SAP Implementation Unleashed Ebook free dowwnload

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SAP

Implementation

U N L E A S H E D

800 East 96th Street, Indianapolis, Indiana 46240 USA

George W. Anderson

Charles D. Nilson, Jr.

Tim Rhodes

A Business and Technical Roadmap to Deploying SAP

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All rights reserved. No part of this book shall be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission from the publisher. No patent liability is assumed with respect to the use of the information contained herein. Although every precaution has been taken in the preparation of this book, the publisher and author assume no responsibility for errors or omissions. Nor is any liability assumed for damages resulting from the use of the information contained herein.

ISBN-13: 978-0-672-33004-9 ISBN-10: 0-672-33004-0

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:

Anderson, George W.

SAP implementation unleashed : a business and technical roadmap to deploying SAP / George W. Anderson, Charles D. Nilson, Jr., Tim Rhodes.

p. cm. Includes index.

ISBN 978-0-672-33004-9 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. SAP ERP. 2. Integrated software 3. Business—Data processing. I. Nilson, Charles D. II. Rhodes, Tim. III. Title.

QA76.76.I57.A65 2009 004'.36—dc22

2009013560

Printed in the United States of America First Printing May 2009

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Contents at a Glance

Introduction...1

Part I: Setting the Stage 1 What It Means to Implement SAP...13

2 SAP Projects: Characteristics and Themes ...29

3 Business Vision...57

4 ERP Solution Vision ...69

5 Financial Impact: Total Cost of Ownership ...93

6 Managing Knowledge and the Knowledge Repository ...121

Part II: Getting Started 7 Project Management Checkpoint 1: Groundwork...133

8 Building the SAP Project Management Office...153

9 SAP Project Management...169

10 No Implementation Is an Island: Partners Required ...185

11 Building the SAP Project Team ...205

12 Staffing World-Class SAP Project Leadership ...227

13 Staffing the SAP Business Teams...257

14 Staffing the SAP Technical Support Organization...269

15 High Availability Considerations and Solutions ...291

16 Disaster Recovery Considerations and Solutions ...317

17 Availability and Recoverability: Organizational Factors ...341

18 Introduction to SAP Platform Sizing ...363

19 Conducting the SAP Platform Sizing Process ...385

20 Training SAP Staff ...407

21 Developing the SAP Data Center...433

Part III: SAP Realization/Functional Development 22 Project Management Checkpoint 2: Revisiting Key Artifacts . ...467

23 Preparing for SAP Component Installations . ...479

24 Installing SAP NetWeaver Components . ...509

25 Installing SAP Business Suite Components . ...527

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28 Functional, Integration, and Regression Testing. ...577

29 Advanced Concepts: Unlocking SAP with SOA and Web Services ...595

Part IV: Planning for Go-Live 30 Project Management Checkpoint 3: Project Team Retention...611

31 SAP Infrastructure Operational Considerations ...625

32 SAP Infrastructure and Platform Testing ...641

33 SAP Load and Stress Testing...657

34 Technical Change Control...687

35 SAP Systems and Operations Management. ...717

36 Preparing for SAP Go-Live ...745

Part V: Appendixes A Case Study Answers ...775

B SAP Acronyms ...795 Index . ...821

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Change Control Management Tools ...566 Electronic Signature Tools . ...567 SAP Enhancement Tools . ...567 Document Management Tools . ...568 Issue Management—SAP Notes and the Knowledge Repository ...568 SAP GoingLive Check Tool. ...568 Data Loading Tools ...569 General Scripting and Testing Tools...569 WinShuttle . ...569 The Change Control Board...571 The SAP Change Control Manager’s Role ...572 SAP Application Layer—Transport Strategies and More ...573 The Process or Workflow of Implementing Change ...574 Summary . ...576 Case Study: Meeting with the SAP CCM. ...576

28 Functional, Integration, and Regression Testing 577

Introduction to CATT, eCATT, and LSMW...578 Three Types of Business Process Testing...580

