Erp Tips Document Library

ERPtips (Formerly SAPtips) Document Library Summary July 2012 Update
We help SAP clients and consultants solve business and technical problems with our library of undocumented features, timesaving solutions, and best practices. ERPtips covers all phases of SAP installations, from full-scale implementation issues to post-go-live optimization and functionality enhancements. ERPtips is geared towards helping users maximize their current ERP investment. Subscribe to ERPtips and your subscription includes the next year's worth of ERPtips SAP articles, plus all of the content described in this document. When you subscribe, you gain access to over 6,000 pages of great tips and techniques. With more than 1,000 pages of new content coming every year, ERPtips is an appreciating asset. We've covered over 600 separate topics in-depth. Any one or two of these tips could easily be worth the price of a subscription. Think about all the consulting dollars saved, plus the savings in staff time and frustration.
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I subscribe to ERPtips because it is a great resource to find SAP solutions. As an advanced SAP support person, there are very few avenues to become exposed to new and/or little used SAP functionality (outside of attending user conferences). ERPtips provides me with a great opportunity to learn about better ways to use my existing system. The articles are wellwritten and provide very detailed examples and configuration steps required to implement the solution. I have also used various ERPtips articles and whitepapers to find solutions to problems that I am having - one article in the past has saved me a great amount of time in providing a solution to a production problem that I was having - it paid for itself! I like the fact that they address needs of users still on the core SAP 4.6c systems by providing relevant articles and whitepapers. The whitepapers are excellent and provide detailed step-by-step instructions on how to implement SAP functionality. I like the ability to search the archives for past articles and whitepapers. It is truly a great investment of my training budget dollars. Rita Timmons, SAP Group Lead, The York Group

www.ERPtips.com/
Thirty-one categories of SAP topics from which to choose!

Click the links on the next page to see what we have in each category.

Copyright © 2012 by Klee Associates, Inc. www.ERPtips.com

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ERPtips Document Library Summary as of July 2012

ABAP, Java, and J2EE Development APO and Supply Chain Management Basis, DBA, and R/3 Technical Architecture Business Warehouse (BW) / Business Intelligence (BI) CIO Corner CRM and Mobile Solutions Data Archiving e-Commerce and Online Customer Analytics Enterprise Portals Financials (FI/CO) Human Resources (HR) Humor IS-Public Sector Logistics and Pricing (SD, MM, PP) NetWeaver™, Web App Server, and mySAP Landscapes Project Systems (PS) and Project Management QM and Digital Signatures Reporting (R/3, BW, and Web-based Reporting) RFID, RF, and Bar Coding Sarbanes-Oxley Security and System Audits SEM (Strategic Enterprise Management) Service Management and Plant Maintenance (SM,PM) SOA (Service Oriented Architecture) SRM and EBP Staffing and Consulting Training Upgrades Variant Configuration Webucation Workflow Warehouse Management
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Copyright © 2012 by Klee Associates, Inc. www. ERPtips.com

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ERPtips Document Library Summary as of July 2012

ABAP, Java, and J2EE Development
Becoming Familiar With Transaction SAT: A Guide for SAP Developers and Consultants, Rehan Zaidi Meet Transaction SAT. This successor to SE30 offers a user friendly interface, is loaded with new functions and features, thus making your runtime analysis faster and easier. In this article, Rehan Zaidi discusses the advantages, testing for performance, creating suitable variants, and generating Trace Results. Sending Emails Using Business Object Services, Rehan Zaidi ® Sending emails in SAP through standard function modules? That's so yesterday. The new method is to use Business Communication Services. Rehan Zaidi highlights the advantages to using BCS, the structure of the email program, and how to set up a basic email using BCS classes and send it to your fellow SAP users using Object-Oriented programming. An Introduction to Interactive Scenarios in Adobe Forms: A Guide for SAP Developers and Consultants, Rehan Zaidi What's better than generating PDF forms? How about interactive Adobe forms? In this article, Rehan Zaidi gets us started with interactive scenarios. After an overview, Rehan Zaidi discusses offline and online scenarios and integrating Adobe forms with Web Dynpro. This functionality is one that is so useful and easy that your users will be saying "thank you, thank you, thank you!" Table Creation in Adobe Forms: A Guide for SAP Developers and Consultants, Rehan Zaidi Questions on how to create tables in Adobe Forms? We have the answers in this article by Rehan Zaidi. Rehan discusses how table headers are created, how to add tables to your form, important settings related to Palette tabs and what you need to know about using the Table Assistant. Calling Adobe Forms from Your ABAP Programs: A Guide for SAP Developers and Consultants, Rehan Zaidi Rehan Zaidi continues his series on Adobe forms. This issue, he discusses the steps you’ll take to create a program to call the Adobe form from your ABAP program. Included in this article are the various function modules involved in this integration, the calling process, the steps required, and the importing and exporting parameters of the function modules. Scripting for Adobe Forms Using FormCalc Language: A Guide for SAP Developers and Consultants, Rehan Zaidi Want to add a bit of zest to your Adobe forms? In this installment in his series on Adobe Forms, Rehan Zaidi delves into Scripting using the FormCalc language. He’ll discuss what the requirements Scripting fulfills, the languages supported within LiveCycle Designer, events and how scripts are related to those events, codes, and more. Getting the Feel of Adobe LiveCycle Designer: A Guide for SAP Developers and Consultants, Rehan Zaidi In this installment of the ongoing series on development for Adobe Forms, will be introduced to the Adobe LiveCycle Designer, its value, and how to navigate through it. Be sure to read the previous installments first or have them handy for reference, as the series builds on and references previous sections.

Copyright © 2012 by Klee Associates, Inc. www. ERPtips.com

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ERPtips Document Library Summary as of July 2012

Creating Adobe Forms Layout: A Guide for SAP Developers and Consultants, Rehan Zaidi In this installment of the ongoing series on development for Adobe Forms, we get into the details of creating Master and Design pages, plus Static and Dynamic fields. Be sure to read the previous installments first or have them handy for reference, as the series builds on and references previous sections. Context Development in Detail for Adobe Forms: A Guide for SAP Developers and Consultants, Rehan Zaidi In a previous article, we discussed the overview of the Interface development in Adobe Forms. The next step in this process is Context and Layout creation. Since the creation of Context is essential for designing even the simplest Adobe forms, learning this topic is indispensable for ABAP developers and consultants. In this article, Rehan looks at the steps involved for defining a Context, the use of Interface components in building the Context, as well identifying elements defined at the Context level without using the Interface. Interface Development in Detail for Adobe Forms: A Guide for SAP Developers and Consultants, Rehan Zaidi In the first article of this series on Adobe Forms, Rehan Zaidi provided an overview of Adobe Forms, focusing on PDF generation. He demonstrated the advantages to using Adobe Forms, how to develop a form, and the structure of the programs that call Adobe Forms. With that base of understanding now in hand, let’s move on to the details. This article goes through the basics of Interface development, the first step in Adobe Forms development. A Tour of the Adobe Forms Print Scenario: A Guide for SAP Developers and Consultants, Rehan Zaidi Adobe Forms are creating a buzz—do you have all the knowledge you need to help your users maximize this technology? In this article, Rehan Zaidi provides an overview of Adobe Forms, focusing on PDF generation. Learn the advantages to using Adobe Forms, how to develop a form, and the structure of the programs that call Adobe Forms. Creating Navigation Lists Using Web Dynpro for ABAP: A Guide for SAP Developers and Consultants, Rehan Zaidi This article steps us through the design, creation, and use of Web Dynpro Navigation Lists. It serves as a practical guide to this valuable tool for presenting data to the end user in a tree-like structure that can be expanded and collapsed, and that permits drill-down to the data presented. A must-have for the Dynpro developer Integrating SAP Data into MS Word Documents, Sirisha Vennelakanti, Project Manager The information is in SAP, but the document needs to be in Word. So how do you get this data from point A to point B effectively, while keeping track of all the changes that you know are bound to happen? Sirisha Vennelakanti presents a solution using Destktop Office Integration that will help you keep on top of those changes between drafts, all while maintaining the integrity of your documents. Follow along as Sirisha takes us step-by-step through the process flow and setup for getting SAP and Word on the same page. Developer Updates When Upgrading to the NetWeaver™ Environment, John Verbestel ® If you’re upgrading to SAP NetWeaver environment, you’ll soon discover several ABAP tools that have been enhanced to support the move toward more web-based development. In this article, John Verbestel highlights some of the key changes you’ll encounter, including new ways to avoid modifications in the enhancement framework and important language enhancements.
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Copyright © 2012 by Klee Associates, Inc. www. ERPtips.com

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ERPtips Document Library Summary as of July 2012

Flexible Programming Continued: Using Field Symbols and References, Rehan Zaidi Ready to flex more ABAP programming muscle? This article by Rehan Zaidi explores a dynamic programming technique that combines field symbols and data references. He’ll cover the commands and statements for creating data references, declaration of field symbols in programs, and the creation of data objects dynamically using reference variables. Shared Object Primer: A Guide for SAP Developers and Consultants, Rehan Zaidi, ABAP Consultant It’s so nice to share…and in SAP, Shared Objects makes it much easier for ABAP programmers to read, write, and change shared objects in the memory of an application. In this article, Rehan Zaidi presents an overview of Shared Objects, including how to create a shared memory area, writing data to a shared area, and reading from a shared area. It’s all good! Persistent Objects Primer: A Guide for SAP Developers and Consultants, Rehan Zaidi, Siemens Pakistan Persistence pays off. Don’t believe it? Let Rehan Zaidi show you how to use Persistent Objects in ABAP to reduce redundant coding. In typical Rehan style he presents an overview, lays the groundwork, integrates the details, and marries the theoretical side with a practical example. Use Rehan’s primer to make your development more efficient. Regular Expression Processing Using ABAP: A Guide for SAP Consultants and Developers, Rehan Zaidi, Siemens Pakistan One of the tasks presented to programmers on a routine basis is that of massaging raw data into useful information. In this issue, Rehan Zaidi offers a primer for using Regular Expressions in ABAP to mine and process your valuable SAP data. Whether you need a method for validating data entry, or want to locate and utilize a variety of data stored across a number of internal tables, you’ll find REGEX pretty handy. From the basic concepts to example statements, it’s all here. Performance Trace in SAP®: Identifying Design Specifications With A Standard Report, William McNaughten, Entrecor If anyone knows how to extract information out of SAP, it’s a FI/CO expert. That’s how Bill McNaughten came to learn about the Performance Trace tool in the ABAP Workbench. The good news is that Bill is living proof that you don’t have to be a developer to use and enjoy the benefits of this slick tool. In this issue Bill shows how the tool can be useful in determining tables and fields required for custom development work. Try it on for size. A Tour of the New Business Add-Ins (BAdIs): A Guide for SAP® Developers and Consultants, Rehan Zaidi, Siemens Pakistan Pssstt…wanna check out something HOT in SAP? Take a look at the newly enhanced BAdIs available in ECC 6.0. Rehan Zaidi addresses the benefits of the new Business Add-Ins, how they differ from previous versions, their implementation, single vs. multi-use BAdIs, and even answers this question: What is an Enhancement Spot? Take a tour with Rehan and learn how you can get the most out of the BAdIs in your SAP system. A Tour of the New Enhancement Framework: A Guide for SAP® Developers and Consultants, Rehan Zaidi, Siemens Pakistan What’s new with the Enhancement Framework in NetWeaver™? Rehan Zaidi provides us with a guided tour that truly defines the word “enhanced”. From understanding new BAdIs and source code plug-ins, to creating and implementing Explicit enhancement options, if this article doesn’t get you pumped up for learning more about the new Enhancement Framework, well, we don’t know what else will. Ready to take a tour with Rehan? Copyright © 2012 by Klee Associates, Inc. www. ERPtips.com Page 5
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ERPtips Document Library Summary as of July 2012

Upload Data from a Legacy System Using ABAP: Say No to Java & .NET Connectors, Usman Malik, Siemens, Pakistan It’s the age old problem, moving data from the legacy system into SAP®. Admittedly, there is no silver bullet…no quick or simple solution for this process. However, it doesn’t necessarily have to be a big project involving Java and .Net techies. It is possible to sort, clean, and arrange the data for transfer with some basic ABAP code. Not convinced? Read on… SAP Graphics Function Module Primer: A Guide for SAP Developers and Consultants, Rehan Zaidi, Siemens Pakistan A picture tells a thousand words, or so the saying goes. And a graph is the perfect visual for expressing key company data. After all, what’s easier to understand when analyzing data: a spreadsheet of numbers and formulas or a colorful pie chart or bar graph that highlights the important facts? The good news: you can insert graphs into SAP® programs using ABAP. Rehan Zaidi demonstrates how to employ SAP Graphical Framework. The Exterminator: A Tour of the New ABAP Debugger, Rehan Zaidi, Siemens Pakistan While “new and improved” often translates to the same old thing, just repackaged (new Coke anyone?)—there are exceptions. As Rehan Zaidi points out, one of those is the ABAP Debugger found in ECC 6.0. Rehan discusses the advantages of this new functionality over its predecessor, as well as how to use it to compare two variables and how to personalize your Debugger tools. Tracking Changes Made in PD Infotypes - A Guide for SAP HR Consultants and Users, Rehan Zaidi, Siemens Pakistan Next to anything financial, if there’s one area where you (and your auditors!) would want to know who’s been making changes, that area would be Personnel Administration Data. Surprisingly, as Rehan Zaidi points out, not everyone is aware that there are tools that already exist in SAP’s HR module that will track changes made to the Personnel Development area. Rehan explains this functionality and guides us through the setup of a PD Change Log. Infotype Creation in HCM: A Detailed Guide, Kamran Ellahi, SAP Consultant Lots of employees equals lots of data to manage. Infotypes can help you manage that data your way. Kamran Ellahi demonstrates how to create your own Infotype for an Applicant in SAP HCM ECC 6.0.
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Copyright © 2012 by Klee Associates, Inc. www. ERPtips.com

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ERPtips Document Library Summary as of July 2012

Unicode Conversion Cookbook: A Guide for SAP® Developers and Consultants, Rehan Zaidi, Siemens, Pakistan ¿Hablas español? Ou parlez-vous le français ? E você faz o negócio no português? Marshall McLuhan predicted the “global village” in 1962, long before the Internet and other technologies made it possible for people to interact on a global scale. Today, what was once “space age” thinking is now commonplace in business, hastening the need for software to adapt to multilanguage usages. SAP recognizes the need for flexibility in adapting to multiple coding languages too. They have addressed this need by using Unicode as its foundation in new releases of applications. What does this mean if you’re a developer? Well, according to Rehan Zaidi, it’s time to brush up on your knowledge of Unicode—and this article is intended to give you a leg up on the conversion process! Es ist die Zukunft des SAP! Creating Search Helps for Fields via ABAP Programming, Rehan Zaidi Here’s yet something else to be thankful for: Search Helps within various ABAP applications. Rehan Zaidi defines and lists the advantages of using this functionality to help make your program executions and data entries easier for you and your users. So prime your finger above the F4 key and get ready to search for the answers you need. Getting By With What You’ve Got: How RFC Can Be Your Friend, Roger Myers Sometimes the answer is right in front of you. Say you have new functionality you need to use; ® the SAP platform you need to use it in doesn’t support it—yet another system in your environment does. So who ya call? RFC! Roger Myers has found that Remote Function Calls— a seemingly blast from the past—are a simple solution to a new problem that many companies with multiple SAP components are now facing. Roger details the key steps to accessing your new functionality where it otherwise might not work; using technology you already have, thus getting more value from your SAP system! SAP Mail Function Module Cookbook: A Guide for Developers and Consultants, Rehan Zaidi, Siemens Pakistan You’ve got mail! Even better, you’ve got capabilities in SAP to program and trigger email notifications with some options embedded within ABAP. Rehan Zaidi explains the functions needed to accomplish this, along with the structure of the programs that employ these functions and the key parameters you’ll need to use. The "FOR ALL ENTRIES" Construct: A Guide for Developers and Consultants, Rehan Zaidi, Siemens Pakistan If you’re a developer tasked with getting lots of data from a database, the “FOR ALL ENTRIES” clause serves a useful purpose—provided you know how to prevent it from slowing up performance. Rehan Zaidi takes us through the concept of the “FOR ALL ENTRIES” construct for
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SAP ABAP programs, including providing code examples as well as techniques for improving performance. RFC Programming Primer: A Guide for SAP Consultants and Developers, Rehan Zaidi, Siemens Pakistan Remote Function Calls (RFC) are a powerful functionality for exchanging data between SAP systems—which is why we’re pleased to have Rehan Zaidi here to explain some of the key functions, advantages and uses of this technology. Let Rehan get you started with an overview, some tips on Transactional RFCs and finally, the steps for setup.

Copyright © 2012 by Klee Associates, Inc. www. ERPtips.com

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ERPtips Document Library Summary as of July 2012

SAP GUI Scripting and MSOffice-Visual Basic for Applications: A Powerful Combination, Arturo Bernal, SAP Consultant If you need to record data, but find the eCatt tool more complex than you need for daily tasks, Arturo Bernal offers a creative alternative. SAP GUI Scripting used in combination with Visual Basic for Applications found in MSOffice’s Excel can provide you with a much more flexible, easy to use option. Let Arturo show you the steps to integrate these technologies and get you on your way to automating some labor-intensive tasks. Making Powerful ABAP Applications Using Dynamic Open SQL – A Guide for SAP Developers and Consultants, Rehan Zaidi, Siemens Pakistan How often do you find that your department is calling in a consultant in order to make business process changes to a custom-built SAP application? We know it happens frequently, and it adds up quickly. But before you shrug and say, “it’s unavoidable,” you need to read Rehan Zaidi’s latest article on Dynamic Open SQL. Rehan presents a compelling case for taking some extra steps in the initial development of your applications that will save you time and money down the road when business needs dictate IT changes. Using OLE2 Automation for Integrating Excel Applications for SAP: A Guide for Developers and Consultants, Rehan Zaidi, Siemens Pakistan One of the sweet things about any ERP system is that the data is there when you need it. The question sometimes is – is it there “how” I need it? By using the OLE2 automation techniques discussed in this article, you can add tremendous flexibility to your SAP data retrieval and display, using common desktop programs such as the Microsoft Office tools. Give it a whirl. You’ll be glad you did. User Exits and the People Who Love Them, Jeff Goldstein, IPM Inc. New contributor Jeff Goldstein starts out with an excellent discussion of the process of deciding when/where/whether a developer should write custom code for the SAP applications. He then moves on to help us understand a technique for passing variables in user exits that may not be as well known or appreciated, as it should be. This article could prove extremely valuable in not only helping keep your environment clean, but also in adding flexibility and power to your users' experience. Mastering the Concepts of the New ALV Object Model – A Guide for SAP Developers and Consultants, Rehan Zaidi, Siemens Pakistan There’s some good news with Release 5.0 for SAP developers: the New ALV Model that’s touted to be a vast improvement over the ALV functions introduced in Release 4.6. How does it work and where can it be applied? Rehan Zaidi is back to take us through the changes and present a practical application. If you’re a developer or consultant, this tip is one that’s a sure fire guarantee for easier reporting with R/3! Making Applications More Interactive Using Dialog Boxes – A Guide for SAP Developers and Consultants, Rehan Zaidi, Siemens Pakistan Need to have some dialog with your users? ABAP Editor Rehan Zaidi has just what you need! Whether you want to warn the users about potential data loss or simply have them confirm that they want to launch a program, start a process, or submit data, Rehan says you’ll find dialog popup boxes invaluable. To get you started, Rehan presents an overview of dialog function modules. He describes the dialog box categories you can use to support your ABAP routines, and provides the technical details you’ll need for each. As Rehan’s devoted readers know, he always closes his article with a useful scenario that brings together the information he’s provided, the applicable code, and the resulting output. Copyright © 2012 by Klee Associates, Inc. www. ERPtips.com Page 8

ERPtips Document Library Summary as of July 2012

Improving the Quality of Your ABAP Code Using the Code Inspector- A Guide for SAP Developers and Consultants, Rehan Zaidi, Siemens Pakistan As an ABAP developer, you know the value of optimizing your existing code as well as learning tips & tricks to generate more efficient code. Rehan explains how to utilize SAP’s ABAP Code Inspector to check repository objects, security, syntax, & naming conventions. Conducting an inspection of this type will help you identify potential coding flaws and identify unnecessary or redundant tasks that would add processing time to your routines. Rehan presents an overview of the Code Inspector & demonstrates how to call it using either a transaction code or a menu path. He describes the types of errors the Code Inspector may identify, & explains the hints it may suggest for improving the ABAP code. Programming the Background Processing System Using ABAP Function Modules: A Guide for SAP Developers and Consultants, Rehan Zaidi, Siemens Pakistan Multi-tasking has become a way of life for citizens of the 21st century. Rehan Zaidi shows you how to keep several SAP balls in the air without affecting system performance or employee productivity. Rehan presents a thorough discussion of SAP’s function modules for background processing many ABAP jobs. He describes the elements of a job that is suited for background processing and explains when a job should be scheduled by date and time, or triggered by an event. In the style that we’ve all come to rely upon, Rehan takes the information he’s provided and pulls it all together to provide a useful example that you can easily apply to your environment. Get a Grip: How to Keep a Handle on Modifications to Standard SAP with Transaction SPAU, Anurag Barua, The Washington Post Anurag Barua presents a methodical and relatively painless approach to changing SAP repository elements with the SPAU transaction (which initiates the adjustment tool for repository objects). He introduces you to the SPAU interface and steps you through some of the decisions you’ll need to make along the way. Anurag touts the benefits of using the Modification Assistant facility (available through SPAU) as opposed to the labor-intensive process of making changes manually. Although the Modification Assistant simplifies the process, Anurag warns that you should avoid core modifications until you have exhausted all other alternatives, such as user exits, BADIs, etc. SAP Java Connector: Integrating Third-Party Web Servers with SAP and the Java API, Eric Walter, SAP Consultant Hot Java! Sorry, we just couldn’t resist using one of the myriad puns and acronyms out there. You’ll forgive us when you read ERPtips trainer Eric Walter’s informative article about integrating SAP with Java for a powerful interface or Web service. Eric begins with a review of the current Java technologies and Java platform. Though ABAP doesn’t speak directly with Java, SAP’s JCo (Java connector) is one of SAP’s Java-enabled tools that does. This tool is the focus of Eric’s article. From downloading the appropriate Java connector to sample code, from APIs to RFMs, from relevant OSS notes to configuration steps, Eric gives you everything you need to know.

Copyright © 2012 by Klee Associates, Inc. www. ERPtips.com

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ERPtips Document Library Summary as of July 2012

Displaying Data Quickly and Easily via Smart Forms: A Guide for SAP Developers, Rehan Zaidi, Siemens Pakistan Confused about the Smart Forms tool offered with SAP’s 4.6 release? Search no further. In this article, ABAP guy Rehan Zaidi lays out a broad overview of the benefits and “gotchas” of using the Smart Forms tool. How do you create a report using the Smart Form technique? How are Smart Forms called in ABAP programs? Rehan answers these questions and more, and delivers detailed steps and screen shots to instruct you in creating your own Smart Forms. In typical Rehan style, he presents realistic scenarios to illustrate their use and creation. Will your I.Q. soar when you start using Smart Forms? Maybe not, but we think you’ll be smarter about Smart Forms after reading this article. Enhancing Standard Programs Quickly and Easily Via Business Add-Ins (BADIs): A Guide for SAP Developers and Consultants, Rehan Zaidi, Siemens Pakistan Some of the most appealing aspects of SAP are its modularity and “configure-ability”. SAP’s enterprise solution allows a great deal of flexibility in application, as well as a lot of tailoring to specific company needs. One of SAP’s recent offerings in the tools and techniques arena is the concept of Business Add-Ins, or BADIs. ABAP “man of the hour” Rehan Zaidi uses this white paper to explain exactly what Business Add-Ins are, and how they are called in ABAP programs. He presents an overview of the benefits to consultants and users, and he describes the steps required to enhance standard SAP programs that use this functionality. Creating Your Own BAPIs Quickly and Easily: A Guide for SAP Developers and Consultants, Rehan Zaidi, Siemens Pakistan If you’ve not yet explored the world of Business Application Programming Interfaces (BAPIs), it may be time to do so. Linking your non-SAP applications with SAP opens a new world of information exchange and functional possibilities. So let’s assume you know the potential that BAPIs offer, but you just haven’t been able to make time to learn about them. Wait no more. ABAP editor Rehan Zaidi has put together what could easily be called BAPI 101. Rehan explains the “big picture” citing the roles of BAPIs and Business Objects in SAP. He provides some simple steps to walk you through creating your first BAPI, and then shows you their application in the workplace through a business case scenario. Understanding the Concept of Classes in ABAP – A Guide for SAP Developers and Consultants, Rehan Zaidi, Siemens Pakistan Resident ABAP maestro Rehan Zaidi takes the “oops” out of object-oriented programming in the SAP ABAP environment. He lays the groundwork with a thorough description of the ABAP objects & classes, theirs uses, and their advantages & disadvantages. He then outlines methods for defining & implementing the classes. Rehan presents an example of actual code that shows how all of the concepts work together in the “real world”. This article is vintage Rehan – he uses succinct descriptions, detailed steps, screen shots, & sample code to give even a novice developer the “can do” confidence. Rehan shows how object-oriented programming in ABAP is the cure for the common code.
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Copyright © 2012 by Klee Associates, Inc. www. ERPtips.com

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ERPtips Document Library Summary as of July 2012

Identifying Execution Failure via Application Logs: A Guide for SAP Developers, Rehan Zaidi, Siemens Pakistan How do you resolve execution issues if you don’t have a way to track the problems? Rehan Zaidi, our ABAP guru, suggests application logs generated during execution to capture all the relevant failure data. Rehan shows you how to develop an ABAP program to do just that. He gives an overview of application logs, including their structural designs & provides graphics that show typical log output with icons & what they represent. Rehan presents some of the useful ABAP function modules that come standard with SAP & gives the purpose of each. He describes application log format & message structure and shows you how to use all of the concepts presented to build your own program. Displaying Data Quickly and Easily via Gantt Charts: A Guide for SAP Developers, Rehan Zaidi, Siemens Pakistan Zaidi continues his discussion of data display models with an informative evaluation of the use of Gantt chart data displays. He presents specific examples of the Line Item internal tables & Element internal tables that are used to structure & store the Gantt chart display code in the ABAP programs. With exacting code segments & detailed graphics, Rehan illustrates how to set the structure of Gantt chart displays for extrapolating & delivering data to satisfy the user’s unique needs. Drawing on his usual “make the developer’s life easier” approach, Rehan develops both broad & specific remedies to aid SAP ABAP developers as he outlines the benefits of this display format. Displaying Data Quickly and Easily via ALV Programming: A Guide for SAP Developers, Rehan Zaidi, Siemens Pakistan Have data, will display. But will the users care? In this article, ABAP veteran Rehan Zaidi presents another method for converting mundane characters and numbers into meaningful user information. Rehan introduces us to ALV with an overview of its functionality and description of its potential benefits. He then describes the SAP function modules available to help you create a user-rich, GUI-based, data display format. In his characteristic style, Rehan provides the specific coding examples, abundant screen shots, and hard-won tips you’ll need to bring ALV to life in your back office. Displaying Data Quickly and Easily via Tree Structures: A Guide for SAP Developers, Rehan Zaidi, Siemens Pakistan Not happy with the conventional list-style report data you generate from your SAP system? Rehan comes to your rescue in this article, bringing the kind of wisdom that only someone from the ABAP trenches can contribute; proposing some relatively simple coding to convert your “blah”, seemingly unrelated data into hierarchically-segmented chunks. In this article Rehan provides an overview of how the hierarchical data is stored in SAP, contrasts the “tree” data format with the traditional “list-style”, describes the kind of programs that will support this data display function, and provides a code example and the resulting data display. Parallel Programming Cookbook - A Guide for SAP Developers and Users, Rehan Zaidi, Siemens Pakistan ERPtips readers aren’t ready to leave ABAP behind, and they let us know about it. Drawing on actual code samples and a real-life project scenario, Rehan shows how to use parallel programming techniques within an SAP environment. Properly used, parallel programming can reduce the large runtime loads of big programs - yet another useful tool in the ABAP toolkit. Fortunately, with its new “open” NetWeaver platform, SAP seems to have found a good balance between ABAP and Java, a way to support ABAP programming along with Web-based development. Copyright © 2012 by Klee Associates, Inc. www. ERPtips.com Page 11

ERPtips Document Library Summary as of July 2012

Displaying Data Quickly and Easily via Dynamic Documents - A Guide for SAP Developers, Rehan Zaidi, Siemens Pakistan In his latest white paper, ABAP Development Editor Rehan Zaidi relays the secrets of Dynamic Documents—a valuable tool for enhanced SAP reporting. As Rehan explains, Dynamic Documents give programmers more flexibility than traditional list programming and provide a way for developers to quickly customize data display using object-oriented programming techniques. Saving Time and Budgets via Flexible Programming: A Guide for SAP Developers and Users, Rehan Zaidi, Siemens Pakistan Flexible Programming is a very powerful tool in the SAP developer's toolkit. In this insightful white paper, ABAP expert Rehan Zaidi explains the options for “flexible” programming within R/3 and how they can be applied for greater programming efficiency and enhanced functionality. What are the advantages of flexible programming? As Rehan points out, proper application of these techniques allows the SAP team to adjust the software when business processes change— without making alterations to the source code. Rehan begins the white paper with an overview of flexible programming and its uses on SAP projects. Then, using coding samples and screen shots, he gets into the nitty gritty of development techniques, touching on the use of selection screen, table customization, and dynamic program generation. Using Clusters to Solve Business and Reporting Problems, Rehan Zaidi, Siemens Pakistan Sometimes getting the most out of SAP® means digging into some under-utilized technical tools. In this “developer-friendly” white paper, ABAP-HR expert Rehan Zaidi delves into the strategic use of data clusters to enhance system performance and reduce database load. Chock full of coding examples, this white paper illustrates the practical application of clusters with HR submodules such as Personnel Administration. Clusters turn out to have many applications; in a section on advanced cluster techniques, Rehan shows how clusters can be used to solve problems such as inserting multiple characters into a single database field. Writing Your Own Function-Driven Roles Quickly and Easily, Rehan Zaidi, Siemens Pakistan One quick way to become the “most popular developer” on your SAP® project is to automate mundane and repetitive tasks for your business colleagues. Properly utilized, workflow is one of the SAP developer's most powerful tools. But as ABAP expert Rehan Zaidi has found, these tools can be a challenge for developers to master. One key element behind workflow is agent determination via function module creation. If that last sentence made sense to you, then you're really going to enjoy this developer's guide to creating and testing new SAP function modules. Clash of the Titans Part 3: Why WebAS Beats Microsoft.NET and J2EE, Axel Angeli, logosworld.com Most analysts view the main enterprise development options as a battle between .NET and J2EE. But our resident WebAS development guru sees this titanic clash a bit differently. Drawing on his own in-depth research and project observations, Axel makes a bold claim: that SAP's Web Application Server platform is robust enough to be considered as a viable alternative to either .NET or J2EE.

Copyright © 2012 by Klee Associates, Inc. www. ERPtips.com

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A Hands on Guide to SAP Mobile Development, Krishna Kumar, Enterprise Horizons Inc. "Going Wireless" sounds pretty hip, but as ABAP/Java Editor Krishna Kumar can attest, "mobile enabling" an enterprise environment like SAP brings with it some new complexities—not to mention a bunch of new buzzwords." In this groundbreaking article (the first in a two-part series), Krishna outlines the architectural choices and implementation challenges facing the SAP mobile development team, providing SAP developers with crucial tips for optimizing data presentation and access on mobile devices. Real-Time Online Order Fulfillment in SAP Using J2EE Technologies, Krishna Kumar, Enterprise Horizons Inc. For many SAP users, converting to a J2EE or .NET-based platform sounds appealing, but the costs and technical challenges of becoming "Web- Services" friendly can seem prohibitive. However, as ABAP/Java Development Editor Krishna Kumar illustrated, the targeted use of J2EE architecture and Java development—such as the integration of online order processing with R/3—can improve performance in a targeted, cost-effective manner. Organizational Management Reporting - A Guide for HR Developers, Rehan Zaidi, Siemens Pakistan Surprisingly, there is much less documentation to support OM developers than exists for payroll developers—especially since OM reporting can provide real value to SAP® users. Over time, Rehan Zaidi has figured out the ins and outs of OM development, and now he's put together a guide for other developers to make use of. In this technical white paper, Rehan explains the underlying technical structure of OM, and then walks us through an example of generating a custom report in OM. In the process, he addresses the key issues for OM development, including how org data is stored in SAP, how that data is accessed, and how to create reports that SAP users can benefit from. ABAP Programming In BW Document, Arthur “Pat” Pesa With all the talk about NetWeaver and SAP® Java Connector and other hot tools, you'd think ABAP was a thing of the past. But not so, as BW expert Pat Pesa can attest. In this excellent “best of” article, Pat shares the most valuable ABAP techniques he has used on BW projects. He starts by addressing the key questions: What are the uses of ABAP in BW? How is programming in BW different than programming in R/3? What ABAP tools are available in BW? This article provides technical managers with a handy overview of Pat's ABAP-BW methodology, and gives ABAP programmers a technical guide they can refer to on their BW initiatives. Taking the Surprise Out Of SAP® Programs, Krishna Kumar, Enterprise Horizons Inc. Using real-life project examples, ABAP/Java Editor Krishna Kumar explains how to approach debugging across the SAP product line with a well thought-out methodology instead of just scrambling from crisis to crisis. The key aspects to Krishna's methodology: understand the range of SAP debugging tools at your disposal (ABAP trace, SQL trace, etc.), and apply a careful process to eliminate possible factors until the culprit is found. To illustrate his points, Krishna uses debugging examples he has faced with SAP and mySAP systems, such as lack of configuration, BW data extraction errors, and EAI integration snafus.

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ERPtips Document Library Summary as of July 2012

APO and Supply Chain Management
Product Allocation Planning: Some Real World Challenges – Part II, Ranjan Sinha, APO Project Lead Do you ever get confused about the way an order is allocated in the Allocation Planning system? Do you wonder why the system allocates from a farther distribution center than is generally used for this customer? Have you questioned why an order is shown as “back-ordered” when you see that the product is available? Ranjan Sinha expands on his discussion of challenges (and configuration settings) in the SAP® Allocation Planning system to help you understand these issues. He uses common examples to show the inner workings of consumption periods, and how they affect the sales order when set for backwards or forwards consumption. Still have questions? Follow Ranjan’s answers to some FAQs and you’re all set. Changing the Planning Calendar in Demand Planning: Getting It Right, Ranjan Sinha, SAP Consultant Planning managers don’t have buckets of time, but they do have Time Buckets in SAP. Time buckets are how data is viewed in the Planning Calendar; when plans change, the view will need to be changed as well. Ranjan Sinha explains why this happens and how to make the changes, including configuration of Time Buckets to correspond with your time. Product Allocation Planning: Some Real World Challenges, Ranjan Sinha, SAP Consultant You can make a career of reading and discussing the theory of forecasting, but only from actual experience will you learn how to make it work the way you need it to. Well, Ranjan Sinha has been in the trenches on the subject, and his article presents some of the real-world challenges that crop up and shows us how to use Allocation to solve them. More demand than supply? Scheduling problems? Inventory out of sync? Un-used allocations? These challenges and more are analyzed here, so read on… SAP's SCM 5.0: A Kinder, Gentler Demand Planner, Ranjan Sinha, Lead APO Technical Analyst Demand Planning using APO used to be a drag—and not the drag and drop kind, either. Many planners stuck to Excel because APO 4.0 just wasn’t as easy to use. Well, if you’re one of those who’s a dedicated Excel user, and you’re company has migrated to SCM 5.0, Ranjan Sinha presents a compelling case for taking another look at what SAP’s tool has to offer. Ranjan highlights the improvements that SAP has made to this functionality with the new release. If you’ve been shying away from using SAP’s Demand Planning tools, this article presents them in a whole new light! Supply Network Planning in SAP: Make a Planning Book that Works for You, Ranjan Sinha, SAP APO Analyst Whether it’s for meeting your company’s procurement, manufacturing, or distribution needs, when it comes to planning, precise, timely information is critical. The Supply Network Planning book is a great tool provided by SAP to gather the information you need, when you need it, to make the right decision. Many companies will even use it “as is”. However, Ranjan Sinha has some tips here on how some minor tweaks can help you to customize this solution and derive even more valuable, real-time information than before!
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The Design and Configuration of APO Demand Planning Solutions - Part III: Key Figures and Planning Areas, Paul Krant, Diagonal Consulting Paul covers the design and configuration of key figures and planning areas, as well as the related concepts of aggregates and disaggregation. Of course, you can’t configure the key figures until you decide which ones your company will be using. One of the highlights of this article is Paul’s recommendation for a workshop-based approach to selecting and defining key figures. Using a large variety of screen shots, Paul breaks down the complicated process into a series of manageable, project-proven steps. The Design and Configuration of APO Demand Planning Solutions – Part II: Characteristics And Planning Object Structures, Steve Rampton, Diagonal Consulting. APO Demand Planning is one of the most powerful areas in all of SAP, but it's also one of the most difficult. We're lucky to have APO co-editor Steve Rampton, one of the foremost DP experts in the world, to walk us through the DP functionality. In part two of this article series, Steve builds on the overview he laid out in part one with a guide to the design and configuration of DP solutions. This requires a detailed look at characteristics, and how these characteristics fit into DP's Planning Object Structure. Steve covers a lot of ground in this article, from the design and configuration of characteristics, to the setup of the Planning Object Structure. He's provided a number of illustrations and screen shots to bring his concepts to life. Steve closes this article with a helpful troubleshooting section so ERPtips readers can be aware of the most common problems that occur during the design and configuration of Demand Planning. The Design of APO Demand Planning Solutions, Part One: Overview of Demand Planning Design Concepts, Steve Rampton, Diagonal Consulting One indication of the scope of the APO product is that we've been publishing on APO for over a year and we still have a lot of ground to cover. But we'll make up a lot of that ground in the coming year with the introduction of not one, but two, new APO editors on our staff. Steve Rampton and Paul Krant of Diagonal Consulting, two of the premier APO consultants in the field, will be writing rotating articles for us in ERPtips. Steve kicks things off with a two-part series on the fundamentals of Demand Planning (DP) design and implementation. Steve has six full DP implementations under his belt, and he's got a lot of insight into the best practices of successful DP installs. In his first article on the most commonly implemented APO component, Steve defines the key DP concepts and guides readers through a typical (and effective) DP design. An Introduction to the APO-GATP Product, Dan Sulzinger, eConsulting Group, Inc. For most SAP users, real-time available to promise is more of a dream than a reality. Dan Sulzinger’s mission is to get more clients to live that dream through APO. In his launch article, Dan tells us what “Global ATP” is all about and how manufacturers and distributors can develop a better GATP strategy. After laying out the GATP do’s and don’ts, Dan dives into APO’s GATP functionality, and tells us what our friends in Walldorf have come up with to make real-time ATP a reality. Available to Promise - What APO delivers - Part Three, Dan Sulzinger, eConsulting Group, Inc. APO ships with so much functionality, it's almost scary. Fortunately, APO Editor Dan Sulzinger has been to the mountaintop. Fresh from his most recent investigations into APO 3.0 and the latest-and-greatest version (3.1), Dan is here to tell us about the rich possibilities available to SAP® users in the GATP Advanced Methods area. Dan's last two articles focused mostly on Basic ATP Methods, but in this new piece, Dan guides us into more advanced areas.

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R/3 Availability Check Versus APO Global ATP: Which Is Right For Your Project?, Dan Sulzinger, eConsulting Group, Inc. There's still a lot of mystique about the APO product and what it can and can't do when stacked up against R/3. Our intrepid APO Editor, Dan Sulzinger, tackles the hard questions that SAP® customers are asking about how APO's ATP functionality compares to that which already ships with R/3. The second of several articles that break down APO's complex functionality, this piece is for customers who are intrigued by APO's enhanced functionality but aren't sure about making the leap. There are also plenty of practical tips here for those who are already running APO's GATP in conjunction with R/3, but who want to make sure they are leveraging the integrated capabilities of both systems. Keys to APO Administration: The Technical Skills Your APO Project Needs, Shaun Snapp, Supply Chain Consulting Getting the most out of APO is not as simple as hiring a couple of talented functional experts. As APO consultant Shaun Snapp has seen firsthand, APO has its own technical tools, such as LiveCache and CIF, that do not exist in other R/3 products. These tools present unique opportunities for companies to leverage their APO investment, but they also create some specific technical challenges. In this excellent overview of APO technical issues, Shaun explains why the data flow in APO is a bit different than in R/3, and he outlines the technical tools that SAP® has made available to APO users in order to optimize APO performance and R/3-APO connectivity. Pushing Inventory Through the Supply Chain, Shaun Snapp, Supply Chain Consulting Does the reduction of storage costs and the increase of delivery speed to the end customer sound good to you? If so, then APO's Supply Distribution functionality might be just the ticket. In this screen-by-screen white paper, APO consultant Shaun Snapp explains how the Supply Distribution functionality can help SAP® users, and he reviews the basics of how to configure it. The Valuation Of A Supply Chain Plan In CO-PA, Russ Hardy, Data2Info Inc. Smart SAP® users are finding strategic ways of using transactional data for smarter costing and planning. As FI/CO editor and CO-PA expert Russ Hardy demonstrates in this article, you don't have to invest in fancy mySAP® applications to take advantage of some very sophisticated tools for "valuating the supply chain." Note that the CO planning tips Russ provides here can be used in all versions of SAP from 3.0 onward. Interface Design Between APO and R/3, Jaihar Murli, Ajilon Consulting Like most mySAP® components, APO is just not very effective as a standalone system. APO thrives on integration—both with R/3 and with third-party systems. And while SAP® is making integration between its components and the outside world easier with each passing year, there is still a degree of know-how involved in any integration scenario. As Jaihar explains, expertise in CIF, IDOCs, and ALE is all called into play. In this helpful how-to article, Jaihar illustrates the basic steps to integrating APO with both R/3 systems and third-party systems for the purposes of Vendor-Managed Inventory (VMI). How to Use the APO Alert Monitor for Reporting, Shaun Snapp, Supply Chain Consulting Editor's Note: In this excellent “how to” article, APO expert Shaun Snapp tells readers how to take advantage of the APO Alert Monitor—specifically the lesser-known “database alerts”—for improved reporting and analysis. Properly used, these reporting tools can be used to identify and compare areas of “overcoverage,” leading to better inventory control and less overstocking. This is the kind of bottom-line benefit that is allowing savvy users to yield some tangible benefits by “digging deeper” into functionality they have already paid for, but may not be fully utilizing.

