Transcript Document 7595632

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


History of SAP


Koch, Slater & Baatz, CIO 12-22-99
From sapfans.com
ERP Training Stinks

Wheatley, CIO 6-1-00
Pre-ERP

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
Pre-ERP

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)

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


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

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

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




Database Management Systems




Major UNIX platforms (e.g., AIX)
Windows NT
IBM’s AS/400 and S/390 platforms
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
1 Configuration




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
2 Modification



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
3 Enhancements


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
4 Customer 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




Pronounced “ah-bop”
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 (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