Question of SAP Methodology of Implementation esp. System Testing and Test Script

Dear SAP Member,
As a very new and inexperienced customer to the SAP and the business. My company is preparing for the retail shop establishment which part of the preparation includes SAP implementation.
At first, we strongly believe SAP can fit and serve our business need well. Also, the standard methodology of implementation will be able to deliver the system with expected quality. However, the local implementor disappoint my firm with poor quality delivery and control that result in the perception of uncertainty of the system to be lived.
The methodology proposed by the implementor composed with
1) Preparation
2) Blueprint
3) Realization
a) Program development and unit test by vendor
b) Training
4) Final Preparation
a) Integration test by Users
b) Data conversion preparation
5) Go-Live and Support
My problem comes up with phase 4-5
Problem 1: Unit/functional test performed by implementor . For this activities, how could customer ensure that every single function has been developed or implemented according to the requirement and without error?
Problem 2: Vendor  provides slot for integration test for 7 days. Is it normal practice that test can be done within this short period?
Problem 3: Does SAP methodology has the standard quality control, test enter and exit criteria and issue/incident management?
Problem 4: How should the standard test script look like? What i received from implementor was like functional list rather than script.
Problem 5: what should be step for conversion apart from the data preparation by users? The local implementor does not explain/elaborate the detailed activities.
Last but not least, as the customer do not satisfy with the SAP partner (local implementor quality). What should be the process for feedback as to prevent other new customer to face the same problem?
SK

SK,
Thamil has given his view.  Here is another.
how could customer ensure that every single function has been developed or implemented according to the requirement and without error?
If this is an issue to you, you can insist that members of your test team participate in unit testing.  You are, after all, the client, and it is your money being spent.  As long as you can furnish testers, who are competent to evaluate unit testing scenarios, you can have them work with the vendor during unit testing.
Vendor  provides slot for integration test for 7 days. Is it normal practice that test can be done within this short period?
It depends on what is being implemented.  I have seen implementations which contained over a hundred test scenarios and  over 2000 test scripts; each of which must be tested by multiple functional groups.  1 week is not enough to complete Integration testing in this case.
Also remember that it is necessary to allow time to correct 'bugs' found during integration testing, and then to re-test after the bugs are fixed.  Except in the simplest of implementations, 1 week may not be enough to accommodate the bug fixes and retests.
Does SAP methodology has the standard quality control, test enter and exit criteria and issue/incident management?
Which 'SAP methodology' are you talking about?  Bottom line, the client must insist that the vendor incorporate any methodologies that are required for his business.  Don't assume that your vendor will automatically bring these items to the table, YOU may have to bring them to the table.
How should the standard test script look like? What I received from implementer was like functional list rather than script.
?????  It should look like whatever you want it to look like.  Many companies have existing templates.  If your company doesn't have such a template, ask your vendor for one.  Go over it together with him and make appropriate modifications that meet your business requirements.
what should be step for conversion apart from the data preparation by users? The local implementer does not explain/elaborate the detailed activities.
It is impossible to say at the beginning of the project.  Sometime during realization, the client and the vendor will jointly develop a detailed cutover plan.  More importantly, the client will develop a change management plan for the client company, in which all stakeholders in the client company will come to understand how and when ALL of the client's business processes will need to change, and to develop plans for all affected groups.
Best Regards,
DB49

