control, production orders, product costing, etc. Environmental Health & Safety (EH&S): Designed for the management of environmental regulatory information, particularly product safety data as required for Material Safety Data Sheets. EH&S has sub-modules of Product Safety, Dangerous Goods, Waste, Industrial Hygiene, and Occupational Health. 2. Controlling (CO): Represents the company's flow of cost and revenue. It is a management instrument for organizational decisions. It too is automatically updated as events occur. 3. Asset Management (AM): Designed to manage and supervise individual aspects of fixed assets including purchase and sale of assets, depreciation and investment management. 4. Plant Maintenance (PM): Equipment servicing and rebuilding. These tasks affect the production plans. 5. Project System (PS): Designed to support the planning, control and monitoring of long-term, highly complex projects with defined goals. 6. FS Insurance : An integral part of mySAP ERP, SAP for Insurance enables insurance companies to handle customer and market requirements and simultaneously control profitability and economic viability 7. Supply Chain Management (SCM) 8. Strategic Enterprise Management (SEM)

9. Warehouse Management (WM): Subdivides the "Storage Location", which is used in the MM Module to define inventory values by location, into "Storage Types" and then into "Storage Bins". Control of stock to a physical level down to a warehouse bin. Placement and removal rules can be configured, stock counts can be done. 10. Handling Unit Management (HUM): Used as a unique ID for each pallet of stock held in the warehouse. 11. Advanced Forecasting & Replenishment (AF&R): Mostly referred to as Forecasting & Replenishment.

6. SAP ERP
The SAP ERP application is the follow-up product to SAP R/3 software. SAP ERP is the target release for customers considering upgrades of their current SAP R/3 software.The latest ERP solution from SAP delivers significant product enhancements for financial management, human capital management, procurement and logistics, product development and manufacturing, sales and service, and other corporate services. In addition, SAP ERP is powered by the SAP NetWeaver platform, a composition platform that allows organizations to build new business solutions rapidly while realizing more business value from existing IT investments. SAP NetWeaver supports new cross-functional business processes, helping lower your total cost of ownership by reducing the need for custom integration and offering complete life-cycle management for your applications. As the foundation for enterprise service-oriented architecture (enterprise SOA), it helps align people, information, and business processes across organizational and technological boundaries. SAP ERP has the following advantages over R/3: Enhanced Financial Management, Analysis, and Reporting Functionality A newly architected general ledger solution that lessens manual reconciliations and improves the ability to balance ledgers by multiple dimensions Improved management dashboards that provide a complete picture of business operations and improve decision making among managers and line-ofbusiness users New collections and credit management functionality to accelerate cash collections and improve day-sales-outstanding metrics Enhanced Human Capital Management Functionality End-to-end talent management tools to improve recruiting, training, performance evaluation, and retention of employees Improved employee self-service functionality to reduce administrative overhead of HR departments

 Improved employee expense and travel reporting to reduce the time and improve control over employee expense reimbursements Enhanced Support for New Business Models and Operations Improved architecture to support outsourcing for payroll and cash management New ability to support electronic procurement, invoicing, sales order management, and documentation of internal controls for the U.S. Sarbanes-Oxley Act Enhanced enterprise services repository for system and instance consolidation and shared-service management Serving a Broad Business User Community Empowered users through enhanced functionality to connect people directly to processes leveraging the specific role-based user interface Improved business insight through expanded SAP xApp Analytics.

7. SAP Enterprise SOA/NetWeaver

A Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) is a distributed software model within which all functionality is defined as independent Web services. Within a serviceoriented architecture, these Web services can be used in defined sequences according to the business logic to form applications that enable business processes. 7.1 BUSINESS IMPERATIVES DRIVING IT I N I TIATIVES Competitive environments, economic constraints, customization requirements from partners and customers, and government regulatory initiatives continue to influence organizations to adopt new and enhanced business processes. These new business processes require information with greater intensities around timeliness, accountability, and quality. Information technology (IT) is a core element fueling mission-critical processes, providing a necessary foundation for automation and continual analyses.

