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From the Managing Editor
Whether you attended Sapphire key-note speeches in person or by Web-cast this year, or simply followed the usual news sources, you learned elements of SAP’s proposed busi-ness strategies and relationships. These announcements held no big surprises. Of note is an expanding relationship with Microsoft’s Duet product in identifying a long-range roadmap for the software, which allows users to tap into SAP
Cheryl A. Cave, Managing Editor
From the Editor continued on page 2
Unlocking the Value of your SAP® Investment Undocumented Features…Timesaving Solutions…Best Practices
Journal | Training | Consulting | Document Library | Tip of the Month | Software Solutions | SAPtips Community
4 u SAPtips Training and Consulting
6 u Software Solutions
8 u User News from ASUG
67 u Humor
68 u SAPtips Associate Editors
DEPARTMENTS
HR14 u ��ESGs and PSGs: What Do You
Need to Know About SAP’s Personnel Areas and Employee Groups?, by Satish Badgi, SAP HR Consultant. Time will fly if you follow Satish Badgi’s suggestions for fine tuning your Employee Sub Groups and Personnel Sub Groups in your Time Management module.
LOGISTICS19 u APO�And�SuPPly�ChAin�MAnAgeMent�� �SAP’s SCM 5.0: A Kinder,
Gentler Demand Planner, by Ranjan Sinha, Lead APO Technical Analyst. Are your users stuck in “Excel-land”? Ranjan Sinha explains why the release of SCM 5.0 will inspire your users to embrace your APO Demand Planning tool.
FINANCIALS
25 u The Eliminator: Understanding Elimination of Internal Business Volume in Cost Center Reports, by Sutrisno Japit, SAP Practice Manager, Japit, Inc. You’re not seeing a true picture of your cost center accounts unless you learn to exclude cost center exchanges from your reports. Sutrisno Japit shows you how to make it work.
29 u SAP’s New General Ledger in ECC 6.0: Document Splitting – Part II, by Anurag Barua, The Washington Post. Anurag Barua discusses the concepts and benefits of document splitting and demonstrates some preliminary configura-tion in the second installment of his series.
35 u Substitution Rules! Get Interactive with SAP’s FI Substitution Rules, by Graham Smith, FI/CO Consultant. First time contributor Graham Smith shows you how to build an interactive prompt for your FI users by tweaking your substitution rules.
BW
40 u What’s New?: NetWeaver™ 2004s BI Reporting Tools, by Peter Scott, SAP Practice Director at Traxion Consulting Inc. Let Peter Scott show you what’s new and excit-ing in BW/BI Reporting with NetWeaver 2004s.
COVER STORY 9 u WArehOuSe�MAintenAnCe
� Kanban? In SAP You Can, by Bruce Rishel, Perot Systems.
Today’s business is all about efficiencies. If your business isn’t agile and efficient, it won’t be competitive long. That’s why we felt that Bruce Rishel’s article on Kanban was not only timely, but…well…efficient. Bruce shows you how to maximize your SAP investment by maximizing your resources, ordering only what you need, as you need it, automatically. Follow his straightforward configuration suggestions and best practice tips to implement Kanban in your company.
Journal
Publisher: Andy Klee Director of Publications: Laura Donovan Managing Editor: Cheryl A. Cave Editors: Emil Marx Colleen Low Larkin Graphic Designer: Mark Hunter
Klee Associates, Inc.Table of Contents continued on page 2
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applications through their familiar Microsoft Office applications. Ver-sion 2.0 of Duet will be delivered in late 2008. SAP also announced a more robust relationship with Cisco in leveraging enterprise SOA. Is SOA truly the shape of things to come? Axel Angeli and Lynton Grice begin a series this issue in which they propose an SOA city built in small, simple steps to support services as you need them. Turn to page 49 to read their solution, which utilizes a collection of the best-of-breed applications from OpenSource to Microsoft.
SAP also announced a new relation-ship with Adobe to develop virtual learning tools that can provide a lower cost and more accessible solu-tion to training. Until their solution is on the market, you may want to read Robert Vaughan’s synopsis of a maquiladora training project that kept his team crossing the Mexican border more frequently than an immigration official. Every project has its obstacles; see page 59 to read how Robert’s team overcame lan-guage, culture, infrastructure, and political issues to train their users. And if you’re interested in offshor-ing, multi-national corporations, and global business, you’ll want to read Erik Keller’s CIO Corner article on page 65. Eric predicts the win-ners of the next enterprise software race – the SLOGgers. Yep, just when you thought you couldn’t take one more acronym.
Need more from your FI/CO invest-ment? Anurag Barua returns with Part II of his series on Document Splitting with the new General Ledger in ECC 6.0. In this install-ment he discusses the concept of document splitting and takes you through some preliminary configu-ration steps. You’ll find his article on page 29. Maybe you just need to know how to report the true cost for a cost center group. On page 25, Sutrisno Japit shows you how to eliminate internal business volume to show a more accurate cost.
From the Editor continued from page 1
From the Editor continued on page 3
SAPtips ONLINEBe sure to visit the SAPtips Document Library to download these new white papers.
On�ABAPSAP GUI Scripting and MSOffice-Visual Basic for Applications: A Powerful CombinationBy Arturo Bernal, SAP ConsultantIf 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 of labor-intensive tasks.
On�hrNeed a Yes to ESS? Tips to ImproveUser Acceptance of Your SAP® ESS SolutionBy Bharath Ajendla, Cap GeminiAre 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 down-time that he says will get your users to say “YES” to ESS in no time!
Journal
BASIS
44 u TMS 101: Fine Tuning Your Transport Management System, by Eric Walter, SAP Consultant. Prop up the hood of your TMS system and overhaul it with expert Eric Walter’s tips.
SOA
49 u Building the SOA City, by Axel Angeli and Lynton Grice. To build the city of tomorrow, you need to start with a solid plan and state-of-the art tools. Axel Angeli and Lyn-ton Grice show you how to begin construction of an SOA with a minimal time invest-ment and best-of-breed tools.
.
TRAINING59 u Maquiladora Training: Just a
“Sap” in Mexico, by Robert Vaughan, SAP Training Consultant. The world is now a global marketplace with manufacturing inter-ests spanning borders and continents. Robert Vaughan describes the obstacles and solutions in implementing SAP maquiladora training in Mexico.
CIO Corner65 u The New SLOG, by Erik Keller.
Erik Keller describes his concept of the next wave of IT wizards, those who SLOG. Find out what his acronym means for you and your career.
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From the Editor continued from page 2
Whether you’re demanding more information on Demand Planning in SCM 5.0 (page 19) or trying to reduce inventory levels with Kanban replenishments (page 9), we have your back.
But what if you need more than information? Whether you need Mastery Level consultants to imple-ment additional functionality or an economical custom training solution (page 5) for your users, we’re here to help. Just think of SAPtips as the only friend you’ll ever need when it comes to enterprise solutions.
Meanwhile, there is still time to participate in our “we must be nuts” win-a-free-class offer for our off-site public classes. Look at page 4 to read about this great offer – we are really going nuts this summer and offering these classes in August in Denver as well as our regularly-scheduled fall series.
Sincerely,
CherylA.Cave, Managing Editor, SAPtips
≈
SAPtips
Over 4000 pages of content over 29 categories, over 400 articles and white papers, all easily and quickly
searchable by category or keyword. . .What are you waiting for?
SAPtips Document Librarywww.SAPtips.com/AccessDocumentCategories.asp
Your First Stop for SAP Knowledge
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SAPtips TrainingandConsulting
SAPtips University Announces AUGUST 2007 session in
DENVER, COLORADO!
Workshops Dates
August 2007 - Denver, CO
Reporting and Modeling in BW - July 30-August 3, 2007
Basis and Security - August 6-10, 2007
Sales and Distribution - August 13-17, 2007
If you can’t make our August session, we’ll be back in the Lone Star
state in November.
November 2007 - Dallas, TX
Reporting and Modeling in BW - November 12-16, 2007
Basis and Security - November 12-16, 2007
Sales and Distribution - November 12-16, 2007
What could SAPtips do for your next project? Call or email Jocelyn Hayes today to find out! [email protected] 1.877.832.2594 ext 122.
Is SAPtips going NUTS? You decide…
That’s right! SAPtips’ hottest workshops will be featured at a special Summer session held in one of the coolest cities in the U.S.! Get mile-high knowledge from instructors who’ve already climbed some pretty steep peaks when it comes to SAP implementations. Just go to www.SAPtips.com/WorkshopSchedule.asp for more details, course descriptions and how to register!
Here’s what one person who attended our public workshop in Dallas, Texas, had to say about the value of SAPtips training::
“The course and
instructor were very
beneficial in our
deployment of SAP;
others should indeed
take this class.”
– Brian J. Pullin,
Sr. Network Engineer, PCF, Inc.
We must be nuts, but we’re going to do it! We’re going to give up to three lucky individuals a chance to attend either of the above listed sessions of SAPtips University for FREE.
All you need to do is go to www.SAPtips.com/3Nuts.asp, by June 30, complete a short survey, and you’ll be entered in a drawing for a FREE seat to either the August or November sessions of SAPtips University.
And, even if your name isn’t selected, if you register by July 15th, you’ll still win with a 10% discount on your tuition.
(Um, we said “we must be nuts”—no one said
anything about free nuts.)
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SAPtipsJournal
Some shells are just hard to crack without
a little help. . .
Why not let our SAPtips team of consultants and trainers help you get to the meat of the matter when it comes to your SAP software?
Whether it’s an implementation project you need help getting off the ground, an upgrade that needs assistance, a team of super users that need in-house training, or any project that’s just left you scratching your head, wondering what to do next—SAPtips Consulting and Custom training services offer expertise at an affordable price.
With SAPtips Consulting services, we don’t look for endless commitment; our goal is to help you get the results you need, then empower you to continue getting those results—without racking up unnecessary fees. Just go to:www.SAPtips.com/Consulting.asp for more information.
With SAPtips Custom training, we’ll bring the experts to you! We take the time to learn about your company’s specific needs and business practices, and customize our training to be relevant to your users. At www.SAPtips.com/WorkshopCustom.asp, you can learn more about our approach and find links to our course catalog and descriptions.
Or, if you’d like to discuss something in particular, just contact our Director of Consulting and Training, Jocelyn Hayes, at [email protected] or call her at 877.832.2594 ext 122.
Either way, we’ll help you crack through your tough SAP issues and get the most benefit from your SAP investment!
SAPtips TrainingandConsulting
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SoftwareSolutionsSAPtips
RFgen: The Secret’s Out on the Best in Wireless Data CollectionWhen it comes to Manufacturing and Inventory Management, especially in this era of “just-in-time” shipments, accuracy and efficiency are everything. There’s no time for “misplaced” or “lost” stock. It’s about knowing exactly what you have on hand, and what you need to produce, especially during peak sales periods. It’s having the full picture on what stock moves, and what’s been collecting dust. So what’s the secret to accurately assessing your manufacturing and inventory needs, with less paper, less costs, and less reliance on manual stock checks and reports driven by input from inconsistent sources?
With RFgen Data Collection software, imple-menting a low-cost radio frequency bar-coding solution for SAP is easier than you think. Using the latest in Mobile Wireless and RFID Data Collection Technology, the RFgen solution is ready “out-of-the-box,” offering the benefits listed to the right
There are other “out-of-the-box” solutions out there, but RFgen has been found to offer an easier, lower-cost approach that’s decidedly quicker to implement.
Go to www.SAPtips.com/DataCollection.asp to learn more about the simplicity of this product.
RFgen is used by over 2000 Companies Worldwide and by over 30,000 users.
Isn’t it time you learned the secret, too?
• Pre-built transactions for all Manufacturing and Distribution modules that work immedi-ately with all SAP versions
• The only Data Collection Software Solution to offer a full production free trial download that can be up and running in less than 1 hour
• No source code installation is required within SAP’s server environment - ever
• Easy-to-use development tool set for enhance-ments and configuration of business processes
• The lowest total cost of ownership in the indus-try for a quick return on your investment
• Off-Line Data Collection for 24/7
• Continuous support, even when your ERP system is down
• Easy Bar Code Printing using popular bar code print applications
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Each of our SAP® complementary software products helps you extract even more value from your investment in SAP software. Visit www.SAPtips.com/SoftwareSolutions.asp to learn more.
Or contact Gabriel Ramos at [email protected] or Toll-Free at 1.877.832.2594 ext 170 for a free demonstration or to speak with one of our software partners.
RFgen – Data Collection SolutionsAn RF bar-coding solution that’s low cost and easy to implement? With RFgen software, you can be up and running as quickly as 30 days from now! And, with a greater ROI than other RF solutions. RFgen’s integration with SAP has been certified by SAP. RFgen is the only data collection software solution to offer a full production free trial download that can be up and running in less than 1 hour.
www.SAPtips.com/DataCollection.asp
iTera High Availability – For the Information You Can’t Afford to LoseWhen disaster strikes, where will your business-critical information be? Be it a hardware failure or the wrath of a Category 5 hurricane, High Availablity for iSeries offers you a reliable failover solution that allows you to continue on with business. Isn’t it time you looked into iTera–an affordable solution for the information you can’t afford to lose? www.SAPtips.com/HighAvailability.asp
ACOM Solutions: We can do this the hard way, or the EZ way!ACOM helps you manage your documents and payments electronically, so that the paper jungles can be banished forever! Create, capture, distribute, man-age, or store documents easily with EZeDocs and EZContentManager. EZPay-Manager allows you to manage payments seamlessly, while EZConnect extends your capabilities to EDIXML translations. Put them altogether, and you’ve got an easy-to-use, secure Integrated Document Management solution that lets you say good-bye to fax machines, tedious bookkeeping, and yes, that shin-bruising, finger pinching, over-stuffed nightmare that is your filing cabinet.
EZeDocs: www.SAPtips.com/Document-Management.aspEZContent Manager: www.SAPtips.com/Document-Management.aspEZPayManager: www.SAPtips.com/payment-software.aspEZConnect: www.SAPtips.com/edi-software.asp
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SAPtips UserNewsfrom
ASUG Education Your Way
Our members asked for it and we delivered.
In a recent ASUG member survey, our members told us that they wanted fewer face-to-face events while still meeting their needs for networking with other SAP users beyond the ASUG Annual Con-ference. And that is exactly what we have created – we’ve consolidated the number of times our members need to leave their offices and maximized the networking and educational opportunities available to them when they do.
This fall, ASUG is offering six events. Registering for one event grants attendees access to the sessions offered at the other events taking place at the same time. This flexible format will allow attendees to maximize their time out of their offices, tailor their agendas to suit their companies’ unique needs, and network with a greater number of people in the SAP community.
Be sure to check out the event Web sites below to register and discover more about these expanded educational and networking opportunities. Non-members are welcome at all ASUG events.
September 19-21, 2007San Francisco, California
Enterprise Asset Management: http://w3.asug.com/2007eam/saptipsProduct Lifecycle Management: http://w3.asug.com/2007plm/saptipsSupply Chain Management: http://w3.asug.com/2007scm/saptips
November 12-14, 2007Orlando, Florida
Financials: http://w3.asug.com/2007financials/saptipsHuman Capital Management: http://w3.asug.com/2007hcm/saptipsPublic Sector: http://w3.asug.com/2007ps/saptips
Registration for the events taking place in San Francisco also includes access to the SAP Adaptive Manufacturing Summit: http://www.sap.com/solutions/manufacturing/newsevents/manufacturingsummit/index.epx
In addition to these events, ASUG will also be providing 100 hours of educational and Influence content at SAP TechEd ’07: http://events.asug.com/Default.aspx?alias=events.asug.com/teched2007 October 2-5, in Las Vegas, Nevada, and is excited about a new collaboration with SAP and SAP Insider for Global SAP Environments 2007: http://www.sapglobal2007.com/index.cfm?usergroup=asug October 22-24, in Miami, Florida. Learn more: http://www.asug.com/CommunityCalendar/tabid/58/ctl/Details/mid/439/ID/398/Default.aspx about our new partnership for this event.
