SAP Implementation is the whole of processes that defines a complete method to implement the Enterprise Resource Planning SAP ERP software in an organization. The SAP implementation method described in this entry is a generic method and not a specific implementation method as such. It is based on best practices and case studies from various literature sources and presents a collection of processes and products that make up a complete implementation method to allow any organization to plan and execute the implementation of SAP software.

Implementation processes

Project preparation
The project preparation phase, depicted below, focuses at two main activities, i.e. to make a setup for the TSO and to define a solution vision. These activities allow an organization to put in on the right track towards implementation.

Project preparation phase
Design and initially staff the SAP TSO

The first major step of the project preparation phase is to design and initially staff an SAP technical support organization (TSO), which is the organization that is charged with addressing, designing, implementing and supporting the SAP solution. This can be programmers, project management, database administrators, test teams, etc. At this point, the focus should be at staffing the key positions of the TSO, e.g. the high-level project team and SAP professionals like the senior database administrator and the solution architect. Next to that, this is the time to make decisions about choosing for internal staff members or external consultants.

Craft solution vision
The second project preparation job is to define a so-called solution vision, i.e. a vision of the future-state of the SAP solution, where it is important to address both business and financial requirements (budgets). The main focus within the vision should be on the company’s core business and how the SAP solution will better enable that core business to be successful. Next to that, the shortcomings of the current systems should be described and short but clear requirements should be provided regarding availability (uptime), security, manageability and scalability of the SAP system.

Sizing and blueprinting
The next phase is often referred to as the sizing and blueprinting phase and forms the main chunk of the implementation process.

Sizing and blueprinting phase
Perform cost of ownership analysis

Solution stack delta analysis
This phase starts with performing a total cost of ownership analysis (TCO analysis) to determine how to get the best business solution at the lowest costs. This means to compare SAP solution stack options and alternatives and then determine what costs each part of the stack will bring and when these costs will be incurred. Parts of the stack are for example the hardware, operating system and database, which form the acquisition costs. Next to that, there should be taken a look at recurring costs like maintenance costs and downtime costs. Instead of performing a complete TCO analysis for various solution stack alternatives that would like to compare, it can be wise just to do a so-called delta analysis, where only the differences between solutions (stacks) are identified and analyzed. The image at the right depicts the essence of a delta analysis.
Identify high availability and disaster recovery requirements
The next step is identifying the high availability requirements and the more serious disaster recovery requirements. This is to plan what to do with later downtime of the SAP system, caused by e.g. hardware failures, application failures or power outages. It should be noted that it is very important to calculate the cost of downtime, so that an organization has a good idea of its actual availability requirements.
Engage SAP solution stack vendors

SAP solution stack
A true sizing process is to engage the SAP solution stack vendors, which is the next step. This means selecting the best SAP hardware and software technology partners for all layers and components of the solution stack, based on a side-by-side sizing comparison. The most important factors that are of influence here are the estimated numbers of (concurrent) users and batch sizes. A wise thing to do is to involve SAP AG itself to let them create a sizing proposal stating the advised solution stack, before moving to SAP’s technology partners/SAP vendors, like Accenture, [[HP}]] and IBM. A simplified solution stack is depicted at the right, showing the many layers for which software and hardware has to be acquired. Note the overlap with the OSI model.

The TSO is the most important resource for an organization that is implementing SAP, so staffing the TSO is a vital job which can consume a lot of time. In a previous phase, the organization should already have staffed the most vital positions. At this point the organization should staff the bulk of the TSO, i.e. fill the positions that directly support the near-term objectives of the implementation, which are to develop and begin the installation/implementation of the SAP data center. Examples are: data center experts, network infrastructure experts, security specialists and database administration experts.

There are many ways to find the right people within or outside the organization for all of the TSO positions and it depends on the organization how much time it wants to spend on staffing.
Training

One of the most vital stages of the implementation process is training. Very few people within an organization are SAP experts or even have worked with SAP software. It is therefore very important to train the end users but especially the SAP TSO: the people who design and implement the solution. Many people within the TSO need all kinds of training. Some examples of these positions:
SAP Network Specialists
SAP Database Administrators
SAP Security specialists
Documentation specialists

All of these people need to acquire the required SAP knowledge and skills or even SAP certifications through training. Moreover, people need to learn to do business in a totally new way. To define how much SAP training every person needs, a company can make use of a skillset matrix. With this matrix, a manager can identify who possesses what knowledge, to manage and plan training, by defining the height of expertise with a number between e.g. 1 and 4 for each skill for each employee.

Setup SAP data center
The next step is to set up the SAP data center. This means either building a new data center facility or transforming the current data center into a foundation capable of supporting the SAP solution stack, i.e. all of the technology layers and components (SAP software products) in a productive SAP installation. The most important factor when designing the data center is availability. The high availability and disaster recovery requirements which should have been defined earlier, give a good idea of the required data center requirements to host the SAP software. Data center requirements can be a:
Physical requirement like power requirements
Rack requirement
Network infrastructure requirement or
Requirement to the network server.