7.2 IMORTANCE OF ARCHITECTURE IN BUSINESS CHANGE For years, enterprises have been busily building up stores of applications and systems to address explicit business needs at a particular point in time . presenting a static solution. Many of these applications have been constructed incrementally over long periods of time based on evolving functional specifications and systems scenarios. The resulting situation is akin to taking a house and adding on wing upon wing, each with a separate foundation, utility infrastructure, and style. Such fragmented application environments have resulted in increased costs to coordinate and run application systems over time, missing the mark for many organizations' demands around total cost of ownership (TCO) and return on investment (ROI). A model that promotes reusability of core infrastructure and application services is ideal for increasing value and maintaining high levels of control. Of additional importance is a system that is built for integration and change. 7.3 BENEFITS OF SOA Enterprises that have implemented Web services are finding significant rewards centered on cross-platform integration. These benefits, however, only touch the surface of what can be truly achieved with a further abstracted environment utilizing a service oriented architecture (SOA). By constructing autonomous capabilities, enterprises can sever interdependencies between systems, applications, and services and target development efforts more effectively at business needs.

The following examples identify where organizations commonly seek to take advantage of the flexibility provided by SOA: Value chain collaboration and optimization. Extending and enhancing collaborative processes and information exchange with partners, suppliers, and customers is a pervasive theme behind many of today's Web services and SOA-based initiatives. Regulatory and fiscal compliance. The expanding number of government- and industry-mandated compliance requirements is levying additional process and information challenges on many organizations today, with more expected in the future. Mergers and acquisitions (M&As). In an M&A situation, organizations seek to leverage the best resources and assets from the combined entity as quickly and cleanly as possible, as well as provide a consolidated view of the entire landscape. Decision support and consolidated views. The ability to extract and analyze information from across varied systems and data stores in a timely manner is crucial to providing today's enterprise with more nimble and accurate decision making, reporting, and automating business processes based on real-time assessment of business state.

7.4 SAP NetWeaver

SAP NetWeaver is SAP's integrated technology platform and is the technical foundation for all SAP applications since the SAP Business Suite. SAP NetWeaver is marketed as a service-oriented application and integration platform. SAP ERP is powered by the SAP NetWeaver platform. SAP NetWeaver unifies technology components into a single platform, allowing organizations to reduce IT complexity and obtain more business value from their IT investments. It provides the best way to integrate all systems running SAP or non-SAP software. SAP NetWeaver also helps organizations align IT with their business. With SAP NetWeaver, organizations can compose and enhance business applications rapidly using enterprise services. As the foundation for enterprise service-oriented architecture (enterprise SOA), SAP NetWeaver allows organizations to evolve their current IT landscapes into a strategic environment that drives business change. SAP Netweaver is part of SAP's plan to transition to a more open, service-oriented architecture and to deliver the technical foundation of its applications on a single, integrated platform and common release cycle

8. Implementation of SAP
SAP Implementation is the whole of processes that defines a complete method to implement SAP software in an organization. The SAP implementation method described in this entry is a generic method and not a specific implementation method as such. It is based on best practices and case studies from various literature sources. The implementation of SAP software, such as SAP R/3 is almost always a massive operation that brings a lot of changes in the organization. The whole process can take up to several years. Virtually every person in the organization is involved, whether they are part of the SAP technical support organization (TSO) or the actual end-users of the SAP software. An example of how one company, Robert Bosch GmbH, implemented SAP R/3 over 10 years is available. This study shows that designing IT architecture is very critical in SAP implementation practices.

8.1 Overview
The SAP implementation process is made up out of four main phases, i.e. the project preparation where a vision of the future-state of the SAP solution is being created, a sizing and blueprinting phase where the solution stack is created and training is being performed, a functional development phase and finally a final preparation phase, when the last tests are being performed before the actual go live. For each phase, the vital activities are addressed and the deliverables/products are explained. The process-data diagram that is depicted at the right, gives an overview of all of these activities/processes and deliverables. The four gray boxes depict the four main implementation phases, which each contain several processes that are in this case all sequential. The boxes at the right show all the deliverables/concepts that result from the processes. Boxes without a shadow have no further sub-concepts. Boxes with a black shadow depict complex closed concepts, so concepts that have sub-concepts, which however will not be described in any more detail. Boxes with a white shadow (a box behind it) depict open closed concepts, where the sub-concepts are expanded in greater detail. The lines with diamonds show a has-a relationship between concepts.