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    1
    SAP R/3 Implementation
    at Geneva Pharmaceuticals1
    Company Background
    Geneva Pharmaceuticals, Inc., one of the world’s largest generic drug manufacturers, is the North
    American hub for the Generics division of Swiss pharmaceutical and life sciences company Novartis
    International AG. Originally founded by Detroit pharmacist Stanley Tutag in 1946, Geneva moved
    its headquarters to Broomfield, Colorado in 1974. The company was subsequently acquired by Ciba
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    number one in crop protection, and has tremendous development potential in
    nutrition.”
    The name “Novartis” comes from the Latin term novae artes or new arts, which eloquently captures
    the company’s corporate vision: “to develop new skills in the science of life.” Novartis inherited,
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    worldwide, runs 275 affiliate operations in 142 countries, and generates annual revenues of 32 billion
    Swiss Francs. Novartis’ key financial data for the last five years (1994-98) are presented in Exhibit 2.
    The company’s American Depository Receipts trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the
    ticker symbol NVTSY.
    Novartis’ global leadership in branded pharmaceuticals is complemented by its generic drugs
    division, Novartis Generics. This division is headquartered in Kundl (Austria), and its U.S.
    operations are managed by Geneva Pharmaceuticals. In 1998, Geneva had revenues of $300 million,
    employed nearly 1000 employees, and manufactured over 4.6 billion dosage units of generic drugs.
    1 This “freeware” case was written by Dr. Anol Bhattacherjee to serve as a basis for class discussion rather than
    to demonstrate the effective or ineffective handling of an administrative or business situation. The author is
    grateful to Randy Weldon, CIO of Geneva Pharmaceuticals, and his coworkers for their unfailing help
    throughout the course of this project. This case can be downloaded and distributed free of charge for non-profit
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    Bhattacherjee. All rights reserved.
    ERP Implementation at Geneva Pharmaceuticals 2
    Geneva portfolio currently includes over 200 products in over 500 package sizes, covering a wide
    range of therapeutic categories, such as nervous system disorders, cardio-vascular therapies, and
    nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs. Its major products include ranitidine, atenolol, diclofenac
    sodium, ercaf, metoprolol tartrate, triamterene with hydrochlorothiazide, and trifluoperazine.
    Geneva’s business and product information can be obtained from the company web site at
    www.genevaRx.com.
    Generic drugs are pharmaceutically and therapeutically equivalent versions of brand name drugs with
    established safety and efficacy. For instance, acetaminophen is the equivalent of the registered brand
    name drug Tylenolâ, aspirin is equivalent of Ecotrinâ, and ranitidine HCl is equivalent of Zantacâ.
    This equivalence is tested and certified within the U.S. by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA),
    following successful completion of a “bioequivalence study,” in which the blood plasma levels of the
    active generic drug in healthy people are compared with that of the corresponding branded drug.
    Geneva’s business strategy has emphasized growth in two ways: (1) focused growth over a select
    range of product types, and (2) growth via acquisitions. Internal growth was 14 percent in 1998,
    primarily due to vigorous growth in the penicillin and cephalosporin businesses. In pursuit of further
    growth, Geneva spend $52 million in 1997 to upgrade its annual manufacturing capacity to its current
    capacity of 6 billion units, and another $23 million in 1998 in clinical trials and new product
    development.
    Industry and Competitive Position
    The generic drug manufacturing industry is fragmented and highly competitive. In 1998, Geneva was
    the fifth largest player in this industry, up from its eighth rank in 1997 but still below its second rank
    in 1996. The company’s prime competitors fall into three broad categories: (1) generic drugs
    divisions of major branded drug companies (e.g., Warrick – a division of Schering-Plough and
    Apothecon – a division of Bristol Myers Squibb), (2) independent generic drug manufacturers (e.g.,
    Mylan, Teva Pharmaceuticals, Barr Laboratories, and Watson Pharmaceuticals), and (3) drug
    distributors vertically integrating into generics manufacturing (e.g., AndRx). The industry also has
    about 200 smaller players specializing in the manufacture of niche generic products. While Geneva
    benefited from the financial strength of Novartis, independent companies typically used public stock
    markets for funding their growth strategies.
    In 1998, about 45 percent of prescriptions for medications in the U.S. were filled with generics. The
    trend toward generics can be attributed to the growth of managed care providers such as health
    maintenance organizations (HMO), who generally prefer lower cost generic drugs to more expensive
    brand name alternatives (generic drugs typically cost 30-50 less than equivalent brands). However,
    no single generics manufacturer has benefited from this trend, because distributors and pharmacies
    view generic products from different manufacturers as identical substitutes and tend to
    “autosubstitute” or freely replace generics from one company with those from another based on
    product availability and pricing at that time. Once substituted, it is very difficult to regain that
    customer account because pharmacies are disinclined to change product brand, color, and packaging,
    to avoid confusion among consumers. In addition, consumer trust toward generics has remained
    lower, following a generic drug scandal in the early 1990’s (of which Geneva was not a part).
    ERP Implementation at Geneva Pharmaceuticals 3
    Margins in the generics sector has therefore remained extremely low, and there is a continuous
    pressure on Geneva and its competitors to reduce costs of operations.
    Opportunities for international growth are limited because of two reasons. First, consumers in some
    countries such as Mexico are generally skeptical about the lack of branding because of their cultural
    background. Second, U.S. generics manufacturers are often undercut by competitors from India and
    China, where abundance of low-cost labor and less restrictive regulatory requirements (e.g., FDA
    approval) makes drug manufacturing even less expensive.
    Continuous price pressures has resulted in a number of recent industry mergers and acquisitions in the
    generic drugs sector in recent years, as the acquirers seek economies of scale as a means of reducing
    costs. The search for higher margins has also led some generics companies to venture into the
    branded drugs sector, providing clinical trials, research and development, and additional
    manufacturing capacity for branded drugs on an outsourced basis.
    Major Business Processes
    Geneva’s primary business processes are manufacturing and distribution. The company’s
    manufacturing operations are performed at a 600,000 square foot facility in Broomfield (Colorado),
    while its two large distribution centers are located in Broomfield and Knoxville (Tennessee).
    Geneva’s manufacturing process is scientific, controlled, and highly precise. A long and rigorous
    FDA approval process is required prior to commercial production of any drug, whereby the exact
    formulation of the drug or its “recipe” is documented. Raw materials are sourced from suppliers
    (sometimes from foreign countries such as China), tested for quality (per FDA requirements),
    weighed (based on dosage requirements), granulated (i.e., mixed, wetted, dried, milled to specific
    particle sizes, and blended to assure content uniformity), and compressed into a tablet or poured into a
    gelatinous capsule. Some products require additional coatings to help in digestion, stabilizing,
    regulating the release of active ingredients in the human body, or simply to improve taste. Tablets or
    capsules are then imprinted with the Geneva logo and a product identification number. Following a
    final inspection, the medications are packaged in childproof bottles with a distinctive Geneva label, or
    inserted into unit-dose blister packs for shipment.
    Manufacturing is done in batches, however, the same batch can be split into multiple product types
    such as tablets and capsules, or tablets of different dosages (e.g., 50 mg and 100 mg). Likewise,
    finished goods from a batch can be packaged in different types of bottles, based on customer needs.
    These variations add several layers of complexity to the standard manufacturing process and requires
    tracking of three types of inventory: raw materials, bulk materials, and finished goods, where bulk
    materials represent the intermediate stage prior to packaging. In some cases, additional intermediates
    such as coating solution is also tracked. Master production scheduling is focused on the manufacture
    of bulk materials, based on forecasted demand and replenishment of “safety stocks” at the two
    distribution centers. Finished goods production depends on the schedule-to-performance, plus
    availability of packaging materials (bottles and blister packs), which are sourced from outside
    vendors.
    ERP Implementation at Geneva Pharmaceuticals 4
    Bulk materials and finished goods are warehoused in Broomfield and Knoxville distribution centers
    (DC) prior to shipping. Since all manufacturing is done was done at Broomfield, inventory
    replenishment of manufactured products is done first at Broomfield and then at Knoxville. To meet
    additional customer demand, Geneva also purchases finished goods from smaller manufacturers, who
    manufacture and package generic drugs under Geneva’s level. Since most of these outsourcers are
    located along the east coast, and hence, they are distributed first to the Knoxville and then to
    Broomfield. Purchasing is simpler than manufacturing because it requires no bill of materials, no
    bulk materials management, and no master scheduling; Geneva simply converts planned orders to
    purchase requisitions, and then to purchase orders, that are invoiced upon delivery. However, the
    dual role of manufacturing and purchasing is a difficult balancing task, as explained by Joe Camargo,
    Director of Purchasing and Procurement:
    “Often times, we are dealing with more than a few decision variables. We have to
    look at our forecasts, safety stocks, inventory on hand, and generate a replenishment
    plan. Now we don’t want to stock too much of a finished good inventory because that
    will drive up our inventory holding costs. We tend to be a little more generous on the
    raw materials side, since they are less costly than finished goods and have longer
    shop lives. We also have to factor in packaging considerations, since we have a
    pretty short lead time on packaging materials, and capacity planning, to make sure
    that we are making efficient use of our available capacity. The entire process is
    partly automated and partly manual, and often times we are using our own
    experience and intuition as much as hard data to make a good business decision.”
    Geneva supplies to a total of about 250 customers, including distributors (e.g., McKesson, Cardinal,
    Bergen), drugstore chains (e.g., Walgreen, Rite-Aid), grocery chains with in-store pharmacies (e.g.,
    Safeway, Kroger), mail order pharmacies (e.g., Medco, Walgreen), HMOs (e.g., Pacificare, Cigna),
    hospitals (e.g., Columbia, St. Luke’s), independent retail pharmacies, and governmental agencies
    (e.g., U.S. Army, Veterans Administration, Federal prisons). About 70 percent of Geneva’s sales
    goes to distributors, another 20 percent goes to drugstore chains, while HMOs, government, retail
    pharmacies, and others account for the remaining 10 percent. Distributors purchase generic drugs
    wholesale from Geneva, and then resell them to retail and mail order pharmacies, who are sometimes
    direct customers of Geneva. The volume and dollar amount of transaction vary greatly from one
    customer to another, and while distributors are sometimes allow Geneva some lead time to fulfill in a
    large order, retail pharmacies typically are unwilling to make that concession.
    One emerging potential customer segment is Internet-based drug retailers such as Drugstore.com and
    PlanetRx.com. These online drugstores do not maintain any inventory of their own, but instead
    accept customer orders and pass on those orders to any wholesaler or manufacturer that can fill those
    orders in short notice. These small, customized, and unpredictable orders do not fit well with
    Geneva’s wholesale, high-volume production strategy, and hence, the company has decided against
    direct retailing to consumers via mail order or the Internet, at least for the near future.
    As is standard in the generics industry, Geneva uses a complex incentive system consisting of
    “rebates” and “chargebacks” to entice distributors and pharmacies to buy its products. Each drug is
    assigned a “published industry price” by industry associations, but Geneva rebates that price to
    distributors on their sales contracts. For instance, if the published price is $10, and the rebates
    assigned to a distributor is $3, then the contract price on that drug is $7. Rebate amounts are
    ERP Implementation at Geneva Pharmaceuticals 5
    determined by the sales management based on negotiations with customers. Often times, customers
    get proposals to buy the product cheaper from a different manufacturer and ask Geneva for a
    corresponding discount. Depending on how badly Geneva wants that particular customer or push that
    product, it may offer a rebate or increase an existing rebate. Rebates can vary from one product to
    another (for the same customer) and/or from one order volume to another (for the same product).
    Likewise, pharmacies ordering Geneva’s products are paid back a fraction of the sales proceeds as
    chargebacks.
    The majority of Geneva’s orders come through EDI. These orders are passed though multiple filters
    in an automated order processing system to check if the customer has an active customer number and
    sufficient credit, if the item ordered is correct and available in inventory. Customers are then
    assigned to either the Broomfield or Knoxville DC based on quantity ordered, delivery expiration
    dates, and whether the customer would accept split lots. If the quantity ordered is not available at the
    primary DC (say, Knoxville), a second allocation is made to the secondary DC (Broomfield, in this
    case). If the order cannot be filled immediately, a backorder will be generated and the Broomfield
    manufacturing unit informed of the same. Once filled, the distribution unit will print the order and
    ship it to the customer, and send order information to accounts receivable for invoicing. The overall
    effectiveness of the fulfillment process is measured by two customer service metrics: (1) the ratio
    between the number of lines on the order that can be filled immediately (partial fills allowed) to the
    total number of lines ordered by the customer (called “firstfill”), and (2) the percentage of items send
    from the primary DC. Fill patterns are important because customers typically prefer to get all items
    ordered in one shipment.
    Matching customer demand to production schedules is often difficult because of speculative buying
    on the part of customers. Prices of drugs are typically reassessed at the start of every fiscal year, and
    a distributor may place a very large order at the end of the previous year to escape a potential price
    increase at the start of the next year (these products would then be stockpiled for reselling at higher
    prices next year). Likewise, a distributor may place a large order at the end of its financial year to
    transfer cash-on-hand to cost-of-goods-sold, for tax purposes or to ward off a potential acquisition
    threat. Unfortunately, most generics companies do not have the built-in capacity to deliver such
    orders within short time frames, yet inability to fulfill orders may lead to the loss of an important
    customer. Safety stocks help meet some of these unforeseen demands, however maintaining such
    inventory consumes operating resources and reduce margins further.
    SAP R/3 Implementation
    Up until 1996, Geneva’s information systems (IS) consisted of a wide array of software programs for
    running procurement, manufacturing, accounting, sales, and other mission-critical processes. The
    primary hardware platform was IBM AS/400, running multiple operational databases (mostly DB/2)
    and connected to desktop microcomputers via a token-ring local area network (LAN). Each business
    unit had deployed applications in an ad hoc manner to meet its immediate needs, which were
    incompatible across business units. For instance, the manufacturing unit (e.g., materials requirements
    planning) utilized a manufacturing application called MacPac, financial accounting used
    Software/2000, and planning/budgeting used FYI-Planner. These systems were not interoperable,
    and data that were shared across systems (e.g., accounts receivable data was used by order
    ERP Implementation at Geneva Pharmaceuticals 6
    management and financial accounting packages, customer demand was used in both sales and
    manufacturing systems) had to be double-booked and rekeyed manually. This led to higher incidence
    of data entry errors, higher costs of error processing, and greater data inconsistency. Further, data
    was locked within “functional silos” and were unable to support processes that cut across multiple
    business units (e.g., end-to-end supply chain management). It was apparent that a common,
    integrated company-wide solution would not only improve data consistency and accuracy, but also
    reduce system maintenance costs (e.g., data reentry and error correction) and enable implementation
    of new value-added processes across business units.
    In view of these limitations, in 1996, corporate management at Geneva initiated a search for
    technology solutions that could streamline its internal processes, lower costs of operations, and
    strategically position the company to take advantage of new value-added processes. More
    specifically, it wanted an enterprise resource planning (ERP) software that could: (1) implement best
    practices in business processes, (2) provide operational efficiency by integrating data across business
    units, (3) reduce errors due to incorrect keying or rekeying of data, (4) reduce system maintenance
    costs by standardizing business data, (5) be flexible enough to integrate with new systems (as more
    companies are acquired), (6) support growth in product and customer categories, and (7) is Y2K (year
    2000) compliant. The worldwide divisions of Novartis were considering two ERP packages at that
    time: BPCS from Software Systems Associates and R/3 system from SAP. Eventually, branded drug
    divisions decided to standardize their data processing environment using BPCS, and generics agreed
    on deploying R/3.2 A brief description of the R/3 software is provided in the appendix.
    R/3 implementation at Geneva was planned in three phases (see Exhibit 3). Phase I focused on the
    supply side processes (e.g., manufacturing requirements planning, procurement planning), Phase II
    was concerned with demand side processes (e.g., order management, customer service), and the final
    phase was aimed at integrating supply side and demand side processes (e.g., supply chain
    management). Randy Weldon, Geneva’s Chief Information Officer, outlined the goals of each phase
    as:
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    and maybe reduce our cost of operations. Our Phase II goals are to improve sales
    and operations planning, and as a result, reduce back orders and improve customer