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Basis, DBA, and R/3 Technical
Basis: Cloud Installations: Architecture and Configuration, by Wade Walla (Webucation PowerPoint and Recording) We’ve all heard about “the cloud” but what the heck is it? Learn how a cloud-based infrastructure can save your team time and money with SAP. Solution Maintenance with SAP Solution Manager and ARIS, Rajiv Jha ® In a previous article, "Solution Blueprint with SAP Solution Manager and ARIS", Rajiv Jha provided details on how can we use Solution Manager and ARIS integration during the project phase of an implementation. In this article, he rounds out the cycle with the focus on how SAP can be integrated with ARIS during production support, post-go-live. He presents the business case, then shows us the operational setup steps and implementation phases. GuiXT: An Introduction, Adam Tysman GuiXT: How to customize without customizing. This third-party product actually is a component ® of SAP GUI. It allows you to modify what your users see on their SAP screens without having to change the underlying ABAP code; it’s all done with some straightforward commands that you enter into “scripts” in reference to any or all screens within a transaction. Your customizations can be made universal, and even conditional; based, for example, on user roles. Hide fields on screens, change the field descriptive names, change icons, etc.… This article is a getting-started primer that gives you a taste of how the beast works and where you can go with it. Transaction Variants: An Overview, Adam Tysman So many programs, so many transaction codes, so many screens---and so many variations of a transaction you can create and use. In this article, Adam Tysman provides us with an overview of transaction variants in SAP, including their creation, concurrent creation of screen and transaction variants, menu functions, and assignment of the variants. After this article, you’ll have a clearer understanding of the combinations used to create transactions and how to put them to use to better serve your business needs Solution Blueprint with SAP Solution Manager and ARIS, by Rajiv Jha, Wipro Technologies High expectations and poor planning are often the most common causes of failed ERP implementations. The good news is you can avoid this angst. The key lies in how well you align your business to SAP’s standard business processes, then blueprint the final solution. In this article, Rajiv Jha details how you can accomplish this task using SAP Solution Manager and ARIS. Installing and Configuring BSI Tax Factory with SAP ERP 6.0, Eric Walter, Basis Consultant Today's employers have to keep their eyes and ears open, and be ready to respond very quickly to policy or tax changes. One way to position your firm to nimbly comply with employment tax laws is to use the BSI Tax Factory™. As with most upgrades and add-ons, the SAP OSS notes regarding this are, shall we say, rather cryptic. Veteran of numerous implementations, add-ons, and upgrades, Eric Walter has fought the war and won. Read his detailed instructions for installing, configuring, and testing Tax Factory.
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How to Perform an OS/DB Migration Using SAPinst, Eric Walter, Basis Consultant OK—we’ve already presented you with a primer on how to do a file system copy in SAP for a single ABAP stack. But what if you have a dual stack system? Eric Walter’s has you covered. In this article, Eric demonstrates a dual stack system copy using SAPinst, including migrating platforms. This article makes a wonderful supplement to the main SAP System Copy Guide. The SAP Web Dispatcher: What It Is, and How It Is Installed, Eric Walter, Basis Consultant As the economy slows and jobs are lost, the crime rate always rises. These times, more than ever, call for heightened security measures to protect your firm’s assets. This may be the time to consider installing SAP Web Dispatcher, to add a layer of protection to your web servers. Eric Walter explains the pros and cons of Web Dispatcher, as well as installation (implementation) steps in this article. Act prudently. Be safe. Configuring a System Landscape Directory in NetWeaver™ 7 with an SQL Server Database, Eric Walter, Basis Consultant. If you’ve already tried to install a System Landscape Directory in NetWeaver 7 and failed, it’s probably because you didn’t have all the information you needed. Although SAP® provides a guide and a supporting OSS note, there’s still some critical information missing from the steps. Fortunately our Basis guru, Eric Walter, has already gone through the process and identified the fixes. Follow Eric’s simple instructions and you’ll have your SLD up in no time. Installing SAP® NetWeaver™ 7.0 for High Availability Clustering with SQL Server Database, Eric Walter, SAP Basis Consultant Have you ever been accused of working for the “department of redundancy department”? Turns out that when it comes to protecting the availability of your SAP systems, that can be a good thing. A very good thing. This article steps us through setting up and installing an integrated, clustered high-availability environment using ASCS. Separate Transport Directories? Not Unless You Have To, Eric Walter, SAP Basis Consultant Although it might not be the preferred option, sometimes you have to go your own way. It’s the same deal with transport directories. There are some circumstances that just dictate that separate transport directories need to be created. And that can add a layer of complexity (and headaches) if it’s not handled properly. Joey Hirao has been dealt this hand before, so if separate is a must, rather than an option, take the time to read Joey’s guide to make this lessthan-ideal situation work for you. Configuring SAP®’s Maintenance Optimizer in Solution Manager, Eric Walter, SAP Basis Consultant If you are considering the installation of any NetWeaver™ products, you’re already aware that Solution Manager is a must-have for product installation. And with Solution Manager comes Maintenance Optimizer, the new method for obtaining patch downloads from SAP. Neither of these applications are “optional”, so it’s key to have them up and running before engaging in any installations or upgrades. Fortunately, we have Eric Walter to share with us all that we need to know about Solution Manager; this issue, he takes us through the technical steps you’ll need to set up and configure Maintenance Optimizer.

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You've Got Mail: A Guide for Setting Up Your SAP Mail Configuration, Eric Walter, SAP Consultant With newer versions of SAP came newer challenges for mail integration and configuration, most specifically setting it up in SAP Web Application Server 7.10. SAP OSS note 455140 gives you some of the details you need to know. Meanwhile, Eric Walter fills in the rest—including step-bystep setup in ECC 6.0! Read Eric’s tip, then get ready to hit SEND!

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Configurable Menus in SAP: An Easy Way to Access Module Transactions, Maria Nikolova, SAP Senior Expert, National Electricity Company, Bulgaria In our non-technical lives, we’re so used to having menus created for us that we don’t think twice about it. These are the choices; take ‘em or leave ‘em. Occasionally, we ponder what it would be like if we could add to or delete from a menu based on our own needs. Well, the good news in SAP is—you can! Maria Nikolova demonstrates how easy it is to tailor menus to support the needs of the business, so that you and your users can access the things that are important to you with a simple double-click! How to Deploy SAPRouter Using SNC Utilities from SAP®, Eric Walter, SAP Consultant If you’re still using a frame relay for SAP support—listen up! There is a much more cost-effective, secure solution available using Secure Network Communications. The trick is properly setting this option up. Eric Walter presents the how-to so that you can be on your way to a more secure and less expensive option for online SAP support. NetWeaver 7.0 Web Application Server: Defined, Eric Walter, SAP Consultant Are you confused by the ever-changing terms and constantly evolving architecture of SAP’s NetWeaver 7.0 Web Application Server? Then let’s let Eric Walter help us sort it all out. Eric provides an overall look at the components involved, then discusses the kernel architecture integration for each. Just the Fax, Ma' am: Simple Front-End Faxing from SAP®, by Roger Myers, eBusiness Specialist, Brenntag Canada Inc. Unless the big thrill of your day is running to and from the printer, to the fax, and hanging around waiting for a confirmation, you’re going to LOVE this tip from Roger Myers. With some relatively simple configuration, your users can be sending faxes FROM THEIR DESKS through SAP. Let Roger walk you through the setup on both Windows and SAP, and before you know it, your company will be saving time, paper, and money on outbound faxes. Now, that’s something to get excited about! TMS 101: Fine Tuning Your Transport Management System, Eric Walter, SAP Consultant If you’re an SAP client company that is currently in the process of an implementation or version upgrade, then you’ve probably discovered that your transport landscape will most likely undergo some manipulations—changes that could easily get lost in the shuffle. Eric Walter provides some food for thought on how to use SAP’s Transport Management System to keep a handle on what system changes are being made, who’s making them, and how to keep a history from version to version and more.
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A Solution in Transition: Installing SAP’s Solution Manager 4.0, Eric Walter, SAP Consultant You’ve probably read the low-down on “why” you’ll need to install SAP Solution Manager 4.0. Not only are there some great benefits and uses, but it’s becoming a must-have for future SAP landscapes. So now, the question remains “how” do you install it? Eric Walter returns to provide you with the detailed steps to get up and running with SM. This is a don’t-miss article if there is a Solution Manager upgrade in your IT future! Taking It to the Next Level: Upgrading to Oracle 10g for SAP, Eric Walter, SAP Consultant You’ve done your research, you’ve waited for a stable release…or at least a stable patch, and you’re ready to upgrade. But you’re potentially risking the integrity of your entire database, so maybe you’d like the advice of someone who’s already done it…someone who’s an expert. You’re in luck, because Eric Walter has put together a list of do’s and don’ts to get you through it. Think of it as a 12-step program for your Basis team. Refreshing SAP Data: An Alternative to SAP’s System Copy Procedure, By Eric Walter, SAP Basis Consultant Ch-ch-ch Changes. .time to face the changes of SAP landscapes. Additions and parallel environments make change an inevitable part of SAP system administration, which means the need for system copies is also on the rise. While SAP provides one method, Eric Walter presents an alternative that uses a direct filesystem copy of SAP production data to your target host. If changes are the only constant in your SAP life, we like to make this part just a bit more direct! Stay Innovative With SAP E-Learning Maps, Kamran Ellahi It’s pretty difficult to go from Point A to Point B, when you haven’t the faintest clue where you’re supposed to be going. Imagine traveling across country, without a roadmap to guide you. Pretty frightening prospect, right? Unless you’re the first explorer to venture into uncharted territories, life works much easier when you have some clue as to what to expect, what path to take—some direction. It works the same way with SAP. If you’re a new user, or even a seasoned user working with a new application, it helps if you have something that spells out the direction you’ll need to take—in other words, a map. Kamran Ellahi makes a pretty compelling case for SAP’s E-Learning Maps included with Solution Manager 3.2. He’ll take you through the steps to setting up learning maps, and give you a few pointers along the way on why this feature is a pretty neat way to travel the SAP road! The Power of Automated Testing: E-CATT Test Scripts in SAP Solution Manager 3.2, Part I, Kamran Ellahi, Pakistan Petroleum Limited In the first installment of his two-part series, our SAP Basis expert Kamran Ellahi separates rumor from reality & delivers the goods on the Solution Manager’s Extended Computer Aided Testing Tool. Kamran explains how the e-CATT tool, based on SAP’s CRM module, flexes its testing muscles across several R/3 systems including CRM, BW, APO, & SCM. He begins with the basics: preparing & tweaking the SAP GUI, enabling scripting, and understanding the architecture. Kamran then guides you through the activities required to create & optimize the system data containers. Whether you’re a new recruit or a veteran of “World War SAP”, Kamran’s article will set you on the right testing path with e-CATT.

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ERPtips Document Library Summary as of July 2012

SAP Role Creation: Guidelines for Planning and Implementation, Eric Walter, Basis Editor Have open standards opened a wider avenue to data security exposure? Today’s technologies provide greater data integration worldwide, but how do you secure your firm’s confidential SAP data? Eric Walter presents a solid framework for developing & testing security roles in SAP. In the planning phase, Eric shows you how to develop a matrix of roles & associated permissions. He then makes implementation a breeze by demonstrating how to develop roles with SAP’s Profile Generator, copying & adjusting the existing roles to expedite (creation of roles with similar security access) the process. Eric advocates a test script to lead users through an in-depth exploration of the newly created roles. Integrating the Impossible: How to Configure SAP R/3 to Run on Microsoft Exchange Server 2003, Kamran Ellahi, Pakistan Petroleum Limited They said it couldn’t be done. But not only did Kamran Ellahi attempt to configure SAP R/3 to run on Microsoft Exchange Server 2003, he succeeded at making it stable and efficient. We know you’ll want to know how he did it, so we just happened to include his article on the subject in this issue. Kamran starts with basics like downloading and installing the MS Exchange Connector. He then takes you through the steps of adding and configuring the connector to work in your environment. He provides details for setting up the gateway properties and gives you the tips and “gotchas” to keep you out of trouble. He even leads you through starting and verifying the Exchange Server. Cracking the Code: How to Install the SAP Java Cryptographic Toolkit, Joey Hirao, JoTech LLC Joey Hirao discusses the virtues of protecting data with the Secure Socket Layer (SSL) on the WebAS 6.40 server. His dissertation is a clear-cut & guileless journey through all things coded. He explains the logic, as well as the purpose of public & private encryption keys. Joey takes you through each step in enabling SSL for your WebAS server, from installing the SAP Java Cryptologic Toolkit to creating the appropriate server keys. He shows you how to obtain a certificate from the Certificate Authority & how to assign the key pair to use for the specific SSL port. Finally, Joey provides the steps to implement the client certificates to authenticate the encrypted data from the client side. Upgrading to SAP R/3 Enterprise Made Easy (or at Least Easier): A Hands-On Guide for the System Administrator, Eric Walter, SAP Consultant Eric presents a thoughtful and tested plan for the Enterprise 4.7 upgrade process from planning, to upgrading, to finalizing the post-upgrade tasks. Eric helps you to understand and mitigate the constraints that your OS and database versions may impose, while upgrading to an R/3 release that is compliant with your source code and, by the way, also satisfies your contract with SAP and your duty to your company. Yeah, no pressure. Eric sums it up best in his introduction, “this article provides an illustrated step-by-step look at the 4.6C to 4.7 upgrade process, noting the “gotchas” you might encounter along the way and the SAP resources (including OSS notes) that you can turn to.” Alternate Backups: How to Install and Use Oracle’s Recovery Manager (RMAN), Joey Hirao, JoTech LLC Basis Editor Joey Hirao presents an overview and comparison of the standard “file backup” function and “alternate” backup methods; focusing on the use of RMAN (Oracle’s Recovery Manager). He takes us step-by-step through the configuration and testing, noting important considerations at each step. Joey also provides a brief troubleshooting section, in the event RMAN doesn’t run correctly in the test phase. He touches on log file and control file location and maintenance issues, and concludes with a list of “lessons learned” while implementing RMAN. This is one of those articles that will become a valuable component of your Basis Team library. Copyright © 2012 by Klee Associates, Inc. www. ERPtips.com Page 21
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ERPtips Document Library Summary as of July 2012

Patching and Upgrading Enterprise Portals: Tips for Planning and Execution, Joey Hirao, JoTech LLC If you’re considering patching or upgrading your SAP Enterprise Portals functionality, you’ll want to first read Basis Editor Joey Hirao’s article to “get the skinny” on the topic. In this article, Joey demonstrates application of the EP6 patch on a Solaris system. He sets up the procedural framework, leading you through the tough decisions in planning the upgrade. Next, he helps you understand the SAP patch naming conventions, turning it into plain English, so that you can identify the version you are on and the version you want to load. Joey helps you think through the path you’ll need to take to arrive at the desired patch level and shows you his strategy for downloading and applying those patches. Basis Team Tools: Using CCMS to Monitor SAP’s Performance, Joey Hirao, JoTech, LLC. Set sail with Joey Hirao on the good ship CCMS (Computing Center Management System) as he navigates the potential perils of system monitoring & performance. On your cruise you will learn what it is and how it has evolved over time. You will thoroughly explore the Operating System, Database, and SAP Basis Layer components of the system with Captain Joey at your side. Take the helm and learn to configure and use CCMS thresholds to see at a glance how the system is performing. Once you’ve mastered these techniques, you’ll find smooth sailing ahead on the seas of SAP system monitoring and performance. Change Management: Transport Management System Planning Part II, Joey Hirao, JoTech, LLC In Part I of this series Joey described the importance of understanding the corporate strategy in determining the technical change mgmt. plan. He also detailed the technical implementation process from change request to “change success”. In this Part II, Joey uses a three-client-system (Development, Quality, and Production) example to guide you through some sound planning decisions and intricate step-by-step configurations, identifying shortcuts and potential “gotchas” along the way. Joey concludes by explaining how extended transport control provides more efficient queue management for the Basis administrator through the use of transport groups. Change Management: Transport Management System Planning (Part I), Joey Hirao, JoTech LLC TMS can cause a heck of a lot of headaches. The reason TMS is so tricky? Because TMS is assigned the serious task of making sure that any technical changes you make to your SAP system are “carried downstream” and properly adjusted on all “live” production systems. There’s enough to cover on TMS that Joey will devote two articles to the subject. This first piece focuses on the how-to’s of formulating an effective TMS strategy, using Joey’s 5 key principles: controls, consistency, accuracy, comparability, and good old common sense. Copying and Recreating a Live 4.7 Production System: An Illustrated Guide, Joey Hirao, JoTech LLC. Basis Editor Joey Hirao has shown us some nifty tricks in the last year and a half, but he might have topped himself this time. In this edition of ERPtips, Joey walks readers through the process of recreating a live 4.7 production environment. So why recreate a live system? As Joey has learned, SAP projects that maintain a live copy have a lot of useful systems flexibility. Perhaps the most important use of a copied SAP system? The ability to test new functions on live SAP data. Sandbox tests are fine as far as they go, but a full live-system copy is a much more powerful testing tool. Using actual coding samples and screen shots, Joey takes readers step by step through the process of recreating a 4.7 SAP system.

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Central User Administration: A Guide to the Setup and Administration of the CUA, Joey Hirao, Jotech, LLC If there's one thing that SAP® users dread, it's a repetitive task. And few tasks are more repetitive than adding new users to the SAP system one at a time. Unfortunately, as Basis Editor Joey Hirao has learned firsthand, SAP's traditional solution to that problem, known as Central User Administration (CUA), has a reputation for causing even more headaches than it solves. But as Joey is happy to report, with newer releases of SAP, CUA is finally ready for primetime and able to automate those repetitive tasks into an effective tool for user management on a broad level. In this useful “how to” piece, Joey takes readers through the process of setting up CUA step by step. Once he has covered the basics of CUA setup, Joey closes with a section on user management within CUA and a handy chart of common CUA setup errors and their resolution. I have a hunch more than a few SAP administrators are going to be glad they came across Joey's article and learned the “good news” about the “new CUA.” Data Conversion For SAP Implementations Document, Jaihar Murli, Ajilon Consulting The prospect of “extending” the reach of SAP through the use of mySAP components is an exciting one. But while involving customers and suppliers in our business processes through ecommerce and supply chain solutions sounds great, it brings us back to an age old issue: data conversion. Once we decide to let third parties have access to our data, the importance of data integrity takes on a new urgency. And in today’s heterogeneous application environments, data integrity isn’t possible without effective data conversion. ERPtips has put together an invaluable troubleshooting chart to help SAP users put controls in place to minimize the risk of “unclean” data. Can Your System Handle the Stress?, Joey Hirao, Jotech LLC If you want to find out how much "load" your SAP system can handle, you have two options: you can wait till your system is live and "see what happens," or you can conduct pre-"go live" stress tests to ensure that your system is ready for anything your users can throw at it. In a stress test, you're not testing your software, but the Basis system capacity and system configuration. As Joey has learned on project after project, the effort taken to plan and conduct a comprehensive stress test (which can also be performed on a system in production) pays off greatly in terms of reducing costly system overload and downtime. Database "Go Live" And Beyond: A Basis Administrator’s Guide To Oracle Databases, Joey Hirao, Jotech LLC After "go live" is the wrong time to decide that you didn't configure your R/3 database properly for the demands of your user base. In this helpful article, Basis Editor Joey Hirao lets us in on some keys to database installation that will serve any Oracle DBA/Basis Lead well. And for those users who are working on a live SAP® instance, Joey has some tips for optimizing database performance post-go live as well. Although this article was written with the Oracle database in mind, a number of the lessons will be applicable to other R/3 database environments. R/3 Landscape Strategy: A Comparative Analysis, Jaihar Murli, Ajilon Consulting Choosing the right systems architecture for your company is getting more and more complicated. You need a systems landscape that incorporates the middleware options you need, and it's important to know which landscapes are better for multi-site deployment. In this handy article, Jaihar Murli contrasts two R/3 systems landscapes and sets the table for his next article on landscape management of mySAP® applications.

Copyright © 2012 by Klee Associates, Inc. www. ERPtips.com

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SAP Support Package Implementation - A Guide to Planning and Implementation, Joey Hirao, Jotech LLC ERPtips readers tell us that support packages are a common source of head scratching, so Basis Editor Joey Hirao agreed to step in and shed some light on this tricky topic. Read his recommendations for how to install and utilize SAP's support packages to keep your implementation current and "bug free." Interface Design Between APO and R/3, Jaihar Murli, Ajilon Consulting Like most mySAP® components, APO is just not very effective as a standalone system. APO thrives on integration—both with R/3 and with third-party systems. And while SAP® is making integration between its components and the outside world easier with each passing year, there is still a degree of know-how involved in any integration scenario. As Jaihar explains, expertise in CIF, IDOCs, and ALE is all called into play. In this helpful how-to article, Jaihar illustrates the basic steps to integrating APO with both R/3 systems and third-party systems for the purposes of Vendor-Managed Inventory (VMI). Unlocking the Secrets of the SAPGUI, Joey Hirao, Jotech LLC The SAPGUI was one of the most “user-friendly” developments in the evolution of R/3. But as Basis Editor Joey Hirao has learned the hard way, the SAPGUI isn't always as smooth to install as it is to use. After watching a number of clients stumble through the SAPGUI installation process, Joey organized his “lessons learned” and put together a very useful “how to” guide for ERPtips readers. In this guide, narrated with screen shots, Joey takes the reader through the process of upgrading the SAPGUI and applying patches after the upgrade. MySAP Landscape Strategies - Centralized and Decentralized SAP Systems, Jaihar Murli, Ajilon Consulting There's a lot of great things about SAP, but "one size fits all" is not one of them. In terms of technical architecture, the basic SAP landscape only works for a small percentage of users. Most companies are running multiple instances of SAP on a global level. As our Technical Architecture Editor Jaihar Murli has seen firsthand, choosing the best architecture requires a careful, company-specific approach. With the addition of the mySAP application components, the technical options are both more powerful and more complex. Implementing Oracle 9i Features in SAP®, Joey Hirao, Jotech LLC Editor's Note: In this edition of ERPtips, Basis expert Joey Hirao tells us about the key features in the Oracle 9i release that SAP technical teams can take advantage of. One of the great new features? Improved management of “rollback segments” (now called “AUM”) and guaranteed to make your Basis team happier and more productive. Using actual database coding snippets, Joey has provided us with an excellent hands-on preview of the best new Oracle 9i features.

Copyright © 2012 by Klee Associates, Inc. www. ERPtips.com

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ERPtips Document Library Summary as of July 2012

Business Warehouse (BW) / Business Information (BI)
Demystifying SAP HANA: A Primer, Anurag Barua What is HANA? For those in the SAP analytics realm, HANA, which stands for High Availability Analytics Appliance, offers business users the ability to gather data and perform analytics faster than ever. Anurag Barua provides us with the details on SAP HANA, including a discussion on the various components, how it's different from other business intelligence products, and whether implementing HANA is the right move for your organization. SAP Business Intelligence Security, Roy Bishop and Jocelyn Hayes (Webucation Recorded Session) Get your SAP security down pat with the tips and best practices discussed in this recorded ERPtips Webucation event. We'll introduce you to BI security, highlight the key issues, then demonstrate how it works in a lab scenario. Peeling the SAP NetWeaver BW Onion: Five Little-Known BW Utilities, Anurag Barua It's those little things under the hood that aren't in the owner's manual that'll get you every time. That's why at ERPtips, our favorite articles are often those that reveal valuable tools or techniques that a lot of people don't know exist, but that can save time, aggravation, and money. This is a classic example of a handful of relatively obscure but very helpful BW utilities. Business Intelligence Implementation Case Study, Shreeram Vankatdas Catch a glimpse inside the thought process that goes into planning a huge SAP upgrade. In this article, Shreeram Vankatdas takes us through the analytical steps the City of Tacoma is taking to implement BI throughout their organization. Shreeram discusses how they’ll determine what their future needs are in comparison to their current needs, and how they plan to best leverage BI’s capabilities within their government. While this article shows the efforts as they are occurring now, a short time from their go-live date, the information and planning process shared offers a template for anyone on the cusp of planning their own BI implementation. Introduction to the Central Management Console (CMC) in SAP BusinessObjects, Anurag Barua BusinessObject administrators can rejoice; managing your server/environment just got a bit easier. Central Management Console (CMC) offers user-friendly and intuitive interface that can help you administer and control the activities in your environment: In this article, Anuraq Barua introduces us to CMC then takes us on a tour of the key features, including User Groups, Servers, Connections and Universe. How to Evaluate, Choose, and Integrate Front End Tools in BI, Arthur "Pat" Pesa Front end, back end, BEx, BW, BI, BOBJs, data marts, lions and tigers and bears… Which way to turn? Where am I? What's in the future? Well, we can't predict the future, but Pat Pesa can ® help us be prepared as best we can for whatever the future holds with SAP in terms of business analysis and reporting. This article shows us how to fully analyze what we have now and put ourselves in the best position to prepare for whatever comes down the road. Want to Have Your (BW) Cake and Eat It Too? Let’s Serve You BI Demo Content, Anurag Barua ® SAP has a great method for demonstrating the power of BI without your having to go build a bunch of InfoCubes and sorting out what data you want to demo. Anurag Barua takes us on a tour of this ready-to-serve demo package. Not only a good way to let BI show its stuff, but also a pretty useful learning tool. Take a look at what's inside in terms of pre-built cubes and demo data.

Copyright © 2012 by Klee Associates, Inc. www. ERPtips.com

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Getting Optimum Performance from Your SAP BI Environment, Arthur "Pat" Pesa There are many layers to SAP BI landscapes. And many of those layers are interdependent. Getting all of these layers (and all of the individuals who maintain them) working together for peak performance in a BI environment takes some coordination and effort. In this article, Pat Pesa explores the different aspects and interdependencies found in this environment that you should become familiar with in order to properly assess and optimize your performance. Deconstructing the SAP Business Objects XI 3.1 Business Intelligence Stack, by Anurag Barua Business Objects explained! If you were wondering how SAP’s acquisition of Business Objects impacts your BI capabilities, Anurag Barua has the answers. In this article, Anurag delves into the various tools and applications that comprise the BO suite and when and how you might consider using them. This is a great primer if you’re one of the many looking for clarification as to this addition. Creating Meaningful Reporting in BI for SRM eProcurement, By Arthur “Pat” Pesa, Senior SAP BI Architect Most days you consider yourself pretty lucky. Your company is forward thinking and has invested in some excellent production and reporting tools. You're one of the “BI guys”, charged with assisting all corporate reporting through SAP. But how do you get disparate systems to communicate…how do you collect data generated in SRM, and store, manipulate, and report on it from an ECC system? Take heart. Pat Pesa has already worked through this situation and has the info on what you need to know. Pat explains the conflict, the strategy, and the steps to make it work like a charm. SAP BI Strategy: A Perspective on Recent Acquisitions, by Anurag Barua, Senior Manager. If the recent batch of SAP alphabet soup has left a bad taste in your mouth, take heart; the plethora of recent acquisitions will offer more than just a new serving of acronyms and initialisms to learn. Anurag Barua gives us some insight into the 2007/2008 acquisitions and the SAP strategic plan for them. Is part of your SAP investment now obsolete, or will it be integrated with a new product for a superior product? There’s one way to find out…read on. Migrate Your BW 3.5 InfoSets into BI 7.0: Without Losing Your InfoObject Master Data, Elizabeth Helen Sacknus, Syssoft Brazil Some upgrades are harder than others. if you’re making the move from BW 3.5 to Bi 7.0, you’ll discover that it can be a huge undertaking if you have to recreate all of your InfoObject master data. You certainly want to invest the time to make the upgrade successful, but hey…it’s not an endurance test. You can save yourself a lot of work, late nights, and headaches by using Elizabeth Sacknus’ migration method. Backend Performance Improvement Measures: Make Your BI Queries Soar, Anurag Barua, Director, EDC Consulting Disappointed by your system’s BI performance? Take heart—things can improve. Anurag Barua demonstrates how to get that most out of your BI queries by focusing on a few areas the can make a significant impact on taking things from 0 to 60 in no time flat!
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Copyright © 2012 by Klee Associates, Inc. www. ERPtips.com

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SAP BI 7.0: A Forward Facing Strategy, Arthur Patrick Pesa, ProKarma, Inc. ® Think future! Think forward! Think Central Repository! As SAP acquires more and more tools to enhance reporting in BI 7.0 (and other systems), it’s key to think in terms of information, people, and their needs—not just the systems involved. Pat Pesa hones in on how to start planning for an information-filled future and how to maximize SAP’s newest acquisitions in the reporting industry. Let’s just say this—best of breed in the SAP landscape never looked better than it does now. Understanding DataStore Objects (DSOs) and Their Assorted Flavor in BI NetWeaver 7.0, Anurag Barua, Independent SAP Consultant What does DSO do that ODS doesn’t? After you say that five times fast, read up on this new feature found in NetWeaver BI 7.0. Anurag Barua compares DataStore Objects to its older self— the ODS Object, then goes deeper into the types of DSOs you’ll encounter, when you’ll want to use them, and touches on the configuration. Rock Those Enterprise Reports with BEx Report Designer, by Peter Scott, Traxion Consulting, Inc. Want your reports to go from blah to WOW? Think that’s only possible with a fancy third-party
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tool? Surprise! SAP NetWeaver™ BI offers a pretty user-friendly design tool in BEx Report Designer. Peter Scott shows us how to use this tool to take Enterprise Reporting in SAP to new heights. Learn how to format, color, and do all sorts of neat tricks so that your next presentation gives the 411 with a bit more panache! What's New?: NetWeaver 2004s BI Reporting Tools, Peter Scott, SAP Practice Director, Claraview, Inc. If you haven’t checked out the BW’s reporting tools since the release of NetWeaver 2004s, you may be missing out on some great enhancements and new opportunities when it comes to reporting and analysis. Peter Scott gives us an overview of what’s hot with what’s now known as NetWeaver BI, particularily the BEx tools. If you’ve considered taking your reporting analysis rd needs to a 3 party tool—don’t make a move until you’ve read this article! Unconditionally Yours: Learn to Love Conditions in SAP’s BEx Query Designer, Anurag Barua, The Washington Post Data, data everywhere—and how much do you really want to take in? Probably not as much as displays on your screen when you’re using an analytical query. So, is it possible to reduce the data displayed to just what you need to complete your analysis and hide the rest? Yes it is, says Anurag Barua. The “secret” to eliminating the extraneous displays of data lies in the conditions of SAP’s BEx Query Designer. We’ll let Anurag take you through the why, where, and how of using this undervalued tool. Once you’ve grasped its value, we’re sure you’ll love conditions unconditionally, too! Data Warehousing Workbench in BI 7.0: Utilize New Features of an Enhanced NetWeaver FrontEnd, Anurag Barua If you’re planning an upgrade to NetWeaver's BI 7.0, Anuraq Barua has some great news about the new features and enhancements that come with this release---especially with regard to the Data Warehousing Workbench (previously known as Administrator Workbench). Anurag is extremely excited about the ease and speed with which you can now navigate this workbench, not to mention his new favorite, the “Favorites” folder. So whether you’re a developer, administrator, or data modeler, prepare for a better experience with BI 7.0.

Copyright © 2012 by Klee Associates, Inc. www. ERPtips.com

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Exceptional Analysis of Query Results: Using Exceptions in SAP’s Business Explorer (BEx) Analyzer, Anurag Barua, The Washington Post Want to make the most out of the information available to you through SAP’s BW (BI) module? Anurag Barua shows you how to use the Business Explorer (BEx) Analyzer tool to produce helpful exception reporting. Want to know which products sold poorly…& in which segment? Anurag shows you how to set up & monitor these items with the Analyzer. He takes you through the steps to identify the exceptions, set exception conditions, set the associated alerts, & produce exception reports with the Reporting Agent. Whether you’ve implemented the BEx Analyzer tool or are just considering purchasing it, this article will help you move forward. With the Analyzer tool, make the data in your BW work for you. Technical Content: Get More out of Standard SAP Business Content, Anurag Barua, The Washington Post “What the heck is SAP BW ‘Technical Content’, and why do I need it?” Well, Anurag is going to explain it to you. Master of all things Financial and BW in the world of SAP, Anurag gets technical in this issue. He cites the misconceptions inspired by this misnomer, and tells you just what Technical Content really is. He further explains the various functions of the InfoProviders involved, and shows you how to take full advantage of the overall functionality. He describes how queries run on these InfoProviders to provide you with a lot of valuable information (most notably in the area of general query performance), details on data loads into data targets, and personalization information. Advanced Analysis in Business Warehouse: Using the Analysis Process Designer (APD) Workbench, Anurag Barua, Washington Post Anurag succinctly summarizes ways in which you can pull data from your SAP R/3 system, APO, CRM, BW, non-SAP systems, databases, & even flat files into the user-friendly APD GUI Workbench for maximum data usability. Anurag focuses the scope of this white paper exclusively on preparation & transformation of data. Specifically, he takes us through aggregation transformation, sort transformation, hide or projection transformation, & the join transformation in APD with detailed steps & supporting screen shots. He then illustrates the filter process & various data mining methods. Finally, he describes the use of ABAP routines to create transfer rules & update rules for the APD Workbench. NetWeaver™ BI: Best Practices for Successful Project Management, Arthur “Pat” Pesa, arthurpesa, inc. No NetWeaver BI implementation should be pursued without first reviewing and considering the industry best practices for the project. BW Editor Pat Pesa’s presents a “no holds barred” view of the key BI project objectives, as well as an overview of the methodology he has used on SAP sites to keep NetWeaver projects on target. Why is this kind of planning so important? As Pat explains, if you design your architecture the right way, you will have a system landscape that is extendable and consistent with the technical standards you’ve put into place. To Upgrade or Not to Upgrade: What NetWeaver™ BI Brings to the Table, Arthur “Pat” Pesa, arthurpesa, inc. For some, the upgrade question becomes one of “when”, rather than “if”. In this article, Pat takes on the challenge of sifting through the NetWeaver hype, as it pertains to the evolution from Business Warehouse to NetWeaver Business Intelligence (BI). He compares NetWeaver BI’s features and potential benefits with the more familiar BW tools, and provides his experiencebased insights to help you reach a decision that is right for your company. Read Pat’s article and decide for yourself if the NetWeaver excitement is the “real deal” or simply “much ado about nothing”. Copyright © 2012 by Klee Associates, Inc. www. ERPtips.com Page 28

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Creating a Well-Developed Master Data Management Solution in BW, Arthur “Pat” Pesa, arthurpesa, inc. Pat Pesa discusses developing, refining, and managing a solid master data structure with SAP’s BW product. He illustrates a well-thought out, cross-functional approach to craft lean, flexible master data that will support your R/3 solution across a range of modules. Pat describes a solution that utilizes the master data’s unique characteristics in terms of time dependency, multiple attributes, and unique updating mechanisms to optimize performance and ensure data viability. Loading and working with R/3 is only part of the equation. The real challenge comes into play when loading data derived from a system outside the SAP framework. BW Security – Part II: How BW Security Functions in a NetWeaver Environment, Arthur “Pat” Pesa, arthurpesa, inc. SAP BW expert Pat Pesa recognizes the importance of being proactive in addressing security issues. In Part I of his series on BW security, he discussed the “big picture” in SAP as it relates to security. Pat discusses the impact of the next generation of BW security concerns as companies upgrade to a NetWeaver platform. He thoughtfully discusses user management and administration, authentication, communication security, data storage security, and some miscellaneous security details found across all SAP systems. Fixed Assets – How to Maximize and Extend your FI-AA Implementation, Pat Pesa, arthurpesa inc. BW Editor Pat Pesa covers the somewhat new Fixed Assets “delta extraction” functionality in SAP BW. The beauty of the delta extraction functionality is that it works in both BW & R/3. This extraction technology is based on an entirely new data model that utilizes the concepts of Enterprise Data Warehousing. Folks in the market for a new FI/AA reporting & analysis tool will want to strongly consider this new delta-enabled functionality over the older “full-load-style” of FI/AA implementation. A quick review of the Fixed Assets Business Model chart in this paper will help you understand why. Pat presents a discussion of InfoCubes, FA extractors in R/3, the extraction control table, and reporting issues. He wraps up the white paper with a general discussion of the best practices in FI/AA BW. SAP BW Authorizations and Security: Part I, Arthur “Pat” Pesa, arthurpesa, inc. BW Editor Pat Pesa examines the basic concepts of BW’s role-based authorizations as opposed to R/3’s transaction code-based authorizations. Pat explains that a successful SAP implementation must have a well-thought-out security and authorization model that considers all aspects of security within the SAP infrastructure. He provides examples of functional role hierarchies from both a top-down and cross-functional perspective. He also shows how he uses Excel spreadsheets to map out the reporting team, define roles, and determine each user’s access requirements. Managing Large Data Volumes in SAP BW: A Guide to Improving Data Management Across Functional Areas, Arthur “Pat” Pesa, arthurpesa, inc. BW Editor Pat Pesa takes you through the thankless tasks of dealing with your large data volumes in a way that preserves the data (for future reference), but frees precious disk space for optimum system performance. In this article, Pat details the BW configuration options and describes how each can affect system performance over time. Pat introduces the ODS and InfoCube data storage options and explores each facet within these, including data partitioning, to further assist you in managing your data. He helps you determine the initial data volumes you can expect at “go live”, and how to anticipate data growth.

Copyright © 2012 by Klee Associates, Inc. www. ERPtips.com

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Using SAP BW for FERC (Federal Energy Regulatory Commission) Reporting and Rate Case Preparation, Pat Pesa, arthurpesa, Inc. One of the benefits of BW is that it can be customized to meet the reporting needs of specific industries or regulatory requirements. In this article, Pat shows how to use BW for the purposes of FERC reporting and rate case preparation. He illustrates the use of BW, along with external systems, to identify, collect, and report required regulatory data. He describes the benefits of Open Hub and InfoSpokes functionality and demonstrates how they are used to integrate data from the BW data feed to external applications (such as Excel) to develop regulatory analytics. Pat then goes on to show how to filter this data and how to use it to compile Rate-Case models. Tips on Implementing a BW-Based Management Reporting Solution (and Getting Your Users to Use It!), by Peter Scott, BW Consultant and Trainer As SAP's customers become more experienced with SAP systems, they also want a lot more out of the software. In this white paper, Peter Scott shares the “best practices” he has learned while helping SAP users implement management reporting solutions and customize BW's powerful reporting capabilities. Peter explains why it's so critical to have “one single source” that pulls data from all functional areas, and he highlights the points in the process where obtaining user input and involvement is most needed. SAP Data Management Strategies: Using BW Process Chains for Efficient Data Loading, Pat Pesa, arthurpesa, Inc. Data currency and relevancy are the fundamental claims that SAP makes with the implementation of their Business Information Warehouse module. Pat Pesa, our master of SAP BW, demonstrates a logical data management strategy through the use of BW Process Chains. Pat takes us from the time of “hit or miss” data loading in BW versions 3.0 or older, where guesswork was the default scheduling tool, to the robust options Process Chain technology offers in BW 3.1 or higher. Complex processing activities are broken down into a chain of manageable processes that are launched in a logical sequence according to the user’s requirements. Got RF? How to Add Value to Your Warehouse Management System with RF and SAPConsole, by John Lenhardt, Tranzation RFID gets all the press these days, but the truth is that for most companies, the costs (and risks) of being an “early adopter” of RFID are not viable. But there’s good news: Virtually all R/3 users running 4.6C or higher can take immediate advantage of SAP’s existing RF barcoding functionality. In this enlightening white paper, SAP Warehouse Management and RF expert John Lenhardt explains how his team installed RF and achieved a measurable return on investment and he has the numbers to prove it. A Functional Approach to Enterprise Data Management in Business Warehouse, Part Two, Arthur “Pat” Pesa, arthurpesa, inc. Pat takes a higher-level look at the importance of data management and design at the enterprise level and gives ERPtips readers a look into his overall vision of a fully-realized SAP data architecture. Pat picks up where he left off in part one, framing the discussion around data as a corporate asset that must be maintained by a “data steward.” A steward may not “own” the data, but you can’t realize the goals of a BW (and R/3 implementation) unless there is a steward who can ensure that the data architecture design is sound and the principles of data management are put into place at every organizational level.

Copyright © 2012 by Klee Associates, Inc. www. ERPtips.com

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A Functional Approach to Managing Non-R/3 Master and Transactional Data in BW 3.1, Pat Pesa, arthurpesa, inc. In the August/Sept 2003 edition of ERPtips, Pat put together a guide for integrating R/3 and nonR/3 data from a technical perspective. In this companion piece, Pat revisits this topic from a functional perspective, guiding the reader through the construction of a BW data model for effective integration. Pat reckons with all kinds of raw data and the integrations issues for each. He has developed realistic integration strategies dealing with a range of data types and sources, and he shares his preferred methodologies in this timely article. Enhanced Reporting with SAP BW Web Applications, Part Two, Arthur "Pat" Pesa, arthurpesa, inc. One approach to BW reporting is to start generating and firing off reports. That's not the approach that BW Editor Pat Pesa recommends. In this multi-part series on BW web reporting, Pat explains why it pays off to have an overall reporting strategy that includes a variety of Web-based SAP reporting tools, and takes the end-user experience and system performance issues into account. In part one of the series, Pat talked about how to create and customize a Web-reporting template. In this edition of ERPtips, Pat picks up where he left off, making additional recommendations in terms of reporting customizations and enhanced functionality. Specifically, Pat uses screen shots to illustrate techniques such as how to precalculate Web-reporting templates for offline use, how to enhance Web-based printing from Web Application Designer, and how to convert a Web Application query output into a PDF. A Functional Approach to Enterprise Data Management in Business Warehouse, Part One, Arthur "Pat" Pesa, arthurpesa, inc. Since we founded ERPtips, BW Editor Pat Pesa has had the chance to write about cutting edge BW techniques from a number of perspectives, including performance enhancement, customized reporting, and InfoCube population and design. But Pat's specific knowledge of BW is related to a broader vision he has for Enterprise Data Management. So, he has agreed to write a series of white papers for ERPtips and explain how he conceptualizes the functioning of BW from the “top down,” starting with the overall principles of data architecture, and eventually honing in on how BW fits into a broader strategy for enterprise-wide business intelligence. As Pat has learned firsthand, this higher-level approach has serious practical ramifications. The reason? Without an overall data management plan, SAP users are prone to developing “islands” of data within BW that are not well integrated. When you focus only on one project at a time, you run the risk of developing a whole series of non-integrated silos that don't function all that well together. Using the approach Pat outlines in this paper, SAP users can be confident that their individual BW projects fit into an overall scope that will allow them to build enterprise momentum with each initiative. In this first piece, Pat introduces data architecture concepts such as data principles, database taxonomy, and data subject areas. But don't let the theory scare you off. Pat writes in a clear and accessible way that draws on his own project experience, and his insights are equally relevant to project managers and hands-on BW professionals. In the next edition of ERPtips, Pat will continue to tie these broader concepts into specific BW design scenarios. Enhanced Reporting with SAP® BW Web Applications, Arthur "Pat" Pesa, arthurpesa, inc. It's hard to believe that at one point, the biggest complaint from SAP users had to do with insufficient reporting functionality. Now, there's almost the opposite problem. Between SAP's own solutions and those of third-party vendors, there are a lot of reporting options to choose from. But wouldn't it be ideal if there were one place to go for a robust (and easy) reporting solution? As BW Editor Pat Pesa reports, BW is looking more and more like that “one stop solution.” With the release of BW 3.1, which includes the Web Application Designer, SAP is really fine tuning BW's reporting capabilities, making it as easy as possible on the SAP users to get the info they need when they need it. In this cover story, the first of a series of articles on “reporting best practices” Copyright © 2012 by Klee Associates, Inc. www. ERPtips.com Page 31

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in BW, Pat explains how to use the Web Application Designer to customize a Web query template. He uses two real-life examples of simple reporting customizations that can be done using BW's Web Applications. And for those who care more about performance, Pat has more good news: the Web Application Designer offers improved performance over the classic BEx solution. Building a High-Performance Business Warehouse: Part One, Arthur “Pat” Pesa So you installed your BW system, and there were high fives all around. But then the complaints started rolling in: BW was hogging systems resources; users could not execute their queries in a timely manner. Like so many other data-related issues, BW always comes back to performance. Our BW Associate Editor Pat Pesa has seen (and resolved) these frustrations firsthand, and fortunately for us, he took some notes. In the first part of a two-part series, Pat tells us how to achieve the “high performance” BW system we all had in mind in the first place. Building A High-Performance Business Warehouse: Part Two, Arthur “Pat” Pesa A database is only as good as the data it holds—in this respect, BW is just like any other database. You're not going to get the most out of BW if you can't extract the data you need from R/3 and elsewhere in a manner that does not impede BW performance. In this second of a two part series on BW performance, BW editor Pat Pesa breaks down the complex issues of BW data loading, transformation, and extraction into an easy-to-read troubleshooting guide that will be invaluable to BW administrators. Using BW for Industry-Specific Content: SAP IS-Retail Data Design and Reporting, Arthur “Pat” Pesa SAP continues to refine ISRetail functionality to meet the needs of its retail and consumer products customers. Nowhere is this effort more evident than in the integration between ISRetail and BW for customized reporting. BW Editor Pat Pesa gives a view of BW from a functional direction. Focused on populating BW InfoCubes with retail business content for reporting purposes, Pat's insights will be of interest to SAP retail users. Also, other SAP users who are concerned with BW InfoCube design and population, BW reporting and the integration of functional business content between BW and core SAP modules such as MM and SD. (Applies to retail functionality that ships with the 4.6 R/3 release.) From Standard Business Content to Customized Business Intelligence, Arthur “Pat” Pesa In this white paper, BW Editor Pat Pesa argues that the roots of business intelligence lie with empowered SAP users. In this foundational white paper, Pat Pesa guides us through a high-level view of BW deployment, explaining how to involve users in the various phases, while staying on track throughout the requirements gathering and InfoObject design/deployment process. Drawing on the example of the data flow from the MM module into the ODS structure and into InfoCubes, Pat provides a host of helpful tips for companies that are looking to enhance their business intelligence and BW user experience with customized business content. How to Merge BW Data from R3 and Non-R3 Systems, Arthur “Pat” Pesa Remember the days when BW was in its infancy, and it was asking a lot just to import some basic data from R/3 for reporting purposes? Well, those days are long gone. It's now possible to import data into BW from a wide range of data sources. This is a welcome change for SAP users, who understand that true "business intelligence" is only as good as the data that supports it. Before you can realize the potential of BW, you have to get the data imported. BW Editor Pat Pesa provides an illustrated walkthrough to designing a custom data solution for legacy-BW integration. As Pat points out, off-the-shelf data integration solutions aren't always as effective —or as affordable—as a custom design. Copyright © 2012 by Klee Associates, Inc. www. ERPtips.com Page 32

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Creating a Logistics Data Repository in BW 3.0, Arthur “Pat” Pesa The best SAP® consultants are innovators, designing unique solutions for their clients that take full advantage of SAP's latest functionality. In this article, BW Editor Pat Pesa tells us how he helped a client build a state-of-the-art logistics data repository in BW. As Pat points out, this type of BW project is not the standard way BW content is developed, but it does represent the future of BW: true Business Intelligence through data customized for the needs of a particular client. Of course, every new undertaking has its challenges, and Pat's honest about the issues his team had to overcome. After all, even the best technical tips must still meet the needs of the system's users. Supporting Multiple Languages in BW, Arthur “Pat” Pesa More and more international SAP users will be looking to Unicode functionality to enhance their multi-lingual reporting capabilities. In order to support Unicode, SAP users must be running certain combinations of R/3 and BW. In order to make sure all ERPtips readers have a handle on the systems requirements, this article begins with a detailed overview of how Unicode compares with SAP's previous method of multi-lingual reporting, MDMP. The first few pages also cover the major version compatibility questions readers will have. The rest of the article is Pat's illustrated guide to setting up the BW-Unicode environment. ABAP Programming In BW, Arthur “Pat” Pesa With all the talk about NetWeaver and SAP® Java Connector and other hot tools, you'd think ABAP was a thing of the past. But not so, as BW expert Pat Pesa can attest. In this excellent “best of” article, Pat shares the most valuable ABAP techniques he has used on BW projects. He starts by addressing the key questions: What are the uses of ABAP in BW? How is programming in BW different than programming in R/3? What ABAP tools are available in BW? This article provides technical managers with a handy overview of Pat's ABAP-BW methodology, and gives ABAP programmers a technical guide they can refer to on their BW initiatives.