Don’t miss out on these events where you can leverage the networking and educational offerings ASUG has made available. Learn more:http://www.asug.com/events2007 about all of these events.
See you this fall!
SAPtips is not formally affiliated with ASUG, but we share important ASUG news and events with our friends and partners.≈
~ J U L Y ~
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Editor’s Note: If you think reducing your overall inventory is a “can’t”, you need to think Kanban. This pull principle-based process is yet another overlooked feature that comes standard with the SAP ERP pack-age. 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 imag-ine what you can do with all that extra floor space in your warehouse!
IntroductionIf your company is running SAP, you may have an opportunity to improve your inventory levels and upgrade your standard MRP-based replenishment processes by using Kanban replenishments; this can be done without incurring new software costs, as the func-tionality is a standard part of the SAP ERP package. The advantage of Kanban replenishment is significantly reduced levels of inventory, often to the point where only materials required for short-term needs are stored in the Kanban containers. This inventory reduction is gained when the replenishment mindset is changed from a push type MRP principle to a pull principle. In the former, materials are pushed from the supplier or the ware-house to the demand source, often a production line or customer’s inventory. Typically, the push principle uses a reorder point and is executed through MRP. With pull principles, the demand source is in control of its inven-tory and pulls material into the sup-ply area as materials are needed.
Note: The screen shots in this document were captured using an SAP ERP2004 (ECC 5.0) system, though the functionality is similar in SAP R/3 versions 4.6(x) and also SAP Enterprise (version 4.7) and ERP2005 (ECC 6.0).
Types of KanbanThere are two general methods of running Kanban:
• Supplier Kanban (Kanban cycle between supplier and work cen-ter), also known as external Kan-ban. In this process, the Kanban
supplier delivers material directly to the supply area when a Kanban signal is received.
• Internal Kanban (Kanban cycle between store and work center). Materials are received on a purchase order or schedule agreement and the Kanban material is stored at the warehouse. The supply area sends a Kanban signal to the warehouse when Kanban mate-rial replenishment is needed. Note: The warehouse can be managed by either the SAP Inventory Manage-ment (IM) or Warehouse Management (WM) modules; either solution supports Kanban.
Along with the shift of mindset from a push to a pull principle, we realize that with Kanban, no detail level planning or forecasting is used for replenishment beyond the demand signals coming from the supply source. The supply source can be, for example, the vendor, ware-house, or production line requesting the material.
The SAP data element enabling this replenishment signal is called the control cycle. The control cycle sets the number of Kanbans circulating between the supply source and the demand source. The supply source typi-cally represents the consumer of the Kanban materials, for example, a production work center or an external customer. Each Kanban represents a specific mate-rial type or group of materials (for example, a kit), a quantity, and a type of container. This process flow is illustrated in Figure 1.
Kanban? In SAP® You CanBy Bruce Rishel, Perot Systems
CoverStory
Figure 1: Kanban Process Flow
Supply Source Key
Mail Box
Kanban Card
Material
Continer
Demand Source
Scheduling Board
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4On Warehouse Maintenance
Knowing that Kanban is the Japanese word for visual (kan) and board (ban), we should note that as long as the Kanban container holds material, the Kanban card or board is attached to it. When the full material quan-tity of a Kanban is consumed, the Kanban card becomes the trigger for replenishment. In SAP, this trigger is activated by setting the Kanban to an “empty” status. When the Kanban is set to empty, the Kanban replen-ishment signal is sent to the supply source, requesting the Kanban container be refilled and the Kanban status set to “full”.
The lot size of the Kanban determines how much mate-rial the supply source sends. If the lot size is large, then there will be fewer replenishments and less Kanban circulation between the demand and supply source. Conversely, if lot size is small, then more Kanbans will circulate with less material. Consequently, inventory levels will remain lower but more material handling is required. Note: There is never more material circulat-ing between the demand and the supply source than the sum of the Kanbans and their respective lot sizes.
Let’s focus now on the distinctions between supplier (external) Kanban and the internal Kanban approach.
Supplier KanbanThere are two primary methods to execute a supplier Kanban cycle:
• Schedule Agreement – Setting the Kanban status to “empty” sends a signal to the supplier through a schedule line or through a just in time call (JIT call), representing multiple schedule lines summarized in one document. Note: A purchase order can be used to satisfy the Kanban replenishment request, but a schedule agreement often represents a better solution because of the inability of purchase orders to auto-matically group replenishment requests.
• Two Bin Approach – This method is managed by the Kanban material supplier and is considered Vendor Managed Inventory (VMI). Since the supplier man-ages the material, there is neither a goods receipt nor a goods issue of the material. The supplier will refill the Kanban containers set to empty by the demand source on a regular, pre-defined basis (weekly, daily, etc.). After filling the Kanban containers, the supplier sets the Kanban to “full”.
Internal KanbanUsing internal Kanban, material is stored in the ware-house (again, WM or IM managed), and the warehouse responds to the demand source’s request for replenish-ment. A WM managed warehouse will trigger a transfer requirement and subsequent transfer order moving materials from the warehouse to the demand source. In an IM managed warehouse, a reservation requests the material move.
Material receiving into the warehouse is performed through the normal purchasing or production processes. For example, purchase order or schedule agreement receiving in the case of purchased materials, and produc-tion order receiving in the case of produced materials.
Kanban Configuration and Master Data• Material master – set the MRP 1 view to MRP type
PD, which is described as “MRP”. On the MRP 2 view, set the view procurement type to F – external procurement, assuming the material is purchased.
• Storage locations – transaction MMSC shown in Figure 2 will enable storage location configuration for MRP. When using supplier Kanban, set the MRP indicator to 1 – storage location excluded from MRP-Planning. When using internal Kanban, set the MRP indicator to 0 – storage location stock also planned at plant-level. Note: These settings are also controlled at the material master level using the MRP 4 view and adjusting the “SLoc MRP Indicator” field.
• Maintain supply area for storage location – The production supply area is defined using transaction PK05. A single storage location is assigned to one or many supply areas; however, the reverse is not true. In other words, one supply area cannot be assigned to multiple storage locations. As seen in Figure 3, the supply area is assigned to a single plant, storage loca-tion, and responsible person. The responsible person is often the same as the MRP controller in a push environment.
There is never more material
circulating between the demand
and the supply source than the
sum of the Kanbans and their
respective lot sizes.
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4On Warehouse Maintenance
Figure 2: MMSC Enter Storage Locations Collectively
Figure 3: PK05 Change Supply Area
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4On Warehouse Maintenance
• Create Kanban Control Cycle – Transaction PK01 sets the Kanban control cycle. The results of this setup are shown in Figure 4. The rules for replenishment between the supply and demand source exist in this data element.
Kanban ControlKanban control refers to the method of setting the Kanban cards to either “empty” or “full”. When set to empty, the signal is sent to the sup-plier to replenish the Kanban. When set to full, the demand source knows Kanban parts are available.
There are a number of methods to control the Kanban signals. These include:
• Manually using transaction PK21 (Figure 5)
• Barcoding using transaction PK21 (Figure 5)
Figure 4: PK03 Display Control Cycle
Figure 5: Transaction PK21 – Kanban Signal
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4On Warehouse Maintenance
• Kanban board using transaction PK13N (Figure 6)
There are six status settings avail-able in PK21 (see Figure 5), and two available in PL13N (see Figure 6). The most important statuses are shown in Figure 6. These are again “empty” and “full”.
When a card is set to “empty”, a signal is sent to either the warehouse (in the case of internal Kanban) or the supplier (in the case of supplier Kanban), to replenish the Kanban materials.
After materials are received from either the external supplier (on a schedule agreement or purchase order), internal production (on a production order) or from the warehouse, the Kanban card is re-set to “full” by either posting a goods receipt, scanning the Kanban barcode, or flagging the Kanban card to “empty”, using transac-tions PK13N or PK21.
ConclusionBy using the Kanban principles discussed in this article, your company can gain control over one of the most important key process indicators (KPIs) in your supply chain, reduced inventory levels. Reduced inventory lev-els occur by moving from an MRP-based replenishment strategy (where reorder points are calculated and mate-rial is received in large quantities) to a strategy where only inventory required for the short term is stored. The ability to reduce the “bullwhip effect,” which occurs when each member of the supply chain independently forecasts demand and includes their own safety stock buffers, is yet another benefit of going to a Kanban replenishment strategy.
Kanban processes require tighter integration with the warehouse, in the case of internal Kanban, and tighter integration with suppliers, in the case of supplier Kanban. In either case, the party supplying the Kan-ban needs to be available on short notice to re-fill the Kanban container. Keeping inventory low also requires that the containers are refilled more often than in the traditional MRP-based replenishment strategy; this can result in increased inventory handling costs. These increased material handling costs, however, should be balanced against the benefits of additional floor space and reduced inventory levels when considering the Kanban solution.
Bruce Rishel, Perot Systems (Dallas, TX) has over nine years of SAP systems consulting experience, during which time he has served as both functional and techni-cal leads and as a project manager. Bruce specializes in logistics and supply chain solutions and has experience implementing the materials management, sales and dis-tribution, production planning, and logistics execution modules. He also has significant experience integrating external logistics systems with SAP. Bruce helps com-panies implement and grow their supply chains across the globe. He continues to work “hands on”, helping his clients realize their potential. You may contact the author at [email protected]. Be sure to mention the author’s name and/or the article title. ≈
Figure 6: Transaction PL13N – Kanban Board
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Editor’s Note: The title says it all… there’s a lot to know about Employee Sub-Group groupings and Per-sonnel 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.
IntroductionMost of us already know about Personnel Areas, Per-sonnel Sub-areas, Employee Groups, and Employee Sub-groups. However, many of us are not clear about Employee Sub-Group Groupings (ESG) as well as Personnel Sub-area Groupings (PSG). Especially when you get to SAP’s Time Management module, these groupings become very involved and can get very confusing. Through these groupings, SAP has extended tremendous flexibility in various sub-mod-ules to map the functionality to organization rules and policies. The flexibility can be well utilized if we make attempts to understand the concepts behind the group-ings. This article takes a simple approach to learning and understanding the groupings in different SAP HR sub-modules. Although, you will see the ESG and PSG at various places in the configuration of HR sub-mod-ules, they are different from each other and should be considered in the context. Example: ESGs and PSGs in the time management work schedules are different from ESGs and PSGs in absence management. Before we get to the detailed discussion, let me present some simple definitions:
PSG – A grouping of Per-sonnel Sub-areas that will share a common policy, rules, and philosophy of doing business. Please remember that Personnel Sub-areas have relation-ships with Personnel Areas, and hence there will be an indirect impact of groupings to the Personnel Areas.
ESGs and PSGs: What Do You Need to Know About SAP®’s Personnel Areas and Employee Groups?
By Satish Badgi, SAP HR Consultant
4On HR
ESG – The ESGs are the groupings of Employee Sub-Groups that share common rules and ways of doing things. The ESGs have an indirect impact on Employee Groups due their relationships with Employee Groups.
How do we understand the “common business prac-tices, policies, and rules”? It is easier said than done! We will try to use examples in this article, and as you work more with these groupings, it will be increasingly easier to understand. The contents of this article are applicable to all the versions from 4.6C through to ECC since the concepts of PSG’s and ESG’s has not changed across these versions.
Groupings in Personnel AdministrationThe groupings in Personnel Administration (PA) or, for that matter, in Organization Management (OM) mod-ule are almost non-existent. The reason is simple; both these modules use the basic HR structures for the dif-ferentiation and have no need for any rule-based logic. The PA and OM modules are primarily employee master data maintenance oriented modules, and hence are not affected by the ESG and PSG. Figure 1 shows the IMG path to one single place where the groupings are con-figured in the PA module. However, this configuration is geared towards payroll rather than PA, and you will notice that it is under the Basic Pay node of IMG. We will discuss this grouping later in this article when we discuss the impact of groupings on Payroll.
Figure 1: ESG and PSG in PA Module
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Groupings in Time Management The Time Management mod-ule probably has the greatest number of PSG’s and ESG’s in the configuration. Within the Time Management mod-ule, there are many places where the groupings have different contexts. Let us start with Work Schedules.
Work SchedulesTo be able to understand the groupings in work sched-ules, let us look at Figure 2, which shows the generation of a work schedule rule.
While you are working with ESG and PSG in the Work Schedule section of Time Management, your focus should be on the generation of rules (Figure 2). Example: If we have hourly employees across different employee groups/subgroups who follow a similar holiday calendar or have a policy with similar work schedule related rules, then all such employees will follow a com-mon ESG and PSG to gener-ate one or multiple work schedule rules.
Figures 3 and 4 (respective-ly) present the PSG and ESG related to a work schedule rule. As we discussed earlier in the article, the impact is vis-ible on Personnel Areas and Employee Groups, too.
AbsencesYou will come across the groupings once again, as you move into the configuration of the Absence Management area of Time Management, as shown in Figure 5. Let us list these different groupings and their impact.
PS Grouping for Absence Types – The PS (Person-nel Sub-area) groupings for absence types help you to decide those personnel sub-areas that follow a common holiday calendar, and therefore can follow common absence types. In the configuration of absence types, therefore, we have PS groupings as the starting point.
Figure 2: ESG and PSG in a Work Schedule Rule
Figure 3: PSG for Work Schedule
Figure 4: ESG for Work Schedule
While you are working with ESG and PSG in the Work Schedule section of Time Management, your focus should be on the
generation of rules.
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Although, these groupings have different context and meaning than the work schedule related groupings that we discussed, I always find it easier to use the same numbering scheme. Exam-ple: If you have used grouping 10 for certain Personnel Sub-areas earlier, continue to follow the same numbering convention of 10 (or 20 or 30) in other areas, too.
PS (Personnel Sub-area) and ES (Employee Sub-group) Groupings for Absence Quo-tas – The absence quotas cre-ation uses both ESG and PSG, which are relevant in the quota configuration. Figure 6 shows that the ESG and PSG are con-figured earlier in the IMG, while they are actually used slightly later (when we create absence quotas). I always find it slightly confusing that the “Rules for Absence Counting” and “Man-aging Time Accounts” nodes of IMG are slightly separated from each other.
Figure 5: Groupings in Absence Management
Figure 6: PSG and ESG for Absence Quotas
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Just like we kept our focus earlier on the creation of the Work Schedule rule, in this area we need to keep our focus on the creation of absence quota. Figure 7 shows the Absence Quota cre-ation screen where the ESG and PSG come together.
PS (Personnel Sub-area)Groupings for Substitution and Availability – Figure 8 shows the IMG nodes for PS groupings for Availability and Sub-stitution functionality in time man-agement. However, note that it is the same table, and these groupings are not different from the ones we config-ured in the absence quota. Once again, it can get confusing when you see the different nodes at different places in IMG. However, they are the same PS groupings that we used earlier.
Let us move the discussion to the Payroll module.
Groupings in PayrollThe impact of Payroll groupings is slightly less pro-found (compared to Time Management). However, there are two key areas in which you need to know the roles played by the PSG and ESG.
Payroll Rules – Earlier, in Section 2, we saw the IMG node in the PA module. Figure 9 shows the details of the ESGs that are configured and have impact on –
• ESG for PCR (Personnel Calcula-tion Rules) – These are used in
payroll rules as we will see a little later in this article.
• ESG for CAP – Collective Agreement Provision (Union Agreements) – These are helpful to control the pay scale structures in Basic Pay Infotype 0008.
Wage Types Permissibility – There are “not so obvi-ous” areas in SAP HR where the PSGs and ESGs can affect your configuration. Wage type permissibility is
Figure 7: Creation of Absence Quota
Figure 8: Availability and Substitution
Figure 9: ESG for PCR
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one such place. You can use wage type permissibility to make the wage type permissible or non-permissible with the concerned Infotype. Example: You have a certain earning (or deduction) which is entered through Infotype 0014 and Infotype 0015. This wage type is only applicable for hourly employees in a particular location. You can configure the PSG for that location, as well as the ESG for the hourly employees, and turn the switch on (as shown in Figure 10). In the event, this wage type is permissible for all ESGs and PSGs, then the switches will be turned on for all groups, as the example in Figure 10 shows.