    service. In Phase III, we hope to provide end-to-end supply chain integration, so that
    we can dynamically alter our production schedules to fluctuating demands from our
    customers.”
    For each phase, specific R/3 modules were identified for implementation. These modules along with
    implementation timelines are listed in Exhibit 3. The three phases are described in detail next.
    2 However, each generics subsidiary had its own SAP R/3 implementation, and therefore data sharing across
    these divisions remained problematic.
    ERP Implementation at Geneva Pharmaceuticals 7
    Phase I: Supply Side Processes
    The first phase of R/3 implementation started on November 1, 1997 with the goal of migrating all
    supply-side processes, such as purchasing management, capacity planning, master scheduling,
    inventory management, quality control, and accounts payable from diverse hardware/software
    platforms to a unified R/3 environment. These supply processes were previously very manual and
    labor intensive. A Macpac package running on an IBM AS/400 machine was used to control shop
    floor operations, prepare master schedules, and perform maintenance management. However, the
    system did not have simulation capability to run alternate production plans against the master
    schedule, and was therefore not used for estimation. The system also did not support a formal process
    for distribution resource planning (DRP), instead generated a simple replenishment schedule based on
    predefined economic order quantities. Materials requirements planning (MRP) was only partially
    supported in that the system generated production requirements and master schedule but did not
    support planned orders (e.g., generating planned orders, checking items in planned orders against the
    inventory or production plan, converting planned orders to purchase orders or manufacturing orders).
    Consequently, entering planned orders, checking for errors, and performing order conversion were all
    entered manually, item by item, by different sales personnel (which left room for rekeying error).
    Macpac did have a capacity resource planning (CRP) functionality, but this feature was not used since
    it required heavy custom programming and major enhancements to master data. The system had
    already been so heavily customized over the years, that even a routine system upgrade was considered
    too unwieldy and expensive. Most importantly, the existing system did not position Geneva well for
    the future, since it failed to accommodate consigned inventory, vendor-managed inventory, paperless
    purchasing, and other innovations in purchasing and procurement that Geneva wanted to implement.
    The objectives of Phase I were therefore to migrate existing processes from Macpac to R/3, automate
    supply side process not supported by MacPac, and integrate all supply-side data in a single, real-time
    database so that the synergies could be exploited across manufacturing and purchasing processes.
    System integration was also expected to reduce inventory and production costs, improve
    performance-to-master scheduling, and help managers make more optimal manufacturing and
    purchase decisions. Since R/3 would force all data to be entered only once (at source by the
    appropriate shop floor personnel), the need of data reentry would be eliminated, and hence costs of
    data reconciliation would be reduced. The processes to be migrated from MacPac (e.g., MRP,
    procurement) were fairly standardized and efficient, and were hence not targeted for redesign or
    enhancement. Three SAP modules were scheduled for deployment: materials management (MM),
    production planning (PP), and accounts payable component of financial accounting (FI). Exhibit A-1
    in Appendix provides brief descriptions of these and other commonly referenced R/3 modules.
    Phase I of R/3 implementation employed about ten IS personnel, ten full-time users, and ten part-time
    users from business units within Geneva. Whitman-Hart, a consulting company with prior experience
    in R/3 implementation, was contracted to assist with the migration effort. These external consultants
    consisted of one R/3 basis person (for implementing the technical core of the R/3 engine), three R/3
    configurators (for mapping R/3 configuration tables in MM, PP, and FI modules to Geneva’s needs),
    and two ABAP programmers (for custom coding unique requirements not supported by SAP). These
    consultants brought in valuable implementation experience, which was absolutely vital, given that
    Geneva had no in-house expertise in R/3 at that time. Verne Evans, Director of Supply Chain
    Management and a “super user” of MacPac, was assigned the project manager for this phase. SAP’s
    ERP Implementation at Geneva Pharmaceuticals 8
    rapid implementation methodology called Accelerated SAP (ASAP) was selected for deployment,
    because it promised a short implementation cycle of only six months.3
    Four months later, Geneva found that little progress had been made in the implementation process
    despite substantial investments on hardware, software, and consultants. System requirements were
    not defined correctly or in adequate detail, there was little communication or coordination of activities
    among consultants, IS personnel, and user groups, and the project manager was unable to identify or
    resolve problems because he had no prior R/3 experience. In the words of a senior manager, “The
    implementation was clearly spinning out of control.” Consultants employed by Whitman-Hart were
    technical specialists, and had little knowledge of the business domain. The ASAP methodology
    seemed to be failing, because although it allowed a quick canned implementation, it was not flexible
    enough to meet Geneva’s extensive customization needs, did not support process improvements, and
    alienated functional user groups from system implementation. To get the project back into track and
    give it leadership and direction, in February 1998, Geneva hired Randy Weldon as its new CIO.
    Weldon brought in valuable project management experience in R/3 from his previous employer,
    StorageTek.4
    From his prior R/3 experience, Weldon knew that ERP was fundamentally about people and process
    change, rather than about installing and configuring systems, and that successful implementation
    would require the commitment and collaboration of all three stakeholder groups: functional users, IS
    staff, and consultants. He instituted a new project management team, consisting of one IS manager,
    one functional manager, and one senior R/3 consultant. Because Geneva’s internal IS department had
    no R/3 implementation experience, a new team of R/3 professionals (including R/3 basis personnel
    and Oracle database administrators) was recruited. Anna Bourgeois, with over three years of R/3
    experience at Compaq Computers, was brought in to lead Geneva’s internal IS team. Weldon was not
    particularly in favor of Whitman-Hart or the ASAP methodology. However, for project expediency,
    he decided to continue with Whitman-Hart and ASAP for Phase 1, and explore other options for
    subsequent phases.
    By February 1999, the raw materials and manufacturing component of R/3’s MM module was “up
    and running.” But this module was not yet integrated with distribution (Phase II) and therefore did
    not have the capability to readjust production runs based on current sales data. However, several
    business metrics such as yield losses and key performance indicators showed performance
    improvement following R/3 implementation. For instance, the number of planning activities
    performed by a single individual was doubled. Job roles were streamlined, standardized, and
    consolidated, so that the same person could perform more “value-added” activities. Since R/3
    eliminated the need for data rekeying and validating, the portion of the inventory control unit that
    dealt with data entry and error checking was disbanded and these employees were taught new skills
    for reassignment to other purchasing and procurement processes. But R/3 also had its share of
    disappointments, as explained by Camargo:
    3 ASAP is SAP’s rapid implementation methodology that provides implementers a detailed roadmap of the
    implementation life cycle, grouped into five phases: project preparation, business blueprint, realization, final
    preparation, and go live. ASAP provides a detailed listing of activities to be performed in each phase,
    checklists, predefined templates (e.g., business processes, cutover plans), project management tools,
    questionnaires (e.g., to define business process requirements), and a Question & Answer Database
    4 StorageTek is a leading manufacturer of magnetic tape and disk components also based in Colorado.
    ERP Implementation at Geneva Pharmaceuticals 9
    “Ironically, one of the problems we have with SAP, that we did not have with
    Macpac, is for the job to carry the original due date and the current due date, and
    measure production completion against the original due date. SAP only allows us to
    capture one due date, and if we change the date to reflect our current due date, that
    throws our entire planning process into disarray. To measure how we are filling
    orders, we have to do that manually, offline, on a spreadsheet. And we can’t record
    that data either in SAP to measure performance improvements over time.”
    Bourgeois summed up the implementation process as:
    “Phase I, in my opinion, was not done in the most effective way. It was done as
    quickly as possible, but we did not modify the software, did not change the process,
    or did not write any custom report. Looking back, we should have done things
    differently. But we had some problems with the consultants, and by the time I came
    in, it was a little too late to really make a change. But we learned from these
    mistakes, and we hope to do a better job with Phases II and III.”
    Phase II: Demand Side Processes
    Beginning around October 1998, the goals of the second phase were to redesign demand-side
    processes such as marketing, order fulfillment, customer sales and service, and accounts receivable,
    and then implement the reengineered processes using R/3. Geneva was undergoing major business
    transformations especially in the areas of customer sales and service, and previous systems (Macpac,
    FYI Planner, etc.) were unable to accommodate these changes. For instance, in 1998, Geneva started
    a customer-based forecasting process for key customer accounts. It was expected that a better
    prediction of order patterns from major customers would help the company improve its master
    scheduling, while reducing safety stock and missed orders. The prior forecasting software, FYI
    Planner, did not allow forecasting on a customer-by-customer basis. Besides, demand-side processes
    suffered from similar lack of data integration and real-time access as supply side processes, and R/3
    implementation, by virtue of its real-time integration of all operational data would help manage crossfunctional
    processes better. Mark Mecca, Director of Customer Partnering, observed:
    “Before SAP, much of our customer sales and service were managed in batch mode
    using MacPac. EDI orders came in once a night, chargebacks came in once a day,
    invoicing is done overnight, shipments got posted once a day; so you don’t know
    what you shipped for the day until that data was entered the following day. SAP will
    allow us to have access to real-time data across the enterprise. There will be
    complete integration with accounting, so we will get accurate accounts receivable
    data at the time a customer initiates a sales transaction. Sometime in the future,
    hopefully, we will have enough integration with our manufacturing processes so that
    we can look at our manufacturing schedule and promise a customer exactly when we
    can fill his order.”
    However, the second phase was much more challenging than the first phase, given the non-standard
    and inherently complex nature of Geneva’s sales and service processes. For instance, customer rebate
    ERP Implementation at Geneva Pharmaceuticals 10
    percentages varied across customers, customer-product combinations, and customer-product-order
    volume combinations. Additionally, the same customer sometimes had multiple accounts with
    Geneva and had a different rebate percentage negotiated for each account.
    Bourgeois was assigned overall responsibility of the project, by virtue of her extensive knowledge of
    EDI, R/3 interface conversion, and sales and distribution processes, and ability to serve as a technical
    liaison between application and basis personnel. Whitman-Hart was replaced with a new consulting
    firm, Arthur Andersen Business Consulting, to assist Geneva with the second and third phases of R/3
    implementation. Oliver White, a consulting firm specializing in operational processes for
    manufacturing firms, was also hired to help redesign existing sales and distribution processes using
    “best practices,” prior to R/3 implementation. Weldon explained the reason for hiring two consulting
    groups:
    “Arthur Anderson was very knowledgeable in the technical and configurational
    aspects of SAP implementation, but Oliver White was the process guru. Unlike
    Phase I, we were clearly targeting process redesign and enhancement in Phases II
    and III, and Oliver White brought in ‘best practices’ by virtue of their extensive
    experience with process changes in manufacturing organizations. Since Phase I was
    somewhat of a disaster, we wanted to make sure that we did everything right in
    Phases II and III and not skimp on resources.”
    Technical implementation in Phase II proceeded in three stages: conceptual design, conference room
    pilot, and change management. In the conceptual design stage, key users most knowledgeable with
    the existing process were identified, assembled in a room, and interviewed, with assistance from
    Oliver White consultants. Process diagrams were constructed on “post-it” notes and stuck to the
    walls of a conference room for others to view, critique, and suggest modifications. The scope and
    boundaries of existing processes, inputs and deliverables of each process, system interfaces, extent of
    process customization, and required level of system flexibility were analyzed. An iterative process
    was employed to identify and eliminate activities that did not add value, and generate alternative
    process flows. The goal was to map the baseline or existing (“AS-IS”) processes, identify bottlenecks
    and problem areas, and thereby, to create reengineered (“TO-BE”) processes. This information
    became the basis for subsequent configuration of the R/3 system in the conference room pilot stage.
    A core team of 20 IS personnel, users, and consultants worked full-time on conceptual design for 2.5
    months (this team later expanded to 35 members in the conference room pilot stage). Another 30
    users were involved part-time in this effort; these individuals were brought in for focused periods of
    time (between 4 and 14 hours) to discuss, clarify, and agree on complex distribution-related issues.
    The core team was divided into five groups to examine different aspects of the distribution process:
    (1) product and business planning, (2) preorder (pricing, chargebacks, rebates, contracts, etc.), (3)
    order processing, (4) fulfillment (shipping, delivery confirmation, etc.), and (5) post-order (accounts
    receivable, credit management, customer service, etc.). Thirteen different improvement areas were
    identified, of which four key areas emerged repeatedly from cross-functional analysis by the five
    groups and were targeted for improvement: product destruction, customer dispute resolution, pricing
    strategy, and service level. Elaborate models were constructed (via fish bone approach) for each of
    these four areas to identify what factors drove these areas, what was the source of problems in these
    areas, and how could they be improved using policy initiatives.
    ERP Implementation at Geneva Pharmaceuticals 11
    The conceptual design results were used to configure and test prototype R/3 systems for each of the
    four key improvement areas in the conference room pilot stage. The purpose of the prototypes was to
    test and refine different aspects of the redesigned processes such as forecast planning, contract
    pricing, chargeback strategy determination, receivables creation, pre-transaction credit checking,
    basic reporting, and so forth in a simulated environment. The prototypes were modified several times
    based on user feedback, and the final versions were targeted for rollout using the ASAP methodology.
    In the change management stage, five training rooms were equipped with computers running the
    client version of the R/3 software to train users on the redesigned processes and the new R/3
    environment. An advisory committee was formed to oversee and coordinate the change management
    process. Reporting directly to the senior vice president level, this committee was given the mandate
    and resources to plan and implement any change strategies that they would consider beneficial. A
    change management professional and several trainers were brought in to assist with this effort.
    Multiple “brown bag luncheons” were organized to plan out the course of change and discuss what
    change strategies would be least disruptive. Super users and functional managers, who had the
    organizational position to influence the behaviors of colleagues or subordinates in their respective
    units, were identified and targeted as potential change agents. The idea was to seed individual
    business units with change agents they could trust and relate to, in an effort to drive a grassroots
    program for change.
    To stimulate employee awareness, prior to actual training, signs were put up throughout the company
    that said, “Do you know that your job is changing?” Company newsletters were used to enhance
    project visibility and to address employee questions or concerns about the impending change. A
    separate telephone line was created for employees to call anytime and inquire about the project and
    how their jobs would be affected. The human resources unit conducted an employee survey to
    understand how employees viewed the R/3 implementation and gauge their receptivity to changes in
    job roles as a result of this implementation.
    Training proceeded full-time for three weeks. Each user received an average of 3-5 days of training
    on process and system aspects. Training was hands-on, team-oriented, and continuously mentored,
    and was oriented around employees’ job roles such as how to process customer orders, how to move
    inventory around, and how to make general ledger entries, rather than how to use the R/3 system.
    Weldon described the rationale for this unique, non-traditional mode of training:
    “Traditional system training does not work very well for SAP implementation
    because this is not only a technology change but also a change in work process,
    culture, and habits, and these are very difficult things to change. You are talking
    about changing attitudes and job roles that have been ingrained in employees’ minds
    for years and in some cases, decades. System training will overwhelm less
    sophisticated users and they will think, ‘O my God, I have no clue what this computer
    thing is all about, I don’t know what to do if the screen freezes, I don’t know how to
    handle exceptions, I’m sure to fail.’ Training should not focus on how they should
    use the system, but on how they should do their own job using the system. In our
    case, it was a regular on-the-job training rather than a system training, and
    employees approached it as something that would help them do their job better.”
    ERP Implementation at Geneva Pharmaceuticals 12
    Several startling revelations were uncovered during the training process. First, there was a
    considerable degree of confusion among employees on what their exact job responsibilities were,