Timing Business Process Testing...581 The Critical Nature of Functional Testing ...582 The Real Value in Integration Testing...583 The Impact of Regression Testing ...584 Functional Versus Stress Testing and Recovery Testing ...585 Approaching Business Process Testing . ...585 Third-Party Tools and Other Resources...586 SAP eCATT Differentiators. ...587 Additional People Considerations. ...588 Process Overview, Constraints, and Issues...589 Other Areas of Impact . ...590

Contents xxi

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Executing Business Process Testing . ...590 Using the Test Workbench ...591 Tracking Data During Test Execution ...591 Post-Execution Tasks. ...592 Compressing the Testing Phase in the Real World ...592 Using Testing to Support SLAs in the Real World ...593 The Weakest Link: Having Too Few Resources ...593 Summary ...594 Case Study: Building an SAP Test Tool Portfolio...594

29 Advanced Concepts: Unlocking SAP with SOA and Web Services 595

What Is SOA? ...595 The Opportunities and Challenges of SOA ...597

Opportunities and Benefits of SOA ...597 Challenges for SOA Realization. ...598 SOA Technology...599 Application Server and .NET CLR ...600 Enterprise Service Bus . ...600 Service Registry and Repository . ...600 Unlocking SAP Functionality...601 Application Connectivity Using BAPI and a Web Service ...601 Process Integration Using SAP NetWeaver . ...601 SAP eSOA, ESR, and the ESC . ...603 Ensuring Success with an SOA Center of Excellence . ...604 SOA COE Prescription for Success...604 Details of the SOA COE Roadmap ...605 Real-World SOA Case Study: HP ...605 Final Thoughts on SOA for SAP...607 Summary . ...607 Case Study: Introducing SOA at HiTech, Inc. ...607

Part IV: Planning for Go-Live

30 Project Management Checkpoint 3: Project Team Retention 611

Setting the Foundation: Leadership and Behaviors . ...611 Intellectual Stimulation...612 Inspirational Motivation ...612 Individualized Consideration...613 Understanding Support Staff Personalities. ...613 Project Workers: Motivated to Achieve...614 Steady-State Workers: Keeping Things Running...614

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Keys for Retaining Employees . ...615 Understanding Team Motivation ...616 Offering Competitive Pay. ...616 Communicating Regularly and Meaningfully ...617 Recognizing and Praising Team Members...618 Providing Performance and Other Incentive Bonuses...619 Supplying Training and Career Path Opportunities ...620 Compensation Alternatives in the Real World ...621 Summary . ...623 Case Study: Retaining Key Team Members ...624

31 SAP Infrastructure Operational Considerations 625

Printing and Faxing Considerations. ...626 Printing Strategy ...626 The Adobe Factor. ...628 Faxing Options ...629 SAP Security and Authorizations Management . ...631 Managing Users ...632 Managing Roles ...633 Identity Management ...635 Archive Considerations in the Real World. ...635 Archiving Technology ...635 Archiving Strategy . ...636 Additional Operational Considerations Prior to Go-Live . ...637 Using SAP System Copy ...637 Managing Client Data . ...638 Summary ...639 Case Study: Operational Management ...639

32 SAP Infrastructure and Platform Testing 641

The Goals of Infrastructure Testing ...641 System-Level Stress Testing and Pretuning...643 Server Hardware and OS Testing . ...644

MCS CPU Benchmark...644 N-Bench . ...644 CPUBENCH. ...645 Disk Subsystem and Database Testing. ...646 SQLIO...647 Iometer. ...649 NTIOGEN ...649

Contents xxiii

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IOzone...649 Windows Utilities ...650 Network Infrastructure Testing...651 SAP Failover and Other HA/DR Infrastructure Testing ...652

Additional Disk Subsystem Testing ...652 Microsoft Cluster Testing. ...652 Testing Tools in Action—Server Comparison...654 Summary . ...655 Case Study: Infrastructure Testing . ...655

33 SAP Load and Stress Testing 657

Key SAP Stress-Testing Considerations . ...657 Analyzing Online Users and Batch Processes ...658 Understanding It’s All About the Data! . ...659 Updating Your Project Plan . ...660 Differentiating Between Load, Volume, Stress, and Smoke Testing ...663 Testing SAP Components: Basic Methods . ...664

