Six Reasons Why Customers Chose BC Sets for Global Rollouts Marc Oliver Schaefer SAP AG

Six ReasonsWhy Customers ChoseBC Sets for Global Rollouts

Marc Oliver SchaeferSAP AG

SAP AG 2002, Title of Presentation, Speaker Name 2

Learning Objectives

As a result of this workshop, you will be able to:

To explain how BC Sets can support your global rollout To understand how BC Set pilots used this technology To explain what BC Sets are and how you benefit from them


Agenda

Reason 1: Evolution

Reason 2: Business process orientation

Reason 3: Transparency

Reason 4: Protection

Reason 5: Re-use

Reason 6: Flexibility

Lessons learned

You need 4.6c!You need 4.6c!


The Traditional Approach - Outline

IMG activities which contain global customizing are tagged

All IMG activities containing global customizing are combined in a project IMG

Written documentation about the status of the settings is added to the IMG activities

Global customizing values, IMG tags, project IMG and documentation are transported to the subsidiaries and implemented

Smallest unit in IMG is the activity

Smallest unit inside an activity is a table row

No customizing is locked

A lot of written information

Smallest unit in IMG is the activity

Smallest unit inside an activity is a table row

No customizing is locked

A lot of written information

...

Define Billing P lan Types

...

Define and Assign Date Categories

000 | TA | 01

Assign Billing P lan T ypes to Sales Docum ent Types

000 | TAO | I | 01

000 | WKC | I | 01

Assign Billing P lan T ypes to Item Categories

...

Billing P lan

Billing

Sales

...

Sales and Distribution

Financial Accounting

...

Im plementation Guide

Documentation

Documentation

Transported tosubsidiaries


Evolution


Evolution

Customers often see a global roll-out as an extension of an existing installation

One pilot customer wanted to use existing UK client as basis for a template

Customers want to re-use existing customizing Which is in the system Which is stored in transports

Customers want to develop version 2 of their template out ofversion 1

Version 1 should be adapted, not overwritten

BC Sets allow you to move customizing from one system to another BC Sets can be created from transport requests You can have multiple versions of customizing with BC Sets

BC Sets allow you to move customizing from one system to another BC Sets can be created from transport requests You can have multiple versions of customizing with BC Sets

Difficult with traditional approach

No problem with traditional approach



Business Process Orientation


Business Process Orientation

Customers often think in terms of business processes, but customizing is structured by applications (SD, MM, HR ...)

Customers want to pre-configure processes centrally and leave only little room for local adaptions

Reduction of customizing complexity for local implementations teams (iceberg principle)

BC Sets allow you to take customizing from anywhere in the IMG structure customizing according to business processes hide those parts of customizing which are not of interest to local teams

BC Sets allow you to take customizing from anywhere in the IMG structure customizing according to business processes hide those parts of customizing which are not of interest to local teams


Very difficult with traditional approach


Payment due on 00/05/03



Business functionality to beBusiness functionality to beperformed by the SAP System...performed by the SAP System...

Bil

lBC Set for Milestone Billing

...

Define Billing P lan Types

...


000 | TA | 01

Assign Billing P lan T ypes to Sales Docum ent Types

000 | TAO | I | 01

000 | WKC | I | 01

Assign Billing P lan T ypes to Item Categories

...

Billing P lan

Billing

Sales

...



...


...and its Customizing ...and its Customizing representationrepresentation


Customizing representationCustomizing representation

Copy

BC Set

• IMG Activities• Customizing Settings• Attributes

Milestone Billing

BC Set for Milestone Billing

...

Define Billing Plan Types

...


000 | TA | 01

Assign Billing P lan Types to Sales Docum ent Types

000 | TAO | I | 01

000 | WKC | I | 01

Assign Billing P lan Types to Item Categories

...

Billing P lan

Billing

Sales

...



...



BC Set for Milestone Billing




Bil

l

Business functionality to beBusiness functionality to beperformed by the SAP System...performed by the SAP System...

... and its Customizing ... and its Customizing representationrepresentation

BC Set


Milestone Billing


Transparency


Transparency

Customers want to define precisely what belongs to their template

Customers want to define for each customizing value whether it can be overwritten

Customer want to know exactly which settings belonged to which template release

BC Sets allow you to define global customizing on value level define which settings may be overwritten and which not keep all versions of your template simultaneously in your system

BC Sets allow you to define global customizing on value level define which settings may be overwritten and which not keep all versions of your template simultaneously in your system





BC Set Content

Table 3

Table 2

Table 1

Table 4

BC Set


Milestone Billing

Traditional approach


Protection


Protection

Customers want to protect global settings against changes

Customers want to preview customizing before import

BC Sets allow you to lock 60-80% of customizing can be imported without changing the existing customizing

BC Sets allow you to lock 60-80% of customizing can be imported without changing the existing customizing

Impossible with traditional approach



Customizing import

Using transports

1 Step1 Step

Using BC Sets2 Steps2 Steps


Re-use


Re-use

Customers want to re-use existing customizing in their template

Customers want to encapsulate and distribute „golden config“

Customers want to quickly apply their „golden config“ in the local systems

Customers want to base version 2 on version 1

BC Sets re-use customizing from transport requests re-use customizing from one or more existing clients can be duplicated and refreshed are distributed with the transport system can be uploaded and downloaded can be activated in the subsidiary systems

BC Sets re-use customizing from transport requests re-use customizing from one or more existing clients can be duplicated and refreshed are distributed with the transport system can be uploaded and downloaded can be activated in the subsidiary systems

No problem with traditional approach, but ...

No problem with traditional approach, but ...

