SAP Community - SAP Readiness Check

Custom Code Remediation

2023-06-02T20:37:27+02:00

Overview:

Since, it was introduced twenty years ago, SAP ECC (Enterprise Central Component) has been a widely used Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) tool. But as digitalization, cloud computing, and the demand for real-time data processing have increased, SAP ECC has become antiquated and unable to satisfy the needs of modern business. New and enhanced functionality to run the business processes simpler, faster and smarter, will only be available on S/4 HANA.

As part of this journey, learnings from one of the S/4 HANA brownfield implementation projects for one of the manufacturing customers has been discussed in this white paper.

The target audience for this white-paper are Consultants, Senior-Consultants, Principal Consultants, Project Managers, Delivery Managers and SMEs.

Introduction:

As an ABAP developer working on a HANA Migration Project, I must perform the "Code Remediation" activity and modify certain ABAP code to prevent any potential functional difficulties during the HANA migration.

For doing Code Remediation, you will run ABAP Test Cockpit (ATC) on your SAP S/4HANA system using the various ATC check variants which SAP provides, and you will receive a lengthy list of ATC findings that you must need to resolve.

There are multiple ATC check variants which SAP provides as when you plan to move S/4 HANA –

S4HANA_READINESS

S4HANA_READINESS_NO_FLE (As of S4HANA 2021, SAP has come up with this check variant only for customers who don’t want to chang0065 the extended material number length.)

Note: We perform code remediation only on custom objects. For standard objects SAP will take care.

How to get the ATC Findings in Eclipse ADT:

Open the Program in Eclipse and click on Run As button (yellow highlighted) in Eclipse.

Select the option ABAP Test Cockpit with from the given options.

Enter the S4HANA_READINESS_2021_NO_FLE Check Variant suggested by SAP.

Click on OK button and you will receive the list of ATC Findings.

Note: I’m showing you here through Eclipse ADT but you can also get these ATC findings via SAP GUI.

Procedure of resolving ATC Findings:

We can resolve the ATC finding in three ways:

By implementing Semi-Automatic Adjustments: Perform Quick Fixes or Recommended Quick Fixes on one object at a time.

Issues belong to priority 1 and 2 must be fixed.

When you click on Recommended Quick Fixes, you will get this pop-up.

It will ask for Transport Request (TR).

Once you will enter the TR, we will be able to see the recommended quick fix for the required ATC Finding.

By implementing ATC Mass Fixes: This functionality can only be used in Eclipse not in GUI.

Read suggested notes against ATC Findings: You have to read the whole SAP Note (highlighted) on SAP SUPPORT PORTAL. Based on which the developer decides whether to implement the suggested change or not.

Conclusion:

As you begin to plan the conversion of your ECC system to the S/4 HANA system, you begin to realize that a very large number of ABAP objects will have to be adapted to run on the S/4 HANA database. You need to follow all the above steps’ screenshots to perform the remediation using Eclipse ADT. Eclipse ADT will help you the most to resolve the ATC findings swiftly.

We can resolve Reports, Function Groups using eclipse other than these like enhancements, tables, views we can resolve it using SAP GUI.

For Smart forms, we didn’t get any specific criteria yet to remediate it.

SAP Activate Methodology for SAP S/4HANA Upgrade and Product Integration – New Release 23Q2

2023-06-15T11:46:59+02:00

We have published the new release of the transition roadmap for SAP S/4HANA Upgrade and Product Integration, in SAP Roadmap Viewer as well as in SAP Cloud ALM.

The latest enhancements focus on the project team enablement, explaining the available offerings for SAP Enterprise Support customers, SAP MaxAttention/SAP Active Attention customers, and customers with an SAP Value Assurance engagement.

In addition, we have added self-enablement materials, especially accelerators to learning journeys, for

SAP Signavio Process Insights and SAP Signavio

SAP Cloud ALM

SAP Business Technology Platform

SAP S/4HANA Analytics

The analytics workstream is updated entirely, now reflecting the most important analytics landscape options, including SAP S/4HANA embedded analytics, SAP Analytics Cloud, and SAP Datasphere.

For SAP Readiness Check, we have added two accelerators “Functional Review Workshop Guide for System Conversion” and “Technical Review Workshop Guide for System Conversion”, which are valid also for preparing an upgrade of SAP S/4HANA and give good guidance how to work with the SAP Readiness Check analysis results.

The end of compatibility pack usage rights is coming closer (end of 2025, with exceptions), and to make customers aware that action may be required, we have added a new section on compatibility scope with links to the latest information.

As always, accelerators have been updated throughout the road map, to link you to newest information on SAP S/4HANA release 2022 FPS02.

The structure on activity / deliverables level has not changed.

You can find the new release of the Transition Roadmap for SAP S/4HANA upgrade and Product Integration in the SAP Roadmap Viewer and in the SAP Activate templates in SAP Cloud ALM.

SAP Business Transformation Center - Digital Blueprint

2023-06-29T22:00:31+02:00

Introduction

The SAP Business Transformation Center – Digital Blueprint covers a tool-based support within the transition of SAP ECC customers to SAP S/4HANA Cloud, private edition and SAP S/4HANA On Premise. Besides known approaches like New Implementation (aka Greenfield) or System Conversion (aka Brownfield), a partial transfer of data (aka Selective Data Transition) is frequently requested due to various business reasons. This has not been covered by a SAP standard product answer yet.

Based on existing SAP Readiness Check Capabilities and integrated in SAP Cloud ALM, SAP Business Transformation Center – Digital Blueprint provides

Data Insights

Visualizations

Recommendations

supporting scoping activities of to-be transferred data as part of a Selective Data Transition to SAP S/4HANA.

Considering an overall transition process, this first increment of the SAP Business Transformation Center hits the Access&Insights part as a starting point.

Focus of the Digital Blueprint Increment

As result, customers receive a Digital Blueprint of their scoped data serving as a preparation step before deploying it to SAP S/4HANA.

Usage Guide

The prerequisites and the subsequent execution steps for the creation of a Digital Blueprint are described within the following sections.

Prerequisites

Cloud ALM Tenant

If you do not yet use Cloud ALM in your system landscape, you need to provision your tenant at first. It is included in SAP Cloud Service subscriptions and SAP Enterprise Support. Additionally, the sequence of the required steps including further details can be found in support.sap.com or directly following this link leading to a Quick Start Guide for SAP Business Transformation Center.

Run Data Collection in ECC Source System

The first step is to create and extract a data profile of the ECC source system. The SAP Readiness Check for Usage & Data Profiling is used for this purpose, which has also been supplemented with SAP Business Transformation Center specific content. SAP Note 3275056 is therefore mandatory for the use of SAP Business Transformation Center. As the note describes, ABAP program RC_UDP_START_DMR2 needs to be executed to create a zip file containing information about ECC source data in an XML format.

Execution Steps

Step 1: Provision Source File in SAP Business Transformation Center

To upload the extracted data profile of your ECC source system, the Fiori App “Manage Analysis Files” is used. Simply create a new entry by adding a title, optional short description and upload the zip file extracted from the ECC source system. During the upload, first data validations are already done to avoid invalid data input. Having the source file successfully introduced, you can optionally have a first overview about some technical details of the source system as well as extracted company codes and transformation objects data.

Step 2: Create a Digital Blueprint

As a next step, a working instance of the uploaded source file is created – the Digital Blueprint. Choose the Fiori App “Manage Digital Blueprints” and create a new entry by providing a name, optional description and assign it to an analysis file created in Step 1.

After the successful creation of your Digital Blueprint, you get a list overview of in scope company codes and transformation objects. As up to now no scoping activities took place, all extracted company codes and transformation objects are displayed.

The assigned analysis file of step 1 is updated with the created Digital Blueprint. This ensures a clear transparency within the overall process flow and allows the creation of several Digital Blueprints for a single analysis file e.g. for comparison purposes. Choose Fiori App “Manage Analysis Files”, select your entry and verify section “Digital Blueprint” which points to the linked name of the Digital Blueprint.

Analysis File & Digital Blueprint

Step 3: Get an Overview of the initial Data Situation

In step 1 and 2 first list overviews about extracted and scoped data are available. As one step further, the Fiori App “Digital Blueprint Overview” provides a total overview with adjustable cards visualizing the general data occurrence and scoping effects. Additionally, derived system hints are summarized on company code and transformation object level. A data count summary and technical details of the source system serve as a round up for this overview.

Initial Overview

Step 4: Scope Company Codes

After gaining first insights in the overall usage of your source system, a closer look into company code data is done. You can either enter the company code view by choosing the Fiori App “Select Company Codes” or by directly starting it from the Digital Blueprint Overview by clicking on card for company codes. The App introduces company code details covered by an adjustable chart and table view. The general purpose as well as the various attributes of the app are extensively documented in the integrated help. It can be accessed by clicking on the question mark icon on the upper right of the screen. This is valid for all Fiori Apps within the SAP Business Transformation Center.

Company Code Overview & InApp Help

A click on a single entry in the table view reveals further data of a company code. Besides general attributes it contains assigned organization units, related transformation objects and open items from a financial perspective. For a large amount of transformation objects, a yearly data distribution chart is available.