    even in the pre-R/3 era. Some training resources had to be expended in reconciling these differences,
    and to eliminate ambiguity about their post-implementation roles. Second, Geneva’s departments
    were very much functionally oriented and wanted the highest level of efficiency from their
    department, sometimes to the detriment of other departments or the overall process. This has been a
    sticky cultural problem, and at the time of the case, the advisory committee was working with senior
    management to see if any structural changes could be initiated within the company to affect a mindset
    change. Third, Geneva realized that change must also be initiated on the customer side, so that
    customers are aware of the system’s benefits and are able to use it appropriately. In the interest of
    project completion, customer education programs were postponed until the completion of Phase III of
    R/3 implementation.
    The primary business metric tracked for Phase II implementation was customer service level, while
    other metrics included days of inventory on hand, dollar amount in disputes, dollar amount destroyed,
    and so forth. Customer service was assessed by Geneva’s customers as: (1) whether the item ordered
    was in stock, (2) whether Geneva was able to fill the entire order in one shipment, and (3) if
    backordered, whether the backorder delivered on time. With a customer service levels in the 80’s,
    Geneva has lagged its industry competitors (mostly in the mid 90’s), but has set an aggressive goal to
    exceed 99.5 percent service level by year-end 1999. Camargo observed that there was some decrease
    in customer service, but this decrease was not due to R/3 implementation but because Geneva faced
    an impending capacity shortfall and the planners did not foresee the shortfall quickly enough to
    implement contingency plans. Camargo expected that such problems would be alleviated as
    performance-to-schedule and demand forecasting improved as a result of R/3 implementation. Given
    that Phase II implementation is still underway at the time of the case (“go live” date is February 1,
    2000), it is still too early to assess whether these targets are reached.
    Phase 3: Integrating Supply and Demand
    Geneva’s quest for integrating supply and demand side processes began in 1994 with its supply chain
    management (SCM) initiative. But the program was shelved for several years due to the nonintegrated
    nature of systems, immaturity of the discipline, and financial limitations. The initiative
    resurfaced on the planning boards in 1998 under the leadership of Verne Evans, Director of SCM, as
    R/3 promised to remove the technological bottlenecks that prevented successful SCM
    implementation. Though SCM theoretically extends beyond the company’s boundaries to include its
    suppliers and customers, Geneva targeted the mission-critical the manufacturing resource planning
    (MRP-II) component within SCM, and more specifically, the Sales and Operations Planning (SOP)
    process as the means of implementing “just-in-time” production scheduling. SOP dynamically linked
    planning activities in Geneva’s upstream (manufacturing) and downstream (sales) operations,
    allowing the company to continuously update its manufacturing capacity and scheduling in response
    to continuously changing customer demands (both planned and unanticipated). Geneva’s MRP-II and
    SOP processes are illustrated in Exhibits 5 and 6 respectively.
    Until the mid-1990’s, Geneva had no formal SOP process, either manual or automated.
    Manufacturing planning was isolated from demand data, and was primarily based on historical
    ERP Implementation at Geneva Pharmaceuticals 13
    demand patterns. If a customer (distributor) placed an unexpected order or requested a change in an
    existing order, the manufacturing unit was unable to adjust their production plan accordingly. This
    lack of flexibility led to unfilled orders or excess inventory and dissatisfied (and sometimes lost)
    customers. Prior sales and manufacturing systems were incompatible with each other, and did not
    allow the integration of supply and demand data, as required by SOP. In case production plans
    required modification to accommodate a request from a major customer, such decisions were made on
    an ad-hoc basis, based on intuition rather than business rationale, which sometimes had adverse
    repercussions on manufacturing operations.
    To remedy these problems, Geneva started a manual SOP process in 1997 (see Exhibit 6). In this
    approach, after the financial close of each month, sales planning and forecast data were aggregated
    from order entry and forecasting systems, validated, and manually keyed into master scheduling and
    production planning systems. Likewise, prior period production and inventory data were entered into
    order management systems. The supply planning team and demand analysis team arrived at their
    own independent analysis of what target production and target sales should be. These estimates
    (likely to be different) were subsequently reviewed in a joint meeting of demand analysts and master
    schedulers and reconciliated. Once an agreement was reached, senior executives (President of
    Geneva and Senior Vice Presidents), convened a business planning meeting, where the final
    production plan and demand schedule were analyzed based on business assumptions, key customers,
    key performance indicators, financial goals and projections (market share, revenues, profits), and
    other strategic initiatives (e.g., introduction of a new product). The purpose of this final meeting was
    not only to fine-tune the master schedule, but also to reexamine the corporate assumptions, growth
    estimates, and the like in light of the master schedule, and to develop a better understanding of the
    corporate business. The entire planning process took 20 business days (one month), of which the first
    10 days were spent in data reentry and validation across corporate systems, followed by five days of
    demand planning, two days of supply planning, and three days of reconciliation. The final business
    planning meeting was scheduled on the last Friday of the month to approve production plans for the
    following month. Interestingly, when the planning process was completed one month later, the
    planning team had a good idea of the production schedule one month prior. If Geneva decided to
    override the targeted production plans to accommodate a customer request, such changes undermined
    the utility of the SOP process.
    While the redesigned SOP process was a major improvement over the pre-SOP era, the manual
    process was itself limited by the time-lag and errors in data reentry and validation across sales,
    production, and financial systems. Further, the process took one month, and was not sensitive to
    changes in customer orders placed less than a month from their requested delivery dates. Since much
    of the planning time was consumed in reentering and validating data from one system to another,
    Evans estimated that if an automated system supported real-time integration of all supply and demand
    data in a single unified database, the planning cycle could be reduced to ten business days.
    Though SAP provided a SOP module with their R/3 package, Geneva’s R/3 project management team
    believed that this module lacked the “intelligence” required to generate an “optimal” production plan
    from continuously changing supply and demand data, even when all data were available in a common
    database. The R/3 system was originally designed as a data repository, not an analysis tool to solve
    ERP Implementation at Geneva Pharmaceuticals 14
    complex supply chain problems or provide simulation capabilities5. Subsequently, in 1999, when
    SAP added a new Advanced Purchase Optimizer (APO) module to help with data analysis, Geneva
    realized that the combination of R/3’s SOP and APO modules would be the answer to their unique
    SOP needs.
    At the time of the case, Geneva was in the initial requirements definition stage of SOP
    implementation. To aid in this effort, Oliver White had created a template that could aggregate all
    relevant data required for SOP from distribution, operations, purchasing, quality control, and other
    functional databases, and tie these data to their source processes. It was expected that the template
    would provide a common reference point for all individuals participating in the SOP process and
    synchronize their decision processes.
    The primary business metric targeted for improvement in Phase III implementation is “available to
    promise” (ATP), i.e., whether Geneva is able to fulfill a customer order by the promised time. ATP is
    an integration of customer service level and business performance, the erstwhile key business metrics
    in the pre-SOP era. Customers often placed orders too large to be fulfilled immediately, and ATP
    was expected to provide customers with reasonably accurate dates on when they should expect which
    part of their order to be filled. Generating and meeting these dates would enable Geneva improve its
    customer service levels that not providing any fulfillment dates at all. With declining profit margins,
    as the generics industry is forced to explore new means of cost reduction, Geneva expects that thin
    inventories, just-in-time manufacturing, and top quality customer service will eventually be the
    drivers of success, hence the importance of this metric. Evans explains the importance of ATP as a
    business metric as:
    “Most of our customers understand the dynamics of our business, and how difficult it
    is for us to fulfill a large order instantaneously with limited production capacity. But
    most of them are willing to bear with backorders if we can promise them a
    reasonable delivery date for their backorder and actually deliver on that date. That
    way, we take less of a customer service level hit than defaulting on the order or being
    unable to accommodate it. In commodity business such as ours, customer service is
    the king. Our customers may be willing to pay a little premium over the market for
    assured and reliable service, so that they can meet their obligations to their
    customers. Customer service may be a strategic way to build long-term relationships
    with our customers, but of course, we are far from proving or disproving that
    hypothesis.”
    Future Plans
    Despite some initial setbacks in Phase I, Geneva is now back on the road to a successful R/3
    implementation. The senior management, functional units, and IS personnel are all enthusiastic about
    the project and looking forward to its deployment in all operational areas of business and beyond.
    R/3 implementation has opened up new possibilities to Geneva and more means of competing in the
    5 Typically, manufacturing companies requiring SCM analysis used additional analysis tools from I2
    Technologies or Manugistics on top of ERP databases from SAP or Oracle for SCM purposes.
    ERP Implementation at Geneva Pharmaceuticals 15
    intensely competitive generic drugs industry. Weldon provided an overall assessment of the benefits
    achieved via R/3 implementation:
    “In my opinion, we are doing most of the same things, but we are doing them better,
    faster, and with fewer resources. We are able to better integrate our operational
    data, and are able to access that data in a timely manner for making critical business
    decisions. At the same time, SAP implementation has placed us in a position to
    leverage future technological improvements and process innovations, and we expect
    to grow with the system over time.”
    Currently, the primary focus of Geneva’s R/3 implementation is timely completion of Phase II and III
    by February 2000 and December 2000 respectively. Once completed, the implementation team can
    then turn to some of R/3’s additional capabilities that are not being utilized at Geneva. In particular,
    the quality control and human resource modules are earmarked for implementation after Phase III.
    Additionally, Geneva plans to strengthen relationships with key suppliers and customers by
    seamlessly integrating the entire supply chain. The first step in this direction is vendor managed
    inventory (VMI), that was initiated by Geneva in April 1998 for a grocery store chain and a major
    distributor. In this arrangement, Geneva obtains real-time, updated, electronic information about
    customers’ inventories, and replenish their inventories on a just-in-time basis without a formal
    ordering process, based on their demand patterns, sales forecast, and actual sales (effectively
    operating as customers’ purchasing unit).6 Geneva’s current VMI system, Score, was purchased from
    Supply Chain Solutions (SCS) in 1998. Though Mecca is satisfied with this system, he believes that
    Geneva can benefit more from R/3’s ATP module via a combination of VMI functionality and
    seamless company-wide data integration. Currently, some of Geneva’s customers are hesitant to
    adopt VMI because sharing of critical sales data may cause them to lose bargaining power vis-à-vis
    their suppliers or prevent them from speculative buying. But over the long-term, the inherent
    business need for cost reduction in the generics industry is expected to drive these and other
    customers toward VMI. Geneva wants to ensure that the company is ready if and when such
    opportunity arises.
    6 Real-time customer forecast and sales data is run through a VMI software (a mini-MRP system), which
    determines optimum safety stock levels and reorder points for customers, and a corresponding, more optimum
    production schedule for Geneva. Initial performance statistics at the grocery store chain indicated that customer
    service levels increased from 96 percent to 99.5 percent and on-hand inventory decreased from 8 weeks to six
    weeks as a result of VMI implementation. For the distributor, Geneva expects that VMI will reduce on-hand
    inventory from seven months to three months.
    ERP Implementation at Geneva Pharmaceuticals 16
    Exhibit 1. Novartis’ divisions
    Divisions Business Units
    Healthcare Pharmaceuticals
    Consumer Health
    Generics
    CIBA Vision
    Agribusiness Crop Protection
    Seeds
    Animal Health
    Nutrition Infant and Baby Nutrition
    Medical Nutrition
    Health Nutrition
    Exhibit 2. Novartis’ five-year financial summary
    1998 1997 1996 1995 1994
    Annual sales 31,702 31,180 36,233 35,943 37,919
    Sales from healthcare 17,535 16,987 14,048 12,906 14,408
    Sales from agribusiness 8,379 8,327 7,624 7,047 7,135
    Sales from consumer health 5,788 5,866 5,927 5,777 4,258
    Sales from industry - - 8,634 10,213 12,118
    Operating income 7,356 6,783 5,781 5,714 5,093
    Net income 6,064 5,211 2,304 4,216 3,647
    Cash flow from operations 5,886 4,679 4,741 5,729 5,048
    R&D expenditure 3,725 3,693 3,656 3,527 3,786
    Total assets 55,375 53,390 58,027 50,888 51,409
    Net operating assets 20,913 19,619 21,820 22,278 22,952
    Number of employees at year-end 82,449 87,239 116,178 133,959 144,284
    Sales per employee (Swiss Francs) 369,337 350,905 289,705 258,357 266,740
    Debt/equity ratio 0.28 0.41 0.46 0.46 0.57
    Current ratio 2.0 1.7 1.9 2.2 1.6
    Return on sales (%) 19.1 16.7 13.9 - -
    Return on equity (%) 21.0 20.7 16.7 - -
    Note: All figures in millions of Swiss Francs, except otherwise indicated.
    Pre-1996 data is on pro forma basis, based on pooled data from Ciba and Sandoz.
    ERP Implementation at Geneva Pharmaceuticals 17
    Exhibit 3. Phases in R/3 implementation at Geneva
    Phases1 Business processes R/3 modules Implementation timeline
    (inception to go-live)
    Phase I: Supply side
    management
    MRP, purchasing, inventory
    management
    MM2, PP,
    FI/CO3
    Nov 1997 – Feb 1999
    Phase II: Demand side
    management
    Order management, sales,
    customer service
    SD, MM4,
    FI/CO5
    Oct 1998 – Feb 2000
    Phase III: Supply/demand
    integration, business
    intelligence
    Sales & operations planning,
    supply chain management,
    data warehousing
    APO, MES,
    BIW
    Early 2000 – End 2000
    Note: 1Vendor selection took place in mid-1997
    2MM: Raw materials inventory
    4MM: Finished goods inventory
    3FI/CO: Accounts payable
    5FI/CO: Accounts receivable
    Vendor
    System
    Sales orders ATP
    Sales & Distribution
    Customer
    Inquiry Quotation
    Order
    Generation
    Goods
    Issue
    Billing
    Delivery Document
    Update
    Financials
    Inventory
    Management
    Update
    Demand
    Management
    Run
    MPS/MRP
    Production Planning Materials
    Management
    Finance &
    Controlling
    Exhibit 4. Geneva’s order management process
    ERP Implementation at Geneva Pharmaceuticals 18
    Business Planning
    Sales & Operations
    Planning
    DRP Master
    Scheduling
    Detailed Materials/
    Capacity Planning
    Plant & Supplier
    Scheduling
    Execution
    Demand
    Management
    Rough-Cut
    Capacity Planning
    Exhibit 5. Geneva’s manufacturing resource planning process
    Exhibit 6. Geneva’s sales & operations planning process
    Demand
    Planning
    Supply
    Planning
    Integration/
    Reconciliation
    Business Planning
    (S&OP)
    Key Activities:
    • Product planning
    • Forecasting
    • Sales planning
    • Performance
    management
    (prior period)
    • Master production
    scheduling
    • Capacity planning
    • Materials requirements
    planning
    • Consolidation of
    demand, supply,
    inventory, and
    financial plans
    • Feedback to
    demand and
    supply planning
    • Performance review
    • Key assumptions review
    • Product family review
    • Key customers review
    • Financial review
    • Approval/action items
    Current Planning Cycle (Monthly):
    Financial
    close
    (prior month)
    0 5 10 15 17 20 (Business
    days)
    Demand
    planning
    Supply
    planning
    Integration
    Business
    planning
    Goal:
    To reduce the planning cycle time from one month to 10 business days.
    ERP Implementation at Geneva Pharmaceuticals 19
    Appendix
    SAP (Systems, Applications, and Products in Data Processing) is the world’s fourth largest software
    company, and the largest enterprise resource planning (ERP) vendor. As of February 1999, the
    company employed 19,300 employees and had annual revenues of $5 billion, annual growth of 44
    percent, over 10,000 customers in 107 countries, and 36 percent of the ERP market. SAP AG was
    founded in 1972 by Dr. H.C. Hasso Plattner and Dr. Henning Kagermann in Walldorf, Germany with
    the goal of producing an integrated application software, that would run all mission-critical operations
    in corporations, from purchasing to manufacturing to order fulfillment and accounting. This
    integration would help companies optimize their supply chains, manage customer relationships, and
    make better management decisions. SAP brings in 26 years of leadership in process innovations and
    ERP, and invests 20 percent of its revenues back into research and development.
    SAP’s first breakthrough product was the R/2 system, which ran on mainframe computers. R/2 and
    its competitors were called ERP systems, to reflect the fact that they extended the functions of earlier
    materials requirements planning (MRP) systems in manufacturing firms to include other functions
    and business processes such as sales and accounting. In 1992, SAP released its R/3 system, the
    client/server variant of the earlier R/2 system, which was installed in 20,000 locations worldwide, and
    R/2 is installed in over 1,300 locations by mid-1999. Initially targeted at the world’s largest
    corporations such as AT&T, BBC, Deutsche Bank, IBM, KPMG, Merck, Microsoft, Nestle, Nike,
    and Siemens, R/3 has since been deployed by companies of all sizes, geographical locations, and
    industries. SAP solutions are available for 18 comprehensive industry solutions (“verticals”) for
    specific industry sectors such as banking, oil & gas, electronics, health care, and public sector.