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CIO Corner
Removing the Barriers to Project Ownership, Steve Phillips Your company is about to implement new software. The technology has been selected. A consulting firm has been retained to assist. What's stopping you from succeeding? The biggest barrier to successful projects isn't what's coming from the outside; it's how well you and your team take ownership of the project that matters. Project management guru Steve Phillips discusses what steps every company should take from the inside to make sure their project has the best chance for success. Best Practices on Choosing the Right Outsourcing Vendor, Anurag Barua ® Is outsourcing in your SAP future? There are a multitude of reasons why companies choose to outsource part or even all of their ERP software development and maintenance. The key to whether this decision will lead to success or failure lies in the vendor selection process. Anurag Barua discusses the best practices for choosing the right vendor, such as determining the requirements needed, vendor search practices, RFI and RFP, and the evaluation matrix. He also delves into the different types of contracts you should consider to best meet your company's needs. Training and Retention Beats Knowledge Leakage, Cushing Anderson Webucation PowerPoint and Recording) Compare what your company is doing for SAP training with the latest research findings to see where you've got game and where you need to pick up the pace. This recorded ERPtips Webucation presentation highlights the trends and best practices in ERP training. CIO Corner: ERPsim™ - Play games with SAP, Harvey Feldstein and Jocelyn Hayes. (Webucation PowerPoint and Recording) Fun, games, and learning? There's nothing better for knowledge retention. ERPsim™ from Baton Simulations is an effective and exciting way to gain hands-on experience with SAP. This Webucation session provides a game demo and discussion about how ERPsim could benefit your SAP team. Issues in Technology Leadership, Part 4: Organizational Structure, CJ Rhoads Who makes the technology decisions in your company? Is it the CIO? Or the CFO? Or is it some combination? And how is your IT department structured? Is it one centralized department, or does the IT team span many departments and locations? These are just some of the questions that CJ Rhoads discusses in her latest installment of her series on Issues in Technology Leadership. As always, CJ provides sound advice on what, from her experience, are the points that you need to consider when it comes to the structure of your corporation’s technology organization. Keep in mind—one size does not fit all.

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“Driven to Perform” in an ERP World: Can the SAP GRC and EPM Suites Address the Gap Between Strategy and Execution?, Jon Reed, JonERP.com ERP and business value: incongruous terms or unrealized dreams? Fact is, at some point, most companies have asked themselves: are we getting enough business value from our system? It’s all in how you align your execution with your strategy, according to former SAP Vice President Nenshad Bardoliwalla, co-author of the book Driven to Perform: Risk-Aware Performance Management From Strategy Through Execution. Bardoliwalla recently teamed up with Jon Reed for a podcast to answer questions about how the vision outlined in his book would apply to SAP environments and existing software applications, including the GRC (Governance Risk and Compliance) and EPM (Enterprise Performance Management) suites. Jon shares the highlights of that podcast in this article. Making the BPX Business Case for SAP TechEd, Jon Reed, JonERP.com Are you a BPXer who wants to attend TechEd? Here's how to get your boss to pay the way. If you are the boss, here’s how to get your boss to pay your way. Issues in Technology Leadership, Part 3: Budgeting, CJ Rhoads Once a year, business managers participate in a practice that is normally reserved for fortune tellers: they try to predict what is going to happen in the future. Or, as they more formally call it— budget planning. We jest about the process, but in truth, it’s very hard to project budgets for the upcoming year, especially IT budgets. While CJ Rhoads doesn’t have the answers to nailing your budget exactly to the penny, she does present some areas in which you can actually plan for future IT expenses, rather than guess, and thus see your budget in a much clearer light. Making Sense of Value Scenarios: Lessons from Sapphire 2009, Jon Reed, JonERP.com Last one out of the silo is a rotten egg! Our intrepid man-on-the street, Jon Reed, takes us ® behind the "wank words" and reveals the SAP initiative, called "Value Scenarios" that takes SAP implementation and configuration to a new, exciting level. Stop thinking in terms of Sales order or FI/CO, and start thinking Order to Cash. If SAP succeeds in pushing this concept through the industry, it could have significant impact on how configuration consultants view the world. Might be something to this "BPX" thing after all. This is a must-read for SAP customers and consultants alike. Issues in Technology Leadership, Part II: Making Decisions, CJ Rhoads Decision making: Is it easy for you? Or do you agonize over every possibility, thus finding yourself paralyzed by the fear of making the “wrong choice”? In this second article in her series on Issues in Technology Leadership, CJ Rhoads defines the considerations you’ll want to take in order to make the best possible technology decisions for your company. Business Suite 7 – What SAP Customers Need to Know: Lessons Learned from the Business Suite Event in New York City, Jon Reed, JonERP.com So you rushed to hear SAP's big announcement about BS7, only to feel to be disappointed that the biggest release isn't really a release…or is it? OK, maybe it's a case of Shakespeare's "much ado about nothing", but maybe it will have a greater impact on you than you realize. Blogger and now detective Jon Reed sets out to find out if there really is a wizard in the land of Oz or if it's just smoke and mirrors. You may be surprised at what he finds.
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Copyright © 2012 by Klee Associates, Inc. www. ERPtips.com

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Issues in Technology Leadership – Part I: The Economy, CJ Rhoads Last March, Dr. CJ Rhoads predicted the economic crisis was coming and now it’s what everyone is talking about. But, what is everyone doing about it? In the first of her new series, Issues in Technology Leadership, Dr. CJ Rhoads takes on the economy topic again, this time with the six actions you should take from an IT perspective when the finances are tight. Take a look now at the bigger picture in the long run, and let your leadership set course. What Does It Take to Become an SAP Business Process Expert?, Jon Reed, JonERP.com Looking to expand your skill set during the economic slow down? Worried that with training budgets slashed, your options are few and far between? If SAP is your game, let BPX be part of your name. According to Jon Reed, Business Process Experts are THE hot role of the SAP future. And it’s not a skill set that requires extensive, expensive formal training to achieve. Jon discusses how you can begin now to incorporate the know-how of a BPX to your current role and what it takes to become formally certified. The Big Project - Part III: Communication, Communication, Communication, CJ Rhoads So you’re all set to let this project fly, right? Not. So. Fast. Is everyone involved in this project— not just the project team but everyone whose life is impacted by the project—wired in on the details? And don’t think a quick email or form letter will suffice here, either. The successful execution of any project lies in how well the information is communicated. As she wraps up her series on big projects, CJ discusses what constitutes proper communication for a project including the stages of absorbing the message, what needs to be communicated, and some tips for getting the results you need. Closing the ERP Knowledge Gap: The Iterative Cycle of Training and Consulting, CJ Rhoads We asked CJ Rhoads, our CIO Corner writer, to explain the relationship between consulting and training in a “typical” ERP implementation. CJ’s unique point of view should help clients get greater results from their investment in outside services. Economics of SAP Contract Software Development and Support, Pat Pesa So, your 2009 budget for outside services has been slashed. It’s time to re-think how we use resources, both in-house and contract, and determine how to get the right balance. In this white paper, Pat Pesa looks at the challenges of marrying these two resources effectively from an IT perspective, including defining the differences, effective use of off-shore resources, considerations for in-house support, lowering contract costs, and, finally, the methodology for building the most effective team possible to handle business needs as global belts just keep getting tighter.

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Role of the SAP Business Process Expert: How the “Process First” Book Emerged, Jon Reed, JonERP.com How do you take advantage of the opportunities offered through the highly touted Service Oriented Architecture? First, you have to identify and strengthen your firm’s business processes. But where to start? SAP BPX (Business Process Expert) community, with the help of Marco ten Vaanholt (their global leader) has produced a book that helps define the roles of process analysts in SAP. Jon Reed walks you through their collaboration process and describes some key principles suggested by the book. The Big Project – Part II: What Makes a Great Project Manager, CJ Rhoads So you’re interviewing a PMI-certified Project Manager—does this mean that you have the right candidate for your upcoming project? Maybe. Or maybe not. While there are some skills that you can acquire through training, some jobs require a gut check to see if you really have what it takes. CJ Rhoads is no stranger to key project management attributes—and she shares her journey of self-discovery that has led her to believe that project management isn’t a job as much as it’s a calling. Read this article, then decide if you (or your PM of choice) have the right stuff. The Big Project: Questions to Ask Before You Plan, CJ Rhoads Nothing says career limiting maneuver like a failed project. The money, the time, the red faces… Sadly, it’s often not the project itself and how it’s executed, but the time and effort spent upfront— in the proposal stages—that can determine whether a project has a chance of succeeding. Or more succinctly, being voted “most likely to fail”. With that said, if your company is gearing up to implement a new technology, before you spend one dime, STOP and ASK the questions CJ Rhoads presents in this article. You could save a lot of money—and your PM a lot of face—if your research is done up front. Making the Plant Visible: Lessons from “In Pursuit of the Perfect Plant”, Jon Reed, JonERP.com Both executive and plant management recognize the potential benefits of implementing a system that gives plant employees an accurate, immediate gauge of how their activities affect production and costs. They also know that implementing such a system is only part of the equation; user buy-in is the toughest hurdle to jump. How do plants pursue the benefits and tackle the challenges? A new book by Pat Kennedy, Vivek Bapak, and Paul Kurchina “In Pursuit of the Perfect Plant: A Business and Technical Guide”, offers a volume of strategies, theories, and examples. Jon Reed explored this massive guide and relates some critical concepts to help you along the path to the perfect plant. How One Client Spent Less Than 10 Percent of Their SAP Consulting Budget: While Maximizing User Buy-in, Jon Reed, JonERP.com Have you ever heard of an SAP implementation that came in under budget, enjoyed great user buy-in, and went off basically without a hitch? You have now. Jon Reed interviews Renfeng Ma of Sedgwick County, Kansas to see exactly how he did it. The key to his success was largely based on designing in support of the key performance indicators of the business. Need the details? Start reading.

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SOA: Valuable Revolution Or Meaningless Hype?, CJ Rhoads Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) gets a lot of press here at ERPtips, as any of our authors have written about the benefits of this technology. But is it really all that it’s cracked up to be? Is it really and truly the next revolution or another three-letter acronym highly touted by vendors interested in divesting you of your IT budget? To get a different perspective, we asked Dr. CJ Rhoads—frequent ERPtips contributor and expert in helping companies maximize their IT value—to chime in on the subject. Read CJ’s analysis and decide for yourself—is SOA really hip or just more hype? Best Practices in SAP Programming: How to Keep Your Development Shop in Tune with Where SAP Is Headed, Jon Reed, JonERP.com In February 2008, Jon Reed conducted a podcast interview with Thomas Jung, SAP NetWeaver Product Manager. This article reflects the high points of that interview. Jon and Thomas tackle topics such as the importance of Object Oriented Programming, Java vs ABAP development, and how it all fits in with Composition Environment (CE) and eSOA. There is some discussion of SAP modeling tools, and even the ever-present issue of how to appropriately staff for the evolving SAP environment. Do You Have What It Takes To Be A CIO?, John Zarb Are you ready for the C-level? Sure, you’ve got a great resume and you know you can lead. But do you have the heart to be a Chief Information Officer? John Zarb has over 38-years experience in IT; 12 of that he’s spent as a CIO. As he’ll tell you—there is a very good reason they pay you the “big bucks”. Whether you’re a director who’s the “heir apparent” to the current CIO, or you’re at the bottom or midrung of the corporate ladder, hoping to climb your way to the top, you’ll want to read John’s assessment on the leadership skills and other considerations you’ll need to take into account before you say, “I want that job. Sign me up”. IT Spending in an Uncertain Economy, CJ Rhoads We’re all reading the headlines about the downward trends in the economy. We’re tightening our own belts, while our companies are doing the same. So it should come as no surprise to anyone that IT budgets will be among the likely victims during this economic crunch. But, is this the right response? CJ Rhoads has the answer—and you might be surprised at what her verdict is. Maximizing Planning and Technology Use for Business Health, CJ Rhoads So, you’ve got a Project Manager and a team all lined up, the project is a go, you’re ready to rock and roll—this should be smooth sailing from here on out, right? Ummm…not necessarily. If there’s one place that Murphy’s Law prevails—scratch that, make that RULES—it’s an IT project. CJ sums up the reality of why IT projects fail—including the realities of project planning for IT and the warning signs of when to drop and run. SOA from the Outside In: Applying the Lessons from Mashup Corporations, Jon Reed, JonERP.com When we think of adopting SOA in a corporate culture, we often think that the drivers of this technology reside in the IT department. Not so fast…there’s a lot of Web-savvy talent that exists in other areas of the company that can help drive this solution. Jon Reed takes a page (or several) from Mashup Corporations, a groundbreaking new book, to illustrate how innovation, coupled with Web 2.0 experience, can lead to a success story. While this is a fictional account of SOA in the corporate world, the lessons learned from this book could translate into some great realities for many companies.

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Maximizing Staff Experience and Technology Use for Business Health, CJ Rhoads Is your staff technically adept, nontechnically adept, or a mixture of both? Leveraging your staff members’ individual skill sets (and corresponding personalities) is often the key to improving your business health through technology. Especially when you consider that all the hardware and software in the world is only as good as those who use it! CJ Rhoads continues her quest to help companies improve their business health by understanding the human part of human resources. See if you can identify your staff in these descriptions, then read CJ’s tips for successfully managing these greatly varying personalities! eSOA Doesn’t Have to Cost a Fortune: Shortcuts to SOA Success via NetWeaver™ BI, Jon Reed, JonERP.com Thinking about eSOA (Enterprise Service Oriented Architecture), but not so sure that you can make a strong enough business case for pursuing this solution? Jon Reed’s back, and he’s offering up some more food for thought—this time, presenting some of the benefits found in business analytics by way of SOAs combined (or shall we say “mashed up”) with SAP®. Read on as Jon presents more of what he learned at TechEd, along with highlights from his podcast with Krishna Kumar of Enterprise Horizons (the complete podcast is downloadable at ERPtips.com). Turning ERP on its Head: Can SAP eSOA Change Companies’ Approaches to ERP?, Jon Reed, JonERP.com It’s still in its infancy, but according to Jon Reed, it’s a trend worth watching. eSOA could be the solution of the future for those companies that need to incorporate customization to their SAP system, but are skittish about doing so for a multitude of reasons. Jon discusses the opportunities that exist with eSOA and provides some preliminary feedback from companies who are using this technology to enhance their systems, without the issues previously encountered when customizing SAP. To ASP or Not to ASP, CJ Rhoads To ASP or not ASP, that is the question. ‘Tis better to “rent” or to “own” applications? Ask CJ Rhoads her opinion of Application Service Providers (in case you were confused as to which ASP we’re talking about here), and you’ll get a very frank discussion on the pros and cons of this concept. If you’re wondering if ASP is for you, then you’ll want to read what CJ has to say first. (We’ll give you a hint: Neither a borrower or a lender be.) Optimizing Financial Investment and Technology Use for Business Health, CJ Rhoads CJ’s back and she’s switching gears! After years of research and countless articles on how to get the most out of your IT investments, Dr. CJ Rhoads is taking a closer look at overall business health and the role IT plays in the bigger financial picture. If you’ve believed that effective technology use can only enhance business, you need to read this series of eye-opening articles. In this issue, CJ gives you the 411 on when you’re likely to get a great ROI, and when you need to hold your dollars for other investments. Midsize Companies and the “Human Side” of SAP® Implementations, Jon Reed, JonERP.com A friend from the past returns! Former ERPtips Journal Managing Editor Jon Reed had his ear to the ground at this year’s ASUG/SAPPHIRE event and learned a few things about SAP’s expanding role in midsize companies—especially about the “people factor”. In this article, Jon once again shares his knowledge with our readers, including the highlights from his podcast with Dan Lubin, Director of Information Technology at Abiomed.

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Writing a Business Case for SAP Products and Upgrades, by Jocelyn Hayes, ERPtips Director of Consulting and Training OK, you’ve identified the problem, found the perfect solution, and you and your team are ready to implement, right? Not so fast. Like all else, you need upper management buy-in. And to get that buy-in, you need a good business case. You need to be able to sell your recommendations to the key decision makers, the ones that will be forking over the dollars for your budget. There’s both a science and art to creating and presenting a winning business case. Jocelyn Hayes has been on the delivery end of a few, and she’s here to share her tips and practices for getting that final blessing to go forward and implement! The New SLOG, Erik Keller, Wapiti LLC Yep, we just love acronyms. KISS, ERP, SAR. – now we can add SLOG to our three and four letter vocabulary, thanks to Erik Keller. Whereas the BIG FOUR (Microsoft, IBM, SAP, and Oracle) are still talking like the future is theirs and theirs alone, the SLOGS of the world are priming to strike hard and take away some of the market share. If you’re looking for the latest trend in enterprise planning, think smaller, global, and SLOG. Now, let’s get you up-to-date on who’s up to bat! Training - The Kingpin of Better Use of Technology, CJ Rhoads CJ Rhoads tells you how to build a case to secure ample training dollars in your ERP project. This article was originally published by MC Showcase on March 8, 2007. We publish it here with their permission. We include a forward and afterward by Andy Klee, our publisher. How to Quit Worrying about the ERP Graveyard, Ned Lilly, OpenMFG Are the days of hostile acquisitions in the software market coming to an end? Is it unlikely that he with the most toys in the end will win in the ERP world? Could be, thanks to SaaS and open source opportunities that are giving the bigger players a run for their money. Ned Lilly of The ERP Graveyard Blog joins us to give his assessment of what’s the REAL next big thing in enterprise software. His thoughts may surprise you! Picking Your Pain Points, Erik Keller You can’t treat pain unless you know where it hurts. When it’s our body, we need to be able to tell the doctor if it’s our knee or our head that’s giving us grief. The same holds true for ERPs—you need to know where the pain is before you call in the “doctors”. So Erik Keller is going to give you a brief “anatomy” lesson on ERP, to help you understand where the pain can come from when it comes to implementations and beyond. Just like our knees and heads, a little preventive maintenance and understanding of how they work (and how we can hurt them) will go a long way in avoiding these “pain points” in the future—or at least less reaching for the aspirin bottle! Vendor Partnerships: How to Make a Good One, CJ Rhoads, ETM Associates, Inc. What’s in a vendor relationship? Is it a true partnership? Or is it a customer serving as an unwitting source of income for a company whose interests lie in sales, sales, sales—but never service? Dr. CJ Rhoads has been on both ends of the vendor world and is back to give us the 411 on what to look for in good vendors, the warning signs of when to stay clear, and, of course, how to make a vendor partnership one in which everyone profits! Using IT Entitlement Payments to Fund Business Innovation, Erik Keller, Wapiti LLC How do you spend your IT budgets? Let Erik Keller count the ways. There’s so much bloat in vendor maintenance contracts, unnecessary upgrades, and the desire to buy the latest technogizmo that a quick examination of IT spending can reveal a lot of $$$ that can be spent on more profitable opportunities. So, Ready, Set, Review! Copyright © 2012 by Klee Associates, Inc. www. ERPtips.com Page 40

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Calculating Technology Risk: How Much Can You Afford? CJ Rhoads, ETM Associates Inc. What are the risk factors of your next technology project? Can it be determined like insurance ratings or credit scores? Maybe so, according to CJ Rhoads’ calculations. As the technology world grows at an enormous pace, more and more of the factors that determine a project’s success (or impending doom) are revealed. Before you spend your first dollar on your next project, why not see if the numbers add up with CJ’s formula? Decisions, Decisions! Five Things CIOs Often Forget, CJ Rhoads, ETM Associates, Inc. When you’ve finally reached the top of the summit, it’s easy to forget all the things you saw, and did, to get there. So, as a refresher “course,” Dr. CJ Rhoads shares her vast knowledge once more to give us a ground-eye view of the things often not “seen” from up high, and some common sense reminders that can take any IT leader from good to great when it comes to decision making. After reading this article, you’ll see why she teaches IT Management courses for ERPtips! Don’t Hire the Fox to Guard the Henhouse: A Lesson in Independent SAP Testing, Jose Fajardo, SAP Test Consultant Heard any war stories of megadollar implementations that initially launched flawlessly, only to crash & burn a short time later? For survival’s sake, we all want to know what was discovered in the post-mortems of these failed projects. SAP test consultant Jose Fajardo identifies an all-toocommon scenario in which conflicts of interest in the implementation team roles can set a course for failure. How so? Jose describes the typical project: one in which the implementation project lead is in charge of all phases of the implementation lifecycle. What constitutes a successful plan for testing? Jose draws on his experience to provide a list of the characteristics common to successful SAP testing. Stretching Out Maintenance, CJ Rhoads, ETM Associates, Inc. Those of you who’ve been reading ERPtips for a while know that one of our central themes is helping you get more out of your current investment in SAP software. That means extending the typical ERP Life Cycle beyond the usual 10-15 years. If you read this article, we promise that your eyes will be opened wide at the fact-based opinions expressed here! Value-Based ERP Consulting Fee Models? They Rock! How Value-Based Fee Models Drive Client Success in ERP Engagements, Michael Doane, Performance Monitor, LLC Michael Doane, savvy ERP author and industry analyst, makes his ERPtips debut with an article that is a compendium of practical ERP project know-how based on years of studies. Michael begins with a discussion of ERP project trends and moves confidently into a comparison of consulting project fee models. Without further ado, Michael expounds upon the analyses and indicators of client satisfaction levels for different consulting models. But don’t just take his word for it, he backs it up with studies, charts, diagrams, and illustrations that are virtually guaranteed to make you an expert on evaluating different consulting fee structures. Getting Value to the Max—After the Fact, CJ Rhoads, ETM Associates, Inc. We’ve invited Dr. CJ Rhoads to lend us her expertise in getting the most from your ERP investment. She’ll be examining the various stages of the ERP Lifecycle in the next several issues of ERPtips. In this first article, she introduces the “Refine and Align” concept, which we like so much we wish we’d coined the phrase. She reminds us that it isn’t over when it’s over… we must continue to monitor our ERP implementation even years after it is “done”.

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Executing a Risk Assessment Program for ERP Projects: How to Mitigate Risk Rather Than Walk Away from Opportunities, Joe Tartell, The Alliant Group When is it time to move to ERP, or to upgrade? How do you set the scope? Who are your partners? Is it your software vendor? Is it your consulting project manager? Or are they more focused on a big sale than a big success story? More importantly, what can you do when you begin to sense the project spiraling out of control? Joe Tartell has spent his career helping executives answer these questions. In this article, he takes us through the ERP Life Cycle, noting opportunities & danger zones. Most notably, Joe provides a framework for Risk Assessment that will allow you that all-important “temperature check” through each phase of the Life Cycle. SAP Quarterly Review - Managing Editor Jon Reed Analyzes the Trends in the SAP Marketplace, Jon Reed, Managing Editor, ERPtips There’s been a number of significant developments in the SAP world recently, from the ESA buzzword explosion to Oracle’s “OFF SAP” campaign, so it was time to do another quarterly review. Each time I do these, I select some of the most significant SAP articles and news items of the quarter. In addition to giving the link to each article and providing a key excerpt, I give my take on why I agree or disagree with the article in question. If you take issue with my findings, feel free to take it up with me by emailing me at [email protected] The ERP Life Cycle: From Birth to Death and Birth Again, Andy Klee, President, Klee Associates, Inc. Andy Klee, President of ERPtips and JDEtips, has put together a very entertaining and readable view of the ERP Life Cycle. Since we structure all of our ERPtips services, including staffing and training, around this Life Cycle, we asked Andy to take the JDEtips version of this piece and apply it to the SAP user community. A savvy ERP shop should always have a handle on where they fall in the Life Cycle. There are always firms knocking on your door, looking to bill you for things you may or may not need—so knowing where you are in the ERP Life Cycle is a great help as you evaluate the next step in your ERP project and what type of outside help, if any, you’re going to need. Shooting the Gap in Gap Analysis, Harry Joiner, Reliable Growth Some thought that putting in SAP would resolve our business process issues because of SAP’s industry templates. But even the best software can only be as good as our own best practices. In Harry Joiner’s most recent “CIO Corner,” Harry makes a strong case for the importance of optimizing business processes without losing track of the people who drive and manage those processes. In this (and future) columns, Harry will guide us through the delicate balancing act of software, people, and processes. The modern SAP manager must be savvy in all three of these areas to realize the promise of SAP’s powerful capabilities. (Re-Print from 02/03 Issue) Why Some CIOs Are Ten Times More Effective Than Others, Harry Joiner, Reliable Growth Harry's take on how CIOs can stand out from the pack is the culmination of his thinking about how to integrate tangible, bottom-line results with the "intangibles" of people-driven leadership. Five Secrets of a Winning CRM Strategy, Harry Joiner, Reliable Growth Harry's article is a nice compliment to our features on the SAP CRM product offering. In this insightful piece, Harry details the secrets of CRM success and explains how to cost-justify a decision to implement CRM.

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CIO Corner - Decisions, Decisions, Harry Joiner, Reliable Growth Harry discusses both the art and the science of being a CIO, and presents some useful tools. Learn how SWOT analysis and Scenario Planning can help you realize your goals as a CIO. This article was printed in JDEtips before the launch of ERPtips. We'd like to thank CIO Corner author Harry Joiner for sharing his past work with ERPtips readers. Leveraging Your Driving Force, Harry Joiner, Reliable Growth As a CIO, your first job is to understand what drives your company and what technology can (and cannot) do to enable your company to profitably deliver on its value proposition. This piece will give you strategies and tools to accomplish your mission. This article was printed in JDEtips before the launch of ERPtips. We'd like to thank CIO Corner author Harry Joiner for sharing his past work with ERPtips readers. The Ten Commandments of Change Management, Harry Joiner, Reliable Growth Part CIO, part motivational psychologist, and part politician--does that describe your role? In this CIO Corner article, Harry describes the practical realities of managing change, and what the CIO can do to help his company realize the promise of an integrated ERP system. This article was printed in JDEtips before the launch of ERPtips. We'd like to thank CIO Corner author Harry Joiner for sharing his past work with ERPtips readers.

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CRM and Mobile Solutions
Target Marketing With CRM Data, Scott Cameron, SAP CRM Consultant The economy is sluggish and sales are down. A decision is made to launch a sales campaign targeted toward a particular customer group. The boss points a bony finger in your direction and tells you to make it happen. What's your next move? If you're smart, you'll dive into this article and learn how to identify and collect the data you need from CRM. Scott shows you the do's and don'ts of creating and checking the queries you'll use to put the muscle into the new sales campaign. A CRM Primer: Deleting Customers Painlessly, Scott Cameron, SAP CRM Consultant They’re no longer a customer, so why are they still in the system? Well, the answer used to be that it was impossible to delete customers and other business partners within SAP. However, with CRM—you can say goodbye to former customers with a lot more ease. Scott Cameron provides the steps to this important housekeeping duty. Adding Fields to Business Partners in SAP®: It’s Easy, with Easy Enhancement Workbench, Scott Cameron, SAP CRM Consultant With all the documentation available on Easy Enhancement Workbench (EEWB), one process that you’ll be hard pressed to find a good review of is how to add a field. CRM expert Scott Cameron tackles this under-documented task and provides the steps to adding a new field (with a check table) to a business partner A Gnu Ewe Eye? A Peek at the CRM 2006s User Interface, Scott Cameron, SAP CRM Consultant Scott Cameron picked up a few nifty insider tidbits at the CRM 2007 conference that he’s all too excited to share! The biggest news surrounds the new UI that will be featured in CRM 2006s. Read up here as Scott gives us a preview of what he learned in Orlando about this interface that will be making its debut by this summer. And stay tuned for the very end of the article: Quick Tips returns! Could your questions be the ones Scott answers this issue? Reengineering Your Business Process Before Implementing CRM – A Novel Concept, Jocelyn Hayes, ERPtips Director of Consulting and Training Business Process Reengineering works. As an SAP consultant who started out as an Industrial & Operations Engineer, Jocelyn Hayes is very familiar with the BPR approach & has incorporated its methodology & disciplines (in a loose format) in all of her SAP projects. Last year, she worked on a process-oriented BPR team whose charter was to review the business processes that traditionally lie in the Customer Relationship Management discipline. Jocelyn explains what is involved in each of the five distinct phases that make up the project lifecycle of a BPR project, identifies key team members, examines pertinent communication plans, & cites the lessons learned.

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Enhancing SAP's Customer Interaction Center Workspaces with WebClient or WinClient, Scott Cameron, SAP CRM Consultant Does it often seem that every tool or new functionality only brings with it more layers of complexity to learn and conquer? Well, we can’t eliminate all of these, but with Scott Cameron’s expert advice we can help you make the CRM Customer Interaction Center workspaces a little easier to navigate. This may seem like a trivial matter, but when you add the keystrokes and time saved by the end of the day you’ll realize just how big it really is. Scott takes you through the configuration and points out the pros and cons of the WebClient vs WinClient platforms along the way. Call the doctor and cancel the appointment. It looks like you won’t be needing that carpal tunnel surgery after all. Effectively Plotting and Selecting Your CRM Resources, Scott Cameron Back in April of 2005, Scott Cameron presented the skills you need to build a CRM dream team. Now he’s back to take you through the process of determining what roles you currently have inhouse, what roles you’ll need to fill from outside your current R/3 team, and what questions you’ll want to ask to be sure your new team members are the all-stars you need to make your CRM project a winner! Getting It Together: SAP Human Resources and CRM Integration, Scott Cameron, SAP CRM Consultant CRM leverages a number of key pieces of HR data, such as employee information (office location), positions within the organization (organization positions), & employee structure (who reports to whom). These are only a few of the many items that can be leveraged. Scott says that the trick is keeping the two systems in sync, once you have initially loaded your employee records & business structure. He takes you through the entire process, including: system prep, initial load setup, & delta configuration. The steps are not difficult & the payoff is big in terms of keystroke redundancy & data accuracy. Your data can live together harmoniously if you follow Scott’s simple steps. Optimizing CRM Middleware: Tips for Resolving Data Errors and Improving System Performance, Scott Cameron, SAP CRM Consultant CRM Editor Scott Cameron teams up again with SAP’s Dan Callahan to continue (from our October/November 2005 issue) their discussion of CRM Middleware. They address some of the most common issues faced when employing middleware with SAP and CRM. There is the problem of data integrity, which is always a concern when sharing data between two systems. In terms of data integrity, They identify “out of synch configuration data” and “out of synch master data” as the primary enemies to smooth CRM/Middleware/SAP integration. They discuss the numerous potential contributors to these conditions and suggest actions to mitigate or eliminate the problems. SAP’s Rented Address Flag: A Useful Tool for Customer Validation in mySAP CRM, Scott Cameron, SAP CRM Consultant Scott Cameron shows how to enhance your marketing efforts through better qualification of Business Prospects from purchased lead lists by taking advantage of the Rented Address Flag feature in CRM. This article may be a bit counter-intuitive, because to take advantage of some of the functionality, you actually have to “uncheck” certain features; but not to worry, Scott is careful to indicate just what to check (and uncheck). Scott uses a three-part process to show you how to get this functionality working effectively with CRM. He explains how to load the purchased external lists, use them in your CRM activities, and upload qualified prospect data to R/3.

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Middleware: What Is It and How Is It Used Within CRM? Scott Cameron, SAP CRM Consultant CRM Editor Scott Cameron and Dan Callahan bring you a look at the role of middleware with CRM. They craft an understanding of this complex topic by presenting an overview of middleware and building upon the premise layer by layer. They identify & discuss the primary middleware technologies: the SAP Plug-in and qRFC, and introduce the use of BDocs. The authors then define the data structure for both the single & the bi-directional data, and describe how the queues control the data transfer process. Realizing that it is not a perfect world, nor a perfect science, they show you how to identify and resolve data transfer errors, beginning with a tour of the CRM Middleware Cockpit. Getting Them to Sign on the Dotted Line: Building a Business Case for SAP CRM, Scott Cameron, SAP CRM Consultant The most difficult part of most CRM projects has been establishing a clear, measurable value proposition. CRM Editor Scott Cameron has survived the ups & downs of the CRM market, and he’s emerged with an effective methodology for CRM success. Scott shares his approach to defining & building a business case for SAP CRM. He outlines the questions you need to ask your manager or client, your stakeholders, & yourself, and then he shows you how to identify business needs & convert them into specific ROI dollars & benefits. He also explains why acquiring sponsorship throughout the organization is critical to winning corporate approval & implementing CRM successfully. Introduction to Mobile Development Part II: Using Smart Synchronization, Bill Guderian, BK Systems, Inc. Mobile Development Editor Bill Guderian writes about Smart Synchronization technology, a complex collection of functionality designed to facilitate the development of mobile applications. Bill explores the functionality of SyncBos, outlining characteristics and steps for developing them. He gives us an overview of the five pertinent types of BAPI Wrappers and their associated rules. Bill leads us through the ins and outs of field Mappings, Default Value settings, and the use of Filtering for the most efficient synchronization solution. He brings it all together by showing us how to enable the SyncBo, generate it, and produce the ABAP code that is used in the synchronization. Using Vendors as Customers within SAP CRM, Scott Cameron, SAP CRM Consultant Vendors often purchase goods or services from their customers, but SAP’s CRM module does not support this business model without some fancy footwork. Scott Cameron, our CRM Editor, describes how to use a “back door” method to make it work. The key is to transport these standard R/3 vendors into CRM in order to establish the master data. Scott shows you how to leverage existing number range functionality with standard business partner functionality, and how to utilize existing vendor information for sales and service transactions. Following this SAPtip gives you a foundation for a transparent flow for all partners through the entire order fulfillment process. Introduction to Mobile Development Using SAP’s Mobile Development Kit, Part I, Bill Guderian, BK Systems, Inc. Once again Bill Guderian blazes new and unfamiliar trails with Part I of his discussion of SAP’s Mobile Development Kit. With his typical “no feature left behind” style, Bill discusses the general concepts of mobile development, including infrastructure considerations and setup of the software development platform. He also provides a step-by-step guide to installing, configuring, and testing the Mobile Development Kit. Readers who want an inside look at one of the early Mobile Development Kit implementations will be impressed by Bill’s candor as he points out the glitches he has encountered using the Mobile Development Kit and the workarounds his team developed. Copyright © 2012 by Klee Associates, Inc. www. ERPtips.com Page 46

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Building a Winning CRM Team: How to Develop a Resource Plan for Your SAP CRM Implementation, Scott Cameron, SAP CRM Consultant This cover story presents a straightforward discussion of the skill sets required for the various team levels and implementation stages of the CRM initiative. Scott begins by laying out the R/3 staffing model as compared to the CRM staffing model, and describes the implementation tasks associated with each. Scott suggests how to plot your resources across the CRM implementation lifecycle for best all around results, and offers sound suggestions to help you motivate, develop, and sustain those key resources. He rounds out the article with an overview of the kinds of rates you might expect to pay for each skill set and skill level required for the CRM implementation team. Developing A Sales Methodology Within SAP CRM, Part II, Scott Cameron, SAP CRM Consultant Scott shows us how to complete the configuration of the sales methodology by: 1) qualifying opportunities with well-defined client Assessments, 2) establishing buying-partner roles and purchasing authority in the Buying Center, and 3) further supporting the sales process with pertinent Notes about buying center partners and competitors. With his usual “no nonsense” approach and candor, Scott shows you how these components build upon each other to integrate the sales processes and management functions required to respond quickly and effectively in today’s competitive marketplace. Developing a Sales Methodology Within SAP CRM, Part I, Scott Cameron, SAP CRM Consultant With CRM 4.0, it’s now possible for SAP users to build their own sales methodology within SAP’s CRM components. In the first of a two-part article series, Scott explains how it’s done. But what is the point of a sales methodology anyhow? As Scott tells us, a well-crafted sales methodology can be invaluable, providing the sales team with a consistent way of specifying how to manage the sales process - for example, identifying when to bring in an outside expert for certain types of complex equipment sales. Using CRM Transactions in R/3 (Without Investing in a New CRM System). Jim O’Day, Nassau Technology Group SAP CRM is not for everyone. Some companies would prefer to hold off on a big CRM investment, and roll out their CRM strategy gradually instead. What some SAP users don’t know is that there are plenty of CRM capabilities even within R/3. In this excellent overview, Jim outlines the basic CRM functionality within R/3, including Cross-Selling, Mobile Sales, and Campaign Management. He also explains how R/3 can be used for Internet Sales via SAP’s IPC. A fully-realized CRM strategy probably requires more than just R/3, but this article can help companies kick-start their CRM strategy using their existing SAP tools. Using Sales Bills of Material in CRM Without Using the IPC, Scott Cameron, CRM Consultant CRM Editor Scott Cameron is on a roll. He continues to tackle unique SAP CRM issues on his projects, and he's been sharing his latest project solutions with ERPtips readers each issue. It's good to know that Scott is out there, running into CRM problems and coming up with useful workarounds that should save ERPtips readers a lot of trial and error, not to mention a lot of time digging through random OSS notes searching for answers. In this edition, Scott tells us about how he and his CRM team found a way to support the use of Sales Bills of Material from R/3 without using IPC. Perhaps someday SAP CRM will provide an official alternative for this process, but in the meantime, ERPtips readers can use Scott's workaround to get the job done. To supplement his article, Scott has included an appendix with a selection of the most relevant OSS notes and the actual code from the user exit his team created.

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Installing CRM Mobile Sales 4.0: How to Resolve Errors in Sales Transaction Configuration, Scott Cameron, SAP CRM Consultant It would be great if all software worked perfectly out of the box with each new release. But even the best developers can't anticipate every problem that will be encountered “in production.” In the SAP world, the latest releases of mySAP products like CRM and APO are very substantial. But the “pioneers” who install the latest versions do run into a few snafus, and the SAP user community owes these “early adopters” a big thank you for taking a few on the chin so that SAP can identify any issues that need future patches or workarounds. In this edition of ERPtips, CRM Editor Scott Cameron is our 4.0 pioneer, back from one of the first 4.0 Mobile Sales implementations in the world. Although the installation went well overall, there were several errors in the sales order configuration that Scott and his team had to resolve. In this groundbreaking article, Scott shows ERPtips readers exactly what those errors were and how his team resolved them. Three Key Steps to Take Before Implementing SAP CRM , Scott Cameron, SAP CRM Consultant SAP CRM editor Scott Cameron believes that the single greatest factor in CRM implementation failures is lack of planning. And since he's seen the successes and failures firsthand, we'll take his word for it! So before your company launches into an SAP CRM project, you'll want to read this concise overview of the key factors that contribute to CRM success. A Hands on Guide to SAP Mobile Development (Part One of Two), Krishna Kumar, Enterprise Horizons Inc. "Going Wireless" sounds pretty hip, but as ABAP/Java Editor Krishna Kumar can attest, "mobile enabling" an enterprise environment like SAP brings with it some new complexities—not to mention a bunch of new buzzwords." In this groundbreaking article (the first in a two-part series), Krishna outlines the architectural choices and implementation challenges facing the SAP mobile development team, providing SAP developers with crucial tips for optimizing data presentation and access on mobile devices. CRM Or R/3: Where Should We Maintain Customer Master Data?, Scott Cameron, SAP CRM Consultant As the SAP CRM product matures, SAP users get to enjoy more robust functionality—and more challenging decisions related to product configuration and R/3 integration. High on this list of considerations is where to store Master Data. In this concise overview, SAP CRM/Demand Chain Editor Scott Cameron explains how the Master Data choice is closely related to a company's overall data flow and level of data centralization. CRM On The Spot: Readers Ask Scott Cameron Their Toughest Sap CRM Questions, Scott Cameron, SAP CRM Consultant SAP CRM Editor Scott Cameron has agreed to step up to the challenge of answering our readers' toughest SAP CRM questions on a semi-regular basis. This edition's question comes from a major (Fortune 50) SAP customer who tries to stump Scott with a difficult question about CRM-APO compatibility.

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Using the Reference Document Field for Pricing in CRM and R/3: A Case Study, Scott Cameron, SAP CRM Consultant One of the most fascinating things about SAP CRM is the interplay between the CRM and R/3 systems. This tight integration allows for a number of unique, configurable solutions that enable companies to modify SAP to meet their business needs in ways that weren't previously possible. SAP CRM Editor Scott Cameron and his team created a custom solution for pricing surcharges in both R/3 and CRM. This solution did not involve user exits or RFC calls. In this "real life case study," Scott tells us exactly how an SAP user configured this functionality, and how it enabled the user to trigger pricing discounts both from within the SD module, and from within CRM (through Internet Sales). Mobile Solutions Using SAP ME 1- Deployment Synchronization & Business Processes, Krishna Kumar, Enterprise Horizons Inc. So you want to link your field service team into SAP via mobile technology? Once you make that decision, the fun is just beginning. ABAP/Java Editor Krishna Kumar demystifies the buzzwords with his informative overview of SAP Mobile Solutions deployment. Sales Forecasting within CRM Mobile Sales, Scott Cameron, SAP CRM Consultant Some SAP customers are still on the fence about SAP CRM. Their attitude might be described as: "Show me the ROI." SAP CRM Editor Scott Cameron knows how to do that. Scott has had the privilege of seeing SAP CRM in action on multiple projects, and he knows how important it is for customers to have specific "wins" and see results for each CRM initiative. In this article, Scott tells us about how SAP CRM, BW, and R/3 can work together to provide SAP users with enhanced sales forecasting abilities. Of course, SAP CRM can only be as effective as the business processes it supports. So in this article, Scott ties the SAP CRM product into the seven steps of the sales and order fulfillment process. Previewing mySAP® CRM 4.0: A Detailed Overview of Mobile Sales (And More), Scott Cameron, SAP CRM Consultant SAP is never shy about introducing new functionality with any of its releases, and SAP CRM is no exception. Fortunately for ERPtips readers, SAP CRM Editor Scott Cameron has gotten an early preview of CRM 4.0, and he's here to tell us all about it. In this detailed overview, Scott hones in on the key enhancements included in CRM 4.0. With an emphasis on the latest 4.0 Mobile Sales enhancements, Scott specifically focuses on the functionality that he feels will have the most strategic impact on SAP users. From Contact and Account Management to Marketing and Campaign Management, Scott covers a host of important functionality in this jam-packed 4.0 preview. Using SAP CRM Mobile Sales Functionality, Scott Cameron, SAP CRM Consultant SAP CRM includes integration features between Microsoft Outlook and Mobile sales for the express purpose of making life easier for a hard-working sales team. But up until now, most users have limited themselves to initial one-time “data dumps.” But there's good news for ERPtips readers: CRM Editor Scott Cameron has just completed a “continuous synchronization” project between SAP CRM and Microsoft Outlook, and he has put together an article to tell us how it's done. Writing in partnership with CRM consultant Evan Uchimaya, Scott has even included the actual code that they used to make this project “go live” as an Appendix to this article.

