CMIS 470 Structured Systems Design Package Software, Intro to LPI, Intro to hands-on SAP R/3 Week 6

Plan for the Week Intro to Packaged Software, ERP and LPI Ch 14 4 readings distributed Overview of SAP R/3 Turn in BPP, Sequence Diagram Homework

Packaged Software Traditionally focused on isolated business functions ERP focuses on integrated software solutions Current trends show increase in packaged software and decrease in in-house software development

Three Critical Issues of Packaged Software Spanning All Phases of the SDLC Figure 14-3

Customization Desire is to minimize customization Best practices built-in already Unique requirements may exist Customization types Configuration Modification Enhancement

Integration Standardize data so all functions can access it in real time Enterprise application integration (EAI) is the process of linking applications to support the flow of information across multiple business units and IT systems Middleware ERP with built-in middleware

Upgrading Packages Upgrades can be challenging Frequency Existing level of customization Integration Must be planned and documented

Large Package Implementation Pre-ERP What is ERP? Advice from “the front”

Large Package Implementation Associated Readings: The ABC’s of ERP Koch, Slater & Baatz, CIO History of SAP From sapfans.com ERP Training Stinks Wheatley, CIO

Pre-ERP Application-specific systems Application-specific systems Incremental design Separate information systems built over long period of time Each system supports discrete business process (e.g., manufacturing, finance, sales) Suppliers and customers rarely part of the information system picture

Pre-ERP

Application-specific systems Application-specific systems An illustration of associated problems -- Mott’s North America (Catherine Riordan): “Under application-specific systems, each business unit was well served, but important data would vary dramatically among divisions” “Sales would use its system to project sales; Logistics planning group would use manufacturing system to decide how much product to make and how to schedule production” “Each area would think overtly or covertly that the other area’s numbers weren’t any good” “There was no trust between the divisions”

What is ERP? Configurable information system that integrates applications in accounting, sales, manufacturing, and other functions Integration is accomplished through a single (HUGE) database shared by all the applications Designed to support global operations Multiple languages and currencies

What is ERP?

Major ERP Vendors Major ERP vendors: SAP AG PeopleSoft Oracle J.D. Edwards

Advice from “the front” Need to redesign business processes to fit the ERP (not the other way around) Need to redesign business processes to fit the ERP (not the other way around) Boeing: “Most difficult and time-consuming and expensive aspect of the project was creation of a ‘bridge’ between PeopleSoft HR system and our legacy payroll systems” In hindsight, they believe they should have forced the payroll process to move to PeopleSoft and eliminated those legacy systems

Advice from “the front” Management support, at the top and in business areas, is crucial Management support, at the top and in business areas, is crucial A-Busch recommends placing a BUSINESS leader in charge, not MIS, so project leadership comes from the business perspective Leader needs to communicate vision, maintain motivation, fight political battles, and remain influential with all stakeholders (Willcocks & Sykes, 2000, Communications of the ACM)

Advice from “the front” Prepare to invest in training of IT and process folks Prepare to invest in training of IT and process folks A-Busch: “Find the ‘right’ people for the project, empower them, and take the training seriously” Boeing: “Reskill the end users; supplement generalized user training with training on the specific application modules each will be using”

Advice from “the front” Prepare to deal with difficulty in hiring and retaining ERP-skilled workers Prepare to deal with difficulty in hiring and retaining ERP-skilled workers Monsanto: “One of the critical workforce requirements for the SAP project was identifying analysts with both business and technical knowledge” “Instead of 200 ‘programmers’ with average skills, the SAP project demanded and could be accomplished with 20 of the ‘best and brightest’ business analysts” “However, retaining these professionals was a significant problem because of their market value”

So... Which installation method is likely most recommended in ERP implementations? Big-bang Parallel Phased

What should you be able to come up with? Reasons for implementing ERP Critical success factors of ERP At least one take-away from each article

Overview of SAP R/3 Major ERP vendors: SAP AG PeopleSoft Oracle J.D. Edwards

Overview of SAP R/3 Pronounced “Ess Ay Pee” SAP is the company, R/3 is the product SAP stands for Systems, Applications, and Products R stands for Real-time system 3 represents client/server (vs. R/2 mainframe version)

Overview of SAP R/3 Three-tier architecture of R/3

Overview of SAP R/3 Basic design principles implemented in the SAP R/3 product Real-time information Single integrated database Business groups work with SAME data in REAL TIME

SAP R/3 Functional Modules

SAP R/3 Software Basis (the blue blob) Middleware that enables R/3 to run on various platforms Operating systems Major UNIX platforms (e.g., AIX) Windows NT IBM’s AS/400 and S/390 platforms Database Management Systems IBM’s DB2 Oracle Microsoft SQL Server Functional Modules...

SAP R/3 Financial Components FI - Financial Accounting CO - Controlling EC - Enterprise Controlling IM - Capital Investment Management TR - Treasury (might be 1 or 2 recent additions)

SAP R/3 HR Components PA - Personnel Administration PD - Personnel Development

SAP R/3 Logistics Components MM - Materials Management PM - Plant Maintenance PP - Production Planning PS - Project System QM - Quality Management SD - Sales and Distribution

SAP R/3 Industry Solution Applications Fully integrated with SAP R/3 components Address unique needs of the industry Industry Solutions available include: Banking Healthcare Public Sector Retail Utilities Insurance

IS Development View of SAP R/3 4 ways to adapt SAP R/3 to a company What is ABAP? Recommended R/3 development landscape

4 Ways to Adapt SAP R/3 1Configuration A mandatory part of setting up R/3 Set system parameters using a special user interface (IMG) Essentially entering “master data” and selecting processes Done by business analysts

SAP R/3 “Master Data”

4 Ways to Adapt SAP R/3 2Modification Customer changes SAP R/3 objects When you upgrade your SAP R/3 system, must compare your version of modified objects with new SAP version -- and deal with the associated issues “DON’T DO IT”

4 Ways to Adapt SAP R/3 3Enhancements Customer additions and changes to R/3 objects that are not “modifications” SAP programs have “user exits” designed into them at points where they have found customers may want to branch to additional specialized logic

4 Ways to Adapt SAP R/3 4Customer Development R/3 contains a customer namespace where you can create your own objects (e.g., additional tables, report programs, dialogs, transactions, etc.) NOTES: SAP customers typically do only 1 and 4 - Configuration and Customer Development Textbook use of term “Enhancements” would encompass both 3 and 4 here

What is ABAP? The ABAP Language The ABAP Language Pronounced “ah-bop” ABAP Advanced Business Application Programming All SAP functional modules are written in ABAP Only SAP and SAP customers use the ABAP language

What is ABAP? The ABAP Language The ABAP Language (continued) Supports event-driven logic Uses Open SQL (subset of ANSI SQL) Is “multilingual”: Text on screens/reports (e.g., titles, headers) stored separately from the program code User settings indicate which language the text should be displayed in Special date, time, currency fields are incorporated in the language functionality to support “global” logic Conversions are done automatically

What is ABAP? Companies installing or running SAP R/3 need ABAP programmers to: Provide extended functionality that can’t be implemented by Configuration specialized reports additional screens, dialogs, tables additional transactions modules to execute at user exits Of course, the SAP company and SAP consulting firms also need ABAP programmers