  • Another IISPROXY question (multiple SAP systems)

    Hi!
    We've got a challenge. We have SAP EP (6.0 SP12), visible from outside
    (via  MS ISA server publishing). Also we have several SAP systems (BW,
    ERP2004, Solution Manager), that we want to make available from web.
    We installed IIS proxy module on portal server machine. It's working.
    I even maneged to publish some test reports and WebGUI of BW server.
    But when I try to publish in a simmilar way other system, I fall into
    problem.
    When you call '/sap/bw/' for example, SAP system after authentication
    converts it to something like '/sap(lsdkSDF435ssdgf)/bw'. As far as I
    understand between "(" and ")" there is some hash of password or something.
    The problem is, that it's true and the same for all SAP systems.
    So if I put in iisproxy.xml following strings:
    <mapping name="bw">
    <source>
         <protocol>http</protocol>
         <prefix>/sap/bw/</prefix>
    </source>
    <source>
         <protocol>http</protocol>
         <prefix>/sap/bw</prefix>
    </source>
    <source>
         <protocol>http</protocol>
         <prefix>/sap/public/bc/its/mimes/</prefix>
    </source>
    <source>
         <protocol>http</protocol>
         <prefix>/sap(</prefix>
    </source>
    <target>
            <protocol>http</protocol>
         <host>bw-server.ourdomain.local</host>
         <port>8000</port>
    </target>
    <compress-types>text/html, text/plain</compress-types>
    </mapping>
    it's working for BW server. We able to see reports and webGUI.
    If I try to add following strings for ERP2004 server:
    <mapping name="erp">
         <source>
              <protocol>http</protocol>
              <prefix>/erp/sap/bc/gui/sap/</prefix>
              <new-prefix>/sap/bc/gui/sap/</new-prefix>
         </source>
         <source>
              <protocol>http</protocol>
              <prefix>/erp/sap/bc/gui/sap</prefix>
              <new-prefix>/sap/bc/gui/sap</new-prefix>
         </source>
         <source>
              <protocol>http</protocol>
              <prefix>/erp/sap/bw/BEx</prefix>
              <new-prefix>/sap/bw/BEx</new-prefix>
         </source>
         <source>
              <protocol>http</protocol>
              <prefix>/erp/sap/bw/BEx/</prefix>
              <new-prefix>/sap/bw/BEx/</new-prefix>
         </source>
         <source>
              <protocol>http</protocol>
              <prefix>/erp/sap/public/bc/its/mimes/</prefix>
              <new-prefix>/sap/public/bc/its/mimes/</new-prefix>
         </source>
         <source>
              <protocol>http</protocol>
              <prefix>/erp/sap/public/bc/ur/Design2002/</prefix>
              <new-prefix>/sap/public/bc/ur/Design2002/</new-prefix>
         </source>
         <source>
              <protocol>http</protocol>
              <prefix>/erp/sap/bc/public/systemlogin/</prefix>
              <new-prefix>/sap/bc/public/systemlogin/</new-prefix>
         </source>
         <source>
              <protocol>http</protocol>
              <prefix>/sap(</prefix>
         </source>
         <target>
              <protocol>http</protocol>
              <host>erp2004-server.ourdomain.local</host>
              <port>8000</port>
         </target>
    <compress-types>text/html, text/plain</compress-types>
    </mapping>
    and try to open webGUI, it redirects to BW server.
    A think that's because double '/sap(' prefixes.
    How can we avoid that?
    Same situation for SolMan.
    In portal's 'System Landscape' setup is:
    BW system
      ITS
        ITS description: CLIxxxSID
        ITS host name: portal-server.ourdomain.ru (this name in accessible from internet, it's a host where portal and IISPROXY are installed)
        ITS path: /sap/bc/gui/sap/its/webgui
    ERP2004 system
      ITS
        ITS description: CLIxxxSID
        ITS host name: portal-server.ourdomain.ru
        ITS path: /erp/sap/bc/gui/sap/its/ (I added /erp/ trying to distinguish request to ERP2004 server), without it it's also not working)
    In intranet (if we do not use IISPROXY) everything is working. Of course with other system definitions in System Landscape.
    Do I need to provide more details? Or my question is clear?
    Thanks in advance for help and support!
    Regards,
    DK
    P.S. Actually I opened an OSS message on this topic (with "high" priority), but no SAP activities since September, 6th :o(