Yearly Distribution of a Transformation Object

On top of these company code data extracted from the source system, there are also SAP Business Transformation Center internally derived data – namely the system hints. These text notes are displayed in the table view and in the detailed view. They indicate certain data situations which can be considered as an advice for scoping decisions. The consideration is optional and does not necessarily need to be followed.

Having these company code data at hand, a data driven scoping discussion can start. For example, with the usage of the “Last Activity” and “Data Count” figures, information about current or last business activities are provided, indicating the relevancy of a company code.

In this way, sometimes cumbersome discussions with various business departments can be reduced, especially if parts of a company have been sold in the past.

Once decided if a company code shall be transferred to the target system, the scoping status is set. This can be done either on single company code level or in mass edit for several entries. Declaring a company code out of scope results in an exclusion of all related transformation objects with their respective data counts as well.

Scoped Company Codes

Step 5: Scope Transformation Objects

A second perspective for scoping activities are Transformation Objects. To access them, you can start the Fiori App “Select Transformation Objects” or use the Digital Blueprint Overview by clicking on the Transformation Object Card.

Similar like for company codes, a chart and a table provide a first overview grouped by SAP application components. The integrated documentation supports in answering potential questions e.g. about specific fields and their purpose.

Transformation Object Overview & InApp Help

Choosing the detail view of a single transformation object leads to general data as well as a distribution along its assigned company codes including last activity dates and related data counts.

Transformation Object Details

The scoping decision can be set in the edit mode of the detail view or for mass selected objects in the table overview.

Transformation Objects to be discussed at all can be identified by the columns “Last Activity” as well as “Total Data Count” and “Relevant Data Count”.

Relevant count in this context means, how many data sets of a specific transformation object would be affected by a scoping decision considering an already done scoping on company code level. In other words, the relevant data count indicates dependencies between the company code and the transformation object perspective. In this way, the impact of scoping decisions is immediately reflected in these figures.

Example Relevant Data Count

Declaring a transformation object out of scope, results in an exclusion of all related data counts in all assigned company codes. Reasons e.g., for the exclusion of individual objects, can be documented with name and time stamp in a dedicated comment field.

The already known system hints are used for transformation objects as well. For example, if data for an out-of-scope object exists, a hint is raised to carefully check the dependencies based on your individual project circumstances.

Scoped Transformation Objects

Step 6: Get an Overview of the scoped Data Situation

As a last step, the result of the scoping activities is summarized in the Digital Blueprint Overview. Optionally, a second Digital Blueprint could be created right away, e.g. for an alternative scope by using the button “Create New Digital Blueprint” on the upper right corner of the screen.

Overview after Scoping

Further Information & Outlook

SAP Business Transformation Center – Digital Blueprint was publicly announced in May 2023. Further sources of information can be found under:

Support Page

A test tenant for playground purposes is available here as part of Cloud ALM demo tenants. Please follow the instructions for access data and check for already uploaded demo source files to create your own Digital Blueprint.

Being a Cloud-native application, new features are delivered incrementally on a frequent basis. Here you can get an overview about the latest increments within the What´s New Section in the SAP help portal.

The roadmap of SAP Business Transformation Center contains various topics – among others it’s the deployment of the scoped data into an empty SAP S/4HANA target system as well as further capabilities around system hints and custom enhancements. Details can be found within the SAP Roadmap Explorer under the solution capability “Business and Data Transformation”.

Conclusion

Following this blog post supports you in your first hands-on activites with the newly released SAP Business Transformation Center and its first increment - the Digital Blueprint.

If you like to get more information - or even better, get a direct solution look & feel - make yourself familar with the above mentioned additonal sources

Looking forward to hear your feedback, proposals for improvement as well as general thoughts, simply hit the comment section below!

New SAP Activate road map version 23Q3 – “Transition to SAP S/4HANA” (on premise)

2023-06-30T18:13:47+02:00

The 23Q3 release of the “Transition to SAP S/4HANA” (on premise) road map has been published, and here are the most important things we have changed for you:

As always, accelerators have been updated throughout the road map, to link you to newest information on SAP S/4HANA release 2022 FPS01 (e.g. release notes, feature scope description etc.). Many broken links have been fixed.

The usage of SAP Cloud ALM in SAP S/4HANA implementations has been detailed in the road map. For less complex projects, implementation functionality of SAP Cloud ALM could be sufficient for project support. Because SAP Cloud ALM is a public cloud solution, there is no installation, and setup and configuration runs very fast - see Expert Portal for SAP Cloud ALM for details. Therefore we list SAP Cloud ALM now in parallel to SAP Solution Manager w/ Focused Build.

Embedded analytics plays an important role in SAP S/4HANA. Activities and tasks related to that topic have been updated.

SAP Readiness Check content has been streamlined. Instead of describing all functionality, reference is given to the always-up-to-date functional reference deck “SAP Readiness Check - Key Feature Overview".

SAP Enterprise Support can help Enterprise Support customers significantly in the project. Service & learning content description from there have been leveraged throughout the road map. For instance, the request for an important "CQC for Transformation Assessment" is now listed at the right three places in the project.

You can find the new release of the “Transition to SAP S/4HANA” road map in the “SAP Roadmap Viewer”. And as you already know, we will push the updated content into SAP Cloud ALM for you within the upcoming days.

I hope you will enjoy it!

New SAP Readiness Check Scenario – SAP Readiness Check for SAP Datasphere, SAP BW bridge

2023-07-26T11:05:03+02:00

SAP Readiness Check for SAP Datasphere, SAP BW bridge is a self-service toolset to assess the status of your existing SAP BW 7.x or SAP BW/4HANA system in preparation for a conversion to SAP Datasphere, SAP BW bridge. SAP Readiness Check evaluates the compatibility of the analyzed source system with SAP Datasphere, SAP BW bridge and provides a comprehensive overview of various topics required to be analyzed for the conversion process. As a result, the toolset helps to identify required preparative activities and even possible pre-projects for your system well before the transition project starts. Additionally, SAP Readiness Check enables you to understand respective effort and implications. This early insight means that you can scope and plan your transition project with a higher degree of accuracy.

Since the SAP BW systems in the environment may differ, we recommend running SAP Readiness Check for SAP Datasphere, SAP BW bridge for every system you are planning to convert.

The tool includes the following system-specific information about adjustments required for the conversion to SAP Datasphere, SAP BW bridge:

Overview of active SAP BW objects

Compatibility of SAP BW objects

Readiness of connected source systems

Add-on inventory

Compatibility of custom code

Details

Overview of active SAP BW Objects

The Object Overview check scans your complete SAP BW 7.x system for active SAP BW object types. This list will help you identify which objects are being used. Further analysis with the object compatibility section and the precheck tool (see SAP Note 3141688) can be performed to assist in the project planning.

The Recently Use Count in the details table indicates that the SAP BW object has been identified by the available statistics, and that the object was used within the past two years of the SAP Readiness Check execution.

Compatibility of SAP BW Objects

The Object Compatibility check scans your complete SAP BW 7.x system for all types of SAP BW objects. For each SAP BW object type, the check counts the number of instances, for example, the number of InfoCubes configured in your system and determines if the objects are compatible with SAP Datasphere, SAP BW bridge.

Incompatible objects are split into objects that can be converted automatically (you can see which tool to use in the detailed view) and objects that will require a manual redesign, or a deletion. If incompatible objects are found, the corresponding simplification item and a link to its documentation are displayed.

If you want a detailed analysis that tells you which individual objects in your system are compatible with SAP Datasphere, SAP BW bridge, can be converted automatically, or need manual redesign, install and run the precheck tool (see SAP Note 3141688).

Add-ons

The Add-Ons check provides an overview of the add-ons that are installed in the analyzed system. Add-ons are not supported in SAP Datasphere, SAP BW bridge.

If there are third-party add-ons found in the analyzed system, contact the vendor directly to confirm if there is a recommendation for use cases in SAP Datasphere, SAP BW bridge.

Source System Readiness

With SAP Datasphere, SAP BW bridge, several source system types are no longer available and must be replaced or redesigned with compatible alternatives. In most cases (source systems in any SAP NetWeaver application), this means using operational data provisioning (ODP) source systems instead of those based on service API (SAPI).

The Source System Readiness – Details section shows the connected source systems, connection type, status, and corresponding information or an error message for the source system.

SAP Datasphere, SAP BW bridge only supports ODP-based source systems. Supported ODP contexts are:

ODP – BW

ODP – SAP (Extractors)

ODP – ABAP CDS Views

ODP – SLT

Custom Code Compatibility

Custom code may appear at various places in a typical SAP BW system. Most prominent is usually business logic implemented in transformations, which is used to enhance, check, and modify data during loading activities. But there are many more occasions in which custom code can be and is used in an SAP BW application.

As part of the code clean-up activities when developing the SAP Datasphere, SAP BW bridge code line, obsolete data types, APIs, function modules, and so on have been removed. Due to this, some custom code may not be compatible with SAP Datasphere, SAP BW bridge anymore (syntax errors or non-functioning).

The charts in the Custom Code Compatibility details view show an overview of potential custom code compatibility issues. The issues are grouped by the area they were found in (that is, the SAP BW object the custom code is related to), and by type.