8.2 Implementation processes

8.2.1 Project preparation

The project preparation phase, depicted below, focuses at two main activities, i.e. to make a setup for the TSO and to define a solution vision. These activities allow an organization to put in on the right track towards implementation.

SAP Implementation process-data diagram

8.2.1.1 Design and initially staff the SAP TSO The first major step of the project preparation phase is to design and initially staff an SAP technical support organization (TSO), which is the organization that is charged with addressing, designing, implementing and supporting the SAP solution. This can be programmers, project management, database administrators, test teams, etc. At this point, the focus should be at staffing the key positions of the TSO, e.g. the high-level project team and SAP professionals like the senior database administrator and the solution architect. Next to that, this is the time to make decisions about choosing for internal staff members or external consultants..

TSO chart example 8.2.1.2 Craft solution vision The second project preparation job is to define a so-called solution vision, i.e. a vision of the future-state of the SAP solution, where it is important to address both business and financial requirements (budgets). The main focus within the vision should be on the companys core business and how the SAP solution will better enable that core business to be successful. Next to that, the shortcomings of the current systems should be described and short but clear requirements should be provided regarding availability (uptime), security, manageability and scalability of the SAP system.

8.2.2 Sizing and blueprinting

The next phase is often referred to as the sizing and blueprinting phase and forms the main chunk of the implementation process. The phase is illustrated below.

8.2.2.1Perform cost of ownership analysis This phase starts with performing a total cost of ownership analysis (TCO analysis) to determine how to get the best business solution at the lowest costs. This means to compare SAP solution stack options and alternatives and then determine what costs each part of the stack will bring and when these costs will be incurred. Parts of the stack are for example the hardware, operating system and database, which form the acquisition costs. Next to that, there should be taken a look at recurring costs like maintenance costs and downtime costs. Instead of performing a complete TCO analysis for various solution stack alternatives that would like to compare, it can be wise just to do a so-called delta analysis, where only the differences between solutions (stacks) are identified and analyzed. The image at the right depicts the essence of a delta analysis. 8.2.2.2 Identify high availability and disaster recovery requirements The next step is identifying the high availability requirements and the more serious disaster recovery requirements. This is to plan what to do with later downtime of the SAP system, caused by e.g. hardware failures, application failures or power outages. It should be noted that it is very important to calculate the cost of downtime, so that an organization has a good idea of its actual availability requirements. 8.2.2.3 Engage SAP solution stack vendors A true sizing process is to engage the SAP solution stack vendors, which is the next step. This means selecting the best SAP hardware and software technology partners for all layers and components of the solution stack, based on a side-by-side sizing comparison. The most important factors that are of influence here are the estimated numbers of (concurrent) users and batch sizes.

Simplified SAP solution stack

A wise thing to do is to involve SAP AG itself to let them create a sizing proposal stating the advised solution stack, before moving to SAPs technology partners/SAP vendors, like HP, Sun Microsystems and IBM. A simplified solution stack is depicted at the right, showing the many layers for which software and hardware has to be acquired. Note the overlap with the OSI model. 8.2.2.4 Staff TSO The TSO is the most important resource for an organization that is implementing SAP, so staffing the TSO is a vital job which can consume a lot of time. In a previous phase, the organization should already have staffed the most vital positions. At this point the organization should staff the bulk of the TSO, i.e. fill the positions that directly support the near-term objectives of the implementation, which are to develop and begin the installation/implementation of the SAP data center. Examples are: data center experts, network infrastructure experts, security specialists and database administration experts. There are many ways to find the right people within or outside the organization for all of the TSO positions and it depends on the organization how much time it wants to spend on staffing. 8.2.2.5 Training One of the most vital stages of the implementation process is training. Very few people within an organization are SAP experts or even have worked with SAP software. It is therefore very important to train the end users but especially the SAP TSO: the people who design and implement the solution. Many people within the TSO need all kinds of training. Some examples of these positions:

SAP Network Specialists SAP Database Administrators SAP Security specialists Documentation specialists Et cetera

All of these people need to acquire the required SAP knowledge and skills or even SAP certifications through training. Moreover, people need to learn to do business in a totally new way. To define how much SAP training every person needs, a company can make use of a skillset matrix. With this matrix, a manager can identify who possesses what knowledge, to manage and plan training, by defining the height of expertise with a number between e.g. 1 and 4 for each skill for each employee. 8.2.2.6 Setup SAP data center The next step is to set up the SAP data center. This means either building a new data center facility or transforming the current data center into a foundation capable of supporting the SAP solution stack, i.e. all of the technology layers and components (SAP

software products) in a productive SAP installation. The most important factor when designing the data center is availability. The high availability and disaster recovery requirements which should have been defined earlier, give a good idea of the required data center requirements to host the SAP software. Data center requirements can be a:

Physical requirement like power requirements Rack requirement Network infrastructure requirement or Requirement to the network server.

8.2.2.7 Perform installations

The following step is to install the required SAP software parts which are called components and technological foundations like a web application server or enterprise portals, to a state ready for business process configuration. The most vital sub steps are to prepare your OS, prepare the database server and then start installing SAP software. Here it is very important to use installation guides, which are published for each SAP component or technology solution by SAP AG.

8.2.2.8 Round out support for SAP Before moving into the functional development phase, the organization should identify and staff the remaining TSO roles, e.g. roles that relate to helpdesk work and other such support providing work.

8.2.3 Functional development

The next phase is the functional development phase, where it is all about change management and testing. This phase is depicted below. 8.2.2.9 Address change management The next challenge for an organization is all about change management / change control, which means to develop a planned approach to the changes the organization faces. The objective here is to maximize the collective efforts of all people involved in the change and to minimize the risk of failure of implementing the changes related to the SAP implementation. The implementation of SAP software will most surely come with many changes and an organization can expect many natural reactions, i.e. denial, to these changes. To fight this, it is most important to create a solid project team dedicated to change management and to communicate the solution vision and goals of this team. This team should be prepared to handle the many change issues that come from various sources like:

End-user requests

Operations Data center team DBA group Systems management

8.2.3.2 SAP systems and operations management Next thing is to create a foundation for the SAP systems management and SAP computer operations, by creating a SAP operations manual and by evaluating SAP management applications. The manual is a collection of current state system documentation, day-to-day and other regularly scheduled operations tasks, various installation and operations checklists and how-to process documents. 8.2.2.10 Functional, integration and regression testing

Testing is very important before going live with any system. Before going live with an SAP system, it is vital do to many different kinds of testing, since there is often a large, complex infrastructure of hardware and software involved. Both requirements as well as quality parameters are to be tested. Important types of testing are:

Functional testing: to test using functional use cases, i.e. a set of conditions or variables under which a tester will determine if a certain business process works Integration testing Regression testing

All tests should be preceded by creating solid test plans.

8.2.4 Final preparation

The last phase before going live can be referred to as the final preparation phase and is depicted below. 8.2.2.11 Systems and stress testing

Another vital preparation activity before going live with SAP is systems and stress testing. This means planning, scripting, executing and monitoring system and stress tests, to see if the expectations of the end users, defined in service level agreements, will be met. This can be done with SAPs standard application benchmarks, to benchmark the organizations configurations against configurations that have been tested by SAPs hardware technology partners. Again, a test plan should be created at first. 8.2.2.12 Prepare for cutover

The final phase before going live with SAP is often referred to as the cutover phase, which is the process of transitioning from one system to a new one. The organization needs to plan, prepare and execute the cutover, by creating a cutover plan

that describes all cutover tasks that have to be performed before the actual go-live. Examples of cutover tasks are:

Review and update all systems-related operations procedures like backup policies and system monitoring Assign ownership of SAPs functional processes to individuals Let SAP AG do a GoingLive check, to get their blessing to go live with the system Lock down the system, i.e. do not make any more changes to the SAP system

8.2.5 Go Live
All of the previously described phases all lead towards this final moment: the golive. Go-live means to turn on the SAP system for the end-users and to obtain feedback on the solution and to monitor the solution. It is also the moment where product software adoption comes into play.

