611_sapmasschange

DECEMBER 1, 2005 WINSHUTTLE, INC. 2005

A WHITE PAPER BY

WINSHUTTLE, INC. 1729 208TH STREET SE, SUITE 202

BOTHELL, WA 98012, USA (800) 711-9798

WWW.WINSHUTTLE.COM

Making mass changes to SAP master data or transactional data is a constant requirement in todays fast-changing business environments. Mass data change projects, however, are resource-intensive, time consuming, and stressful both for the SAP business users and for IT analysts. This article describes some of the best practices that many companies have adopted and are able to make mass changes to SAP data in record time with minimal resources.

Whether you are an SAP end-user or an SAP functional analyst using SAPs Financials and Controlling (FI/CO) module, the Human Resources (HR) module, the broad Logistics (LO) mode, one vexing problem that you most likely have been affected by is the need to make mass changes to the data in SAP. In todays ever-changing business environments, mass changes to ERP data have become a fact-of-life. These mass changes could range from master data changes in material master, vendor master, customer master, employee records, or pricing conditions, to transactional data updates in sales order, purchase orders, vendor invoices, or customer invoices.

Despite being a daily challenge, mass data change projects at most companies continue to be resource-intensive, time consuming, and stressful not only for the SAP business super-users and functional analysts, but also for the IT support team.

The three options for making mass changes to SAP data at most companies tend to be (1) Using the SAP mass-change transactions, (2) Making the changes via manual data entry, or (3) requesting the IT support team to build programs and scripts to automate such changes. The SAP mass-change transactions are only useful for fairly simple data change scenarios where one or more fields need to be changed to a constant value for all records. Most mass changes scenarios are more complex than that and the second and third options are the ones mostly chosen.

Both the options -- manual data entry and IT support requests -- end up being fairly resource-intensive and time consuming. Why the first option of manual data entry is not an ideal-choice is obvious, but there are several reasons why the second option is not ideal either.

MAKING MASS CHANGES TO SAP DATA IN RECORD TIME WITH MINIMAL RESOURCES


Writing programs for a single mass data changes in SAP can be a fairly involved process involving several steps such as, requirements definition, design, coding, testing, and documentation. Since every mass change request may be different, the entire process has to be repeated for every such request. Moreover, ITs programming resources tend to be expensive and may not be always available. The SAP support teams are constantly struggling at prioritizing such mass change requests among their many other mission critical projects. Therefore, all-in-all the second option of requesting the IT support team to build programs also becomes a not so desirable proposition.

Many companies using SAP, however, have adopted some good practices and tools that are enabling them to make mass changes to SAP data in record time with minimal resources. These practices are affording these companies the following benefits:

They are saving on data entry resources by eliminating redundant manual data entry.

They are saving time by updating SAP data instantly. They are able to reassign the valuable IT resources to more mission critical

projects by reducing programming efforts for mass change projects. They are reducing data errors due to manual data entry or due to hastily put-

together programs.

The next section of this article describes these best practices for mass changes to SAP data. This section will be followed by a specific mass data update example and how these practices are used, and finally some success stories will be presented.

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This section describes the best practices in making mass changes to SAP data that weve discovered by interviewing SAP users at hundreds of companies. Using these practices, these companies were able to make mass changes to SAP data very efficiently and cost-effectively.

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Mass changes to data are carried out most easily when the data to be updated is in a spreadsheet format, such as in Microsoft Excel files. The ease of use of spreadsheets and functionality such as bulk copy and paste, referential lookups, and formulas make spreadsheets an ideal format for making mass changes. Moreover, spreadsheets can be easily passed around for review and collaborative input.

Most SAP data can be easily imported into spreadsheet formats. The commonly used SAP reporting functions and data query functions, e.g., SE16, SQ01, ALV reports, job spools, etc., allow the easy export of data into spreadsheet formats. If the business users responsible for the mass data update do not have access to the SAP query transactions, such as SE16, they can use third-party tools such as TablePro from Winshuttle, Inc. to securely read data out of SAP and download it into Excel files.

Once the data to be changed has been brought into an Excel file and modified as needed, this data can be then uploaded back into SAP. However, the upload method must be carefully selected and the practices listed below illustrate the best ways to upload data from Excel files to SAP.


DECEMBER 1, 2005 & WINSHUTTLE, INC. 2005

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Excel files with the updated data should never be uploaded directly into SAP tables. While this point is very obvious, it cannot be overemphasized. Writing directly to SAP tables ignores all the data validation and checks and balances that happen when creating data through the normal SAP transactions. So, we should avoid using any such method that writes directly to SAP tables.

