SAP Offers

SAP E2E Implementation

Viraaj Software provides a full range of services for the development and implementation of information systems at enterprises of various industries and business scales.

What is an SAP Implementation?

SAP implementation is a collection of practices and workflows intended to design, build and tune an SAP landscape. SAP landscapes are all unique, so SAP implementations are seldom the same. Each has its own organization-specific requirements based on distinctive SAP configurations, customizations and combinations of SAP and third-party modules. Unique adaptations aside, an SAP implementation is always about taking a vision for SAP in the business and turning it into a reality. It’s a multi-step process, with distinct phases.

Types of SAP Implementation

In our experience, we see two main types of SAP implementation. Generally, you can either build an SAP landscape from scratch, known as a “greenfield” project, or modify an existing one, in a “brownfield” scenario. A new business is always a greenfield, while brownfield migrations usually occur when your SAP landscape is out of date. In some cases, though, it’s more efficient to skip the brownfield and start from scratch.

SAP implementation: conceptual design, configuration and support after a productive start.

Implementation of SAP solutions is organized on the basis of two types of methodologies:

Stages of the implementation project using the ASAP Focus methodology:

• Deployment of the prototype system and preparation of the project implementation (detailed project plan, project organizational documents, definition of the relationship between the executor and the customer teams with the identification of responsible persons
• Evaluation of the solutions proposed in the prototype in accordance with the requirements of the Customer’s business and the local requirements of the legislation
• Qualification of the solution (coordination of delta requirements by the Customer, stated in the conceptual project)
• Setting up and developing a solution
• Key users training
• Integration testing
• Preparation for a productive start and Go Live
• Support after a productive start

Stages of the implementation project according to AGILE methodology:

• Deployment of the prototype system and preparation of the project implementation (detailed project plan, project organizational documents, definition of the relationship between the executor and the customer teams with the identification of responsible persons
• Evaluation of the solutions proposed in the prototype in accordance with the requirements of the Customer’s business and the local requirements of the legislation (in the case of conducting projects outside the territory of the Russian Federation)
• Qualification of the solution (coordination of delta requirements by the Customer, stated in the conceptual project)
• Setting up and developing a release 1
• Key users training
• Prototype testing and defining delta requirements
• Setting up and developing a release 2
• Prototype testing and defining delta requirements
• Setting up and developing a release 3
• Prototype testing and defining delta requirements
• Setting up and developing a release 4
• System acceptance
• Preparation for a productive start and Go Live
• Support after a productive start

* The number of releases is determined based on the complexity of the overall functionality. The advantages of this approach are that the Customer is “immersed” in the functionality of the system at earlier stages (introductory training is required at the stage of release 1, then intermediate testing of releases in the system). In this case risks of not matching the implemented functionality with the requirements of the customer tend to a minimum.

Installation vs. Migration vs. Upgrades

SAP implementation work arises in three main settings. The first is installation, such as with a product like SAP S/4HANA. New or old customers need installations. With an existing customer, the implementation may occur because the customer has such an extensively customized landscape that it’s better in the long-run to build a new system from scratch.

Migrations, in contrast, involve moving an SAP product between hosted environments. A migration might also mean moving SAP from one database to another. Migrations usually occur in multiple phases. They are by nature, complex and require frequent testing. An SAP upgrade is an implementation project that moves an SAP instance to a newer version. This could be something relatively simple, like adding enhancement packs. Some upgrades are challenging, however, requiring a great deal of planning and testing to successfully implement.

Lifecycle vs. Steps vs. Phases

In discussing an SAP implementation, it’s easy to get mixed up by a couple of similar-sounding terms that SAP consultants use to describe the work. These include “lifecycle,” “steps” and “phases.” They’re related concepts, but each has a different meaning. When we talk about lifecycle, we’re talking about the “age” of an SAP product. SAP product age is not measured in years. Rather, a new product is at the start of its lifecycle. One that is being retired is referred to as “End of Life” or EOL, even if it was only introduce a few years earlier. Many SAP implementation projects arise because a product is approaching EOL and needs to be replaced.

An SAP implementation has five basic steps:

• Project preparation
• Business blueprint
• Realization
• Final preparation
• Go Live support

In Project Preparation, you get ready to implement by identifying objectives, priorities and scope. During this initial planning phase, you work on gaining stakeholder support while lining up resources. Business Blueprinting is about defining the business processes your landscape will address. Realization is where the implementation team takes the business blueprint as the starting point to build, test and refine the landscape. Up until this point, the process has been headed up by the functional team, who are primarily concerned with what the system does. In realization, the technical team starts to take a bigger role. In Final Preparation, your team prepares for migration and go-live. Go Live Support means flipping the switch and then looking after the newly-implemented SAP landscape.

The phases of an SAP implementation occur in parallel with the steps described above. They include Onsite Initiation, which is an initial kickoff with the technical team and key stakeholders. Data Center and Network Setup involves provisioning and then configuring whatever on-premises infrastructure is needed, including Disaster Recovery (DR).  SAP General Activities cover other preliminaries and getting ready for implementation by downloading software, etc. Sandbox Migration is where you migrate the SAP landscape incrementally in advance of production migration. Development Migration comprises working out issues that inevitably arise in the implementation process. The Production Migration itself is the final phase.