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Keeping Customer Records Separate, Scott Cameron, SAP CRM Consultant Editor's Note: There are all kinds of viable business reasons for keeping R/3 and CRM contacts separate—for example, to spare your billing department from having to slog through the customer's marketing promotions and sales-related notes. To give us a good sense of how this functionality is best used, Scott uses an actual illustrated scenario he has implemented for CRM clients. This guide gives us a good sense of when to separate contacts from CRM and R/3, and what it takes to pull it off.

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Data Archiving
Archiving SAP Sales Documents, Part 4: RV_LIKP, Breck Whitten, SAP Data Archiving Specialist There’s an art to successfully archiving documents, and Breck Whitten is one of the masters. In this article, Breck focuses on the archive object RV_LIKP used to archive deliveries. He’ll discuss why you’ll want to implement this archive object, the steps you’ll take to do so, and an archiving strategy for deliveries. Along the way, he’ll share the lessons he’s learned so that your implementation is smoother. Archiving SAP Sales Documents, Part 3: SD_VBRK, Breck Whitten, SAP Data Archiving Specialist Breck continues his series on archiving sales documents. In Part 1, he gave us a look at the analysis needed to effectively archive Sales Document data; in particular, identifying data dependencies and detailed archive strategy analysis. Part 2 showed us how to select and analyze data to be archived, resolve issues with documents that cannot be archived, and set up your archiving, retention, re-access, and deletion scenarios. In This final installation, we'll learn about the billing documents archival. Archiving SAP Sales Documents, Part 2: SD_VBAK, Breck Whitten, SAP Data Archiving Project Manager, Halliburton Breck continues his series on archiving sales documents. In Part 1, he gave us a look at the analysis needed to effectively archive Sales Document data; in particular, identifying data dependencies and detailed archive strategy analysis. In this Part 2, he gets into the meat of the matter and shows us how to select and analyze data to be archived, resolve issues with documents that cannot be archived, and set up your archiving, retention, re-access, and deletion scenarios. Archiving SAP Sales Documents, Part I: Analysis, Breck Whitten, SAP Data Archiving Project Manager, Halliburton Last go round, Breck Whitten showed us how to properly archive work items, including items you may “think” were archived, but never did. Now he’s on a mission to help you get a solid Sales Document archiving strategy in place. Breck begins his new series with a look at the analysis needed to effectively archive Sales Document data; in particular, identifying data dependencies and detailed archive strategy analysis. Archiving Workitems, by Breck Whitten, SAP Data Archiving Project Manager, Halliburton Think you’ve got a fool-proof archiving strategy for workitems? Might want to take a quick look at what you have in place. As Breck Whitten and his team learned, even with the SAP Workitem Archive Object implemented, you just might be overlooking orphaned records if your strategy doesn’t properly account for parent/child record relationships. Breck details the solution his company put in place to prevent missed records, ultimately improving their company’s archiving efficiency by 35%. Archiving the Application Log, By Breck Whitten, SAP Data Archiving Project Manager, Halliburton Continuing his series on data archiving, Breck Whitten covers the functionality of application logs, including the basics of managing the log, table analysis tips for BALHDR, and re-access capabilities. Breck also demonstrates how to develop your own archiving strategy to fit your business needs.
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Archiving Change Documents, By Breck Whitten, SAP Data Archiving Project Manager, Halliburton Change history records are recorded for just about everything in a typical SAP system. This is a good thing, but does result in massive growth of the CDHDR and CDPOS tables. This article shows you how to set up an archiving strategy that keeps your change history in context with its related data, while managing table size. We'll discuss the basics of archiving change history, table analysis tips for CDHDR, archiving strategy for change history, and Re-access Capabilities. Archiving SAP Plant Maintenance Data – Part IV: Developing an Archiving Strategy, Breck Whitten, SAP Data Archiving Project Manager, Halliburton In Part IV of his series on Archiving SAP Plant Maintenance Data, Breck Whitten goes into the details of using the PM_EQUI Archive Object to archive plant maintenance equipment. Read on, as Breck discusses the basics and strategy for archiving equipment, as well as the associated reaccess capabilities. Archiving SAP Plant Maintenance Data – Part III: Developing an Archiving Strategy, Breck Whitten, SAP Data Archiving Project Manager, Halliburton Plant Maintenance Measurement Documents may be the farthest thought from most companies when it comes to archiving plant maintenance data—they represent a smaller portion of data within the module. But, in order to successfully archive the associated equipment master data, this is a housekeeping step you don’t want to miss. Breck Whitten presents this third installment in his popular series on Archiving SAP Plant Maintenance Data, this time delving into this mustdo step to a successful archive! Archiving SAP Plant Maintenance Data Part II: Developing an Archiving Strategy, Breck Whitten, Halliburton As a business grows, so does its databases. This is true for virtually every part of the business, including plant maintenance. Let your d-bases get too big, and well, things just slow down, including reports. Thankfully, Breck Whitten returns to the ERPtips table to share with you some more tips and tricks for archiving Plant Maintenance data, an oft overlooked area in the archival world. This go-round, Breck delves into how to develop a strategy to implement such a project, including archiving PM notifications and re-access capabilities. Before you know it, you’ll be able to free up some valuable disk-space and pick up some speed in system performance!, Beyond the ILM Buzzword: Developing an e-Information Lifecycle Management Strategy, Breck Whitten, Halliburton Is Information Management Lifecycle the latest “must drop” buzzword? Breck’s data archiving experience provides the perfect background for dissecting the hype on ILM. What is it? What benefits can be gained by implementing it? What precautions must be observed in pursuing it? Should you jump on the bandwagon or wait and see how ILM evolves? Breck answers these questions and reminds you that technology (even the most cutting edge), is only as good as your project plan. Breck delivers thoughtful insights and strategies on what you’ll need to develop a comprehensive e-ILM solution that will help you decide the “ifs, hows, and whens” for implementing the ILM initiative that best meets your needs. Archiving SAP Plant Maintenance Data - Part I: Developing an Archiving Strategy, Breck Whitten, Halliburton It may not be your greatest source of “pain”, but sooner or later you’re going to need to archive your SAP Plant Maintenance objects. When you’re ready to pursue this adventure, you’ll want data archiving expert Breck Whitten as your guide. According to Breck, it’s not rocket science, but it does require some consideration and planning. As an example, archiving Plant Maintenance Copyright © 2012 by Klee Associates, Inc. www. ERPtips.com Page 52

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work orders presents a few challenges, due to the various configurable options that are available. Breck says the decisions made on these configurable options will determine the effectiveness of your archiving strategy. Follow Breck’s “been there, done that” guide to learn the ins, outs, and gotchas of PM archiving. Archiving Purchasing Data, Part VIII: Developing an Archiving Strategy for Financial Documents, Breck Whitten, Halliburton Since the FI_DOCUMNT object has the richest functionality (& therefore, highest complexity) of all of SAP’s archiving objects, Breck dedicated a series to explain the structure, functionality, tricks, & traps in archiving what may be the most critical documents within an organization. Breck ends the series with a thorough examination of the steps involved in the post-processing archiving activities. These are potentially the most “delicate” steps in the process since they are the ones that actually remove data from secondary indexes. Breck arms you with everything you’ll need to know in terms of configuration impacts, post-processing tasks, reporting impacts, & the use of third-party tools. Archiving Purchasing Data, Part VII: Developing an Archiving Strategy for Financial Documents, Breck Whitten, SAP Data Archiving Project Manager, Halliburton Why does an archive manager write a white paper on financial postings? Breck Whitten does it because he knows that financial postings affect purchase orders, and therefore dictate the archiving characteristics of the purchase orders. He knows that the BSEG table is one of the five largest tables, if not the largest table, in your database. In this installment of Breck’s series on archiving purchasing data, he discusses the configuration of the archive objects. He addresses the “business complete” options that SAP recognizes and explains the associated retention time for document type, account, and index life options. Archiving Purchasing Data, Part VI: Developing an Archiving Strategy for Material Documents, Breck Whitten, Halliburton Breck knows most companies using the purchasing module experience tremendous growth in material document tables MKPF & MSEG. He also knows that material documents are great candidates to begin archiving projects, because the tables can be very large, & testing the Archive Object is not very complex. But Breck says don’t be fooled by the apparent simplicity, since improperly archiving material documents can have serious consequences in other areas .He shows you why it is good to gather as much information as you can about the integration points, & test to see how archiving material documents will impact those intersections of various modules within SAP. Archiving Purchasing Data: Part V, by Breck Whitten, Halliburton Are you bogged down by InfoRecords? Breck Whitten explains how numerous InfoRecords are often erroneously (as well as correctly) generated, leading to a potential bottleneck. According to Breck, this is an area that is often overlooked, but that can affect space and performance significantly. He explains how to plan your archiving strategy to eliminate unnecessary records without depriving your users of the advantages that InfoRecords offer. This is the kind of information that you can’t get in a theory class…and it is the kind of information that makes Breck a master at archiving. Settle into a comfortable chair and enjoy Breck’s fifth installment on Archiving Purchasing Data.

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Archiving Purchasing Data: Part IV, Breck Whitten, SAP Data Archiving Project Manager, Halliburton Breck Whitten continues his series on Archiving Purchasing Data with more tips on managing purchasing data. In this installment, Breck goes into further detail on his methodology for archiving purchasing data, including the differences between a “one step” and a “two step” archiving process. Breck then describes the ins-and-outs of configuring the purchasing Archive Object MM_EKKO. As usual, Breck includes plenty of step-by-step screen shots and a helpful appendix of reference information, which includes the specifics of the Archive Write and Archive Delete processes. Archiving Purchasing Data: Part III, Breck Whitten, Halliburton Whether you’re an Archive Administrator or a system user who’d like to see better performance, you’ll find the third white paper in Breck Whitten’s series on archiving purchasing data to be very valuable indeed. In this installment, Breck takes on the issue of the purchasing orders that won’t archive due to a flaw somewhere along the line in the purchasing process. He extols the importance of every SAP enterprise using the purchasing functionality to define an archiving strategy as part of the work process. Archiving Purchasing Data: Part II, by Breck Whitten, SAP Data Archiving Project Manager, Halliburton It’s the age-old question: how do you deal with massive volumes of purchasing data generated and accessed by users across the enterprise? Breck Whitten addresses this question and outlines the comprehensive functionality of Archive Object MM_EBAN, with specific strategies and steps that go straight to the crux of the matter. In this installment, he shows the reader how to set up the archive process from “plan to production”. Breck explains the pros and cons of the onestep and two-step archiving processes, with special attention to writing and deleting functions. Archiving Purchasing Data: Part I, by Breck Whitten, SAP Data Archiving Project Manager, Halliburton Performance is always a critical issue. Keeping disk space at a maximum & superfluous data at a minimum is a primary factor in optimizing system performance. It comes as no surprise that the Purchasing Department is one of most prolific data-generation areas of any business. Our accomplished archiving author, Breck Whitten, shows how to establish an archiving strategy for managing purchasing data. You will find Breck's paper to be full of step-by-step screen shots & archiving tips that Breck acquired the hard way - working on one of the largest SAP data archiving instances in the world. Defining a Data Archiving Strategy for SAP Payroll Objects – Part VII, Breck Whitten, SAP Data Archiving Project Manager, Halliburton In this seventh article in the series, Breck covers the archiving of the PA_LDOC Archive Object. While this object is not part of the core payroll Archive Objects, it is still a useful object to include in your HR archiving initiative because of the high volume of transactions it generates. By now, you know the drill: Breck addresses all the components of the archiving process involved in PA_LDOC, including residence time, retention time, re-access methods, and archive write and delete.

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Defining a Data Archiving Strategy for SAP Payroll Objects – Part VI, Breck Whitten, SAP Data Archiving Project Manager, Halliburton Breck Whitten’s seven-part “Future Classic” on HR Data Archiving rolls on! In Part VI, Breck covers the Archive Object PA_PIDX, an object that is related to the payroll results in the PA_CALC Archive Object. At Halliburton, the tables archived by the PA_PIDX object are huge, which means a major reduction in database size when they’re done. And with this step-by-step white paper, you can follow Breck’s guidance starting with the process overview, all the way through residence time and retention time, and wrapping up with re-access methods, and archive write and delete. Defining a Data Archiving Strategy for SAP Payroll Objects - Part V, Breck Whitten, SAP Data Archiving Project Manager In Part Five of Breck Whitten's standout series on HR data archiving, Breck describes the purpose and setup of the PA_PDOC Archive Object, an object that is closely related to the PA_CALC Archive Object. As usual, Breck includes the step-by-step setup for this object and relays the process that Halliburton used to install this HR Archive Object. Although the PA_PDOC table is not always data-heavy, it can be necessary to archive due to its close integration with payroll objects. This white paper shows how it's done. Defining Data Archiving Strategy for SAP Payroll Objects - Part IV, Breck Whitten, SAP Data Archiving Project Manager In his latest 45-page installment, Breck guides us through each step of creating the PA_TRAVEL Archive Object. This object is an important part of an overall HR archiving strategy-especially for companies that have tightly integrated travel and payroll functionality. Properly configured, the PA_TRAVEL object works hand-in-hand with the payroll objects as part of an overall approach to managing HR data. In this screen-shot-laden white paper, Breck explains the entire process of creating the PA_TRAVEL object and writing to the archive. Along the way, he describes how to create the PA_TRAVEL Archive Group, how to assign personnel numbers, and how to execute the “archive write” process. Defining a Data Archiving Strategy for SAP Payroll Objects, Part III, Breck Whitten, SAP Data Archiving Project Manager The PCL2 cluster table is one of the fastest growing tables in the SAP HR module. Developing an archiving plan for this table is a must for any major SAP HR implementation. Fortunately, we have resident archiving expert Breck Whitten here to take ERPtips readers through the process one step at a time. Fifty pages later, we have a definitive guide to archiving time evaluation data from the HR module. Using screen shots for each step, Breck draws on his own experiences at Halliburton to recommend the best archiving practices for managing HR data. As usual, Breck's paper is clearly written and organized into sections that match the overall archiving stages, from the preparation process to the archiving process to the consideration of re-access methods. This white paper is the third in a series of innovative papers Breck has written on archiving HR data. This paper is very much a companion to the last one, because for many SAP installations, time evaluation results are linked with payroll results, and the HR archiving plan must incorporate both. Since Breck's last paper focused on the archiving of the payroll Archive Object PA_CALC, this article's focus is on the archiving of time data from Archive Object PA_TIME.

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Defining a Data Archiving Strategy for SAP Payroll Objects Part II, Breck Whitten, SAP Data Archiving Project Manager Breck gets down to business with a comprehensive, fifty-page guide to archiving data from the PCL2 cluster table with the PA_CALC archive object. As Breck explains, the fast-growing PCL2 table is an ideal target for archiving to keep that database growth under control. After walking readers through the archiving process step by step, Breck outlines the main data re-access options available for HR data archives. As usual, Breck offers up plenty of tips and tricks that he and his Halliburton team picked up along the way. This white paper will provide the basis for Breck's upcoming articles on archiving HR data using other HR archive objects like PA_TIME and PA_TRAVEL. CO-PA Archiving – Why and How?, Mitresh Kundalia, SAP Practice Manager We are expanding our data archiving collection with a contribution from Mitresh Kundalia, an expert CO-PA consultant and guest FI/CO contributor. On his projects, Mitresh has used CO-PA data archiving techniques to reduce the size of CO-PA tables and increase system performance for his clients. In this illustrated, step-by-step guide, Mitresh explains how to apply these data archiving techniques to keep CO-PA table sizes under control. Throughout this article, Mitresh draws on his subject matter expertise in CO-PA to point out some of the unique issues that an archiving team faces on CO-PA projects. Defining a Data Archiving Strategy for SAP Payroll Objects Part I, Breck Whitten, SAP Data Archiving Project Manager Breck guides the reader step-by-step through the HR archiving process. This article is really divided into two main parts: detailed overview of HR data archiving, and screen-by-screen guidance for setting up the PA_CALC (payroll results) Archiving Object. In future articles, Breck will guide us through the archiving process for the other main HR Archive Objects. As usual, Breck has written more than just a technical “how-to” guide. He is always mindful of how the archiving process MUST be driven and accepted by the end users, and he's got plenty of tips and suggestions for how to find the right balance between archiving efficiency and the day-to-day data needs of the end users. A Data Archiving Strategy for Profit Center, Breck Whitten, SAP Data Archiving Project Manager Each of Breck Whitten's major works on data archiving gives readers another approach they can take in their archiving efforts. In this detailed how-to white paper, which includes Breck's usual configuration guides and screen shots, Breck once again shares the “lessons learned” from Halliburton's own archiving projects with ERPtips readers. Focusing on Profit Center Archiving, Breck explains the best methods for the key issue of data re-access, and he also assesses the options for online and offline data access within an archiving strategy. As per usual, Breck delivers a paper that's geared towards helping SAP users reduce their total cost of ownership. Defining A Data Archiving Strategy for SAP, Breck Whitten, SAP Data Archiving Project Manager After we published Breck Whitten's first two data archiving articles, we couldn’t imagine how he could top them - but he did. In this twenty page classic, Breck takes us back to the roots of Halliburton's data archiving project, and tells us how Halliburton has reached a real archiving "return on investment." The article culminates with the most important discussion of all: how to measure the impact of archiving on the financial bottom line. IDOC Archiving Strategy, Breck Whitten, SAP Data Archiving Project Manager Breck Whitten has learned the hard way: when you manage a database that is 3.5 terabytes in size, all of your data archiving snafus are magnified. Fortunately for us, Breck is willing to share the insights his team has gleaned from their data archiving challenges. In his latest article, Breck Copyright © 2012 by Klee Associates, Inc. www. ERPtips.com Page 56

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tells us about how his team discovered some inefficiencies in their archiving of IDOCs, and he outlines the methodology they developed to reduce IDOC archiving costs and improve archiving efficiency. As always, Breck's in-depth article comes complete with a detailed configuration guide and terminology appendix. A Data Archiving Strategy for Cost Centers, Breck Whitten, SAP Data Archiving Project Manager Many companies shy away from data archiving, but soon they will discover that it is a necessary function within the SAP environment. Unfortunately, it is in these "crisis" situations that serious problems can be created. It is far better to approach the data archiving function with a well thought out strategy - a strategy that is based on the principle of acceptable re-access of archived data, balanced against how much data is manageable within the active database. Inside lies such a strategy.

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e-Commerce and Online Customer Analytics
Real - Time Online Order Fulfillment In SAP Using J2EE Technologies, Krishna Kumar, Enterprise Horizons Inc. For many SAP users, converting to a J2EE or .NET-based platform sounds appealing, but the costs and technical challenges of becoming "Web- Services" friendly can seem prohibitive. However, as ABAP/Java Development Editor Krishna Kumar illustrated, the targeted use of J2EE architecture and Java development—such as the integration of online order processing with R/3—can improve performance in a targeted, cost-effective manner. Understanding Your Online Customers, Krishna Kumar, Enterprise Horizons Inc. For SAP users, Internet Sales is more than just a CRM component— ABAP/Java Editor Krishna Kumar explains, it takes a lot more than slapping up an e-commerce site to maximize online sales. In the first of a two-part series, Krishna explains how BW's analytical capabilities can help users get a much better handle on their customers' buying preferences and create a better “shopping experience.” He presents a methodology for capturing and using clickstream data to detect trends in online behavior, and he guides readers through the process of incorporating Web events and data into BW to “slice and dice” user behavior in order to identify new sales trends and prevent lost opportunities. Understanding Your Online Customers, Part 2, Krishna Kumar, Enterprise Horizons Inc. Krishna provides us with a conceptual foundation for how to improve the customers online experience by “slicing and dicing” data and taking advantage of opportunities for cross-selling, targeted sales promotions, and personalized online catalog presentation. As Krishna illustrates, SAP users can now step back from the rush to “throw up a Web site” and start looking at how to utilize BW and clickstream data to really integrate online sales into an integrated, multi-channel approach to customer engagement. The article closes with a case study from the travel industry that drives home how these tools are now being utilized by SAP users to make their online (and SAP) investments count.

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Enterprise Portals
Integrating R/3 Transactions into Portals Through WebDynpro, Raj Peddisetty, Prosoft Technology Group There’s no doubt that providing R/3 access to everyone who needs it— particularly those with little technical experience—can result in numerous problems ranging from lack of understanding to security risks. However, it’s possible to minimize these issues by integrating transactions. Raj Peddisetty takes you through the plan, design, and execution of his method, which we’re sure you’ll find is an excellent solution to what has otherwise been considered a dilemma. The Pros and Cons of SAP’s WebDynpro Technology, Bill Guderian, BK Systems, Inc. Now there’s WebDynpro. Is it the super-application it is hyped to be? Will it truly make it possible for those who aren’t techies to develop their own code? Can it truly leap a tall building in a single bound? Bill Guderian asks the hard questions and delivers candid answers about the pros and cons of this development tool. He explains what WebDynpro is, its purpose, its advantages, and shortcomings. Bill discusses issues surrounding the best use of resources and skill sets, and predicts the scenarios wherein WebDynpro is most likely to flourish. iView? I Do: Introduction to Using the SAP Knowledge Management API With Custom Portal iView Development, Bill Guderian, BK Systems, Inc. Bill Guderian shows you how to take advantage of the very powerful Knowledge Management (KM) tool that ships standard with SAP EP6 and NetWeaver 4.0 to manage your valuable documents. Bill describes how to warehouse and manage your “unstructured data,” or data that is not easily stored in database tables, which include: text documents, drawings, PDF files, images, graphics, etc. He explains general concepts to keep in mind while setting up and converting these documents to work in the KM framework. As there is no useful search tool with KM, Bill even provides his code for conducting KM queries. Achieving Multi-System Integration Using SAP’s Enterprise Portals – Part I, Bill Guderian, BK Systems, Inc. Bill Guderian, Mobile Development & Portals Editor, says most firms do not explore or capture the impressive benefits of meshing disparate systems in one location through the Enterprise Portal’s integration & custom development features. In Part I of this two-part article, he presents the model of a firm whose innovative approach rejected integration through traditional flat file interfaces and, instead, chose sleek Java iView programs & Java native JDBC classes. This approach allowed the firm to take advantage of Portal’s powerful integration capabilities to access companion systems in a real-time, transparent exchange. High Noon: Why ABAP Performs Better in Portal Development than Java, by Axel Angeli, logosworld.com, and Lynton Grice Axel Angeli and Lynton Grice give a detailed account of the effort put forth in implementing a portal application in Java, and then two years later, a “nearly identical” application in BSP. Axel and Lynton use side-by-side code examples and feature comparisons to demonstrate significant issues such as finding the right technical skills, language complexity and learning curves, database needs, and transport and version management for each language. The goal? To identify the best environment to support infrastructure stability and production agility. By the end of the paper, you'll know why these authors think that ABAP BSP means "high noon" for Java.
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Advanced Techniques in SAP Html Business (HTMLB): For Java Enterprise Portals EP6, Bill Guderian, BK Systems, Inc. In this article for Portals & Java developers, Portals Editor Bill Guderian presents the facts and dispels the myths of using SAP’s HTML for Business (HTMLB) code for generating Java Server Pages (JSP) in an EP6 environment. Bill begins with a candid discussion of the myriad flaws associated with JSP and suggests a do-able solution. His approach employs the well-worn KISS methodology, beginning with his simple but sound workaround: moving the bulk of the code to a single Java bean per page. Bill uses the Page Context object, the Form object, embedded objects in the TableView Control, and the Scroll Container to illustrate the power of HTMLB. Using J2EE Connector Architecture (JCA) with EP6 iView Development, Bill Guderian, BK Systems, Inc. Bill explains how the latest version of Enterprise Portals (EP6) uses the Connector Framework instead of the SAP Java Connector. Therefore, upgrading from EP5 to EP6 can be an adventure. SAP has documentation on the subject, but sorting through it can be a task. Bill has already encountered and resolved a number of issues with SAP’s J2EE Connector Architecture (JCA) that weren’t addressed in SAP’s own documentation. So before proceeding with EP6 projects, you’ll want to make sure your development team reads this article and learns about how Bill located the missing jar files and resolved the “no class definition found” error. Project Planning, Staffing, and Setup for Enterprise Portals: An Opinionated Guide to the Best (and Worst) Approaches to Portals Installations, Bill Guderian, BK Systems, Inc. Fact: 50 percent of all SAP Portals implementations fail. The main reason: the Portal is not deemed useful by the very “users” it is designed to serve. In this hard-hitting cover story, Bill tells precisely how Portals installs run into trouble and what can be done about it. Not surprisingly, a major key to success lies in the upfront planning. As Bill explains, if you make sure to scope your project properly and staff it wisely, your chances for success are much better. People-Centric Development in an SAP Environment: Web Dynpro and Enterprise Portals, Vik Pant, Ixos Software, AG., and William Wagner, Ph.D., SynchronISIT Training “People-Centric Development” means creating software applications that users really use. Not surprisingly, the key to this kind of development is dynamic User Interfaces that users can adapt to their specific needs and roles. As guest authors William Wagner and Vik Pant explain, SAP’s Portals and Web Dynpro functionality gives SAP technical teams a way to turn people-centric development into a reality. The benefit of this kind of project is not just on the user acceptance side. In the process, you also generate code that can be used and re-used across a wide range of platforms. Performance Improvement and Optimization for Custom iViews in SAP Enterprise Portals, Bill Guderian, BK Systems, Inc. It’s easy to get the impression that Java development is the coolest new thing in the SAP® world. But as Enterprise Portals Editor Bill Guderian has learned first-hand, Java development can pose significant performance challenges for your SAP system. In this handy, straight-talking article, Bill explains why tools like the Java Connector can pose performance problems for Portals developers, and he provides a very useful series of techniques for resolving those problems, such as synchronization and binary search.

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Avoiding iView Development Pitfalls: Designing a Custom Professional Development Application for Enterprise Portals, Bill Guderian, BK Systems, Inc. Portals Editor Bill Guderian is always knee deep in an interesting Portals development project. In this article, Bill tells us about his latest project: the development and implementation of an HR professional development (PD) application. Writing frankly about the limitations his project team faced, Bill tells us why they decided on one development option over another, and he also outlines other alternatives that might have been used in other instances. In the last section, Bill explains how the central development problem was ultimately resolved. Using this framework, ERPtips readers will get a more realistic sense of how Portals development plays out, given the real-life constraints of a typical SAP® project. In the process, Bill uses actual coding samples to give us a bird's eye view of cutting edge Portals and iView development. Developing a Custom Benefits Application for Enterprise Portals, Bill Guderian, BK Systems, Inc. This seems to be the “year of the portal.” More and more, SAP users seem to be turning to Enterprise Portals as a way of leveraging their SAP investment and providing a user-friendly, Web-based interface with which users can manage their SAP-related tasks. But despite the increasing use of Portals, the first Portals projects have primarily been “out-ofthe- box.” But as Portals developer Bill Guderian explains, Portals really come into their own through the ease and power of custom development. In his first article for ERPtips, Bill shows how he is helping an SAP user to create their own custom benefits application using Enterprise Portals 5.0 (EP5). In accessible terms that even nondevelopers can understand, Bill tells about how his team used an important J2EE development concept called “design patterns,” along with the Portals Development Kit (PDK), to achieve their programming objectives. Bill includes a number of actual code samples to illustrate his points. Clearly, Java and Web-based Portals development is going to be an important tool for many SAP implementations, and we're glad to have Bill on board to share his groundbreaking work in this important area. mySAP.com Enterprise Portals: A Manager's Guide, Lou Papagiannis, Heck and Partners Consulting For most SAP Managers, the nuts and bolts of Enterprise Portals remain a mystery shrouded in glowing press releases. But no longer! In this outstanding overview of the Portals product, Lou Papagiannis guides us through all the key factors involving Enterprise Portals, including the architecture, the product components, and the installation process. Lou also de-mystifies the process of acquiring content for Portals and he details the options for customization. Most importantly, he tells us what our team-skills requirements are for a Portals project, so that when we pull the trigger, we'll be ready.

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Financials (FI/CO)
Electronic Payment Processing, Shreeram Venkatdas We do it every day. Whether it's paying bills on line or shopping from our comforts of our home, electronic payment processing has become our norm. This also means we're counting highly on the organizations managing these processes to ensure that our payments are received in the most secure, timely, and efficient manner. Therefore, if you're on the receiving end of an electronic payment, this article is for you. Shreeram Vankatdas discusses how electronic payment processing works and details the options organizations have to make sure money transfers smoothly and safely from point A to B. SAP Group Currency and Data Re-organization, QS&S (Webucation Session Recording) Many customers went live with SAP years ago using configuration settings that now do not support current operations, and are normally not changeable after go-live. Consolidating financial statements and meeting the required reporting is nearly impossible. Re-organizing your data means potentially going through a high cost re-implementation. You can download both the recorded webcast and its accompanying PowerPoint presentation. Using SAP Cash Management Polling for Effective Cash Positioning, Manish Jain, Tech Technologies Inc. SAP Cash Management focuses on providing an efficient cash position and liquidity forecast, enabling treasurers and finance managers to analyze, optimize, and control their business decisions at the global level of an enterprise. This article shows us how to take full advantage of Intraday Bank Statement Polling to update your daily cash position report. Practical Tips for Extracting Better Performance from your BPC Application, Anurag Barua BPC is a financials planning, budgeting, forecasting, and consolidation tool. As it becomes more ® widely adopted by the SAP community, the need arises to do some tuning to keep the tool from bogging down system performance. This article provides a number of good, practical tips to help keep things running well. Maintaining Sets, a Little-known Asset in SAP Applications: Part II, Anurag Barua Sets allow you to group related elements of data to enable more efficient query and report capability. The first of this two-part series of articles covered the various set categories, how to display existing sets and create new ones,and transporting the new or changed sets. This concluding article covers the structure and navigation of set directories, and reviews some valuable utilities. Maintaining Sets, a Little-known Asset in SAP Applications: Part I, Introduction, Anurag Barua Game, set, match? Nope. We aren’t talking tennis here. We are talking about a very valuable concept contained within SAP that allows you to group related elements of data to enable more efficient query and report capability. We’ll cover the various set categories, then learn how to display existing sets and create new ones, followed by a short discussion on transporting the new or changed sets. In the next article in this series, we’ll learn more about the practical application of sets.
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Credit Management in SAP FSCM Module: Part III, Reporting and Analysis, Anurag Barua Anurag Barua concludes his series on Credit Management in SAP Financial Supply Chain Management with a review of how you can get the most information out of it, using the Credit Management capability in conjunction with SAP NetWeaver™ BW. He takes us through some preparation; then illustrates the power with some analysis scenarios. Credit Management in SAP FSCM Module: Part II – Integration with A/R and SD, Anurag Barua Anurag Barua continues his series on Credit Management in SAP Financial Supply Chain Management with a deeper dive into integration with Accounts Receivable and Sales and Distribution. He gives us a look at the multiple BadIs that are available to help make all this happen and walks us through the configuration activities to get the integration activated. Setting Up a Company-Wide Operating Expenses Process, Dimitris Langas, SAP Consultant In ERPtips, we have already presented an article on Purchase Order Release Strategy, but this article delves into the specific configuration and processing as pertains to operating expenses. You'll learn how to define and set up your approval structure, define and assign authorization roles, and then we'll walk you through a demonstration, from PO through release. The examples used for the overview, setup, and demo are based on real-world scenarios, taking us beyond theory and into practice. Credit Management in SAP FSCM: Part I, Overview and Configuration, Anurag Barua With the rollout of FSCM (Financial Supply Chain Management), SAP included robust credit management functionality. If you are among the many who are adopting or will adopt this application, this series will be of benefit. The first of this three-part series gives us an overview and dives into the configuration. Subsequent installments will complete the configuration discussion and move on to the practical use of this valuable tool. Integration Between Materials Management and Financials Posting via Automatic Account Determination, Michael Stocker When it’s in real time, there’s no room for mistakes. And material movement transactions are a perfect example of the type of transaction that immediately impacts FI as they’re posted in real time to G/L accounts. How do you make sure you’re getting the correct posting to the correct account at the correct time? Michael Stocker shows us how through automatic account determination, including the configuration needed. The Race to a Faster Close – Part II: The Closing Cockpit, Dimitris Langas, SAP Consultant With mySAP, SAP released a new tool called the Closing Cockpit; this tool replaces the Schedule Manage (SCM). As Dimitris Langas discuses in this article, the Closing Cockpit is a more structured tool that is simpler to use for financial closing and with more straight forward terminology in comparison to the SCM. Dimitris walks us through the setup and use of this tool, with plenty of good advice on how to fit it into your business requirements and with some great tips about financial closing along the way. The Race to a Faster Close: Part I - Using SAP Tools to Ensure Financial Data Quality, Dimitris Langas, SAP Consultant Imagine, a smooth-running monthly, quarterly, or even year-end close, with all of your data accurate and complete for posting. Go ahead and pinch us—we’re not dreaming. Dimitris Langas demonstrates which standard SAP tools you can use to validate and substitute data in order to make your next financial close be one for the books—in a good way!
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Making the Transition from U.S. GAAP to IFRS in SAP – Part II, Anurag Barua, SAP Consultant Last issue, we highlighted the scope of the US GAAP to IFRS conversion project that U.S. companies will be required to take on over the course of the next several years. This issue, Anurag Barua will pick up with more specific details that companies using SAP will want to consider before they begin their conversion. Anurag discusses the various options available for running parallel accounting standards in SAP, along with the pros and cons of each. He also presents an IFRS conversion road map and a listing of additional resources available to help you better plan for this inevitable project. Dynamic Selections in SAP Reports, Dimitris Langas, SAP FI/CO Consultant Yes. You can do this. If the Dynamic Selection fields on your standard SAP reports aren’t giving you everything you want, you have the power to change them. This article gives us a great tour behind the scenes to look at SAP Logical Databases, then walks us through customizing the selection fields based on those databases. The techniques described here can save your development team a lot of effort and as an added bonus, give you consistency among all your reports, both standard and custom. Making the Transition from U.S. GAAP to IFRS in SAP – Part I, Anurag Barua Are you ready for IFRS? In August of this year the Security and Exchange Commission set in motion a plan that will likely result in all public companies’ reporting in the International Financial Reporting Standards framework by the year 2016. Some may have to switch to IFRS by 2014. That may seem like it’s quite a while away, but in truth, it’s uncomfortably close. The scope of such a transition boggles the mind, but Anurag Barua has bravely stepped forward to help you begin your research and planning. Enterprise Performance Management: BPC Integration Scenarios and Considerations, Arthur “Pat” Pesa, Senior SAP BI Architect BPS (Business Planning and Simulation) and IP (Integrated Planning) are on their way out. Replacing them is BPC (Business Planning and Consolidation), a product SAP acquired when it bought Outlooksoft. ERPtips’ veteran Pat Pesa shows you how SAP has put the elements in place to provide a first class integrated application approach to financial planning with BPC. Collections Management (FSCMCOL) – Part II: Making it Work, Dimitris Langas, SAP Consultant Show me the money. Collections Management is all about bringing in the money to keep the cycle flowing and the company running. But how do you make it all fit in terms of module integration and providing user-friendly tools for collection staff? In the final installment of his Collections Management series, Dimitris Langas discusses master data synchronization between customers and business partners. He also presents steps for automating worklist generation for collections staff, and some configuration tips and tricks. See, it is easy being green. Collections Management (FSCM-COL) Part I: The Process, Dimitris Langas, SAP Consultant The key to a happy financial outlook includes keeping track of who owes you – and collecting on those outstanding debts. Within SAP’s Financial Supply Chain Management applications exists a Collections Management application specifically designed to proactively streamline the collection process in such a way that not only helps your bottom line, it helps maintain customer relations. In Part I of his series on FSCM-COL, Dimitris Langas provides an overview of this application’s processes, including set-up configuration.

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Vendor Invoices in SAP: Finding and Resolving Duplicates, Anurag Barua, SAP Consultant There’s simply no value in a duplicate invoice. If you’re on the receiving end of one of these, you find it an annoyance, at a minimum. If you are on the originating end of a duplicate invoice, you’ve likely just wasted precious resources and made your company look unprofessional. That’s why Anurag Barua put together this handy guide for identifying duplicate vendor invoices, deleting them, and reconciling affected GL accounts. Parallel Currencies in SAP® Part II: Supporting Local Legal Financial Reporting, Dimitris Langas, SAP Consultant A world apart? Not these days when globalization seems more the rule than the exception. If you’re not currently involved in multi-national manufacturing, the odds are that you will be. When that time arrives you’ll be glad you had a “heads up” on financial reporting issues and solutions, from someone who’s done it. Dimitris Langas laid the foundation for supporting parallel currencies in Part I of his series, including detailed steps for configuring and assigning a new currency code. In Part II of the series he wraps up the process with an overview of the required Actual CostingMaterial Ledger configuration, as well as suggestions on handling issues that arise from using parallel currencies. Parallel Currencies in SAP® Part I: Supporting Local Legal Financial Reporting, Dimitris Langas, SAP Consultant Need to accommodate a second currency valuation in SAP in order to generate your company’s financial statements based on local exchange rates? Think it’s impossible in SAP? Not so! It’s time to learn about Parallel Currencies. Dimitris Langas begins a series of articles on this technique. This issue he presents an overview of the solution and the details of the required system settings. Dunning: Not Just a Village in Scotland, Anurag Barua, SAP Consultant Before you ding (someone’s credit), you must dun. Dunning is the practice of reminding customers (and vendors) of past due payments. In SAP, it’s a capability that often is not fully understood. Anurag Barua illustrates how to utilize this functionality to get the message out to those in the late column, including an overview of the terms and configuration. Deleting Standard Cost Estimates in SAP®: What You Need to Know, Sutrisno Japit, Japit Inc. So, you need to delete and re-cost a standard cost estimate—is it as easy as it sounds? According to Sutrisno Japit, this process can be nothing but a big pain if you don’t know all the intrinsic details of the standard cost estimate first. In this article, he details those unique characteristics, what could happen when you delete them, along with some other, safer options you can try if you need to delete and re-cost, thus saving you some aggravation. Unlock Payment Processing Benefits Using SAP®’s Lockbox Capabilities: Part II, Anurag Barua, SAP Consultant OK, last issue, Anurag Barua got us started on the setup and configuration needed to implement lockbox functionality in SAP. Now, to conclude this series, he “unlocks” the benefits of using this functionality for a more efficient collection process. Read along as he focuses on what happens to a lockbox file once imported into the SAP system.
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Unlock Payment Processing Benefits Using SAP ’s Lockbox Capabilities: Part I, Anurag Barua, Independent SAP Consultant Anurag Barua has a lock on how lockbox processing functionality works in SAP. The good news: He’s generously providing us all the the key concepts in this two-part series. In Part I, Anurag introduces the key concepts behind SAP’s lockbox processing, and then provides the configuration to get you started. Sea Cap P01: Exploring the Tidal Wave of Power in CKAPP01, Sutrisno Japit, Japit, Inc. Ahoy, mateys! In the vast ocean of Material Masters, there are many materials that are void of standard cost estimates. How do we bring them ashore (or, in the technical seas, restrict their selection)? Sutrisno Japit comes aboard the SS ERPtips Journal once more to help us reel in
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this treasured list using CKAPP01 and other SAP queries there for the catching! SAP's New General Ledger in ECC 6.0: Document Splitting – Part III, Anurag Barua, The Washington Post All good things must come to an end, though we hope for those of you using the new G/L in ECC 6.0, it’s just the beginning of great things to come. This is the final installment of Anurag Barua’s three-part series on Document Spitting. In this issue, Anurag provides the configuration activities you’ll use if your business needs exceed what the standard SAP features can provide. He also delves into a few of the tips he’s learned along the way (after all, we wouldn’t be ERPtips without TIPS!) The Eliminator: Understanding Elimination of Internal Business Volume in Cost Center Reports, Sutrisno Japit, SAP Practice Manager, Japit, Inc. Reporting the true cost of a cost center group can be a challenge as internal cost exchanges can mess things up good. Sutrisno Japit has a neat way to exclude them, and ultimately, let you report the “truth.” If you’re looking to understand how internal business volume affects your cost center reporting and how to eliminate them, here’s just the article you’ve been waiting for! SAP's New General Ledger in ECC 6.0: Document Splitting – Part II, Anurag Barua, The Washington Post Last issue, we teased you with some information on the new document splitting feature found in mySAP ERP 2005’s New G/L. Well, we don’t like to leave our readers hanging and hungering for more information (at least not for too long!), so Anurag Barua returns this issue to continue his series. This time, he delves deeper into the various facets and benefits of document splitting including the configuration steps needed to get you up and running with this neat new feature. Substitution Rules! Get Interactive with SAP's FI Substitution Rules, Graham Smith, FI/CO Consultant Validation rules can be great for ensuring a validated entry is made in a FI document field, which has no standard associated value table; they serve the purpose of telling users “sorry, wrong value entered.” But what if you want your users to know what a “valid value” is for a particular field? This is where Substitution rules can be of great help here, but don’t require input from users. There is a solution that can nicely resolve this dilemma. Graham Smith shows us how we can make use of “interactive” substitution rules, complete with a real-life case study and setup details!

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Profitability, the Final Frontier: Using SAP’s Profitability Analysis to Increase Profit Margins – Part I, Bill McNaughten, SAP FI/CO Analyst Adding to his series on SAP’s Controlling module, Bill McNaughten delves into Profitability Analysis (PA), the fifth primary area of the module. In this article, Bill provides the background on PA, how it works within the module, creation of an operating concern, and the creation and display of Fixed Characteristics. Put all of these series together, and well, you’ve got a recipe for complete configuration of your Controlling module. SAP’s New General Ledger in ECC 6.0: Document Splitting - Part I, Anurag Barua, The Washington Post There’s a lot to love about the new General Ledger found in mySAP ERP 2005—most particularly, document splitting. Anurag Barua presents this new feature in a two-part series. In this first article, he’ll give us the 411 on the new G/L and a quick peak at what document splitting is and what it can do for you. Next time, the nitty-gritty on document splitting! Implementing SAP's Profit Center Accounting for Fun and Profit, Bill McNaughten, SAP FI/CO Analyst Profit Center Accounting is a lot like exercise. You know you stand to receive a lot of benefits from doing it, but it's just hard to get started. In our cover story for this issue Bill McNaughten gets you motivated with a relatively painless presentation of the process and benefits, the configuration and master data setup, and finally the manual data transport to production. Bill says that since all the postings in PCA originate in other modules, the configuration is relatively simple, so relax…you can do this. It's an Inside Job: Capital Internal Orders Part III - Appreciating Depreciation, Bill McNaughten, Enterprise Resource Corporation As promised, Bill McNaughten has rejoined us this issue to present the final installment in his Internal Order series. What luck! The final installment of this article is just in time for end-of-year tax planning, as Bill discusses settling project capital to Assets Under Construction and Fixed Assets for depreciation purposes (hence tax advantages!). At the end of this article, stay tuned for a quick review that brings all the functions of the three installments together. If you’re planning to implement Internal Orders within your SAP system, you’ll want to clip and save this quick reference. Everybody Gets a Discount: Allocation of Cash Discount to the Originating Profit Center, Sutrisno Japit, Japit Inc. We know who gets the credit when the sale is made; but who takes the hit for the cash discounts offered for early payment? Up until now, they usually ended up in a “black hole” of sorts. Sutrisno Japit presents an engaging article on how to properly allocate those pre-pay discounts to the correct profit center. This is the article that will make you a hero with your corporate controller (and the one every profit center manager wishes you never saw). What’s It Worth?: Automating Exchange Rate Feeds, Stuart Lee, SAP FI/CO Consultant How do we do it? How do we manage to overlook functionalities we have in place that could save us time and money? Why continue with manual processes that leave us prone to error, when there’s a simple solution right under our noses? Stuart Lee helps us uncover one of those oft overlooked functionalities within the Treasury module that will allow you to automate your foreign exchange rate data feeds from an external source. Ready to convert the easy way?

