Best practice for HR while cost center is blocked

Hi Experts,
Back ground
Cost center is blocked because the legal entity is demerged.
Some of the employees of the outgoing company are retained in existing legal entity.
Their current cost centers are of the existing entity.
All the historical costcenters of the outgoing entity are blocked.
Situation
While there is a retro payment the system is rejecting as the old cost centers are blocked.
Workarounds used
Open the cost center for posting and then manually transfer the amount into desired cost center and then re-close the Costcenter.
SAP Suggestion
Use substitute cost center so that all costs are colloected their and do the manual transfer of cost to desired ones.
Could not use the same as business has to do the same manual activity.
Solution
Taken access key into the posting driver to change the cost center to current while there is an occurence of blocked cost center.
Requirement
Want to use the standard posting driver by removing all customization in upgrade.
Now the Qtn is
What is the best business process followed by FI and HR guys in organization to handle such scenarios?

Old question, but I have the same problem at this moment.
We also are looking into 2 solutions:
1. use the substitution costcenters
2. Create a custom function in our payroll scheme and modify the costcenter during payroll-run. Normally the costcenter will eb saved in the clusters and will be read from the clusters in the fico-run.
Anybody some good advice for this?

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Best practice for implementing Manufacturing Cost Planning ( MCP)

is there any best practice for implementing Manufacturing Cost Planning ( MCP) using BI-IP?

Hi:
Both options are viable. If you reverse posting in FB50 then FI GL account postings will also be reversed and along with cost center postings. Hence here advantage is that cost center reversal will be with referenced to the original document with which wrong posting were made. Disadvantage here is that you will to post the entry again in FB50 . In KB11N you will simply transfer cost center amount from wrong to new one that should be in place of it but here you will have no reference . I personally think reversing posting through FB50 is viable options , reverse postings can be seen in KSB1 as well against that cost center.
Regards

Best practices for using the 'cost details' fields

Hi
Please could you advise us to the best practices for using the 'cost details' field within Pricing. Currently I cannot find the way to surface the individual Cost Details fields within the Next Generation UI, even with the tick box for 'display both cost and price' ticked. It seems that these get surfaced when the Next Generation UI is turned off, but cannot find them when it is turned on. We can see the 'Pricing Summary' field but this does not fulfill our needs, as some of our services have both recurring and one-off costs.
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Hi Richard,
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Best praxis for determining a cost center for an HR org unit in PPM ?

Hello all.
We have defined the HR Org structure directly in PPM backend. Later the intention is that an interface should transfer this data from HR.
The HR orgstructure defined works fine for the staffing process (with "resource manager via responsible organization").
We have however run into some problems with the MLC & costing part. The intention is to use manual MLC linking tasks/phases to PS WBS-elements (task based controlling).
If we leave the org unit field blank in the cProject project project definition we run into the message "No account assignment exists for the project defintion - no costing" and the systems rolls back from the assignment made.
If we however assign an orgunit in the project defintion we instead get the message "No cost center could be determined for org unit 123...".
We therefore need to be able to determine a cost center for the Org Unit assigned to be able to proceed. How is this then best done?
There is a master cost center assigned to the orgunit in HR but not in PPM backend where this option does not seem to be available.
With task based controlling the cost center does not really matter so it could possibly be hardcoded via a BADI (?) but is this really the way this should be done?
Any suggestions?
Thanks / Anders

Hi and thanks for the reply.
We will test with an ALE replicated structure so that the object ID becomes the same in the two systems as soon as possible.
Pending that we will try the BADI option. Here I am however not sure what it is we really expect the BADI to do. Which field should be populated with the cost center (the fields available are mainly project characteristics)?
I also eventually found some information regarding this in the PPM 4.0 help. I enclose info regarding this below.
a) http://help.sap.com/saphelp_ppm400/helpdata/en/index.htm
b) choose Collaboration projects>Accounting Integration>General Information about Accounting integration>Derivation of Organizational data.
As I read this the system derives this as follows in case of task-based or role-based costing with no resource assignment:
1) Look for the two BADIs mentioned to derive the cost center
2) If no result there it looks for an org unit in the cProject header (where I assume having the Org Unit with the same Object ID in backend and ERP enables this option)
3) If no result there the system looks for a "requesting cost center" in the account assignment object (WBS element or internal order)
Regards / Anders

Best practice for reclassifying Cost Center/Element

Dear experts,
Currently the company I'm working for are using SA document (FB50) if there are mistakes when posting cost to Cost Center, they will DR New Cost Center and CR Old Cost Center.
However, it is seem a bit difficult to trace the changes later on. Hence, I would like to ask for opinions on what is the best practice for reclassifying cost center or cost element.
Right now, I'm planning to propose of using KB11N to reclassify cost center. Is this a good practice and easy to trace the cost movement? Is there any different with normal journal adjustment via FB50 and KB11N?
Need some advices from experts.