In the section below, you can switch between data tables, which contain all findings by area, including information about how to resolve the issue and where to find more information.

Data Collection for SAP Readiness Check for SAP Datasphere, SAP BW bridge

To perform the data collection for SAP Readiness Check for SAP Datasphere, SAP BW bridge, implement SAP Note 3352301 – SAP Readiness Check for SAP Datasphere BW Bridge - Central Note.

Execute the program RC_BW_COLLECT_ANALYSIS_DATA via transaction SA38 in the productive client of the production system to schedule and download the data archive by performing the following three steps:

Select SAP Datasphere. SAP BW Bridge in the report UI.

Choose Schedule Analysis to schedule the master job to collect data.

Once the data collection jobs finish, choose the Download Analysis Data option from within the program RC_BW_COLLECT_ANALYSIS_DATA.

Create the new SAP Readiness Check analysis by performing the following steps:

Open the SAP Readiness Check landing page.

Choose Start New Analysis, complete the presented form, and choose Create. At this point, the data contained within the compressed file is being uploaded and processed in the SAP Readiness Check application, which is a cloud-based solution owned by SAP.
Once the data is completely processed, the analysis status will change from In Preparation to Available, which indicates that the analysis is available for viewing.

Optional: To generate an offline version of the results in a word processing program, choose Generate Document at the top of the dashboard view.

Flat File Interfaces in Integration Analysis of SAP Readiness Check

2023-08-09T11:15:51+02:00

We are happy to announce the availability of the flat file interfaces analysis as part of the integration analysis in SAP Readiness Check for SAP S/4HANA and SAP Readiness Check for SAP S/4HANA upgrades.

File-based integration provides the ability to exchange files with third-party or legacy systems that do not support messaging. A flat file interface (FFI) is a definition (or mapping) of a file to be processed. It identifies the data fields within the file. This powerful interface type enables application developers to access data from a file as they would handle a message or a page buffer. Flat file interfaces are part of many customers’ business processes, as they are easy to implement and allow the processing of huge amounts of data.

Key Features:

Gain an overview of active flat file interfaces within the system

Receive a list of customer-specific interfaces

Get a list of flat file interfaces impacted by the conversion or upgrade

Learn more about the simplification items impacting flat file interfaces

Figure 1: Integration Dashboard Card with Flat File Interface Type

The setup of the flat file interface analysis view is aligned with the other interface types in the SAP Readiness Check integration view.

Detailed View

Figure 2: Flat file interface view

The detailed view for Flat File Interfaces shows the total number of flat file interfaces, and the trace runtime.

There are four filter options available to adjust the result list items in the view:

Object Type: describes the direction and distinguishes between inbound and outbound interfaces.

Category: allows the user to display the results based on the attributes SAP, customer or partner interfaces

Application Component: the user can filter the results based on the application component (e.g. FI, CO, SD etc.)

Development Class: possibility to filter based on the development package

The Impact Analysis chart and table subsection provide an overview of discovered interfaces and the results of the impact analysis performed by SAP Readiness Check. The analysis focuses on the most critical impact types that require immediate action during a system conversion.

Understand how flat file interface discovery works

Flat file interfaces are not centrally managed in an SAP system in contrast to other interface types, for example, IDocs or OData services. Therefore, a special method is needed to identify file interfaces of an analyzed system:

Flat file interfaces use the OPEN DATASET ABAP command to access the underlying file system. Therefore, the usage of the OPEN DATASET command in ABAP development objects can be used to identify flat file activities.

When called, the OPEN DATASET command performs an implicit authorization check (S_DATASET), which can be recorded in the aggregated authorization trace (transaction code: STUSOBTRACE). The authorization trace provides not only information about the calling program but also about the call stack entry point, the activity type (read, write, or delete), and the file path.

The data for the flat file interface analysis is collected with the file interface discovery tool. The tool reads the data from the authorization trace, aggregates it, and enhances it with additional information, like the corresponding development class or the related application component. Additionally, the data collector provides filter capabilities to exclude system files, such as SAP-transport-management-related file accesses.

Figure 3: Overview of the data collection process for the flat file interface analysis

To keep the data volume as low as possible, SAP standard interfaces (e.g., transport system interfaces) are filtered out and not displayed in the results list. However, these interfaces can be reviewed within the flat file interface tool.

To activate the aggregated authorization trace and start the file interface discovery tool, follow the steps described in SAP Note 3322944 - File interface discovery for SAP Readiness Check

When to perform the analysis

The flat file interface discovery is decoupled from the rest of the SAP Readiness Check analysis. The data collection phase for the flat file interfaces does not interfere with or extend the execution runtime of other SAP Readiness Check data collectors. The data collection can be performed either before or after running the other SAP Readiness Check data collectors. The analysis interval of the authorization trace defines the precision of the analysis results. The recommendation is to run the trace for at least one week, or better for a month.

Figure 4: Overview of how to perform SAP Readiness Check with the flat file interface analysis

The flat file interface analysis data can be added to an already existing analysis within the SAP Readiness Check cloud application and it can be refreshed periodically by downloading a new export and uploading it again to the same analysis.

For information about the other interface types in the Integration analysis in SAP Readiness Check, refer to this blog series:

Extended Integration Analysis in SAP Readiness Check Is Now Live – Provides a short summary of the extended functionality; areas of improvement, supported interfaces, and an overview of the results.

Extended Integration Analysis in SAP Readiness Check – Prerequisites and Data Collection – What you need to install and why; what data is collected and transmitted to perform the analysis; and what option you have if you prefer to limit the data submitted for analysis.

Extended Integration Analysis in SAP Readiness Check – Impact Analysis in Detail – How the new Integration check analyzes your system; which data sources are considered; how impact types are defined, and what they mean from a practical perspective.

Extended Integration Analysis in SAP Readiness Check – Findings, Next Steps, and Examples – How to interpret and address the findings; we will walk through the next steps proposed by SAP Readiness Check using real examples.

SAP Readiness Check Availability for the new SAP S/4HANA Release

2023-09-14T09:30:08+02:00

Dear All,

with the new release SAP S/4HANA 2023 available for customers since October 11th, the SAP Readiness Check team receives questions when SAP Readiness Check for this new SAP S/4HANA release will be available.

However, SAP Readiness Check itself does not release new versions of SAP Readiness Check for each new SAP S/4HANA product version. Instead, we treat product versions as master data within our toolset. This new master data is automatically accessible once it is maintained and released by the associated SAP Readiness Check data sources (e.g., maintenance planner, simplification item catalog, etc.) at the time of the product version release.

Just follow the steps in this blog to create a new SAP Readiness Check analysis for the new SAP S/4HANA release: https://blogs.sap.com/2023/10/12/sap-readiness-check-how-to-update-your-implementation-of-sap-readiness-check-to-support-sap-s-4hana-2023/

Did you know?

Check out the new SAP Readiness Check workshop guides provided in the SAP Activate Roadmaps for SAP S/4HANA (both on premise and PCE):

Guide for a Functional Review Workshop
Conduct functional review workshops to review simplification items, financial data quality, and customer vendor integration analysis from the SAP Readiness Check for SAP S/4HANA.

Guide for a Technical Review Workshop
The purpose of the workshop is to deep dive into Add-on compatibility, active business functions, SAP S/4HANA sizing, and custom code analysis from the SAP Readiness Check for planning and preparing system conversion to S/4HANA.

Links to the activities/tasks in the SAP Activate Roadmaps:

SAP Activate Methodology for Transition to SAP S/4HANA (on premise): Check the Conversion Readiness of SAP ERP

SAP Activate Methodology for RISE with SAP S/4HANA Cloud, private edition: Conversion Readiness Assessment

SAP Readiness Check - How to Update Your Implementation of SAP Readiness Check to Support SAP S/4HANA 2023

2023-10-12T09:27:23+02:00

Dear All,

On October 11th, SAP released the latest version of SAP S/4HANA Cloud, private edition / SAP S/4HANA on premise.

SAP Readiness Check supports the new release of SAP S/4HANA as a target product version immediately when the new product version is released to customers. However, if the data collectors for SAP Readiness Check were initially implemented before the official release date, you may need to update your local replica of the simplification item catalog.

To determine whether any action is required, go to transaction SA38 in the system to be analyzed and run report RC_COLLECT_ANALYSIS_DATA. If the latest SAP S/4HANA release is not yet visible in the Target S/4HANA Version list, the local replica of the simplification item catalog needs to be updated (the screenshot below already shows the latest version).

To update the Simplification Item Catalog, perform the following steps:

Execute the report /SDF/RC_START_CHECK in the source system via transaction SA38.

Choose the Update Catalog with latest version from SAP button.

As a result, the local replica of the simplification item catalog will be updated. You can now run report RC_COLLECT_ANALYSIS_DATA again, and the Target S/4HANA Version list will now include the latest generally available SAP S/4HANA product versions.

-------------------

Manual Upload of the Simplification Item Catalog

Alternatively, if the SAP-SUPPORT_PORTAL RFC destination is unable to connect with the SAP support backbone, you can update the simplification item catalog content manually:

Open the simplification item catalog content in SAP for Me

Choose the Download Simplification Item icon to download the content to your local computer.