Using the SAP Standard Application Benchmark ...665 Where SAP eCATT Fits In . ...665 Using SE38 for Cross-Application Stress Testing...666 Real-World Preparation and Script Development . ...666 Stress Test Client Infrastructure...668 Creating Administrative and Other Utility Scripts ...668 Logging In and Ramping Up...669 Collecting Statistics . ...670 Logging Out—Gracefully Ending Your Test Session ...671 Additional Scripting Tips and Tricks ...672 Stress Test Execution During Test Week . ...675 Final Preparations Before Test Week Commences ...676 Leveraging Your Testing Tools . ...676 Monitoring the Stress Test via SAP Transaction Codes...676 Using Test Output for Continuous Improvement ...677 Additional Stress-Testing Goals . ...678 Playing “What If” ...679 Testing the Failover Process...679 Ramping Up to Excessive Loads...680 Extracting the Last Drop of Value Out of Testing...681 Other Stress-Testing Lessons Learned in the Real World ...682 Summary . ...684 Case Study: Developing a Stress Test Plan. ...684

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34 Technical Change Control 687

Change Management Mentality...687 The Real Reason for Managing Change—Stakeholders ...690 Change Management Best Practices...691

Minimizing Change Management with Standards...692 The Core Philosophy Behind Change Control—Testing...693 How Documentation Impacts Change Management ...694 The Release Strategy Approach to Making Changes. ...695 Communication Plan . ...698 Change Control Tool Sets and Approaches . ...699 Feedback—Improving Change Management Incrementally ...700 Managing the Wide-Ranging Effects of Change Control . ...701 The SAP System Landscape ...701 The Phases of SAP Implementation ...701 The SAP Technology Stack . ...703 Filtering the SAP Computing Platform ...704 Organizing and Planning for Technical Change. ...707 Change Management Review Board ...708 Change Management Manager . ...709 Senior Technical Change Management Specialist ...710 Change Management Lessons Learned . ...711 Summary . ...714 Case Study: The CM Manager . ...715

35 SAP Systems and Operations Management 717

What Is the SAP Operations Manual? . ...718 Documenting Your Current State...719 Documenting Daily Operations and Installation Procedures ...720 Documenting Other Regularly Scheduled Procedures...722 Developing Process or “How To” Documentation ...723 Considering Documentation Best Practices ...723 Systems Management Techniques for SAP . ...724 Leveraging CCMS for Manual Processes and Checklists ...725 Automating CCMS Data Collection Processes . ...726 Using CCMS, Transactional Monitors, and CEN . ...727 Using SAP Solution Manager. ...728 Deploying Other Tools and Utilities . ...729 Preparing to Pilot a Systems Management Application. ...729 Developing the Systems Management Subteam...730 Defining Requirements. ...731 Exploring Real–World Systems Management Challenges...732

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Reviewing In-House Systems Management Solutions . ...732 Creating a Short List of Prospects . ...733 Evaluating Enterprise Systems Management Applications . ...735 Reviewing BMC Solutions for SAP . ...736 Deploying HP Solutions for Managing SAP ...736 Considering IBM Availability Center for SAP ...738 Reviewing Enterprise Management Applications and Lessons

Learned ...738 Additional SAP Management Tools and Approaches...739

Deploying Hardware Management Tools and Utilities...739 Employing Operating System Management Utilities ...741 Drawing Upon Database Management Tools . ...741 Extracting More Value from SAP Solution Manager...742 Using the SAP Note Assistant . ...743 Summary ...744 Case Study: Delivering a Systems Management Best Practices Workshop 744

36 Preparing for SAP Go-Live 745

The Cutover Plan ...745 Preparing for Technical Go-Live ...748

SAP GoingLive Check and Other Review Processes...748 SAPGUI Rollout Mechanism. ...749 Setting Up Batch Housekeeping Jobs . ...749 Final System Updates and Review. ...750 Locking Down the System. ...751 Preparing for the First Change Management Package. ...751 Final Administrative and Technical Details . ...752 Refining Backup and Restore Processes...752 Documenting Output Management Processes...753 Tweaking Your Systems Management Approaches ...753 Managing the SAP Enterprise . ...754 Determining Key Performance Indicators. ...754 Tracking System Performance . ...756 Managing Company Records . ...757 The Changing Role of the SAP TSO . ...757 Reaching Maturity: New Responsibilities and Roles...757 Shifting Focus to Support/Maintenance . ...758 Beyond Go-Live: The SAP COE . ...758

