ASAP METHODOLOGY

INTRODUCTION
Architecture of SAP:
The architecture of SAP is R/3 i.e. Real Time 3 Tire architecture .The 3 layers are
1. Presentation Layer
2. Application Layer.
3. Database Layer.
---- The system where user is working is called as presentation layer
----Any request which is taken by end user is called as application layer
---- The request will be sent to the database layer where the information is searched and gives it
back to the presentation layer.
Landscape:
Landscape is the arrangement of server and SAP suggest going for three (3) servers i.e. any
client who wants to implement SAP they need to purchase these 3 servers.
The 3 servers are:
1. Development Server
2. Quality Server.
3. Production Server (Live Server).
--- Development server will be used for configuring clients business process into SAP i.e.
consultants will do the configurations
--- Development server will be used by consultants
--- Quality server will be used for testing the scenarios
--- Quality server will used by consultants and core users (they are employee of clients and well
experienced person, has expose to the clients business process).
--- Production server will be used for entering day-to-day transactions in SAP.
--- Production server will be used by end users. Consultants i.e. we dont have access to
production server
Roles and Responsibilities of Consultant:
As a consultant we will be either placed into implementation project or support project.

Implementation: Configuring or mapping the clients business process newly into SAP, who is
using some legacy system (legacy means Non-SAP).
Support: Any issues raised by client will be solved by the consultant
Roles and Responsibilities of Consultant in Implementation Project:
Whenever we want to implement SAP to any client we follow the methodology called ASAP
methodology where A means Accelerated SAP i.e. standard every company has to follow ASAP
Methodology.
ASAP methodology consists of the guidelines to implement SAP i.e. step-by-step process to
implement SAP.
ASAP methodology consists of 5 Phases.
1. Project Preparation
2. Business Blue Print
3. Realization
4. Final Preparation
5. Go-Live and Support.
Project Preparation: Whenever we receive order from client to implement SAP, then we start
project preparation phase in the project preparation phase the management from implementation
partner (ex IBM), the management from client (ex ALKEM) will involve.
Activities in Project preparation:
1. User Licenses
2. Landscape
3. Infrastructure.
Any client wants to implement SAP they need to purchase user licenses from SAP and
based on the end-users the client will come to know how many user licenses to be
purchased from SAP
End User: End user is the employee of client who will do day-to-day transactions in SAP and
there is no sharing of licenses between users.
Each user licenses costs 80000 Rs.
Landscape: It is an arrangement of server and SAP suggests going for 3 servers .In this
configuration of server i.e. storage capacity must be taken care.
Infrastructure:

1. How many new pcs i.e. systems to be purchased

2. Server environment i.e. temp requirement, separate room, security
Servers will always kept at clients plant i.e. mostly at any one of the manufacturing plant
If the head office and manufacturing plant are at different places then through VPN (Virtual
Private Network) the data will be accessed.
The implementation partner will list out all the consultants who are going to involve in the
project.
The clients will list out all the core users who are going to involve in the project.
For Unknown client the implementation team size will be 15 members (domestic client), and if
unknown foreign clients the team size will be 40.
Throughout the implementation project the single point of contact for the consultant is core user
Consultants Facilities:
1. Accommodation

2. Food Expenses

3. Local Travelling

4. Work Environment

5. Laptops
Go-Live Date:
Go-Live is handling over SAP to client i.e. from that day onwards client will start entering dayto-day live transactions in SAP
The management people will fix the Go-Live date
After completion of project preparation phase the implementation partner management will come
back to office and conduct Kick-Off meeting (starting off) in the Kick-off meeting they will
invite all the consultants who are involved in the project.
In the Kick-Off meeting the following will be discussed
1. Introduction to client
2. Rules and Regulations of clients
3. Roles and Responsibilities of consultants
4. Shares core users information
5. Go-Live Date
6. When to start the project i.e. Starting Date

Business Blue Print:

When all the consultants move to clients place then we start business blue print phase.
On the first day of clients visit, first half we will have introduction,2 nd half they will take for site
visit
Activities:
We gather the clients requirements from core users .Based on the questioner provided by the
implementation partner we gather the requirements from core users .Every day we go to core
users place and ask the questions in sequence, note down whatever the core user is explaining
.Every day after completion of requirements gathering we come back to our place and prepare
As-Is document.
As-Is document consists of the present business process of the clients i.e. whatever core users
explains.
The tenure for requirements gathering is 2 months
After completion of requirement gathering we prepare business blue print document.
Business blue print document consists of AS-IS and To-Be
To-Be is how it is going to be in SAP. While preparing To-Be process we may find some gaps.
Gap: The present business process of the client for which there is no solution in SAP.
Whenever we find gap we prepare Gap Analysis Document which consists of
1. Description of clients business process
2. Alternate solution
3. Effort (how many days, functional man days, technical man days).
After preparing business blue print .We will send this document to care users for Sign-Off i.e. for
conformation. Core user has to go through the document if everything is fine he will give you
sign-off
After getting sign-off from core user we need to move to the next phase of ASAP methodology
i.e. Realization.
BBP document preparation and sign off will take 1 month and total BBP phase will take 3
months.
Throughout the implementation project the most critical phase is BBP because the success of the
project is totally depended on how accurate we gather the requirements from core user.
After gathering the BBP conformation mail from core user we will prepare one more document
called BBP sign-Off document .The reason of Sign-Off is if core user is saying/asking some
other requirements at the time of Go-Live then we will show this Sign-Off form.

After Sign-Off we will move to the next phase of ASAP methodology.

Realization: Configuring the clients business process in SAP or mapping the process in SAP.
Mapping To-Be process in SAP. In this phase we enter into development server to configure the
clients business process.
We have 2 types of configurations
1. Base Line Configuration
2. Final Configuration.
Base Line Configuration is the configuration for which no need to depend on other module
consultants. (It is a configuration which is specific to one module)
Final configuration is the configuration for which we need to depend on other module
consultants.
Whatever we configure while saving system will ask for request number. We need to save the
configuration in a particular number. Request number will help to transport the configuration
from one server to another server.
After completion of base line configuration and final configuration we transport the entire
request from development server to quality server.
Consultants Role in Transporting Request:
We need to release all the request each request consists of parent and child first release the child
request and the release the parent request then list out all the request numbers in excel file along
with description and sequence and send the excel file to basics consultant.
Basics consultant will actually transport the request from one server to another server.
Transporting request is of 2 types
1. Customizing request
2. Work bench request
Customizing request: Whatever functional consultant will do that will be saved in customizing
request.
Work bench request: Whatever technical consultant will do i.e. ABAPER that will be stored in
work bench request
After completion of configuration we transport the entire request from development server to
quality server .After transporting the request we will do testing in quality server.
Testing is of two types

--Unit testing
--Integration testing.

1. Unit Testing: It is the testing for which we need not depend on other module consultant

2. Integration Testing: It is the testing for which you need to depend on other module
consultant.
Before testing we need to prepare a test case document which includes
What to test
How to test
Expected result
Actual result
Status
Tested documents no
During final configuration we prepare functional specification document i.e. whenever
we require the help of ABAPERS we will prepare functional specification document.
After testing we will prepare
1. User Manuals Document
2. Configuration Document
User Manuals Document: This will have step-by-step process of creating Master Data and
Transaction Data along with the screen shots.
This document will help the end-user
Configuration Document: Whatever we configure we will put in a document along with the
screen shots .Configuration document will help for K.T purpose i.e. (Knowledge Transfer).
After preparing the entire document we move to next phase of ASAP methodology i.e. Final
Preparation.
Final Preparation:
Activities
1. Training to core users
2. After training we will ask for users to test the scenarios .e core users will test all the scenarios
and if everything is fine the core users will give UAT sign off (User Acceptance Test).
3. After getting UAT sign off we transport all the request from quality server to production
server.
4. After transporting the request to production server we do Cut-Over Activities
Cut over activities is the uploading of master data and open transaction data from legacy to SAP.

Consultants Role in Cut over Activities:

Consultants will do recording and simultaneously prepare excel file and sends the recording to
ABAPER excel file to core user.
Based on recording ABAPER will develop BDC Batch Data Communication program and gives
it to consultant.
Core User will fill the data in excel file and gives it to consultant.
After we do mock run in quality server and if everything is fine we upload the data in production
server.
Any transaction if it is invoice to customer we dont upload that transactions.
After transaction i.e. uploading the data from legacy to SAP we move to the next phase of ASAP
methodology i.e. Go Live and Support.
Go Live: It is the date from which client will start entering day-to-day transaction in SAP.
Any implementation after go-live we will give 3 months of post production support.
Support Project: Solving the issues raised by the client who already implemented SAP.
Whenever any new support project comes there is an agreement between both the parties i.e.
SLA (Service Level Agreement). As a consultant we should know some information from SLA.
1. Priority of Issues or Ticket:
Generally the tickets will be classified into 3 levels
1. High Priority.
2. Medium Priority
3. Low Priority.
High Priority: Any Issue raised by the client and if it is stopping the clients business process
then we treat it as high priority issue.
Any issues in deliveries and invoice will be treated as high priority issues because it will stop the
clients business process.
High priority issues should be solved within 4 hours, M.P.I in 24 hours, L.P.I in 48 hours.
2. Change Request: Anything client is asking for which there is no present configuration then
we treat it as change request .Change request will not be considered as priority of issues, we need
to prepare change request document which includes --- issue description
--- expected solutions
--- Estimated effort

After preparing the document we will send this to our superior for review then we will send the
document to core user for approval. After approval we need to start working on the issue.
Whenever we get new support project they will conduct kick off meeting and they will invite
all the consultants who are going to involve in the project, the normal team size for unknown
client support project is 12.
Kick off means starting off, after kick off meeting all the consultants will move to the clients
place for K.T purpose.
K.T Process: Core users will hand over configuration documents to the consultants .consultants
has to go through the configuration document and simultaneously do the system study .After the
system study consultant has to prepare understanding document and then consultant has to give
reverse K.T to the coursers .After reverse K.T the consultants will come back and start
supporting the client.
Ticket Cycle:
First end-user will get the error while doing transactions in SAP, once end-user gets the error he
will send mail to help desk .In help desk we will find coursers will try first to solve the issue, if it
is not in his hand then he will place the ticket in ticketing tool.
The ticketing tool available in the market is remedy, peridran, citric, solution manager. While
placing the ticket in the ticketing tool core user will mention the priority of the ticket.
After placing the ticket in, a mail will be sent to support partners coordinator. Coordinator will
open the ticketing tool and allocate it to the relevant consultant.
After allocating the ticket mail will be sent to the consultant, consultant will open the ticketing
tool.
The basic responsibility of the consultant once we receive the ticket we need to send an
acknowledgement to users within 10 minutes. We need to send the acknowledgement to both
core users and end users and cc to coordinators.
Status of the Ticket:
1. Open.
2. Work in progress.
3. Waiting for information
4. Waiting for conformation
5. Testing.
If the status is work in progress then only the clock starts, other than that the clock will stop.
After analyzing the ticket raised by core user we go to the preproduction server and try to do the
same what end-user is doing in production server .Because production server is mirror image of
production server, we will also get error in preproduction server, then we will analyze the error

and go to development server and do the necessary configurations and send the request number
to quality server and ask the core user to test it and conform.
After getting conformation we will transport the request from quality to production, change the
status of issue to close.
Manually we need to maintain issues in an excel file. Whenever we solve any ticket we need to
prepare a document called issue resolution document.
Issue resolution document consists of
1. Ticket number
2. Date.
3. Description.
4. Solutions.
5. Consultants Name.
This document will help for future enhancement.
Levels in Support:
If the support team size is more than 60 then only we will have levels in support team
They are normally classified into three levels:
1. Level-1(works on high priority issue)
2. Level-2(configuration (medium\low))
3. Level-3(Change request).
In support any ticket if there is no solution in from configuration side the we post the ticket to
SAP.
Product or production error comes only when we update the system from one version to another.
Consultants Role in Weekly Meeting:
We need to prepare excel with the list of issues which is having the status begin or open i.e. not
yet closed and we carry this excel file to weekly meeting and we discuss the issues one by one
with the project manager or project lead.
When we enter into SAP the default screen is SAP Easy access.
End user will work on easy access screen, end user is the employee if clients who will do day to
day transactions in Sap.
Consultants will work on IMG screen (implementation guide)