No problem with traditional approach, butmore elegant with BC Sets



Re-use of customizing

Process 1

Process 2

Process 3

Headquarters

Subsidiary 1

Process 3

Process 3

Process 3

Subsidiary 2

Subsidiary 3Process 2

Process 2

Process 2

Process 1

Process 1

Process 1


Managing Customizing Template Versions

Only one version can be active in the customizing tablesOnly one version can be active in the customizing tables

Process 1

BC Set Version 3

Copy and refresh

Process 1BC Set Version 1

Process 1

BC Set Version 2

Copy and refresh


Flexibility


Flexibility

Customers want to apply customizing flexibly, e.g. org units

Customers want to reduce the amount of customizing that surfaces during the implementation of a template

Customers want to be able to quickly deploy template patches

BC Sets allow you to re-use customizing flexibly (with respect to org units) allow you to reduce the complexity of customizing during implementation can be downloaded, distributed via mail and uploaded

BC Sets allow you to re-use customizing flexibly (with respect to org units) allow you to reduce the complexity of customizing during implementation can be downloaded, distributed via mail and uploaded





Flexible Re-use

Process 1(for org unit 1)



HeadquartersSubsidiary x







Variable re-use of customizing with BC SetsVariable re-use of customizing with BC Sets


Reduction of Complexity

Process 1

Process 2

Process 3

Headquarters

Process 3

Process 2

Process 1

Subsidiary x

VisibleVisible

VisibleVisible

VisibleVisible

Implementation

what you see duringimplementation...

what you see duringimplementation...

... but you get the wholeBC Set in the target system.

... but you get the wholeBC Set in the target system.

VisibleVisible

VisibleVisible

VisibleVisible

You define in a BC Set ...

You define in a BC Set ...


Lessons Learned


Pilot Company Profiles

Chempro Dutch-based, global company Life science products,

performance materials,polymers, industrial chemicals

Annual sales: app. EUR 8 billion About 22,000 employees More than 200 sites worldwide 19 SAP R/3 installations (4,000

users) 15 legacy installations 80% of Chempro‘s SAP systems

are on 3.1I, 20% on 4.6c

Continental Helium UK based, global company Products and services focusing

on industrial gases Annual turnover (2001): app. £

4.000m Operating profit: app. £ 600m. More than 43,000 employees 7,500 orders, 5,000 deliveries,

1,200,000 SAP hits every day on a 24 x 7 basis

www.ch

empro.

comContinental Helium LTD.

Company names changed

Success stories are underway


Global rollout – Central System Approach

Global Development/Global Development/

Client Independent Cust.Client Independent Cust.

Global Development/Global Development/

Client Independent Cust.Client Independent Cust.

LocalLocal

System LandscapeSystem Landscape

LocalLocal

System LandscapeSystem Landscape

Country 3 - DevelopmentCountry 3 - DevelopmentCountry 3 - DevelopmentCountry 3 - Development

Template DevelopmentTemplate DevelopmentTemplate DevelopmentTemplate Development



BC SetBC Set

ActivationActivation

BC SetBC Set

ActivationActivationClientsClientsClientsClients

Central DevelopmentCentral Development

SystemSystem

Central DevelopmentCentral Development

SystemSystem


Lessons Learned (1 of 3)

Finish your customizing before creating BC Sets.

Reserve a phase for creating BC Sets in your project plan.

Small is beautiful: BC Sets should not contain data from different activities.

Use hierarchical BC Sets.

Prepare your customizers for changes. Transport size has to be kept down if small BC Sets are to be created.

Establish clear creation rules before creating BC Sets .


Lessons learned (2 of 3)

Don’t use BC Sets if your basis support package level is below 19 (or even 22).

Always apply the highest basis support package available.

You CANNOT put master data, transaction data, reports, etc. into BC Sets

Not all IMG activities can be used with BC Sets – use the IMG analysis reports before creating BC Sets


Lessons Learned (3 of 3)

Train the local teams to ensure that the recipients know What a BC Set is How to compare BC Sets using the Customizing Cross-System

Viewer How to interpret the results of a comparison What to do if template violations occur

If activation is to be used, the local teams need to know How the activation functionality works How variable fields are handled during activation How to analyze the activation log What to do if activation errors occur.


Summary

Pros Comment

Successful pilot projects Success stories underway

Flexible and fast creation of subsidiary clients

Pilot: „3 days vs. 6 weeks“

Business process orientation of customizing

Clear definition of what belongs to the template

Less written documentation

Locking of customizing against changes

Works only for 60-80% of IMG, but locking is not possible with the traditional approach. In addition, you can periodically check template compliance.

Easy re-use of existing customizing


Summary

Cons Comment

More effort during initial template development

Subsequent releases of template can be created faster. Template version handling without BC Sets is very difficult.

Pilot: „250 BC Sets covering approx. 2,000 IMG activities in 2 weeks”

Additional Knowledge Transfer

Pilot: „Restrict BC Set creation, testing and application to a small team of experts“

BC Sets are a great technology, but it has some sharp

edges.

BC Sets are a great technology, but it has some sharp

edges.

We will use BC Sets again!

We will use BC Sets again!

Quotes from BC Set pilots

Knowledge transfer is the key, because

BC Set knowledge is not yet widespread.

Knowledge transfer is the key, because

BC Set knowledge is not yet widespread.


Service Marketplace:http://service.sap.com/BCSets

http://service.sap.com/rkt-bcsets

SAP Professional Journal:www.sappro.com/cart/ Customizing

Further Information

Documents

Six Reasons Why Customers Chose BC Sets for Global Rollouts Marc Oliver Schaefer SAP AG