Data from Excel to SAP should always be uploaded via the pre-configured SAP transactions or via specific SAP provided business interfaces known as BAPIs. SAP-provided tools such as BDC, CATT, or LSMW, or third-party tools such as TxShuttle from Winshuttle, Inc. allow the upload of data via SAP transactions instead of writing directly to SAP tables.

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With the several non-programming choices available to easily upload Excel data to SAP, custom programming in ABAP or VB should be the absolute last resort for ad-hoc uploading Excel data into SAP. Not only is programming expensive and time consuming, but also the fact that such a program may be used only once or even once a year is particularly wasteful. Further, creating robust programs require a fair bit of testing and if a program has not been well-tested, it could be dangerous and cause irreparable data damage.

Therefore, we recommend using a scripting or a non-programming approach as much as possible. SAP provided tools such as BDC, CATT, LSMW, and third party tools such as Winshuttles TxShuttle will allow you to avoid programming to a large extent.

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A record, map, and run strategy generally involves first recording the SAP transaction required to upload your business specific data. The recording step is followed by a mapping step where the SAP data fields captured during the recording are mapped to the Excel fields. Finally, the transaction is run over and over again with the different rows of data in the Excel file. A Record, Map, and Run strategy is similar to recording and running macros for automating routine tasks.

The advantages of choosing a record, map, and run strategy are that (a) it is very general and can work well for many different upload tasks and many different SAP transactions, even with custom transactions, (b) it is a very easy and intuitive approach and saves a lot of time making a mass data update, (c) it is something that even the business users can do themselves without requiring much IT support.

A record, map, and run strategy should be used for uploading data from Excel to SAP. Again, the SAP provided tools, such as BDC, CATT, and LSMW all support such a strategy and can work for many different upload applications. The TxShuttle tool simplifies the recording and mapping tasks by a huge margin, making business users job much easier. Also, TxShuttle is equipped with features that allow it easily handle applications that require upload of transactional data containing header and line-items, such as journal vouchers, invoices, purchase orders, sales orders, etc.

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Make sure the mass update method you choose is secure and preserves SAPs role-based security to comply with the Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) regulation. One key aspect of


DECEMBER 1, 2005 . WINSHUTTLE, INC. 2005

SOX Section 404 is checking that rights and duties are separately assigned to different individuals so that no individual has the power to divert business or transactions in a fraudulent manner. One of the most common open SOX audit issues is that users in the IT departments have very broad access to production data in SAP. Therefore to ease compliance with SOX, any mass changes to SAP data should ideally be performed by the business users who are already authorized to make the data change.

To allow business users to perform the upload via SAP-provided tools, CATT & LSMW, the users would need extra authorizations and would also need significant training in the use of these technical tools. Alternatively, the use of Winshuttles TxShuttle product may be much more appropriate since the tool lives outside the core SAP system and generally does not require extra authorizations. At the same time this tool is very easy to use for business users and these users can become proficient in it very quickly.

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On a final note, one of the best practices in making mass changes to SAP data is to empower business users to do the data update themselves. The business users are the ones who know much more about their own data compared to the IT resources and are much better positioned to carry out these mass changes. The choice of the right tools for the business users which will enable them to easily upload data without requiring any programming will go a long way to freeing up IT resources for more mission-critical tasks. Letting business users take control of their own data also makes SOX compliance easier as mentioned earlier.

Easy-to-use products such as Winshuttles TxShuttle and TablePro, empowers business to carry out mass changes to SAP data all by themselves, creating a win-win scenario for business users as well as the IT departments.

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This section gives an example of a mass data change scenario where the best practices described above are utilized. The example described here involves the changing of MRP Controller and Purchasing Group for several Material Master records in SAP.

Step 1: Download SAP Data into Excel. The first step involved in making the mass change was to use Winshuttles Tablepro software to download the material records and their current values of MRP controller and purchasing group. Using Tablepro, a simple query was created to download the fields -- material number, MRP controller and purchasing group from the MARC table in SAP. Figure 1 shows a screenshot of the TablePro application and its field selector window being used to download the shown Excel file containing the required fields.


DECEMBER 1, 2005 / WINSHUTTLE, INC. 2005

Figure 1: Downloading SAP data from the MARC table into an Excel file using the TablePro software.

While this example is very simple and all the data to be changed resides in one SAP table, the Tablepro software can be used to create queries consisting of data from multiple tables as well.

If data thats needed in the Excel file is not stored in any table, but is only visible in dynamic structures while running SAP transactions, then the TxShuttle software can also be used to download data from SAP transactions to Excel fields.

Step 2: Carry out the mass update to the Excel data. Using lookup operations and copy and paste operations, the MRP controllers and purchasing group fields are updates easily in the Excel file. Once all the data has been changed, to be updated is in an Excel file, the changes can be carried out in the Excel file, the data in the Excel file is ready to be uploaded into SAP.

