ASUG Annual ConferenceSession 4711

Change Management Lessons Learned from Upgrading 4.0b to 4.6c

Contents

Company BackgroundSAP BackgroundTransaction Changes ChallengesSolutionsLessons Learned

Company Background

Fortune 300 Global Energy Services CompanyLargest utility customer base in U.S.– San Diego Gas & Electric– Southern California Gas Company

Trading, Generation, Services12,000 employees worldwide$6 billion in sales in 2002

SAP BackgroundFinance Accounting (FI) Procurement (PR)

Controlling (CO) Accounts Payable (AP)

Asset Accounting (AM) Inventory Management (MM )

Accounts Receivable (AR) Warehouse Management (WM)

Project Systems (PS) Plant Maintenance (PM)

Investment Management (IM) Industry Solution (FERC)

Customer Care System (CCS) Service Management (SM)

Business Warehouse (BW) Bar Coding (Inventory )

Fax Senior Sales and Distribution (SD)

Service Management (SM) External Services

SAP Background

1500 SAP users in 11 companiesWent live with 4.0b in March 1998First technical upgrade to 4.6c in August 2002Filenet for AP imagingAdded External Services in April 2003Adding Employee Expense 2Q 2003

Transaction Changes

Security – Access to reports now through transaction codes vs. old report treesPurchasing– Purchase Requisition and Purchase Order

transactions (create, change, display) only significant change. All data now available on a single screen.

PO Document in SAP 4.6

Purchase Requisition Document

Transaction MIGO for IM

MIGO is a dynamic transaction code that a user can use to complete Goods Receipt, Goods Issue, Return Delivery, Release Blocked Stock, etc.

4.6C enables the user to rearrange columns to change the screen layout to fit user’s requirements.

Allows multiple account information like cost centers and G/L accounts on a single screen.

Allows completion of Goods Receipt for multiple purchase orders in a single transaction

MIGO SCREEN: GOODS RECEIPT

MIGO SCREEN: GOODS ISSUE

Challenges

5000 SKUs over almost 100 user locationsPlanning/forecasting used in all locationsRe-engineered security at the same time as the upgradeIsolated facilitiesFour day (planned) upgrade outageOlder operating systems (Windows 95 and 98) on some machines

Solutions

Delta training onlyComputer Based Training (CBT)Netmeeting/Webex for isolated locationsClassroom trainingCommunicate, communicate, communicate!

Lessons Learned

No such thing as a small change to an end-user– User menu vs. SAP menu

Plan for a “sandbox” for end-usersSome menu paths are very hard to find – New transaction search a handy functionOnce end-users get familiar with the changes, they really like them