Run the report /SDF/RC_START_CHECK.

Choose the Upload Simplification Item Catalog from the file button and upload the content from where you saved it in step 2.

Now you can execute report RC_COLLECT_ANALYSIS_DATA again. The latest SAP S/4HANA product versions will now be visible in the Target S/4HANA Version list. Proceed as described in SAP Note 2913617 (SAP S/4HANA conversions) or SAP Note 3059197 (SAP S/4HANA upgrades) to perform the data collection and create the new analysis.

Additional Information

To update the check classes used by the simplification item check and the consistency check, follow the steps defined in SAP Note 2502552 (version 105 or higher). If you have previously implemented this Note, pay special attention to steps 7 and 8 in the Solution section of the Note for guidance on updating the implementation.

To update the simplification database, which is used by ABAP test cockpit, follow the guidance in SAP Note 2241080.

To update the ABAP test cockpit custom code check variant for SAP S/4HANA 2023, follow the guidance in SAP Note 3365357.

Enhanced Custom Code Analysis in SAP Readiness Check for SAP S/4HANA Upgrades

2023-10-18T10:38:52+02:00

In SAP Readiness Check for SAP S/4HANA upgrades, the Custom Code Analysis check now provides enhanced visibility to the ABAP test cockpit findings related to the target SAP S/4HANA product version. By creating a baseline of existing findings (that is, historical findings left over from a past SAP ERP conversion or SAP S/4HANA upgrade project) and exemptions in the ABAP test cockpit before running SAP Readiness Check, you can exclude these results from the check and focus on findings that are relevant for your upgrade project.

In addition, the custom code analysis has been integrated into the data collection framework of SAP Readiness Check for SAP S/4HANA upgrades to assist in the data collection process.

Custom Code Analysis – Overview

With a baseline in place, the Custom Code Analysis check dashboard tile shows the Filtered Results Overview to provide more clarity on the new findings you should review before the upgrade.

Details View

The total number of findings and the number of distinct custom code objects with findings are provided at the top of the detail view.

The detail view offers several charts to break down the number of findings by different criteria (which also allows filtering the custom code items table below):

By Exemption State
The chart “By Exemption State” shows the number of findings that are exempted (excluded) in the ABAP test cockpit.

Unresolved: Findings that are not resolved. These are the findings you should take care of.

In Baseline: Findings exempted due to the inclusion in a baseline (this can be the baseline for SAP Readiness Check or another baseline created in the ABAP test cockpit).

Exempted: Approved exemptions, as well as exempted findings using a pragma code or pseudo comment.

By Remediation Type
The Remediation Type categorizes the nature of the required custom code change:

Functional with/without Quick Fixes
Findings of the type Functional Redesign require an application expert to review the corresponding simplification item and help with the right approach for custom code adaptation.
The Quick Fix Support identifies findings that have a quick fix for automated custom code refactoring. Quick fixes are best applied individually, allowing the adjustment of all corresponding findings with a single click.

Technical with/without Quick Fixes
Technical code adaptation does not require application knowledge and can be performed either automatically with the help of a quick fix or manually by an ABAP developer.

By Priority
The Priority (Error, Warning, and Information) helps you to focus on the most critical findings. We recommend resolving all errors and warnings. Please also review the findings of type Information and adjust at least those supported by quick fixes.
By Scope Information (only available if you have used the SAP Fiori app Custom Code Migration):
- In Scope: The ABAP custom code that is included in the scope for your custom code project, which is determined based on selected ABAP packages in your development system and usage information.
- Out of Scope: The ABAP custom code that is excluded from the scope for your custom code project, which is based on selected ABAP packages in your development system and usage information. This information helps you reduce the number of custom code objects to be updated and minimizes the effort for custom code remediation if you perform a decommission of unused custom code objects.
  If the Custom Code Migration app is not used, the Scope Information for all items will be In Scope by default.

Usage Information (only available if you have used the SAP Fiori app Custom Code Migration):

Used: The related custom code objects are used and require remediation for the target SAP S/4HANA release.

Referenced: The related custom code objects are statically referenced by used objects.

Not Used: The related custom code objects are not detected as used and are therefore potential candidates for decommissioning.

Unknown: No usage data could be retrieved.

Application Component
Application Component helps you to identify which functional teams need to be involved in the remediation activities and to group the custom code items. The application component is derived from the SAP Note assigned to the custom code item.

The table in the lower portion of the detail view lists all identified custom code items with columns containing the filter criteria described above. You may open the settings to select all columns you want to display in the table.

Please note:

When the ABAP test cockpit is used to collect the custom code analysis data, the SAP Readiness Check results include an estimate for the portion of findings that potentially have quick fix support. Whereas, when the SAP Fiori app Custom Code Migration is used to collect the custom code analysis data, SAP Readiness Check identifies actual quick fix support for the findings. For more information on how to run the required tools, see the Upgrade Guide for SAP S/4HANA. See SAP Note 2866977 for more information on quick fix coverage.

Data Collection

The SAP Readiness Check data collection framework has been enhanced to enable the collection of custom code analysis data for the SAP Readiness Check for SAP S/4HANA Upgrades scenario. The prerequisite for using the embedded custom code analysis data collection, including the baseline functionality, is the enablement of the ABAP test cockpit. The process for establishing an ABAP test cockpit system for performing this analysis is documented in the Custom Code Migration Guide for SAP S/4HANA 2023.

The report RC_COLLECT_ANALYSIS_DATA creates a first ABAP test cockpit run for the existing SAP S/4HANA release (in which the report is run) and adds this run to the baseline. A second ABAP test cockpit run is then triggered for the target SAP S/4HANA release as selected in the field Target S/4HANA Version. The results are exported and can then provide enhanced visibility to the ABAP test cockpit findings related to the target SAP S/4HANA product version.

Procedure

In a non-productive system, go to transaction SE38, and execute the report RC_COLLECT_ANALYSIS_DATA.
Select the Custom Code Analysis option and click the Schedule Analysis button.Once the scheduled jobs are in status Finished, in the report click on the Download Analysis Data button.
The downloaded archive file can be added to an existing SAP Readiness Check for SAP S/4HANA upgrade analysis with the same target product version.

Additional Information

The custom code analysis in SAP Readiness Check for SAP S/4HANA upgrades supports the baseline analysis feature available within the ABAP test cockpit. A baseline analysis is an evaluation of the system targeting the current SAP S/4HANA product version. The baseline analysis can then be leveraged in a subsequent run of the ABAP test cockpit to exclude any findings that may have been left over from a previous SAP ERP conversion or SAP S/4HANA upgrade project. Collecting the custom code analysis data using the ABAP test cockpit via the SAP Readiness Check data collection framework automatically initiates a baseline analysis against the current SAP S/4HANA product version and then a subsequent run against the target SAP S/4HANA product version. Alternatively, the baseline and subsequent ABAP test cockpit runs can be triggered and managed manually in the ABAP test cockpit. The resulting exempted findings, which were generated from the baseline analysis, can be filtered with the By Exemption State chart within SAP Readiness Check for SAP S/4HANA upgrades.

New Check for App Availability in SAP Readiness Check for SAP S/4HANA and SAP Readiness Check for SAP S/4HANA upgrades

2023-10-18T10:41:12+02:00

In converting to SAP S/4HANA or upgrading SAP S/4HANA product versions, changes in the user interface can significantly impact the customers’ business processes.

Customers want to know in advance – meaning before the conversion or upgrade - which UI elements (Fiori, SAP GUI transactions, and Web Dynpro) will be deprecated, unavailable, or available with a successor in the target SAP S/4HANA release they are converting or upgrading their current system to.

App Availability Overview

Leveraging the SAP Fiori Upgrade Impact Analysis in the SAP Fiori Apps Reference Library, and based on system usage statistics, this check identifies apps using technology types SAP GUI, SAP Fiori, and Web Dynpro in the source system, which may need your attention. The check then assigns the identified apps (note that transactions in SAP GUI are considered apps in this context) to one of the following status categories:

Deprecated: Apps assigned to this category are still supported but outdated. The apps are considered to be in maintenance mode, and there are no new features available. If possible, the apps should not be used. You can, however, still use them, but they may no longer be supported in the future and may even be removed. The apps are usually replaced with successor apps.

Unavailable: Apps assigned to this category are not supported any longer. The apps may not work as expected and can no longer be used.

Available with Successor: Apps assigned to this category are still available in the target release; however, successor apps are available. We recommend that you use the successor app where it’s available.

Please note that the check shows not all deprecated or unavailable apps but only those the customer uses based on data from the previous 12 months. Also, note that this check does not include apps that will still be available in the target release.

Details View

The details provide information to assist customers and partners in scoping and planning the required activities.

As a next step, we recommend reviewing the apps presented in the table. You can download the results using the Export to Spreadsheet function at the top of the table to follow up on the findings. Alternatively, you can manually maintain the scoping evaluation status of each app and its recommended successor (if available) in the Scoping Evaluation Status column in the table.

Learn more about recommended successor apps by following the links provided in the Successor ID and SAP Note columns in the table. The links will take you to the successor SAP Fiori apps in the SAP Fiori Apps Reference Library and to relevant SAP Notes, helping you assess the applicability of recommended successors for your organization. If an identified app and its recommended successor are not relevant for you, you can change the scoping evaluation status to Out of Scope.