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Last-Minute SAP Operations and Help Desk Preparation . ...759 Final Preparations ...760 Updating Installation Documentation...760 Updating Process Documentation: Run Books ...761 Addressing Future Service and Support. ...762 Developing Worthwhile Support Agreements ...762 Leveraging Joint Escalation Centers. ...763 The First Week of Go-Live ...765 Monitoring During Go-Live Week ...765 Planning for Feedback and Continuous Improvement ...767 Completing a Post-Implementation Evaluation ...769 Bestowing Proper Congratulations. ...769 Summary ...770 Case Study: The Cutover Plan ...771

Part V: Appendixes

A Case Study Answers 775

B SAP Acronyms 795

Index 821

Contents xxvii

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George W. Anderson is the Chief Strategist for EDS, an HP Company, providing enter-prise applications, thought leadership, and strategic direction on behalf of the Office of the CTO. An avid writer, technologist, student, and speaker, George lives near Houston, Texas, with his wife and three children. George is a certified SAP Technical Consultant, PMI PMP, HP Master ASE, and more, and holds one of several technical editor positions for SAP Professional Journal. An SAP consultant for 12 years and IT professional for more than two decades, George has had the privilege of working on numerous implementa-tions, upgrades, computing platform migraimplementa-tions, infrastructure refresh and performance optimization projects, and other enterprise consulting engagements. You can reach him at george.anderson@hp.com.

Charles D. Nilson, Jr., is a Senior Program Manager for EDS, an HP Company. Charles lives near Chicago, Illinois, with his family and has held various SAP project manage-ment, program managemanage-ment, and consulting roles. Across a 14-year SAP career, Charles has had the pleasure of working on numerous projects and programs, managing multicul-tural teams and supporting scores of successful SAP implementations across four conti-nents. With industry knowledge spanning electronics, consumer products,

pharmaceutical, and discrete manufacturing companies, Charles is a PMI PMP and is SAP Partner Academy certified in MM and PP. He also holds a Certificate in Integrated Supply Chain Management from MIT and a bachelor’s of science in business administration from Elmhurst College in Illinois. An avid sportsman (favorites include kayaking, golfing, hunting, and camping), you can contact Charles at charles.nilson@hp.com.

Tim Rhodes is a Senior Technical Consultant for EDS, an HP Company. He resides in Houston, Texas, with his wife and three children and enjoys reading and conquering steep learning curves. Tim is an eight-year Basis and SAP infrastructure veteran focused on implementing, migrating, and upgrading SAP components and has been working in the information technology field for more than 17 years. An SAP-certified Technical Consultant, Oracle Certified Professional, Microsoft MCSE, and HP Master ASE, Tim recently received his MBA and is a coauthor of the popular Teach Yourself SAP in 24 Hours,

Third Edition. You can reach him at tim.rhodes@hp.com.

Andreas Jenzer is a Principal Consultant with 11 years of SAP experience spanning the entire SAP systems lifecycle. A proud recent father of twins, Andreas consults to executive-level technology leaders on behalf of HP. He currently focuses on Business Technology Optimization solutions for SAP environments. Andreas is a graduate engineer in informa-tion technology and holds a master’s degree in service management. Andreas and his family reside in Boulder, Colorado; he may be reached at andreas.jenzer@hp.com.

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Sachin Kakade is a Senior Solution Architect and Functional Consultant for HP specializ-ing in enterprise applications such as SAP. He has 17 years of total experience with the manufacturing industry and with SAP implementations, specializing in Supply Chain Management, Business Intelligence, and ERP solutions. Sachin is a certified SAP PP and SAP APO Demand and Supply Planning consultant, and he has provided application configuration, business process reengineering, and architectural solutions for more than a dozen customers. He holds a Bachelor’s in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Pune and a diploma in Business Management. Sachin is an outdoor enthusiast and engages in a variety of activities, such as painting acrylic landscapes, playing soccer, and hiking with his family. He can be contacted at sachin.kakade@hp.com.

