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Upgrade Approaches to SAP ERP 6.0

What is the bast Upgrade Approaches to SAP ERP6.0?

Upgrade Approaches

Successfully executing an upgrade to SAP ERP 6.0 requires a well-defined upgrade strategy encompassing an approach and project scope based on the circumstances and aims of your organization. The project strategy has a great effect not only on project duration and effort but also on the immediate ROI of the upgrade. The upgrade strategy usually consists of several stages that progressively expand functionality, increase business value, and prepare the organization for the transition to enterprise SOA while minimizing risk. This process typically lasts three to five years and consists of three distinct phases: the technical upgrade, functional enhancements, and strategic enhancements.

Step 1: Technical Upgrade

This initial phase involves a purely technological upgrade whose major goal is the implementation of the new software release as the foundation for all subsequent improvements. The impact of this phase on your business and business processes is very limited:

Previously used business functions are retained
Modifications and custom developments are reduced (which reduces cost of operations and system complexity)
Unicode conversion may take place.
The technical upgrade simply creates the basis for functional and strategic enhancements.

Step 2: Functional Enhancements

Directed toward business benefits, this phase focuses on increasing business value by implementing the most valuable functions of the new software and laying the foundation for future business innovation and improved process automation. During this phase, SAP software modifications and custom developments are replaced with (new) standard SAP software functions. Operational excellence is improved by picking and implementing “low-hanging fruit” – functions that offer the greatest business benefit with the least effort. Even though this phase can be combined in a single project with the technical upgrade, statistics show that more than 80% of SAP customers approach this second phase as a separate project, to be conducted after a technical upgrade has been completed and overall stability has been reached.

Step 3: Strategic Enhancements

Phase three involves implementing new and optimized business processes and scenarios that fully exploit new SAP ERP functions and enable enterprise SOA. It may include implementing other software systems or components and is very much dependent on the business needs of your organization. Enterprise SOA enables you to shorten application innovation life cycles and implement strategic business enhancements at your own speed.

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