Hi:
Both options are viable. If you reverse posting in FB50 then FI GL account postings will also be reversed and along with cost center postings. Hence here advantage is that cost center reversal will be with referenced to the original document with which wrong posting were made. Disadvantage here is that you will to post the entry again in FB50 . In KB11N you will simply transfer cost center amount from wrong to new one that should be in place of it but here you will have no reference . I personally think reversing posting through FB50 is viable options , reverse postings can be seen in KSB1 as well against that cost center.
Regards

Best Practices for Using Photoshop (and Computing in General)

I've been seeing some threads that lead me to realize that not everyone knows the best practices for doing Photoshop on a computer, and in doing conscientious computing in general. I thought it might be a good idea for those of us with some exprience to contribute and discuss best practices for making the Photoshop and computing experience more reliable and enjoyable.
It'd be great if everyone would contribute their ideas, and especially their personal experience.
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Consider paying more for good hardware. Computers have almost become commodities, and price shopping abounds, but there are some areas where spending a few dollars more can be beneficial. For example, the difference in price between a top-of-the-line high performance enterprise class hard drive and the cheapest model around with, say, a 1 TB capacity is less than a hundred bucks! Disk drives do fail! They're not all created equal. What would it cost you in aggravation and time to lose your data? Imagine it happening at the worst possible time, because that's exactly when failures occur.
Use an Uninterruptable Power Supply (UPS). Unexpected power outages are TERRIBLE for both computer software and hardware. Lost files and burned out hardware are a possibility. A UPS that will power the computer and monitor can be found at the local high tech store and doesn't cost much. The modern ones will even communicate with the computer via USB to perform an orderly shutdown if the power failure goes on too long for the batteries to keep going. Again, how much is it worth to you to have a computer outage and loss of data?
Work locally, copy files elsewhere. Photoshop likes to be run on files on the local hard drive(s). If you are working in an environment where you have networking, rather than opening a file right off the network, then saving it back there, consider copying the file to your local hard drive then working on it there. This way an unexpected network outage or error won't cause you to lose work.
Never save over your original files. You may have a library of original images you have captured with your camera or created. Sometimes these are in formats that can be re-saved. If you're going to work on one of those files (e.g., to prepare it for some use, such as printing), and it's a file type that can be overwritten (e.g., JPEG), as soon as you open the file save the document in another location, e.g., in Photoshop .psd format.
Save your master files in several places. While you are working in Photoshop, especially if you've done a lot of work on one document, remember to save your work regularly, and you may want to save it in several different places (or copy the file after you have saved it to a backup folder, or save it in a version management system). Things can go wrong and it's nice to be able to go back to a prior saved version without losing too much work.
Make Backups. Back up your computer files, including your Photoshop work, ideally to external media. Windows now ships with a quite good backup system, and external USB drives with surprisingly high capacity (e.g., Western Digital MyBook) are very inexpensive. The external drives aren't that fast, but a backup you've set up to run late at night can finish by morning, and if/when you have a failure or loss of data. And if you're really concerned with backup integrity, you can unplug an external drive and take it to another location.
This stuff is kind of "motherhood and apple pie" but it's worth getting the word out I think.
Your ideas?
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APC Back-UPS XS 1300. $169.99 at Best Buy.
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I'm setting up the PowerChute software now to shut down the computer when 5 minutes of power is left. The load with the monitor sleeping is 171 watts.
This has surge protection and other nice features as well.
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Best practice for retraction of data from BPC 10.0 to General Ledger

Hi All,
I have the requirement to retract data from BPC 10.0 to General Ledger.
What is the best practice for doing this?
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JA

Hi Rich,
In BPC 10 NW, the data entered in Input Forms has to be retracted to ECC.
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Best Practices for Service Entry Sheet Approval

Hi All
Just like to get some opinion on best practices for external service management - particularly approval process for Service Entry Sheet.
We have a 2 step approval process using workflow:
1 Entry Sheet Created (blocked)
2. Workflow to requisition creator to verify/unblock the Entry Sheet
3. Workflow to Cost Object owner to approve the Entry Sheet.
For high volume users (e.g. capital projects) this is cumbersome process - we looking to streamline but still maintain control.
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thanks
AC.