Jeff Davis is an Independent Enterprise IT Architect and SAP Basis Consultant who lives in Houston, Texas, with his wife and son. With 15 years in information technology and more than 10 years specializing in SAP, Jeff has worked as a Senior Basis/NetWeaver Architect on large SAP implementations throughout the United States, including interna-tional and public sector projects. While SAP consulting is his career, Jeff will tell you that his real passions are knowing Christ more and enjoying time with his family. You can reach Jeff at jeff.davis2@hp.com.

Dr. Parag Doshi, Heather Hillary, Veeru Mehta, and Bryan King contributed signifi-cantly to SAP Implementation Unleashed as well, sharing their unique expertise and experi-ence in SAP-related fields as diverse as SOA, project leadership, functional configuration, sizing/architecture, enterprise applications implementation preparation, achieving opera-tional excellence, and more. As seasoned consultants, practice principals, and project managers, their real-world implementation lessons learned added a valuable “in the trenches” dimension to SAP Implementation Unleashed.

About the Authors xxix

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George: I dedicate this book to my family—to my wife and children,

mom and dad, brothers and sister, and church family, thank

you for your encouragement and love.

Charles: I dedicate this book to my family and circle of friends…

especially to my wife and best friend, Margie.

Tim: To my wife and family, thank you for your

patience, love, and support.

Andreas: To my wife, family, and friends, Thomas and Michel.

Sachin: To my mom and dad, for all their contributions to

my life, and to my wife and my son for your patience, love,

and encouragement.

Jeff: To my wife, Mandi, and my son, Ealon. Thank you

both for all the joy you bring to my life.

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Acknowledgments

From George: Thank you, my Lord and Savior, for giving me yet another opportunity to do what I love to do with my friends and colleagues—Your continual blessings and answers to prayer never cease to amaze me. And a big thank you to Tim Rhodes, Jeff Davis, Sachin Kakade, Parag Doshi, AJ Whalen, and especially Charles Nilson, Jr. for jumping in and addressing critical last-minute needs during the development of this book. You guys are pretty awesome as well!

From Charles: Thank you Lord, for providing me the opportunity to work with a gifted group of colleagues in this collaboration. George Anderson, thank you for the opportu-nity to participate in this project, and many thanks to my family, old and new friends, and colleagues who have sustained and encouraged me in this and other endeavors. Finally, to my bride Margie, thank you for traveling the world with me and for the time to pursue this book project.

From Tim: Thank you my friends and colleagues, especially John Dobbins and John Murdock, for supporting and challenging me over the years, and my family for their patience while I took time from them to work on this and other projects. A special thanks to George Anderson for all the support he has offered both while writing this book and throughout my career.

From Andreas: George Anderson, thank you for the great opportunity to coauthor yet another book. And to my family, thank you for the time to make this book a reality.

From Sachin: Thank you to my Lord and Savior for all of the blessings He continues to provide, to my wife for her patience and support, and to George Anderson for providing me with this opportunity to co-author my first book.

From Jeff: I am continually humbled and amazed at the blessings of serving a loving God. He has favored me with family, friends, and opportunities beyond my wildest dreams!

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Introduction

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mplementing SAP has always been about transformation, or letting go of old ways of doing things in favor of something newer and better. Transformation goes beyond the incremental changes an organization might adopt as it seeks to change. Instead, transfor-mational change is synonymous with revolutionary, rather than evolutionary, change. It’s about turning the corner, getting over the hump, or making the leap to a better place. Is it painful? Nearly always. Is it worth it? With a number of exceptions, the answer is nearly always yes. Implementing SAP is one of the few broad transformations that can take not only a business unit but an entire company to the next level, to a place where better information is delivered more quickly, better decisions are made, and ultimately an increased return on information (an old SAP adage that continues to be validated by thousands of SAP’s customers) is realized. The trick is doing it right.