Costs of an implementation

What does an SAP implementation cost? Unfortunately, there is no straight answer, but in general is not an inexpensive process. Each implementation is different in terms of scope, length of time and required resources. Thus, the budgets vary accordingly. However, what we’ve found is that good planning helps keep projects as economical as possible. And, an investment early on in detailing the requirements review and scoping will pay dividends in lower costs over time. Hiring the right project managers similarly keeps the process under control, in terms of cost.

SAP Project Support

SAP is the leading ERP system in the world used by most of the top global companies. There are tens of thousands of customers facing the same challenge: how to optimize the support of their SAP systems.

Support project means managing Incidents (issue fix) based on tickets, monitoring systems, performance tuning, capacity management, change management and small enhancements /projects required (e.g managing new government regulations like GST Tax) for different modules. If you understand ITIL it is easy to understand.

The problem SAP developers have with incomplete bug reports

A lot of time is wasted in SAP software testing and maintenance processes due to incomplete or incorrect error reports from users and testers. Support people (analysts, developers) usually have to ask for more information about the error. This takes a lot of valuable working time from both the reporters of the error and support people. Solving the problem is often blocked until every information is available.

Some typical examples:

• Missing basic information
  • Users forget to enter critical data into the error reports, for example which system is affected, which SAP transaction was running, which Sales Order has the incorrect data etc. You simply can’t start investigating the problem without information like this.
• Incorrect information entered
  • Users mistype information, for example enter a wrong material number etc. This can make your developers debug for hours just to come back to the user that everything works fine. “Ooops, sorry it was Purchase Order 112000898 and not 112000989.”
• No technical information
  • Users can’t add technical data, for example they don’t know how to get the program and screen number of the current transaction. This is fine, why would they be trained to know this?
• Missing attachments
  • Users forget to add a screenshot, short dump or an authorization report that will be required by the support staff anyway. If you had one dollar each time your IT support asked for a screenshot or a SU53 authorization report, you’d probably read this post on your yacht in Monaco.

Also, there are so many different ITSM tools out there. In order to report an error in SAP, users have to open new browser windows to launch the ITSM tool to report the error. There of course they have to enter all data manually that may take some time. Some organizations have more than five ITSM tools implemented. Test system connected to HP Quality Center, production system connected to ServiceNow, a development project using Bugzilla. Different UIs, different processes. No wonder end-users may become confused.

The solution to improve SAP support processes

STA Ticket System provides an elegant and effective solution for all the problems listed above.

Key features are:

• Errors can be reported directly from the SAP UI (all different types: classic SAP GUI, SAP Enterprise Portal, SAP Business Client, SAP Fiori Launchpad, Webdynpro applications, CRM WebUI)
• The program creates an incident in the existing ITSM tool of your choice
• The program automatically attaches all technical information (system, program, user and authorization data) as a PDF file
• Users can add the business context using a few clicks (screen field values of the current program)
• The program attaches a screenshot, short dump and authorization report automatically (when applicable)

Viraaj Software can assist you by taking over the complete operational SAP support ownership. ONSITE – OFFSITE – OFFSHORE SAP support team is established as per the customer specific demands. The SAP support team takes over the operational SAP support in close collaboration with the customer’s IT team. This dedicated SAP support team acts as an extended SAP team of your organization and assists you in:

SAP Basis Support services

• • SAP System monitoring
  • SAP performance tuning
  • SAP system sizing analysis
  • Application Interface management
  • Transport management
  • User and security management
  • Housekeeping jobs / operations
  • Backup monitoring

SAP Functional Support

• • Day to day operational SAP help desk / end user support
  • Trouble shooting
  • EDI monitoring and support
  • Deployment of new SAP functionalities
  • Functional updates / functional enhancements
  • Testing of new / enhanced functionalities
  • Deployment of new regulations as per statutory requirements
  • Application Enhancement – Change management
  • SAP end user training / documentation

Viraaj’s SAP AMS methodology:

We work closely with our customers to ensure a planned and successful SAP services transition comprising:

• Business process workshop and functional matrix finalization
• Detailed scope of work and standard operating procedure establishment
• Establish SLA and ITIL parameters including reporting and escalation matrix
• Empower internal IT team and key user group through extensive engagement
• Flexible global delivery based on ONSITE – OFFSITE – OFFSHORE delivery model
• Customer friendly deployment approach providing you the option to choose the best suited model for you from below:
• Dedicated team of techno-functional resources
• Shares Services model (shared resources pool)
• Fixed and extendable contingent of man hours / man days
• Time and Material based engagement
• Blend of dedicated and shared resources
• Parameters for such monitoring activities are defined together with the customer depending on organization specific requirements.
• Periodic reporting ensures that the entire activity is transparent. This allows our SAP customers to utilize their valuable resources for more critical operations.