Hi,
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Biju K

BI Best Practice for Chemical Industry

Hello,
I would like to know if anyone is aware of SAP BI Best Practice for Chemicals.And if so can anyone please post a link aswell.
Thanks

Hi Naser,
Below information will helps you in detail explanation regarding Chemical industry....
SAP Best Practices packages support best business practices that quickly turn your SAP ERP application into a valuable tool used by the entire business. You can evaluate and implement specific business processes quickly u2013 without extensive Customization of your SAP software. As a result, you realize the benefits with less Effort and at a lower cost than ever before. This helps you improve operational efficiency while providing the flexibility you need to be successful in highly demanding markets. SAP Best Practices packages can benefit companies of all sizes, including global enterprises creating a corporate template for their subsidiaries.
Extending beyond the boundaries of conventional corporate divisions and functions, the SAP Best Practices for Chemicals package is based on SAP ERP; the SAP Environment, Health & Safety (SAP EH&S) application; and the SAP Recipe Management application. The business processes supported by SAP Best Practices for Chemicals encompass a wide range of activities typically found in a chemical industry
Practice:
u2022 Sales and marketing
u2013 Sales order processing
u2013 Presales and contracts
u2013 Sales and distribution (including returns, returnables, and rebates, with quality management)
u2013 Inter- and intracompany processes
u2013 Cross-company sales
u2013 Third-party processing
u2013 Samples processing
u2013 Foreign trade
u2013 Active-ingredient processing
u2013 Totes handling
u2013 Tank-trailer processing
u2013 Vendor-managed inventory
u2013 Consignment processing
u2013 Outbound logistics
u2022 Supply chain planning and execution Supply and demand planning
u2022 Manufacturing planning and execution
u2013 Manufacturing execution (including quality management)
u2013 Subcontracting
u2013 Blending
u2013 Repackaging
u2013 Relabeling
u2013 Samples processing
u2022 Quality management and compliance
u2013 EH&S dangerous goods management
u2013 EH&S product safety
u2013 EH&S business compliance services
u2013 EH&S industrial hygiene and safety
u2013 EH&S waste management
u2022 Research and development Transformation of general recipes
u2022 Supplier collaboration
u2013 Procurement of materials and services (Including quality management)
u2013 Storage tank management
u2013 E-commerce (Chemical Industry Data Exchange)
u2022 Enterprise management and support
u2013 Plant maintenance
u2013 Investment management
u2013 Integration of the SAP NetWeaver Portal component
u2022 Profitability analysis
More Details
This section details the most common business scenarios u2013 those that benefit most from the application of best practices.
Sales and Marketing
SAP Best Practices for Chemicals supports the following sales and marketingu2013related business processes:
Sales order processing u2013 In this scenario, SAP Best Practices for Chemicals supports order entry, delivery, and billing. Chemical industry functions include the following:
u2022 Triggering an available-to-promise (ATP) inventory check on bulk orders after sales order entry and automatically creating a filling order (Note: an ATP check is triggered for packaged material.)
u2022 Selecting batches according to customer requirements:
u2022 Processing internal sales activities that involve different organizational units
Third-party and additional internal processing u2013 In this area, the SAP Best Practices for Chemicals package provides an additional batch production step that can be applied to products previously produced by either continuous or batch processing. The following example is based on further internal processing of plastic granules:
u2022 Purchase order creation, staging, execution, and completion
u2022 In-process and post process control
u2022 Batch assignment from bulk to finished materials
u2022 Repackaging of bulk material
SAP Best Practices for Chemicals features several tools that help you take advantage of chemical industry best practices. For example, it provides a fully documented and reusable prototype that you can turn into a productive solution quickly. It also provides a variety of tools, descriptions of business scenarios, and proven configuration of SAP software based on more than 35 years of working with the
Chemical industry.
SAP Functions in Detail u2013 SAP Best Practices for Chemicals
The package can also be used to support external toll processing such as that required for additional treatment or repackaging.