Doing It Right

The pain associated with an SAP implementation comes from several different places. End users will be changing both their tools and the way they work. Managers and other deci-sion makers will be changing processes with which they’ve grown comfortable over the years. Better information will drive these new processes faster, too, bringing with them a different set of issues. And behind all of this, IT organizations will find themselves deploying and managing the most critical suite of companywide business applications they’ve ever seen. All this change is akin to growth; awkward crawling and hesitant walking at first, followed by a bit of stumbling and a certain amount of falling and getting back up again. Like learning to walk, implementing SAP comes with its share of bruises. Persistent organizations will get through this and see themselves grow more resilient, more self-aware, and ultimately less like the old organization. There’s almost no way around all of this; transformational change has great upside down the road but is painful nonetheless.

What if you had a guide, though? Someone who had already navigated these waters and walked these paths? Wouldn’t such a thing be worthwhile? Wouldn’t a book authored by 10 SAP project managers, functional consultants, and technologists with more than a century of combined experience go a long way toward giving you the peace of mind you need on this journey?

That’s where we come in. Our goal is to outline the business, technical, and project management roadmaps necessary to successfully plan for and complete an SAP imple-mentation, and then fill in all the important gaps. We want you to be able to draw upon a deep pool of experience and lessons learned, comfortable in the knowledge that you not only are in good hands, but are also obviously not the first to attempt an SAP implemen-tation. Through this book, you will crawl, walk, and run in record time. You’ll make fewer

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missteps and ultimately cross the finish line closer to budget and your timelines than you ever could have solo. There will still be the underlying discomfort of change, but in retro-spect you’ll find that your journey has been a whole lot less painful than it might have been. And you’ll find that you not only did more with less, but did better (than your competitors!) with less, as explained next.

Doing It Better

One of the obvious facts about implementing SAP nowadays is that you’re not alone. Upward of 95% of Fortune 500 companies have introduced SAP into their enterprises, as have more than 47,000 other businesses. SAP is everywhere, helping companies change the way they do business, essentially changing their world. Additionally, the information technology underpinning SAP has transitioned from a supporting role (1980s) to some-thing that provides competitive advantage (in the 1990s), to somesome-thing that also extends where and how business is conducted (2000s). Today, our information technologies are taking us to yet another place, a place where IT and the business are so intertwined and interconnected that IT is the business, and the business is IT.

None of this is a big secret. Truth be told, in such a me-too world, the increased innova-tion you might have been sold on relative to adopting SAP might turn out to be less of a competitive advantage than you thought. More likely, bringing in SAP and other enter-prise applications nowadays will only bring you up to par with the bulk of your competi-tors. Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solutions in particular are less often the

innovative game-changers of years past but rather, for many, have become the required investment necessary to merely re-level the playing field.

So, to be most effective, and to really raise the bar compared to your competitors who have already introduced SAP into their environments, you will need to do it better than them. You’ll need to innovate beyond the business innovation that comes with imple-menting SAP’s business scenarios and well-integrated applications. Through the very way you deploy SAP and prepare your teams to manage, use, and maintain SAP post go-live, you must find ways to innovate. You’ll need to innovate on all fronts, from the way you conduct business, to technical and technology matters, process matters, and even project management approaches and methodologies; it’s these innovations that together will fuel your ascent a rung or two higher than your competition.

Implementing SAP is a ton of work, to be sure. We’ll help you consider and explore potential innovations at every step along the way. We’ll teach you how to boldly sidestep incremental change in favor of strategic revolution—where it makes sense. We’ll tell you what your competitors have already done and explain how you can do the same thing better, faster, and cheaper. Beyond this, we’ll show you how to gain a competitive edge in the process—how to leapfrog your competitors in ways that really make a difference. They might talk of one day achieving operational excellence, but you’ll implement processes, models, and toolsets that set the stage for not only achieving it today but reducing ongoing costs and risks in the process. They will speak of creating a custom application

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that somehow differentiates their business from others, but you will transform your busi-ness by adopting best and common busibusi-ness practices to deploy an integrated and accessi-ble set of systems that capitalizes on your unique intellectual property.

Furthering our efforts to help you leapfrog your competitors, we will give you actionable advice and real-world insight spanning everything from project management method-ologies to leadership styles, the pending impact of “mega trends” such as green IT, service-oriented architectures (SOAs), virtualization strategies, automated systems management approaches, compelling computing platform refresh strategies, social networking leverage, and more.