Coding Payroll Rules – ESGs can be used to manipulate wage types in different manners in your payroll rules. You can refer to my earlier article on Payroll Rules Cookbook (8/1/2004) in the HR category of the SAPtips Document Library. ConclusionIf you follow a structured modules-based approach (PA, Time, Payroll) to handle ESGs and PSGs, they are not difficult to manage. Although ESGs can get con-fusing in the Payroll and Time Management modules, proper documentation of applicable IMG nodes and a solid enterprise structure will always help you to avoid confusion. It is normally a good idea to translate the organization policies and rules in the Payroll and Time Management modules for the appropriate grouping before you embark on to the Build/Realization phase of the implementations.
Satish Badgi, SAP HR Expert. Satish is a senior consul-tant with specialization in SAP HR and Payroll. He has over ten years of experience implementing and support-ing SAP systems across multiple countries in a variety of industries. In his recent engagements, Satish has been involved with implementing SAP payroll systems in complex Public Sector environments and integrating them with Finance, Costing, and Funds Management. You may contact the author at [email protected]. Be sure to mention the author’s name and/or the article title. ≈
Figure 10: PSG and ESG Usage for Wage Type Permissibility
4On HR
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• A more flexible drill-down feature and enhanced Header Display
• An option for “Fixing” multiple cells within the Plan-ning Book
• Recognition of a “Zero” and a “Null” value in a cell
• Enabling the “offline” planning functionality
• Simple formula calculations by selecting multiple cells
We will look at the above features in more detail in the following sections. The reference point in comparing the new features will be APO 4.0.
Saving the Planning Book SettingsIn APO 4.0, the user could select the key figures that she or he wanted to view; however, these settings were lost when the user exited Interactive Demand Planning. This was painful from a user perspective. In 5.0, the user can save the settings, and they are available every time the user logs on to the same Planning Book. Figure 1 shows a snapshot of a Planning Book. We will see how the view can be customized to display only certain key figures that the user would like to see every time he gets into the same Planning Book.
Editor’s Note: 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 dedicated Excel users, and your 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!
IntroductionDemand Planning is a tool within APO (Advanced Planner and Optimizer) to support the forecasting and product allocation planning process in your company. The tool relies on the interactive planning books and the ability of the end user to customize the views to make it flexible. In spite of the wide array of tools and func-tionality that is available within Demand Planning; it is tough to wean users away from APO’s competitor, Excel. Many APO implementations run into rough weather and have trouble getting “user acceptance” and “user adop-tion” simply because users prefer the flexibility (particu-larly the ability to customize the views) that is present in Excel. This remains true even though APO is much more versatile in its integration with an ERP system. If you’ve been looking for a way to lure more users to play for the APO team, take heart. SAP’s Supply Chain Manage-ment (SCM) release 5.0 pro-vides the kind of user-friendly structure to make you cheer.
The New Features of SCM 5.0 in Demand PlanningSome of the new features in SCM 5.0 that enhance the “user friendliness” are:
• The ability to save the Plan-ning Book settings
• The option to switch “Time Buckets” (in which the user can view the data)
SAP®’s SCM 5.0: A Kinder, Gentler Demand Planner By Ranjan Sinha, Lead APO Technical Analyst
4On Logistics / APO and Supply Chain Management
Figure 1: A Sample Planning Book
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The user-specific settings can be invoked by clicking on the “Maintain user Set-tings” button, highlighted by the arrow (and enclosed in the red circle) in Figure 2.
This brings up the following screen where, in the “Hide Key Figures” tab, the user can select the key figures that have to be hidden. In my example, I will hide all but the three key figures (the ones which are not selected). Notice also that the settings can be made specific to a Selection ID for a particular user. However, if the same consistent data view is required across all Selec-tion IDs, then these settings should be made without the Selection ID, as shown in Figure 3.
Once the settings are made, only those three key figures will be displayed for that particular user. Notice also that these are user specific, so that Planner 1 can choose five different key figures to be displayed, while Planner 2 could choose three dif-ferent key figures that he is primarily interested in.
The second tab in the user settings offers the option to select the Unit of Measure (or currency) in which the user wishes to view the data. For example, there could be a Pack of 10 Compact Discs. User 1 could be interested in viewing this item in “Eaches”, whereas User 2 would want to simply view the data in “Packs” (see Figure 4).
The third tab, Navigation Path (Drilldown), offers the ability for the view to be automatically “drilled-down” to the level at which the user would like to view data. In simple terms, let us say the Selection ID is defined to
show the Products in the “shuffler”. However, when the user double clicks to load data for a certain Product, the user would immediately want the data to show all the Plants where the Product could be sold from, as well as all the Customers that could buy Products from that Plant. So, in the Navigation Path (Drilldown) view, one would select the desired characteristics(see Figure 5).
Figure 2: Invoking the User Settings
Figure 3: Selecting Key Figures to Be Hidden
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The fourth tab corresponds to the Pivot Sorting, func-tionality where one would specify the order in which the Characteristics and the Key Figure would be displayed. For example, you may want the selected key figures to be displayed for all the characteristics displayed in the Planning Book. Figure 6 shows the Pivot Sorting tab view.
The combination of Figures 5 and 6 results in the display in the Planning Book (shown in Figure 7). Notice that all the key figures get displayed for any “Characteristic Com-bination” chosen. The ability to “store” the Pivot Sort greatly enhances the user friendliness of the Planning Book Display.
Changing the Time Bucket ProfileIn APO 4.0, it was not pos-sible for the user to change the Time Bucket Profile to view the data. The Time Bucket profile would be restricted to the definition in the Data view. With SCM 5.0, it is possible to dynami-cally change the Time Bucket Profile. In the Data view, the Time Bucket definition is defined in “Weeks”. The user could choose to switch to a monthly or a quarterly view of the data in the Planning Book.
To switch the Time Bucket Profile, the user would have to click on the Period Structure corresponding to the arrow highlighted in the red circle in Figure 8. Clicking on the Period Structure brings up the screen as seen in Figure 9, which has the various Time Bucket Profiles that can be selected for viewing the Data.
Figure 4: Selecting the Unit of Measure and Currency
Figure 5: Selecting the Navigation Path (Drilldown)
Figure 6: Pivot Sorting
Figure 7: Display of Planning Book (Based on the Navigation Path and Pivot Sorting)
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Enhanced Header Display and a More Flexible Drill DownIn SCM 5.0, there is a more enhanced Header Display with the ability to select both the Characteristic value as well as the description corresponding to the character-istic values. In APO 4.0, it used to be tricky, where only the value or the description was possible, but not both.
The enhanced Header Display can be invoked by click-ing on the icon indicated by the arrow (again in the red circle) in Figure 10.
In the screen in Figure 11, one could select both the ID and the Text to display in the Planning Book.
Figure 8: Selecting the Period Settings to Change the Time Bucket Profile
Figure 9: Selecting the “Time Bucket Profile”
Figure 12 shows an example of the Planning Book in which the Header information shows both the ID and the Description.
For any of the characteristics that are shown in the Header, it is possible to perform a “Details All”, or select multiple values, as shown in Figure 13. In APO 4.0, the option (of selecting multiple values) was not possible.
Once you click on the option Details (Filter), it brings up the screen (shown in Figure 14) where the multiple values can be selected.Figure 10: Selecting the Header Information Settings
Figure 11: Selecting Both the ID and the Text to Display in the Header
Figure 12: Header Showing Both ID and the Text
Figure 13: Option to Select All or Multiple Values
Figure 14: Selecting Multiple Values
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“Fixing” Multiple Cells within the Planning BookIn APO 4.0, if a key figure was fixable, you had to fix one cell at a time. In SCM 5.0, it is possible to select multiple cells and apply “fixing” for all of them. For example, in the screen shown in Figure 14, the “Alloca-tion Plan” is a fixable key figure, and multiple values have been selected to fix.
Once we click on the Fix cells(s) (Figure 15), all the cell values get fixed, as seen in Figure 16.
Recognition of a Zero and a “Null” Value in a CellSAP has finally agreed to differentiate between a Null value and a zero with SCM 5.0. In APO 4.0, if a cell showed blank, you would have to guess whether the user has deliberately entered a value of 0 or just left the cell blank. In 5.0, it is still not possible to tell, although
internally SAP will recognize whether the value is the default initial or whether a zero was entered. The only clear way, if the key figure was fixable, was to enter a zero and then fix the cell as shown in Figure 17.
Enabling the Offline FunctionalityHere SAP finally recognized that if you cannot keep the Planners away from Excel, it is better to just enable the users to download the Planning Book to Excel, and have the ability to upload information back from Excel (the same file that was downloaded and, mind you, no format changes are allowed in that file).
Simple Formula Calculations by Selecting Multiple Cells. Simple formula calculations are enabled by selecting multiple cells and right clicking, which brings up the screen that enables formula calculations to Total or calculate a Mean value (Figure 18).
Figure 15: Fixing Multiple Cells
Figure 16: Multiple Values Fixed
Figure 17: Fixing a Zero Value
Figure 18: Simple Formula Calculations for Total and Mean Value
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Conclusion:It looks like with 5.0, SAP has made a serious attempt to enhance the user experience in the Planning Book. Whether it will result in Planners preferring APO over Excel remains to be seen! But combine the new func-tionality of 5.0 with a little coaching and support, and you could see APO finally begin to pay for itself.
Ranjan Sinha works as an Information Systems Project Lead for a major electronics manufacturer. He has spent the last five years implementing different SCM application areas of SAP like Demand Planning, Supply Network Planning, and Global ATP. He also has nine years of SAP implementation experience with a deep background in SAP R/3, including Production Plan-ning, Materials Management, and Logistics Information systems. You may contact the author at [email protected]. Be sure to mention the author’s name and/or the article title. ≈
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The Eliminator: Understanding Elimination of Internal Business Volume in Cost Center Reports
By Sutrisno Japit, SAP Practice Manager, Japit, Inc.
4On Financials
Editor’s Note: Reporting the true cost of a cost center group can be a challenge as internal cost exchanges can mess things up good. Sustrisno 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 wait-ing for!
Introduction Do you know how to report the true cost of a cost center group? This seemingly “no-brainer question” has tripped up many SAP consultants and power users. In this article, I would like to explain how internal cost exchanges affect your cost reporting, and how you can exclude them in order to report the true cost of your cost center group. Even though all transactions in this article were executed in an IDES 4.70 x2.0 system, the function of elimination of internal business volume has been available since Release 2.1. If your release is before 4.70, be sure to research and implement any applicable OSS notes. OSS note 17491 (CO Reports: Elimination of Internal Business Volume) is a good place to start.
IN (Debit) and OUT (Credit) BucketsConceptually, a cost center can be thought of as having two separate cost buckets, namely: IN and OUT. The IN bucket collects incurred costs, whereas the OUT bucket collects the allocated costs. Upon month-end closing, the net difference of IN and OUT costs is allocated out to the consuming CO objects, thus net-ting the cost center to a zero balance.
All postings made to the cost center are segregated into the IN and OUT buckets automatically. The system does this through a field called the “Debit/Credit Indicator” (COEP-BEKNZ). As indicated in Figure 1, “D” identifies postings into the IN bucket, whereas the others identify postings into the OUT bucket. Note that the system actually uses the terms “debit” and “credit” for the IN and OUT buckets, respec-
tively. I prefer to use the latter to avoid mixing them up with the FI debit and credit (which means positive and negative).
Through the use of the “Debit/Credit Indicator”, it is very easy to segregate the incurred costs from the allo-cated costs, thus reporting the true cost of a cost center. The standard “Cost Centers: Actual/Plan/Variance” report (S_ALR_87013611) indicates that “Cost Center A” has incurred and allocated $1,000 (see Figure 2).
Pretty easy so far. Now, what if you are responsible for a group of cost centers, say A and B? Cost center A allocates all of its costs to cost center B, which in turn allocates them to the other CO objects (see Figure 3). In other words, there are internal cost exchanges between cost centers in my cost center group. What is the true cost of my cost center group then?
Figure 1: Create CATT Test Case Attributes Screen
Figure 2: “Cost Centers: Actual/Plan/Variance” Report (Showing Incurred Costs and Allocated Costs)
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The standard “Cost Centers: Actual/Plan/Variance” report now indicates that my cost center group (MY_GROUP) has incurred and allocated $2,000 (see Figure 4). This is abso-lutely not true! I have not incurred more costs, but I have allocated my costs through another cost center (i.e., A through B) in my group. Refer to Figure 4 an illustration of the fol-lowing explanation:
IN bucket• An external posting to cost center A
created a debit of 1,000 under 430000.
• Assessment to cost center B created a debit of 1,000 under 648400.
OUT bucket• Assessment from cost center A created a credit of
1,000 under 648400.• Assessment from cost center B (to
the external CO object) created a credit of 1,000 under 648400.
The internal cost exchanges from cost center A to B created additional incurred costs that were totaled when I ran the report for my cost center group. These internal cost exchanges should be excluded in order to report the true cost of a cost center group. Luckily, our friends in Germany have caught this early on, and created a field called the “Internal Busi-ness Volume Indicator (Cost Cen-ters)” (CCSS-BUEKZ). This field is dynamically filled when the report is executed.
Elimination of Internal Business VolumeIn order to eliminate internal cost exchanges from the “Cost Centers: Actual/Plan/Variance” report, I created a copy of it using transaction GRR1 (see Figure 5). I called my new report ZIBV.
Figure 3: Internal Cost Exchanges Between Cost Centers in Cost Center Group “MY_GROUP”
Figure 4: “Cost Centers: Actual/Plan/Variance” Report (Showing Incorrect True Cost of Cost Center Group MY_GROUP)
Figure 5: Creation of New Report ZIBV (Based on “Cost Centers: Actual/Plan/Variance” Report [1SIP-001])
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Through the [Edit ‡ Variation] menu path, I set the “IBV Elimina-tion” checkbox for the “Cost Center” field (see Figure 6).
I saved my report and ran it for my cost center group MY_GROUP. The report now correctly shows the true cost of my cost center group MY_GROUP (see Figure 7). The internal cost exchanges between cost centers A and B have been excluded (or eliminated) from the report results.
Elimination of IBV for Costs Allocated through Internal OrderLet’s take it a step further. What if A allocated its costs to an internal order that was then settled to B (see Figure 8). Have our German friends thought about this and incorporated it in their solution?
As expected, the standard “Cost Cen-ters: Actual/Plan/Variance” report shows all costs that were posted to cost centers A and B including those generated by the allocation from A to B through the internal order. Refer to Figure 9 for the following explanation:
IN bucket• An external posting to cost center A created a debit of
1,000 under 430000.• Settlement of the internal order to cost center B cre-
ated a debit of 1,000 under 650000.
OUT bucket• Assessment from cost center A to the internal order
created a credit of 1,000 under 648400.
• Assessment from cost center B to the external CO object created a credit of 1,000 under 648400.
Figure 6: Activation of the Internal Business Volume Elimination
Figure 8: Allocation of Cost from A to B (Through Internal Order)
Figure 7: New Report ZIBV (Showing True Cost of Cost Center Group MY_GROUP Through Elimination of Internal Business Volume)
Figure 9: Internal Cost Exchanges Through the Internal Order Were Not Eliminated in the Standard “Cost Centers: Actual/Plan/Variance” Report
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On the other hand, our new report ZIBV correctly elimi-nated internal cost exchanges between cost centers A and B, even though they were done through an internal order (see Figure 10). However, the entries look rather strange and require some explanation.
IN bucket• An external posting to cost center A created a debit of 1,000 under 430000.