Tank-trailer processing u2013 In this scenario, SAP Best Practices for Chemicals helps handle the selling of bulk material, liquid or granular. It covers the process that automatically adjusts the differences between the original order quantities and the actual quantities filled in the truck. To determine the quantity actually filled, the tank trailer is weighed before and after loading. The delta weight u2013 or quantity filled u2013 is transmitted to the SAP software via an order confirmation. When the delivery for the sales order is created, the software automatically adjusts the order quantity with the confirmed filling quantity.The customer is invoiced for the precise quantity filled and delivered.
Supply Chain Planning and Execution
SAP Best Practices for Chemicals supports supply chain planning as well as supply chain execution processes:
Supply and demand planning u2013 Via the SAP Best Practices for Chemicals package, SAP enables complete support for commercial and supply-chain processes in the chemical industry, including support for integrated sales and operations planning, planning strategies for bulk material, and a variety of filling processes with corresponding packaging units. The package maps the entire supply chain u2013 from sales planning to material requirements planning to transportation procurement.
Supplier Collaboration
In the procurement arena, best practices are most important in the following
Scenario:
Procurement of materials and services:
In this scenario, SAP Best Practices for Chemicals describes a range of purchasing processes, including the following:
u2022 Selection of delivery schedules by vendor
u2022 Interplant stock transfer orders
u2022 Quality inspections for raw materials, including sampling requests triggered
by goods receipt
Manufacturing Scenarios
SAP Best Practices for Chemicals supports the following sales and
Manufacturingu2013related business processes:
Continuous production u2013 In a continuous production scenario, SAP Best Practices for Chemicals typifies the practice used by basic or commodity chemical producers. For example, in the continuous production of plastic granules, production order processing is based on run-schedule headers. This best-practice package also describes batch and quality management in continuous production. Other processes it supports include handling of byproducts,co-products, and the blending process.
Batch production u2013 For batch production,
SAP Best Practices for Chemicals typifies the best practice used by specialty
chemical producers. The following example demonstrates batch production
of paint, which includes the following business processes:
u2022 Process order creation, execution, and completion
u2022 In-process and post process control
u2022 Paperless manufacturing using XMLbased Process integration sheets
u2022 Alerts and events
u2022 Batch derivation from bulk to finished materials
Enterprise Management and Support
SAP Best Practices for Chemicals also supports a range of scenarios in this
area:
Plant maintenance u2013 SAP Best Practices for Chemicals allows for management
of your technical systems. Once the assets are set up in the system, it focuses on preventive and emergency maintenance. Tools and information support the setup of a production plant with assets and buildings.Revenue and cost controlling u2013 The package supports the functions that help you meet product-costing requirements in the industry. It describes how cost centers can be defined, attached
to activity types, and then linked to logistics. It also supports costing and settlement of production orders for batch and continuous production. And it includes information and tools that help you analyze sales and actual costs in a margin contribution report.
The SAP Best Practices for Chemicals package supports numerous integrated
business processes typical of the chemical industry, including the following:
u2022 Quality management u2013 Supports integration of quality management concepts across the entire supplychain (procurement, production, and sales), including batch recall and complaint handling
u2022 Batch management u2013 Helps generate batches based on deliveries from vendors or because of company production or filling, with information and tools for total management of batch production and associated processes including batch derivation, batch information cockpit, and a batchwhere- used list
u2022 Warehouse management u2013 Enables you to identify locations where materials
or batch lots are stored, recording details such as bin location and other storage information on dangerous goods to help capture all information needed to show compliance with legal requirements
Regards
Sudheer

Best Practice for 0InfoObjects

Hi,
I need assistance on BI best practices for using 0infoObjects. Currently, we have many 0infoObjects such as 0CostCenter, 0ProfitCenter, 0SalesOrg etc which are used in zinfoObjects like Zcustomer, Zmaterial etc in addition to Z cubes and zODS.
We are starting an upgrade project which presents a chance to convert some of these 0infoObjects to ZinfoObjects so that they can be customized later as needed.
What is the best practice for situations like this? do we take on the extra effort of changing 0 to Z ( I read somewhere this is advisable ) or should we target only some infoObjects which historically change the most.
Thanks,
Kartik

