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JULY 15, 2006 WINSHUTTLE, INC. 2005

WINSHUTTLE, INC.

18323 BOTHELL-EVERETT HWY, SUITE 375BOTHELL, WA 98012, USA

(800) 711-9798WWW.WINSHUTTLE.COM

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The Legacy System Migration Workbench (LSMW) is a technical tool provided by SAP tohelp with the data migrations during initial implementations. It is also used by some SAP

customers to make mass changes to master data in SAP.

This article describes an easy non-technical alternative to update customer masterrecords in fewer steps than LSMW; without technical involvement or requiring extra-authorizations in SAP.

Using the tools and techniques described in this paper, hundreds of SAP customers arerealizing vast productivity improvements in their SAP data loading and data updateprojects. Moreover, these projects are being carried out by business users themselves.

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A recent series of published articles

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describe a business application common tomany SAP customers making mass updates to data in SAP R/3 or mySAP systems.The particular application of interest in these articles is to make a mass change tocustomer records such as Sales Office, Sales Group or Customer Group fields via theXD02 transaction in SAP.

In the referenced articles, the suggested tool for making such changes is the LegacySystem Migration Workbench (LSMW) tool from SAP. The articles give an excellentdescription of LSMW and go through a series of 14 steps involved in making a masschange to the customer master data.

In this article, we introduce a much easier alternative to make such a mass update to the

customer master records. We will show how the TxShuttle software can be used to easilyaccomplish the same business application in fewer steps. These steps can be run bybusiness super-users or functional analysts without requiring extra authorizations to runLSMW sessions in SAP.

1SCM Expert Article (http://www.scmexpertonline.com/downloads/SCM_LSMW_StepsOnWeb.doc)

2CRM Expert Article (http://www.crmexpertonline.com/archive/Volume_02_(2006)/Issue_02_(March)/v2i2a2.cfm)

3FICO Expert Article (http://ficoexpertonline.com/downloads/0703.doc)

4All SAP Links Article (http://www.allsaplinks.com/lsmw.html)


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Towards the end of the article we provide some other points of comparison between theTxShuttle application and LSMW.

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The following are the 14 steps required for updating the customer master records usingthe LSMW tool. More details about each of the following steps can be found in the abovereferenced articles.

1. Maintain Object Attributes - First the transaction XD02 is recorded using a batch-inputrecording session. Each field on every screen in the recording is edited and given a name.Depending on the number of screens visited and the number of fields to be uploaded, thisstep could take a long time to finish.

2. Maintain Source Structures In this step, a source structure is named for the upload.

3. Maintain Source Fields Here, all the fields that will be uploaded are given names andtheir format is precisely defined.

4. Maintain Structure Relations In this step, a relationship I defined between the sourcestructure and source field. For the customer master loading example, this relationship isautomatically determined and this step does not require any work.

5. Maintain Field Mapping and Conversion Rules Here, every field recorded in Step 1 ismapped to the source fields defined in Step 3.

6. Maintain Fixed Values, Translations, User-defined Routine In this step of LSMW, anydata translations that need to be done are defined. In the customer master example, thisstep is skipped.

7. Specify Files In this step, you point at a tab-delimited file to be uploaded. If the sourcedata file is in Excel, then that Excel file would need to be saved as a tab-delimited file.

8. Assign Files - This step is automatic for this example.

9. Import Data Here, the source file is imported into the system.

10. Display Imported Data -This is an optional step where the imported file can be displayedfor verification.

11. Convert Data Here the imported data is converted into the appropriate input format.

12. Display Converted Data This is another optional step where the converted data can bedisplayed for verification.

13. Create Batch Input Session In this step, a batch session is created which can run theXD02 transactions to make the change to the data.

14. Run Batch Input Session - In the final step, the batch session is actually executed via theSM35 transaction.

Even though not all 14 steps are required, the process of carrying out such a mass datachange with LSMW is involved and can be quite lengthy.


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In this section, we introduce the TxShuttle program and show how simple it can be toupdate customer master records.

Assuming you already have an Excel file with data that needs to be uploaded; the threebasic steps involved in uploading this data to SAP using TxShuttle are:

1. Record any SAP transaction via TxShuttle.2. Map the recorded fields to Excel fields, via an easy drag-and-drop mapping.3. Run the upload to SAP.

When you start TxShuttle, the TxShuttle screen as displayed Figure 1 is brought up.

Figure 1 The TxShuttle Main Screen

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Click on the New button on the TxShuttle screen to start a new recording. Whenprompted, enter the transaction code XD02. TxShuttle then launches XD02 transactionand prompts you to complete the Change Customer transaction, as shown in Figure 2.Enter the key customer information and choose Sales view within Sales area data. Make

changes to the three required fields (sales office, sales group, and customer group) andsave the transaction.