Step 3: Record and Map a transaction into which the data will be uploaded to SAP. Now using TxShuttle, we record one SAP transaction into which the data needs to be uploaded. This step would show TxShuttle how to run the SAP transaction, what screens to go to and what fields to populate. An example with the MM02 transaction (to update material master records in SAP) is shown in Figure 2.


DECEMBER 1, 2005 0 WINSHUTTLE, INC. 2005

Figure 2: In this recording of the MM02 transaction, we went through two screens -- The Initial Screen and the MRP1 screen and we entered data in 1 field on the first screen and 2 fields on the second screen.

After recording, we map the SAP fields captured during recording to our fields in the Excel file. The EasyMapper tool in TxShuttle makes this mapping process very simple and intuitive. Figure 3 shows the use of the EasyMapper tool for mapping fields captured during our recording to Excel fields.



Figure 3: The EasyMapper Tool The top half of the EasyMapper shows all fields we touched during the recording while the bottom half shows a preview of the Excel file that we wish to upload. With EasyMapper, you can drag and drop the Excel fields to the SAP fields to create the mapping.

Step 4: Run & Upload. After the recording and mapping is complete, the recorded and mapped script can be run in batch using data from our Excel file using TxShuttle. Each run executes the recorded SAP transaction one time or thousands of times depending on the number of rows in the Excel file. Messages returned from SAP are logged conveniently into the same Excel file along with data records making this a complete self-documented record. The same recording can be run on a different Excel file of the same format. The result of our run for the material master update is shown in Figure 4. If one of the records cannot be uploaded into SAP due to errors in the data, the error message is displayed in the log column for that record, but TxShuttle continues to upload data for the remaining records.

Data loading from TxShuttle to SAP is very similar to manually inputting the data. From the SAP perspective, the TxShuttle user is just another user who is entering data at an enormous speed.



Figure 4: All the records in the Excel file (each record with 3 fields) were uploaded into SAP using the TxShuttle recording and the messages returned from SAP are conveniently logged into one of the Excel columns, with one log per record.

As you can see from the above example, the process of making mass changes to SAP data is very straightforward when using Winshuttle tools, TxShuttle and Tablepro. This process can be easily entrusted to business uses and the IT support team resources are freed-up in the process, while SOX compliance is made easier.

Hundreds of companies have used Winshuttle tools in conjunction with the other best practices outlined in this document to efficiently make mass changes to SAP data. Here are a few success stories from some of these companies.

For one single project, Canada Post, the Canadian national postal service, was able to save over $40,000 in programmer time and six months time by empowering the business user to make a mass change in multiple job evaluation points for over 8000 job positions. One business super-user was able to complete the entire project from start to finish in less than two weeks.

Supply Chain Management business users at California-based Kubota Tractor Corporation were able to make price changes in 200,000 records in less than 5 hours



using TxShuttle without relying on any IT resources and at the same time saving the company at least 6 months of data entry resources.

One west-coast apparel company used TxShuttle to make tax rate changes in 49,000 records in just over one hour. Tax rate changes are applied on a monthly basis and they are looking to TxShuttle as their tool of choice to keep their tax rates in SAP up-to-date.

One Canada-based technology company was able to make mass changes to 3000 payroll records in 2 hours saving about 8 days of manual data entry.

For logistics data maintenance, one Tennessee-based retailer is able to reduce their IT departments support involvement from 20 hours a week to 30 minutes a week.

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Winshuttle offers a FREE 15-day trial version of their software that can downloaded directly from their web site. Within minutes you can install the software and be running with it on your own SAP system.

To download the trial software or to learn more about Winshuttle software TxShuttle and Tablepro, please visit the Winshuttle web site www.winshuttle.com

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Incorporated in the state of Washington, WinShuttle, Inc. is a privately-held software company and has been providing innovative software tools to the SAP business users worldwide since 2000. Winshuttle has over 150 customers in 24 countries. Their customers are in several industry sectors and even in public sector organizations. Some of their customers include, Procter and Gamble, Roche, Novartis, Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), Research-in-motion (RIM), eBay, Tetrapak, Kraft Foods, Daimler Chrysler, Canada Post, and UNESCO, among many others.

In the Americas, contact Winshuttle direct at

1729 208th St. SE, Suite 202 Bothell, WA 98012 Phone: 1-800-711-9798 Website: www.winshuttle.com Email: [email protected]

In the European Union, please contact Winshuttles partner -

ADAR Group Europe Maisons-Alfort, Cedex, France Tel:+33 (0) 1 48 93 71 71 Website: www.adar.fr Email: [email protected]

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