Hi:
Use the 0-infoobjects as they are.
Business Content gven by SAP is pretty good for some modules (e.g., Finance).
Clients pay lot of maney for SAP so that they can use the delivered Business Content as much as possible and then, if needed create new Custom Objects.
When it comes to InfoProviders, its a good idea to copy them to Z-InfoProviders and make new changes accordingly. but, InfoPbjects like Cost Center, COntrolling Area, Functional Loc, Material, etc, etc; just use them as they are. Good luck if you want to create Z-Infoobjects for the above critical infoobjects.
Do you know how difficult it is to get R/3 based hierarchies for Z-infoobjects (again, Cost Center, Fucntional Location, Cost Element)?
Also, you have to use SAP delivred Time Characteristics.
Since you need to use some delivered InfoObjects anyway, it dictates that you have to be careful installing new Business Content.
There you go.
U.P.Ram Chamarthy

Best practice for business rules

Our business rules have
Fix ( [Cost Center] )
to extract the user's Cost Center from his form so that it runs faster.
What is the best practice for running that same Business Rule but for all Cost Center? Will it be to put that Business Rule in a menu somewhere and let it prompt users to manually type "Cost Center" so that the Business Rule processes all cost centers ?
Thanks.
David

You can try this way: create your primary business rule with FIX(@RELATIVE(VarCostCenter,0)), where VarCostCenter is a run time promt. Then you could easily use it to calculate only current member on ther form (fix will give you only 1 member).
Then you create a new sequence and add there your business rule, go to "Launch Variables" tab, find promt for Cost Center, set it to "Total Cost Centers" and click hide. So basically now you have a copy of the primary rule but it runs for all cost centers automatically.
So using this technique you will have to maintain only one business rule!

Best Practices for zVM/SLES10/zDB2 environment for dialog instances.

Hi, I am a zSeries system programmer who has just completed an IBM led Proof of Concept which demonstrated the viability of running SAP instances on SUSE SLES10 Linux booted in zVM guests and accessing zDB2 data via hipersockets. Before we build a Linux infrastructure using the 62 IFLs we just procured, we are wondering if any best practices for this environment have been developed as an OSS note or something else by SAP.    Below you will find an email which was sent and responded to by IBM and Novell on these topics...
"As you may know, Home Depot has embarked on an IBM led proof of concept using SUSE SLES10 running in zVM guests on IBM zSeries hardware to host SAP server instances. The Home Depot IT organization is currently in the midst of a large scale push to modernize our merchandising and people systems on SAP platforms. The zVM/SUSE/SAP POC is part of that effort, as is a parallel POC of an Intel Blade/Red Hat/SAP platform. For our production financial systems we now use a pSeries/AIX/SAP platform.
      So far in the zVM/SUSE/SAP POC, we have been able to create four zVM LPARS on IBM z9 hardware, create twelve zVM guests on those LPARS, boot SLES10 in those guests, install and run SAP instances in those guests using hipersockets for access to our DB2 SAP databases running on zOS, and direct user workloads to the SAP instances with good results. We have also successfully developed cloning scripts that have made it possible to create new SLES10 instances, configured and ready for SAP installs, in about 10 seconds using FLASHCOPY and IBM DASD.
      I am writing in the hope that you can direct us to technical resources at IBM/Novell/SAP who may be able to field a few questions that have arisen. In our discussions about optimization of the zVM/SUSE/SAP platform, we wondered if any wisdom about the appropriateness of and support for using zVM capabilities to virtualize SAP has ever been developed or any best practices drafted. Attached you will find an IBM Redbook and a PowerPoint presentation which describes the use of the zVM discontiguous shared segments and the zVM named saved system features for the sharing of reentrant code and other elements of Linux and its applications, thereby conserving storage and disk resources allocated to guest machines.   The specific question of the hour is, can any SAP code be handled similarly? Have specific SAP elements eligible for this treatment been identified?
      I've searched the SUSE Knowledgebase for articles on this topic to no avail. Any similar techniques that might help us reduce the total cost of ownership of a zVM/SUSE/SAP platform as we compare it to Intel Blade/Red Hat/SAP and pSeries/AIX/SAP platforms are of great interest as we approach the end of our POC. Can you help?
      Greg McKelvey is a Client I/T Architect at IBM. He found the attached IBM documents and could give a fuller account of our POC. Pat Downs, IBM zSeries IT Architect, has also worked to guide our POC. Akshay Rao, IBM Systems IT Specialist - Linux | Virtualization | SOA, is acting as project manager for the POC. Jim Hawkins is the Home Depot Architect directing the POC. I've CC:ed their email addresses. I am sure they would be pleased to hear from you if there are the likely questions about what the heck I am asking about here. And while writing, I thought of yet another question that I hoping somebody at SAP might weigh in on; are there any performance or operational benefits to using Linux LVM to apportion disk to filesystems vs. using zVM to create appropriately sized minidisks for filesystems without LVM getting involved?"
As you can see, implementation questions need to be resolved. We have heard from Novell that the SLES10 Kernel and other SUSE artifacts can reside in memory and be shared by multiple operating system images. Does SAP support this configuration? Also, has SAP identified SAP components which are eligible for similar treatment? We would like to make sure that any decisions we make about the SAP platforms we are building will be supportable. Any help you can provide will be greatly appreciated. I will supply the documents referenced above if they are not known to any answerer. Thanks, Al Brasher 770-433-8211 x11895 [email protected]