    Hi Jayesh!
    Seems it's not working :o( And worst thing, that I do not know why :o(
    What i've done.
    1) Created an alias '/erp/sap/', that points to '/default_host/sap/bc/gui/sap/its/webgui'.
    2) In System Landscape edited system definition (of an ERP2004 system), so that ITS path is now '/erp/sap/' and ITS host 'ourportal.ourdomain.ru'.
    3) Created an 'SAP transaction iView' that should launch SU01 transaction in ERP2004 system.
    Now when I try to open it from page, portal tries to connect me to our BW server.
    Seems that alias are working in some other way :o(
    Here's what I can see in IISPROXY log:
    11:57:29 Filter J2EE --> GET /erp/sap/
    11:57:29   7616 Proxy    GET http://erp2004.ourdomain.ru:8000/erp/sap/
    11:57:29   7616 Proxy    HTTP/1.1 200 OK | queued for 0.000 sec, processed in 0.078 sec.
    11:57:29   7616 Proxy    | GET http://erp2004.ourdomain.ru:8000/erp/sap/ | HTTP/1.1 200 OK | 0.000 | 0.078
    11:59:41 Filter J2EE --> GET /sap(dslkknvDSAFSADVFDSVaslkdv)/bc/gui/sap/its/webgui?okcode=/nSU01&DisconnectOnClose=0&sap-client=200&sap-language=en&sap-accessibility=
    11:59:41   6952 Proxy    GET http://bw.ourdomain.local:8000/sap(dslkknvDSAFSADVFDSVaslkdv)/bc/gui/sap/its/webgui
    So it's still tries to open '/sap(dslkknvDSAFSADVFDSVaslkdv)/bc/gui/sap/its/webgui' instead of /erp/sap(
    dslkknvDSAFSADVFDSVaslkdv)/
    Thanks for help and support!
    Regards,
    DK

