SAP Best Practices Upgrading SAP Solutions

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SAP Best PracticesUpgrading SAP Solutions
SAP Best Practices Development Team
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Upgrading the SAP Solutions

• SAP Best Practices are the basis of mySAP
  All-in-One solutions developed by our partners.
• The following upgrade considerations only cover
  the technical upgrade and not the other items on
  the mySAP All-in-One solutions bill of materials
  such as sales kits, training materials, etc.
  these need to be adjusted as well but are not
  part of the SAP Best Practices scope and are
  therefore not covered in this overview.
• There is no single recommended way to upgrade and
  the different options are influenced by factors
  such as
• Time to market
• Resources available and skill set
• Current solution deployment strategy

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Upgrading the Solutions - Option 1

• Option 1
• Install the new SAP Best Practices add-on in a
  clean system and test scenarios to ensure they
  work properly
• Use transports and/or BC-set activation to bring
  in delta configuration from a lower release into
  the higher environment or reconfigure from
  scratch if the delta is not big
• Test the entire solution again and make sure all
  the scenarios of the solution work properly
• Package the delta configuration using BC Set and
  building block technology as used in SAP Best
  Practices
• Advantage
• High flexibility, can deploy individual optional
  scenarios separately and reuse scenarios for
  several solutions
• Also useful if there are several All-in-One
  solutions that share common configuration
  building blocks
• Allows you to add additional SAP Best Practice
  scenarios from other industries because all
  industry solutions are based on the Baseline
  Package
• Disadvantages
• Development takes slightly longer
• Requires consultant team with eCATT and BC Set
  skills

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Upgrading the Solutions Option 2

• Option 2
• Upgrade current solution via technical upgrade to
  higher release and test to ensure processes work
  properly (note this is a technical upgrade of
  the configuration settings only)
• If you want to add new scenarios from the newer
  SAP Best Practices version, you have to add these
  manually using the configuration guide. You then
  have to test the whole solution to make sure all
  the scenarios from the initial solution and all
  the new scenarios work properly
• Advantage
• Faster upgrade especially if no new scenarios
  are needed
• Consultant team typically does not need same
  level of expertise as for option 1
• May be a cost effective approach if partner has
  only one solution offering and a lot of own delta
  development on top of the SAP Best Practices
• Disadvantages
• Once upgrade has been done the SAP Best Practice
  platform has been lost and new SAP Best Practice
  scenarios can only be added manually and then
  require additional testing. The greater the
  number of new scenarios in a new SAP Best
  Practices version (i.e. CP and Wholesale) the
  more manual work is required and the higher risk
  since there is no automation
• No building block technology each packaged
  solution is a package in its own right and
  scenarios can only be re-used via manual
  reconfiguration

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Decision Criteria for Option 1 or Option 2

• How is the partner solution currently deployed to
  the customer?
• Using the SAP Best Practices building block
  technology (BC Sets)
• Recommendation Start afresh with the newer
  version of SAP Best Practices and make use of the
  new SAP Best Practices Installation Assistant to
  speed up the installation and still get all the
  new functionality and scenarios, then recreate
  the delta BS Sets for your own solution
  components (if those are not already included in
  the new functionality)
• Using client export or transport technology
• Recommendation Evatuate if the newer SAP BP has
  a large number of new functions that you require
  in your mySAP All-in-One solution.
• If yes -gt consider starting afresh with option 1,
• if no -gt upgrade the solution. Also consider this
  if the delta development is extensive and/or
  deployment via client export or client transport
  has been proven to be sufficient
• How much new functionality is in the new SAP Best
  Practices Version?
• If the delta is substantial (e.g. CP and
  Wholesale) SAP Best Practices may now cover a lot
  of the partners delta development and thus the
  upgrade would eliminate own development
• If no delta functionality is available a
  determination of the effort should be made taking
  into consideration
• How many solutions are delivered, can they re-use
  common building blocks?
• Is more flexibility required?
• New SAP Best Practices also come with the SAP
  Best Practices Installation Assistant, which
  speeds up the installation process and can be
  used to deploy the partner solution faster

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Upgrading the SAP Solutions - Conclusion

• There are at least 2 upgrade options available to
  upgrade mySAP All-in-One Solutions containing SAP
  Best Practices
• Each solution is different and so the upgrade
  path may differ
• The SAP Best Practices team can help you with the
  analysis and make recommendations based on your
  strategy and resource and time constraints