How will you innovate? The answer depends on the role you play in your SAP implemen-tation. No role is without opportunity for innovation. For example:

. IT architects will be called upon to design systems and solutions that meet business and IT agility needs at a reasonable total cost of ownership (TCO).

. Business process owners need to rethink how the company does business, leveraging best and common practices, templates, and approaches in the process.

. Developers and functional experts must deliver innovative solutions and

approaches, creating an agile enterprise based on a balance of both new and time-tested tool sets.

. Organization designers need to work with management and delivery teams to design a purposeful post-go-live organization enabled through automation, creating lean, dynamic, and well-communicating organizations capable of rapidly achieving incremental operational excellence.

. Infrastructure teams need to deploy SAP’s business applications and underlying NetWeaver technologies in such a way as to pull costs out of IT, thus freeing budgets enough to become nearly self-funding.

. Desktop support teams need to quickly assess their current state of affairs and inno-vate through streamlined SAPGUI deployment along with incorporating Citrix-based or SAP’s WebGUI-Citrix-based user interfaces.

. Existing IT shops may find it necessary to innovate in terms of the very platforms deployed for mission-critical enterprise applications, leveraging platform migrations and new technologies to transition to more strategic or cost-effective platforms.

. Job scheduling teams might find it necessary to innovate how batch processing is conducted, pulling in third-party scheduling tools that represent yet another way to innovate and create a more agile business solution.

. IT operations teams must draw upon tools they have and new SAP-aware systems management applications to create an automated just-in-time monitoring system capable of truly delivering on a single-pane-of-glass, management-by-exception vision, stabilizing headcount while simultaneously freeing up employee bandwidth in the process.

Introduction 3

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. Executive leadership and first-line management must actively and broadly encour-age behaviors that build a work culture that’s effective, rewarding, and “contagious.”

To this last point, contagious cultures and organizations share a number of attributes. They’re seen as outstanding places to work, and therefore draw in talent from the

company’s internal employee pool. Because of this, contagious cultures and organizations suffer little from retention problems. They’re naturally innovative, spawn new opportuni-ties for growth, lead the larger organization in terms of adopting and successfully embed-ding new technologies and business solutions, and act as role models for the rest of the firm. We’ll show you what it takes to create and maintain such a contagious culture, beginning with your SAP project teams and culminating in your operational post-go-live staffing models and support organizations.

Our Audience and Approach

So, you’re ready to plunge into the world of SAP! Or, maybe you’re in too deep already, perhaps even past that critical point of go-live, and need to step back and review where you are and how you got there. Perhaps you’re soon going to be involved in a new SAP implementation, or are considering a support or management role at an existing SAP site. On the other hand, you might just be curious about what an SAP implementation is all about. In any case, you have come to the right place.

Our target audience is broad and includes those new to SAP (users, managers, executives, consultants, educators) as well as those looking to simply broaden their view of the SAP solution landscape. Our intention is to provide an end-to-end look at the SAP solutions and technology. After all, there’s so much going on with SAP’s products, naming conven-tions, and direction that it’s hard for seasoned insiders and other experts to keep up, much less those on the outside looking in.

We suspect that many readers will use this text as a baseline of sorts, comparing their own SAP plans and implementations to what we have provided, looking for new ideas, or alternatives for approaching the problems that are common to all system implementa-tions. Given this commonality, we believe our readers fall into a number of general cate-gories including:

. Decision makers, including a firm’s executives, key stakeholders, project managers, and others in key leadership positions who need to understand what SAP is, how it is deployed, what an implementation entails, and what a basic roadmap with mile-stones/critical path items looks like (all without getting bogged down in the techni-cal details, if they want to avoid doing so).

. Business analysts, SAP configurators, and power users who are involved with converting legacy business transactions into cross-application enterprisewide busi-ness processes connecting a myriad of busibusi-ness communities to one another. These are important folks, as they will essentially make SAP useful to a company’s end-user communities.