Hello AL ,
first, let me welcome you on board, I am sure you won't be disapointed with your choice to run SAP on ZOS.
as for your questions,
it wan't easy to find them in this long post , so i suggest you take the time to write a short summary that contains a very short list of questions.
as for answers.
here are a few usefull sources of information :
1. the sap on db2 for Z/os sdn page :
SAP on DB2 for z/OS
in it you can find 2 relevant docs :
a. best practices for ...
b. database administration for db2 udb for z/os .
this second publication is excellent , apart from db2 specific info , it contains information on all the components of the sap on db2 for z/os like zlinux,z/vm and so on ...
2. I can see that you are already familiar with the ibm redbooks , but it seems that you haven't taken the time to get the most out of that resource.
from you post it is clear that you have found one usefull publication , but I know there are several.
3. a few months ago I wrote a short post on a similar subject ,
I'm sure its not exactly what you are looking for at this moment , but its a good start , and with some patience you may be able to get some answers.
here's a link
http://blogs.ittoolbox.com/sap/db2/archives/index-of-free-documentation-on-sap-db2-administration-14245
good luck.
omer brandis.

Best Practices for Implementing Cryptographic VPN

With Marcin Latosiewicz
Welcome to the Cisco Support Community Ask the Expert conversation. This is an opportunity to learn and ask questions about implementing cryptographic VPN and how to prepare it for the future with expert Marcin Latosiewicz.
Marcin will share his best practices for implementing cryptographic VPN as well as advise those customers who are looking to build a new or update their existing setups how to maximize their potential. Additionally, Marcin will provide insight into which technologies could be applicable for new deployments and exciting new technologies that will be available in the next few months.
Marcin Latosiewicz is a customer support engineer at the Cisco® Technical Assistance Center in Belgium, with more than 6 years of experience with Cisco Security products and technologies including IPsec, VPN, internetworking appliances, network and system security, Internet services, and Cisco networking equipment. Prior to joining Cisco, he operated, administered, and ran UNIX and Microsoft networks for 14 years. Latosiewicz holds bachelors and masters degrees in engineering from Warsaw University of Technology. He also holds CCIE® certification in Security (No. 25784) and CCDP® certification.
Remember to use the rating system to let Marcin know if you've received an adequate response.
Because of the volume expected during this event, Marcin might not be able to answer every question. Remember that you can continue the conversation in the Security community, subcommunity, VPN, shortly after the event. This event lasts through September 20, 2013. Visit this forum often to view responses to your questions and those of other Cisco Support Community members.