OUT bucket• Assessment from cost center A to the internal order
created a credit of 1,000 under 648400.• Settlement of the internal order to cost center B cre-
ated a debit of 1,000 under 650000.• Assessment from cost center B to the external CO
object created a credit of 1,000 under 648400.
Compare Figures 9 and 10 very closely. Note that the debit and credit amounts are exactly the same. They differ only by the buckets to which the costs were posted, i.e., the IN bucket or OUT bucket.
If the IBV elimination flag is activated, the system treats the internal order as an extension of cost center A. The settlement debit to cost center B is used to reduce the allocated costs of cost center A. This is smart design. In the case when the internal costs are only partially settled back to cost center B, this settlement debit will reduce the allocated costs by exactly the same amount as the internal cost exchanges between cost centers A and B.
ConclusionAll right then--let’s wrap this up. In your cost reporting, you may need to make use of the “Debit/Credit Indica-tor” and “IBV Elimination” flags in order to report the true cost of your cost center group. The “Debit/Credit Indicator” segregates costs into IN and OUT buckets so that you can identify incurred costs from allocated costs, whereas the “IBV Elimination” flag eliminates internal cost exchanges between cost centers in your cost center group.
Sutrisno Japit, Japit Inc. Sutrisno has over ten years of SAP implementation experience. He specializes in the FI/CO modules and their integration to SD, MM, and PP. In addition to his functional knowledge, he is also an expert in user exit development, report develop-ment, and transaction automation. You may contact the author at [email protected]. Be sure to mention the author’s name and/or the article title. ≈
Figure 10: Internal Cost Exchanges Were Eliminated in the New Report ZIBV (Even Though They Were Done Through an Internal Order)
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documents as part of your period-end closing processes; this may have resulted in a protracted closing process. By using document splitting, you can accelerate the closing process.
Document Splitting with a Vendor Invoice: An ExampleLet’s try to get an understanding of document split-ting from an accounting standpoint. Table 1 shows you a snapshot of account postings for a vendor invoice in the classic G/L (i.e., without document splitting). This invoice (for $140) is posted to a couple of expense lines. Expense 1 belongs to Segment A, and Expense 2 belongs to Segment B. The debit side is made up by a $20 input tax amount.
SAP®’s New General Ledger in ECC 6.0: Document Splitting - Part II
By Anurag Barua, The Washington Post
4On Financials
Editor’s Note: 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.
IntroductionIn the April/May 2007 issue of SAPtips, I walked you through the key concepts of the New General Ledger (New G/L) in Enterprise Core Component (ECC) 6.0 in the mySAP® ERP 2005 application. I also briefly intro-duced you to the new document splitting feature – a fea-ture I believe is worth flaunting. In Part II of this series, I will go into the concept of document splitting and will walk you through some of important configuration steps you will need to carry out before you can leverage this feature. Part III, which will conclude this series, will be on the remaining configuration steps, other aspects of document splitting, and some tips and tricks.
Why Document Splitting?Before we get into the intrica-cies of splitting, it’s worthwhile discussing why document split-ting is required. Because of the ability to add new (custom) fields and apply document splitting based on these custom fields, you can create various reports such as income statements, balance sheets, etc. on a more focused and segmented level. The ability to engineer document splitting online (and therefore in real time) is a big benefit, because the information is current and the integrity of the displayed data is maintained. Before the advent of the New G/L, you may have had to run some programs to split Table 1: Account Postings in a Non-Split (Classic G/L) World
By using document splitting,
you can accelerate the
closing process.
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Now let’s assume that we have config-ured our New G/L to split at the seg-ment level. Table 2 depicts the result of this split. You will notice that the vendor line and input tax lines are split on a segment level, and the amounts allo-cated to the lines are in the same ratio to the amounts in the expense lines in the two segments.
Earlier, I had mentioned that document splitting enables segment reporting. It is easy to see how the balance sheet would have looked when reporting was done on Segments A and B prior to splitting. Obviously, it would not have been a balance sheet at a segment level. After splitting, complete balance sheet report-ing on segment-level is possible, as you can see in Tables 3 and 4.
Key Configuration Steps In the IMG menu, configuration for doc-ument splitting is done by navigating to the selection, as shown (by the options highlighted in green) in Figure 1.
Table 2: Account Postings After Document Splitting in the New G/L
Table 3: Balance Sheet – Based on Segment A
Table 4: Balance Sheet – Based on Segment B
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Now, let’s look at the individual configuration items:
• Classify G/L Accounts for Document Splitting – In this activity, for a given chart of accounts, you’ll enter the G/L account range for which docu-ment splitting will be active. This means that whenever a document line item is posted to a G/L account in this range, the line should be split, pro-vided that all the other con-figuration activities have been completed. The most important aspect of this piece of con-figuration is assigning an item category, as shown in Figure 2.
• Classify Document Types for Document Splitting
– In this option, you’ll need to enter a business trans-action and a variant in order for the system to figure out which splitting rule should be used. The docu-ment type has a big influence on document splitting. Therefore, you need to specify a business transaction variant, because this is the link between the document type and item categories. This configuration step is seen in Figure 3.
• Define Zero-Balance Clearing Account – This
step allows you to define the clearing account for one of the key features of document splitting discussed previously – the ability to achieve and display a zero balance. Once you have defined the clearing account with the desired posting keys, the system will check if the balance in the Account Assignment Objects is zero after the split takes place. If it is not, it will clear additional clearing lines and these will be assigned to the defined clearing account, as shown in Figure 4.
Figure 1: Navigating to Document Splitting Configuration in the IMG Menu
Figure 2: Configuration of G/L Accounts for Document Splitting
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Figure 3: Classifying Document Types for Splitting in the IMG Menu
Figure 4: Specifying a Clearing Account for Zero Balance Clearing
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• Define Document Splitting Characteristics for General Ledger Accounting – This is an extremely important configuration step. Here, you specify the characteristics for which you want document splitting to be active. Keep in mind that in order to specify characteristics for splitting, those characteristics need to be part of your ledgers. You can specify whether you want to make the automatic population of this characteristic (during document splitting) manda-tory. Note: If you turn this “Mandatory Field” flag on, the system will not allow you to make a document posting if the splitting characteristic is not populated. You can also specify whether you need a zero bal-ance setting to be achieved for the characteristic you have chosen to split on. This setting works in conjunction with the previous configuration step; for the zero balance set-ting to work properly, you need to assign a clearing account so that in the event that the split for a given characteristic does not balance out, additional clear-ing lines are generated for the clearing account. You can specify a Partner field; this will work in conjunc-tion with the Zero Balance indicator. The Partner field acts as the conduit to a sender-receiver relationship when additional clearing lines are generated as a result of the zero balance setting. Figure 5 shows the configuration for customizing the document splitting characteristics.
• Activate Document Splitting – In this step, you’ll activate the document based on SAP-delivered standard splitting rules. If you want to use your own splitting rules, you will have to create them; I will cover this option in the final part of this series. Once you turn on the “Document Splitting” flag, all com-pany codes in that specific client will be enabled for document splitting. So, what do you do if you want to exclude specific company codes from being subject to document splitting? The answer is that there is an additional configuration that you can perform in this step that allows you to do so.
When you double-click on the “Deactivation per Company Code” dialog structure (on the left in the screenshot in Figure 6), you will be taken to a screen where you will have the opportunity to turn off indi-vidual company codes. Figure 7 shows the screen that is displayed when you double-click on “Deactivation per Company Code” in the dialog structure. In order to turn off any particular company code, you need to flag the corresponding check box (labeled “Inactive”).
In this part of the series, I provided you with the various facets and benefits of document splitting and walked you through the important configuration steps that you would need to carry out to achieve document splitting.
Figure 5: Customizing for Document Splitting Characteristic(s)
Figure 6: Activation of Document Splitting
You can specify a Partner field;
this will work in conjunction with
the Zero Balance indicator.
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I hope you enjoyed learning more about this key feature in SAP’s New G/L and will be able to leverage the information in this article. In the final part of this series, I will walk you through the remaining configuration steps, other aspects of document splitting, and some useful tips and tricks.
Anurag Barua is Manager, SAP Application Support for the Customer Competency Center (CCC) at The Washington Post. He has 14 years of experience in conceiving, designing, managing, and implementing complex software solutions, including nearly 9 years of SAP experience. He has been associated with several SAP implementations in various capacities. Anurag’s core SAP competencies include FI/CO, Logistics, BW/BI, NetWeaver, ABAP, SOX compliance, reporting, and Project Management. Anurag is a frequent speaker at various SAP conferences and contributes to several publications. He has a B.S. in Computer Science and an MBA in Finance. You may contact the author at [email protected]. Be sure to mention the author’s name and/or the article title. ≈
Figure 7: Disabling Document Splitting Per Company Code In The IMG Menu
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Editor’s Note: Validation rules can be great for ensur-ing a validated entry is made in a FI document field that 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? Substitu-tion 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, com-plete with a real-life case study and setup details!
IntroductionConsider the following scenario: When entering an FI document, you want your users to be required to enter some piece of additional data in a spare field. Having identified the field you’re going to use, you could per-haps make the field mandatory, through simple configu-ration of document type settings, or field status, or even using a transaction variant.
But let’s say the field you’ve chosen to use is not associ-ated with a value table, (i.e., a list of maintainable valid values) – it may not be enough to make the field mandatory. You might want to ensure that the value the user enters meets some sort of logic. Such a requirement is frequently met using a Validation Rule; valid values can be held in a Set, and if the users enter an invalid value, they receive an error (or warning) message.
But supposing there are lots of valid values – validation rules are great at telling the users they’ve entered the wrong value, but they’re not so good at revealing what alternative values would be acceptable. Sound familiar?
Wouldn’t it be great to present the users with a list of valid values to choose from, in a similar way to the “drop-down” help they would typically get when using a field with an associated value table (such as Docu-ment Type, for example).
For such a scenario, it’s worth rejecting the validation rule in favor of its sibling, the Substitution Rule. Sub-stitution rules are generally used for filling a field using some predefined logic, without any explicit input from
the user (i.e., from the user’s point of view, it all takes place behind the scenes). A common example might be to copy the text from the FI document header into the line item text fields.
This tip will show how the use of an “interactive” sub-stitution rule, which does require some input from the user, can provide an elegant solution.
I have used this functionality with version 4.6c forward, although I believe it was available with earlier ver-sions. You can verify from SAP whether this is relevant to your release. The screenshots were taken from R/3 Enterprise 4.7.
Detailed ScenarioIn this particular scenario, my client implemented FI Accounts Payable, but not MM Purchasing. An internal audit review concluded that they should store in each online-entered FI A/P invoice document, the name of the person who had physically signed-off the invoice for payment, whom they termed the “budget holder”.
The organizational structure was such that the budget holder was not necessarily the same as the cost-center manager, so there was no logical standard piece of mas-ter data representing the budget holder.
SolutionIt was decided to store the name of the budget holder in the field XREF3 (Reference Key 3) of the FI Docu-ment Item table BSEG. A number of custom tables were created to hold the budget holder names as master data, and their assignment to users.
4On Financials
Substitution Rules! Get Interactive with SAP®’s FI Substitution Rules
By Graham Smith, FI/CO Consultant
This tip will show how the use of
an ‘interactive’ substitution rule,
which does require some input
from the user, can provide an
elegant solution.
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Although the user could type the budget holder name directly into XREF3, it was important to ensure that the name was valid (that it was an authorized budget holder for that user’s department), and that the name was spelled correctly (important for later reporting). Whereas a validation rule could easily carry out such validation, it was felt that it was impor-tant to present the users with a list of valid values from which they could choose.
Enter the “interactive sub-stitution rule”; instead of simply copying a value from one field to another without user involvement, we present the users with a list of valid values, and then copy their chosen value to the desig-nated target field.
The key to the solution lies in the use of one of a number of standard SAP function modules that result in a popup window. The substitution needs to be in the form of an ABAP exit in which you:
• derive the valid values by reading a set, or custom tables as appropriate
• pass them to a function module such as POPUP_WITH_TABLE_DISPLAY
• move the user’s chosen value to the designated target, in our case BSEG-XREF3.
Figure 1 shows an example of an invoice being parked using transaction FV60; on saving or simulating, the substitution rule is triggered and the user receives a popup window prompting him to select a value.
In Figure 2 we can see that the selected value has been copied into the target field XREF3 (note we have changed the description from Ref. Key 3 to Bdgt Hldr).
Figure 3 shows the details of the particular step in the FI substitution line item rule. It is important to note
Figure 1: Entering an Invoice
Figure 2: The Result of the Substitution
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here that the interactive nature of such a substitu-tion rule means it should not be allowed to be called in background processing, such as an Idoc interface or batch input, since it requires user input to select the valid value.
Consequently it is impor-tant to put some logic either in the Prerequisite, or in the user exit coding, such that the substitution will only be called in the case of the appropriate transac-tions entered online. In my example, I have specified the Enjoy transactions FV60/FV65, which are normally used exclusively online. However, if you want your “interactive” substitution to be called by a transaction that may also be used in background processing, then you will need to find some other way of limiting it to online processing (perhaps by specifying document type, or user id). You might also want to exclude back-ground processing and batch input in the prerequisite by reference to the ABAP system fields SYST-BATCH and BINPT.
Function Module DemonstrationFor those of you who may be interested in learning more about the function module POPUP_WITH_TABLE_DISPLAY, I’ll provide a demonstration (see Figure 3) using the Single Test feature within transaction SE37:
Figure 4 shows how the size, position, and title of the popup window can be determined.
In Figure 5, we see the rows of data that are being passed to the internal table VALUETAB. In my demon-stration, I’m passing four rows, of which the first two are intended as column headings.
Figure 3: Details of the Substitution Step
Figure 4: Supplying the Import Parameters
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Upon execution, the function module presents the popup window (Figure 6), inviting the user to select a value or to cancel. It’s worth noting here that you could make the depth of the window variable, according to how many rows you are passing; in the case where the number of rows exceeds the depth (parameter END-POS_ROW in Figure 4), the popup window will intro-duce a scroll bar, allowing the user to scroll down (if necessary) to find the desired value.
After the user has selected a value, the function module will return the index of the chosen row, via the export parameter CHOISE (Figure 7). The ABAP code then simply needs to read the internal table with the returned index, to establish the chosen value.
If the user cancels the popup window, the value returned in CHOISE will be zero. You may not want the users to be able to cancel, and you certainly won’t want them to be able to select one of the column heading
rows (which, as far as the function module is concerned, are the same as any other row). In my demonstration example, this can be achieved by effectively re-present-ing the popup window whenever the value returned in CHOISE is less than or equal to 2 (0 being cancel, 1 and 2 being column headings). This re-presentation happens so quickly that from the user’s point of view, the popup window remains on the screen until they choose an acceptable value.
From a coding perspective, this can be achieved by placing the code within a DO….ENDDO loop; if the user chooses an unacceptable value, the statement CON-TINUE will restart the loop, so that the popup window will remain on the screen until an acceptable value is chosen.
Figure 5: Supplying the Internal Table with Values
Figure 6: Popup Window Which Appears on Execution
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SummaryHopefully this article has demonstrated how for online FI document entry, with appropriate ABAP user-exit coding you can use substitution rules rather than validation rules to achieve much the same end result – i.e. a validated entry in a field which has no standard associated value table – but with a much more powerful interaction with the user.
Because of their flexibility, and the ability to incorporate user exits, I find that validation and substitution rules are amongst the most powerful tools available to the FI consultant, and yet I frequently come across implemen-tations where they have been barely used, if at all. SAP Note 842318 titled “Frequently asked questions about validations and substitutions” is a very useful source of information on the subject.