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It’s an Inside Job: Capital Internal Order Configuration—Part II, Bill McNaughten, SAP FI/CO Analyst As promised, Bill McNaughten continues his series on Internal Orders. This time, he gives us the low-down on Capital IO configuration including the Model Order, Internal Order, Asset Under Construction, Fixed Asset, and Settlement. This is Part II of a three-part series on Internal Orders—and we’re pleased to have this FI/CO guru join us once again to impart some very strategic knowledge that can help you use SAP to calculate depreciation of a project—a real boon come tax time! It’s an Inside Job: Internal Order Processing in SAP – Part I, Bill McNaughten, SAP FI/CO Analyst Sales orders drive an enterprise. But if you work in the financial area, you know that sales orders just begin the cycle: internal orders are just as important for the purposes of planning, collecting, & settling the costs of internal projects. Readers may know that SAP allows you to monitor these internal orders through the entire lifecycle from creation to posting. What you may not know is exactly how the internal orders are processed within SAP, & how to configure your system to make them fit your particular needs. In Part I, Bill focuses on expense & statistical internal orders, looking at the process from Controlling area configuration to Model Order configuration. Reconciliation Makes You Feel So Good: How to Reconcile Inter-Company Trade Receivables and Payables, Sutrisno Japit, Japit Inc. If breaking up is hard to do, then reconciliation has to feel pretty good, right? FI/CO expert Sutrisno Japit thinks so. But Sutrisno isn’t talking about human relationships; he’s talking about inter-company trade relationships (transactions). It may seem like a typical transaction at first: there’s a sales order, and a billing document; but when it comes time to reconcile sales against receivables, you could find yourself in a jam if you haven’t set it all up correctly. Sutrisno takes you through the important steps from document issue, matching accounting and billing numbers, associating the customer with the vendor, and finally reconciling all accounts involved. Aging Gracefully: How to Create A/R Aging Statements by Profit Center, Sutrisno Japit, SAP FI/CO Consultant FI/CO expert Sutrisno Japit has developed a report that will allow you to view your aged accounts by profit center. Once you’ve identified the profit center, you’ll find it much easier to track down the orders, sales, sales reps, and other bits of information needed to collect on those overdue accounts and score points with your boss. Sutrisno makes it easy, showing you the steps, screens, and parameters you’ll need to pull the information together and sort it appropriately. So what if aged accounts are not a problem for you? Sutrisno explains how this process can be applied to other uses for reporting SAP data as well. Understanding Variances in Logistics Invoice Verification, Anurag Barua, The Washington Post If day-to-day Materials Management in SAP weren’t complex and frustrating enough, when you add the element of balancing the associated accounts, you can quickly come to the end of your rope. In our cover story, Financials guru Anurag Barua explains some simple steps to adjust the accounts to bring the goods received and invoiced amounts into balance, even when the vendor throws you some curve balls. And Anurag doesn’t just talk the talk, he shows you how to walk the walk, with several examples that illustrate and explain the exact debits and credits necessary to handle the variances that occur among purchase orders, invoices, and actual goods received.

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It’s a Sign! SD, FI, and CO-PA Sign Logic That You’d Better Understand, Sutrisno Japit, SAP Financials Consultant Sutrisno’s been in SAP long enough to have experienced the “disorienting” side of SAP’s sign logic. Negative or positive, debit or credit, add or subtract; how do you anticipate what the SAP system is looking for in CO/PA transactions? Sutrisno begins by explaining the sign logic in SD and FI, which he feels is critical to understanding CO/PA sign logic. He takes you through the creation of billing documents and credit memos, closely examining the sign logic involved (and its impact) in each step. He introduces some of the error messages you might receive and explains how to set the sign flags to avoid these processing errors. Sutrisno closes his article with some “Guidelines to Live By”. How to Cut Down Your CO Cycle Security Risks: An Illustrated Guide, Maria Nikolova, National Electricity Company, Bulgaria When it comes to FI/CO data, the financial heart of the company, the necessity for security needs no explanation. But how do you maximize security of this data without minimizing system performance? What are the acceptable trade-offs? Maria Nikolova introduces a user exit for the CO Cycle that allows the system to “skip” redundant (or unnecessary) validations, thereby expediting the cycle. This is accomplished through understanding and identifying the redundant “objects” in the cycle and configuring only those necessary for the security validation. She also addresses assigning user rights in a way that assures data security without data bottlenecks. Paying Prompt Attention: Complying with the Prompt Payment Act in Your SAP System – Part II, Anurag Barua, The Washington Post Anurag introduced us to SAP’s approach to the Prompt Payment Act in his Dec. 2005 white paper (Part I). Now he completes his PPA series with exacting steps, screen shots, tips, & pitfalls. Aware that the PPA regulatory requirements impact each industry differently, he presents a number of customization options to accommodate your company’s needs. As one of SAP’s primary architects of SAP’s PPA functionality, there are few people more qualified than Anurag to help you maximize your investment and minimize your legal exposure in compliance with PPA. Perfect Realignment: A How-To Guide for Realigning SAP CO-PA Data, Sutrisno Japit, SAP FI/CO Consultant These days, all stakeholders (whether CEOs, officers of the board, auditors, stockholders, or staff) are extremely sensitive to the need for straightforward and timely reporting of all aspects of business profitability. The same is true in the world of SAP. As organization structures change, steps must be taken to realign affected CO/PA master data so that profitability reporting will be accurate. While this process has the potential for complexity, financials expert Sutrisno Japit has laid out a practical solution to smooth out your learning curve. Sutrisno describes what is accomplished in a realignment run, as well as the effects of realignment on summarization levels and reports. SAP Cost Planning Functionality – Part IV: Avoid Splitting Hairs over Splitting Structures, William McNaughten, Enterprise Resource Corporation Bill shows how to create a splitting structure that allows you to associate the costs allocated to a production cost center to an activity type. He explains how to execute the activity price calculation process, which will take all the dollars associated to activity types (through activity-dependent planning or splitting structures), and divide them by the quantities that were planned for each activity type. Bottom Line: SAP takes the plan dollars associated with an activity type (such as labor), and divides this by the hours of labor planned as output. The final result is more accurate and effective cost planning.

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Paying Prompt Attention: Complying with the Prompt Payment Act in Your SAP System, Part I, by Anurag Barua, The Washington Post Does living and working in Washington D.C. make FI/CO expert Anurag Barua more aware of compliance issues? Perhaps, but his attention to this issue is a definite boon for ERPtips readers. In this first part of a two-part series, Anurag lays out the overall landscape of the Prompt Payment Act, its features, and how SAP’s functionality supports its compliance. He shows us how the PPA is tightly integrated with the purchase-to-pay cycle, and presents three relevant scenarios in the purchase-to-pay cycle. Anurag wraps up the discussion with an overview of the key PPA concepts used in SAP. In Part II, he will take you through the configuration aspects. SAP Cost Planning Functionality – Part III: Creating and Executing an Allocation Cycle, William McNaughten, Enterprise Resource Corporation Hold on to your data. Financials Editor Bill McNaughten is back with Part III in his Cost Planning series, and he’s going to show you everything you ever wanted to know about activity-dependent and independent planning but were afraid to ask. Bill uses specific examples to show each technique throughout the allocation process. Assisted by a helpful batch of screen shots, Bill takes you through the three primary costing activities: creating the master data, completing activity-dependent and independent planning, and creating (and executing) an allocation cycle. Using Bill’s approach, you can better predict and control costs, and have a greater influence on enterprise profitability. Electronic Bank Statements: SAP’s Cash Management Gem – Part II, Stuart Lee, SAP FI/CO Consultant This is Part II of FI/CO expert Stuart Lee’s two part series on Electronic Bank Statements (EBS). Stuart’s observations of this increasingly important function of SAP’s Cash Management module takes you from the “big picture” perspective of how it fits in the SAP environment, down to the specific planning and steps necessary to implement and troubleshoot EBS in your company. In Part I, Stuart presented the overview, planning, and configuration. In this issue, he wraps up the topic with a thorough dissertation on the downstream processing affected by EBS. Once again, he establishes the enterprise view to prepare and lead you to the planning and configuration levels to make EBS work for you. The Hard Way or the PID Way - How to Avoid Repetitive Data Entry With Parameter IDs, by Anurag Barua, The Washington Post Would you like to be more productive in your daily activities? Let Anurag Barua of the Washington Post show you how to set up Parameter IDs (PIDs) to capture and auto-fill the information you use routinely. Using PIDs will not only make you more productive, but will also go a long way in helping prevent data entry errors. Injecting just enough humor to make this topic fun, Anurag presents an overview of PIDs and how they can be used. He then steps you through mapping them to SAP User IDs. Finally, he shows you where to find a complete list of PIDs you’ve configured, so you can tweak or reuse them. Take the monotony out of your workday by utilizing this little-known SAP feature.

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Electronic Bank Statements: SAP’s Cash Management Gem – Part I, Stuart Lee, SAP FI/CO Consultant Stuart Lee makes a compelling case for SAP’s oft-overlooked Electronic Bank Statement (EBS) functionality. Hidden in SAP’s Cash Management function, EBS tends to be a “Someday” initiative. Stuart shows you how easy it is to make today “Someday”. He explains how the bulk of the implementation is spent in research & planning, with the actual configuration being a minor effort. Stuart describes the basic file formats, & what to expect with each. Because the bank statement itself is the one element over which you have no control, Stuart wisely reminds us that building a strong relationship with our bank(s) is the number one critical success factor to make EBS work for you. Payment Terms and Date Calculation in FI-AP: Common Misconceptions and How to Address Them, by Anurag Barua, The Washington Post FI/CO expert Anurag Barua presents a practical explanation of payment terms and date processing in SAP. Anurag carefully defines each prominent payment term and shows examples of the variety of results produced with different settings in each. More importantly, he clarifies how and where SAP stores this information. Understanding this is key to making the payment function work correctly. The paper culminates with a troubleshooting section to ease you through some typical troubleshooting scenarios. SAP Cost Planning Functionality, Part II: Integrated Planning, William McNaughten, Enterprise Resource Corporation FI/CO expert Bill McNaughten continues his series on Cost Planning, showing you the additional configuration required to implement integrated planning. He explains how to establish the planning layout, using the Report Painter tool to set the necessary parameters. He also shows how to pull SAP data into Excel in a useful format. Finally, Bill shows you how to activate integrated planning in SAP by changing the planning profile. With key tips for updating rules, establishing security settings, and understanding the update limitations, he shows you how to complete the process and put it to use, pulling the revised data into SAP. SAP Cost Planning Functionality, Part I: Using Plan Versions in Cost Center Planning, William McNaughten Let’s say you are working on your end of period figures and P&L statement. You find you can’t reconcile your P&L to your Controlling line items. How did that happen? In this article, Sutrisno Japit, FI/CO expert, explains how that happens and provides a ten-step program to correct it. These ten steps will re-derive functional areas in your original FI & CO documents, so that you have a correct P&L Statement - one that will reconcile with the FI & CO reports. Using Sutrisno’s step-by-step instructions and screen shots, you should have a very helpful guide for correcting Controlling document line items that you can incorporate into your project’s knowledge base. SAP Functional Area Postings: Correcting Document Line Items, Sutrisno Japit, NIIT, Inc. Let’s say you are working on your end of period figures and P&L statement. You find you can’t reconcile your P&L to your Controlling line items. How did that happen? In this article, Sutrisno Japit, FI/CO expert, explains how that happens and provides a ten-step program to correct it. These ten steps will re-derive functional areas in your original FI & CO documents, so that you have a correct P&L Statement - one that will reconcile with the FI & CO reports. Using Sutrisno’s step-by-step instructions and screen shots, you should have a very helpful guide for correcting Controlling document line items that you can incorporate into your project’s knowledge base.

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Product Costing Part V: Analyzing, Marking, and Releasing the Costing Run, Bill McNaughten, Enterprise Resource Corporation In the concluding article of his five-part series, Bill shows us how to complete the costing process through analyzing, marking, and releasing the costing run. He demonstrates the use of the numerous costing views in SAP to provide the easiest access to the information we need to make it all work. He also documents the potential pitfalls you might run into along the way, and shares his tried-and-true shortcuts to help make the “costing run” a truly useful tool. The article wraps up with a walk-through of a sample costing run estimate, pointing out the associated material and activity costs for the product. Product Costing Part IV: Costing Run, Bill McNaughten, Enterprise Resource Corporation In his five-part series on Costing in SAP, FI/CO crackerjack Bill McNaughten brings into focus the oft-times murky relationships of the elements that comprise the Product Costing function of SAP. This fourth article in the series, a discussion on executing the Costing Run, gets you to the “That’s what I’m talkin’ about” phase of the costing implementation. Bill shows how conducting a Costing Run offers an organized way to create new standard costs for all plants within a specified company code, or conversely, to cost only the plants or materials within a specified company code. He employs exacting steps, abundant screen shots, and practical examples. Implementing Cost of Sales Accounting: A Guide to Configuration, Reconciliation, and Reporting Specifications, Sutrisno Japit, NIIT, Inc Within SAP financials, robust cost of sales functionality is available if properly configured. In this illustrated guide, FI/CO expert Sutrisno Japit explains how to set up cost of sales functionality in SAP for effective analysis and reporting. Using screen shots to illustrate each configuration step, Sutrisno shows how to activate SAP’s cost of sales accounting functions within the CO module in order to obtain a better understanding of how a company’s expenses truly contribute to the “bottom line.” Product Costing in SAP - Part III: Configuring the Cost Component Layout, Bill McNaughten, Enterprise Resource Corporation Bill moves into the techniques involved in configuring the cost component layout. The value of this step? If you know how to configure cost elements into cost components, you’ll have the ability to customize your cost estimate format to suit the needs of your company and industry. Using the same “brass tacks” approach he used in Parts I and II, Bill calls on screen shots from the IMG to illustrate each step in the configuration of the cost component, noting any common errors to look out for along the way. Product Costing in SAP: Guidelines for Design and Configuration Part Two: Defining and Creating Plan Values for Activity Type Configuration, Bill McNaughten, Enterprise Resource Corporation CO expert Bill McNaughten has agreed to write for ERPtips as long as his series on Product Costing lasts. The good news is that Bill has a lot to say on product costing configuration, so we should have him around for a few more issues at least. In part two of his series on product costing configuration, Bill moves beyond the initial phase of configuring the costing variant and explains how to establish secondary cost elements, activity types, and activity type/price planning.

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Planning for Leadership, Part Two: Using SEM-BPS for Financial and Leadership Planning, Russ Hardy, Data2Info, Inc. FI/CO Editor Russ Hardy began writing for ERPtips with articles on getting the most out of the CO module. Now, he's taking readers to the next level and showing them how to leverage the functionality in SEM-BPS and other SAP solutions to bring together operational and strategic planning. In this article, the second in Russ's ongoing series on “leadership planning,” Russ uses a case study of a technical services firm to show how the different business planning levels in SEM can be used to support a company's operations through “big picture” business planning approaches, such as Stock and Flow Forecasting and Upset/Mitigation Planning. One of Russ' most important points is that we shouldn't always view SEM through the vantage point of BW. Even though SEM and BW are closely linked, as Russ points out in this article, sometimes it is best to approach SEM through the vantage point of key business planning issues, as opposed to simply starting with a standard BW data structure. Using screen shots from the SEM-BPS system, Russ gives us a cutting edge view of SAP business planning. Product Costing in SAP: Guidelines for Design and Configuration - Part One: Configuring the Costing Variant, Bill McNaughten, Enterprise Resource Corporation Product costing is one of the most important areas within SAP® financials that ERPtips has yet to cover. But that's all changed as of this issue! For the next few editions of ERPtips, we're pleased to welcome guest FI/CO Editor and CO specialist Bill McNaughten on board. Bill will be writing a multi-part series on product costing, with part one debuting in this issue of ERPtips. Bill has been on some major product costing projects over the years, and he's boiled down his whole approach into this article series. In part one, Bill begins by providing a detailed view of product costing configuration, including issues pertaining to the valuation variant, data control, and the costing variant. Using a number of screen shots, Bill places these configuration steps into the context of his overall approach to SAP product costing. Converting LIS Data into CO: A Case Study from the Coca Cola Bottling Project, Bill McNaughten, Enterprise Resource Corporation Recently, several readers asked us if we could cover more material pertaining to SAP product costing. So we tracked down Bill McNaughten, who is one of the most knowledgeable product costing experts we know, and someone who has been consulting in the CO module since the glory days of the '90s. Bill is currently working on a project for Coca-Cola Bottling, and his team has been kind enough to let him use their project as a case study for a series of papers on COrelated topics. Bill's first topic pertains to a key theme in this month's ERPtips: better reporting for happier SAP users. At Coca-Cola bottling, Bill's team took on the task of setting up an automatic data conversion process between LIS and CO. The end result? Users now had access to CO data for a variety of reporting needs, and nobody has to manually type in information from LIS into CO anymore. In this twenty-seven-page paper which Bill packed with screen shots, he takes readers through each step in the process of transferring data from LIS to CO. He explains how to create a Statistical Key Figure (SKF) and link the SKF to LIS and then to CO. The end result? Happy SAP users, who can now access this data directly in CO and generate custom reports in Report Painter that allowed them to calculate cost center quantities and payment calculations. Planning for Leadership: How to Use the Latest SAP Technology for Effective Financial Leadership, Part One, Russ Hardy, Data2Info, Inc. In his first year of ERPtips articles, FI/CO Editor Russ Hardy focused on how to get the most out of the profitability analysis functionality that ships as a core part of R/3. Russ has proven that you can do very sophisticated financial planning and profitability analysis simply by using the CO module to its fullest extent. But Russ is also aware that SAP's financial capabilities now go far beyond CO, and in his latest article, Russ begins a new series of articles that shows how to use a Copyright © 2012 by Klee Associates, Inc. www. ERPtips.com Page 73

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range of mySAP® components, in conjunction with R/3 4.6 or Enterprise (4.7), to accomplish even more sophisticated forms of financial planning. Russ calls this new approach “leadership planning,” and in this article series, he will show how to use SAP's latest technology for “customer- centric” financial planning by utilizing mySAP components such as SEM, Enterprise Portals, and CRM's C-Projects functionality. Plan to Make Money - Getting the Best Results out of the CO Module, Russ Hardy, Data2Info Inc. The financial planning capabilities within SAP are very powerful and often underutilized. A key to maximizing the benefits to an organization from the range of functionality available within SAP Controlling (CO) and Strategic Enterprise Management (SEM) is to recognize that the starting point is the design of “Planning.” This viewpoint is important on a number of levels. SAP Treasury Functionality in Today’s Economy, Tom Gray, Gray Consulting Services The days of vanilla General Ledger ERP are gone forever. Today’s SAP clients want to get the most out of their R/3 investment, and that means taking advantage of SAP’s rich functionality in areas such as Treasury and Cash Management. For his first article, we asked FI/CO Editor Tom Gray to give us an overview of the Treasury Module functionality and tell us more about how companies are using it to get more bang for their buck out of all their transactional SAP data. Configuring Budgetary Ledger, Russ Hardy, Data2Info Inc. To get a real handle on customer profitability, you need to account for the hidden costs in the order fulfillment process. As FI/CO Editor Russ Hardy notes, SAP® customers have a great opportunity to truly identify their most profitable customers—just by using functionality that comes with the CO module in virtually all versions of R/3. Russ walks us through how to take a customer-profitability approach to the costing of freight, returns, and other expense groups. IS-PS: Configuring the Budgetary Ledger, Simon Core, FI/FM Consultant Public Sector organizations running SAP have special financial considerations and budgetary regulations to comply with. SAP's IS-PS industry solution ships with some helpful functionality in the Budgetary Ledger that SAP users can take advantage of. In this hands-on guide to configuring the Budgetary Ledger, FI/FM consultant Simon Core explains the two aspects of the Budgetary Ledger derivation tool, and how the integration between Budgetary Ledger and Funds Management helps Public Sector companies stay on top of budgetary accounting in compliance with government guidelines. A New Approach to Costing Freight and Other Expense Groups, Russ Hardy, Data2Info Inc. To get a real handle on customer profitability, you need to account for the hidden costs in the order fulfillment process. In this issue's cover story, Russ walks us through how to take a customer-profitability approach to the costing of freight, returns, and other expense groups. In future editions of ERPtips, Russ will expand on the theme of customer profitability as it applies to the identification of other significant "hidden costs"—all by using the underutilized but standard R/3 functionality. The Schedule Manager In 4.6c: A Tool For Managing Period-End Closing, Tom Gray, Gray Consulting Services The origin of this tip is a simple one: After FI/CO Editor Tom Gray saw client after client rave about his use of Schedule Manager to ease their period-end closing tasks, he couldn't resist sharing this tip with a broader audience. Although anyone running 4.6c can benefit from the enhanced Schedule Manager, this tip will be of special interest to 3.1i users who are about to upgrade to 4.6C and will now have access to a powerful new version of Schedule Manager to make key financial management tasks a lot easier. Copyright © 2012 by Klee Associates, Inc. www. ERPtips.com Page 74

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The Valuation Of A Supply Chain Plan In CO-PA, Russ Hardy, Data2Info Inc. Smart SAP® users are finding strategic ways of using transactional data for smarter costing and planning. As FI/CO editor and CO-PA expert Russ Hardy demonstrates in this article, you don't have to invest in fancy mySAP® applications to take advantage of some very sophisticated tools for "valuating the supply chain." Note that the CO planning tips Russ provides here can be used in all versions of SAP from 3.0 onward. What's So Special About Special G/L Indicators?, Rohana Gunawardena, Exium Inc. Sometimes the best SAP® functionality is sitting right in front of our eyes, but we're so used to our routine that we pass right over it. Such is the case for Special G/L Indicators— a handy but overlooked checkbox that appears whenever you post an FI document. As our FI/CO Editor Rohana Gunawardena knows firsthand, those little indicators can be used for all kinds of handy projects—most notably the segregation of customer and vendor balances for better FI/CO reporting. In this screen-shot intensive, step-by-step article, Rohana tells us how we can use the Special G/L for several common business needs, including the factoring (sale) of invoices to third parties for cash flow purposes. Segregating Internal and External Account Receipts, Rohana Gunawardena, Exium Inc. Wouldn't it be great if every piece of SAP functionality we needed was available right "out of the box"? As we all know, in the real world, there is always going to be a functionality gap between off-the-shelf software and specific needs. Fortunately, judicious use of SAP user exits can give companies a way to fill the functionality gap. In this well-illustrated "how to" guide, FI/CO Editor Rohana Gunawardena tells us how to customize the FI to segregate internal and external goods receipts using SAP's official user exits. In the process, we gain some tips about table T030, a table that is used for many SAP accounting functions and provides a vital link between the MM and the FI modules. Configuring Reimbursable Orders and Resource-Related Billing, Simon Core, FI/FM Consultant SAP® FI/CO and Public Sector expert Simon Core returns this issue for his second ERPtips white paper. This screen-shot-laden white paper guides the reader step-by-step through the process Simon uses to capture project costs in PS and CO, and bill customers for them using SD. As Simon illustrates, Resource-Related Billing functionality in PS provides the ideal way to link up with SD for the purposes of tracking and billing reimbursable expenses. One of my favorite parts of this excellent paper comes at the end, when Simon takes the time to review the trickiest issues in reimbursable order processing and offer his project-tested solutions. Using CO to Segment and Analyze "Hidden" Customer Costs, Russ Hardy, Data2Info Inc. In his cover story in the June 2003 edition of ERPtips, Russ outlined some innovative ways of using CO to reassess customer profitability by incorporating "direct" costs such as freight, returns, and free samples. Russ made a persuasive argument that CO has a lot of rich functionality to offer SAP® users who aren't ready for the "SEM leap" but who still want to get a better handle on how much their customers are truly costing them and which relationships are really profitable. But what about "indirect" administrative and sales costs that should be linked to particular customers, but are often put in lump categories or groupings? Post Go-Live Activation of Open Item Management, Rohana Gunawardena, Exium Inc. Correcting Posting errors in the R/3 General Ledger isn't anyone's ideas of a good time. Through the course of his global R/3 implementations, FI/CO Editor Rohana Gunawardena has mastered a helpful way of reducing and spotting posting errors: open item management. Rohana walks us through real-life scenarios such as cost of sales reposting —scenarios where open item management can be used to enhance the accuracy of the posting process and identify problem Copyright © 2012 by Klee Associates, Inc. www. ERPtips.com Page 75

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postings. As he points out, this "open item" process has most often been used for customer and vendor accounts, but it actually has a broader application that companies can use in a range of situations, such as balance sheet GL accounts. Adding Flexibility to Validation & Substitution Rules, Rohana Gunawardena, Exium Inc. In the perfect SAP® world, there would be no need for custom ABAP and technical modifications to R/3. But in the real world, there are times when the selective customization of R/3 can help the SAP users to greatly increase their efficiency. In the FI/CO area, one such example is developing table-based logic for validation and substitution using SAP's validation and substitution exits. Once developed, the techniques that FI/CO Editor recommends in this article can be re-used, saving the trouble of writing code from scratch or altering reports table-by-table each time a custom report must be modified The Planning and Pricing of Indirect Costs and Sustainment Costs, Russ Hardy, Data2Info Inc. ERPtips readers who are tired of hearing about the latest mySAP® product but eager to get the most out of R/3 are loving Russ Hardy. He explains his concept of “sustainment” costs, which he sees as a more accurate term than the traditional “fixed cost” terminology. In this final installment of this three-part series, Russ continues with his explanation of how true customer profitability involves tying costs, no matter how “hidden” and “indirect,” to specific customers and target markets. Before companies engage in rigorous “cost-cutting,” they need a better way to understand how those cuts are going to impact specific customers in ways that aren't always obvious. CO-PA Archiving – Why and How?, Mitresh Kundalia, SAP Practice Manager We are expanding our data archiving collection with a contribution from Mitresh Kundalia, an expert CO-PA consultant and guest FI/CO contributor. On his projects, Mitresh has used CO-PA data archiving techniques to reduce the size of CO-PA tables and increase system performance for his clients. In this illustrated, step-by-step guide, Mitresh explains how to apply these data archiving techniques to keep CO-PA table sizes under control. Throughout this article, Mitresh draws on his subject matter expertise in CO-PA to point out some of the unique issues that an archiving team faces on CO-PA projects. Cost and Revenue Planning in SEM-BPS, Russ Hardy, Data2Info Inc. In his previous ERPtips articles, Russ presented his methodology for "planning for profitability" using CO-PA. Now, in our first ERPtips article on SEM, Russ shows how to use SEM-BPS and BW to achieve a higher (and more integrated) level of profitability analysis. Russ starts this article by reviewing his overall approach to profitability analysis. Then he explains how to use SEM's simulation and planning capabilities as another way to hone in on crucial costing and planning issues.

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Human Resources (HR)
A Tour of the Time Manager Workplace: A Guide for SAP HR Users and Consultants, Rehan Zaidi We can't really save time in a bottle. But Time Manager Workplace can cut down on the number of transactions your time administrator has to perform in SAP and hence does save time. In this article, Rehan Zaidi discusses the advantages of this functionality, how to manage employee data, the different views and modes that it supports, and Time Data IDs. Challenges of Consolidating Wage Type Catalogues, Satish Badgi, Accenture Consolidating wage type catalogues while moving from multiple systems to a single SAP platform, or while consolidating SAP, presents multiple challenges within the implementation phases. Satish Badgi walks us through the analysis, design, realization, testing, and deployment phases, addressing the individual challenges and how to successfully surmount them, then provides a series of examples and tips Three Important Maintenance Views for HR Wage Types: A Guide for SAP HR Consultants, Rehan Zaidi How do you define the permissibility of Wage types for Employee Subgroups and Personnel Subareas? How are Wage types calculated? How is direct valuation or indirect valuation of wage types controlled? How do you ensure the correct entry of a wage type in the appropriate Infotype? This article starts with an overview, then gives us a deep dive into the details of three Wage Type Maintenance Views that will answer those questions. Everything You Wanted to Know About Handling 401(k) in SAP, Satish Badgi, Accenture If your employee’s benefit plan includes 401(k) and you’ve been struggling with how to deduct in SAP HCM, this article will help you get a better grip on this topic. Satish Badgi takes us on a high level view of how 401(k) flow in SAP, then discusses the various ways they’re handled, depending on if they’re managed in house vs. outsourced to a benefits provider. If you’re using SAP Payroll and HCM, and want to learn how to better leverage this functionality to make your 401(k) deduction process smoother, Satish has it all right here. Four Important HR Infotypes: A Guide for SAP HR Users, Developers and Consultants, Rehan Zaidi Infotypes are prevalent in the HR module—but what is their purpose? How are they related to personal data, work schedules, and basic pay? Can they be customized? Rehan Zaidi takes a look at four key Infotypes found the Personnel Administration sub-module and defines how they can be useful to a streamlined HR operation. Understanding the Decoupled Infotype Concept in SAP HR: A Guide for SAP HR Consultants and Developers, Rehan Zaidi Decoupled Infotypes are a new design of Infotypes involving objects and classes. Since all new Infotypes that have been developed by SAP are based on the Decoupled Design and newer applications have been developed that use the decoupled concept, it is essential to learn the concepts of the Decoupled Infotype. This article gives an overview of the Decoupled Infotypes and examines the differences (additional objects and database entries) generated between the old (non-decoupled) and the new (decoupled) paradigm.
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Overview of New Overpayments Functionality in SAP HCM in Enhancement Pack 4, Satish Badgi In 2004, ERPtips published Satish Badgi's “The Life Cycle of Employee Overpayments Claims Processing”, a comprehensive guide. Since that time, SAP has issued Enhancement Pack 4, which has made overpayment processing even more robust and more streamlined. This article explains the net changes in functionality and configuration. You'll want to be sure to read this article before you decide to apply EhP4. Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About HCM Reporting, Martin Gillet, SAP HR Consultant, Cogilius bvba ® As an HCM professional, do you consider yourself special? Well, it appears that SAP does, according to Martin Gillet; at least when it comes to reporting. This article presents a comprehensive overview of the four major reporting tools available to the HCM user. You'll see which reporting tools are the best for a given situation, how to find them, their configuration options, and tips for getting what you need from your HCM application. Tips for Integrating SAP HCM with External Applications, Satish Badgi, SAP HR Consultant This article serves as a great quick-reference for the various elements of integrating HCM with external applications, including Payroll, Talent Management, Finance, and others. It discusses the key aspects of each as well as the tools and technology to consider. If you are considering integration, this is the place to go first, to help you sort out which integrations might be more (or less) complex and what to be on the lookout for. Maintaining FLSA Requirements in SAP Satish Badgi, SAP HR Consultant It's that time of year when we are all aware of, and a little stressed about complying with government regulations. When it comes to making SAP Payroll work correctly in compliance with the Fair Labor Standards Act, Satish Badgi says “Don't sweat it”. With a few helpful configuration tips and some real-life examples, you can tailor your Payroll and Time Management modules to support the way your company does business, and the way the government wants things withheld, disbursed, and reported. Following Satish's guidelines makes the whole process…well, shall we say, less taxing? Should We Implement SAP ECM? Concepts to Consider, Satish Badgi. It goes without saying that adding a solid talent management piece to your SAP system would be worthwhile, in order to monitor compensation in regards to areas such as employee performance, budget, and market trends. In this article, Satish Badgi discusses the key concepts of the SAP Enterprise Compensation Management (ECM) module, comparing it to legacy solutions, and provides some considerations you can take to the discussion table when deciding whether this module would be a good fit for your organization. Guidelines for Creating and Managing OM Structures, Satish Badgi At first blush, you may think that implementation of the Organizational Management submodule (one of the two major parts of the HCM module) is going to be a no-brainer. Satish Badgi warns you not to get overly confident; OM can be pretty complex in application. Because the organizational management structures establish the relationships between critical HCM objects, the key to successful implementation lies in strategy and design. Follow Satish as he describes the benefits, concerns, key decision points, strategies, and tips to ease you through the implementation.
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Fast Entry Simplified - A Guide for SAP HR Consultants and Users, Rehan Zaidi, Siemens Pakistan Have you ever noticed that when you attend meetings you get stuck with more work…more action items? Then, the meetings and action items continue to pile up…all the while you still have your routine work to do. Your newest action item involves a lot of data entry related to employee benefits changes. Looks like another all-nighter. Wait a minute, Rehan Zaidi can show you his techniques for using fast-entry screens in the SAP HR module. With his method, you can change employee data for a large number of employers with minimal entry. Find out when Rehan thinks the fast entry process is warranted, and how to use it successfully. Oh, and tear up that check for your carpal tunnel surgeon. Managing Benefits Program Groupings in SAP HCM, Satish Badgi, SAP Consultant Need to see some action from your investment in the SAP Benefits Administration (BA) module? Satish Badgi, the ERPtips HR “go to guy”, developed a primer to guide you in using the HCM Infotype 0171 benefits groupings like a pro. Whether your benefits programs apply consistently across your employee population (what are the odds?) or include some employee groups with “special” benefit considerations, Satish gives you the tools to make it work. From strategizing the groups and associated benefits to configuring the first and second group settings, to understanding the Do’s and Don’ts, you’ll find this article very… (dare we say it?)…beneficial. SAP®’s Payroll Checklists: A Simple Tool to Reduce Payroll Errors, Satish Badgi, SAP HR Consultant Tired of playing “catch-up” with payroll data errors? It’s time to put those issues that plague you, pay period after pay period, in check. Satish Badgi presents a check list to help you identify potential problems NOW, before your next payroll run begins. This article keys in on the root causes of payroll data errors, a generic check list to get you started, and the SAP tools and reports that can help you master this task. Two Useful Report Strategies for HR: A Guide for HR Users and Consultants, Rehan Zaidi, Siemens Pakistan The Human Resource function in a firm could almost be summed up with the description “collection, maintenance, and reporting of employee data”. It seems that being able to provide key staff data at a moment’s notice is not a just goal, but a requirement of management these days. You’ll be pleased to see that Rehan Zaidi has two strategies to improve your HR reporting in this issue. Rehan introduces two helpful reports and walks you through their functionality. You’ll even learn to create a PDF file directly from the printer spool file. Now that’s news you can use. Cool CATS: Simple Configuration of SAP®’s Cross Application Time Sheet, Satish Badgi, SAP HR Consultant What’s the difference between house cats and SAP CATS? Well, one is user friendly. All kidding aside, CATS, Cross Application Time Sheet, is a nifty tool for tracking employee time across different application modules in SAP. Satish Badgi walks us through the steps to configure and adjust the front end of this tool, in order to maximize usability. Tracking Changes Made in PD Infotypes - A Guide for SAP HR Consultants and Users, Rehan Zaidi, Siemens Pakistan Next to anything financial, if there’s one area where you (and your auditors!) would want to know who’s been making changes, that area would be Personnel Administration Data. Surprisingly, as Rehan Zaidi points out, not everyone is aware that there are tools that already exist in SAP’s HR module that will track changes made to the Personnel Development area. Rehan explains this functionality and guides us through the setup of a PD Change Log.

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Infotype Creation in HCM: A Detailed Guide, Kamran Ellahi, SAP Consultant Lots of employees equals lots of data to manage. Infotypes can help you manage that data your way. Kamran Ellahi demonstrates how to create your own Infotype for an Applicant in SAP HCM ECC 6.0. Creating Custom Relationships in OM, Rehan Zaidi, Siemens Pakistan Have you ever heard the phrase “six degrees of separation?” If so, here’s a new challenge for you—trying to connect your company’s employees and how each of their functions relate to one another. . .in SAP. Fortunately, in the Organizational Management module of SAP HR, you have the option to create company-specific custom relationships. Rehan Zaidi walks you through the steps and the logic of this process. Following the Integration Between Time Management and Payroll in SAP® HCM, Satish Badgi, SAP HR Consultant You put in the time, you get your check. But is it really that simple? Not necessarily—at least not from an SAP perspective. The behind the scenes processes needed to get your time information, found in either the Time Management Module or a time-clock system, to the payroll system take a bit of integration. Satish Badgi walks us through the steps to getting the time into the pay calculations, and introduces us to the “handshake” that makes it all click—B2 clusters. Chart of Employees Subgroup Groupings and Personnel Subarea Groupings, David Meyers, Insight Enterprises We always enjoy your comments to the ERPtips staff and to the authors of our articles. Recently, one of our readers congratulated our HR Editor, Satish Badgi, on an excellent article about Employee Subgroups. He also sent along a chart he had devised to help when working in these groupings. We’d like to thank David Meyers for his kind words and his contribution of this “tipette” for our December 2007 / January 2008 issue. What is Time Evaluation and Why Do We Need It?, Satish Badgi, SAP HR Consultant It’s one of the most complex issues in HR: Time Management. Since some employees' pay is time-based, while other employees are salary-only, Time Evaluation isn’t a one-size-fits-all proposition. Fortunately, SAP offers the functionality to calculate time accurately—as long as you understand the different options and when you’ll need to use them. Satish Badgi helps de-mystify the various scenarios of Time Evaluation and when you’ll want to employ each option. Creating Your Own Infotypes in Organizational Management – a Guide for SAP HR Consultants and Developers, Rehan Zaidi, Siemens Pakistan There’s a vast world of Infotype creation out there—and Rehan Zaidi is eager to help you explore it! If you’re an SAP HR consultant or developer, you’ll appreciate this handy guide to creating Infotypes in the Organization Management module. Rehan discusses the tables, structures and types involved, as well as the steps to take to create an OM Infotype. Payroll Go-Live in SAP®: Planning and Managing the Cutover, Satish Badgi, SAP Consultant If there is one area of SAP that is handled with white gloves, it has to be Payroll. Employees will eventually adjust to pretty much any other system changes, but mess with their paychecks and, well—we wouldn’t want to be you. There’s no doubt, then, that Payroll go-lives and cutovers have vastly more challenges than other projects. However, according to Satish Badgi, it’s easier if you plan, plan, plan. Satish provides us with the critical factors and entities that you’ll need to consider before initiating your Payroll project.

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Mastering the Macros of the PNP and PCH Logical Databases – A Guide For SAP HR Consultants and Users, Rehan Zaidi, Siemens Pakistan They’re overlooked and under-utilized. And, according to Rehan Zaidi, they have the potential to be a consultant’s best friend. They are the the macros in the PNP and PCH logical database, found in SAP’s HR sub-module. Rehan addresses the structures, advantages, and uses of these macros. If you’re a programmer or a consultant, this white paper provides you some valuable information that may make your next SAP HR implementation easier. ESGs and PSGs: What Do You Need to Know About SAP's Personnel Areas and Employee Groups?, Satish Badgi, SAP HR Expert The title says it all… there’s a lot to know about Employee Sub-Group groupings and Personnel Sub-area groupings, especially in SAP’s Time Management, module. Fortunately, our SAP HR expert Satish Badgi can help sort out what’s what with ESGs and PSGs, and help you to get a better understanding on how you can use these groupings to your advantage. Need a Yes to ESS? Tips to Improve User Acceptance of Your SAP ESS Solution, Bharath Ajendla, Cap Gemini Are your users having trouble accepting Employee Self Service? Are they finding it difficult to use? Sometimes, even applications touted as “user-friendly” could benefit from a few changes to make them truly easy-to-use. Bharath Ajendla has been working on such a project of his own, and he’s more than happy to share with you a few tips and tricks he’s learned regarding navigation, communication with users, and dealing with downtime that he says will get your users to say “YES” to ESS in no time! Following the Right Path: Using SAP’s Evaluation Paths for Enhanced HR Reporting, Satish Badgi, SAP HR Consultant Looking to make that connection between various relationships within your organization? Then evaluation paths may be just the tool you’re looking for. Used with the Organization Management module, evaluation paths can help you to map various objects together and create a report that gives you the organizational views you need. Satish Badgi takes us through the configuration and example to illustrate how you, too, can use this tool to enhance your reporting. Creating Your Own Indirect Valuation Modules Quickly and Easily: A Guide for SAP HR Users and Consultants, Rehan Zaidi, Siemens Pakistan When Rehan Zaidi first introduced us to Indirect Valuation, he hinted pretty broadly that customization is quite common. Fortunately, it’s also fairly easy to do. Rehan provides us with the steps for creating custom Indirect Valuation modules and discusses the advantages of doing so, as well as how these custom-designed modules fit into the SAP HR module itself. If you’re an HR user or a consultant, you’ll find this latest offering from Rehan a must-read! Understanding Retroactivity in SAP HR and Payroll, Satish Badgi, SAP HR Consultant For most of us, the only words that lie sweeter on the ear than, “You just got a pay increase…” are “And it’s retroactive to the first of the year…”. Then when that next paycheck arrives, you anxiously rip it open and do the math to make sure they got the retroactive part right. Well, if your company’s HR and Payroll departments have it down right, it should be no problem. Our “resident” expert on the matter, Satish Badgi, is on the scene to show you how this all works. Dig out those old bell-bottom jeans…we’re gonna’ get retro.

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Accessing Clusters for Gathering Payroll Information Quickly and Easily – A Guide for HR Consultants and Users, Rehan Zaidi, Siemens Pakistan This white paper is written especially for functional HR consultants and advanced HR end users who have a good comfort level with HR/Payroll and who are not afraid to write their own ABAP programs or queries. This is a particularly handy primer because the Payroll information isn’t accessed the same way as other HR information. Use this great little guide to gain your independence from the technical team and start getting the information you really want and need. Planning the Implementation of SAP’s Training and Events Management (TEM) Module, Satish Badgi, SAP HR Consultant It’s not the software itself, it’s what you put into it that makes various applications and modules vital business resources. This can’t be more true than with SAP’s Training and Events Management (TEM) module. The configuration is the least challenging piece of this equation—it’s all about knowing WHAT you want the software to do for you. And that requires some detailed planning to determine the information you’d like to include and capture. Satish Badgi presents some food for thought as to what you may consider when implementing this oft-overlooked (but extremely beneficial) feature for SAP. Decision Point: Standard ESS or Customized with Web Dynpro?, Raj Peddisetty, Prosoft Technology Group How often do we automatically assume that every new package has to be custom-developed? Is that always necessary? Not so, says Raj Peddisetty, at least not when it comes to the Employee Self Service Business package. Following up on his previous article that covered the customized flavor of this application using Web Dynpro, Raj is back to discuss how and when to keep it simple with the standard package. This valuable tip should help you decide if you need to invest that time and money in customization, or if you can save your company the effort and go standard! Making Mass Updates in Employee Infotypes Quickly and Easily – A Guide for SAP HR Users and Consultants, Rehan Zaidi, Siemens Pakistan You need to update a lot of employee Infotypes before you can head home. Problem: there’s no ABAP resource available. But hold on! Before you call your spouse to say you won’t be home for dinner, you need to read Rehan Zaidi’s practical solution. Rehan illustrates how you can use the SAP transaction recorder, along with a third-party tool, to accomplish mass updates in minimal time. He presents a detailed explanation of the preparation involved as well as each step in using the recorder. Rehan then demonstrates the use of a third-party tool called TxShuttle to complete the updates. Finally, he presents an example of how these techniques might be applied in a “real world” situation. Infotype Text Maintenance and Retrieval Cookbook– A Guide for SAP HR Users and Consultants, Rehan Zaidi, Siemens Pakistan Your users requested a report that shows the extended text that is stored in the system for a particular Infotype. Tthat seemed easy enough, but you found that pulling & formatting the information was not as intuitive as you had hoped. You turned to all the standard documentation sources available to you, but still can’t find the answer. What to do? Download HR expert Rehan Zaidi’s cookbook of project-tested recipes for creating useful Infotype text reports. Rehan offers an overview of Infotype text & how it is stored in SAP. He demonstrates how to retrieve it, & how to format it for print or on-screen display. Rehan also provides steps for making the maintenance of the Infotype text easy.

