What is the transition path from SAP R/3 to SAP ERP?
For the transition from SAP R/3 to SAP ERP, you may want to consider the
following major aspects.
Conversion of License Contract
All customers who signed SAP R/3 contracts in the past must convert their contracts
in order to use SAP ERP and the supporting SAP components. Of course,
if you have already converted your SAP R/3 contract to a contract for SAP ERP
or SAP Business Suite applications (formerly called a “mySAP.com” contract),
contract conversion is not required.
To best evaluate your situation, we invite you to contact your SAP representative,
who will be pleased to provide you with all relevant information on your contract.
(For more specific details on licensing, you may also refer to “Licensing Guidance”
in this document.)
Scope and Procedure of an Upgrade Project
Successfully executing an upgrade to SAP ERP 6.0 requires a well-defined upgrade
strategy encompassing an approach and project scope based on the circumstances
and aims of your organization. The project strategy has a great effect
not only on project duration and effort but also on the immediate return of investment
of the upgrade. The upgrade strategy usually consists of several stages that
progressively expand functionality, increase business value, and prepare the organization
for the transition to SOA while minimizing risk. This process typically lasts
three to five years and consists of three distinct phases: the technical upgrade,
Step 1: Technical Upgrade
This initial phase involves a purely technological upgrade whose major goal is the
implementation of the new software release as the foundation for all subsequent
improvements. The impact of this phase on your business and business processes
is very limited:
•
Previously used business functions are retained.
•
M odifications and custom developments may be reduced (which also reduces
cost of operations and system complexity).
•
U nicode conversion may take place depending on current situation and
requirements.
The technical upgrade simply creates the basis for functional and strategic improvements.
SAP recommends including the latest available enhancement package
in your technical upgrade. This enables you to use the latest technological
and functional enhancements in your SAP ERP software later on.
Step 2: Functional Enhancements
Directed toward business benefits, this phase focuses on increasing business
value by implementing the most valuable functions of the new software and laying
the foundation for future business innovation and improved process automation.
During this phase, SAP software modifications and custom developments are replaced
with (new) standard SAP software functions. Operational excellence is
improved by picking and implementing “low-hanging fruit” – functions that offer
the greatest business benefit with the least effort. Even though this phase can be
combined in a single project with the technical upgrade, statistics show that more
than 80% of SAP customers approach this second phase as a separate project,
to be conducted after a technical upgrade has been completed and overall stability
has been reached.
This phase can be used to activate new business functions provided by SAP
enhancement packages. The separation of individual business functions makes it
easy to pick the ones that offer the most business value first and initiate separate
small and fast implementation projects. If you are interested in finding out which
business functions suit the current usage of your software best, you can take
advantage of the new business function prediction offering from SAP. For further
information and to request an individual report, visit SAP Service Marketplace at
www.service.sap.com/bfp
.
Step 3: Strategic Enhancements
Phase three involves implementing new and optimized business processes that
fully exploit new SAP ERP functions and enable SOA. In addition to new functions,
SAP ERP offers your organization greater productivity due to role-based user interfaces,
integrated analytical insights into business processes, and the flexibility
to design new business processes to meet your changing requirements. It also
embeds industry-specific functions, all available in a single solution
Realizing strategic enhancements may involve implementing other software or
components and is very much dependent on the business needs of your organization.
SOA enables you to shorten application innovation lifecycles and implement
strategic business enhancements at your own speed.
Scope of Subsequent Projects
As explained above, most of the new opportunities provided with SAP ERP are
usually implemented in subsequent projects after the completion of the technical
upgrade. SAP ERP allows you to deploy new functionality incrementally as your
business requires. A few examples follow:
•
M any customers have already implemented analytics functionality and have
experienced its value in enabling their information workers to gain credible,
clear, and comprehensive business insight.
•
Another good example is the self-services functionality delivered by SAP ERP,
which general customer experience has found can be quickly implemented and
offers great value.
•
Y et other customers use SAP ERP as the foundation for SAP industry solutions,
which can be activated with the supporting technology.
To find all relevant information on upgrading, please visit the upgrade portal
on SAP Service Marketplace at
www.service.sap.com/upgrade. More specific
information is available at
www.service.sap.com/upgradeservices,
www.service.sap.com/upgrade-erp
, www.service.sap.com/erp-ehp, and
www.service.sap.com/erp-inst
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