Graham Smith is an independent consultant special-izing in SAP’s FI and CO modules. Graham has 12 years SAP experience, including 8 years working for SAP(UK) as a Principal Consultant. Although primar-ily a functional consultant, Graham also has extensive technical experience, and has consulted in cross-appli-cation technology areas such as data archiving and IDoc interface development. You may contact the author at [email protected]. Be sure to mention the author’s name and/or the article title. ≈
Figure 7: Table Index Value Returned by the Export Parameter
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Each of these tools has been enhanced (if not all togeth-er re-written) with a state-of-the-art user interface; this interface provides productivity improvements through support of multi-selected objects in a Visual Basic .NET-based, Unicode-compliant tool. Since developing reports with a new interface usually results in additional train-ing and migration efforts, it is significant to note that the new version of BI found in NetWeaver 2004s comes bundled with the previous version of the tools (BW 3.5 from NetWeaver 2004). This allows customers to continue with the status quo and to have the luxury of migrating to the new BEx Tools and features once they become familiar and comfortable with them. The new version of the BEx tools is also backwards compatible, so it will be helpful with migrating existing queries and web applications to take advantage of new enhance-ments.
BEx Query DesignerThe BEx Query Designer is one tool that has been com-pletely redesigned. One of the most common complaints of the previous version was the inability to modify prop-erties for more than one object simultaneously. This has been resolved, as support for multi-selected objects now exists (see Figure 1).
Editor’s Note: 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 report-ing analysis needs to a third-party tool—don’t make a move until you’ve read this article!
The collection of reporting tools for SAP’s Business Warehouse (BW) has been significantly beefed up with the highly touted release of NetWeaver 2004s. With many productivity enhancements to existing tools, and the addition of some promising new applications, SAP’s latest offering should give customers fresh new reasons to consider BW vs. 3rd party reporting tools for their reporting and analysis needs.
As of NetWeaver 2004s, Business Warehouse (BW) has been re-branded as SAP NetWeaver BI. Within SAP NetWeaver BI are three scenarios aptly labeled as:
1) Enterprise Reporting, Query and Analysis2) Business Planning and Analytical Services3) Enterprise Data Ware-housing
Enterprise Reporting, Query and AnalysisBEx ToolsIn this article, I will focus on the Enterprise Reporting, Query and Analysis func-tionality within the Business Explorer (BEx) Tools that constitute the presenta-tion layer of NetWeaver BI. Returning from previous versions are the:
· BEx Query Designer· BEx Analyzer· BEx Web Application
Designer· BEx Broadcaster
What’s New?: NetWeaver™ 2004s BI Reporting Tools By Peter Scott, SAP Practice Director at Traxion Consulting Inc.
4On BW
Figure 1: Setting Properties for Multiple Row Objects
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Also, a pane has been added to the GUI design, which allows for the direct update of properties (or to select tasks for a selected object). See Figure 2 for an illustra-tion of this. For new users, the tool is more intuitive with a simpli-fied set of icons, vocabulary, and a message panel (see Figure 3) that shows warn-ings and helps to trouble-shoot errors. The Query Designer still doesn’t allow for a quick preview without saving a query definition first, which will hopefully become an option as addi-tional support packages are delivered (I’ll cross my fingers). BEx AnalyzerThere were rumors that the BEx Analyzer and its integration with Microsoft Excel were in question with the release of NetWeaver 2004s, however that didn’t happen. Technically the new version of the BEx Analyzer allows for input and display of Unicode and improves support for visually impaired users. The BEx Analyzer, as shown in Figure 4, has a new default layout and better user interaction through drag and drop capability.
There is also tighter inte-gration with the new BI Integrated Planning (IP) tool. Some new functions that arrived with NetWeaver 2004s aren’t available in the BEx Analyzer. These newer functions can only be found using BEx Web reporting. While most deployments of BW focus on the BEx Analyzer, it may be prudent to take a look at the web side of things, as it offers other benefits as well, such as a zero footprint GUI, better query performance times and better printing capabilities - these being a
side effect of enhanced information broadcasting and newer web browser capabilities, such as those found in Internet Explorer 7. The benefit of having a zero footprint (no software installation required) for users is often understated. Rolling out reporting applications to onsite and remote users with a pervasive web interface saves on visits from desktop support and assists with change management and adoption. When upgrading,
Figure 2: Properties Window Allows for Direct Update of Object Properties
Figure 3: A Message Pane Identifies Errors and Warnings
Figure 4: Improved Visualization and Design Features in the BEx Analyzer
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query definitions created with previous versions of BW are converted when they are opened with the BEx Analyz-er from NetWeaver 2004s.
BEx Web Application DesignerWeb Reporting is typi-cally underutilized with BW implementations. One of the tools that has evolved greatly since the days of BW 3.0 is the BEx Web Application Designer (WAD). It offers a WYSIWYG client that also allows for the direct manipu-lation of HTML, or the insertion of additional code such as JavaScript. The WAD suffered from stability issues in the past, making applica-tion development frustrating when the tool would crash for seemingly no reason. The version of the BEx WAD delivered with NetWeaver 2004s seems extremely stable and comes with addi-tional web items, new layout elements, additional API commands and integration with BI IP. One really practi-cal layout element, as shown in Figure 5, is Tab Strips, which allow for many reports to be displayed within common real estate on a web page. This pre-delivered functionality used to be available only through custom programming. Two new Wizards (guided step-by-step instructions) assist novice users with the creation and editing of exceptions and condi-tions. Note: The Web Design API for tables is no longer available from SAP NetWeaver 2004s and, as such, it may be impossible to migrate existing web applications and templates where custom enhancements exist. Because of these significant functional changes, SAP recommends that web applications created with the new BEx WAD do not use any queries or objects created from previous ver-sions of BW, and vice-versa. Expect to have some level of manual intervention in order to successfully migrate exist-ing web templates.
BEx BroadcasterThe BEx Broadcaster was introduced with BW 3.5 and allows for the distribution of reports by email with the Alert framework. The new version extends the capa-bilities by offering distribution over multiple channels (Email, printer, Portal) and supports HTML, PDF and XML document formats (see Figure 6). One practical performance enhancement is the ability to pre-calculate query results into OLAP cache, reduc-ing the time to access the data and ultimately provid-ing quicker results for users. Overall, the broadcasting capabilities of SAP BW are much more intuitive and straightforward compared to the Reporting Agent,
Figure 5: 2004s Web Application Designer
Figure 6: BEx Broadcaster Distribution Options
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which has been replaced and will not be developed any further. Note: As of 2004s, the Administrator Work-bench (Data Warehous-ing Workbench) no longer includes an entry for the Reporting Agent; however, it can still be accessed via the transaction code REPORT-ING_AGENT for those that need to continue using it.
BEx Report DesignerIn addition to the enhance-ments, BEx has expanded its toolset by including a new application called the BEx Report Designer. It allows for the creation of highly formatted, print-optimized reports (see Figure 7). Formatted reporting was really lacking before the intro-duction of the BEx Report Designer. As a new entry that is satisfying an important requirement for most users, I would expect this application to receive much atten-tion from SAP’s development team. Some of the features delivered with this tool include:
· Standard formatting (font, color, border)· Definition of row heights and column widths · Merging of cells· Support for hierarchies · Headers and Footers at the page and report level· Multi-line column headers· Page breaks and page numbers
While not as rich of a tool as Business Objects’ Crystal Reports, it will likely get to that point with subsequent support packs and future releases.
There were three things that used to stand out as being less than ideal with SAP’s Reporting, Query and Analy-sis qualifications: printing, reporting and performance. With the release of NetWeaver 2004s, SAP greatly closes the gap with formatting and printing, and brings their offering close to best-in-breed (the performance issue is addressed with the introduction of the BI Accelerator – an appliance that enables quick access to any data with a low amount of administrative effort). The changes to the presentation layer of SAP BI certainly reduces the strength of business cases that introduce additional 3rd party BI tools that bolt on to an SAP ERP or BI environ-
ment. Companies that have a mix of SAP, Cognos and Business Objects could greatly benefit from a compre-hensive review of their reporting landscape and may be able to streamline certain functions to lower TCO and simplify their overall business intelligence strategy.
Peter Scott is SAP Practice Director at Traxion Con-sulting Inc., a strategy and technology firm specializing in business intelligence and data warehousing. He is an internationally-recognized consultant, trainer, andauthor in business intelligence and management reporting. His project experience with dozens of compa-nies across North America has included enterprise-wide reporting strategy, process re-engineering, implemen-tation and change management. Peter is the SAP BW Reporting expert with SAPtips and TechTarget. His new book, SAP Business Explorer (BEx) Tools is availablethrough SAP PRESS. Peter holds an MBA from Queen’s University, a B.Sc. in Computer Science and a B.Sc. in Biology. You may contact the author at [email protected]. Be sure to mention the author’s name and/or the article title. ≈
Figure 7: BEx Report Designer
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This may involve transport changes from client to client within the same host, or it may entail adding additional hardware such as a sandbox, multiple development servers, or additional quality assurance systems for different forms of testing. Whatever your functional rea-soning may be, it is important to be able to quickly and efficiently convert your landscape and transport routes to accommodate these needs.
Version Management and Unique Trans-port Numbering SchemeThe SAP Transport Management System is also extremely powerful as a development tool due to its ability to provide version management by tracking changes that were made in a system, associate them with dates and the people making the changes, and hold the history in a way that you can revert back to a previ-ous version if needed.
Let’s step back and think about what a transport request really is. I like to think of a transport request as being synonymous to an envelope that is sent through the mail. When you create a transport, you include corrections and repairs into that envelope. These cor-rections and repairs are really stuffed into the envelope and released and sent on their way to the recipient. The recipient in this case would be the system and client number that was defined in TMS. Figure 1 shows an example of a transport request with the associated num-ber and program changes tied to that specific transport request number.
Remember, the transport numbering system ensures unique numbers are always assigned to the transports, corrections, and repairs. Also, the originating system
Editor’s Note: If you’re an SAP client company that is currently in the process of an implementation or ver-sion 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 ver-sion to version and more.
IntroductionAs anyone working with SAP knows, this ERP package is very different than any other software application. The architecture of the core system alone has propri-etary structure and methodologies. These include work process, architecture, and database locking that make SAP the stable and robust system that it should be (when everything is configured correctly). In addition to this architecture, SAP has its own Transport Manage-ment System (TMS) that allows for ultimate change management control.
Many SAP customers are either going through new implementations or upgrading their SAP version. Either one of these circumstances will most likely require manipulation of the transport landscape. This article will outline some SAP transport manipulation scenarios that you may encounter during your projects:
• Version management and its importance • Technical structure of the transport file system (and
how it works) • Setting up the TMS environment from scratch.
Strategic LandscapesDuring the preparation for your upgrade or implemen-tation, you may need to strategically move or upgrade your hardware because of technical limitations of your current platform. This could mandate a parallel land-scape that would allow heterogeneous environments to be tested while developers can continue to develop. You also must keep in mind, the development lifecycle and the functional strategy that may be driven by the needs of developers, configurators, and functional analysts.
4On Basis
TMS 101: Fine Tuning Your Transport Management System
By Eric Walter, SAP® Consultant
I like to think of a transport
request as being synonymous
to an envelope that is sent
through the mail.
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4On Basis
identifier (SID) will always be the first three characters of the numbering system. For example, the items that are assigned to a transport request in Figure 1 were originated in a system with the SID.
The Life of a Transport…Our example in Figure 1 shows a transport that has been released. What does this mean?
When an object is modified in SAP, the modifier will “own” the object as long as he or she is making changes to it. This means it will lock out any other developer from modifying the object until it is released. This ensures that there are no unwanted modifications that may cause bugs in the owning devel-oper’s changes. As a result, the object is then assigned to a transport that is “Modifi-able”.
Once the modifications have been completed in the development system, they are ready to be moved to a quality assurance or test-ing system (depending on how your landscape is set up). At this point, the object owner must “Release” the transport. Once released, the object may be imported into the subsequent system. This may be imported by using transaction STMS. Figure 2 shows an example of STMS. Once you are in the STMS transaction, you may view the transports and their status by clicking on the “Truck” icon or using menu option Overview‡Imports.
Figure 1: Example of Transport Request and the Contents as Seen in Transaction SE10
Figure 2: Transaction STMS
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4On Basis
Once you have drilled to the system you want to import to, you can see a list of transports and the status of each on the right side of the screen. You can import the request by clicking on the desired transport number (to highlight) and then clicking the truck icon (with the small box highlighted). This will then prompt you to ensure you are ready for import. Confirm your deci-sion by clicking OK, and your changes will be moved into the system. Figure 3 shows an example of a list of transports.
Now that these changes have been moved into the system, there may be a need to compare the program changes, and maybe even back the changes out. In this case, the program changes may be viewed and retrieved using transaction SE38. Once in the main SE38 screen, use menu path Utilities‡Versions‡Version Manage-ment. This will display a list of all of the transport requests that have been active in the system in the past, along with their associ-ated Transport Request number. Figure 4 shows an example of a program that has been altered as well as its history. Notice the icons at the top of the screen that allow you to view the differ-ences in versions (and even retrieve old source code if desired). Transport Manage-ment System Filesys-tem StructureNow that we have viewed some of the unique features
of the SAP transport system, we may want to know how it all works. The basic foundation of tying the systems together is based on a common directory structure. This structure is defined as /usr/sap/trans in a UNIX system and \sapmnt\trans in the Windows server environment. These MUST be shared in all hosts in the SAP land-scape. The subdirectories in the /usr/sap/trans/ direc-tory are data, cofiles, log, buffer, and bin. The Data and Cofile directories hold the data and metadata associ-ated with the transport. The Logs directory obviously contains the logs for the transports, and the Bin direc-tory defines the landscape along with all of the detailed attributes.
Setting Up Transport Management SystemNow that we understand that all systems MUST have this shared transport directory, let’s discuss how to set it up. The first thing that must be created is a Domain
Figure 3: List of Transport Requests (that can be moved into this system after they were released from the originating system)
Figure 4: Version Management Comparison and Retrieval Screen (Transaction SE38)
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4On Basis
Controller. The Domain Con-troller is simply one system in your landscape that will act as the “Controller” of your landscape. This means that all landscape configura-tion must be administered in the Domain Controller, and then pushed out to the other systems. Earlier, we men-tioned the importance of the shared transport directory. The files /usr/sap/trans/bin/DOMAIN.CFG and /usr/sap/trans/TPPARAM contain the information that defines the landscape and its properties.
Let’s say you want to recre-ate your landscape from scratch. First, determine the system that will be the domain controller. Next, log in to each system of the landscape and delete the current transport landscape. To do this, log in to client 000 and run transaction SE06, then click on the “Perform Post Installation Actions” button, as shown in Figure 5. Then take the actions (when prompted) to delete CTS. Note: CTS means Corrections Transport System, which is another SAP term for Transport Management System.
Once all of your systems have reinitialized TMS, you can now declare the Domain Controller. Make sure that you are logged in to client 000 for all of these transport activities. Log in to the system you have chosen as the Domain Controller after TMS deletion, and run trans-action STMS. At this point, SAP will check the /usr/sap/trans/bin/DOMAIN.cfg file for a defined controller. The file will no longer exist, so SAP will then ask if you would like this system to become the domain controller. Answer “Yes” and the DOMAIN.cfg file will be created.
Next, log in to all other systems (client 000) that will be part of your new system landscape. You will be prompt-ed to join the newly created domain. Confirm these SAP messages. When you confirm these messages, you are updating the /usr/sap/trans/bin/TPPARAM file on your operating system. Once all of your systems have been added to the landscape, log in to client 000 on your Domain Controller and run transaction STMS again. Use the menu path Overview‡Transport Routes. This screen will show all of the systems in your landscape. Choose the Change icon to update your landscape. At this point, you can use two or three standard system landscape options in the Configuration Menu path. If you have a more complex system, you can drag each system into the lower work area of this screen. You can then create a Transport Layer and assign that layer to a Transport Route, as shown in Figure 6, for consolida-tion systems. You can also create a delivery route for your production system. This is done using menu path Edit‡Transport Route or Edit‡Transport Layer. The transport layers are also correlated to the development classes your developers use to define the transport target client.