Enter SPRO tcode in tcode bar and click on SAP Reference IMG.
If you are in other screen than easy access then we need tp put either /n or o before tcode.
/n means it overwrites the present screen
/o means it opens a new session.
1 Company Code: A company code is an organizational unit which is responsible for all
external financial transactions which happens in the company (external financial transactions are
balance sheet, profit and loss statements.
A company code is an organizational unit which is registered under companys act `1956.
FI consultants are responsible to define company code in SAP.
Every organization units will be defined in SAP as code. Company code is a four (4) digit code.
A company code is a physical entity.
2. Sales Organization: It is an organizational unit which is responsible for all sales and services
happens in the company. It is an organizational unit where strategic decisions related to sales will
be taken. It is a organizational unit where you find director sales and vice president sales.
SD consultant is responsible to define sales organization in SAP.
Sales organization is a 4 digit code. Sales .It is a physical entity i.e. which will have address.
In what scenarios client will have multiple organizations
1. Multiple company codes
2. Bifurcation of sales responsibilities based on geographical locations
3. Domestic and exports
In our project we have 2 sales organizations
1. Domestic

2. Export

3. Distribution Channel: It is the way of selling the goods to customers or it is the way of
distributing the good to the customers

In our project we have 4 Distribution channels

1. Dealers

2. Distributors

3. Direct

4. Institution

The combination of sales organization and distribution channel is called sales line.
SD consultant is responsible to define distribution channel in SAP. The distribution channel is 2
digit codes.
4. Division: Division is the range of products or product line. Grouping of materials which are
similar in nature.
example
1. Gynecology

2. Pediatric

3. Insulin

4. Cardiology

5. Orthopedic

6. Antibiotic

A division is a two digit code .SD consultant is responsible to define division in SAP.
The combination of sales organization, distribution channel and division is called as sales area.
In SAP-SD sales area plays a vital role. Whatever transaction we do in sales it should be related
through particular sales area.
Distribution channel and division is logical unit because they dont have address.
5. Sales Office:
It is a physical location where group of people will work together to perform sales .The length of
sales office is 4 digit.SD consultant is responsible to define sales office in SAP.
1. Sales Group: Sales group is a group of people working in a sales office and working for
different activities. In our project we have 2 groups
1. Insulin

2. Antibiotic

The length of sales group is 3 digit code.SD consultants is responsible to define sales group.
7. Plant: It is a physical location where we do the process of manufacturing finished goods.
8. Depo: Depo is a place where we store finished goods fort easy distribution of goods to
customers.
Carry and Forward:
If the depo is owned by the company we call it as depo.
If the depo is owned by third party person then we call it as CNF.
MM consultant is responsible to define plant in SAP.A plant is a 4 digit code.
In our project we have 2 manufacturing plants, 27 depos.
9. Storage Location: It is a physical location where we store the goods within a plant.
Each plant will have 5 storage locations
1. Raw material.
2. Semi finished goods.
3. Finished Goods1.
4. Finished Goods2.
5. Returns
MM consultant is responsible to define storage location in SAP. Storage location is a 4 digit
code.
10. Shipping Point: It is a physical location where we do the process of loading the goods into
trucks, for dispatching it to customers.
In our project each plant we have 2 shipping points
1. Manual shipping point.

2. Automatic shipping point.

SD consultant is responsible to define shipping point .Shipping point is a 4 digit code.
COMPANY: Company is an organizational unit which will group several company codes into
one.
FI consultant is responsible for company.
BUSINESS AREA: It is an organizational unit which will help to generate internal balance sheet
plant wise. FI consultant is responsible for business area.
CREDIT CONTROL AREA: It is an organizational unit which specifies group of people
responsible for credit activities .FI consultant is responsible for this activity.
CONROLLING AREA: It specifies the group of people responsible for product costing
activities.CO consultant is responsible to define controlling area.
Defining Company Code in SAP:
A company is a 4 digit code
Path:
Enter SPRO tcode in code bar
Enterprise structure - Definition -Financial accounting - edit, copy, delete, check
company code and click on IMG activity double click on edit company code data.
Select the standard company code 1000 and click on copy as symbol after copy change the code.
After entering the details click on copy then save it.
When we will save the system will ask the request number.
And click on continue.
Defining Sales Organization:
SD consultant is responsible to define sales organization.

Path:
spro - enterprise structure - definition-sales and distribution --define copy delete sales
organization ,double click on define sales organization.
Select standard sales organization 1000 and click on copy as.
Define Distribution channel in SAP:
Spro - enterprise structure - definition - sales and distribution - define copy delete
check distribution channel, double click on define distribution channel new entries, create
distribution channel.
Define Division:
Path:
Spro - enterprise structure - definition-logistic general--define copy check delete
division.
Double click on define division
New entries
Define Sales Office:
Path:
Spro - enterprise structure - definition - sales and distribution -maintain sales office.