  • I would like to know the version or name of SAP that is implemented in real

    I would like to know the version or name of SAP that is implemented in real time?

    This is a very generic question and really depends on what you are implementing (modules).
    The history of the "R/3" is
    3.0D Basis 300
    3.0E Basis 300
    3.0F Basis 300
    3.1H Basis 310
    3.1I Basis 310
    4.0B Basis 400
    4.5B Basis 450
    4.6C Basis 460
    4.71 Basis 6.20
    4.72 Basis 6.20
    5.00 Basis 6.40 (ECC 5.0 - Enterprise Core components)
    6.00 Basis 7.00 (ECC 6.0) - actually in RampUp
    All of those have increased business functionality and interfaces to other systems (CRM, BW etc.)

  • Implementing ERP Systems

    HI
    WHAT ARE THE STEPS WHILE Implementing ERP Systems?

    As per SAP standards, there are five basic steps in ERP project implementation. These are as follows:
        •        Phase 1  Project Preparation
        •        Phase 2  Business Blueprint
        •        Phase 3  Realization
        •        Phase 4  Final Preparation
        •        Phase 5  Go-Live and support
    For further clarification more details about the above 5 phases, you can go through the following link:
    http://www.slideshare.net/arun_bala1/asap-methodology
    Please reward points if helpful.
    Regards,
    Swapna

  • Misc. questions about SAP's SOA software

    Hello,
    I am a computer science student at the Fachhochschule Aachen in Germany and I'm writing my master thesis about serviceoriented architectures.
    Amongst other products I plan to present what SAP has to offer for SOA. But I'm missing some information, which I couldn't find at the website. I hope somebody can help me with my questions:
    1) What are the products you need for building a basic SOA? Is the Application Server + Business Intelligence + Exchange Infrastructure enough? And how about something like an ESB? Is Exchange Infrastructure an ESB?
    2) In my thesis I describe several standards that help with serviceoriented architectures. I want to check if these standards are implemented and if they are, in which product, which version and how extensively? These standards are:
    - WS-Policy, WS-Adressing
    - JBI (Java Business Integration)
    - SCA/SDO (Service Component Architecture/Service Data Objects)
    - BPEL (Business Process Execution Language)
    - WS-CDL (Web Service Choreography Description Language)
    Are there other important (open) standards i didn't mention (other than the real basic stuff, WSDL, SOAP etc)?
    3) What tools does SAP provide for testing and debugging the services and processes?
    4) What tools does SAP provide for Business Process Management? What about process modelling?
    5) What support does SAP provide for new customers, that are building their first SOA?
    I know there is much documentation about all this stuff, but this will take only 2-3 pages of my thesis, so I don't have time to read hundreds of pages of documentation.
    Every help would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

    Ok let me try...
    1) One of the Key building blogs will be the SAP NetWeaver Process Integration 7.1. Its provides the ES Repository for Service Metadata and the ES Registry for the Service Endpoints. The Registry you use for finding and classifcation of your services. Any yes XI/PI could be used as ESB.
    Another keybuilding block is the SAP NetWeaver Composition Enviroment 7.1. This one is used at Design and Runtime for Composite Process, Composite Views and Composite Application which consume Enterprise Services.
    2) WS-Poilcy, WS-Adressing and BPEL is defenetly supported with PI 7.1(release planned for september 2007)
    3) This a part of the NetWeaver Composition Enviroment. For Monitoring you need brokered Service communication... in this case you can use PI as integration Broker which is able to monitor your communication.
    4) Exacutable Business Process(BPEL) are supported by PI 7.1
    You are able to Design these processes with the Design tools of the PI.
    For Highlevel Process modeling ARIS for SAP Netweaver is integrated.
    So from High Level Process models drill down to theService Operations are all part of the Enterprise Service Repository and can be used to realise you business tasks.
    5) SAP provide the ES Workplace and SAP Discovery System for Enterprise SOA
    regards,
    Robin

  • Question about SAP Support pagackes

    Hi all
    I am trying to understand more about SAP Support packages. Can anyone please help me to answer the following questions.
    1. How do we find out  waht version of Support package currently installed on our system. ( e.g what command or transaction provides this info).
    2. How do we find the latest support pack available from SAP?
    3.   Do we have to apply support pack to each component or to each module e.t.c
        ( Any command or tranaction....)
    4.  What is a  differnce between SAP kernel support pack and SAP Note.
    5. Is it requirement to  apply support package from SAP solutaion manager or can also be applied throught transaction
    Thank you very much....

    Hi Julio,
    1. How do we find out waht version of Support package currently installed on our system. ( e.g what command or transaction provides this info).
    Go to Txn SPAM --> Click on Package Level --> Check the level against SAP_BASIS or SAP_ABA
    2. How do we find the latest support pack available from SAP?
    http://service.sap.com/sp-stacks --> SP Stack Information
    3. Do we have to apply support pack to each component or to each module e.t.c
    ( Any command or tranaction....)
    There will be support packs for each component like SAP_BASIS,SAP_ABA,SAP_BW .. etc and you can apply them through SPAM.
    4. What is a differnce between SAP kernel support pack and SAP Note.
    Kernels are central program that are required to run SAP system and these programs reside in OS level.Kernel support pack means correction to these cental programs .There is no transaction for this.You can replace the existing files with the new one ( in simple words ) . SAP note means correction to SAP programs , more than one SAP note is called a Support pack and Note can be implemented using SNOTE and Support packs using SPAM
    5. Is it requirement to apply support package from SAP solutaion manager or can also be applied throught transaction
    Now you need Solution Manager to download Support packs from SMP.You can apply SPs in the target system without using Solman.
    Thanks
    Prince Jose
    PS: points are appreciated
    Message was edited by:
            Prince Jose

  • Hi SAP FI/CO GURUS ...... PLEASE GIVE ME INTERVIEW QUESTIONS ON SAP FI/CO

    Hi FI/CO gurus
    I require your great help to get my brother into SAP House. He had done his FI/CO training and he is trying as fresher into SAP. So i request you to please give me interview questions on SAP FI/CO in topic wise. The reason i am asking here in this forum is, a lot of gurus who are having great experience are there in this group. if i get help from these gurus, that will be great help to my brother into get into SAP FI/CO.
    So i request you to please send me interview questions on SAP FI and CO in topic wise. Awaiting for your reply.
    Regards
    Raj