Once your landscape has been created, the modifica-tions will need to be pushed to all other members of the landscape. This is accomplished by the icon that is shown in the top of the screen in Figure 6.
Figure 5: Transaction SE06 as Client 000 for Deleting CTS (TMS)
Once all of your systems have
reinitialized TMS, you can now
declare the Domain Controller.
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This should complete the landscape. You may log in to all of the systems at this point and validate the land-scape by running transac-tion STMS. You should see the same landscape in all of your systems. You can also test the system by creating a transport in Development, and moving the changes through to your Production system. Your system is now ready to hand over to the developers to use.
ConclusionThe ability to dynamically alter your landscape is vital to the SAP development needs in implementation and upgrades. It is not only important to know how to recreate and alter your TMS landscape, but it is also important to know what is being written and impacted at your operating system. Remember these technical details when making your changes and your landscape configuration will be much less of a headache.
Eric Walter is a senior consultant specializing in SAP Basis technologies along with J2EE and Java inte-gration with SAP. He has eight years of experience with SAP R/3 Basis and security, UNIX administra-tion, Oracle database administration, and five years with Java technologies, integration servers, and portal environments. In this time, he has led and supported numerous public and private implementations of these technologies along with developing and implementing architecture at all levels, from programming interfaces to hardware improvements and upgrades. You may con-tact the author at [email protected]. Be sure to mention the author’s name and/or the article title. ≈
Figure 6: Creation of a Consolidation Transport Route
4On Basis
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4On SOA
Building the SOA City By Axel Angeli and Lynton Grice
Editor’s Note: Have you ever visited Disney’s EPCOT and ventured into the Future World pavilions for a peak at how much technological advances have changed our world, connected us globally, all with the con-stant reminder that it’s just the beginning? This series of articles by Axel Angeli and Lynton Grice is a lot like an 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 installment, they’ll introduce the general concepts of SOA and delve into some real life challenges that were solved in their own SOA Village.
Panta rhei – “Nothing is as stable as change”
The Early Days: Using Basic ServicesIntroducing a Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) to your enterprise is very much like architecting a city. This article will be the first of many in which we’ll discuss the SOA City in an effort to give you a practical demonstration of how you can benefit from the ser-vices that make up the basis of an SOA. The challenge we take on is that we do not want to spend more than one hour in general in order to connect any arbitrary data source to a process flow. This time we shall invite you to step into our SOA City Limits to see how we break down a real life SOA challenge and solve it with methods of Agile and Extreme Programming in an SOA environment.
What is Service Oriented Architecture?The SOA structure is based on a widespread industry effort to restructure IT applications in a way that they can be accessed as services from other applications.
This dictates the true essence of an SOA: the Ser-vices. You have reached the state of a Service Oriented Architecture when you have created a nominal number of services and it appears easier for developers of new applications to reuse the existing services rather than writing their own ones again.
A good example of a working SOA infrastructure is the Windows operating system. Nearly every application written for Windows is equipped with a full featured application programming interface that makes it easy for other applications to automate the control of it.
Figure 1 demonstrates just how easy you can control an ActiveX application. This little VBA script opens an existing Word document and saves it again as Microsoft HTML archive (.mht). You can instantiate this script from many powerful scripting languages like Python or Windows Powershell. The true work is done by the instantiated objects that completely encapsulate the processed Word document. The Word control is a service, an extremely powerful one as well.
Figure 1: VBA Script for ActiveX
Public Sub XConverter()‘Dim oDocs As Word.DocumentsDim oApp As Word.ApplicationDim oDoc As Word.Document‘ Set oApp = New Word.Application Set oDocs = oApp.Documents oApp.ChangeFileOpenDirectory “F:\BLUEBOOK\mySOA\word\” Set oDoc = oDocs.Open( _ filename:=”current.doc”, _ ConfirmConversions:=False, _ ReadOnly:=True, _ AddToRecentFiles:=False, _ Format:=wdOpenFormatAuto, _ XMLTransform:=””) oDoc.SaveAs _ filename:=”current.mht”, _ FileFormat:=wdFormatWebArchive oDoc.Close FalseEnd Sub
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4On SOA
Are We Ready for the SOA Era?Modern enterprises are well equipped with a rich kaleidoscope of powerful software applications. While the applications themselves are extremely powerful and deliver state-of-the-art features in many respects, the way data is brought in and out of those applications is extremely awkward. Practically every ERP applica-tion uses its own proprietary interfacing protocols, and their data models often differ greatly. This is even true for such highly standard application models like a sales order or an order shipment. As a matter of fact, writing interfaces for ERP applications is still a specialists’ task. Many may think that EDI with SAP is a very difficult job, but actually, other ERP systems are far more awk-ward in that respect.
Initiatives that tried to build interfacing standards based on a universal ontology – like EDIFACT – did not deliver the expected success. They all suffer from the same deficiency: they require substantial changes to be made on the legacy system’s side. Even if we disregard the fact that this typically costs a nominal amount of money, it is often impossible to implement the changes (if we deal with a mature legacy application). This is especially true for the critical applications that were designed according to custom needs, like those famous AS/400 applications that drive whole factories. These applications are often untouchable for the sole risk that it might bring down the whole production line with a keystroke.
What Does SOA Do Differently?SOA goes in with a different approach. Instead of forc-ing legacy applications to adopt a licentious standard, it provides for generic mechanisms to allow adapta-tion of legacy applications. An Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) is not set for one single standard, but rather provides a place where every interested party can plug in an appropriate converter. Once the messages are in a readable format, they can be processed by uniform algorithms. SOA does this and more; it offers services and encourages applications to abandon homemade solutions and replace them with common services.
Workflow is one area where an SOA can deliver the highest benefits. Currently, no ERP suite has set a work-flow messaging standard, and none of them are able to provide a satisfactory collaboration framework with respect to integration of third-party products.
Workflow means executing a series of single tasks in sequence, with the possibility of halting the flow to request a user decision and to control the flow, depend-ing on the content of the message.
Imagine how difficult it is to successfully fulfill the fol-lowing scenario:
• Email a message from SAP R/3 to an Outlook email box.
• The email message should be prepared in such a way that it allows the user to “select a decision box”, or fill out some missing information or figures, and then “submit” the message back to SAP in such a format that the user decision can be processed by the work-flow engine.
Here we can see the advantages of an SOA framework: Instead of preparing your message as a form, you would send the message with a list of questions and possible answers to the SOA framework. The SOA framework will then prepare the message for Outlook and return the received answers in a previously agreed format.
It is just like if you wanted to drink some fine beer. You could buy some recipe books, the latest micro-brewery toolkit, and some fine ingredients (if you are able to find a store that sells hop and malt), and start experiment-ing. Those who have tried it have told me the same thing; it ended up in some sort of disaster, and the result was the furthest thing from beer. That being the case, you might consider simply going to a store and choosing from the variety of ready-brewed beers. It’s the same with SOA—why reinvent something from scratch, when someone else has already refined the process and can deliver the desired results?
The Business ChallengeIt was not even two years ago when the expression SOA was quite an exotic term and only something for vision-ary CIOs. This has completely changed in 2007. Now, the SOA hype has reached new heights and the number of “wannabe SOA consultants” is widely on the rise.
It is now important to distance yourself from the many theoretical pieces of advice and rather hook onto a more practical way of seeing SOA. It is always the unknown
An Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) is not set for one single standard,
but rather provides a place where every interested party can plug in
an appropriate converter.
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4On SOA
and uncertain that appears to us as difficult and dan-gerous. And most times, it turns out that the expected obstacle was a trivial bump along the path.
We are now determined to demonstrate that you can build the essentials of SOA in a ridiculously small amount of time. But this is only achieved by choosing the correct, pragmatic strategy, and reusing the right components to be orchestrated by the right utilities. We‘ll show you extreme SOA in this article, but first, let us expose the business challenge a bit by reflecting on some real life examples (of course, all identities have been altered).
Business CasesGetting business to buy in to SOA can be quite a task. Approaching management with words like “agility” will create business expectations that can often only be real-ized once the whole SOA ecosystem is fully functioning. A better way to approach SOA is to explain the concept of “You will only pay for what you use”. The majority of companies out there use large software application packages like SAP, Oracle, etc, and even though they “may” only use a fraction of the application functional-ity, they are usually still hit very hard with licensing and support fees. This is where the paradigm shift needs to take place. Business clearly understands the value of choice when paying for resources. With this in mind, managers need to understand that within the SOA con-text they will only pay for the services that add value to the business.
The following business cases show real-life scenarios that are pretty difficult to accomplish when following traditional “old school” IT management philosophies and techniques. The important thing to remember here is that SOA design will typically encompass numerous components that do NOT necessarily come from the same software package, but will rather follow a “best-of-breed” approach.
Here we present three individual business cases. The challenges for the respective IT forces may vary, but they have a common pattern. They are all tied up in their old fashioned understanding of IT and IT gover-nance, and are blind to the new possibilities out there.
This does not mean that these guys were totally wrong all the time. It is truly a fact that the foundation to build an SOA has been created within the past five years. At the same time, it is also clear that building an SOA city would have been much more difficult to
accomplish a couple years ago than it is today. Today, SOA is a straightforward and lightning fast experience.
Business Case #1: Mission Impossible in JohannesburgPaul Hunter sat at his desk in a pretty desperate mood. He just came back from a meeting with his CTO in Houston/Texas. He came back with a challenge that seemed to him to be fairly unsolvable. The CTO’s idea was that using the full cycle defined by Moore’s law, he wanted at least 80% of the customers connected elec-tronically to the ordering and supply chain system...
Paul’s company, H2O, has a branch that produces sterile papers for medical sciences and laboratories. The customers are widely spread all over the world and the profile of these customers ranges from huge industrial clients to small individual labs. While the industrial companies are mostly linked through classical EDI standards like EDIFACT and X.12, Hunter had been working now for more than five years to get the smaller labs connected somehow.
They were writing regular letters to the clients, asking them to please deliver data electronically. They even got the key accountants to add a penalty on the price tag for those not connected via EDI. They offered longer payment terms; nothing worked. The answers were always the same: “Our software does not support EDI-FACT or X.12”, or “We have no way of sending data to an X.400 Telebox”, or “We have no money to pay the programmers”.
How could Hunter achieve in only nine months time what they did not even vaguely achieve in the many years prior? Hunter’s hope had always been that more and more customers would eventually change their software and would then be able to jump onto the bandwagon for automation. But there were no signs that indicated this would ever happen. Under these circum-stances, Hunter’s day as head of IT infrastructures in South Africa seemed to be numbered.
Getting business to buy in to SOA
can be quite a task.
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4On SOA
Business Case #2: Champagne with RFID in CopenhagenThe Research and Development group at the Univer-sity was quite exhilarated. After a couple of frustrating night shifts, they finally managed to get the new RFID based conveyor belt running properly. Whenever a truck enters the hall, all the containers on the truck are auto-matically scanned and recognized by a myriad of RFID antennas. The data is then used by a small, local appli-cation to open and close some wedges that are installed on the top of the conveyor belt. The champagne was bubbling over after this great success.
Only Niels Holgersson – no, not that one – seemed to be more contemplative in contrast to the serene hard-ware team. His duty was more to demonstrate what they finally could do with the new expected affluence of the RFID data from the production sites. They had an IDES SAP system running and they wanted to use this as a data sink for the collected data, to kick off some business processes like sending goods receipt notifica-tions, and updating the warehouse’s stock quantities in real-time.
But Niels knew only too well that it would not be as easy as it appeared. The idea of the demo center was, among other things, to prepare some prêt-à-porter solu-tions for specific industries to connect the RFID world to the ERP universe in a plug-n-play manner. But this meant that they needed to be prepared for some worst case scenarios as well. This would include customers running old, outdated or homemade software solutions that could not be expected to comply with much of a modern communication standard. And if the program-mer of such an old system had resigned (as he knows many AS/400 production systems) without document-ing his extensive changes, there would be trouble ahead.
First of all, Niels expected to find a greater variety of customers still running older SAP releases. The pres-ence of a middleware product like SAP XI would be the exceptional case. So, his unsolved work for the coming three months was to find a way to connect the RFID toys with the most common “real life” scenarios.
Business Case #3: Mutiny in TexasHeidelberg, Germany, March 2007Peter Hartmann hit the handset back to the fork so that it was audible all over the open office. He had an unpleasant talk with the head of the sales force team, Heidi Bayer. Mrs. Bayer had just returned from the CeBIT computer fair in Hannover. There, she met some people who demonstrated to her how easy it was with
Microsoft Dynamics to create sales order documents and either print them out or send them directly via telefax, or even email as PDF, TIF or ZIP-File. That was some-thing that Mrs. Bayer wanted to do for so many years, and she had run this exact request by Peter Hartmann numerous times before, as he was responsible for the SAP-driven ERP landscape.
This time Heidi Bayer made it very clear. Either Peter would have a solution for this exact scenario up and running in a couple of weeks or she would withdraw her signature for funding the new SAP consolidation project.
While he still mulled over this threat, he got another email that confused him for the rest of the day: the CIO of the Texas affiliation of H2O decided not to partici-pate in the SAP consolidation project, but had signed another contract with Microsoft and IBM to equip the nearly 50 locations in North America with an ERP software.
Peter Hartmann considered this plan as insane. They had invested 10 years of work in order to get all the SAP systems running according to business demands and now they have refrained from revamping the solu-tion into a single consolidated instance. What Peter Hartmann never understood was the fact that the busi-ness never went for his technical arguments and found his financial calculations quite absurd and unrealis-tic. But that was not the worst part; the business felt permanently dependent on the goodwill of the IT and hence became indignant. They were looking for freedom and so they headed back on the markets.
As we work through our series on Building the SOA City we will address solutions for each of these business cases.
The business felt permanently
dependent on the goodwill of the
IT and hence became indignant.
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4On SOA
Extreme SOAThere are numerous vendors out there like SAP, IBM, and Oracle, that most certainly have very impressive integration products. Regardless of the vendor or solu-tion you choose, the question is “just how long does it really take to get an integration scenario up and run-ning with the ability to change it rapidly on demand?” We keep hearing things like:
“Companies need to be agile in order to remain compet-itive in the dynamic marketplace these days” or “With our product, all you do is drag and drop and voila, there you go”.
Well that all sounds good and true but in practice, how long does it typically take an integration specialist or programmer to change a technical business process? One week? Two weeks? I would say that the majority of products out there are “all bark and no bite”--I want to see results and I want to see them now!
Putting Up the Stakes: An SOA in Four WeeksLet’s dive straight into this…How long would you expect the following to take?
1. Install a “message orchestration” product
2. Orchestrate a business scenario that does the following:
a. Receive an IDoc i. Email the received IDoc to someone when there
is an error or suspicious content ii. Convert the IDoc to PDF iii. Email the PDF to some designated receiver iv. Handover the PDF to an attached archiving
system using XMLRPC
b. Branch off and also do the following: i. Send the IDoc to a remote message queue
service via HTTP (like the “Amazon Simple Queue Service”)
ii. Send an IDoc to an ABAP message queue on a SAP server (via HTTP interface)
iii. Send IDoc to another message queue on a SAP server (via RFC interface)
iv. Invoke an ABAP web service and pass it the incoming IDoc and get a response IDoc that becomes the result of running the process
3. Test and deploy the process
4. Change the process by adding in a new service
Figure 2 depicts part of the this process in ActiveBPEL Designer. Note: The authors believe that the ActiveB-PEL designer is probably the best and easiest to use SOA orchestration tool in the marketplace today. (http://www.active-endpoints.com/).
Realistic FiguresHow does the following sound?