The By Scoping Evaluation Status bar chart at the top right of the screen provides an overview of the progress of this assessment and enables you to filter the table content by choosing the status In Scope, Out of Scope, or New.

In addition, the table content can be filtered by technology type (SAP GUI, SAP Fiori App, or Web Dynpro) and by status (Deprecated, Unavailable, or Available with Successor).

Data Collection

For this check, the SAP Readiness Check data collection framework captures the SAP GUI and Web Dynpro usage information from ST03N within the source system. Note that this check only displays results if usage data collected contains 12 or more months of usage statistics. For the SAP Fiori applications, the required app IDs are collected in two parts:

The ST03N is used to collect the information about the used OData services.

The /SDF/FIORI_ANALYSIS report reads the activated SAP Fiori app IDs and connects them with the corresponding used OData services.

Note that this check is client dependent. If your production system has multiple productive clients, the analysis must be run in each client.

To create a new SAP Readiness Check analysis for planning an SAP S/4HANA conversion, follow the description in SAP Note 2913617 – SAP Readiness Check for SAP S/4HANA.

To create a new SAP Readiness Check analysis for planning an SAP S/4HANA upgrade, follow SAP Note 3059197 – SAP Readiness Check for SAP S/4HANA upgrades.

To update an existing SAP Readiness Check analysis with the new App Availability check, you need to run the analysis for App Availability in program RC_COLLECT_ANALYSIS_DATA and upload the data collection archive to the existing SAP Readiness Check analysis.

Note that an update of an existing analysis is only possible for the same target SAP S/4HANA version.

SAP Readiness Check Optimization

2023-11-06T18:39:47+01:00

You are preparing your move from SAP ERP system to SAP S/4HANA using the “System Conversion” approach and would like to perform an analysis of your system by running the SAP Readiness Check tool for SAP S/4HANA, to help scope and plan your conversion project.

From years of experience as member of SAP S/4HANA Customer Care and RIG team, I have found running our SAP Readiness Check at the beginning of any conversion project to be essential to gain an understanding of the most important aspects for an SAP ERP 6.0 system conversion to SAP S/4HANA.

First, make sure you always read and apply the latest updated SAP Readiness Check SAP Notes.

SAP Note 2913617 - SAP Readiness Check for SAP S/4HANA

To perform an SAP Readiness Check analysis, proceed as follows:

Step 1: Environment Preparation

Implement the preparation SAP Notes defined within SAP Note 2913617 in your development environment.

Transport the SAP Notes to the productive SAP ERP 6.0 system to be analyzed.

Optional: To get the latest product version information and simplification items from SAP, choose Update Catalog with latest version from SAP in report /SDF/RC_START_CHECK via transaction SA38.

Step 2: Data Collection

Execute the SAP Readiness Check data collection report (RC_COLLECT_ANALYSIS_DATA) in your production or copy of production environment.

Choose Schedule Analysis to schedule the master job to collect data.

Select the Download Analysis Data option in the data collection report once the collection process completes.

Optional: Review the data collected in the compressed file.

Optional: Alter the data collected as required to address any potential data protection concerns and then repackage the contents.

Optional: Check the XML file content via the browser.

Step 3: Analysis Creation

Open the SAP Readiness Check landing page.

Choose Start New Analysis, complete the presented form, and choose Create. At this point, the data contained within the compressed file is being uploaded and processed in the SAP Readiness Check application, which is a cloud-based solution owned by SAP.

Once the data is completely processed, the analysis status will change from In Preparation to Available, which indicates that the analysis is available for viewing.

Optional: To generate an offline version of the results in a word processing program, choose Generate Document at the top of the dashboard view.

Step 4: Custom Code Analysis (Recommended)

SAP Readiness Check should be executed in the production system and must be run in the productive client, with the exception of the simplification item consistency check (Simplification Item Consistency checkbox). This ensures that all checks are executed properly.

While executing the SAP Readiness Check data collection report (RC_COLLECT_ANALYSIS_DATA) with all scope selection selected, you noticed that the report runs for a long time. Instead of selecting all scope selection in RC_COLLECT_ANALYSIS_DATA, you can split the scope selections and upload the results as they finish. You can upload the outputs as each report/scope selection completes.

Recommendations: Reduce the number of scope selections per run. You can upload the output after each successful run.

Execute report RC_COLLECT_ANALYSIS_DATA using transaction code SE38. Select individual "Scope Selection" and schedule them individually. In this example, we selected all "Scope Selection", except for "Financial Data Quality". We will be running "Financial Data Quality" on its own with optimized parallel jobs. Select "Schedule Analysis" to start Readiness Check report. Save zip files to be uploaded to the SAP Readiness Check dashboard.

Next, select “Expert Mode”. Here you can optimize the number of parallel jobs for General Ledger, Asset Accounting and Material Ledger in scope selection "Financial Data Quality". Run the Financial Data Quality on its own with optimized settings.

After enabling "Expert Mode", you will now have the option to maintain parallel jobs for scope selection "Financial Data Quality". Check whether values for parallel jobs and entries are populated. If not, you can either do it manually or use the "Apply Recommended Parallel Job Values" button. Select "Schedule Analysis" to start Readiness Check report. Save zip files to be uploaded to the SAP Readiness Check dashboard.

After completing the all scope selections for RC_COLLECT_ANALYSIS_DATA report, you will now upload results into the SAP Readiness Check cloud application.

Upload the Collected Data

To upload the collected data, take the following steps:

Launch the landing page for the SAP Readiness Check cloud application (link: https://me.sap.com/readinesscheck).

Choose Start New Analysis.

Provide a name for the analysis, locate the ZIP file that was generated from the program RC_COLLECT_ANALYSIS_DATA, review and acknowledge the Terms of Use and Disclaimer, and then choose Create.

After a short period of time, usually less than half an hour, the status of the analysis will change from In Preparation to Available. You will need to refresh your browser or choose Refresh to get the updated status.

Once the analysis is Available, you can open the analysis to find an interactive dashboard where you can explore the results of the analysis. The Learn More side panel and the embedded help capabilities can assist you as you explore and start to capture next steps.

How to share SAP Readiness results with SAP

Once the analysis is created, it is visible to all s-users that belong to the same customer number. No additional setup is required. If you want to share the analysis with SAP or partners, you can proceed as follows:

Choose Settings at the top of the dashboard view to maintain the email addresses of the SAP and/or partner employees that you want to grant access to your analysis results. The prerequisite is that the email address provided must be associated with an SAP ID Service account. Please also note that there is no email notification generated as part of this process. Once the email address is assigned, you will need to provide the URL to your analysis to the intended recipient.

Create a new s-user account linked to the customer number used in the creation of the analysis.

Use the Generate Document function at the top of the dashboard view to generate an offline version of the analysis in a word processing program to distribute the results.

If you have any issues, please open an incident with the following component.

SV-SCS-S4R SAP Readiness Check

Brought to you by the SAP S/4HANA Customer Care and RIG team

Integration of SAP Readiness Check for SAP S/4HANA to CALM Project and Task Management (PTM)

2023-11-16T09:18:40+01:00

Since July it has been possible for customers to process their SAP Readiness Check results in their own SAP Cloud ALM tenant. Now, customers can leverage an extended integration option for SAP Readiness Check for SAP S/4HANA and SAP Readiness Check for SAP S/4HANA upgrades with SAP Cloud ALM for Project and Task Management.

The integration with SAP Cloud ALM enables you to set up references between SAP Readiness Check findings and your SAP Cloud ALM project. With this integration functionality, you can create new and assign existing follow-ups to the findings within your SAP Readiness Check analysis, and manage these follow-ups in your SAP Cloud ALM project.

In this first version, the creation of requirements and user stories is supported (the support of features and issues/action items are planned) for SAP Readiness Check for SAP S/4HANA and SAP Readiness Check for SAP S/4HANA upgrades. The integration of further SAP Readiness Check scenarios is already under development.

SAP Readiness Check Integration App

To activate the integration for the current SAP Readiness Check analysis, go to the SAP Readiness Check Integration app on the SAP Cloud ALM launchpad.

The customizing is inactive by default. Customers can decide which SAP Readiness Check scenarios should be enabled individually. The customizing is visible for users who are assigned to the role “Readiness Check Analysis Administrator”.

If a scenario is activated for integration, customers can manually select the analysis or analyses they want to integrate.

Detailed configuration of the integration is performed in the activated SAP Readiness Check analysis.

Configuration in SAP Readiness Check

The integration is selected and configured individually within the detail view of the individual checks.

Example – Activities related to Simplification Items Check

To use the integration functionality, you can select one or more findings in the Items table within the check results and choose the Follow-Up option from above the table.

By choosing Create New or Assign to Existing in the dropdown list, the subsequent popup windows guide you through the process of creating one or more follow-ups for the selected items or assigning the selected items to an existing follow-up.

Note that new follow-ups can only be created for findings in the Items table if no follow-ups have been assigned yet.

The selected items can be bundled into requirements or user stories and assigned to a target project in SAP Cloud ALM. You can enter the title of the follow-up document that will be created in SAP Cloud ALM.