    Hi,
    Please find below few questions on FI. I think those are very useful for intervew
    SAF FI Technical Interview Questions 1
    1. Tell me about FI Organizational structure?
    Ans:     Client
                   |
          Operating Concern
                   |
    Controlling area1       Controlling Area 2
             |
    Co. Code 1 Co. Code 2
        |
    Bus area 1  Bus area2  Bus Area3  Bus Area 4
    2. How many Normal and Special periods will be there in fiscal year, why do u use special periods?
    Ans: 12 Normal posting period and 4 special periods are in the fiscal year which can be used for posting tax and audit adjustments to a closed fiscal year.
    3.Where do you open and close periods?
    Ans: PPV is used to open and close the periods based on a/c types considering GL Accounts. Tr. Code. OB52.
    4.What do you enter in Company code Global settings?
    Ans: 4 digit Alphanumeric key.
    Name of the company
    City
    Country
    Currency
    Language
    Address
    5.What is document type, and what does it control? Examples.
    Ans: Document type is nothing vouchers containing line items. Several business transac! tions can be identified within a particular document type.
    It controls the document number ranges.
    It controls the Header part of document
    IT controls the line item level of the document
    Helps filing of physical document 
    6. What is posting key and what does it control?
    Ans: These are special classification keys. Two character numerical key it controls the entry of line items.
    Posting key determines Account type, Debit/credit posting, Field status of transaction.
    7. What is field status group, what does it control? 
    Ans: FSG is mandatory field in ! GL Creation. You use this field to define which fields are displayed when you post business transactions to a G/L account. 
    A field may have one of the following statuses.
    - Suppressed
    - Display
    - Optional
    - Required
    8. What is chart of account and how many charts of accounts can be assigned to a company?
    Ans: Chart of account is a list of all G/L accounts used by one or several company codes.
    For each G/L account, the chart of accounts contains the account number, account name, and the information that controls how an account functions and how a G/L account is created in a Company code.
    You have to assign a chart of accounts to each company code. This chart of accounts is the Operating chart of accounts and is used for the daily postings in this company code.
    You have the following options when using multiple company codes.
    You can use the same chart of accounts for all company codes
    If the company codes all have the same requirements for the chart of accounts set up, assign all of the individual company codes to the same chart of accounts. This could be the case if all company codes are in the same country.
    In addition to the operating chart of accounts, you can use two additional charts of accounts If the individual company codes need different charts of accounts, you can assign up to two charts of accounts in addition to the operating chart of accounts. This could be the case if company codes lie in multiple countries.
    The use of different charts of accounts has no effect on the balance sheet and profit and loss statement. When creating the balance sheet or the profit and loss statement, you can choose whether to balance the co! mpany codes which use different charts of accounts together or separately.
    9. What does definition of a chart of account contains?
    Ans: chart of account key
    Name
    Maintenance language
    Length of the GL Account Number
    Controlling Integration
    Group chart of accounts (Consolidation)
    Block Indicator
    10. Can one COA be assigned to several companies?
    Ans: yes. One COA can be assigned to several companies.
    11) What is account group and what does it control? 
    Ans: Account group determines which fields you can configure on the G/L master record. It is necessary to have at least two one for B/S and another one for P&L a/c.
    It controls the Number ranges of GL A/C.
    The status of fields of the master record of GL belongs to company code area.
    12) What is reconciliation account; can you directly enter documents in that a/c?
    Ans: When you p! ost items to a subsidiary ledger, the system automatically posts the same data to the general ledger. Each subsidiary ledger has one or more reconciliation accounts in the general ledger. 
    We can’t use reconciliation account for direct postings.
    13) How do you control field status of GL master records and from where do you control! 
    Ans: Field status variant is maintained all FSGs.
    14) What are the segments of GL master record?
    Ans:
    - COA Segment
    A/C group
    Nature of account
    Short text
    GL a/c long text
    Trading partner
    Group Account Number
    -  Company code segment
    Account currency
    Tax
    Reconciliation a/c for a/c type
    OIM,LID,FSG.
    15) What does Field status group assigned to a GL master record controls?
    Ans: It controls the account assignments that are made to the account. Specifically the field status group controls whether postings to cost centers, internal orders, profitability segments and so on are required, not allowed (suppressed), or optional.
    16) What is Country and operational chart of account? Why do you use group chart of account?
    Ans: Operational chart of account – Day to day activities It is mandatory.
    Country COA – It’s used for legal specific requirement of each country. It’s additional and optional.
    Group COA used for consolidation of Company codes. This is for group consolidation purpose.
    17) What are all the segments in a Customer/Vendor master record?
    Ans: Segments in Customer           Segments in Vendor
    -      General Data segment            General data segment
    -      Company code segment         Company code segment
    -      Sales area segment                 Purchasing organization Segment
    18) What is open line item management? What do you mean by clearing open line items?
    Ans: Open item management is further reconciliation function. OIM allows you to display the open and cleared items and amounts in an account. OIM should be used if an offsetting entry is made for every line item posted in the account. The a/c is reconciled and cleared against another account. Ex. Salary clearing account and GR/IR Clearing account.
    19) What is residual payment and part payment?
    Ans: Residual payment it clears original invoice with incoming amount and create new line item for remaining outstanding amount.
    Partial payment it leaves the original invoice amount and creates new
    line item for incoming amount.
    20) What is internal and external number ranges?
    Ans: Internal Number Ranges: Doc. No will be provided by the system automatically in serial order allotting the next available progressive number. The number must be in numerical.
    External Number ranges: Doc. No will be given manually by the end user. System will not lock no automatically in this case. User can pick the number randomly. Number may be an alpha numeric.

  • Various questions on SAP XI usage

    Hi XI Experts,
    I have few questions on SAP XI usage :
    Q1-Does SAP XI is unique - client like BW ?
    If multi - clients is possible is there any particular usage recommandations when in design, configuration and production deploiement on PRD SAP XI System ?.
    Q2-is it technically possible to restart a well processed message (with nice black & white flag in SXMB_MONI) ?
    And I know its not a good thing to try to do this...
    Q3-is it technically possible to modify XML payload in message ?
    And I know again its a very bad thing to try to do this...
    Q4-We have to work with xCBL 4.0 definitions. I think i only have to import all XSD definitions as External Definitions in Interface Objects of my repository. Does it right ?
    Great thanks for your(s) response(s).
    Best regards
    Etienne

    Hi,
    >>>>Q2 : few methods....hum hum...
    one of them I described in my weblog:
    /people/michal.krawczyk2/blog/2005/11/09/xi-restarting-successfully-processed-messages
    >>>>Q3 : i 'm in SP16. Do you think it'll be as simple as "Right click on message -> Restart message" ?.
    yes it will be that simple as WE19 for IDOCs in R3:)
    Regards,
    michal
    <a href="/people/michal.krawczyk2/blog/2005/06/28/xipi-faq-frequently-asked-questions"><b>XI / PI FAQ - Frequently Asked Questions</b></a>

  • Some questions on SAP DMS

    Hello
    some questions on SAP DMS:-
    - can versions of same document be shown graphically. ?
    - can links be created for documents. can we make sure that links are not broken when document is moved ?(links to document on 1st location shall not be broken)
    - is there a notification mechanism(user can recieve e-mail when document gets changed)
    - is there a review mechanism, before doc. is archived.(sort life cycle)
    Thanks

    Hi Shovon,
    1. can versions of same document be shown graphically?
    You can display all existing versions of a document info record by using the menu 'Extras' >> 'Versions'. Then you will see all existing document version for this specific document number. Further you will see which is the current version at the moment.
    2. can links be created for documents. can we make sure that links are not broken when document is moved ?(links to document on 1st location shall not be broken)
    I'm not quite sure what you mean by links to documents. If you mean linking document info records together, I can confirm that this works also in DMS. You can maintain the object DRAW for object links in the customizing and then you will be able to link one document info record to another. The data for all document info records is stored in table DRAW.
    If you are talking about originals which are linked to document info records, please note that if you check in an original the system creates a unique LOIO- and PHIO-ID which is stored in the Content Server and in the database tables DMS_DOC2LOIO and DMS_PHIO2FILE. But there are also different reports to migrate original data from one content Server to another (e.g. DMS_RELOCATE_CONTENT).
    3. Is there a notification mechanism(user can recieve e-mail when document gets changed)
    Yes you can activate an event type linkage for object
    DRAW     CHANGED     DOKST
    DRAW     CHANGED     DWNAM
    in transaction SWE2. Here you just have to set the flag for 'Type linkage' (linkage activated). Then everytime the document is changed a notification is sent to the entered USER of this document info records.
    4. Is there a review mechanism, before doc. is archived.(sort life cycle)
    Normally there is no special lifecycle. You can control this by maintaining a released status and if there are more versions always version with the release status is the current one. But there is no specific date when the document info record expires or something like that.
    Best regards,
    Christoph
    P.S.: Please reward points for useful information.

  • Questions on SAP BI and SharePoint integration

    Hi all,
    I was looking into how we can integrate SAP BI with our SharePoint server.
    Does anyone has got exposure to this type of integration?Is there anyway that we can achieve this integration using SAP Business Objects or Performance Points?
    Please advise.
    Thanks
    Kukku

    Hi all,
    We would like to get some thoughts on SharePoint integration with SAP BI.Could you please help us in solving the following questions:
    1. Which one is better? SharePoint integration through PerformancePoint Server 2007 or SAP Business Objects(SAP BO XI integration kit)?
    2. What are the starting point(system requirements)  to develop a prototype on both the methods?
    I was able to find some info on both PPS and SAP Business Objects from the above link and also from sdn documents(those were really helpful,thanks!) but none of them provide some detailed insight into which one to opt for or how you can goahead.If someone has got more info on this please let us know.
    Thanks
    Kukku

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