Value addition through Viraaj’s SAP Managed Services:

• Flexible and tailored Services delivery model
• Multi-site, multi-lingual SAP support coverage across various time-zones
• SLA based and ITIL framework compliant services delivery
• Flexible and extended hours. The SAP managed services team is available as per your
  specific support requirements including a 24 X 7 support
• Leveraging our proven expertise from our engagement in various Customer Center Of Excellence engagements
• Allows you to focus on your core business activities while we act as your extended team and take up the ownership of smooth SAP system management.
• The team works closely with customer’s internal IT team and key users not only to take care of the routine support activities but also to deploy various improvement/enhancement measured based on our experience.
• Establish an Extended team to your internal IT team through partnership model.
• Fixed cost model. Managed services model provides you a fixed annual cost based on the defined services agreement.
• Reduced cost through offshore delivery model. No need to retain specialized teams.
• Extensive knowledge base. Our experienced team of consultants from across multiple industry verticals ensures that your organization benefits from the vast knowledge base.
• Reduced risk. A larger support team ensures that your system management is risk free and person independent.
• 24 X 7 Techno-Functional SAP Application support / SAP User Help Desk

Go Live Support

SAP ROLL OUT projects

ROLL OUT means replicating the business model of the SAP system in subsidiaries that have similar business processes. The main task of localization is to fully implement the local requirements of the subsidiary company, while preserving the integrity of the corporate model. 

As an SAP implementation project gets closer to go live, the entire project team is focused on one key objective: the go-live date. Master data has been uploaded but the quality has not been checked, users have been trained but not all have shown up, control reports are at the low priority end of the long ABAP list and are not yet in place. And then the moment arrives: the go-live.

Soon after, it will become evident that all of the unit and integration testing completed pre-go-live failed to cover the variety of scenarios that happen in the real world. You find users that are not fully aware of how to handle exceptions, bad practices that you never saw coming, users undertaking ‘workarounds’ that cause more problems than they solve, and master data that is missing key fields, quality content or simply is not filled at all.

Finally, the reports needed to control everything have not been built yet so nobody knows what goes wrong where and how to correct it. In no time, control of the business will slip away and the newly implemented SAP system will build up incorrect master and transactional data. The backlog grows and with the first month-end closing approaching, panic takes over. Nobody has an overall overview and users lack real visibility into their own processes: the famous post go-live ‘trough of disillusionment’.

Viraaj software can provide significant assistance during this dangerous period. Not only can use of Viraaj pre-go live prevent many of these situations from happening, it can also be used post go-live to quickly get deep insight into the data and processes of an organization so that swift action can be taken to correct the situation and turn panic into control.

We apply the adaptive methodology of ASAP Focus for the rapid implementation of solutions based on preconfigured in the prototype scenarios.

Stages of the project:

• Project preparation
• Conceptual delta design
• System Setup
• Key users training
• Integration testing
• Preparation for a productive start
• Go Live and support

Advantages of the SAP ROLL OUT project:

• Consolidated business model which can be considerably easier maintained and developed
• Transparency of the activity of subsidiary companies all over the world
• Consolidated reporting procedures meeting the corporate standards in accounting
• The possibility to have consolidated logistics modules, consolidated accounts, etc.
• Minimizing tax and business risks when transferring to the new ERP-system
• Reduction of total expenses for the system implementation
• Comparatively short implementation time

Migration from SAP ERP to S4HANA

SAP S / 4HANA is a new generation ERP for the automation of the company’s core processes (finance and management accounting, production, logistics, sales and services), which is intended to become the real digital core of your business. 

Key Features and Benefits:

• The new FIORI user interface is unified for any device, allow users to quickly adapt to the system and enjoy the work.
• Use of machine learning scenarios for aid in routine operations.
• Support for the Internet of Things concept to unite all the company’s assets in a single network.
• The high-performance In Memory SAP HANA database provides the ability to process a huge array of data in real time. The report, which was built several hours, you will receive in a few seconds.
• Reduction of TCO, due to compression of the database and acceleration of regulatory procedures
• SAP S/4HANA – The new SAP Digital Core
• S/4HANA is SAP’s new in-memory Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software and provides the Digital Core to SAP’s range of SaaS products. To date, over 7,000 customers have adopted S/4HANA through public cloud, private cloud or on-premise models.
• Whether a customer wants to migrate to the Cloud or use an on-premise solution – Viraaj Software has proven expertise in both product sets and is ideally placed to advise on the right strategic choices and to deliver the technology efficiently and effectively. Our consultants have unparalleled S/4HANA and SAP ERP delivery experience and work closely with our digital design, engineering and integration teams, giving our customers true expertise, lower risk projects and transformative and robust solutions.

Top 10 S/4HANA benefits

• Improve order fulfillment by 25%
• Increase customer satisfaction by 20%
• Reduce manufacturing error rates by 20%
• Reduce procurement costs by 15%
• Respond to market fluctuations faster than ever
• Streamline your supply chain by 12%
• Anytime, anywhere access
• Improve your manufacturing cycle time by 10%
• Reduce capital requirements by 35%
• Reduce unplanned downtime by 10%