SAP Implementation Unleashed

George W. Anderson is the Chief Strategist for EDS, an HP Company, providing enterprise applications, thought leadership, and strategic direction on behalf of the Office of the CTO. An avid writer, technologist, student, and speaker, George lives near Houston, Texas, with his wife and three children. George is a certified SAP Technical Consultant, PMI PMP, HP Master ASE, and more, and holds one of several technical editor positions for SAP Professional Journal. An SAP consultant for 12 years and IT professional for more than two decades, George has had the privilege of working on numerous implementations, upgrades, computing platform migrations, infrastructure refresh and performance optimization projects, and other enterprise consulting engagements. You can reach him at george.anderson@hp.com.   Charles D. Nilson, Jr., is a Senior Program Manager for EDS, an HP Company. Charles lives near Chicago, Illinois, with his family and has held various SAP project management, program management, and consulting roles. Across a 14-year SAP career, Charles has had the pleasure of working on numerous projects and programs, managing multicultural teams and supporting scores of successful SAP implementations across four continents. With industry knowledge spanning electronics, consumer products, pharmaceutical, and discrete manufacturing companies, Charles is a PMI PMP and is SAP Partner Academy certified in MM and PP. He also holds a Certificate in Integrated Supply Chain Management from MIT and a bachelor’s of science in business administration from Elmhurst College in Illinois. An avid sportsman (favorites include kayaking, golfing, hunting, and camping), you can contact Charles at charles.nilson@hp.com.   Tim Rhodesis a Senior Technical Consultant for EDS, an HP Company. He resides in Houston, Texas, with his wife and three children and enjoys reading and conquering steep learning curves. Tim is an eight-year Basis and SAP infrastructure veteran focused on implementing, migrating, and upgrading SAP components and has been working in the information technology field for more than 17 years. An SAP-certified Technical Consultant, Oracle Certified Professional, Microsoft MCSE, and HP Master ASE, Tim recently received his MBA and is a coauthor of the popular Teach Yourself SAP in 24 Hours, Third Edition. You can reach him at tim.rhodes@hp.com.   Andreas Jenzer is a Principal Consultant with 11 years of SAP experience spanning the entire SAP systems lifecycle. A proud recent father of twins, Andreas consults to executivelevel technology leaders on behalf of HP. He currently focuses on Business Technology Optimization solutions for SAP environments. Andreas is a graduate engineer in information technology and holds a master’s degree in service management. Andreas and his family reside in Boulder, Colorado; he may be reached at andreas.jenzer@hp.com.   Sachin Kakade is a Senior Solution Architect and Functional Consultant for HP specializing in enterprise applications such as SAP. He has 17 years of total experience with the manufacturing industry and with SAP implementations, specializing in Supply Chain Management, Business Intelligence, and ERP solutions. Sachin is a certified SAP PP and SAP APO Demand and Supply Planning consultant, and he has provided application configuration, business process reengineering, and architectural solutions for more than a dozen customers. He holds a Bachelor’s in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Pune and a diploma in Business Management. Sachin is an outdoor enthusiast and engages in a variety of activities, such as painting acrylic landscapes, playing soccer, and hiking with his family. He can be contacted at sachin.kakade@hp.com.   Jeff Davis is an Independent Enterprise IT Architect and SAP Basis Consultant who lives in Houston, Texas, with his wife and son. With 15 years in information technology and more than 10 years specializing in SAP, Jeff has worked as a Senior Basis/NetWeaver Architect on large SAP implementations throughout the United States, including international and public sector projects. While SAP consulting is his career, Jeff will tell you that his real passions are knowing Christ more and enjoying time with his family. You can reach Jeff at jeff.davis2@hp.com.   Dr. Parag Doshi, Heather Hillary, Veeru Mehta, and Bryan King contributed significantly to SAP Implementation Unleashedas well, sharing their unique expertise and experience in SAP-related fields as diverse as SOA, project leadership, functional configuration, sizing/architecture, enterprise applications implementation preparation, achieving operational excellence, and more. As seasoned consultants, practice principals, and project managers, their real-world implementation lessons learned added a valuable “in the trenches” dimension to SAP Implementation Unleashed.  

Part I       Setting the Stage

1              What it Means to Implement SAP

2              SAP Projects: Characteristics and Themes

3              Business Vision

4              ERP Solution Vision

5              Financial Impact: ERP Costing and ROI

6              Knowledge Repository

Part II      Getting Started

7              PM Checkpoint 1

8              Building the SAP PMO

9              SAP Project Management

10            No Implementation is an Island: Partners Required

11            Building the SAP Project Team

12            Staffing a World-Class Project Team

13            Staffing the SAP Business Teams

14            Staffing the SAP IT Technical Support Organization

15            HA Considerations and Solutions

16            DR Considerations and Solutions

17            Availability and Recoverability: Organizational Factors

18            Introduction to SAP Platform Sizing

19            Conducting the SAP Platform Sizing Process

20            Training SAP Users

21            Developing the SAP Data Center

Part III     SAP REALIZATION/FUNCTIONAL DEVELOPMENT

22            PM Checkpoint 2

23            Preparing for SAP Component Installations

24            Installing SAP NetWeaver Components

25            Installing SAP Business Suite Components

26            Functional Development

27            Functional Configuration Change Control

28            Functional, Integration, and Regression Testing

29            Advanced Concepts: Functional Testing

Part IV    PLANNING FOR GO-LIVE

30            PM Checkpoint 3: Project Team Retention

31            SAP Infrastructure Operational Considerations

32            SAP Infrastructure and Platform Testing

33            SAP Load and Stress Testing

34            Technical Change Control

35            SAP Systems and Operations Management

36            Preparing for SAP Go-Live

Appendix A           Case Study Considerations and Conclusions

Appendix B           SAP Acronyms and Terminology