Database Reference
In-Depth Information
The deployment effort involves the following steps:
1.
SAP installation
: This involves the installation of the infrastructure and SAP licenses based
on the experience gained from the first-site implementation.
2.
Uploading base configuration
: This involves importing the base configuration prepared,
implemented, and stabilized to all other sites.
3.
Uploading data
: This corresponds to the loading of basic data that are common to the
operations of the company at all locations. This basic customization data may differ at each
site to the extent that the facility addresses different industries, market segments, and so
on. This may be reflected in the fact that supplier community may be different at each of
these facilities. There may also be differences because of differing rules and regulations at
different sites.
4.
Integrated training
: This involves conducting an integrated and tightly scheduled train-
ing session conducted for SAP support personnel, power users, and end users at the
respective sites. Unlike the case of the pilot site, this training for the rollout sites can be
done on the company-specific implementation, an opportunity that is unavailable for
the pilot sites.
5.
Integration testing
: This involves conducting integrated and tightly scheduled integration
testing using the test scripts that were prepared for the pilot site as the base. This approach
makes this exercise highly focused and efficient.
All these apply to cases in which every plant or pilot site has exactly the same configuration.
In reality, this may not be the case. Correspondingly, you may have another step for custom-
izing SAP for the specific requirements of the rollout sites. This customization may involve the
configuration of new organization structures such as sales offices or purchasing departments; it
may involve configuration of new business processes specific to the new sites; new authorizations
may need to be set up to accommodate differing roles or requirements of the rollout sites; and it
may involve setting up new reports, new forms, and additional interfaces to the legacy systems
of the plant or pilot site. If the pilot site or plant is in a different country (e.g., Canada), there
will be significant changes due to different tax regulations, reporting requirements, and other
country-specific requirements.
14.2 Continuous Change
This activity deals with ongoing changes that may be adopted in order to enhance the efficiency
and effectiveness of the SAP system. This may consist of
◾
Ongoing training
◾
Performance monitoring and fine-tuning
◾
SAP Release upgrade management
This change activity also provides the opportunity to address some of the aspects that were
decided to be out of the project's scope for the base implementation. It must be noted that we
are not referring to any extensions or enhancements to the functionality provided by SAP per se,
but to the functional modules and processes that may not have been implemented during the
first wave. Thus, ancillary modules like Plant Management (PM), Quality Management (QM),