8.3 Critical success factors

In order to successfully implement SAP in an organization, there are several things that are of great importance. First it is very important to get the support from all the people that are involved in implementing SAP, but also the people that will actually use the SAP software. Second it is essential to create a solution vision at the beginning of the implementation track, so that everybody within the organization knows why SAP is being implemented. Third and last it is very important to test the SAP hardware and software rigorously and to ensure that the end-users are ready to use SAP before going live, because there are many known projects that failed because of a lack of support and SAP knowledge.

SAP SOLUTION MAP

9. Conclusion
SAP ERP delivers a comprehensive set of integrated, cross-functional business processes. With SAP ERP, you can gain the following benefits: Improve alignment of strategies and operations Run your enterprise in accordance with strategy and plans, accessing the Pursue opportunities proactively. Achieve corporate objectives by aligning workforce and organizational Find the best people and leverage their talent in the right job at the right right information in real time to identify concerns early.

objectives. time. Improve productivity and insight Leverage self-services and analytics across your organization. Improve operational efficiency and productivity within and beyond your enterprise. Reduce costs through increased flexibility Use enterprise services architecture to improve process standardization, efficiency, and adaptability. Extend transactions, information, and collaboration functions to a broad business community. Support changing industry requirements Take advantage of the SAP NetWeaver platform's latest open, Web-based technology to integrate your end-to-end processes seamlessly. Reduce risk

 Solve complex business challenges today with SAP, your trusted partner for longterm growth, with 30 years of experience working with organizations of all sizes in more countries than any other vendor. Join SAP's world-class partner network, uniquely qualified to support the best business practices in more than 25 industries. Improve financial management and corporate governance Gain deep visibility into your organization with financial and management accounting functionality combined with business analytics. Increase profitability, improve financial control, and manage risk. Optimize IT spending Integrate and optimize business processes. Eliminate high integration costs and the need to purchase third-party software. Deploy other SAP Business Suite applications incrementally to improve cash flow and reduce costly borrowing. Gain higher ROI faster Install SAP ERP using rapid-implementation techniques that cost less than half what traditional approaches cost. Leverage preset defaults and prepackaged versions available for specific industries. Retain top performers Retain your top performers through clearly defined career and development plans. Link employees' performance to compensation programs such as variable pay plans and long-term incentives. Provide immediate access to enterprise information Give employees new ways to access the enterprise information required for their daily activities.

10. BIBLIORAPHY
SAP Web Sites: o SAP: www.sap.com o SAP ERP: www.sap.com/solutions/business-suite/erp/index.epx o SAP-ERP: www.sap.com/community/pub/innovation/erp2005/ o Enterprise SOA: www.sap.com/platform/index.epx o SAP : www.wikipedia.org News Articles : o SAP History: From Start-Up Software Vendor to Global Market Leader o Wharton School. "Henning Kagermann: Balancing Change and Stability in the Evolution of SAP's Enterprise Software Platform", Knowledge@Wharton, October 4, 2006. o Jeff Moad. "Shai Agassi Leaves SAP", MA News, March 28, 2007. o Bailor, Coreen (2006-07-05). For CRM, ERP, and SCM, SAP Leads the Way. Retrieved on 2007-03-29. o Business in Brief: Markets o web Methods for SAP replacement whitepaper for SAP BC customers o SAP Q2 2007 Press Release. "SAP Announces Preliminary 2007 Second Quarter and Six Months Results", Market Watch, July 19, 2007. o "HP and SAP Partners to Offer New Services", Usb4ever.com, January 30, 2007. o Hoover's. "SAP Competitors".