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Understanding the SAP “HR Forms” Architecture - A Guide for SAP HR Users and Consultants, Rehan Zaidi, Siemens Pakistan Would you like more control of the format and information in your HR reports? HR and ABAP expert Rehan Zaidi shows you how to use the HR Forms functionality released with SAP version 4.7. He begins with an overview of the functionality, presents a step-by-step guide for using it, then offers an example that even the “reporting impaired” user can easily follow. How does he do it? Simple, MetaData, MetaTypes, and MetaFigures not withstanding, you’ll shine like a MetaStar with your slick-looking, info-packed HR reports. Universe of Tax Processing in SAP HR/Payroll - Part II, Satish Badgi, SAP HR Consultant In Part II of this series, he shows you how to design & construct a robust tax model, which is at the center of SAP’s HR Payroll tax processing. Of course to build a tax model, you have to first understand the tax flow in SAP. Satish describes key concepts & relationships, and then presents the overall processing flow. What makes it all work? According to Satish, it has to do with thinking through the way your firm does business, & supporting the business with a well-developed table of tax models (for each applicable taxing authority). He steps you though an understanding of tax types & tax combos for fine tuning the process, and then wraps it up with an overview of the Tax Reporter tool. Universe of Tax Processing in SAP HR/Payroll - Part I, Satish Badgi, SAP HR Consultant Satish Badgi launches a timely two-part series on tax processing in SAP’s HR/Payroll module. Concerned about tax model configuration? In this first installment Satish proves we have nothing to fear but fear itself, as he simplifies the intricacies of tax calculation in the BSI Tax Factory. Satish lays the foundation with a description of the HR/Payroll basics, such as the Infotypes related to taxes, and then moves to the more complex discussion of BSI and the payroll schema environment. This series offers something for most everyone, whether reporting relatively simple tax information, or dealing with multiple tax level reporting (such as for city taxes, school taxes, etc.) Mastering the “Organization and Staffing” Interface of OM Data Maintenance: A Guide for SAP HR Users and Consultants, Rehan Zaidi, Siemens Pakistan At ERPtips we consider Rehan Zaidi a grand master of ABAP and SAP’s HR functionality. In his latest white paper Rehan generously imparts a level of his organizing and staffing mastery with the like-named interface tool of SAP HR’s Organizational Management (OM) sub-module. Those of you who follow Rehan through his “adventures in HR” white paper offerings will not be surprised to see his clear, concise overview of the tool, or his solid, detailed steps with menu paths, screen examples, parameter descriptions, and recommended field entries. Nor will you be surprised to see that he brings these elements together in an example that you can easily apply in your environment. The New Face of Employee Self Service: How to Integrate ESS with Portals Using Web Dynpro, Raj Peddisetty, Prosoft Technology Group First time contributor Raj Peddisetty serves up some valuable lessons in using the Employee Self Service (ESS) system on the SAP Enterprise Portal. Raj presents an overview of Web Dynpro and explains why it is the most robust and efficient tool for integrating ESS with Portals. He makes a case for ESS/Portal integration with a discussion of its application as a user-friendly resource to empower staff to create, change, and display their employee data. To prove his point, Raj takes us step-by-step through the creation of a browser-based employee vacation request. As he points out, the return on investment potential is a no-brainer.

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Handling the Challenges of Change Management In SAP HCM Implementations, Satish Badgi, SAP HR Expert Psychologists identify change as one of the most emotionally difficult challenges with which humans are faced. Change management, therefore, becomes a critical success factor for system implementations, SAP or otherwise. That’s why HR Editor, Satish Badgi, chose to present a discussion of change management for HCM (Human Capital Management) implementations. Satish identifies areas of concern and suggests a 3-phased change management approach that will minimize the problems encountered in the HCM implementation. He suggests forwardthinking strategies that range from the high-level planning view to the lower-level detailed view, identifying action items and issues along the way. Finding Employees Quickly and Easily Via Object Manager: A Guide for SAP HR Users and Consultants, Rehan Zaidi, Siemens Pakistan You're the keeper of employee data. But where do you start when asked for data? Best answer: start with ERPtips and Rehan Zaidi. Let Rehan show you how to search, sort, & manipulate your employee database with the Object Manager tool (found in the Personnel Administration submodule of SAP). He gives you the “A to Z”, from how to access the tool to how to use its 3 search methods. When asked, you can present your boss with lists of employees sorted by their home zip codes. Or give a list of accounting employees with five-or-more years of service with the company. According to Rehan, searching the employee database with user-defined criteria has never been easier in SAP. Shift Planning Primer: A Guide for HR Users and Consultants, Rehan Zaidi, Siemens Pakistan A current television commercial for an automobile manufacturer features the word “shift” as its primary message to buyers, challenging buyers to “shift” their way of thinking. SAP HR expert and veteran consultant Rehan Zaidi takes the “shift” concept one step farther, showing ERPtips readers how to plan employee work shifts in SAP. Rehan lays out the basic functionality of shift planning, describing the various components, benefits, and configuration of the feature. In his trademark “Putting It All Together” section, Rehan brings it all into perspective through practical steps, descriptive screen shots, and a real-world application of the shift functionality. Managing the Unmanageable: Off-cycle Payroll Part II – Downstream Processing, Satish Badgi, Unisys Corporation HR/Payroll Editor Satish Badgi introduced us to Off-cycle Payroll functionality in Part I of this topic in the Aug/Sep 2005 issue of ERPtips. In this issue, he continues with a “how to” on the downstream processing associated with Off-cycle Payroll. Satish thoughtfully demonstrates the role of process models in managing downstream processing, evaluating some of the standard ones supplied by SAP. He rounds out the discussion with an overview of the finance postings, and concludes with some tips and tricks that let us benefit from his hard-won experience. Satish proves that there is no longer a reason to avoid Off-cycle Payroll activities that were once considered complex.

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Modifying Standard and Custom Infotype Screens Without Any Programming: A Guide for SAP HR Users and Consultants, Rehan Zaidi, Siemens Pakistan Rehan gets it: the goal is to help SAP functional teams customize SAP for their needs without having to dig into code or ask an expert like him for help. No custom coding means easier upgrading, and that’s good for everyone’s morale. In this paper, Rehan shows how to use a powerful SAP function called Features to customize the layout of Infotype screens within the Personnel Admin. submodule. You can use the tips in this white paper to control which fields a user views within standard or custom Infotypes. Rehan uses plenty of screen shots to illustrate his points, and as usual, he wraps it up with a real-life example of how to put this functionality to work in an actual project setting. Managing the Unmanageable: Off-Cycle Payroll - Part I - Off-Cycle Workbench, Satish Badgi, Unisys Corporation Whether your firm is striving to be timely in correcting payroll problems, trying to comply with legal constraints, or generously paying bonuses to staff, off-cycle processing is a very helpful tool. In our cover story, HR/Payroll Editor Satish Badgi exposes the secrets of Off-cycle Payroll, an often overlooked, but highly functional tool in SAP. Many configurators avoid implementing this function, expecting it to be too complex, but Satish shows you how straightforward the setup is. He explains how to plan, set up, & run off-cycle payroll in SAP. As always, Satish keeps it as painless as possible, giving you tested concepts & easy-to-follow procedures to bring this functionality to life. Creating Employee Work Schedules Without any Programming - A Guide for SAP HR Users and Consultants, Rehan Zaidi, Siemens Pakistan HR expert Rehan Zaidi gives you a step-by-step guide to creating work schedules without the use of programming. He lays the foundation by presenting an overview of work schedules and how they work within SAP. From assigning employees and groups to defining daily and period-based work schedules, everything you need is right here. Once you have mastered the work scheduling functionality in SAP, you can schedule yourself for that well-deserved vacation. Developing Customer-Specific Infotypes Without Any ABAP Programming - A Guide for HR Consultants and Users, Rehan Zaidi, Siemens Pakistan With his usual ease and accuracy, HR expert Rehan Zaidi demonstrates that you don’t have to be an ABAP programmer to create customer-specific Infotypes. Rehan shows you how to use the tools that SAP supplies in all its modules to help customize standard applications to fit the company’s requirements. His discussion includes an overview of Infotypes in the HR module, the steps required to create a customized Infotype, and issues to consider while developing Infotypes. As always, Rehan’s paper is filled with graphics and examples that clarify each step. He draws from his personal experiences to help you avoid the landmines along the way. Managing the Inevitable: Employee Separation in SAP, Satish Badgi, Unisys Corporation HR Editor Satish Badgi presents a straightforward & thorough discussion of mapping the employee life cycle in SAP, with a focus on the “oft overlooked” employee separation processes. He leads you through the many SAP submodules & functions you’ll need to consider: Personnel Administration, Benefits, Time Management, & Payroll, to develop a fluid process for handling employee separations. Satish also addresses the stakeholders involved in various departments & presents suggestions for involving each at the appropriate stages of the process. Satish gives you the insights you’ll need to avoid pitfalls of over/underpaying separated employees, failing to comply with Cobra, etc.

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Journey of a Wage Type, Satish Badgi, Unisys Corporation HR Editor Satish Badgi introduces this article by reminding us that the Wage Type in Payroll is the single entity that touches the wallet of every employee of the organization. He presents a four-staged approach to developing an SAP Wage Type for the best possible result. Satish extols the virtues of using an Excel spreadsheet to define Wage Type characteristics in the Creation stage, and explains ways to manage the Wage Type through Rules and Schemas in the Manipulation stage. He then brings to light the kind of issues that may begin to surface in the Integration stage, when the new Wage Types are first accessed in postings and accruals, and helps trouble-shoot these. Creating Personnel Actions Without Programming: A Guide for SAP HR Users and Consultants, Rehan Zaidi, Siemens Pakistan HR expert Rehan Zaidi is back with a global view of Personnel Actions in SAP. In his latest project-based white paper, Rehan presents an overview of Personnel Actions and how they work within the SAP system. He takes us in close for a “real world” look at the ultimate benefits these actions can provide to users, offering a practical path through creating menus for the new actions, creating info groups for the new actions, and then finally creating the actions themselves. As always, Rehan uses his trademark “pulling it all together” section to show you a real-life example of how to apply the Personnel Actions functionality to an actual project situation. Integrating HR/Payroll Systems with SAP Finance, Satish Badgi, Unisys Corporation Satish Badgi examines the entire HR/FI integration life cycle beginning with considerations for the enterprise structure that supports HR & Payroll, discusses the intricacies of related master data & transaction data, and reviews the payroll cycles & their impact on posting & integration. Then, he turns his attention to the finer points of HR/FI integration & reconciliation. He warns of potential pitfalls in accruals, explains primary reconciliation concerns & options, and how to verify processing results via report functions. Full integration of the FI & HR modules is a challenging task, but this article offers a great place to start & a methodology you can build upon. Tracking Changes in Master Data Without Any Programming: A Guide for HR Consultants and Users, Rehan Zaidi, Siemens Pakistan Rehan discusses in detail the pros & cons of using the Tracking Changes function of the Personnel Administration & Recruitment sub-modules to facilitate user-initiated changes to employee & applicant master data. He includes an overview of the Tracking Changes functionality & its technical architecture. He outlines the advantages offered by the function, and the benefits it provides to HR users & consultants. Rehan then describes the steps required to track changes made in Infotypes. The paper is rounded-out with a summary of the program used to view the logged changes, supported by examples. Talent Management Using SAP HCM Part II – Using Competencies for Employee Development, Satish Badgi, Unisys Corporation Satish discusses functionality such as Appraisals, Succession Planning, and Training. He also details the significance of Individual Development Plans (IDP), and how an IDP can be used to address short and long-term organizational planning. Satish uses screen shots from SAP to show how this functionality is accessed within the SAP system. SAP is becoming very sophisticated in its ability to track the development of employees and managers within an organization. Now it’s simply a matter of understanding how these functions can be taken advantage of by SAP users.

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Minimizing Data Entry Errors and Saving User Time via Indirect Valuation: A Guide for SAP HR Users, Rehan Zaidi, Siemens Pakistan Does the ability to “enter error-free salary data in the least possible time without the need to modify standard SAP code” sound good to you? If so, read on. Rehan addresses an HR functional topic: how to utilize SAP’s Indirect Valuation functionality, a component of the Personnel Administration sub-module. He kicks off his paper by addressing the major questions raised by implementing Indirect Valuation. He defines the Indirect Valuation functionality and the advantages to using it, and then he moves into the key aspects of enabling and configuring Indirect Valuation. Talent Management Using SAP HCM - Part I: Developing and Integrating Competencies, Satish Badgi, Unisys Corporation “Human Capital Management” This new phrase captures the transition from viewing HR transactions as a necessary expense to viewing HR software as a key strategic tool for use in managing a range of sophisticated employee management functions. Satish Badgi gives us a great look into some of the most important “advanced” HR functions SAP is now providing. The first of a two-part series that looks at the full “skills development lifecycle,” Satish devotes the bulk of this first installment to the development of a skills catalog and the keys to integrating the skills catalog with other SAP modules and components. Writing Customer-Specific Infotype Checks & Setting Default Values for Infotype Fields via Enhancements – A Guide for HR Functional and Technical Consultants, Rehan Zaidi, Siemens Pakistan Rehan explains how to use SAP “Enhancements” to customize the HR module for the purposes of customer & employee-specific requirements - without getting knee deep in heavy coding. Drawing on an example from the Personnel Administration submodule, Rehan shows how to use Enhancements to define standard Infotypes and use them for your project needs. Although you may need to involve your ABAP team to get the most out of SAP's Enhancements functionality, Rehan has written this white paper in a way that both functional and technical HR specialists can benefit from. Payroll Rules Cookbook, Satish Badgi, Unisys Corporation Properly harnessed, payroll rules can automate a range of HR functions and provide a powerful way of customizing the HR module without requiring ABAP programming. Unfortunately for the average HR functional user, payroll rules can seem pretty technical and pretty mystifying. So, in this detailed, well-illustrated article, Satish highlights a number of his favorite pay-roll rules and demonstrates their usefulness to “real world” HR situations like splitting tax wage types and creating a message in the payroll log. Creating Your Own Infotype Screen Headers Without Any Programming - A Guide for HR Consultants, Rehan Zaidi, Siemens Pakistan In this white paper, geared towards functional HR users, ABAP-HR expert Rehan Zaidi describes how to use the dynamic specification of Infotype Screen Headers to enhance Personnel Administration functionality. If that sounds technical, don't worry—this paper requires no modification of ABAP code. By modifying Screen Headers, SAP HR specialists can give their user base the additional custom fields that they may ask for to smooth out their SAP implementations.

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Making ESS More User-Friendly: How to Make Custom Modifications to Your ESS Environment, Rob James, Absoft Ltd. Using an illustrated case study from the pharmaceutical industry, ESS technical consultant Rob James explains how ESS was able to enhance their HR Workflow and simplify the administrative hassles caused by a geographically-dispersed sales team. Since this particular user found SAP's standard ESS functionality limited, Rob explains how his team was able to customize ESS using HTML and Business HTML—customizations that resulted in greater user acceptance of the new ESS system. Managing the Fear Factor - Keys to Change Management on Employee Self Service (ESS) Implementations, Satish Badgi, Unisys Corporation Change Management is one of those buzzwords that has been used so often it's practically lost its meaning. But in reality, “change management” really does matter, and all SAP installations require employee buy-in to achieve success. As HR Editor Satish Badgi has learned firsthand, there is no area of SAP where change management is more important than HR, and there's no area in HR more sensitive than Employee Self-Service (ESS). Although ESS can give employees more freedom to manage their own benefits and “serve themselves,” ESS installs come with certain “fear factors” that must be faced and overcome if you want employees to be “on board” with ESS solutions. In this detailed and well-illustrated article, Satish explains how upfront planning can mitigate these fear factors and help anticipate the issues that are bound to come up when changes are made with employee time sheet reporting, payroll processing, and benefits management. Another piece of the ESS puzzle is getting managers on board, so Satish also touches on the issues involved with Manager's Self-Service (MSS). Satish wraps up the article with a review of several actual ESS case studies that show how each SAP implementation has its own set of ESS change management concerns to address, and how those concerns were resolved. Writing Your Own Dynamic Actions Quickly and Easily – A Guide for HR Consultants, Rehan Zaidi, Siemens Pakistan SAP HR expert Rehan Zaidi is always on the lookout for tools that can improve the experience of SAP HR users and developers. One such tool is Dynamic Actions, a powerful tool from the Personnel Administration submodule that allows users to automate and define certain business processes without the need for much, if any, ABAP programming. In this article, which Rehan envisions for both technical and functional HR professionals, he explains how to master the syntax of Dynamic Actions and put them to work for you. Rehan begins the article with a technical overview of the components of Dynamic Actions and he explains that the key to mastering Dynamic Actions is understanding which data lives in which Infotypes and how to direct the system to use the “best data available.” Rehan closes the white paper with a hands-on example of how Dynamic Actions can be used to fulfill a basic business scenario involving the generation of loans and loan interest wage types. The Life Cycle of Employee Overpayments/Claims Processing: From HR Master Data to Finance Posting, Satish Badgi, Unisys Corporation Our new HR Editor Satish Badgi has seen the power of SAP integration firsthand. He knows that the SAP modules come into their own when they are linked closely to each other. The integrations points between FI and HR, for example, allow for complex business processes to be managed entirely within R/3. One such example is handling overpayments, a.k.a. “claims processing.” In the past, many SAP users simply “wrote off” such claims because it seemed too complicated to handle within the system. But in fact, SAP can be configured to handle overpayment scenarios. Of course, you have to do some upfront work by clarifying the exact process your firm will use for different scenarios. In this two-phase article, Satish walks readers Copyright © 2012 by Klee Associates, Inc. www. ERPtips.com Page 88

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through the key business issues SAP users face around claims processing, and then he outlines a recommended configuration for a real-life claims scenario. Using step-bystep illustrations, Satish shows how to make HR and FI work together to resolve a common business situation. Optimizing your HR Implementation, Greg Robinette, Robinette Consulting It’s not a heck of a lot of fun to do costly custom programming in the HR module, especially when you know you’re going to lose all that work the next time you upgrade. But now there’s a more affordable and effective solution: the use of custom objects. In this valuable tip loaded with stepby-step screen shots, HR Editor Greg Robinette tells us how to use custom objects to get the most out of the HR module. The best part: as Greg assures us, you don’t need to be a hardcore ABAP programmer to do it! All who know their way around HR configuration tables can utilize the custom objects functionality Greg describes within. How to Use Output Management and Ad Hoc Query Tools for Better HR Reporting, Greg Robinette, Robinette Consulting With each release of R/3, SAP® steps up to the plate with better reporting functionality. In the April 2003 edition of ERPtips, Greg Robinette told us how to configure Payroll infotypes for more robust reporting capabilities. In this follow-up piece, Greg tells us how Ad Hoc Queries can be used to locate and present reporting data from Payroll infotypes. But before Greg takes us through generating Ad Hoc Queries using his usual in-depth, screen-by-screen approach, he advises SAP users on how to develop an output management strategy to ensure that SAP reporting is done on the basis of "lowest cost, highest output." How to Configure Payroll Infotypes to Facilitate Payroll Reporting, Greg Robinette, Robinette Consulting One great way to maximize the return on your SAP® investment is to give more users better access to better R/3 information. And if you can pull this off without costly ABAP customizations, then you're talking! In this article, HR Editor Greg Robinette tells us how to set up HR-Payroll Infotypes to allow non-payroll users access to important reporting capabilities. Best part: just about all the set up work is functional configuration, not custom programming. Using HR Infotypes to Manage Time and Event Conflicts, Greg Robinette, Robinette Consulting When an employee on vacation is also scheduled for the night shift, you have a problem. In SAP HR terms, you have a "collision"—one of the trickiest issues in SAP time management…but there's a solution. Using "FEATURES" To Automate HR Data Entry, Greg Robinette, Robinette Consulting In this illustrated how-to article, HR Editor Greg Robinette tells us just what a FEATURE is, and how it can be configured to allow for automatic data entry that would otherwise require handtyping by a knowledgeable HR user. A FEATURE incorporates a company's HR practices into the data entry itself, making it possible for users who don't necessarily have deep HR expertise to facilitate the automatic data entry process. To prove his point, Greg shows how to set up a FEATURE that will allow the entry of Canadian 401K benefits—even by users in other countries who may not understand the specifics of the Canadian benefits regulations.

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Organizational Management Reporting - A Guide for HR Developers, Rehan Zaidi, Siemens Pakistan Surprisingly, there is much less documentation to support OM developers than exists for payroll developers—especially since OM reporting can provide real value to SAP® users. Over time, Rehan Zaidi has figured out the ins and outs of OM development, and now he's put together a guide for other developers to make use of. In this technical white paper, Rehan explains the underlying technical structure of OM, and then walks us through an example of generating a custom report in OM. In the process, he addresses the key issues for OM development, including how org data is stored in SAP, how that data is accessed, and how to create reports that SAP users can benefit from. How to De-Couple Your SAP HR System, Greg Robinette, Robinette Consulting De-Coupling the HR component of an SAP system is a major undertaking, but as Greg points out, for some SAP installations, De-Coupling HR is the best way to keep the HR module up to date while maintaining HR integration with other R/3 modules. In this significant article, Greg explains the advantages for De-Coupling HR and explains how this can help both the HR and the FI/CO teams manage their support package updates. Then, Greg dives into to an illustrated guide to De-Coupling the HR module that will give a good sense of what this initiative will entail. DeCoupling HR is not for everyone. But as Greg explains, there are many SAP users who have pulled it off and are pleased with the results Defining a Data Archiving Strategy for SAP Payroll Objects Part I, Breck Whitten, SAP Data Archiving Project Manager Breck guides the reader step-by-step through the HR archiving process. This article is really divided into two main parts: detailed overview of HR data archiving, and screen-by-screen guidance for setting up the PA_CALC (payroll results) Archiving Object. In future articles, Breck will guide us through the archiving process for the other main HR Archive Objects. As usual, Breck has written more than just a technical “how-to” guide. He is always mindful of how the archiving process MUST be driven and accepted by the end users, and he's got plenty of tips and suggestions for how to find the right balance between archiving efficiency and the day-to-day data needs of the end users. (Note that the rest of the articles in Breck's HR data archiving series can be found in the "Data Archiving" section of our library.) Using Clusters to Solve Business and Reporting Problems, Rehan Zaidi, Siemens Pakistan Sometimes getting the most out of SAP® means digging into some under-utilized technical tools. In this “developer-friendly” white paper, ABAP-HR expert Rehan Zaidi delves into the strategic use of data clusters to enhance system performance and reduce database load. Chock full of coding examples, this white paper illustrates the practical application of clusters with HR submodules such as Personnel Administration. Clusters turn out to have many applications; in a section on advanced cluster techniques, Rehan shows how clusters can be used to solve problems such as inserting multiple characters into a single database field.

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Humor
Say What? A Guide to the SAP Terms You Need to Know for ASUG 2008 and Beyond, Jon Reed, JonERP.com Did you start working with the Business Information Warehouse (BIW) and consider yourself pretty much an expert, only to learn that BIW had become BW (Business Warehouse)? Then, as you adjusted to BW and thought you were the master of all you commanded…you learned that BW no longer existed, but BI (Business Information) was the data warehouse du jour for SAP. Do you find yourself confused…or worse…outdated, when it comes to the alphabet soup that is SAP? No worries, SAP career expert Jon Reed has a tutorial to bring you up to speed before you have a chance to make an acronym faux pas at the annual ASUG/Sapphire conference.

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IS-Public Sector
IS-PS: Configuring the Budgetary Ledger, Simon Core, FI/FM Consultant Public Sector organizations running SAP have special financial considerations and budgetary regulations to comply with. SAP's IS-PS industry solution ships with some helpful functionality in the Budgetary Ledger that SAP users can take advantage of. In this hands-on guide to configuring the Budgetary Ledger, FI/FM consultant Simon Core explains the two aspects of the Budgetary Ledger derivation tool, and how the integration between Budgetary Ledger and Funds Management helps Public Sector companies stay on top of budgetary accounting in compliance with government guidelines. Configuring Reimbursable Orders and Resource-Related Billing, Simon Core, FI/FM Consultant SAP® FI/CO and Public Sector expert Simon Core returns this issue for his second ERPtips white paper. This screen-shot-laden white paper guides the reader step-by-step through the process Simon uses to capture project costs in PS and CO, and bill customers for them using SD. As Simon illustrates, Resource-Related Billing functionality in PS provides the ideal way to link up with SD for the purposes of tracking and billing reimbursable expenses. One of my favorite parts of this excellent paper comes at the end, when Simon takes the time to review the trickiest issues in reimbursable order processing and offer his project-tested solutions.

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Logistics and Pricing (SD, MM, PP)
Right Level of Batch Management – Is “Almost Unique” Batch Level Possible? Roshan Baig When it comes to Batch management levels, there are a variety of options to choose from: Material, Plant, Client, "Almost Client", Unique. How do you select the right one? What are the ® various criteria SAP implementation teams should take under consideration? And finally, what is an "Almost Unique" batch level and is it possible to achieve? Roshan Baig answers these questions and more. Integration of Capacity Requirements Planning (CRP) in Production Processes, Jawad Akhtar We live in a "just in time" production world, and this makes having up-to-the-minute information on your production capacity vital to your business success. Integrating Capacity Requirements Planning (CRP) into your production process can help you tremendously in this endeavor. Jawad Akhtar discusses the CRP integration process, including the configuration steps to activate CRP, data incorporation, along with various scenarios to help you get a feel for how this functionality works. Release Strategies for Procurement Made Easy, Jocelyn Hayes (Webucation Recorded Session) A four-step strategy that is not only practical, but achievable. Join Jocelyn Hayes as she discusses how to simplify the various aspects of your purchase release strategy in SAP, including determining the corporate purchasing approval matrix, configuration, security, and transport classes and characteristics. Production Order Basics, Alexis Parker(Webucation Recorded Session) The production order structure and the key fields in the production order are reviewed in this webinar. We will start with thefields that make up the production order including the master data selection; bill of material and routing. As we progress through the hour, we will cover in detail the operations and components in the production order. This webinar should provide an understanding of the key fields in the production order within the production planning module of SAP. Implementing Quality Management in Procurement Processes, Jawad Akhtar What's the key to successfully implementing the Quality Management (QM) module in Procurement? It all comes down to two things: well-planned setup of master data and a solid training of business process users. Jawad Akhtar discusses these two key components in this article, including the configuration settings you'll want to check, master data requirements, and finally, an end-to-end review of the procurement business process, from PO creation to goods receipt, with all of the key QM activities needed along the way. How Dynamic Credit Check Works: Won't Get Fooled Again, Sutrisno Japit You'd like to think that life would be so much simpler if every month had exactly 30 days. Turns out, SAP's Dynamic Credit Check functionality assumes that's the case, with the result being mass confusion, especially since that does not seem to be a well-known fact. This little jewel of a tip explains why we don't always get the results we expect and how to work with the challenges of calculating the credit horizons.

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SAP Direct Rebates: Implementation Challenges, Roshan Baig This article addresses six common challenges in implementing direct customer rebates. Some can be met with configuration or process adjustments, and some require a little development effort: credit/debit memo creates an error when Rebate Recipient (Payer) is not of the account group Sold-to-Party; settlement of customer rebate where the customer rebate accrual postings were made on all materials bought by the customer in a certain period; account determination settings for direct rebates; non-transfer of rebate number from sales to finance at time of posting invoice to accounts; use of rebate group on material; reporting on rebates. Profitability Reporting by Origin: The Whole Is More Than The Sum of its Parts, Sutrisno Japit Our best ERPtips come from real-life experiences. This article is based on lessons learned from an actual implementation where the client needed to record the origin information when a product was first received into inventory. As the product was then transferred across multiple warehouses and distribution centers, they needed to keep the origin information intact throughout the process. The article walks us through the configuration, master data requirements, some development, and the process flow, showing us how to take advantage of the points of integration inherent in SAP®. Rebates - One More Look At You, Sutrisno Japit This article is not a tutorial on how to process rebates. Its focus is on how to get more out of the concept, and assumes you already understand the basic process. Sutrisno discusses: rebate condition records, rebate activities, rebate reports, risks and mitigation, recommended customizing controls, and finally underlying table structures. Scheduling Agreements: Overview, Adam Tysman If your company does repeat business with a number of vendors, Schedule Agreements can help you communicate your short term and long range requirements to your vendors in a more simplified manner. In this article, Adam Tysman provides an overview of how these documents work, including scheduling agreement creation, usage, and transmission. Stock Determination, Alexis DeSteffany Ready to learn more about stock determination configuration in SAP? Here is a chapter from our ERPtips Inventory Management manual, penned by ERPtips instructor Alexis DeSteffany, that steps you through a demonstration on stock determination settings. Proportional Sharing of Sources of Supply Using Quota Arrangements, Adam Tysman More than one supplier? Need to make sure orders are allocated proportionality in SAP? Quota Arrangements can be used to specify how demand is to be fulfilled through apportionment among various sources of supply. In this article, you'll see how to do the initial setup, then how to maintain and utilize the Quota Arrangement object, including single-resource allocation and split arrangements. Workflow Configuration and Setup for Requisition Release, Jocelyn Hayes ® Workflow is a versatile component of SAP and one that works quite well with Purchasing. In this article, Jocelyn Hayes details how to configure and set up Workflow as part of a purchase requisition release strategy, including the steps used to approve purchase requisitions via the task in the workflow inbox. If simplifying your purchasing strategy is part of your plan for this year, read on.

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SAP vs. JD Edwards Sales Order Processing, Thomas Woelfel and Ted Aseltine Are all ERP systems created equal? Well, not quite, but in the case of SAP and JD Edwards ® Sales Order Management, maybe more equal than not. We challenged an SAP expert and JDE expert to explore the differences and similarities of the two systems. If nothing else, the ensuing article gives a great overview of Sales Order functionality for both SAP and JDE. Integration Between Materials Management and Financials Posting via Automatic Account Determination, Michael Stocker When it’s in real time, there’s no room for mistakes. And material movement transactions are a perfect example of the type of transaction that immediately impacts FI as they’re posted in real time to G/L accounts. How do you make sure you’re getting the correct posting to the correct account at the correct time? Michael Stocker shows us how through automatic account determination, including the configuration needed. Approved Manufacturer Parts List: An Overview, Adam Tysman There are usually a variety of sources from which you can procure materials that meet certain specifications. But when you have reason to require that the material must also come from a certain manufacturer, or even from a specific manufacturing plant, AMPL is the function you need. This article goes through the logic and setup to make this happen, including how to maintain the relationship between a manufacturer's part number and your own material master. To Swipe or Not to Swipe: Payment Card Processing in SAP Sales, Part II, Authorization and Settlement, Anurag Barua Anurag Barua continues his two-part article on the basics of payment card processing. In this segment, he covers the preparation needed to interface with the third-party entity that will perform the authorization, then delves into the setup for the settlement part. Purchasing Contracts Overview: Creation and Use, Adam Tysman, SAP Value and Effectiveness Specialist This is a great getting-started overview, and covers the various aspects of contract creation, usage, and statistical reporting. This article discusses how the use of a Procurement Contract lowers data management overheads without any attendant decrease in functionality. lt also discusses the ways in which Contracts can be used in conjunction with Source Lists to ensure that the precise source of supply at the exact price desired is referenced on any issued Release Order. Purchasing Contracts can be your next step toward streamlining your procurement organization. To Swipe or Not to Swipe: Payment Card Processing in SAP Sales, Part I, Setup, Anurag Barua In today's business world, life cannot exist without payment cards of some kind; credit cards, debit cards, customer cards, procurement cards, etc. This article provides an overview of SAP payment card processing. We'll discuss payment card framework, third-party interface issues, and card master data configuration. Part II of this series will go farther into the processing aspects.
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Data Management in SAP the Easy Way: Using LSMW, Adam Tysman, SAP Value and Effectiveness Specialist No matter where you are in your implementation cycle, there will likely always be some legacy data somewhere that you'd like to use. Have you ever noticed that when you need something like this, the Basis team is backed up with high priority projects and won't be able to assist you for some time? Take heart, now you can work with the data without the assistance of the Basis group. Thanks to the Legacy System Migration Workbench, you have the ability to do more with your data, without calling in the big guns. Learn the flexibility and power of this "free to download" SAP tool. Uncovering the Solutions Database in SAP – Part I An Overview, Anurag Barua, Senior Manager What bugs you? Chances are there's a solution for your bugs in the SAP Solutions Database. In the first article of his two-part series on the subject, Anurag Barua steps you through a solid introduction of the SAP Solutions Database. He teaches you how to search for a solution and, if one is not available, create a symptom…and ultimately a solution for the symptom. You'll also get a peek at the configuration options, which he'll detail in Part II. See how to make this underutilized function of SAP save you time and money. Optimizing Purchasing: PART III - Optimizing the Order Quantity, Jocelyn Hayes, ERPtips Director of Training and Consulting To round, or not to round the quantity on the Purchase Order. Whether 'tis nobler to apply the static or dynamic rounding options, these are the questions. Jocelyn Hayes submits her final ® entry in her "Optimizing (SAP ) Purchasing" series by explaining the ways to take full advantage of the nuances of deciding on the Order Quantity. Should the purchase quantity ever be rounded up? If so, why, and what is the most prudent method? Put this new knowledge together with what Jocelyn has shown you previously and you will keep the bottom line in the black, and the execs happy. Messaging Configuration in Purchasing: PART II – Output Types in MM Purchasing, Jocelyn Hayes, ERPtips Director of Training and Consulting Technique is everything. In purchasing message configuration, you'll find that the "condition technique" is everything. According to Jocelyn Hayes, it's as easy as 1,2, 3. Step 1 involves defining text for the message. In Step 2 you assign the output type, and in Step 3 you configure the conditions that submit a message. Naturally, there are a few IFs, THENs, and ORs along the way, but nothing you can't navigate with Jocelyn's assistance. This article was adapted from the ERPtips' Materials Management training manual. If you prefer hands-on training, you can sign up for the next publicly offered session of this course, or contact us for on-site training. Here's a link where you can learn more about all this: http://www.erptips.com/Training.asp Messaging Configuration in Purchasing: Part I Use of Output Types in MM Purchasing, Jocelyn Hayes, ERPtips Director of Training and Consulting ® Want to get your message across in SAP Purchasing? In this three-part series, Jocelyn Hayes demonstrates how to send and receive output, aka messages in SAP to your purchasing partners—whether they’re customers or vendors. In this installment, she covers batch messages, urgings and reminders, and order acknowledgements. This series is included in ERPtips Purchasing training manual. If you like the series, you’ll love our training!
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External Services Management - PART II Putting it to Work, Jocelyn Hayes, ERPtips Director of Training and Consulting Jocelyn Hayes presented some basic information about ESM in the first article in her series, and now that she's gotten your interest she's going to give you the real meat and potatoes of it all. Things like understanding the process, creating and using a Service Entry Sheet, and approval and release of the Service Entry Sheet. Jocelyn even takes you through External Services management options and configuration. All you need now are some external vendors, and you're all set. External Services Management Use and Configuration: Part I, Jocelyn Hayes, ERPtips Director of Consulting and Training Looking for a solid overview of External Services Management in Material Management in SAP? Jocelyn Hayes delivers in this two-part series. This issue, Jocelyn takes a look at External Services Management, the Service Master and Purchase Orders for a service. And remember, if you like this article, you’ll love Jocelyn’s ERPtips University class on Materials Management. Vendor Evaluation, SAP, and You, Adam Tysman, SAP Value and Effectiveness Specialist You pay your vendors based on their ability to deliver. The question is, are they measuring up? Adam Tysman follows up on his last ERPtips article on vendor measurements, this time tackling the topic of how to include these measurements in SAP. If you’re looking for an objective way to monitor and track your vendors’ performance, in order to be sure they’re both meeting your needs and worthy of future business, this article discusses the main criteria you’ll need, along with the paths to set it all up in SAP. Pricing Conditions: Setting Automatic/Price Master Data Control in SAP, by Pam Adams You love being able to pull view all kinds of data in SAP to help you make pricing decisions. But once you’ve made those decisions and set the system up accordingly, do you find that human error sometimes creeps in and throws a kink in the works? Human error is a fact of life, but we can show you how to configure pricing conditions to help reduce data entry errors. This article also shows you how you can use the “Valid To” field to reduce maintenance of pricing master records, how to use the RefCon flag to reduce the amount of data entry for similar condition types, and setting limits at the Master Condition record (very useful with discounts). Optimizing Purchasing – PART II: Source Determination, Jocelyn Hayes, ERPtips Director of Consulting and Training Purchasing can be complicated, especially when you have several vendors and contracts for a particular material. You know that SAP simplifies it through the setup of master data, but exactly how does it all come together to identify the best source? Jocelyn uses the second installment of this three-part series to show you the ins and outs of Source Determination. She autopsies the Source Determination process to show you how each step and element, including Source Lists and Quota Arrangements, contribute to the final outcome. Purchasing Text Type Configuration, Jocelyn Hayes, ERPtips Director of Consulting and Training In these modern times you can communicate in so many ways it boggles the mind: choices all the way from mailing a letter to text messaging or VOIP. That’s all great outside ERP, but if you’d like to be able to communicate information to internal or external recipients of Purchasing Documents, you’d better understand the Text Types. The ERPtips training manual for Purchasing includes an entire chapter on this technique. This white paper is adapted from that manual, and covers the characteristics of text types, how to configure them, and how to have them copy to related documents.

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SUS Order Management – Part II: PO Integration with a Procurement System, Bryan Bee, SAP America Bryan Bee is back with the remaining concepts and steps you’ll need to understand to make SUS work for you. He explains the Business Partner concept for Vendors, and for Sold-to Parties, as well as a discussion of the dependencies for making it work with SAP Process Integration. Bryan thoughtfully wraps up the article series with a list of tips and techniques he learned the hard way. Optimizing Purchasing – Part I: Vendor Confirmations, Jocelyn Hayes, ERPtips Director of Consulting and Training SAP provides some configuration options that can streamline your purchasing processes and give you a better picture of where you stand. Join ERPtips Director Jocelyn Hayes as she leads you through a three-part series on setting these options to your greatest advantage. In this issue, Jocelyn takes on Vendor Confirmations, showing you how to manually or automatically confirm and track purchases. Jocelyn says it’s all about reducing the receiving time and freeing up staff for other activities. Do Your Vendors Measure Up: Measure and Record Vendor Performance, Adam Tysman, SAP Value and Effectiveness Specialist It’s time to renegotiate vendor contracts, but how do you determine which vendors were most dependable? Adam Tysman says it’s easy. With minimum setup, you can track and report vendor performance in terms of quantities delivered, and on-time deliveries. Armed with this information you can select and negotiate based on performance, as well as price. Now it’s your decision…deal, or no deal Logging Changes to Table Data in MM- OY18, Maria Nikolova, SAP Senior Expert, National Electricity Company Do you need to be able to review posting transaction history in your Material Management system? Sometimes you need to back-post a transaction. Or perhaps you need to correct an entry that seems out of balance. But first you have to figure out what it is. Where do you start? Maria Nikolova tells you how you can see who posted what, and when. She shows how you can review the MMRV table history log with just a few small setup steps and the OY18 transaction code. She even guides you through the screen options and analysis. Read Maria's tip and see what insights she brings to the table…the MMRV table, that is. Implementing Consumption Based Planning – Part II: MRP Types and Lot Sizing, Jocelyn Hayes, ERPtips Director of Consulting and Training Jocelyn Hayes continues her series on Consumption Based Planning, with clear instructions on handling MRP Types and configuring Lot-Sizing. She starts with an overview to put it into context, then dives right into the details, with clear instructions on how it all comes together. If these articles leave you wanting more… you always have the option of signing up for the ERPtips classes on Materials Management and Production Planning. Go to www.ERPtips.com/Training.asp for more information.

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SUS Order Management Part I: PO Integration with a Procurement System, Bryan Bee, SAP America If you’ve implemented (or plan to implement) the Supplier Relationship Management system, you need to understand the core component, Supplier Self Service (SUS). Bryan Bee, an “SAP insider”, walks you through the integration points of SUS and your procurement system. Whether using SAP MM or EBP systems, or a non-SAP back-end system, Bryan has you covered. In his first installment (of his two-part series), he presents an overview of implementation scenarios, some P.O. “create and change” options, and a mini case-study to guide you through the initial processes. Is SUS in your future? Read on… Achieve Zero Superfluous Inventories with the Strategic Analytic Toolkit, Adam Tysman, SAP Value and Effectiveness Specialist Yes, it can be done. Let’s assume you’ve streamlined your material management and purchasing processes for the most efficient use of resources. You’ve had world class analysts configure and tweak until the system fairly squeaks. Still, you find that inventory levels are occasionally higher than necessary…or worse, you experience manufacturing slow-downs due to shortages. Where do you turn to identify ways to tighten-up the process more? Adam Tysman says it’s time to pull out the secret weapon…the Strategic Analytic Toolkit. In this article, Adam coaches you on the use of the toolkit, beginning with parameter selection for the type of information you need. He describes the plethora of reports that can be produced, and how to use them to identify the areas where your system, and processes, could work more efficiently. Implementing Consumption Based Planning: Part I - Configuration, Jocelyn Hayes, ERPtips Director of Consulting and Training Consumption Based Planning is often confused with Materials Requirement Planning, especially in SAP. However, they are very different procedures. Unlike Materials Requirement Planning, which defines materials absolutely needed to for production, Consumption Based Planning is based more on previous consumption and forecast values. In this two part series, Jocelyn Hayes further defines the differences between the two, when you’ll want to use Consumption Based Planning, and how to configure it in SAP. Just a reminder… ERPtips University’s Materials Management workshop covers both of these procedures in much greater detail. Getting the Most from Your SAP® PM Consultants, Warren Bell, Olivet Inc. Implementing or upgrading your SAP system almost always requires assistance from consultants. But consultants are expensive. How do you know if you have the right consultants, doing the right things, at the right time in your PM (or other) project? Warren Bell has been on both sides of the consulting game and shares his wisdom and survival skills. Warren even divulges the secret weapon he uses to determine whether the consultant is working in his firm's best interests. Material Management: Material Valuation, Jocelyn Hayes, ERPtips Director of Consulting and Training If your company's stockholders weren't happy with the Balance Sheet at the last Stockholder's ® meeting, you may find the CFO asking how the SAP Material Valuation works. Perhaps he/she will want to make the assets look greater, to show a stronger asset position…or perhaps he/she will want a smaller value reflected, to minimize tax debt. Jocelyn Hayes provides a brief, but thorough primer of the three types of Material Valuation, their benefits, and configuration. Any way you look at it, this article is a valuable contribution to your SAP "how to" library.

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Scales and Group Conditions: When Group Values Are Worth More Than the Sum of Their Parts, Matthias Liebich, MLI Solutions LLC Buy more, spend less? SAP's pricing helps you help your customers save money by purchasing in quantity. There are many ways of accomplishing this through Scales and Group Conditions. Mr. Liebich presents a variety of pricing scenarios, complete with explanations of how each scenario will be calculated. He presents the setup and configuration, followed by each scenario's breakdown. Off Limits: Blocking User Access To A Storage Location in SAP®, Maria Nikolova, National Electricity Company, Bulgaria In the business world, we often have to set boundaries and restrictions for staff. At first blush that may sound like we don’t trust our staff. However, these decisions are not ours, and perhaps not even those of management. Many of these result from government compliance or auditor requirements. And while they may appear to question the integrity of staff, they’re actually there to protect them. One such requirement that you may face is that of blocking user access to storage locations. This can be a little tricky if you've never done it before, but with Maria Nikolova as your guide, you’ll have it done in no time. Using MD07 in SAP: Evaluation Stock On Hand/On Order, Adam Tysman, SAP Value and Effectiveness Specialist A person could make a career of learning and refining the use of MRP, especially as it applies to SAP…and that’s just what Adam Tysman has done. In this issue Adam simplifies the process by showing you how to use the MD07 transaction to more accurately evaluate the stock on-hand and on-order, to identify weaknesses and strengths in your MRP configuration. Although there are only a couple steps involved, there are a myriad of configuration options and decisions to be made in each. Adam takes you through each of these options and explains their use…and the resulting affect on your Stock On-hand. Materials Management – Master the Best Practices Part IV: Inventory Management Best Practices, Jocelyn Hayes, ERPtips Director of Training and Consulting Whether tracking by quantity or value of stock, a small mistake can translate to a costly error. You need to know how to get the maximum mileage out of your IM installation, and you can get most of that knowledge right here. Jocelyn Hayes shares her hard won best practices for Inventory Management in her continuing “best practices” series. Of course, you can learn even more details from Jocelyn by registering for her MM course. Spend some time with Jocelyn, or spend your weekends reconciling inventory…it’s your choice. Demand Planning in SAP®: Dynamic Safety Stock, Adam Tysman, SAP Value and Effectiveness Specialist If you’re involved with material stock, you know how tough it is to keep the right amount on hand. If you order too much, too soon, you end up with a surplus. This ties up the company’s resources both in terms of capital and storage. However, if you don’t order enough, and at the right time, you could come up short, slowing production and distribution. MRP is a great tool, but unless you are feeding it the right data, it could be more of a nightmare than a dream. That’s why Adam Tysman decided to present this guide to configuring Dynamic Safety Stock in SAP’s Demand Planning module. Adam teaches you to understand the early results, and how to tweak the settings to tighten the gaps, for a more reliable safety stock level.