Install a “message orchestration” product 15 minutesOrchestrate the business scenario 30 minutes**Orchestrate only, no service code Test and deploy the process 30 minutesChange the process by adding in a new service 1 hour
You think these are realistic figures? Absolutely! We did it! And we also did it on partly new ground. The components we used have most certainly not been our daily dish so far:
Figure 2: A Sample BPEL Process in Active BPEL Designer
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• ActiveBPEL was completely new to us
• Python we knew, but honestly, we had never written more than a “Hello World”
• Well, the rest was more or less downloads from the wide fund of the OpenSource community
We basically found the components for a proper work-ing SOA in the World Wide Web. If you think about it, the World Wide Web is a huge society of communities, and these communities are dedicated to service. They develop things and contribute them to the public; in return they get some other great things back. After all, not everything has to be about money.
A side note from the authors: It is remarkable and predictable that the companies that sell utilities and services for money only will become extinct faster than anybody may believe.
In our case, we decided to use Python as the scripting language, simply because we got most of the working snippets from the community. But Python was only “today’s dish” for us. At this writing, a good friend has just shown us some neat PERL scripts that monitor his EDI messages. Nice work he did; we will not consider rewriting this, we shall just use it.
Why scripting languages? Scripting languages like Python are designed for “gluing” together applica-tions as they assume that there already exists a useful collection of other useful components written in other languages. The main advantage of scripting languages is their high degree of programmer productivity and software reuse.
One small thing that should not go unmentioned: As cute and smart as the following may appear, it depends largely on the functions provided by the Microsoft Win-dows operating system. This is not necessarily the .NET framework. In fact, most features we use run safely on top of the Windows API. But why Windows? Isn’t it treason towards the wide community? Not really. We
chose the best of breed approach, and most components we chose had no corresponding part in the Linux world.Back to our SOA village. . . Integration does not have to always be a painful, time wasting and expensive exer-cise. By giving up the single vendor and single architec-ture approach, we achieve a complete new dimension of agility and speed in development.
Day 1 in the SOA VillageNow let’s see how this all fits together and step into the SOA Village. On the first day of our SOA construc-tion exercise, we’ll start with some easy to understand examples in order to warm up.
All examples and strategies are created in the spirit of the Agile Manifesto that drives Extreme Programming, Scrum and Hologramming as its essence. For now, we shall ignore any error handling or any step that distracts our concentration on the essential information we are trying to impart.
Routing DataWhen comparing SOA to the times when cities were built, we find ourselves in the period where the tele-phone has already been invented and is becoming widely used. The basic challenge of an SOA is to serve the data at the right place, in the correct format, to an application with limited interfacing capabilities. SAP R/3 is such an application. We’ll try to avoid using SAP XI for now and work on a plain vanilla SAP ABAP stack.
In this exercise, we want to:
• Receive some data in a folder of the file system
• Push the data to SAP by calling a specific function module
• Push the data to SAP via HTTP interface
• Push the data to SAP via ABAP web service
• Common tasks
• ZIP and UNZIP files
• Create EXCEL file
We have decided to do all this in Python, a popular scripting language with the power to change its inter-face like a chameleon. We chose it because there are so many ready to use snippets and utilities available that we could reuse.
4On SOA
The main advantage of scripting
languages is their high degree
of programmer productivity and
software reuse.
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Receive Some Data in a Folder of the File SystemFigure 3 is the simple Python piece of code that polls a directory and reads the first line of data from a new file (assuming the file contains an IDoc, for example).
Figure 4 is the Python Shell output after dropping a file “New_IDoc_File.txt” into the “hot folder”. Push the Data to SAP by Calling a Specific Function ModuleFigure 5 is some Python code that passes the “IDoc data” via a remote function module call to SAP.
Figure 6 shows the Python Shell output after executing the code shown in Figure 5.
Push the Data to SAP via HTTP interfaceFigure 7 shows some simple Python code that demon-strates just how easy it is to send data via HTTP to a SAP system.
Figure 8 is the Python Shell output after executing the above HTTP call to SAP.
Push the Data to SAP via ABAP Web ServiceCreating ABAP web services is simple, really simple...and invoking a web service from Python is even simpler, as demonstrated in Figure 9.
4On SOA
Figure 4: Python Shell Output
Figure 5: Python Code That Pushes Data to SAP via a Remote Function Module
import pysapconn=pysap.Rfc_connection()print “Connecting to SAP system...”conn.open(conn_string=’ASHOST=<sap_server> SYSNR=00 CLIENT=000 USER=bcuser PASSWD=<some_password>’)print “Retrieving function module interface ZLOGOSZMQ_PROXY”func=conn.get_interface(‘ZLOGOSZMQ_PROXY’)func[‘HEADER’]=”IDOC_HEADER”func[‘DATA’]=”SOME_IDOC_DATA”print “Executing function module...”result=func()print “Result from function module call is: “ + func[‘GUID’]
Figure 3: Python Code For Receiving Data
import osimport timeimport datetime poll_dir = ‘c:\\tmp\\idoc_in\\’before_list = dict ([(file, None) for file in os.listdir (poll_dir)])
while 1: time.sleep(5) print datetime.datetime.now().strftime(“%d/%m/%Y %H:%M:%S”) + “ – Watching directory “ + poll_dir after_list = dict ([(file, None) for file in os.listdir (poll_dir)]) new_file = [file for file in after_list if not file in before_list] if new_file: print “File added: “, “, “.join (new_file) full_path = poll_dir + new_file[0] myfile = open(full_path, ‘r’) idoc = myfile.readline() print “File contents: “ + idoc myfile.close() before_list = after_list
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Figure 10 is the result in the Python Shell after run-ning the code documented in Figure 9.
Common TasksAfter this little warm up round, we want to add some extra processing like ZIPPING the file for archiving purposes, or UNZIPPING files read in from an email message. No problem...simple!
Figure 11 shows a small piece of Python code that shows how simple it is to ZIP a file.
And on the other end, the code in Figure 12 shows just how easy it is to UNZIP a file.
Figure 6: Python Shell Output
Figure 7: Python Code That Pushes Data to SAP via a HTTP Interface
import urllib2idoc = ‘SOME_IDOC_DATA’result = urllib2.urlopen(“http://<sap_server>:8200/mq/receive?sap-client=000”, idoc)str = result.read()print str
Figure 8: Python Shell Output after Executing the HTTP Call to SAP
Figure 9: Python Code That Pushes Data to SAP via ABAP Web Service
from SOAPpy import WSDLwsdlFile= ‘http://<sap_server>:8010/sap/bc/srt/rfc/sap/ZLOGOS_MATERIAL_PUT?sap-client=010&wsdl=1.1&style=rpc’server = WSDL.Proxy(wsdlFile)idoc = ‘SOME_IDOC_DATA’response = server.ZlogosMaterialPut(IvIdocIn = idoc)print “Response from ABAP web service: “ + response
Figure 10: Python Shell Output
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Let’s face it, most people love getting data in an EXCEL format. So wouldn’t it be nice to create EXCEL files with absolute ease using the standard COM interface? The code in Figure 13 shows just how easy it is to create an EXCEL file using Python, and pass it some arbitrary cell value.
These sorts of useful pieces of code could easily be added to some sort of “utility class” that could then be accessed by multiple other applications requiring the same sort of functionality.
Figure 11: Python Code for File Zipping
import zipfilemyfile = zipfile.ZipFile(‘test.zip’,’w’,zipfile.ZIP_DEFLATED)myfile.write(‘My_BIG_File.txt’)myfile.close()
Figure 12: Python Code for File UNZIP
import zipfilemyfile = zipfile.ZipFile(‘test.zip’,’r’)for filename in myfile.namelist(): data = myfile.read(filename) file = open(filename, ‘w+b’) file.write(data) file.close()
The Show Is Just about to CommenceThis was just a small demonstration of how easy it is to accomplish data routing and some manipulation by reusing great routines written by some other people. The benefit here is the ability to reuse components. If we need some more work to be done, we should simply look out for a great utility to do the job.
For example, if we need to create a TIF image from our document, we could use the GraphicMagick libraries; they are written in PHP, but also allow access to most of the features via an XMLRPC web service. Converting to PDF may be done using Ghostscript or the genuine Adobe Acrobat library. Encrypting or decrypting files can be handled by PGP services. There are so many other requirements and services out there and the con-sumers of the services are continuing to grow in number just as well. Our village is growing into a metropolitan city, one step at a time.
ConclusionYou most certainly do not need to install a “heavy-weight” product like SAP XI to get SOA working in your environment. The majority of the time IT manag-ers don’t really know what is possible and available (product and component wise) in the marketplace. As stated right up front we want to be able to change and add to process flows in less than one hour…bottomline! This paper has shown some very basic code snippets and concepts that should whet your appetite for an SOA development. We are laying the foundation to show you just how easily common SOA requirements can be accomplished. So we welcome you into our SOA Village where SOA has become easy, fast and FUN!
In the next installment of this series, we’ll show you a more complete scenario where we demonstrate and explain how useful and powerful message queues (MQ’s) are in practice. This will involve Microsoft MQ, a self-coded and stunning ABAP MQ, and the Amazon SQS queue service. We’ll also show you how to use the file system and an email system as an MQ. The scenario
Figure 13: Code for Creating Excel File Using Python
import osimport win32com.client
filename = ‘myfile.xls’filepath = os.path.abspath(filename)
excel = win32com.client.Dispatch(‘Excel.Application’)excel.Visible = Falseworkbook = excel.Workbooks.Add()sheet=workbook.Worksheets(1)sheet.Cells(1,1).Value = “Hello Excel from Python”workbook.SaveAs(Filename=filepath)excel.Quit()
The benefit here is the ability
to reuse components.
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will shuffle data around from queue to queue and will be orchestrated by some BPEL utility. Getting an SOA in place is not difficult, and this scenario will show just that!
Axel Angeli, logosworld.com. Axel is a senior SAP and SOA advisor and principal of logosworld.com, a German-based enterprise specializing in mentoring SAP and SOA project teams and advising IT management on implementation issues. Axel runs his own IT business since 1984, and throughout his career, he has always worked with cutting edge technologies. Axel’s SAP experience stems from the good old R/2 days, and he is an expert on SAP’s NetWeaver technology and any kind of ABAP development. A speaker of several languages, Axel specializes in coaching and leading large multi-national teams on complex projects with heterogeneous platforms and international rollouts. Known for his intensive and successful trouble-shooting experience, Axel has been nicknamed by his colleagues as the “Red Adair” of SAP projects. He is the author of the best-selling tutorial “The SAP R/3 Guide to EDI, IDocs, ALE and Interfaces.” You may contact the author at [email protected]. Be sure to mention the author’s name and/or the article title.
Lynton Grice, logosworld.com is an SAP integration specialist contracting in Johannesburg, South Africa. He has a passion for programming and has a particu-lar interest in the “business process and SOA space” incorporating things like workflow, BPEL, SAP XI, etc. Lynton is a champion of the Blue Elefant League of SOA Excellence.You may contact the author at [email protected]. Be sure to mention the author’s name and/or the article title. ≈
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transportation, textile, and machinery, among others. Maquiladoras may be 100% foreign-owned (usually by U.S. companies) in most countries. The use of maquila-doras is an example of offshoring. Other countries such as Japan, Germany, and Korea have maquiladoras as well, but the majority of them are located in Mexico and are associated with United States’ companies. The term “maquiladora”, in the Spanish language, refers to the practice of millers charging a “maquila”, or “miller’s portion” for processing other people’s grain
In my area of expertise, Materials Management, I dis-covered that maquiladora transactions are very similar to Interplant Transfers, the main difference being that you receive the material on the other (Mexican) side of the border, and some behind the scenes activities have to take place to ensure that the proper Customs docu-mentation (TSA) is created and delivered with a ship-ment. Figure 1 displays this process and Figure 2 shows the SAP transaction screen.
Editor’s Note: Trainers are used to walking into a class full of students and being prepared for the unexpect-ed—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 condi-tions 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!”
Whenever I start a new project, I have certain expecta-tions about logistics, support, politics, etc. However, my recent SAP training project in Mexico turned out to be a whole other thing. Only a couple weeks into the project I real-ized, “Toto, we’re not in Kansas anymore”.
This was my first SAP maquila-dora project. For those of you new to this concept, Here’s what Wiki-pedia has to say on the subject:
Ma·qui·la·do·ra Pronunciation [muh-kee-luh-dawr-uh]–noun, plural -do·ras A maquiladora or maquila is a factory that imports materials and equipment on a duty-free and tariff-free basis for assembly or manufacturing and then re-exports the assembled product, usually back to the origi-nating country.
“Maquiladora” is primarily used to refer to factories in Mexican towns along the United States–Mexico border, but increasingly is used to refer to factories all over Latin America. Maquiladora factories encompass a variety of industries including electronics,
4On Training
Maquiladora Training: Just a “Sap” in Mexico By Robert Vaughan, SAP Training Consultant
Figure 1: Maquiladora Process
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It may still be a somewhat rare thing, as I’ve researched the Internet and found very little documentation or news of other SAP maquiladora implementations. How-ever, with the degree that SAP lends itself to the global workplace, I suspect this will become more and more commonplace. In this article, I have identified some of the issues, pitfalls, and solutions that I discovered in the course of my training project. In this particular project we used SAP AG 4.7.
The ProjectProject timeline: Phase 1: Four weeks of development, to translate and localize existing English (American) SAP training material for a Mexican audience, Phase 2: Seven weeks of Power-User training delivery (broken into four weeks of training delivery, a week break, and three weeks of refresher training), Phase 3: Three weeks of End-User training, followed by Phase 4: Three weeks of Go-Live support.
Phase 1 - DevelopmentPlanned: Development was scheduled for a four-week period with 13 consultants to complete and deliver:
• Translation and localization of training materials that were developed and used for training in the United States
• Capture Spanish SAP screens and insert into trans-lated documentation
• Translate presentations and job aids
• Create a Spanish Glossary for SAP and manufacturing terms
• Train instructors on current processes
This sounded like a simple task in the beginning; just translate existing English materials created for the American factories and go. A simple task couldn’t have been further from the truth.
We were to discover and confront a number of chal-lenges along the way. First, as with many training proj-ects, we were forced to start our training development late but held to the same aggressive delivery dates. We received the SAP Spanish version (see Figure 3 for an example) of software late into the Development phase, and when we did, we found the translation to be incor-rect for our audience. SAP, being a German company, naturally looked to the Spanish spoken by their Europe-an neighbors in Spain. For our purposes, we needed the Spanish that is spoken in the Latin American countries. We made modifications where we could and job aids (such as a reference index for the glossary and modified screen shots with Photoshop), where we couldn’t.
Actual: It was necessary to carry out development in three weeks with eleven (two of the original thirteen didn’t work out) consultants.
Figure 2: Example of MIGO – Receiving a Shipment on the Opposite Side of the Border
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4On Training
• Spanish screen shots were problematic because of differences between Euro-pean Spanish and Latin-American Spanish.
• Losing a week from development time resulted in less time for training current processes. It was necessary to squeeze two-weeks of training into one week.
Metrics: • The original development
schedule projected 13 con-sultants working a total of 128 hours each, but to resolve the problems we encountered, it was neces-sary to spend 244 hours (each) X 11 consultants, to complete development on time.
An element that added to the development part of the project was the need for additional materials that would be only used in Mexico, and therefore had to be developed from scratch. However, this task was made fairly easy using the latest version of RWD InfoPak V5.52. (InfoPak automatically records all the steps you make in a process, much like SnagIt, but formats in a template you set up ahead of time for ease and speed of process-ing—see Figure 4 for an example.)
Another issue arose in the delivery stage, but since it impacted the develop-ment process, I will mention it here. We were caught off-guard with the client’s preference for “Span-glish”
Figure 3: Spanish Screenshot Sample – Modifying the Material Master
Figure 4: RWD InfoPak Sample – Material Master Data-Entry Fields and Instructions
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(a mix of English and Spanish) rather than pure Span-ish. Making the recommended changes required an additional 28 man-hours. After three weeks of 14-hour workdays spent frantically translating and develop-ing new materials, we were ready to begin Power-User (Super-User) training.