The Follow-Up Status column indicates the progress of the creation and assignment of follow-ups:

Assigned (in all checks except the Simplification Items check): You can create one follow-up for each SAP Readiness Check finding. If a finding is already assigned to a follow-up, the follow-up status is Assigned.

Partially (only in the Simplification Items check): You can create one or more follow-ups for activities and/or consistency checks belonging to one simplification item. If there are any activities and/or consistency checks related to a simplification item that are not assigned to follow-ups yet, the follow-up status is Partially.

All Assigned (only in the Simplification Items check): You can create one or more follow-ups for activities and/or consistency checks belonging to one simplification item. If all activities and/or consistency checks related to a simplification item are assigned to follow-ups, the follow-up status is All Assigned

To view follow-ups of your SAP Readiness Check findings in SAP Cloud ALM, select the status of an item in the Follow-Up Status column. The follow-up title will take you to the related requirement or user story in SAP Cloud ALM.

SAP Readiness Check Items in SAP Cloud ALM

The follow-up link in SAP Readiness Check opens the detail view of the user story or requirement in the assigned SAP Cloud ALM project. You can edit the follow-up, for example assign a responsible team or person, add test cases, create sub-tasks, and track the progress of each assigned item.

The project is usually created with an SAP Activate Methodology template for the selected implementation method. In addition, every project contains tasks for the SAP Cloud ALM setup and potentially additional manually created items. The SAP Readiness Check integration is one additional source added to the project.

You can display all tasks of the project (our example project consists of 256 tasks), or filter for the different sources of the listed tasks.

Filtering for SAP Readiness Check, you may use the mass edit functionality for planning purposes and assign responsibility, define a timebox, or set a planned completion date for all items.

Summary

The integration of SAP Readiness Check results is currently available for SAP S/4HANA and SAP S/4HANA upgrade analyses and is limited to private SAP Cloud ALM tenants. This integration functionality allows you to thoroughly oversee and administrate your SAP Cloud ALM project, providing end-to-end traceability of SAP Readiness Check findings for preparing a conversion to SAP S/4HANA or an upgrade to a new SAP S/4HANA product version.

C4C(Sales Cloud & Service Cloud) V2.0 Readiness check for migration

2023-11-28T17:55:18+01:00

Why do we need to run this Readiness Check?

Well, we need to run this readiness report like all the SAP Migrations (ECC- S4HANA, etc) this is a new readiness report provided by SAP to validate the objects that have customizations extensions etc., to validate the objects that can be migrated to C4C(Sales and Service Cloud) V2 might not have the objects as of now and maybe planned in later release.

What do we need to run this Readiness Check?

C4C V2 TRANSITION AND READINESS REPORT-

1). Raise an Incident to SAP to get the access to this report.

2). Assign the WC to view the Report:

3). View the Readiness Report:

4). Click on Recalculate Objects

5). Click On the Date to get the Information below:

What we get as the Output from this report:

Business Objects used in the system:

Extension fields:

Adaptation Changes:

The add-on solution is your SDK/PDI custom solution:

Seems like Analytical Content cannot be migrated as well:

Language Adaptations: same, No migration:

A note for the SAP Team: None of the Information Links works.

Who needs to run this Readiness Check?

Organisations planning to migrate from C4C V1 to Sales & Service Cloud V2.0.

Organisations migrating from Other CRM systems like Salesforce, Microsoft etc, need not worry. They are getting the Sales & Service Cloud V2.0 as a new IT Product.

Organisations with the first CRM Tool Sales & Service Cloud V2.0 should not be worried about the Readiness reports.

Hope we see a better readiness report soon, which covers most of the Standard Objects in C4C and the Links to suggestion starts working!!

Thanks

Daljeet

New SAP Activate road map version 24Q1 – “Transition to SAP S/4HANA” (on premise)

2023-12-01T16:43:58+01:00

The new 24Q1 release of the “Transition to SAP S/4HANA” (on premise) road map has been published, and here are the most important things we have changed for you:

As always, accelerators have been updated throughout the road map, to reflect the newest information on SAP S/4HANA release 2023 (e.g. release notes, feature scope description etc.). Also updates in the SAP services area has been incorporated.

The biggest change we did is with respect to the "Clean Core" methodology of SAP. Many customers who are moving to SAP S/4HANA use this opportunity to "clean up". SAP has defined multiple dimensions for "core cleaning": clean business processes close to the SAP standard, clean business data (DAAM), clean integrations (ISA-M), clean extensions (AEM) according to SAP recommendations and operations. In a first step, we have incorporated a lot of information on this topic into many road map activities and tasks. To make it easier for you to find out, we added a "Clean Core" tag for you to filter related content.

We are not done here - the next content update will further extend the "Clean Core" topic.

We added new content we hope you find useful in the context of your SAP S/4HANA transformation. Three nice and relatively new topic examples (besides others) are:
- The SAP Customer Evolution Kit for SAP S/4HANA, which helps customers clarifying the WHY, WHAT and HOW on SAP S/4HANA in an early project phase.
- The Data Transition Validation (DTV) is a tool that allows you to compare business data before and after a system conversion or upgrade.
- And finally, for developers there is a nice & new SAP BTP Developer Guide which helps you developing on SAP BTP in the right way.

Some topics could not make it into this update, but they are not forgotten. For instance, updates on "Test Management" are on top of the list. Please add your ideas into the content section of this blog.

You can find the new release of the “Transition to SAP S/4HANA” road map in the “SAP Roadmap Viewer”. And as you already know, we will push the updated content into SAP Cloud ALM for you within the upcoming days.

Hopefully you will enjoy it!

Service and Administration Capabilities in SAP Readiness Check for SAP Cloud ALM

2024-01-29T08:37:31.446000+01:00

Dear All,

Less than a year ago, we released SAP Readiness Check for SAP Cloud ALM, allowing you to assess SAP Solution Manager's implementation and operations capabilities. Today, we are excited to announce that the capabilities in the service and administration areas can now be evaluated in SAP Solution Manager.

The analysis has been extended to show the additional capabilities in the following dashboards:

Usage in SAP Solution Manager
SAP Cloud ALM Capabilities
Availability of Relevant Capabilities

Usage in SAP Solution Manager

The data in this section allows you to see the scope of application lifecycle management capabilities used in your SAP Solution Manager system.

In the panel on the left, a list of scenarios is organized by area (implementation, operations, service and administration). The number of used capabilities compared to the total number of capabilities in each scenario is displayed below the scenario name.

The criteria for determining the usage of each capability appear by choosing a capability card on the right side. In addition, for those capabilities with an evaluation of the types of connected managed systems, a table appears with an aggregated list of product types assigned to the identified managed systems.

Review the results of the scanned capability usage analysis by choosing a scenario in the list on the left.

To explore your usage results, you can proceed as follows:

Find a specific capability or reduce the number of scenarios shown using the filter function above the list.
Choose a scenario to see the usage status of the corresponding capabilities.
See all capabilities that have been identified as used. By default, the value YES is active for all used capabilities. You can, however, override this setting as you require by choosing the toggle button. All capabilities with the Relevant toggle button set to YES will be included in the Availability of Relevant Capabilities check.

SAP Cloud ALM Capabilities

The SAP Cloud ALM capabilities list is displayed by application lifecycle management area (implementation, operations, service and administration). You can switch between these areas by selecting the corresponding area above the chart. The table below is filtered by choosing a specific section in the chart.

The following usage or availability categories are assigned to each capability according to the analysis results of your SAP Solution Manager system:

Used: For this capability in SAP Cloud ALM, an equivalent capability in SAP Solution Manager has been identified as used. The details of the equivalent capabilities are visible by choosing the arrow button in the table.
Not Used: For this capability in SAP Cloud ALM, an equivalent capability in SAP Solution Manager has been identified as not used.
Only Available in SAP Cloud ALM: An equivalent capability in SAP Solution Manager does not exist for this SAP Cloud ALM capability.

Availability of Relevant Capabilities

Visible by application lifecycle management area (implementation, operations, service and administration), this section provides a detailed list of all SAP Solution Manager capabilities set to relevant in the Usage in SAP Solution Manager check. You can switch between the areas by selecting the corresponding area above the chart.

The following categories are assigned to each capability, depending on their current availability in SAP Cloud ALM or other SAP solutions beyond SAP Solution Manager:

Available in SAP Cloud ALM: These capabilities in SAP Solution Manager have corresponding capabilities currently available for productive use in SAP Cloud ALM.
Available in Another SAP Solution: These SAP Solution Manager capabilities have equivalent capabilities not available in SAP Cloud ALM but are offered in another SAP solution.
On SAP Cloud ALM Road Map: For these SAP Solution Manager capabilities, equivalent capabilities in SAP Cloud ALM are planned to be available in a future release.
On SAP Cloud ALM Vision: For these SAP Solution Manager capabilities, equivalent capabilities in SAP Cloud ALM are expected but not yet planned in a future release.
Only Available in SAP Solution Manager: These capabilities are only available in SAP Solution Manager and are not planned to be available in SAP Cloud ALM or any other SAP solution.