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Should Reliability Engineers Be Active in SAP®?, Warren Bell, Olivet Inc. Engineers are the ideas guys, right? They are cerebral. So why would they want to get involved with the hands-on side of the process, interacting with the SAP system? Warren Bell felt that way in the past, but has embraced and come to love the information that engineers can obtain from SAP. Access to accurate equipment performance, failure, and maintenance activity data is, in Warren’s words, “manna from heaven… and often just as scarce”. In this article, Warren explains how easy it is to make this information work for you. Engineers, put away your slide rules, and start your systems. Overview of the Logistics Information System, Jocelyn Hayes, ERPtips Director of Consulting and Training Who doesn’t love a heads up? If you’re not familiar with SAP’s Logistic Information System, it’s time to get on board. In addition to an oft-overlooked, yet useful analysis tool, it also provides an Early Warning System to let you know when your parameters are outside of the acceptable limits you set. Jocelyn Hayes takes you through the configuration steps. Materials Management – Master the Best Practices Part III: Purchasing Best Practices, Jocelyn Hayes, ERPtips Director of Training and Consulting If you can read only one article on the MM Procure-to-Pay process, this is the one. A veteran of numerous implementations, Jocelyn Hayes has both the perspective and the solid experience required to be able to drill down to the best practices for each part of the process. In this article she covers master data, document types, field selection, release strategies, and condition types. We suspect copies of this will be laminated and posted on office walls. Jocelyn is, after all, among America’s most wanted (in SAP). Forecast Accuracy vs. Safety Stock Levels: What You Need to Know, Adam Tysman – SAP Value and Effectiveness Specialist So you think your inventory and inherent safety stock levels are appearing high in MRP? What you think is high and what the reality is could be two very different things. As Adam Tysman explains, SAP formulas are designed to keep the inventory forecasts as accurate as possible. Yet, many people try to “adjust” what they think are mistakes in the forecast and, well, make things worse. To help everyone understand the mathematics involved behind the scenes in SAP, he’s bringing these formulas to the forefront. Read along as he explains the impacting factors that determine inventory forecast and test your understanding with an exercise he’s included. Using Condition Types in SAP: Knowing What Condition Your Condition Is In, Jocelyn Hayes, ERPtips Director of Consulting and Training Want to love SAP Purchasing unconditionally? Jocelyn Hayes demonstrates how to create a new condition type, add it to a calculation schema, and test. Once you’ve mastered this not-so-easy technique in purchasing—you can apply this to SD Pricing as well! The Principle of Dual Control: Two-step Change Process for Vendor Master Record, Kiran Bhat, Fujitsu Consulting Inc. Double your fun. Double your control. SAP’s Principle of Dual Control offers you a peace of mind when it comes to changes made to your Vendor Master records by building in a secondary “sanity check” by a second, authoritative party. Kiran Bhat delves into how this two-step process works, including the steps to configure and test the Dual Control process. Before long, you’ll be in (dual) control of your critical master data!
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Materials Management – Master the Best Practices Part II: MM Master Data Best Practices, Jocelyn Hayes, ERPtips Director of Training and Consulting Jocelyn’s back, and she’s got more Material Management best practices to share! This time, she’ll delve into what’s important to know when working with Material Masters and Vendor Masters. These tips include not only what is the “best” thing to do, but what pitfalls you’ll want to avoid when dealing with master data. Automatic Document Adjustment in MM, Kiran Bhat You have an open PO to which you need to make a price adjustment. No big deal, just make the change manually in SAP and move on. But what happens when that PO has a few hundred friends that need the same treatment? Suddenly, that manual change doesn’t seem so easy any more. Kiran Bhat ran into a similar situation on a recent project, and he’s happy to share with us his experience using the Automatic Document Adjustment function. Once implemented, this handy SAP feature can save you considerable time and resources the next time the market requires a price change that impacts open purchase orders. Best Practices in MM, Jocelyn Hayes Take a tip (or several) from someone who has been involved in many SAP implementations, in many companies. Jocelyn Hayes leverages her 11 years of experience in Logistics and Materials Management and has compiled a list of her “best” tips, tricks, and overall practices for Materials Management organizational structure and other SAP projects. Remember, if you like what you read, then plan to join Jocelyn in Dallas this spring when she presents an entire class on Materials Management. Simplify Your Purchasing Documents with Custom Document Types, Jocelyn Hayes, ERPtips Director of Training and Consulting You’re company has unique purchasing requirements—shouldn’t you be able to create a purchasing document to meet those needs? Even with all the purchasing documents that come standard with SAP, sometimes you just need to do your own thing. In this issue, ERPtips’ own Jocelyn Hayes demonstrates how to configure a unique purchase order document type, while keeping fields you need to keep hidden out of sight from your users. If you want to take advantage of more of Jocelyn’s expertise, be sure to register now for her class on Materials Management this spring at ERPtips University in Dallas! Case Study: SAP® XSI (Express Delivery Interface), Bruce Rishel, Perot Systems Delivery options, you have a few. And now it’s time to integrate them. Interfacing can be tough, but XSI can make it easier. You’ll save time, and yes a dime, when you go this way for carrier integration. What’s more, in SAP, you’ll do it your way. Bruce Rishel shows you how. Mastering Material Masters Part 1 - Material Types: Make Them Work For You, Jocelyn Hayes Mastering Material Masters—hard to say, even harder to do. Jocelyn Hayes has been tackling this issue for the last eleven years, and even she admits, there’s a lot to learn---way too much for one article! In this first article in a three-part series, Jocelyn focuses on Material Type. Read up as she delves into the configuration and setup of this very important component in Material Masters. And if you want even more, keep an eye out for our announcement of our ERPtips Mastery Level Workshop - Materials Management Overview. How to Determine Whether to Forward or Backward Schedule, Thomas Woelfe This paper is an excerpt from the ERPtips Mastery Level Workshop book for Sales and Distribution. We sincerely hope that the information included here will help you take the riddle out of forward/backward schedule determination. Copyright © 2012 by Klee Associates, Inc. www. ERPtips.com Page 102

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Latte or Express-o: Interfacing SAP® Shipping with Express Delivery Services, Jocelyn Hayes, ERPtips Director of Consulting and Training If your company does a considerable amount of shipping via third-party parcel delivery services (like UPS or Fed Ex), then you’ll appreciate this tip from Jocelyn Hayes. By working with your preferred shipper, you can interface SAP with their systems to automate and streamline many of the manual processes involved with this often tedious job. Let Jocelyn walk you through the steps of getting connected with your shipper—the effort spent will be more than balanced by the time and money your company will save! CATT – Really Stands for COOL AUTOMATED TRANSFORMATION TOOL, Jocelyn Hayes, ERPtips Director of Consulting and Training The cool SAP cats know: you can go developer-free when you employ a CATT. Not just a testing tool, CATT can be used for creating and making changes to certain master records and transactions that once required putting in a request for assistance from a developer. ERPtips’ own Jocelyn Hayes provides the insight on how to create a CATT— including several tips she’s picked up over years of using this tool. Please Release Me: Purchasing Release Strategies Made Easy, Jocelyn Hayes, ERPtips Director of Consulting and Training The words “SAP” and “easy” are rarely used in the same sentence, but ERPtips Practice Director Jocelyn Hayes is ready to prove it can be done. In her debut article she sets out a four-step strategy that is not only practical, but achievable. In fact, Jocelyn has employed this strategy at multiple installations, across a variety of purchasing methodologies with great success. Her secret for success? Jocelyn says it’s all about keeping it simple. Year-end House Cleaning: How to Identify and Remove Unused Pricing Condition Records, By Matthias Liebich, MLI Solutions LLC It’s a commonality among many of us, the desire to start the new year with a clean slate. There’s something magical about the turn of the calendar to January 1 that mentally signifies the need for a fresh start. So, Matthias Liebich offers up a great tip that will help you get your SAP house in order, at least from a pricing records perspective. Matthias discusses how to identify and eliminate those pesky unused pricing conditions records that languish in the system; those that slow system performance without providing any value. It’s a great tip for going forward to 2007 that will make 2007’s end-of-year housekeeping chores a fast sweep! Plant Maintenance Key Performance Indicators in the SAP PM Context, Warren Bell, Olivet Inc. So, what do you think would happen if you never took the time to change the oil in your car? That’s right—you’d eventually run into a breakdown. And, of course, it would occur at the least opportune time. Now, let’s consider what happens if you don’t make the time in a plant to perform preventive maintenance on equipment: Think breakdowns during peak demand or, more seriously, safety issues. Warren Bell presents a compelling case for how you can effectively manage the KPIs of equipment through SAP’s PM module. His tips for using these functions can lead your team to less down time, and a more accurate picture of how your equipment is performing.

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“Hands-Off” Rebate Maintenance: How to Automatically Create and Settle Rebate Agreements, Matthias Liebich, MLI Solutions, LLC Fix it and forget it – we need more opportunities like that in life. Who doesn’t want to take some laborious task that is prone to human input error (like rebate management), and put it on autopilot? C’mon—raise your hand if you REALLY like doing the same job every month, over and over and over again. Yeah, we didn’t think so. . That’s why Matthias Liebich is back to share with you the tips (and one important “gotcha”) he’s learned in managing rebate maintenance automatically in SAP. Read this, and soon you’ll be wondering what you ever did before with rebate maintenance. (We’re betting you won’t miss it!) Changing SD Pricing Designs in a Production Environment: An Overview of Do’s and Don’ts in Pricing Configuration Changes, Matthias Liebich, MLI Solutions, LLC Matthias delivers a comprehensive discussion of changing the pricing design elements in the production system. Whether your condition tables are inadequate or your access sequences are incorrect, whether your pricing procedures are flawed or you simply need additional ones, Matthias has you covered. He takes you through each of these scenarios and then reminds you of the downstream processes (orders not yet delivered, deliveries not yet invoiced, etc.) to ensure your modifications are as painless as possible. Anyone who can do all this AND work in lyrics of a Springsteen song is pretty top-notch in our book. A Holiday Bag of Pricing Tricks: Three Stocking Stuffers for Your Pricing Repertoire, Matthias Liebich, MLI Solutions, LLC You may believe in Santa Claus after sorting through the holiday gift bag of pricing tips that Matthias has placed under the tree in this issue. Matthias opted to detail tips on 3 undocumented (or rarely used) features that have saved his clients a great deal of time and grief. The first “gift” presents a useful overview of copying pricing condition records. Unwrap the second to reveal a thoughtful process for applying reference conditions. The third contains tip number three, step-bystep instructions for allowing a zero to be used as a valid condition value. You’ll be tempted to leave a plate of cookies for Matthias after implementing these 3 timesaving tips. Invoicing Plan: Making the Most of Material Management, Anurag Barua, The Washington Post We’ve all heard “work smarter, not harder”, and we admit that it makes a lot of sense. Yet sometimes we overlook the obvious shortcuts and process simplifications. Anurag Barua provides the magic eyeglasses that will allow you to see how to eliminate unnecessary, repetitive tasks from your invoicing routine through the use of SAP’s Implementation Plan feature. Anurag illustrates how to schedule automatic invoicing and payment for goods and services where payment is not tied to receipt of these (such as leases or installment payments). He finishes by explaining the Invoicing Plan framework and configuration, suggesting the type of Invoicing Plan that will best fit your particular need. Promotions and Sales Deals in R/3: A Standard Way to Track Your Promotions, Matthias Liebich, MLI Solutions, LLC In response to a reader’s request, Matthias has developed another well-crafted white paper on a topic that many consider to be the companion to rebate processing, that of setting up sales deals and promotions. Configuring sales deals is very similar to configuring rebate processing, so it’s a natural evolution to move into this topic. Matthias shows the configuration steps required for sales deals and points out the similarities to rebate configuration along the way. He also takes on promotion configuration, explaining decisions that will need to be made along the way. Make room in your reference library, this is another white paper that you’ll want to print and refer to again and again.

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Queries in Logistics, Suresh Sreenivasaiah, YesJ Expert Many users believe they must have ABAP developers at their disposal or be prepared to live with the generic reports that SAP provides, feeling that words like “specific”, “custom”, or “tailored”, as they relate to reporting, are beyond their reach. Logistics guru Suresh Sreenivasaiah disputes this myth as he documents the ease and agility of developing logistics queries in SAP, even for a “non-programmer”. He debunks the intimidating aspects by explaining the fundamentals of query reporting for the “technically-impaired”. A tour of the SAP Query components, combined with a series of helpful screen shots, will leave readers with a higher comfort level in this important arena. SAP Tools Management System: You Can Check Out Anytime You Like, Sutrisno Japit Editor Sutrisno Japit proposes a proven solution for checking tools in and out with SAP’s Tool Management System. This article focuses solely on the movement of tools using standard R/3 functionality, something that is not documented by SAP. Sutrisno’s solution applies to tools that are serialized and those that are not. He covers all aspects of configuration from creating master data to setting the correct “update value” so the system does not incorrectly calculate the tool inventory based on the number of times they are checked in or out. He also shows you how to streamline tool movement reporting so that you have an option to view only the summary data if you prefer. Avoiding Locking Issues During Pricing Maintenance - How to Share Pricing Tasks Across Multiple Users, Matthias Liebich, MLI Solutions, LLC How many consultants does it take to implement pricing master data? In reality, it depends on how many condition records you have, how they are structured, and how often you maintain them. In this paper, Matthias shows us the ins and outs of sharing the pricing workload across employees, without users getting locked out of the records they need. He identifies how SAP’s record locking logic works, with tips and tricks to get around it. Matthias delivers “three tips for the price of one” as he demonstrates a new approach to maintain pricing records, to create a simple pricing report, and to maintain an Area Menu. The Price Is Right: A New Method to Maintain Sales Prices in SAP, Sutrisno Japit If you have spent valuable time struggling through the cumbersome “one-condition-type, and onecondition-table at a time” method of maintaining prices in your SAP system, then you stand to benefit richly from Sutrisno Japit’s latest article. Sutrisno introduces readers to transactions VK31, VK32, and VK33, which were released with SAP version 4.6A, to streamline pricing maintenance. He demonstrates the keystrokes you’ll save by contrasting the new transaction screens with the old ones. Sutrisno goes on to show you the real value of the new transactions: the flexibility to maintain numerous condition records at the same time. Performing Drop Shipments in SAP: A Primer, Suresh Sreenivasaiah, YesJ Expert Logistics Editor Suresh Sreenivasaiah teaches us the ABC’s of drop shipments in SAP. He starts by pointing out the characteristics, advantages, and disadvantages of drop shipments in general, and illustrates the process with a flow chart. From there he introduces SAP’s third-party processing, both automatic and manual, outlining steps and illustrating with screen shots to show how it supports drop shipping. From forecast to MRP consolidation; from drop-shipment determination to sales order creation; from delivery to invoice processing, Suresh shares his insights and experience to ease you through an otherwise complex configuration.

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Who Moved My Stock? Better Visibility into Your Stock Segments, Sutrisno Japit The concept for this article is the direct result of the author’s recent interaction with his stockroom manager. This manager wanted to analyze the details behind cumulation of his unrestricted-use stock and other stock segments. Sutrisno saw this as an opportunity to explain the unrestricteduse stock feature to his client and to our readers. This article shows a simple way to generate the list of material documents that match the stock-segment totals (not provided in any out-of-the-box SAP reports). The end result is a query that provides immediate feedback, as well as a solid framework upon which you can build other solutions for your stock analysis requirements. Rebate Processing in SAP: How to Efficiently Set Up and Manage Your Rebate Programs, by Matthias Liebich, MLI Solutions, LLC SD master Matthias Liebich decides it’s time to show ERPtips readers the inner workings of rebate functionality in SAP. Matthias points out that even the most flexible and robust ERP systems have to be stretched and tweaked to support “the crazy deals that salespeople sometime concoct to incent their customers”. This 30-page white paper presents a sweeping review of what the SAP rebate function can and cannot do. Matthias introduces rebate planning, setup, and configuration in SAP. He then brings the focus to the detail level, using screen shots to illustrate the procedures for managing the rebates, primarily relating to accrual, paying, and tracking. Interfaces in Logistics, by Suresh Sreenivasaiah, YesJ Expert SAP Logistics whiz Suresh Sreenivasaiah provides us with a “big picture” discussion of interface planning, building, and testing. Suresh draws on project-based examples using some of SAP’s BAPI programs. He also demonstrates the use of IDoc, which uses the ALE to perform integration functions. For those situations where BAPI and IDoc aren't appropriate, he describes an alternative solution that might cure your interface woes. Suresh wraps up the paper with a detailed list of the snafus you can run into while building Logistics interfaces, and he offers tips on how to resolve each sticking point. Packing Functionality in SAP: An Overlooked But Useful Tool to Size Orders and Deliveries, Matthias Liebich, MLI Solutions, LLC In this screen-by-screen white paper, Matthias walks the reader through configuration tips for the main aspects of SAP packing functionality, including manual packing, nested packing, sales order packing, and automatic packing with user exits. He also includes a helpful section on known issues with sales order packing and how they can be resolved via user exits. Whether your project is handling packing orders manually, or using a third-party solution, you’ll want to take a close look at the advantages of “activating” SAP’s own packing functionality. The Secret of the Material Origin Flag: When to Use It & When to Avoid It, Sutrisno Japit, NIIT, Inc. The Material Origin Flag, while providing useful detail, is not ideal for all installations and can in fact pose serious performance problems in some instances. In this helpful article, Sutrisno explains the purpose of the Material Origin Flag and shows why there is more data available for variance analysis when the Material Origin Flag is selected. By the time this well-illustrated article is complete, Sutrisno not only shows the performance problems associated with the Material Flag, he also gets to the root of the reason for this problem - something that is not even available in SAP’s own documentation.

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Pricing Dates and Pricing Rules - Ways of Changing How Pricing Applies on Documents, Matthias Liebich, MLI Solutions, LLC Pricing is one of the most powerful areas in SAP. In his recent white papers, SAP Pricing expert Matthias Liebich has focused on a range of topics pertaining to the setup of pricing functionality. In this white paper, Matthias switches gears to look at how pricing applies on documents, and how these documents can be customized through the use of pricing rules. Using screen shots to demonstrate each technique, Matthias walks the reader through a range of customization options, such as the re-pricing of sales documents and how to set the pricing date on sales documents. QuickViewer and SAP Query: Creating Standard SAP Reports Without ABAP Knowledge, Matthias Liebich, MLI Solutions, LLC Reporting is one of the most important issues on mature SAP implementations. In recent editions of ERPtips, we've covered reporting techniques from a variety of angles. In this white paper, Pricing expert Matthias Liebich touches on another method we haven't covered yet: using QuickViewer and SAP Query to generate SAP reports. The most important aspect of these techniques? They can be utilized without ABAP programming. In this extensive white paper, Matthias presents a screen-by-screen look at the techniques needed to use both of these tools. He begins by explaining how these tools evolved, and contrasting the appeal of QuickViewer for beginning users to the depth of SAP Query for more advanced users. Then he describes how to develop a QuickViewer report in SD, how to create a User Group, how to develop an SAP Query, and how to create the InfoSets on which SAP Queries are based. By the time this white paper is finished, ERPtips readers will have a detailed understanding of how these tools can be used for custom reporting—without digging into an ABAP programming manual. Tips on Implementing a U.S. Sales Tax Interface, Jim O' Day, Nassau Technology Group Managing sales tax and interfacing with third-party tax systems are two of the most commonly requested topics from ERPtips subscribers. In this issue, we're delighted to have our Logistics Editor Jim O'Day tackle this topic in his inimitable and authoritative style. In this article, Jim begins by describing how sales tax functions within SAP® and why these issues can prove tricky for SAP users. He reviews the main third-party systems and the principles of third-party tax interfaces. For those readers who are handling sales tax within SAP CRM, Jim notes how SAP CRM handles sales tax processing and how CRM compares with the tax processing within R/3. Jim wraps up this first piece on SAP sales tax with a section on sales tax reporting. Jim tells us he will be glad to follow up this article with more advanced sales tax tips based on reader requests, so keep those comments coming. Just How Difficult Is SAP to Implement? A Detailed Look at SAP Project Management, Tomas Fertig, Crysalis Consulting Let's face it: most articles on ERP project management aren't worth the paper they're written on. How many times can we read bland clichés like “if you don't plan ahead, your project will fail?” Of course, we all recognize the importance of strategic planning. But how do we really determine a successful project approach from an unsuccessful one? With this edition of ERPtips, we're delighted to present a brilliant article on SAP® Project Management that digs deep into SAP and goes well beyond the standard pretty-sounding advice. Why does this article work? We think it's because the author, Tomas Fertig, has worked his way up from hands-on SAP consultant to Practice Manager. Tomas has tasted project successes and failures firsthand, and his passion for SAP keeps him on top of the latest technologies. This twenty-page guide is filled with sharp insights on the best ways to approach SAP projects and the missteps to avoid. Tomas covers everything from the importance of business model definition to the need for a thoughtful approach to cultural change management and employee compensation. Tomas explains why a good “solutions map” is so important, and throughout the article, he connects project leadership Copyright © 2012 by Klee Associates, Inc. www. ERPtips.com Page 107

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concepts with the SAP tools and technologies that can make implementations more successful. Tomas ends the paper with a series of comments on the latest SAP technologies users should be staying on top of, and his opinionated appendix on the different types of SAP consultants is provocative and useful reading. Tomas has told us that he will follow up this paper with some discussions of specific project management issues, and he welcomes reader input on future topics to address. Customizing Sales Reports Using Transaction VA05, Jim O'Day, Nassau Technology Group Logistics Editor Jim O'Day always keeps me in line. He knows I can get too excited about some cool new feature, like Web reporting in BW, and forget to let readers know about some core R/3 functionality that users can take advantage of without needing any fancy mySAP® jargon or components. Jim's latest example? Sales order reporting. Sure, standard SAP® reports can be a bit limited sometimes, but as Jim explains in this article, by using “Transaction VA05”, you can customize sales reports by creating your own “display variants.” Using plenty of screen shots to illustrate his points, Jim takes us through the process of customizing reports for real-life situations like tracking payment terms and account assignments. And because Jim knows that there are always the occasional “gotchas,” he closes the article with a troubleshooting section with common VA05 reporting problems and how to resolve them. Executing a Release Upgrade from a Logistics/Order-To-Cash Standpoint, Jim O’Day, Nassau Technology Group The best way to avoid “upgrade anxiety” is to turn to those who have been down that road before. For our first ERPtips cover story, we asked Logistics Editor Jim O’Day to give us his view on successful upgrades from a logistics perspective. The result is an entertaining and insightful piece that hones in on the trickiest aspects of logistics upgrades, from dealing with back order processing snafus to sorting through the fine points of ATP® configuration. Logistics Upgrades Part Two: Planning, Timing, And Staffing Considerations, Jim O’Day, Nassau Technology Group As our Logistics Editor Jim O'Day knows firsthand, no upgrade situation is free from its challenges and time constraints. So in the second part of his article series on Logistics Upgrades, Jim wrote an article for the rest of us - for everyone who has been behind schedule on upgrades with watchful eyes looking on. The tips Jim provides here will help us all make more informed upgrade decisions and get the most out of the resources at our disposal. Taking Advantage of Pricing Extensions Within SD, Jim O’Day, Nassau Technology Group In this "bottom-line" era for enterprise software, SAP® pricing is the right functionality at the right time. SAP's pricing capabilities can be tied into numerous business processes, allowing SAP users to attach pricing capabilities to many different production scenarios. In his latest article, Logistics Editor Jim O' Day demonstrates the precision of SAP pricing by explaining how to make a return credit price dependant upon the returned condition of the material. As with all of Jim's tips to date, we don't need any mySAP®-related products to take full advantage of his recommendations —we don't even need to be running on 4.6 to utilize this powerful functionality. Customizing Logistics and Pricing with User Exits, Jim O’Day, Nassau Technology Group Pricing is high stakes stuff. If you forget to price a surcharge for international shipping into your back-end system, you could lose a lot of money in a short period of time. Of course, we also need to be able to adjust and customize pricing on the fly. SAP provides a range of customizable pricing capabilities. In this example-driven article, Logistics Editor Jim O'Day tells ERPtips readers how to utilize SAP user exits to fine-tune their pricing capabilities— including custom integration with third-party sales systems. Copyright © 2012 by Klee Associates, Inc. www. ERPtips.com Page 108

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Mass Maintenance of Sales Order Tables: Tips and Tricks R/3 Users Should Know, Jim O’Day, Nassau Technology Group R/3 experts just don't get their due anymore. At least it seems that way sometimes, with cuttingedge mySAP® solutions getting all the industry press and trade show attention. But if logistics Editor Jim O'Day gets his way, that's all about to change. We can just see core R/3 teams rising up across the world with Jim's "no respect!" theme as a rallying cry. But as it turns out, Jim's perspective on the significance of R/3 functionality is right in line with many ERPtips readers. SAP® might focus their marketing on next-generation solutions like NetWeaver and xApps, but users are striking a savvy balance between testing out mySAP solutions and maximizing their R/3 investment. Making Search Help Work for You, Jim O’Day, Nassau Technology Group After Jim's last article on pricing extensions, he realized that there was a major benefit to setting up these new fields that he hadn't touched on: the ability to use these new fields to locate sales orders and identify customers. Sound simple? Sure. But as Jim's readers know by now, SAP is not always as simple as it seems. On project after project, Jim has found himself fielding questions about how to best use SAP's “Search Help” functionality. In this article, Jim explains how to get the best results out of the existing search helps, and he also shows how to create new search helps as a useful way of incorporating new fields into the search process Using the Reference Document Field for Pricing in CRM and R/3: A Case Study, Scott Cameron, SAP CRM Consultant One of the most fascinating things about SAP CRM is the interplay between the CRM and R/3 systems. This tight integration allows for a number of unique, configurable solutions that enable companies to modify SAP to meet their business needs in ways that weren't previously possible. SAP CRM Editor Scott Cameron and his team created a custom solution for pricing surcharges in both R/3 and CRM. This solution did not involve user exits or RFC calls. In this "real life case study," Scott tells us exactly how an SAP user configured this functionality, and how it enabled the user to trigger pricing discounts both from within the SD module, and from within CRM (through Internet Sales). Performance Tuning in Pricing: Guidelines for Better System Performance, Matthias Liebich, MLI Solutions, LLC As any good SAP® consultant will tell you, the line between functional and technical SAP issues gets pretty blurry sometimes. Unfortunately, there are sometimes tradeoffs between SAP functional enhancements and SAP system performance. As SAP Pricing Expert Matthias Liebech has seen firsthand, there are certainly such tradeoffs when it comes to tricky but critical issue of SAP pricing. So we asked him to write a white paper that explains how to make sure your company's pricing functionality doesn't bog down your system performance. Using screen shots and project examples, Matthias loaded this article with pricing tips that should have a very positive impact on your SAP system's performance. SAP's Best Advanced Pricing Techniques, Jim O’Day, Nassau Technology Group In this article, Jim starts out by answering a reader's question about how he sees the hot-button topic of offshore outsourcing impacting SAP Logistics teams. Then, he moves into a handy collection of advanced pricing tips that he has used to help SAP users fine tune their pricing functionality. One such tip? How to make an “internal” price of a product equal to the cost plus some type of percentage markup. For details on that tip and more, read on.

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NetWeaver, Web App Server, and mySAP Landscapes
SAP Projects: Landscape Planning With ChaRM, Rajiv Jha We are probably all familiar with the three-system landscape concept – Development, QA, and Production. Rajiv Jha takes this concept to some entirely new levels, illustrating where sometimes less is more and sometimes more is even better. Great stuff for you "landscape artists". Effectively Navigating the SAP Service Marketplace – Part II, Anurag Barua ® Anurag Barua continues his series on the SAP Service Marketplace. In this article, he'll continue our tour of the Support portal and discuss other important components, including the SAP Business One Customer Portal, SAP Community Network (SCN), and the SAP Help Portal. Effectively Navigating the SAP Service Marketplace – Part I, Anurag Barua If you haven't discovered the time-saving benefits of the SAP Service Marketplace portal, here's your opportunity to see what you've been missing. In this two part series, Anurag Barua shares his knowledge of how this user-friendly portal works, and how you can take advantage of the many features available in order to minimize the time you might spend going from website to website to complete various tasks in SAP. In this article, he will introduce the SAP Support Portal. Managing BI Transports with SAP Solution Manager, Rajiv Jha You can sit just right in your chair, hold your mouth a particular way, cast fairy dust over your keyboard, cross your toes, check out the window to make sure the moon isn’t full, double-check your assorted sticky notes, then press Enter. Or... you can read Rajiv Jha’s sound advice to be sure your transports aren’t crossing each other up and causing a bigger problem than you started with. This article discusses the pitfalls of BI transports, then steps us through the recommended best practice for individual or mass transports using Solution Manager. How to Reconfigure a Central SLD to Local SLD, Bijay Shrestha At some point in your SAP career, chances are you’re going to have reconfigure your System Landscape Directory (SLD) from a Central SLD to a Local SLD in a complex NetWeaver landscape. The question is, do you know how to do this or has that knowledge base disappeared from your organization? If you’re left holding the bag, fear not; this step by step article by is a perfect primer for anyone who is familiar with SLD, and is looking to make this process easier. Leveraging SAP NetWeaver™ Process Integration with Open Source, Holger Himmelmann and Denny Schreber Can Open Source software be the solution for NetWeaver Process Integration? Holger Himmelmann and Denny Schreber demonstrate how companies can benefit from open source software to meet their business needs, including how open source works in the PI context, the dual license model, and finally, putting it into practice with PI. Back to the Future with SOA: The Importance of Governance, Axel Angeli and Lynton Grice At ERPtips, we can’t claim to predict the future, but with the assistance of NetWeaver gurus Axel Angeli and Lynton Grice, we can give you a pretty good preview of the role of SOA in the years to come. In this “strap on your seat belts” white paper, our forward-thinking duo present their ideas about why the SOA architecture has experienced slow adoption, what has changed, and why they anticipate an SOA-driven future in ERP-land. What’s the key to moving ahead with SOA? Axel and Lynton say that standards and governance will determine whether we see evolution or revolution.
® ®

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SAP’s Solution Manager: How Do You Get It, and How Do You Use It?, Eric Walter, Basis Editor Do you like to wait for new products to have time to evolve, to “get the bugs out” before you jump on the bandwagon? Is this the approach you’ve taken with SAP’s Solution Manager application? If you’ve decided it’s finally time to take Solution Manager for a test drive, you’ve come to the right place. Basis Editor Eric Walter offers up the information you’ll need to get started with SM, including where to get it, how to install and test it, and how to learn to use it. Eric provides tips and tricks for configuring the traditional implementation or with Java/J2EE to support the NetWeaver™ approach. Once you’re set up and ready to roll, Eric suggests some ways you’ll want to use SM. Setting Up an SAP Support Desk in SAP Solution Manager, Kamran Ellahi, Pakistan Petroleum Limited You’ve made a substantial investment in your SAP system, both in dollars and man-hours; now you need to see some bang for your buck. SAP consultant Kamran Ellahi has just what you need, a hands-on tour of the robust and multi-functional SAP Solution Manager Support Desk application. Need to streamline your SAP support process? Support Desk can do that. Need a system to help reduce response time? Support Desk can do that. Follow Kamran’s illustrated steps and strategies to configure Support Desk and implement a support system that starts paying dividends right out of the box. The Power of Automated Testing: E-CATT Test Scripts in SAP Solution Manager 3.2 Part II, Kamran Ellahi, Pakistan Petroleum Limited If you read the first installment of Kamran Ellahi’s article on using E-CATT test scripts in our last issue, you are probably eagerly awaiting the second (and final) part, so you can move from theory to the application stage. Now that you’ve learned the basics of E-CATT testing, it’s time to move on to learning each segment of the testing process: from script development to test data maintenance, and finally wrapping it all together by setting up the test configuration. Kamran provides detailed steps with supporting screen shots and examples required for system and client setup and test case creation. How do you make testing easier in SAP? Follow Kamran’s guide and the rest is “automatic”. The CEO’s Guide to ESA Success, Axel Angeli and Lynton Grice, Logosworld.com We were understandably excited to learn that Axel Angeli and Lynton Grice planned to let us unveil their Sapphire 2006 presentation, “The CEO’s Guide to ESA Success”. In the quintessential Angeli/Grice style, they deliver a well-rounded overview of the ESA architecture and its impact on business, then set about supporting their conclusions with specific business cases, management and engineer views, and insightful strategies. Axel and Lynton also pepper their discussion with pertinent diagrams and graphics to help us understand the concepts they present. Do they give ESA two thumbs up from the CEO’s perspective? You’ll just have to read the white paper to find out. Into the Future with NetWeaver ESA: How SAP’s Enterprise Service Architecture Will Change the World of IT, Axel Angeli, logosworld.com, and Lynton Grice, Consultant Where, exactly, is the NetWeaver application framework going in the future? To get past the hype and move straight to the truth, one must go directly to the designers. That’s just what Axel and Lynton did. They got the (virtually exclusive) scoop about NetWeaver ESA directly from the folks at Walldorf. The dynamic duo deftly contrasts the existing model of NetWeaver with the proposed ® model, to predict the future for the SAP ESA infrastructure. Axel and Lynton say that “SAP’s primary strategy is their partner-focussed approach in building a community around NetWeaver and ESA.” Does it accomplish this goal? You’ll have to read it to find out.

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Hitting the Stride with SAP XI: On Whether Exchange Infrastructure Is “All That”, by Dave Bernard, KimberWorks, Inc. Dave Bernard was part of the first SAP NetWeaver XI product team and lived to tell. He has watched XI evolve from its early, awkward “baby steps” days to the current full-featured incarnation. So, is XI all it's cracked up to be? Dave Bernard answers that question by putting the evolution of XI in the context of the overall development of the Enterprise Application Integration (EAI) space. Using helpful functionality charts, Dave explains how SAP sees XI as the nextgeneration hub of the NetWeaver product line. In the last section of this white paper, Dave describes several different approaches to XI adoption and talks about the skills needed to ensure a successful XI implementation. Can ESA Really Work? A Practical Guide to a Risk-Free ESA Introduction, Axel Angeli, logosworld.com, and Lynton Grice, Consultant Ground traffic, air traffic, and data traffic. Ground traffic can only progress when drivers follow the established roads and laws. Air traffic could be nothing short of catastrophic without strict adherence to air traffic control supervision. So what governs and manages your SAP data traffic? Will SAP’s new Enterprise Service Architecture be the answer? Read Axel Angeli and Lynton Grice’s plain-spoken discussion of if and where ESA lies in your future. They extol the benefits of an Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) to bolster XI’s weakness, and provide the steps to make implementation painless and successful. This paper is a “must read” for anyone considering the move to ESA. Side-Stepping the Labyrinth – Part II, Axel Angeli, logosworld.com, and Lynton Grice, Consultant In this extensive paper, Axel and Lynton finalize their discussion of EAI options for SAP NetWeaver. They evaluate and discuss the pros and cons of the larger “high-end” products as well as many of the smaller, more obscure packages on today’s market, and step forward with their personal recommendation. We won’t give the winner away here, you’ll want to read the paper for yourself and understand how they reached their decision. Be sure to download and print the paper, as you’ll surely want to use it for later reference or for making a case with management as you implement your EAI initiatives. This paper was presented at the June 2005 SearchSAP.com conference in Chicago. Side-Stepping the Labyrinth: Finding Your Way Through the New Service Oriented Enterprise Part I, Axel Angeli, logosworld.com, and Lynton Grice, Consultant Axel Angeli & Lynton Grice pair up again to bring you a thorough & compelling look at the SAP NetWeaver stack utilized in a complex Enterprise Application Integration project. In Part I, they present an overview of the primary considerations in evaluating & selecting an EAI solution. They offer a generously detailed examination of using an EAI solution to maximize the value of your SAP investment while providing architectural flexibility. Axel & Lynton weigh the pros & cons of SAP XI for EAI. Strategies outlined include SOA & ESB, along with numerous standards that will help ensure implementation success. If you’re giving thought to EAI in your enterprise, this paper is a “must read”.

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How to Develop Web Services in WebAS Part 1, Axel Angeli, logosworld.com Reading about hot new SAP® technologies like Web Application Server and Business Server Pages is one thing, understanding how they can help your company build a more web-friendly SAP architecture is another. SAP technical guru Axel Angeli seems to have a better handle on SAP's new technology platform (and how to explain it) than anyone we know. In his brilliant debut article, Axel not only lays the groundwork for a conceptual understanding of SAP web services, he also helps us with the simple questions we needed to know, like the differences between WebAS versions 6.1, 6.2, and 6.3, and why the Web Application Server is such a technical breakthrough in the first place. Running Web Application Services in an SAP Environment, Axel Angeli, logosworld.com Building on his last white paper on the SAP Web Application Server, Axel starts this white paper with a basic introduction to Web services technologies, and then he takes a closer look at how basic SAP Web services can be designed using the Web Application Server, either with Business Server Pages or with HTTP extensions. Because this technology is still emerging, there are some judgment calls must be made, such as whether to use traditional RFC/SAP HTTP Protocol, or WebAS's new ABAP Objects/HTTP classes. If this kind of techie talk peaks your interest, you're going to love Axel's opinionated, bird's eye view of SAP's Web services technologies. MySAP Landscape Strategies - Centralized and Decentralized SAP Systems, Jaihar Murli, Ajilon Consulting There's a lot of great things about SAP, but "one size fits all" is not one of them. In terms of technical architecture, the basic SAP landscape only works for a small percentage of users. Most companies are running multiple instances of SAP on a global level. As our Technical Architecture Editor Jaihar Murli has seen firsthand, choosing the best architecture requires a careful, company-specific approach. With the addition of the mySAP application components, the technical options are both more powerful and more complex. Clash of the Titans Part 3: Why WebAS Beats Microsoft.NET and J2EE, Axel Angeli, logosworld.com Most analysts view the main enterprise development options as a battle between .NET and J2EE. But our resident WebAS development guru sees this titanic clash a bit differently. Drawing on his own in-depth research and project observations, Axel makes a bold claim: that SAP®'s Web Application Server platform is robust enough to be considered as a viable alternative to either .NET or J2EE.

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Project Systems (PS) and Project Management
ERP Training Lifecycle, Jocelyn Hayes. Webucation PowerPoint and Recording) Every SAP implementation has a lifecycle. And with each phase come specific training events to help you maximize and maintain the value of your SAP system. This Webucation session defines the needs for each phase. Turbo-boost your SAP Implementation by Leveraging Agile Methodologies, Anurag Barua What if you had the ability to be agile during your next SAP implementation? It’s possible with Agile methodology. Anurag Barua describes this project management approach and how he has successfully applied it to implementations he’s managed. He explains the Agile principles and demonstrates how this methodology is more flexible and responsive than many of its predecessors. How to Implement SAP Within Budget, Victor Galina On time and under budget—that is the fantasy that all SAP implementation teams dream about. How possible is it? Well, from a budgetary standpoint, Victor Galina has some great tips to help you keep a tight reign on costs and not exceeded your allocated funding. A few of these tips may also help you to avoid the over time factor as well. Who knows? Maybe you can turn a dream into a reality! Project Management in the Trenches: Resolving Interpersonal and Cultural Issues on SAP Projects, Travis Bell, MSc SPI, LLC SAP Project Manager Travis Bell cuts through the clichés with a real story about issues he encountered with a “problem SAP team member.” In reality, the success of an SAP installation requires overcoming cultural biases and personality problems as well as technical barriers. This may be the first SAP article we’ve seen that honestly looks at how a problem team member can derail an SAP project and how this situation can be overcome. Building High-Performance SAP Teams: How to Get the Most of SAP Solutions, Tomas Fertig, Crysalis Consulting In this detailed white paper on selecting project teams, SAP Practice Lead and Project Manager Tomas Fertig describes the many considerations that go into choosing successful SAP teams. He takes into account both “external” and “internal” consultants, as well as the role of daily users and “key users,” or “super-users.” In the process, we learn a lot more about how Tomas rates the various kinds of SAP professionals and how he supports their career growth. International Rollouts of SAP Solutions: Special Considerations and Best Practices, Tomas Fertig, Crysalis Consulting Simple SAP rollouts are complex enough, but once you start talking about multi-country, international rollouts, things can get pretty hairy. Fortunately, we have SAP Project Manager Tomas Fertig on board for a brilliant article on how to manage the issues raised by international rollouts. ERPtips readers have been asking us to cover this topic, so we were pleased to get an article from Tomas that acknowledged the challenges of multi-country rollouts without glossing over them. In this piece, Tomas covers a number of topics in the same opinionated, “from the trenches” style that made his first ERPtips article on project management so memorable. Tomas gets right into his analysis of how to construct international project teams, contrasting the needs and agendas of global and local teams, and explaining how outside consultants can enhance (but also detract from) the project's objectives. Additional sections in the article explain how technical tools, hardware configuration, and help desk support should be approached on international Copyright © 2012 by Klee Associates, Inc. www. ERPtips.com Page 114

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rollouts. Throughout the article, Tomas touches on the cultural issues that he's encountered on these projects over the years, and he closes with a section that ties together the most important cultural issues and comments on the application of these “best practices” beyond the initial rollout. Just How Difficult Is SAP to Implement? A Detailed Look at SAP Project Management, Tomas Fertig, Crysalis Consulting Let's face it: most articles on ERP project management aren't worth the paper they're written on. How many times can we read bland clichés like “if you don't plan ahead, your project will fail?” Of course, we all recognize the importance of strategic planning. But how do we really determine a successful project approach from an unsuccessful one? With this edition of ERPtips, we're delighted to present a brilliant article on SAP® Project Management that digs deep into SAP and goes well beyond the standard pretty-sounding advice. Why does this article work? We think it's because the author, Tomas Fertig, has worked his way up from hands-on SAP consultant to Practice Manager. Tomas has tasted project successes and failures firsthand, and his passion for SAP keeps him on top of the latest technologies. This twenty-page guide is filled with sharp insights on the best ways to approach SAP projects and the missteps to avoid. Tomas covers everything from the importance of business model definition to the need for a thoughtful approach to cultural change management and employee compensation. Tomas explains why a good “solutions map” is so important, and throughout the article, he connects project leadership concepts with the SAP tools and technologies that can make implementations more successful. Tomas ends the paper with a series of comments on the latest SAP technologies users should be staying on top of, and his opinionated appendix on the different types of SAP consultants is provocative and useful reading. Tomas has told us that he will follow up this paper with some discussions of specific project management issues, and he welcomes reader input on future topics to address. Using Results Analysis to Get the Most Out of the PS Module, Sam Stinnett, Senior PS Consultant SAP Managers face tough ROI questions on each project initiative. When there's an unused piece of R/3 functionality that can offer an immediate cost savings, it deserves some serious attention. PS expert Sam Stinnett has uncovered one such piece of functionality. In this wellillustrated white paper, Sam guides us through use of the PS and CO modules for "Results Analysis." Appropriately used, Results Analysis allows SAP users to calculate Revenue and Cost of Sales for customer projects and automate the month-end closing cycle, providing a quick return on investment sure to please even the most budget-conscious CIO. Managing a Portfolio of Projects in a SAP Environment, A. Kent Bettisworth, Bettisworth and Assoc., Inc. As more and more SAP users look to utilize their SAP data in strategic ways, Project Portfolio Management enables companies to combine high-level budgetary planning with a real-time ability to adjust tight budgets and re-allocate scarce resources as markets fluctuate. One of the foremost leaders in this field, Kent Bettisworth, has crafted a fascinating, in-depth article on how to draw on core R/3 functionality in the Investment Management and Project Systems modules to achieve a whole new level of control over project cost management. In this ambitious article, Kent manages to combine innovative costing strategies with hands-on configuration techniques.