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Figure 2 Transaction Recording for Transaction Code XD02

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Once the recording is completed, TxShuttle allows you to choose the Excel file datasource and displays a mapping screen; which is divided into two parts: (1) a listing of allthe SAP fields that were touched during the recording, with the field values that wereentered during the recording, and (2) a preview of the Excel spreadsheet to be uploaded.See Figure 3.

Figure 3 TxShuttle EasyMapper Initial Screen

Excel FilePreview

SAP fieldstouchedduringrecording


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The process of mapping the Excel columns with the SAP fields is as simple as draggingand dropping the Excel columns shown in the Excel Preview to the SAP Fields on the top-half of the mapper screen. At the end of the drag-and-drop operation, the mapper appearsas shown in Figure 4. Excel column A is mapped to the Customer Account Number field,column B is mapped to the Sales Organization field, and so on, for all 7 fields that weretouched during the recording.

Figure 4 TxShuttle EasyMapper Mapped Screen

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Once the mapping is complete, we are ready to run the transaction. As shown in Figure 5,simply open the XD02 script in TxShuttle, point to the Excel file that you wish to upload,specify the start row, the end-row, and the column for the results to be logged in. Once allthe input parameters have been specified, click on the Run button to start the upload ofthe Excel file into SAP.

The user is prompted to log on to SAP just before the run. This logon verifies the user hasauthorization to run the XD02 transaction. If the user has the appropriate authorization, thetransactions are processed in real-time and the messages coming back from SAP aredisplayed in the column specified as the log column, as shown in Figure 6. Transactionsthat result in an error are clearly highlighted. The records with data errors can be fixed anda second upload run can be performed only for those records.

The audit-trails in SAP are completely preserved with the name of the user who carriedout the upload.


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Figure 5 TxShuttle Screen showing the fields to be entered before the transaction run

Figure 6 Excel sheet showing the data and the resulting output from SAP


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As can be clearly seen from the past few pages, using TxShuttle for updating customermaster records is an easy alternative to LSMW and can significantly improve productivity

for mass data loading. Some key points of comparison between LSMW (used in theBatch Input Recording mode) and TxShuttle:

Authorization: TxShuttle does not require extra authorizations and runs withauthorizations that a user typically has. The use of LSMW typically requires developer-level authorization in SAP and is not available to most business users or functionalanalysts.

Integrated Logs: In TxShuttle, the results that are returned from SAP reside in thesame spreadsheet as the data making it very convenient and quick to correct andreprocess erroneous records. In LSMW/SM35, the results that come back from SAPreside in a separate screen and it can get painful to iteratively identify and fix erroneousrecords.

Header & Multiple Line Item Data: TxShuttle allows the loading of commontransaction data such as invoices, journal vouchers, purchase orders, etc. where eachrecord can have a variable number of line items.This kind of data is impossible to uploadwith LSMWs Batch Input Recording mode since the number of fields in the recordinghas to match the number of fields to upload exactly.

Native Excel Integration: TxShuttle works natively with Excel data without needing toconvert it to tab-delimited or comma delimited formats. TxShuttle also works with Excelformulas natively so individual fields can be calculated or referenced from other sources.With LSMW, data has to be converted to a tab delimited or comma delimited file formatbefore it can be uploaded. Native Excel integration leads to significant productivityimprovements.

More Powerful Recording: TxShuttle provides a few different recording modes and amore powerful recorder than the LSMW batch-input recorder. Thus, TxShuttle is able tohandle significantly more transactions and application, compared to LSMW.

Download data from SAP: With TxShuttle, you can also download data from SAP.While running transactions, TxShuttle allows you to download specific screen fields into anExcel column. With TxShuttle you can also automate the running of reports anddownloading these reports into local files. LSMW does not allow such downloads.

No Transports Required: With TxShuttle, no transports are required to move uploadprograms from one system to another. A script can be easily recorded in a QA system andimmediately run on production without waiting for transports.

Run-time Version: TxShuttle is also offered in a light run-time version for users whomay not be creating scripts, they only run upload scripts previously created. With LSMW,all users by definition are allowed to create or change the upload script. Thus, deployingTxShuttle across the enterprise is much easier and safer.

Fully Supported: TxShuttle users are fully supported by telephone and email by thetechnical support team at Winshuttle, Inc. Winshuttle support engineers have extensiveexperience and knowledge of SAP transactions in many SAP modules and they canindividually help users build their specific upload scripts.

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