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| Case Study |
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Patni partners with SAP-Japan to help a Large Heavy Engineering Company to upgrade SAP to version ECC6.0 |
Leveraging SAP Upgrade Accelerator, Patni helps the client to accelerate
SAP Upgrade while minimizing risk, resources, and downtime.
The Client
Client is a heavy engineering industry giant with a wide array of technology products.
The Challenge
The client was using SAP 4.6C as its core accounting system and facing a “Must-do” business situation, where they had to move SAP system from version 4.6C to ECC 6.0 to avoid going into extended maintenance support
The client had engaged SAP-Japan for performing the Upgrade. SAP-Japan wanted to involve an experienced SAP partner equipped with right tools
to assess the SAP system. The partner was expected to deliver accurate estimates of impacted components and the efforts to remediate them. Patni was invited by SAP-Japan to conduct upgrade assessment. Based
on Patni’s assessment result and competitive upgrade estimates, SAP-Japan then engaged Patni further by giving end-to-end responsibility.
The client desired a smoother upgrade of 6000+ custom objects while moving the SAP landscape from version 4.6C to ECC 6.0. Client was equally concerned about the quality of the deliverables while adhering
to stringent delivery schedule.
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Upgrade from SAP 4.6C to ECC 6.0 involves three version upgrades
and hence getting combined view of 3 version changes upfront was a challenge. Having this view early enough in the project is necessary
to prepare the remediation efforts and for overall planning of project. |
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Assessing impact on 40 different types of 6000+ add-on objects was a challenge as identification method and remediation process differs by object type. |
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Custom objects involved 500 standard modifications, analyzing these modifications was a challenge as it was required to reset some of them to original for usability improvements, and have an accurate estimate
of remediation. |
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Patni had done many upgrades on earlier versions in other parts of
the world, but working on ECC6.0 upgrade in Japan posed additional challenges as mentioned below: |
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Critical component impact - Components like BDCs, BAPIs and BADIs could take up substantial remediation & testing efforts. Hence, identification of such critical components during assessment was of utmost importance to ensure accurate estimation of remediation & testing efforts. |
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Bilingual Skills – With Japanese language SAP installation and most of the communication in Japanese language, having a bilingual consultant in the team was mandatory for efficient coordination between the project team working on onsite-offshore model. |
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Custom objects in Standard Packages – Certain types of custom objects may be created outside Standard packages. It was necessary to identify such objects for 100% assessment coverage and avoid any business impact after the upgrade. |
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The Solution
Patni proposed to deploy Patni Upgrade Accelerator for SAP Upgrade Assessment. The different phases were as follows:
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The Benefits
Positive results from Patni recommendations to the client were:
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Use of Patni Assessment toolset gave accurate estimate of code remediation work ensuring no surprises during the execution phase |
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Client could get rid of 75% standard modified objects achieving phenomenal usability improvement |
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Shorter time for assessment due to tool based approach |
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Maximum leverage of offshore delivery model resulted in increased savings. |
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