This information on the availability of capabilities guides you in understanding the impact and, therefore, helps you plan the transition of these capabilities from SAP Solution Manager to SAP Cloud ALM or another available SAP solution. This information helps determine whether the transition can be planned as either a single event or needs to be managed as a phased project.

How do we see Service and Administration capabilities in the analysis?

The capabilities are evaluated in the SAP Solution Manager system by the collector program /SDF/ RC_ALM_COLLECT_DATA. To see the service and administration capabilities in the analysis, ensure you have implemented at least version 23 of the SAP Note 3236443 before collecting data and creating the output file for the analysis in the SAP Readiness Check application.

If you want to update an already existing analysis, you can use the function Update Analysis on the main dashboard to upload a new output file.

As always, we look forward to receiving your feedback!

Your SAP Readiness Check Team

Integration of SAP Readiness Check for SAP BW/4HANA with Cloud ALM Project and Task Management

2024-03-05T13:06:00.306000+01:00

Dear All,

When using SAP Readiness Check in your own SAP Cloud ALM tenant, you can now set up references between findings in SAP Readiness Check for SAP BW/4HANA and project and task management within SAP Cloud ALM.

With this integration functionality, you can create new and assign existing follow-ups to your SAP Readiness Check analysis findings and manage these follow-ups in the specified SAP Cloud ALM project.

As with my similar SAP Cloud ALM integration announcements, this capability leverages the SAP Readiness Check Integration app in SAP Cloud ALM. My recent blog entitled “Integration of SAP Readiness Check for SAP S/4HANA to CALM Project and Task Management (PTM)” (link) provides step-by-step guidance on how to use the SAP Readiness Check Integration app.

Within the SAP Readiness Check for SAP BW/4HANA, the following analyses allow the assignment of findings to an SAP Cloud ALM project:

Object Compatibility
Source System Readiness
Custom Code Compatibility
Add-On Compatibility

In the analysis details, you can create follow-ups per finding or assign findings to existing follow-ups.

When you create a new follow-up, you select a target project to assign the follow-up and provide a follow-up title.

Clicking on the Create button completes the assignment of the follow-up item to the project.

The link created in the follow-up column within the SAP Readiness Check analysis results opens a detailed view of the user story or requirement in the assigned SAP Cloud ALM project. You can edit the follow-up, for example, assign a responsible team or person, add test cases, create sub-tasks, and track the progress of each assigned item.

For further details, you may also refer to the online help portal:

SAP Cloud ALM Application Help - Integration between SAP Readiness Check and SAP Cloud ALM

Speeding up your SAP HCM move to the cloud in 2024

2024-03-05T15:16:10.277000+01:00

Speeding up your SAP HCM move to the cloud in 2024

2023 was another record-setting year for SAP customers moving their Human Capital Management processes to the cloud. More SAP ERP HCM customers than ever before embarked on the journey with us, from hire-to-retire, including core HR, time, payroll and much more.

New tools, services and assets are helping to accelerate and de-risk the process of moving HR to the cloud. Several are even free, or available at no extra cost to customers with SAP Support. This blog post will be the first of three in a series covering developments that may be new to many of you, specifically:

Part 1: SAP Readiness Check for SAP SuccessFactors Solutions

Part 2: SAP Customer Evolution Kit for HXM (Human Experience Management)

Part 3: Enterprise Strategy Group Economic Value study for moving from SAP ERP HCM to SAP SuccessFactors

SAP Readiness Check for SAP SuccessFactors solutions

From its launch in October 2022, SAP Readiness Check for SAP SuccessFactors solutions tool adoption has outpaced our most optimistic projections. Feedback from customers and partners has been universally enthusiastic, and they are telling their friends – and us. And that input has led us to make the tool even better through more than a dozen enhancements delivered in 2023, with more to come in 2024.

SAP Readiness Check for SAP SuccessFactors solutions tool has now been run more than 500 times, in 42 countries, helping customers to accelerate and de-risk their moves beyond on-premise SAP ERP Human Capital Management.

This SAP Readiness Check tool has saved many of these customers big money on consulting costs, while providing the equivalent of an MRI or x-ray into their as-deployed HCM configuration, including integrations, customizations, and usage data for key processes. Many customers have run it several times, in order to confirm the effect of their pre-migration clean-up efforts. Customers with employee counts ranging from under 500 employees to those with over 500,000 have all accrued benefits.

Based on the analysis of the source system, the tool provides a comprehensive overview of specific parameters delivering:

Employee Insights

This reveals the distribution of employee master data figures per region, process, or status. Leverage this information in further discussions with an implementation partner to assess the migration project complexity.

Organizational Structure Analysis

Insight into the organizational structure master data will help to establish an understanding of key figures related to the allocation of employee-related data.

Important HCM Data

Insight into other HCM objects relevant to the HCM system setup, such as payroll calendars and payroll frequency defined within the analyzed system.

Custom Code Analysis

Insight into the volume and variety of custom code objects.

Understanding the status quo is a vital starting point for your HR journey to the cloud, which SAP Readiness Check for SAP SuccessFactors solutions tool delivers. The next step typically entails engaging experts to help you to understand your options, and to build your case for change. We’ve got a couple of options to help, specifically:

The SAP Customer Evolution Kit for HXM provides SAP ERP HCM customers with a free workshop to help them get ready to modernize their HR system. The engagement provides customers with expert help for building a value case, interpreting their SAP Readiness Check results and mapping solutions to support their modernization.

Alternately, for customers just wanting to engage a specialist to review their SAP Readiness Check results, the Customer Success Services team from SAP offers Advisory Service for SAP Readiness Check for SAP SuccessFactors solutions, available for a modest fee via the SAP Store.

More details about the SAP Customer Evolution Kit for HXM will follow in Part 2, and in Part 3 of this blog series, we will look at how customers can deliver ROI (return on investment) of 100% or more from their HCM evolution projects.

Please also mark your calendar and click to register for an upcoming webinar on May 16th titled "Fast-track your HR journey to the cloud with SAP partners"

Speeding up your SAP HCM move to the cloud in 2024 - Part 2: Customer Evolution Kit for HCM

2024-05-03T15:59:53.909000+02:00

The SAP Customer Evolution Kit for HCM: Accelerating migrations for a successful, AI-enabled future

In today's fast-paced business environment, digital transformation is no longer just an option for companies—it has become a necessity. With rapidly evolving technologies, changing customer and employee expectations, and a growing need for agility, organizations are continuously looking for ways to stay ahead of the curve. SAP, a global leader in enterprise software solutions, understands these challenges and is committed to helping its customers navigate the path to a successful digital future.

One of the key areas where SAP is assisting its customers is in human capital management (HCM), which is a critical function for businesses of all sizes. With the SAP Customer Evolution kit for HCM, organizations can accelerate their migration journey to SAP SuccessFactors, the next-generation cloud-based HCM suite, ensuring they are ready for the end of mainstream maintenance in 2025, and the end of compatibility pack rights in 2025.

What is the SAP Customer Evolution Kit for HCM?

The SAP Customer Evolution kit for HCM is a cost-free, quick, and efficient engagement that provides a clear and seamless path for businesses and the partners who support them to accelerate transition from their on-premise SAP HCM solution to SAP SuccessFactors. It is delivered virtually by real live SAP experts, featuring a set of tools, methodologies, and services designed to simplify and streamline the migration process, while minimizing risks and ensuring business continuity.

This SAP Customer Evolution kit helps customers address the challenges associated with migrating critical HCM data, configurations, and integrations from their on-premises systems to the cloud. With its step-by-step guidance, customers can plan, execute, and validate their migration strategies, ensuring a smooth and successful transition to SAP SuccessFactors.

In Part 1 of this blog series, I shared some of the features and benefits of the SAP Readiness Check for SAP SuccessFactors solutions. While SAP Readiness Checks can be run on a self-service basis, they are a bit like medical MRIs or X-rays in that, even if you could snap the picture yourself, the images are best interpreted by an expert trained in how to interpret the findings and recommend treatment plans. The SAP Customer Evolution kit for HCM provides you with the business equivalent of a radiologist, to provide expert readout of your organization’s unique SAP Readiness Check results, along with recommendations based on the findings.

Accelerating migrations for customers facing the end of maintenance or compatibility pack rights

For businesses currently running on SAP HCM on-premises solutions, the clock is ticking. SAP has announced that mainstream maintenance for older enhancement packs of the on-premises HCM solution ends at the end of 2025. Many SAP S/4HANA customers running HCM and Finance together in the same environment also face expiration of compatibility pack rights at the end of 2025. This means that customers need to act now to ensure they are ready for the future while maintaining compliance and performance, as well as tapping innovations like Joule to bring relevant, reliable, responsible AI to HCM and the broader enterprise.

The SAP Customer Evolution kit for HCM offers a unique opportunity for these customers to accelerate their migration journey. Over the course of three half-day sessions, and at no charge, it provides a roadmap and best practices to assess existing landscapes, identify gaps, and define a customized migration plan that aligns with unique goals and requirements.

