The predefined Global ASAP Roadmap with its four phases offers you the following implementation benefits:
- Proven strategic decisions used as the basis for effectively implementing R/3 and its installation tools
- The development of groupwide implementation standards
- The rapid creation of a group reference system and a central productive system for setting up master records, for example.
- Long-term and cost-effective support and maintenance concepts
Phase 1: Global Program Setup
In the first phase, the global implementation program is set up. The workpackages Program Management Preparation (see below) and Global Template Project Setup contain administrative and project planning steps. The workpackage Define Global Strategy is structured to facilitate the holding of senior management workshops and follow-up studies on global implementation strategies.
The basis of global SAP strategy decisions is formed by carrying out a strategy determination study. This analysis includes modeling the organizational structure, defining the functional scope and key business processes, reporting requirements and the corresponding documentation. After this, the following elements of a global R/3 strategy need to be worked out:
- System Architecture Strategy-Describes the IT standards and requirements based on the global system topology of the corporate group.
- Distribution Strategy-Describes the distribution of system functionality in a system topology defined for this purpose.
- Global Design/Configuration Strategy-Specifies the type and number of reference template systems to be developed.
- Change Management Strategy-Describes the type and scope of new implementations and the way change procedures are carried out for users and hardware.
- Gap Resolution Policy-Describes the solutions needed to bridge identified gaps in the functionality.
- Implementation Strategy-Describes the number, type and way that global templates are rolled out and local systems implemented.
- Center of Excellence Strategy-Describes the organization required for training, maintenance and support functions.
- Customer Implementation Release Strategy-Examines and describes the procedure for upgrading the R/3 System specific to country and industry solutions.
- Global Program Structure and Resource Strategy-Specifies the sequence of the implementation program, its organization and the corresponding allocation of resources.
The global R/3 strategy determination process is concluded with a Risk Analysis and a presentation to the enterprise's management, which then leads to the appropriate implementation strategy decisions being made.
Phase 2: Global Business Blueprint
The second phase of the Roadmap is characterized by the creation of the development systems and template contents. This includes the reviewing of the scope defined in the setup phase, the training of the template team, and the designing of the template itself.
The analysis of local and global requirements leads to a detailed model of the business processes necessary at the global level. The standardization of business processes and functions, as well as of best-practice cases is one of the main tasks of a global template. In this connection, the special requirements for business processes and functions running on distributed systems are an important consideration.
Phase 3: Global Realization
The work packages in this phase deal primarily with the creation of the global template together with the local units. This phase also describes the way to deal with group-specific customer developments at the global level.
In order for the concept of a global template to be successful beyond the rollout phase, it is necessary to ensure smooth maintenance handling. The step of Global System Management is therefore particularly important, since it contains the description of the system architecture to be implemented and the management of the systems involved.
A further important step is the creation of a Customer Competence Center. This organization should be able to carry out first-level support and coordinate all future developments. Global ASAP provides guidelines for the establishment of a Customer Competence Center.
Phase 4: Global Maintenance and Support
Besides administrative activities, the phases after the rollout emphasize the support of the local units. Phase 4 contains information on how to tune the local system and optimize business processes. Experiences gained during the rollout should now be incorporated back into the global template and be made available for later installations of R/3. A suitable rollback procedure is also included.
Global ASAP contains procedures for dealing with ongoing systems operations and the template upgrade procedure relevant to the customer's implementation release strategy.
Rollout Roadmap
The Rollout Roadmap has as its goal the creation of a local productive reference system and, in the case of distributed systems, the provision of a link to a central productive system in order to, for example, set up and maintain R/3 master records.
The Rollout Roadmap speeds up the implementation process in the local units, so that – depending on the enterprise's requirements – entire implementation series can be carried out. Redundant project activities can thus be pinpointed and avoided. The advantages of this roadmap are:
The realization of groupwide implementation standards, through an efficient rollout in the local units
A rollback procedure for the exchange of general experiences, which can then be incorporated into the template. In this way the changes are passed on to the local units quickly and comprehensively.