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. Information technology professionals, the people who need to plan for, design, test, and deploy the technical infrastructure upon which SAP will run. This is a huge community of potential readers both familiar and unfamiliar with SAP. They’ll love the detail in this book, and appreciate how we connect the IT side of a deployment back to the business needs for implementing SAP in the first place.

More specifically, if you fall into one of the following roles, you’ll benefit from this book:

. Executive leaders tasked with implementing, transforming, or maintaining SAP environments

. Stakeholders seeking to understanding the breadth and depth of an SAP implemen-tation

. SAP project managers and various business and IT leaders tasked with discrete subprojects related to implementing, supporting, testing, tuning, or training

. Business and application consultants, business process owners, and others tasked with supporting or transforming business processes on behalf of an organization

. SAP technology consultants, including SAP Basis, NetWeaver, and other engineers and specialists asked to architect, size, configure, and implement SAP solutions

. Database administrators (DBAs) and storage area network (SAN) consultants with a need to maintain their piece of the SAP enterprise pie, or simply expand their knowledge

. Traditional data center operations and infrastructure management specialists asked to step up and assist in developing or maintaining an SAP IT shop

. Network administrators, systems administrators, data center power/utility techni-cians, and others with similar roles supporting the very groundwork upon which the SAP solution depends

. Others internal to (or seeking employment with) an organization, interested in learning the process a company should follow in selecting, designing, and deploying SAP

. Technical individuals who are new to (or want to be a part of) the world of SAP— individuals who may be supporting similar enterprise applications or mission-critical environments (mainframes/midframes and more) and who want to make a career move into learning and supporting SAP

. Nontechnical business managers/supervisors who are soon to be thrust into an SAP project or environment

A key strength of this book is that it contains enough material to satisfy beginners, inter-mediate readers, and long-time SAP experts without “dumbing down” the content. It’s a hard balance to strike but something your authors have kept in mind throughout the writing process. Another strength is the holistic approach we have taken relative to

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explaining implementation projects, particularly the three-lane roadmap (business/func-tional, technical, and project management) that should not only broaden the appeal of this book but make it more relevant to a wider audience. To make sense of everything SAP, the book has been crafted along the lines of a project plan—our central roadmap is therefore steeped in project management. Along the way, we have generously peppered in real-world observations and practical examples to give substance to the journey. As we mentioned earlier, in this journey lies the core value that we provide to you—the chance to benefit from the experiences of others. There’s no value and no reason to reinvent the wheel. Frankly, most everything you need or want in regard to an SAP implementation has already been done, and done well, by someone else. Your job can be much simpler and certainly less risky because of them.

Whether you are implementing an SAP supply chain system, customer relationship management system, or a portal to front-end your existing business applications, there are certain tasks that must be planned for and executed across the board. If you’re inter-ested in minimizing costs and managing your critical path to a successful outcome, all these tasks must occur in a certain logical order or sequence. With all of this in mind, it seemed rather obvious that a roadmap built first and foremost around a “project plan” made the most sense for the book.

For beginners joining a new implementation project team, we suggest that you read the book sequentially from the first to the last chapter. If you find yourself in the middle of a project, though, feel free to jump to the chapters that best fit your project or timeline status. Of course, in doing so you might well “skip” over knowledge that could very well prove useful, too. We suggest quickly reviewing the Table of Contents, therefore, to deter-mine if it makes sense in your particular case to go back and review any passed-over content. If you’re more experienced, you’ll find it pretty easy to skip around and read chapters as they apply to you. To keep you reading (rather than flipping back and forth between the appendixes and text), we’ve taken care to define acronyms in each chapter. This approach is much different from that used in most books, in which definitions and acronyms are explained only the first time they’re introduced; we hope you find our approach useful.

Addressing the Real Challenges of SAP

Implementations

In a world filled with books on SAP (those of us who work with SAP for a living like to hear it pronounced “ess-aye-pea,” by the way), this book is unique. In our review of numerous “how to” and other SAP planning guides over the years, we continually noticed how little attention was given to addressing the real challenges related to deploying an SAP business solution or enabling technology. For example, little attention was ever given to

. How a particular leadership style may be appropriate given a firm’s unique competi-tive landscape, SAP applications, business environment, and IT skills/competencies