SAP Landscape Consolidation

By |February 13th, 2012|

For any number of reasons, many companies that run SAP end up with fragmented and piecemeal landscapes. This problem happens for many reasons: roll-outs, independent Business Units, mergers and acquisitions, immature software procurement processes, lack of a Software Asset Management program, etc. The results can leave your SAP application and business solution looking like someone set off an explosion with scattered pieces everywhere. More and more, I am seeing companies work to consolidate on [...]

Key Design Considerations for SAP Reimplementation

By |February 6th, 2012|

    Whether you are doing a single instance reimplementation, a system consolidation, or an upgrade rollout, you will to blueprint the differences between your current state and what needs to change for your future state. Depending on your SAP reimplementation approach, you should make several key considerations in the SAP reimplementation blueprint.       All three approaches require a few key steps: Rationalize your landscape, Consolidate your functionality scope, Eva [...]

SAP Reimplementation Method Key Considerations

By |January 30th, 2012|

Among the three variations for SAP software reimplementations are two key approaches. You either make the changes to your existing production system (or a cloned copy of it), or you make the changes in a pristine, newly designed environment. SAP Cloned Production System “Re”-Implementations Making changes in your existing production system (more likely in a cloned instance of it) ensures data consistency and ease of adjustment. However, several difficulties are involved. If you have a significa [...]

How to Execute an SAP Reimplementation

By |January 23rd, 2012|

Some time ago, I started a series on doing an SAP reimplementation for little more cost than a technical upgrade. While I have done these reimplementations, a few interesting scenarios added new complexities that need to be addressed. For example, how do companies deal with a seriously fragmented application landscape? We especially need to consider this issue in large enterprises where each company code, location, business unit, or other area decided to implement their own SAP applications ind [...]

SAP Reimplementation for Little More Cost than a Technical Upgrade Part 2

By |September 7th, 2010|

A number of important considerations in an SAP reimplementation do not exist for a technical upgrade. As a result, the upfront planning and evaluation time will be more involved. For example you need to consider any organization structure changes. How will any new organization structure items map to old ones? Then you need to analyze how to handle old master data if the organization structure changes are so significant that they require a whole new master data paradigm. If you have done a lot o [...]

SAP Reimplementation For Little More Cost than a Technical Upgrade Part 1

By |August 30th, 2010|

I previously noted that I would follow up with a post on doing an SAP implementation for only marginally more than a technical upgrade (see Technical SAP Upgrade or SAP Reimplementation). In the process, you should keep a few assumptions and several considerations in mind. If an SAP reimplementation is done well, you can significantly reduce the Total Cost of Ownership. You should also keep in mind that getting closer to standard functionality in non-business critical areas (or what I like to r [...]