Download chapter 5: 'Upgrading to SAP R/3 Enterprise'
Excerpted from the book "SAP R/3 Handbook, Third Edition," ISBN 0072257164, Copyright 2005. Written permission from McGraw-Hill is required for all other uses. Copyright © 2005 McGraw-Hill. All rights reserved.
Chapter Excerpt:
- A SAP release upgrade is a serious project, a project that will require time and
organizational resources and might also require external consulting help. Therefore time,
resources, and budget must be allocated for the project.
From a very general point of view, upgrading is either necessary because companies want to get the advantages of the newer release or they want to solve the issues implied by having an old release, from outdated maintenance to technical shortcomings. Either of the two general factors, and whether they are operational, economic, or strategic, must be recognized by customers to determine if an upgrade is needed.
- End of maintenance. Every SAP release has a deadline, meaning that SAP will not provide additional corrections or fi xes in Support Packages. Normally it also implies having to pay additional maintenance fees for regular support.
- Need for new functionality. It might happen that the new release contains important new functionality that would solve some of the business or technical requirements, whether these are new, or whether they were previously solved with local programming or third-party tools.
- Need to have the latest release and latest technology. Many companies prefer to be updated as soon as possible (normally starting to plan the upgrade after general availability is released) and so choose to be updated not only with new functionalities, but with all the new technical possibilities (for instance, to take advantage of the SAP NetWeaver integration capabilities or all the Web development options).
- Technical limitations with current release. Similar to the previous reason, customers might find that the current release is limiting system's growth, compatibility with other solutions, or increased effort for evolving or adapting the business.
- Reduction in the number of interfaces. Older releases include fewer BAPIs, which might have led to the local development of interfaces with other systems or external applications. It normally happens that newer SAP releases include additional BAPIs and additional interface or integration technologies that most likely will reduce the current number of interfaces.
- Standardization. Customers with several SAP systems can clearly see an improvement in efficiency, support, and maintenance costs when all their systems are on the same release.
- Stepping into newer product suites. Upgrading to SAP R/3 Enterprise, thus having the SAP Web Application Server as the application platform, will make customers technologically ready for SAP NetWeaver and newer integrated solutions such as mySAP ERP or mySAP Business Suite.
Why Upgrade?
Let's review in more detail some of the reasons influencing a customer's need for a SAP upgrade:
In any case, there will be a recognition process for upgrading, followed by a justification process, which can be based in one or several of the aforementioned reasons.
Justifying an upgrade project will also involve closely analyzing objectives, planning, risks, return on investment, and expected benefits. When too many risks and too little gain are identified, and if the reasons are mainly based on functionality gain, the customer might look at alternatives before proceeding with the upgrade project.
There is, however, a theory in the SAP world that the longer a customer makes a decision for an upgrade, the harder and more costly it becomes.
Chapter 5: 'Upgrading to SAP R/3 Enterprise'
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This was first published in February 2006