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QM and Digital Signatures
Efficiently Manage Incoming Quality Certificates in Procurement Processes, Jawad Akhtar From business case to configuration to process. Need we say more? Mr. Akhtar continues to help us understand the importance of Quality Management in business and how to make it work for us in SAP. His previous article, "Implementing Quality Management in Procurement Processes", laid the groundwork. This article gives us the how-to. Be sure to read the companion article regarding Outgoing Quality Certificates to better appreciate the whole QM picture. Learn the Basics of Creating Outgoing Quality Certificates in the QM Module, Jawad Akhtar From business case to configuration to process. Need we say more? Mr. Akhtar continues to help us understand the importance of Quality Management in business and how to make it work for us in SAP. His previous article, "Implementing Quality Management in Procurement Processes", laid the groundwork. This article gives us the how-to. Be sure to read the companion article regarding Incoming Quality Certificates to better appreciate the whole QM picture. Quality Management: Configuring Quality Notifications, Jocelyn Hayes, ERPtips Director of Consulting and Training Whoops…something happened during production and a less-than-perfect product slipped through the lines. Now, in order to be ISO compliant, you need to document and get to the ® bottom of this problem, as well as indicate what actions you’ve taken to fix it. SAP offers a nifty tool to assist with this: Quality Notifications. Our own Jocelyn Hayes shows you how to configure this functionality, which will help you manage any quality issues that inevitably crop up in every company. Using Digital Signatures in SAP® QM to Meet Regulatory Requirements, Carl Dunlap, Cohesion, Inc. For SAP customers, this is the age of “compliance.” From Sarbanes-Oxley to GMP to the FDA's 21 CFR Part 11, it seems that every SAP user in every industry has some type of regulation that its SAP system must adhere to. Some of those regulations pertain to digital signatures, and the good news here is that if you implement SAP's digital signatures properly, you can achieve compliance with regulatory requirements, while also improving your company's workflow and document processing efficiency. To tackle this important subject, we are pleased to welcome Carl Dunlop, a QM functional expert who has dealt with digital-signature issues for a range of SAP users in health care and manufacturing.

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Reporting (R/3, BW, and Web-based Reporting)
Displaying Data Quickly and Easily via Dynamic Documents, Rehan Zaidi, Siemens Pakistan In his latest white paper, ABAP Development Editor Rehan Zaidi relays the secrets of Dynamic Documents—a valuable tool for enhanced SAP reporting. As Rehan explains, Dynamic Documents give programmers more flexibility than traditional list programming and provide a way for developers to quickly customize data display using object-oriented programming techniques. QuickViewer and SAP Query: Creating Standard SAP Reports w/o ABAP Knowledge, Matthias Liebich, MLI Solutions, LLC This paper explains how to use QuickViewer & SAP Query to generate SAP reports and how they can be utilized without ABAP programming. The author presents a screen-by-screen look at the techniques needed to use these tools & explains how they evolved. He contrasts QuickViewer for beginning users to SAP Query for more advanced users. Then he describes how to develop a QuickViewer report in SD, how to create a User Group, how to develop an SAP Query, & how to create the InfoSets on which SAP Queries are based. How to Use Output Management and Ad Hoc Query Tools for Better HR Reporting, Greg Robinette, Robinette Consulting With each release of R/3, SAP® steps up to the plate with better reporting functionality. In the April 2003 edition of ERPtips, Greg Robinette told us how to configure Payroll infotypes for more robust reporting capabilities. In this follow-up piece, Greg tells us how Ad Hoc Queries can be used to locate and present reporting data from Payroll infotypes. But before Greg takes us through generating Ad Hoc Queries using his usual in-depth, screen-by-screen approach, he advises SAP users on how to develop an output management strategy to ensure that SAP reporting is done on the basis of "lowest cost, highest output." Enhanced Reporting with SAP BW Web Applications, Part II, Arthur “Pat” Pesa, arthurpesa, inc. In this series on BW Web reporting, Pat explains why it pays off to have an overall reporting strategy that includes a variety of Web-based SAP reporting tools, and takes the end-user experience & system performance issues into account. In this edition, he makes additional recommendations in terms of reporting customizations & enhanced functionality. Pat uses screen shots to illustrate techniques such as how to precalculate Web-reporting templates for offline use, how to enhance Web-based printing from Web Application Designer, & how to convert a Web Application query output into a PDF. How to Configure Payroll Infotypes to Facilitate Payroll Reporting, Greg Robinette, Robinette Consulting One great way to maximize the return on your SAP® investment is to give more users better access to better R/3 information. And if you can pull this off without costly ABAP customizations, then you're talking! In this article, HR Editor Greg Robinette tells us how to set up HR-Payroll Infotypes to allow non-payroll users access to important reporting capabilities. Best part: just about all the set up work is functional configuration, not custom programming.

Copyright © 2012 by Klee Associates, Inc. www. ERPtips.com

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Customizing Sales Reports Using Transaction VA05, Jim O'Day, Nassau Technology Group An example of core R/3 functionality that users can take advantage of without needing fancy mySAP jargon or components? Sales order reporting. Sure, standard SAP reports can be limited sometimes, but by using “Transaction VA05”, you can customize sales reports by creating your own “display variants.” With screen shots to illustrate his points, Jim takes us through the customizing reports for real-life situations like tracking payment terms & account assignments. Jim knows there are the occasional “gotchas,” so he closes the article with a troubleshooting section with common VA05 reporting problems and how to resolve them. Enhanced Reporting with SAP BW Web Applications, Arthur “Pat” Pesa, arthurpesa, inc. BW is looking more like a “one stop solution” for robust and easy reporting. With BW 3.1, which includes the Web Application Designer, SAP is really fine tuning BW's reporting capabilities, making it easier on SAP users to get the info they need when they need it. Pat explains how to use the Web Application Designer to customize a Web query template. He uses two real-life examples of simple reporting customizations that can be done using BW's Web Applications. And the Web Application Designer offers improved performance over the classic BEx solution. Organizational Management Reporting - A Guide for HR Developers, Rehan Zaidi, Siemens Pakistan Surprisingly, there is much less documentation to support OM developers than exists for payroll developers—especially since OM reporting can provide real value to SAP® users. Over time, Rehan Zaidi has figured out the ins and outs of OM development, and now he's put together a guide for other developers to make use of. In this technical white paper, Rehan explains the underlying technical structure of OM, and then walks us through an example of generating a custom report in OM. In the process, he addresses the key issues for OM development, including how org data is stored in SAP, how that data is accessed, and how to create reports that SAP users can benefit from. How to Use the APO Alert Monitor for Reporting, Shaun Snapp, Supply Chain Consulting In this excellent “how to” article, APO expert Shaun Snapp tells readers how to take advantage of the APO Alert Monitor—specifically the lesser-known “database alerts”—for improved reporting and analysis. Properly used, these reporting tools can be used to identify and compare areas of “overcoverage,” leading to better inventory control and less overstocking. This is the kind of bottom-line benefit that is allowing savvy users to yield some tangible benefits by “digging deeper” into functionality they have already paid for, but may not be fully utilizing Using Clusters to Solve Business and Reporting Problems, Rehan Zaidi, Siemens Pakistan Sometimes getting the most out of SAP® means digging into some under-utilized technical tools. In this “developer-friendly” white paper, ABAP-HR expert Rehan Zaidi delves into the strategic use of data clusters to enhance system performance and reduce database load. Chock full of coding examples, this white paper illustrates the practical application of clusters with HR submodules such as Personnel Administration. Clusters turn out to have many applications; in a section on advanced cluster techniques, Rehan shows how clusters can be used to solve problems such as inserting multiple characters into a single database field

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RFID, RF, and Bar Coding
Making Sense of RFID, Pete Palazzolo, ICS, Inc Ever since Wal-Mart announced its RFID plans, it's been hard to miss the RFID hype in the technology press. In recent interviews, SAP board member Peter Zencke has noted SAP's pioneering efforts in RFID technology and pointed out the RFID pilots and projects they already have in the works. In this excellent RFID overview (the first of several RFID articles we plan to publish this year), Pete tells us what makes RFID technology unique, what its industry applications are, and how some of today's “early adopters” are using RFID to enhance their business practices. Pete wraps up his article with a look at why more companies aren't using RFID yet and what lies ahead for this new technology.

Copyright © 2012 by Klee Associates, Inc. www. ERPtips.com

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Sarbanes-Oxley
The Keys to Sarbanes-Oxley Compliance (and Project Staffing), Part II: A Special ERPtips “RoundTable” with Three SAP Compliance Experts: David Ashley, Ken Asher, and Greg Robinette, Jon Reed, ERPtips In Part II of our interview with the core members of our Sarbanes-Oxley team (Greg Robinette, David Ashley, and Ken Asher), we get into the nitty-gritty of staffing these projects. The guys talk about the best approaches to Sarbox staffing, and how to tell at a glance which resumes are going to be strong and which ones to put at the bottom of the pile. In an SAP environment, Sarbox compliance is both a business and technical project, so it comes as no surprise that the ideal Sarbox team requires a range of functional and technical skills. Can one person wear all those hats? Read on and find out. The Keys to Sarbanes-Oxley Compliance: A Special ERPtips “Round-Table” with SAP Compliance Experts David Ashley, Ken Asher, and Greg Robinette, Jon Reed, ERPtips. No single issue in the SAP community is surrounded by as much hype and confusion as Sarbanes-Oxley compliance, so it was a privilege to interview our core Sarbox team and ask them about the challenges posed by Sarbox compliance. In this freewheeling interview, David, Greg, and Ken give ERPtips readers their honest take on how Sarbox and other regulatory requirements are affecting SAP users. They explain why compliance is not just an accounting problem - it’s an ERP problem. These three guys have the distinction of completing some of the earliest SAP and ERP Sarbox projects, and throughout the interview, they inject specific project examples into the discussion. Challenges and Advantages for Users of ERP Software in Meeting Sarbanes-Oxley Compliance, David Ashley, CISA, CISM It isn't all that hard to find information about Sarbanes-Oxley. Do a Web search, and stand back! The problem for ERP users: with compliance deadlines looming, where do you begin? David Ashley has been there and done that and lived to tell about it. In this white paper, David boils down much of the legalese into language we can digest and gives us advice and pointers for beginning our own compliance efforts—all based on his personal experience in "SOX" compliance projects. Sarbanes-Oxley Compliance Tools: Help or Hype?, Eric Krell Ask most SAP® Managers what's on their radar screen in the coming years, and most of them will mention Sarbanes-Oxley compliance issues. Here's the first of a series of articles on the potential impact of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, and the steps companies are taking to establish corporate controls and ensure systems and reporting compliance. This “in the trenches” article gives us a look at the steps managers are taking to become compliant, the products and processes they are implementing, and the costs of compliance. We hope to follow this excellent introduction to Sarbanes-Oxley with SAP-specific articles in upcoming editions of ERPtips.

Copyright © 2012 by Klee Associates, Inc. www. ERPtips.com

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Security and System Audits
The Do’s and Don’ts of SAP Security: Strategies for Team Selection, Ownership, and Role Creation, Joey Hirao, Jotech LLC Since his first article on security a year ago, Basis Editor Joey Hirao has received a number of passionate questions from ERPtips readers on their various security hang-ups. So we asked Joey to elaborate on the challenges of planning and enacting a successful SAP security strategy. In this cover story, Joey builds on his first piece with an excellent look at the “do's and don'ts” of SAP security. Drawing on his hands-on project experience, Joey covers the best approaches to selecting your security team and recommends how to handle crucial issues like data ownership strategy and change control. SAP Security: A Framework For A Successful Implementation, Joey Hirao, Jotech LLC In today’s SAP environment, security is not about locking the door behind us. It’s about developing and implementing an overall strategy that protects the system from misuse and provides the right level of access to the right users. To get us on the right track, Basis Editor Joey Hirao has developed a step-by-step guide to the proper implementation of SAP security. This article is a great outline for those who are mounting or revamping their SAP security strategy, but it will also be of interest to those readers who are already up and running and want to compare their own installation to Joey’s “best security practices.” SAP® Security Audits: How to Identify and Fill SAP Security Holes, Joey Hirao, Jotech LLC For the typical SAP user, “security” is not just a buzzword; it is a way of life. But managing the security of an enterprise software system like SAP is a major undertaking. There is always the potential that loopholes and issues will emerge over time. But how will you identify them? Through regular security audits. In this article, Basis Editor Joey Hirao outlines the approach he uses when performing a security audit as a “deliverable” to his clients. Joey describes the different ways the SAP system can be “breached,” and how your SAP system security can be optimized through regular reviews of your user master records, security roles, Basis configuration, and custom development projects.

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SEM (Strategic Enterprise Management)
Making SEM-BPS Work for You (Part II): Using “Retractors” to Integrate BPS & R/3, by Travis Bell, MSc SPI, LLC In Part I, Travis gave us a view of using retractors and pre-processors, and the impact they have on “retractor data”, both into and out of SAP’s Business Planning and Simulation (BPS) system. In Part II, Travis blends his SAP Business Information Warehouse (BW) expertise with a sprinkling of Strategic Enterprise Management (SEM) tips. Through these project-based tips, Travis gives a good sense of the benefits of BPS installations. Travis also touches on the use of SEM for business performance management (actuals contrasted with simulations), operational planning cycles, and rolling forecasts. Making SEM-BPS Work for You (Part I): Using “Retractors” to Integrate BPS Data into R/3, Travis Bell, MSc, SPI, LLC How does SEM fit into BW & other mySAP products? Where do you get started? How can you use it on your implementation? What about the technical integration issues? Making sense of SEM is a challenge that SAP Project Manager Travis Bell has tackled head on, & he’s sharing his insights with ERPtips readers. Travis brings SEM into focus by honing in on the Business Planning and Simulation submodule. By the time you’re done with this white paper, you’ll have a better understanding of how SEM terms like “data retraction” and “pre-processors” can help your implementation. Planning for Leadership, Part Two: Using SEM-BPS for Financial and Leadership Planning, Russ Hardy, Data2Info, Inc. FI/CO Editor Russ Hardy began writing for ERPtips with articles on getting the most out of the CO module. Now, he's taking readers to the next level and showing them how to leverage the functionality in SEM-BPS and other SAP solutions to bring together operational and strategic planning. In this article, the second in Russ's ongoing series on “leadership planning,” Russ uses a case study of a technical services firm to show how the different business planning levels in SEM can be used to support a company's operations through “big picture” business planning approaches, such as Stock and Flow Forecasting and Upset/Mitigation Planning. One of Russ' most important points is that we shouldn't always view SEM through the vantage point of BW. Even though SEM and BW are closely linked, as Russ points out in this article, sometimes it is best to approach SEM through the vantage point of key business planning issues, as opposed to simply starting with a standard BW data structure. Using screen shots from the SEM-BPS system, Russ gives us a cutting edge view of SAP business planning. Cost and Revenue Planning in SEM-BPS, Russ Hardy, Data2Info Inc In his previous ERPtips articles, Russ presented his methodology for "planning for profitability" using CO-PA. Now, in our first ERPtips article on SEM, Russ shows how to use SEM-BPS and BW to achieve a higher (and more integrated) level of profitability analysis. Russ starts this article by reviewing his overall approach to profitability analysis. Then he explains how to use SEM's simulation and planning capabilities as another way to hone in on crucial costing and planning issues.

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Service Management and Plant Maintenance (SM, PM)
Detailed Work Scheduling in SAP PM: A Case Study, Warren Bell, Olivet Inc. “The Planner/Scheduler met me at the front door of the production facility saying gravely that the site didn’t really need me or the new maintenance scheduling practices I was introducing.” Whether you are a user, manager, or consultant, you have probably been on one or both sides of this type of scenario. Not every user is ready for SAP, & sometimes they have good reasons to be wary. So how do you make the best of the situation? Plant Maintenance expert Warren Bell shows how he & his clients managed it to everyone’s satisfaction. In our cover story, Warren presents a true-life experience as a case study & cites the difficulties encountered, options considered, steps taken, & lessons learned. A Brick House: Structuring Equipment and Technical Objects in SAP Plant Maintenance, Warren Bell, Olivet Inc. Implementing SAP’s Plant Maintenance module? You’ll want to first review Warren Bell’s article on Structuring Equipment & Technical Objects. He deftly maneuvers through challenging decisions that the PM team will face. Warren explains that most firms want equipment & technical objects structured according to their production process, while SAP views it hierarchically. He stresses that the structure needs to be formed in such a way that lower & upper echelons are associated along business boundaries. Failing to carefully think through the planning stages means possibly having to restructure objects, which can end up costing the company a significant amount of time (and thus dollars). Returns and Repair Processing: Options for Configuration and Process Improvement, Yasin Shaikh, SAP Logistics Consultant SAP Logistics expert Yasin Shaikh brings us a frank & informative look at configuring & optimizing SAP’s “Return & Repair” processing. He discusses the numerous documents that can be utilized as an RMA in SAP, with a look at the advantages & disadvantages of each. He explains the importance of checking the warranty status of the item early in the process to avoid creating unnecessary RMAs. He also includes a list of contingencies that all too often are not considered when planning the return process. As with so many functions in SAP, taking time to think through the business and define the process is about 90% of the entire configuration.

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SOA (Service Oriented Architecture
SOA Is A Marketplace, By Axel Angeli and Lynton Grice Worried about your SOA project launch? Are you dreading the glazed over looks that follow the typical PowerPoint presentation? What if your next project launch involved a pool party? Think that would get attention? Axel Angeli and Lynton Grice take marketing principles and put them to use to help you garner the interest, excitement, and involvement you need in order for your SOA project to reach its full potential. Choosing the “Best of Breed” Approach for Agile SOA Development – Part I, Axel Angeli and Lynton Grice The market, as a whole, has seemingly embraced the concept of SOA and begun developing all kinds of tools to support it. Veteran developers Axel Angeli and Lynton Grice have used, or at least researched, most of these tools. In this white paper they discuss these tools and offer their opinion as to the pros and cons of each. They also describe tools that work almost like “plug and play” for SOA. Dive in and see what Axel and Lynton identify as the Best of Breed in the SOA dog and pony show. SOA: Valuable Revolution Or Meaningless Hype?, CJ Rhoads Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) gets a lot of press here at ERPtips, as many of our authors have written about the benefits of this technology. But is it really all that it’s cracked up to be? Is it really and truly the next revolution or another three-letter acronym highly touted by vendors interested in divesting you of your IT budget? To get a different perspective, we asked Dr. CJ Rhoads—frequent ERPtips contributor and expert in helping companies maximize their IT value—to chime in on the subject. Read CJ’s analysis and decide for yourself—is SOA really hip or just more hype? Building the SOA City – Part V: Logosworld Blue Elefant SOA Awards 2007, Axel Angeli and Lynton Grice And now, the envelope please… Axel Angeli and Lynton Grice have been building us up to this moment since last summer, when they began their series on Building the SOA City. This time, the winners of Logosworld’s Blue Elefant SOA Awards are revealed. But before you read who’s in the top spots for the various components of SOA—keep in mind that there are many other solutions out there that may not even be on Logosworld’s radar. Therefore, they ask you to not only consider their endorsements, but look at the deeper reasoning behind each and ask—“does it apply to us?” The true beauty of the SOA City is the ability to be diverse and look for solutions that meet your company’s needs. Now, without further ado. . .let the winners be revealed! Building the SOA City – Part IV Logosworld Blue Elefant SOA Awards 2007, Axel Angeli and Lynton Grice It’s the Oscars of the Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) city! Axel Angeli and Lynton Grice tackle the evaluation of what the SOA marketplace has to offer and have awarded the top performers with the Blue Elefant SOA Award 2007. Before launching into an announcement of the actual winners, though—Axel and Lynton first provide us with the extensive thought process and criteria upon which their decisions are based. Then, next issue—well, shall we just say— “May I have the envelope, please?”

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Building the SOA City – Part III: The Magic of Asynchronous Processing, Axel Angeli and Lynton Grice Which would you rather do? Place an order and wait, and wait, and wait until it’s available? Or place your order, and then go about your business until your order is ready? Yep, we thought so, too. Whether it’s an order for a drink or a job on our computers, we’re not inclined to sit and wait for the final product—we like to make use of our time more productively. Axel Angeli and Lynton Grice return to this issue to show you how asynchronous processing found in SOA can provide a much needed sense of “place your order and return when it’s ready” that so many technology users crave. Building the SOA City – Part II: Programs to Business Processes, Axel Angeli and Lynton Grice We’ve all been there lately. We make a call to a company—local or national or even international—and the person who answers the phone is sitting in a call center located half way around the world. Yet, somehow, this individual knows the answers to our questions with the same certainty as if they were sitting in the company’s headquarters. How does this happen? It’s all part of globalization, aided by SOA—Service Oriented Architecture. In Part II of their series, Building the SOA City, Axel Angeli and Lynton Grice take us behind-the-scenes as to how the various components of an SOA are used to streamline business processes and make it possible for someone in New Delhi to have, at their fingertips, the information you need to know when you make that call. Building the SOA City, Axel Angeli and Lynton Grice, Logosworld.com This series of articles by Axel Angeli and Lynton Grice is a lot like a Disney EPCOT attraction, as this duo explores how global our tech world has become since the advent of Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) and how this is just the beginning—we’re building a global city within our own enterprises. And it’s ever changing. . . But, as Angeli and Grice note, change is something that can be embraced—and when it comes to the benefits of SOAs—they encourage us to embrace away. In this first instalment, they’ll introduce some real life challenges that were solved in their own SOA Village.

Copyright © 2012 by Klee Associates, Inc. www. ERPtips.com

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SRM and EBP
Supplier Relationship Management: Building Collaboration through Technology and Process Integration, Sheeram Venkatdas, SRM Consultant Sheeram Venkatdas brings a wealth of SAP knowledge and a strong SRM focus into play as he describes the potential benefits SRM can bring to the enterprise. Sheeram’s white paper explores purchasing resource management, bolstered supplier relationships driven by technology, faster purchasing decisions derived from catalog content integration, and the ability to respond quickly to supplier product changes. For good measure, Sheeram even throws in some valuable information about SAP’s upcoming SRM releases as well as some studies planned by ASUG. If you’re interested in SRM, you’ll find Sheeram’s white paper a proper primer. mySAP SRM and SAP R/3 Partner Functions: Supporting OAs, VNs, and IPs, Jason Didday, SAP Consulting, SAP America, Inc. We know you’d like to get the most out of your SRM investment and have multiple ordering addresses & alternate invoicing addresses for some of your vendors in SRM. Seems straightforward enough; just replicate the OA and IP vendors into SRM, right? But try to create a P.O. against a PI or OA vendor and you’ll end up with nothing but an error message. Jason Didday has the inside scoop on SRM and some valuable advice for making the vendor partner functionality serve your needs. He gives you configuration and process strategies that will optimize your vendor data processing in R/3 and SRM. Put this on your “must read” list. Seven Strategic Mistakes Clients Make Implementing SRM (and How to Avoid Them), Jim Stewart, Equity Technology Group For our first piece on Supplier Relationship Management, we asked SRM expert Jim Stewart to move beyond the SRM buzz and write about actual SRM project mistakes and how to avoid them. He put together a guide that should help both new and mature SRM projects and divides SRM project miscues into three different categories: strategic mistakes, HR and staffing mistakes, and implementation-related missteps. More importantly, he explains how to avoid these problems. One key point we took away from this piece: implementing SRM is not going to work if you use “SOS,” or “same old sourcing” methods. The good news: the change in business processes required by SRM has a direct impact on the bottom line.

Copyright © 2012 by Klee Associates, Inc. www. ERPtips.com

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Staffing and Consulting
Jerry’s Staffing Tips- Team Work - A Hiring Guide, Jerry Walter, Director of Staffing and Training for ERPtips Jerry is back with another tip on how team work can make the hiring process considerably more efficient. When he says team, he means the key players: the hiring manager, the recruiter, and the candidate—all working together and cooperatively. Making the Leap: How to Enhance Your Company’s SAP Training Program with Simulation Tools, Pete Owens, Sr. SAP Training Development/Delivery Consultant th In this 4 edition of Jerry’s Staffing Tips, Jerry addresses some issues that make life difficult for a hiring manager when it’s an “employees’ market”. He discusses concerns about the cost of thirdparty recruitment firms, direct hiring vs. contracting, and the concept of Hiring Costs vs. Vacancy Costs. As always, Jerry’s insights are there to help make life a little less difficult. Jerry’s Staffing Tips: Edition 3: How Increasing Rates Impact SAP Direct Hires, Jerry Walter, ERPtips Staffing & Training Director “Jerry’s Staffing Tips” is a chance for Jerry Walter, ERPtips Director of Staffing and Training, to share his know-how on hiring the best SAP consultants and full-time employees. In this edition, we’re featuring a couple of “frequently asked questions” about the salary side of the equation. Jerry gives us an inside look at how deals come together and explains why salary is only one of the factors that ensures a successful hire. Jerry also comments on the trend of higher SAP consulting rates and how that impacts the SAP recruiting process for companies looking to build out their in-house teams. As always, we wrap up with Jerry’s “keys to the hire.” Jerry’s Staffing Tips: Edition 2: Write Effective Job Order & Set Right Salary, Jerry Walter, ERPtips Staffing & Training Director “Jerry’s Staffing Tips” is a chance for Jerry Walter, ERPtips Director of Staffing and Training, to share his know-how on hiring the best SAP consultants and full-time employees. In this edition, we’re featuring a couple of “frequently asked questions” about recruiting SAP talent. We’ve also included a case study with Jerry’s “key to the hire.” Jerry’s Staffing Tips: Edition 1: Keys to Successful Permanent Employee Hires, Jerry Walter, ERPtips Staffing & Training Director Starting with this edition of ERPtips, we’ll be featuring a “frequently asked question” (or two) about recruiting (and keeping) SAP talent in-house. “Jerry’s Staffing Tips” is a chance for Jerry Walter, Director of Staffing and Training for ERPtips, to share his experience helping SAP customers to bring the best SAP consultants and full-time employees onto their projects. For our first edition, we’re focusing on the art of the “perm placement,” or what Jerry calls the “direct hire.” Bringing the right full-time SAP person onto your team can make a world of difference. As Jerry has found, this person doesn’t necessarily need to be pricey.”

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Training
Training and Retention Beats Knowledge Leakage, by Cushing Anderson (Webucation Recorded Session) Compare what your company is doing for SAP training with the latest research findings to see where you've got game and where you need to pick up the pace. This recorded ERPtips Webucation presentation highlights the trends and best practices in ERP training. Knowledge Transfer, by Klee Associates, Inc., with Steve Phillips (Webucation Recorded Session) What are the prerequisites and barriers to knowledge transfer? If you are responsible for the success of your SAP project, this webcast will shift your understanding of knowledge transfer. Join us for a lively discussion on just what is Knowledge Transfer and how it can benefit your business. Training Development Based on Library of Lessons, AbduNaser Shhub Here at ERPtips, we are all about training. So our ears perked up when this article came across our desk. In a large corporation where training is developed and delivered in-house, there are many lessons to be learned as to how to streamline the process and gain efficiencies. By devising a methodology to develop training objects and track them in a library, much duplication of effort can be eliminated. This article presents that concept and suggests techniques for making it work. The Value of Using Training Development and Delivery Tools, James Olcott, Penultix Consulting, Inc. If an SAP implementation is in your future, then so is significant user training; you just can’t have one without the other. The question is: What is the best option for SAP training? In this article, James Olcott reviews various practices when it comes to developing SAP training material and makes a rather compelling case for SAP-centric training development and delivery tools. This is a must-read for anyone tasked with putting together a quality training program. Maquiladora Training: Just a "Sap" in Mexico, Robert Vaughan, SAP Training Consultant Trainers are used to walking into a class full of students and being prepared for the unexpected— equipment failures, students who can’t quite catch on, you name it. Now, add in training in a country where the culture is very different from previous conditions under which you’ve taught, and you have Robert Vaughan’s on-going experience in Mexico. Robert is currently conducting training sessions for U.S.-based companies with Mexican factories; a growth market for certain, but one that has presented some challenges that were unexpected and previously undocumented, as he’s discovered. As Robert reports from somewhere in Mexico, there are lessons to be learned—tactically and culturally, and he’s here to share them, just in case you’re called upon to train, as we say in the U.S., “South of the Border!” Just in Time Training? Using E-learning Methods for SAP Training, Pete Owens, SAP Training Consultant On-line training, delivered to the trainee’s desktop, that provides the same interaction and information that a live workshop does? As new technology sprouts up each day, the reality of eLearning makes it possible for those who can’t afford the associated costs of off-site programs to receive the training they desire. This issue, Pete Owens steps away from presenting his usual tips to keeping a live classroom audience engaged, and turns his attention to the potentials of eLearning, especially from an SAP perspective. This article takes a preliminary look at what eLearning is and what it can provide for you. In future issues, Pete plans to present more in-depth topics on this subject. Copyright © 2012 by Klee Associates, Inc. www. ERPtips.com Page 128

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Keeping Trainees Engaged: How to Avoid Death by Boredom in the SAP Classroom, Pete Owens, Sr. SAP Training Consultant Who says training sessions need to be a “yawn” in order to be effective? HAH! Oh, quite the contrary says trainer guru Pete Owens. If anything, the most effective adult learning environments borrow from what our kids already know---learning is best when it’s FUN. There are many ways to break up the monotony of the typical lecture-style format trap into which so many classes fall. Pete’s latest article presents tried and true practices mixed with some innovative ideas to keep your next training class alert, learning, and ready for more! You Can’t Kid a Kidder, but You Can Train the Trainer: Ensuring a Successful SAP Train-theTrainer Experience, Pete Owens, Sr. SAP Training Consultant What’s the key to successful end-user training with regards to SAP implementations? It may sound obvious, but a great deal depends upon how well you prepare the training team. Pete Owens knows a thing or two about what makes good trainers. So why not follow him down the tracks as he steps you through conducting Train-the-Trainer sessions that will develop the best possible trainers for your end-user courses. Work Less, Do More: Basic but Effective Tips to Enhance Any SAP User-Training Program, Matthias Liebich, MLI Solutions, LLC Ever sat in a training class & thought you were going to get carpal tunnel syndrome from all the repetitive keystrokes? Matthias Liebich has, and he has decided to share some strategies for making the most of your keystrokes & your training time; whether you’re teaching or being taught. Matthias points out, it is often the basics that are overlooked. And every pointer in this article is something that has been overlooked on projects Matthias has been involved with. These are tips and tricks that every user should know and that should be part of your training program or basic SAP orientation. What about ROI? Building a Dream Team of SAP Training Developers, Pete Owens, Sr. SAP Training Consultant Pete describes the elements required to build an Olympian-quality Dream Team that will result in a gold-medal training rollout. Pete outlines the best practices for locating potential training developers, reviewing resumes, interviewing candidates, and determining important characteristics for each role. He also dispels some common myths surrounding traits and characteristics that are NOT as critical as you might have thought. How do you scope your training project? How do you identify the required team roles? What’s your “Plan B”? Pete has the answers for the questions you’ll ask in each phase of the project lifecycle. Cheryl’s Training Tips #3: Turn Experts into Assets- Maximize Time with SMEs, Cheryl A. Cave, ERPtips Production Editor Even today, SAP Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) are an elusive breed. The training dilemma: successful SAP training depends on the input of SMEs, who have been known to make themselves scarce if their time is not being used well. The answer? Read this new training tip from Cheryl Cave and incorporate your collaboration with SME’s right into your training plan. In this handy tip, Cheryl reveals some techniques you can use to get the most out of your SMEs in the least amount of time. Who knows, if you handle them this effectively, they might even start asking you when the next end-user training session is.

Copyright © 2012 by Klee Associates, Inc. www. ERPtips.com

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Making the Leap: Enhance Your SAP Training Program with Simulation Tools, Pete Owens, SAP Training Devel/Delivery Consultant Pete Owens acknowledges that nothing can really take the place of instructor-led training where trust and rapport are established, but proposes some scenarios where well-constructed training content delivered via numerous simulation tools can be very effective. He begins with an overview of simulation tools and their components and suggests ways each can be utilized in SAP training. He identifies the strengths and weaknesses of each, and goes on to describe how your company can best make the transition to online content/simulation training tools. Pete provides the product names, vendor names, and Web addresses for several simulation tools to start you on the right path. Cheryl’s Training Tips - Tip 2: Work Hard for the Money, Cheryl A. Cave, ERPtips Production Editor In each edition of ERPtips, we feature a training “tip” from Production Editor Cheryl Cave, who has seen her share of training highs and lows. In this edition, Cheryl tackles the training issue we all know too well: tight budgets. But if you’re expecting a “training is good, so spend more money on it!” piece, you’re in for a surprise. In this handy article, Cheryl explains how to make the most of an existing training budget, and she includes tips for improving the results of your training even on a shoestring. She’s also got some great ideas for increasing executive and user buy-in, and when you have buy-in, it’s a lot easier to get the budget you need. Cheryl’s Training Tip # 1: Dealing with a “Joe” Who Sees SAP and Says “No”, Cheryl A. Cave, ERPtips Production Editor We’re pleased to announce the debut of “Cheryl’s Training Tips.” From now on, each edition of ERPtips will feature a training “tip” from Production Editor Cheryl Cave, who has seen her share of training highs and lows on SAP project sites. In this article, Cheryl discusses how to deal with people who just don’t want a new computer system in their lives. She gives strategies for overcoming resistance prior to training, during training, before “go live”, and post implementation.

Copyright © 2012 by Klee Associates, Inc. www. ERPtips.com

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Upgrades
Top 10 Ways to Ensure a Successful SAP Upgrade, Anurag Barua, The Washington Post Ouch! Nothing stings worse than the results of an upgrade gone bad. All that time and money wasted (not to mention the burning looks from those impacted as you walk down the hall). Makes you wonder, “What makes the difference in a successful upgrade vs. one that’s destined to fail?” Anurag Barua has carefully observed the key ingredients in the recipe for a positive SAP upgrade experience. Allow him to share with you his “top-ten” best practices, and see if implementing them in your next upgrade can bring you a round of cheers (and spare you a lot of jeers!) OS/DB Migrations: An Illustrated Guide to Planning, Testing, and Execution, Eric Walter, SAP Basis Consultant So, you’ve got this great little house. Now add three kids, two cats, and a dog—and all that stuff that comes with them. Now you’ve reached the point where you need to expand. ERPs are a lot like that; over time, businesses grow, needs change. At some point, you may need to make changes to different operating systems or databases. Eric Walter presents some basic steps and tips that should make your next migration to a new OS/DB, a sometimes complex deal, a bit easier. Making the Leap to the Next Release of SAP, Kamran Ellahi, Pakistan Petroleum Limited Upgrades can be a good thing, provided you’ve done your homework first. Sure, it’s easy to decide to go forth and get the next release and all the bells and whistles that come with it. But, hey, it’s a BIG expense, too. Is it worth the time and money? Confused about what to do? Kamran Ellahi is here to clue you in on some of the motivating factors that drive companies to the next release, as well as some key processes that will guide you towards a successful upgrade!

Copyright © 2012 by Klee Associates, Inc. www. ERPtips.com

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Variant Configuration
An Overview of Variant Configuration, Jocelyn Hayes This is an excerpt from ERPtips University's Variant Configuration course workbook. This course is being offered for the first time publicly in our Fall 2010 lineup in Boulder, Colorado. The book is over 400 pages of concept, demonstration, and hands-on exercises. This excerpt will introduce the module. You can view the full course description and Table of Contents here. Making Sense of Variant Configuration and Product Modeling, Steven Horner, Variant Configuration Specialist As Variant Configuration (VC) expert Steven Horner has learned firsthand, you're not going to have a successful VC rollout if you haven't tackled the challenge of designing the right product models for your company. Steven walks the reader through the two main modeling techniques: rules and constraint-based modeling. Along the way, Steven ties the theory into the practice, noting how the modeling design can then be tied into R/3 tables. Whether you're trying to develop a VC plan for core R/3, or whether you're going for the "big enchilada" with CRM and APO tie-ins, you'll find Steven's walk-through of product modeling of value to your team.

Copyright © 2012 by Klee Associates, Inc. www. ERPtips.com

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Webucation
Webucation: Webster's (of course) defines Webucation as a mix of webcast and education, delivered as only ERPtips can. For the real deal (information, please), with a dash of humor, join your host, Andy Klee, as we travel down the path of enlightenment.

Note: Webucation event recordings are available for download only by ERPtips Journal subscribers. You may download the PowerPoint presentation and/or the Webex recording. Please keep in mind when downloading that the Webex recordings are large zipped files and in MP4 format. Recorded sessions may be downloaded from: http://www.ERPtips.com/SAP-Library/Multimedia-Presentations/Schedule.asp Training and Retention Beats Knowledge Leakage, Cushing Anderson Compare what your company is doing for SAP training with the latest research findings to see where you've got game and where you need to pick up the pace. This recorded ERPtips Webucation presentation highlights the trends and best practices in ERP training. SAP Business Intelligence Security, Roy Bishop and Jocelyn Hayes Get your SAP security down pat with the tips and best practices discussed in this recorded ERPtips Webucation event. We'll introduce you to BI security, highlight the key issues, then demonstrate how it works in a lab scenario. Cloud Installations: Architecture and Configuration, Wade Walla We’ve all heard about “the cloud” but what the heck is it? Learn how a cloud-based infrastructure can save your team time and money with SAP ERP Training Lifecycle, Jocelyn Hayes. Every SAP implementation has a lifecycle. And with each phase come specific training events to help you maximize and maintain the value of your SAP system. This Webucation session defines the needs for each phase. CIO Corner: ERPsim™ - Play games with SAP, Harvey Feldstein and Jocelyn Hayes. Fun, games, and learning? There's nothing better for knowledge retention. ERPsim™ from Baton Simulations is an effective and exciting way to gain hands-on experience with SAP. This Webucation session provides a game demo and discussion about how ERPsim could benefit your SAP team. SAP Group Currency and Data Re-organization, QS&S Many customers went live with SAP years ago using configuration settings that now do not support current operations, and are normally not changeable after go-live. Consolidating financial statements and meeting the required reporting is nearly impossible. Re-organizing your data means potentially going through a high cost re-implementation. You can download both the recorded webcast and its accompanying PowerPoint presentation. Knowledge Transfer, by Klee Associates, Inc., with Steve Phillips What are the prerequisites and barriers to knowledge transfer? If you are responsible for the success of your SAP project, this webcast will shift your understanding of knowledge transfer. Join us for a lively discussion on just what is Knowledge Transfer and how it can benefit your business.

Copyright © 2012 by Klee Associates, Inc. www. ERPtips.com

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Release Strategies for Procurement Made Easy, Jocelyn Hayes A four-step strategy that is not only practical, but achievable. Join Jocelyn Hayes as she discusses how to simplify the various aspects of your purchase release strategy in SAP, including determining the corporate purchasing approval matrix, configuration, security, and transport classes and characteristics. Production Order Basics, Alexis Parker The production order structure and the key fields in the production order are reviewed in this webinar. We will start with thefields that make up the production order including the master data selection; bill of material and routing. As we progress through the hour, we will cover in detail the operations and components in the production order. This webinar should provide an understanding of the key fields in the production order within the production planning module of SAP.

Copyright © 2012 by Klee Associates, Inc. www. ERPtips.com

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Workflow
SAP Workflow: A Comprehensive Guide to Troubleshooting and Debugging, Thomas Nittmann, Dataxstream, LLC This article focuses on practical techniques to assist in the debugging and resolving of workflow issues during the development and production support phases of SAP implementations. The SAP workflow application incorporates the use of several components: a graphical editing tool (Workflow Builder), some object-oriented concepts (using the Business Object Repository), ABAP, and a hook/trigger mechanism into the SAP application modules (FI, CO, MM, etc). As business requirements are mapped into a workflow process definition and prototyping starts, debugging becomes an essential tool to expedite the implementation of workflow processes. Writing Your Own Function-Driven Roles Quickly and Easily, Rehan Zeidi, Siemens Pakistan One quick way to become the “most popular developer” on your SAP® project is to automate mundane and repetitive tasks for your business colleagues. Properly utilized, workflow is one of the SAP developer's most powerful tools. But as ABAP expert Rehan Zaidi has found, these tools can be a challenge for developers to master. One key element behind workflow is agent determination via function module creation. If that last sentence made sense to you, then you're really going to enjoy this developer's guide to creating and testing new SAP function modules.

Copyright © 2012 by Klee Associates, Inc. www. ERPtips.com

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Warehouse Management
Kanban? In SAP You Can, Bruce Rishel, Perot Systems If you think reducing your overall inventory is a “can’t”, you need think Kanban. This pull principle-based process is yet another overlooked feature that comes standard with the SAP ERP package. Bruce Rishel takes us through the benefits of using Kanban, whether it’s a supplier or internal process, along with providing some pointers on configuration, master data, and control. Read this article, then imagine what you can do with all that extra floor space in your warehouse! Cycle Counting: Contrasting the Inventory and Warehouse Management Modules, Bruce Rishel, Perot Systems Consulting LLC Physical Inventory: Nobody wants to, but everybody has to. To further complicate matters, you’ve gotta’ make a decision before you even start! Which method do I use? In this article, Bruce Rishel lays down the basics of the Inventory Management method and the Warehouse Management method, gives us some great guidelines on why and how one method may work better for you, then gives us the added bonus of showing us how to make them both work. What more could you ask? (And no, Bruce is not going to come count your widgets for you, so don’t ask THAT!) Monitoring the SAP WM Warehouse – The Warehouse Activity and RF Monitors, Bruce Rishel Any warehouse manager working with SAP knows that the Warehouse Activity and RF Monitors are two of the most valuable tools at their disposal. They provide these managers with the ability to execute transactions, monitor workloads, basically get a grip on all the feverish activity that goes on in their environment. Bruce Rishel understands the value of these monitors and provides us with some steps for SAP administrators to configure these tools so that warehouse managers will get the most from SAP when running their side of the business.

Copyright © 2012 by Klee Associates, Inc. www. ERPtips.com

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Caltex Oil has acquired an unlimited subscription to ERPtips because it contains very practical ideas and solutions covering a wide range of SAP modules. It applies not just to our IT professionals, but also to our SAP users. We see it helping us in planning, implementing, and making the most of our SAP system." Glen Bradnum, Application Support Team Leader, Caltex Oil

Although we subscribe to other SAP related subscriptions (hard copy and/or on-line), this journal offers something the others don't. ERPtips really does focus on 'unlocking the value of our SAP investment' by discussing topics that talk about where we want to go, rather than where we've been and the trouble we've seen along the way. IT Staff at SaskPower

Kimball International continues to subscribe to the ERPtips Journal. Despite having many sources of SAP best practices, research and white papers available in the industry, we have found ERPtips Journal to be very strong in providing concise, actionable and objective material. The material they provide manages to cut through the technical complexities and deliver real nuggets of information. The material is clearly aligned with the approach of providing ‘tips’. Also, the focus is on the content itself and not on glitzy websites and expensive marketing campaigns. ERPtips Journal is a very cost effective source of information, which is easily made available to our entire SAP team. Lonnie Nicholson, IT Director, Kimball International

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Request your free copy today at http://www.ERPtips.com/RequestFreeCopy.asp Subscribe, and an unlimited number of readers at any one client company (including subsidiaries) can access all of our back content PLUS 1,000 pages of new content in the coming year. http://www.ERPtips.com/Subscribe.asp.

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Other services from ERPtips include:
SAP Consulting Ready to upgrade? Need help configuring new modules or adding third party aps? Want to optimize performance? Procrastinating on these important productivity enhancers will cost more than the price of a consultant. Our consultants--seasoned functional and technical experts--know the software inside and out, and they also know how to apply this knowledge to solve your business issues. Education is part of your service package. Your ERPtips consultant is there to help complete the project and leave your team with the knowledge they need to maintain the solution over time. In addition, all our consulting clients receive a free one-year subscription to the ERPtips Journal. Your ERPtips consultant will complete the project to your satisfaction and ensure that you have trained resources in-house who understand and can maintain your SAP solutions over time. Receive a no-obligation consultation estimate now. For more details on our consulting services, go to http://www.ERPtips.com/Consulting.asp or email our Director of Training and Consulting, Jocelyn Hayes, at [email protected].

SAP Training and Mastery-Level Workshops At ERPtips, we've heard it more than once: "We love your articles, but we'd love to get your experts onto our project for a day (or more)." Well, now you can! ERPtips is now offering SAP implementation team training and mastery-level SAP workshops to SAP users. The workshops will be taught by the same hand-picked team of experts that contribute to our journal. We train SAP implementation team members and super-users on any issues covered in the standard SAP course catalog, and we go beyond that to offer cutting edge configuration and reporting techniques that can fill the gap in your SAP know-how. Just like our ERPtips publication, our SAP team training covers all aspects of the SAP and mySAP product line, both functional and technical. For more details on ERPtips training, go to http://www.ERPtips.com/Training.asp or contact our Director of Training and Consulting, Jocelyn Hayes, at [email protected].

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