Jouni,
Good question. And answer is complex, there is in depth and there is in depth.
Most people would be satisfied by reading a summary of all the different components - encryption, hashing, signing, PKI, how IPsec and SSL/TLS work. This group also counts most of security CCIEs.
To this extent CCIE Security Study Guide (by Henry Benjamin) was a good read, if a bit outdated today.
Most people who are in depth will look first into specification.
RFC 4301 (IPsec architecture)
RFC 2246 (TLS 1.0)
Are a good start and contain references to other documents worth reading.
This is where the good folks will base their knowledge of off.
The really in depth people will look into the math behind it and will conquer topics like
Elliptic Curve Crypto ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elliptic_curve_cryptography ) and difference between CCM, GCM and CCB, to which you have really good materials published by universities.
There are relatively a few who know this.
To start with I can suggest:
- http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~rja14/book.html (Ross' Anderson book is free, informative and suprisngly entertaining, this is a definitely a must-read for security/VPN).
- Have a look at books recommended by Richard Bejtlich or Bruce Scheiner - while they might not be VPN specific it's a good security read most of the time.
I'll have a look at the books at home see which one can be interesting to read, and edit this post.
M.

Best Practices for Team Collaboration using Adobe Captivate

With a team of 6 Instructional Designers, how can Adobe Captivate be approached where we can collaborate while producing e-learning material while maintaining a consistent look and feel of the e-learning we produce?
What are the best practices for a team of 6 IDs working and creating e-learning material in Captivate? Is there anything build-in that allows us to connect to the same libraries, templates, etc to share?
Please advise.
Thank you!
Susanne

Only some tips, never collaborated with someone else, being the solo teacher. You didn't mention which version you are using, what I write here is meant for CP7.
Be sure to prepare a theme and/or a template that will be used by everyone. A theme consists of master slides, object styles, skin editor. Master slides can have custom navigation shape buttons. In a template you can eventually also prepare different slides with placeholders, and eventually advanced actions etc. For CP6 and earlier that is the only way to reuse advanced actions, in Captivate 7 you can export shared actions that can be imported in any project for reuse.
A feature that few users know about are the external libraries. You can open the library of any project as an external library in another project. That is a good idea to store assets that you want to use in different projects: images, audio clips, video clips, eventually equations. The shared actions in a library can not (yet?) be used in another project however.
If you are on CP7 you have automatically the roundtripping with source Adobe Photoshop files and source Audition files, both from CC. That can also make collaboration lot easier if those assets are prepared in those applications. Will not expand on that, because I'm not sure you have the Creative Cloud applications.
Those are my two cents.
Lilybiri

Best practices for ARM - please help!!!

Hi all,
Can you please help with any pointers / links to documents describing best practices for "who should be creating" the GRC request in below workflow of ARM in GRC 10.0??
Create GRC request -> role approver -> risk manager -> security team
options are : end user / Manager / Functional super users / security team.
End user and manager not possible- we can not train so many people. Functional team is refusing since its a lot of work. Please help me with pointers to any best practices documents.
Thanks!!!!

In this case, I recommend proposing that the department managers create GRC Access Requests. In order for the managers to comprehend the new process, you should create a separate "Role Catalog" that describes what abilities each role enables. This Role Catalog needs to be taught to the department Managers, and they need to fully understand what tcodes and abilities are inside of each role. From your workflow design, it looks like Role Owners should be brought into these workshops.
You might consider a Role Catalog that the manager could filter on and make selections from. For example, an AP manager could select "Accounts Payable" roles, and then choose from a smaller list of AP-related roles. You could map business functions or tasks to specific technical roles. The design flaw here, of course, is the way your technical roles have been designed.
The point being, GRC AC 10 is not business-user friendly, so using an intuitive "Role Catalog" really helps the managers understand which technical roles they should be selecting in GRC ARs. They can use this catalog to spit out a list of technical role names that they can then search for within the GRC Access Request.
At all costs, avoid having end-users create ARs. They usually select the wrong access, and the process then becomes very long and drawn out because the role owners or security stages need to mix and match the access after the fact. You should choose a Requestor who has the highest chance of requesting the correct access. This is usually the user's Manager, but you need to propose this solution in a way that won't scare off the manager - at the end of the day, they do NOT want to take on more work.
If you are using SAP HR, then you can attempt HR Triggers for New User Access Requests, which automatically fill out and submit the GRC AR upon a specific HR action (New Hire, or Termination). I do not recommend going down this path, however. It is very confusing, time consuming, and difficult to integrate properly.
Good luck!
-Ken

Best practice for HR while cost center is blocked

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