Phase 2 - Power-User Training (Round One)“Z_SLEEP”, Exactly What Process Does That Transac-tion Serve?
Planned: 4 weeks X 40 hours each (per 233k) X 13 instructorsObjective: Train Power Users with presentations, SAP exercises, and future-state process explanations.
A small tidbit that we discovered was that no matter how many times we referred to it as “S-A-P”, the users kept calling it “sap”, as in what comes from a tree. As with the mighty oak, the trainees were unbending on using the correct pronunciation.
The first two weeks were a bit rocky; as with most large projects, there were political aches in the system. For the team members, the real test of their Spanish pro-ficiency was still to come in the implementation stage of our project. Our team was further reduced as we real-ized some of our team members’ Spanish skills were not up to the task at hand. As a team lead, I spent my days training and my evenings smoothing over project issues.
Another issue was that after we had spent so much time translating the instructions for the individual transac-tions, we discovered (after arriving in Mexico) that the local management and users preferred to use the English version of SAP instead of Spanish, so we had to scrap all of our original transaction and screen transla-tion documents and revert to English documentation. We had to spend our evenings downloading remotely from our hotel rooms. Net Impact in terms of project time lost and redundancies:
1) Original Spanish/Euro files acquisition
2) Translation/localization of the Euro-Spanish version to Latin Spanish
3) Cultural adjustments to the original materials
4) Re-downloading it (in the English version)
5) Refining the English version to support our project
The major impact of this issue was the extra time spent (approximately 10 hrs X 11 consultants) after-hours.
One issue that I had fully anticipated was the difference in learning approaches in Mexico. I had observed this when I was an exchange student at a Mexican univer-sity. The Mexican people approach learning differently; they tend to learn better on their own. Therefore, they spent most of their class time creating PowerPoint pre-sentations and collecting screen shots. This significantly slowed down the pace of the course. Once we identified this issue, we provided each attendee with their own version of the full training materials, and we created time the following month to assist them in further developing materials.
As with most training projects (in any country) the users were often engaged in sending emails and IMs during the class. Other challenging issues included frequent network failures due to infrastructure issues (mainly electricity interruptions). During these down-times we took breaks or switched our training to a topic that was not dependent on the system or electricity. Still, training classes often ran late or lunches were cut short, making tempers even shorter.
The biggest of all challenges, however, was communi-cating how SAP processes would replace legacy systems and how they fit into current manufacturing processes. We were provided process flows and cheat sheets with transaction codes, but these simply weren’t enough. Therefore, we ended up researching and providing a lot of this information in spurts, as warranted throughout the training, all the way to Go-Live.
Actual: 4 weeks X 72 hours each X 10 instructors
Phase 2 - Power-User Training (Round Two)I Think I Have A Family; I’m Not Sure (Six Weeks To Go-Live And Counting)
The second round of Power-User training went much more smoothly. Still, there were some obstacles to
…we discovered (after arriving
in Mexico) that the local
management and users preferred
to use the English version of SAP
instead of Spanish…
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overcome. For the most part during these three weeks, it was just refresher training, but we also carried out Train-the-Trainer sessions.
The biggest obstacle of this round of training came from changes in team structure, which introduced new challenges around language differences and training approach. Another hurdle came when including some end users (who were to be section leaders) in this Super-User refresher training. They had not had any SAP introductory classes prior to this, so we had to accom-modate to their level of understanding.
Phase 3 - End-User Training I Can Start To See The Horizon
Planned: 3 weeks X 13 consultants X 30 hours each (per week)
Objective: Assist Power-Users in training End-Users, using new materials designed by Power Users
The end-user training involved the instructors split-ting off from the main sites to several sites across the country to lend support during end-user training. Other than some unanswered future process questions, we were basically able to lean back and watch our pupils become the teacher; very gratifying considering all the hurdles we had to jump along the way.
My only concerns during this process were that the Super-Users focused on teaching the end-users very specific processes, without really giving them a look at the big picture and how they fit into it. Also, the project plan did not allow for make-up training for those who missed the original scheduled classes. This added another week to our project.
Actual: 4 weeks X 14 consultants X 40 hours each (per week)
Phase 4 - GO-Live SupportPlanned: 3 weeks X 13 consultants X 48 hours each (per week)
Objective: Give support in plants and regional war-rooms to Power-Users during Go-Live
As of this writing, we have just entered the Go-Live stage.
Actual: Not yet known
ConclusionLessons Learned• The project may have been smoother had planners
included some of the key Mexican staff in a commit-tee to strategize and review the plan and materials; if nothing else for the sake of “buy-in”.
• If the issues with the Spanish version of SAP had been identified earlier, programmers and developers could assist with any translation issues.
• Disabling email and IM functionality in the classroom would improve participants’ focus. This could be said for ANYWHERE.
• Unavoidable infrastructure downtimes resulted in the most challenging of the issues we faced, and were not considered in the project timeline.
This experience was very educational—not only did it allow me to broaden my skills of socially adapting in the Latin American culture and practice my Spanish language, but it also allowed me another opportunity to observe the Mexican culture. Should you have an opportunity to participate in a maquiladora project, I think you will find it a fulfilling experience and a great opportunity to develop both your technical and soft skills.
Here are some general tips for consulting in Mexico (many can apply to any country abroad):
Travel• Do your research on hotels. Just because it has an
American name, doesn’t mean you’ll get American style amenities.
• Rent a car. Don’t be afraid to drive in Mexico; once you get the hang of it, I believe you’ll find it more enjoyable than driving in America.
• Choose flights with connections in America if possible; connecting in Mexico can be a difficult.
This experience was very
educational…
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• Make sure you have the right address, as it is very common in Mexico to have the same company in plants located on opposite sides of town, instead of in a central-campus setting.
Social• Learn to say “No” and stand your ground on impor-
tant issues, but be tactful and professional.
• Be very, very patient and willing to adapt to the local culture.
• Verify all instructions and make sure you and the cli-ent are very clear in your expectations.
Robert Vaughan, Robert is an independent SAP consultant specializing in Materials Management and Production Planning training and documentation. He has over nine years of SAP implementation experience. He studied at Universidad La Salle in Mexico City and holds a Bachelor of Arts in International Technical Communications from the University of Texas. You may contact the author at [email protected]. Be sure to mention the author’s name and/or the article title. ≈
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4CIO Corner
Editor’s Note: Yep, we just love acronyms. KISS, ERP, SAR – now we can add SLOG to our three and four let-ter vocabulary, thanks to Erik Keller. Whereas the BIG FOUR (Microsoft, IBM, SAP, and Oracle) are still talk-ing 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 lat-est trend in enterprise planning, think smaller, global, and SLOG. Now, let’s get you up-to-date on who’s up to bat!
Part of a pundit’s DNA is the slavish need to create acronyms: ERP, CRM, etc. are all part of the jargon-laden lexicon that is a gun in the holster of any analyst. At the Enterprise 2006 event, AMR Research’s Bruce Richardson coined MISO when he spoke of the differ-ing goals and platforms of Microsoft, IBM, SAP, and Oracle. Call me snarky, but I think that MISO is so retro and represents the status quo much as BUNCH did in the 1970s for computer manufacturers. It’s old school rather than something that represents the growth and future of enterprise software. (For those of you under 50 or over 50 with failing memories, BUNCH stood for Burroughs, UNIVAC, NCR, Control Data Corporation, and Honeywell.)
Like the BUNCH through the 1970s and 1980s, MISO’s impact on enterprise applications will not fade away soon, but as a group, it is likely that at least one or two will be acquired in the next decade and that a new set of kids will grab much of the growth (and eventually installed base) of the enterprise market.
Thus for everyone considering where to go with enter-prise applications, it’s a tough SLOG moving ahead. What is SLOG? In cricket (which I love to watch but struggle to understand,) a slog is a play where the bats-man attempts to swing for the fences or go for broke, as we would say here in the states. It’s a Babe Ruth type of shot. In this article, it’s an acronym for the IT trends that will “go for broke” in the future. Our SLOG repre-sents the biggest trends that will change the status quo of enterprise software moving forward.
Rather than represent individual companies (because it’s way too early to identify the eventual winners), the trends that comprise this acronym are:
• Software as a Service (SaaS)
• LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, Perl/PHP/Python, open source)
• Offshoring
• Google, Amazon, Yahoo, FedEx, etc.
Let’s look at each “letter” in further detail:
S: SaaS is a busi-ness model that will force increased quality and reli-ability of sellers, while over the longer term locking in buyers more so than they do today. This is due to the fact that releases and upgrades will occur quickly in time measured in days or weeks, rather than years. Also, software prob-lems will manifest themselves expediently as outages become very public knowledge through the Web and other media. For example, when salesforce.com had a succession of outages, it was made public very quickly through the Web and specialty blogs like www.salesforcewatch.com.
While the theory of switching out services quickly is possible, I don’t think it will occur and SaaS vendors will be even stickier than their licensed counterparts. After a few years and lots of users, it is hard to rip something out of a business. Companies that purchase software can stop paying maintenance; those who sub-scribe to a service cannot, thus making a switch difficult and costly unless it is very well planned (something few user organizations know how to do well). And given the fact that IT capital budgets are locked down and tightly controlled, SaaS via an expense line is a much easier way to penetrate an organization. (This is not to say that SaaS will be the only vehicle for value delivery, but rather it will be the one that represents a lion’s share of incremental buyer spending.)
The New SLOG By Erik Keller
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4CIO Corner
L: The successful buyers of the future will be able to leverage off open source, not just for infrastructure (LAMP stack) but also for increasing numbers of appli-cations, including simple office functions, document management, collaboration, etc. This will give them a low-cost basis for customer development and deploy-ment and, ironically, access to high-quality software.
This use of open source will also have the effect of keeping software companies on their toes and adding value – rather than cost and useless functions – to their product. If buyers just want a simple commodity, they will lean toward buying open source, which implies that software sellers need to keep their eye on increasing the value of their software every year. By the way, this does not mean just pasting on excess functionality; it will be to make the software easier to use, install, integrate with, etc., well beyond what is offered in the open source world.
O: The most successful buyers will need to understand how to use offshoring to deliver lower-cost, world-class quality. Right now, there are many different views as to how well or poorly this works. But let’s face it: any IT professional in any high-tech area (San Francisco, Bos-ton, etc.) represents $120,000 and up in fully loaded costs. And it is no coincidence that end-user companies such as GE, United Technologies, etc., as well as sell-ers, have been steadily adding offshoring assets while aggressively lowering their internal (onshore) costs. To see the impact and importance of this, just compare Oracle’s recent financials from a cost perspective to those of five years back and look at its maintenance margins.
IT groups need to take a page from manufacturing com-panies as well as retailers in knowing how and when to use offshoring partners and when to build stuff locally. Even though software tech execs are loath to say so, there is no difference between deploying a piece of code and designing and building a part for a safety-critical air-bag system. Over the past 20 years, manufacturers have figured out how to globally source the right parts of their product line. IT groups need to do the same in the next five years.
G: And finally, Google, Amazon, Yahoo, etc. as a group are leaders in the consumer enterprise and are starting to move into the business world; FedEx is already there. They each have a different perspective on comput-ing. However, they all share a very disruptive business model based on low-cost IT and offerings that should be taken into consideration.
For example, as Google continues its massive capital build out, exemplified by its “secret” data center in Oregon, does anyone believe that all of its computing power will be used just for consumer search? Not when businesses outspend consumers by about 10 to 1 in technology. It brings to mind what Amazon announced with its Elastic Computing Cloud (EC2). And speak-ing of Amazon? If I am a small to medium business, much of the functionality I will ever need for selling my product is on its site. Same with eBay. Check out the interview with Amazon’s CTO, Werner Vogels, posted on ACM Queue (Here’s a handy link to that posting.)
What Amazon is able to do is nothing short of incred-ible when compared to traditional enterprise software.
And by the way, there are a couple of small vendors out there who will rise up and displace the enterprise status quo—just like SAP, Oracle, and Microsoft did 15 years ago. Today they are being ignored; in 2016, they will be feared.
Isn’t it time you reconsidered your enterprise software strategy by figuring out how to SLOG it? Or SLOG through it?
Erik Keller has been a participant in the information technology industry for over 25 years in a variety of roles. He formed Wapiti LLC (www.wapitillc.com) in January 1999. His book, Technology Paradise Lost, which predicts the future of IT spending in corpora-tions, was published in 2004. Before forming Wapiti, Erik was a Research Fellow, Director of Research, and Vice President with Gartner Inc. and was the primary analyst that defined ERP (enterprise resource planning) years before it was recognized by the market as one of the big IT trends of the 1990s. Erik graduated from SUNY at Stony Brook with a BE in Engineering Sci-ence. He lives in Ridgefield, CT. ≈
The most successful buyers will need to understand how to use offshoring to deliver lower-cost,
world-class quality.
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4On Humor
“Aah, they have SAP!! Begin assimilation via user exit MV45AFZZ!! They’ll never know until it’s too late… ha, ha, ha…”
Congratulations to Charles, our fifth cartoon cap-tion contest winner. Charles will receive a signed copy of this cartoon with his caption from SAPtips cartoonist extraordinaire, Mark Hill. This is our final cartoon caption contest. A big thank you to all who decided to play along with us and submit entries and vote for the winners! We had a blast doing this and we hope you had fun as well! Stay tuned next issue to see what kind of comic relief SAPtips cooks up for you (as if working with ERPs doesn’t require strong sense of humor already!)
And the winner is:Charles MacIver, Microsoft Corporation
In the meantime, our SAPtips Editor, Emil Marx, aka Redd, has cooked up a few brainteasers to keep your mind sharp (when it maybe drifting to other thoughts—like how many days until it’s the weekend.) Immediate-ly below are examples of how to do CrossLine Puzzles. Then, we’ve tossed out three for you to try on your own. Have fun! (Solutions will be available at www.SAPtips.com/Humor.asp.)
Object of puzzle: Draw one continuous line that does not cross itself, but crosses each line segment in the figure once and only once.
A line segment is the extent of a line between corners or the meeting points of other lines. For example, the figure to the left has 7 line segments.
This second figure shows one possible path through the figure. Different paths may be possible. You can begin and end the line outside or inside of the figure – whatever works. Some figures can be easy, some can be hard, and others are impossible.
Puzzle #1 Puzzle #2 Puzzle #3
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SAPtips
SAPtips is published six times per year. Copies are available online to paid readers. Preview all con-tent at: www.SAPtips.com
Logistics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Sutrisno Japit, SAP FI/CO Consultant
Pricing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Matthias Liebich, MLI Solutions, LLC
CRM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Scott Cameron, CRM Consultant
Financials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Bill McNaughten, Enterprise Resource Corp.
HR and Payroll . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Satish Badgi, Unisys Corporation
Business Warehouse (BW) . . . . . . . . Anurag Barua, The Washington Post
Basis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Eric Walter, Senior SAP Consultant
ABAP Development . . . . . . . . . . . Rehan Zaidi, Siemens Pakistan
Data Archiving . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Breck Whitten, Halliburton
We are always looking for outstanding SAP® consultants and subject-matter experts who want to write for us on a regular or semi-regular basis. Get involved with the SAPtips editorial team today, by emailing Managing Editor Cheryl Cave at [email protected]
SAPtips Associate Editors
The publisher, Andy Klee, is the President of Klee Associates, Inc., a premier provider of JD Edwards and SAP implementation and training services.
Andy’s personal goal for 2007 is to help more clients optimize their use of JD Edwards and SAP, and realize more value for their software invest-ment.
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Laura Donovan, Director of
Publications
Laura Donovan is Director of Pub-lications for Klee Associates, Inc., with responsibility for the SAPtips and JDEtips Journals and the edit-ing and production of our Mastery-Level Training Manuals. Laura has over 30 years experience in the software arena, where she has specialized in user documenta-tion and training development and delivery. She’s held in-house pub-lications and training management positions and has worked as a consultant.
Laura may be reached at:
[email protected] ext 190