During these SAP Customer Evolution kit engagements, we’ve seen customers make all sorts of realizations about their legacy systems. These often include “Aha!” moments, when they realize that their current highly customized processes could be moved back to standard, easily supported standard functionality within SAP SuccessFactors HCM. Examples of such “Aha!” topics include:

Legacy customizations supporting Concurrent Employment that required multiple PERNRs in on-prem could be more readily supported using standard configuration capabilities in Employee Central
Grade step progression logic to support collective bargaining agreements that required custom infotypes in HCM could be supported using standard SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central and Compensation functionality
Support for Higher Duties and Grants and Funds accounting for Public Sector are available in SAP SuccessFactors.

These kinds of insights can rapidly demystify the legacy environment, clarify the state of the possible and provide expert guidance on how best to move forward to the cloud with the utmost confidence that all required business processes will be supported.

So, if you’re looking for a free, fast, and helpful way to get organized around your HCM move to the cloud, we have the workshop to get you going.

Lead times to engage our experts are stretching as 2025 deadlines approach. Please sign up for your free SAP Customer Evolution Kit for HCM today!

Please also mark your calendar and click to register for an upcoming webinar on May 16th titled "Fast-track your HR journey to the cloud with SAP partners"

Speeding up your SAP HCM move to the cloud in 2024 - Part 2: Customer Evolution Kit for HCM

2024-05-06T15:06:16.978000+02:00

What is the SAP Customer Evolution Kit for HCM?

Accelerating migrations for customers facing the end of maintenance or compatibility pack rights

Legacy customizations supporting Concurrent Employment that required multiple PERNRs in on-prem could be more readily supported using standard configuration capabilities in Employee Central
Grade step progression logic to support collective bargaining agreements that required custom infotypes in HCM could be supported using standard SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central and Compensation functionality
Support for Higher Duties and Grants and Funds accounting for Public Sector are available in SAP SuccessFactors.

So, if you’re looking for a free, fast, and helpful way to get organized around your HCM move to the cloud, we have the workshop to get you going.

Lead times to engage our experts are stretching as 2025 deadlines approach. Please sign up for your free SAP Customer Evolution Kit for HCM today!

Please also mark your calendar and click to register for an upcoming webinar on May 16th titled "Fast-track your HR journey to the cloud with SAP partners"

Enhanced Initial Data Migration Profile in SAP Readiness Check for SAP ERP Usage and Data Profiling

2024-05-15T10:06:15.385000+02:00

We are happy to announce the enhancement of the “Initial Data Migration Profile” in SAP Readiness Check for SAP ERP Usage and Data Profiling.

Figure 1: The old and new view of the Initial Data Migration Profile

The Initial Data Migration Profile of the SAP Readiness Check for SAP ERP Usage and Data Profiling analyzes important SAP ERP 6.0 data objects and their data volumes. The profile data delivers valuable input for the often tedious and costly exercise of manually scoping and assessing data objects. With this newest release, we have enhanced the data collector and revamped the user experience when reviewing the results, displaying more information, and offering additional capabilities for slicing and dicing the information.

The following list highlights the new and enhanced features that are described in more detail further below:

Where possible, a deeper level of data analysis providing more insight into the business objects
Filtering and grouping functions to enhance the user experience
Introduction of new interactive UI elements to assist in the visualization of the findings
The ability to run “what-if” scenarios supporting a selective data transition approach
Where applicable, insight into the history of the data volume
Identification of unused data objects and deprecated organizational units

The New Data Collector

We completely redesigned the Initial Data Profile data collector from scratch, replacing the existing collector as it only provided limited information regarding the analyzed data objects.

The scoping and development of the new data collector was done in cooperation and collaboration with the SAP Business Data Transformation Solutions team. SAP Readiness Check for SAP ERP Usage and Data Profiling and SAP Business Transformation Center now use the same data collector. This alignment helps expedite the move from evaluating and scoping to planning and conducting a selective data transition project.

Business objects are now used as data object identifiers, more commonly used to represent real-world artifacts than database table names. In total, 215 business objects are now analyzed by the data collector.

We have extended the analysis beyond the high-level data volume figures for many business objects and now provide insights into additional valuable data. For instance, you can now group results by organizational elements (e.g., company codes, plants, or sales organizations) depending on the attributes of the business object.

The data volumes can also be categorized in a historical context for business objects containing the necessary date attributes by defining year range filters.

Additionally, the new data collector now determines the first and last recorded activity dates for applicable business objects, helping to identify business objects no longer in use and resulting in a leaner data scope for the data migration.

These added values help project teams decide on the best transition approach. For instance, the Initial Data Migration Profile result can be used to evaluate the feasibility of a selective data transition approach by gaining initial insight into expected data volumes and facilitating the definition of the data scope. If the selective data transition approach is an option for your transition project, you can continue to investigate the data in detail and create a digital blueprint with the tool.

The New Initial Data Migration Profile User Experience

Figure 2: The new Initial Data Migration Profile dashboard card

The Initial Data Migration Profile dashboard card now presents a pie chart instead of a bar chart indicating the top 6 business objects by volume (see Fig. 2). To open the detail view, select any item from the pie chart or the dashboard card header.

The detailed view of the Initial Data Migration Profile was newly created from scratch and follows a flexible column layout model, which is available in many other SAP Fiori apps. The view lets users quickly expand the column they want to focus on and switch between different layouts.

Figure 3: The new Initial Data Migration Profile view in 1-column mode

By default, the view displays a table of all analyzed business objects (fig. 3) including the following columns:

business object name
application component
related table name of the business object
data type (master or transactional data)
latest activity
total number of items

Initially, the table is sorted by the number of items in descending order, which can be changed using the corresponding button on the top right of the table control. The content of the table can also be exported to a spreadsheet.

To quickly search for a specific business object, start typing the object’s name into the search field on top of the table, and the table will filter accordingly.

Business objects with in-depth data analysis available have a detail indicator to the right of the last column in the row. Selecting a business object switches the view to the 2-column (detail) mode. The business object list is now shown in a compressed format on the left, while the detailed data of the selected business object is presented on the right side (see Fig. 4).

To increase the space of the detail column to full screen or to close the detail column, use the corresponding buttons in the top right corner.

Figure 4: 2-column mode of the view showing the details of the selected business object

The right column within the view is divided into two parts. The filter criteria and KPIs of the selected business object are shown at the top. The lower section presents charts and tables to visualize and support analyzing the data based on the selected filter criteria.

The capabilities that can be used to group and filter the business object data depend on the attributes of the selected business object. For example, the “FI Documents” business object has the filter criteria year and company code available. Other business objects, like “Equipment,” do not contain any aspect of time but can be grouped by plant. Some objects do not have any grouping capability, such as the business object “Status Management.” For these business objects, no detailed data is available.

When the business object data contains date attributes, use the range slider control to set different intervals by year. The data is immediately filtered according to the selected range. Use the corresponding multi-select combo boxes to select filter criteria for organizational key elements, like company code or plant. All selected filter criteria are applied to the data immediately using “AND” logic.

The Selected Data Ratio KPI visualizes the ratio between the total data volume of the selected business object and the data volume based on the applied filter conditions. Additionally, the business object’s oldest and latest activity dates are shown in the KPI section. The values for the total and filtered data volumes are displayed to help identify unused or no longer used business objects.

Depending on the capabilities of the business object’s grouping criteria, you can select different options to present and examine the business object volume data using the toolbar at the top of the data section. For example, the data within the “FI Document” business object can be analyzed using the following charts and tables:

Figure 5: Different options to present and examine the business object data

When using the table option to view the business object detail, the table content can be exported to a spreadsheet for further processing by selecting the export button on top of the table.

Filter Criteria Views

To increase usability, the new Initial Data Migration Profile allows users not only to define and activate filter criteria for organizational and date-related key figures (e.g., company code, plants, year of creation, etc.) but to store them persistently in filter criteria views, which – once activated – are applied to all business object data, provided the criteria fields exist in the business object (otherwise the filter criteria is ignored).

This feature supports ongoing discussions about the data migration scope: You can define filter criteria views for different data migration scenarios and use them for what-if analysis. For example, you can save filter criteria evaluating the impact of migrating 3 or 4 years of historical data to the new system or analyze the effects of carving out one or more company codes.

Figure 6: Expand and hide the filter section

To set up a filter criteria view, expand the filter section above the business object table by selecting the related button (see Fig. 6). The filter section includes a set of multi-select combo boxes for all the available filter criteria. Choosing the values in these combo boxes defines the criteria for your filtered view. To apply your view’s filter criteria, select the Go button at the bottom of the filter section (see Fig. 7).

Figure 7: Setting up filter criteria views which are applied to all business objects

If you want to save your filtered view persistently for the analysis, select the drop-down button on top of the filter section (next to the caption “Standard”; see Fig. 7 and 8). This opens the “My Views” pop-up window, which lists any existing filter criteria views of the analysis and offers buttons to either save the currently selected filter criteria into a new view or to manage existing views (see Fig. 8).

Figure 8: Create and manage filter criteria views

To run an SAP Readiness Check for SAP ERP Usage and Data Profiling analysis, follow the instructions described in SAP Note 3112362.

You can also update an existing analysis by implementing the latest version of SAP Note 3112362 and running the analysis in your SAP ERP system again. Then, use the Update Analysis option within the header of the dashboard view within the SAP Readiness Check cloud app to update the analysis data.

As always, we are interested in your feedback!

Your SAP Readiness Check Team