Utilizing the Implementation Project Methodology

• It's more than just installing the software. . . In fact that part is usually the easiest part of the implementation.
• As an implementation consultant, you usually get involved at the closure of the sales cycle. Therefore, it is important that you get a thorough background to the customer from the sales team, including the customer's goals, concerns and overall business processes.
• SAP provides many resources to help you, including a structured methodology for implementations. This methodology is based on the practical experiences of SAP and many implementation partners. Within this methodology, you will find project plans, as well as tools and documents to help you be successful.

All the strategies will increase the success of an implementation project.

An implementation project requires a diverse range of skills in addition to product knowledge:

• Project management and managing customer relationships and expectations
• Training for end users
• Analyzing and mapping the customer's business processes to a solution
• Identification and scoping of customer software and reports
• Technical skills such as migrating legacy data, and installing SAP Business One in the system landscape
• Setting up the business processes (sales, purchasing, logistics, finance, reporting, etc.) and configuration in SAP Business One

What do you consider is the most difficult part of the implementation consultant job?

Existing partners tell us that the most difficult tasks in the implementation are concerned with analyzing the customer's business processes and mapping them to an SAP Business One configuration.

Partners also find that data migration is often a difficult task, since a knowledge of the database tables is required and often the customer's data does not map easily to SAP Business One. Data migration often takes longer than expected.

Do not underestimate the time needed to collect and analyze customer business requirements. Allow sufficient time during the sales process and during the implementation for these tasks.

A typical small business project requires both a project manager from the partner side and a project manager from the customer side.

Also from the partner side the tasks might be split between a business consultant and a technical consultant:

• The business consultant runs the business process workshops and produces the Business Blueprint
• The technical consultant installs and configures the system per the Business Blueprint
• The two roles might be performed by one person, or by multiple people

On the customer side, in addition to the project manager, the following roles are required for the project:

• A functional lead representing each area, such as sales, purchasing, accounting, warehouse, etc. The functional leads must attend the business process workshops and also perform the testing of the business processes that they control
• A super user should be appointed from the customer. This person will be trained to perform administrative functions on the new system in production, such as creating users, setting authorizations. This person will receive training in all areas of SAP Business One.
• A technical person from the customer should be part of the project team (for on premise systems).

A methodology is more than just a project plan. It applies structure to a project by adding formal phases, with milestones that must be achieved before the project can progress. It applies project management and change management controls to a project.

Your partner organization may have its own methodology. If so, you should learn the methodology and tools in use at your company.

SAP recommends the Accelerated Implementation Program (AIP) for SAP Business One implementations, as it is specifically designed for small business installations (on premise and in the cloud) and is based on the practical experiences of SAP and many partners.

The AIP methodology contains best practices, guides, tools and templates. The methodology and materials are available for you to download from SAP Partner portal. All the tools and templates are provided in Microsoft Word or Excel format and you can modify to your own requirements. The flexibility to use all, or some of the methodology is up to you.

• The AIP methodology divides an implementation project into five phases. These phases cover the period starting with the handover from the sales team to right before the handover to the partner support organization. The phases are:
• Project Preparation. Get ready for the implementation project with the initial planning with the sales team.
• Business Blueprint. Business process analysis and mapping.
• Project Realization. Configuration and customization of the customer's company database.
• Final Preparation. Get ready for the go-live.
• Go-Live and Support. Make sure the customer's new system is functioning as planned for a predefined period before handing over the customer to your support team.

The methodology blends the key activities in a phase with change and project management.

• Project Preparation: the focus is on providing a smooth transition from the sales cycle. The implementation team may not have participated in the sales cycle, so it is important to have a detailed handover from sales. The other focus is building a relationship with the customer. The major deliverable is the software - the SAP Business One software is delivered and installed, marking the contractual start of the project.
• Business Blueprint: the focus is on mapping a solution to run the customer's business processes. Business process mapping might seem strange to have here (wasn't that done during the sales cycle?). What takes place in this phase is a detailed analysis of each of the customer's business processes and how they will be configured in the new system. This might require customization to meet any gaps. The major deliverable is the Business Blueprint - the roadmap for the next phase. The Business Blueprint documents the system configuration to support the business processes.
• Project Realization: the system is configured and the data from the customer's legacy system is migrated over. This enables testing and validation using the customer's own data. During this stage you need to plan for the next stage: analyzing the need for training, and assessing how ready the customer is for production deployment.
• Final Preparation: the end users are trained and a decision is made to go-live. A readiness check should contain a list of criteria that must be met before go-live. The end users should be fully trained, the hardware and infrastructure in place, and operational procedures documented, and so on. Right before the switch to production, final data is migrated over including the current balances for the general ledger and the outstanding customer and vendor balances.
• Go-live and Support: you monitor the new system and resolve any critical issues related to the implementation, before officially "handing over" the customer to your support team.

Let's look at the individual phases in more detail.

In Project Preparation, key activities for an implementation consultant are to:

• Conduct a handover with the sales team
• Create an implementation project plan
• Attend the kick-off meeting (which should be organized by the sales team).
• Install the SAP Business One software (ideally with the demo database)

Note: The customer project manager and other key team members should have been appointed during the sales cycle. The sales team has responsibility to ensure that the customer has staffed the project team and that the project is supported by the company owner or sponsor.

The milestones which you can use to measure the success of this phase are:

• Project plan reviewed and agreed by customer
• Software installed at customer
• Official sign-off for this phase by the customer. This sign-off signifies that the customer agrees wit the project plan and schedule.

The recommended SAP best practices for this phase are:

• Meet with sales team before the kick-off meeting to understand the customer processes, goals, pain points, unique requirements, risks or constraints (including major changes in the future or an upcoming busy season that could jeopardize the project). You should ensure that customer expectations set during the sales process are feasible and that product capabilities have not been miscommunicated or oversold.
• Assess the hardware and infrastructure at the customer: this includes the server (for on premise) and the network and desktop infrastructure. Doing this early allows time for upgrades to be ordered.
• Demo SAP Business One at the kick-off meeting, using the demo database: it is a good idea to introduce the customer to SAP Business One as early as possible. You can even create master data and documents in the demo database using the customer's own business partners and products. By demoing the product you give the customer team a visual understanding and the opportunity to ask any nagging early questions.
• Clearly communicate the time and effort you require from the customer team. Often small businesses have a hard time releasing staff to work on projects, but this is necessary for the success of the project so should be addressed at the kick-off meeting. A functional lead should be nominated from each business area (sales, purchasing, accounting, etc.).

Tools and templates you can leverage in this phase include:

• Handover from Sales Checklist and Pre-Sales Business Analysis for documenting the customer goals and requirements
• Software Delivery Receipt to document the delivery of the software
• Phase Sign-off to acknowledge the completion of the phase
• Project Phase Analysis and Risk spreadsheet to assess and estimate project risk, based on a series of answers that you supply.

Business Blueprint focuses on a detailed analysis of the customer's business processes and requirements. Your activities are to:

• Conduct business process requirements gathering workshops
• Map the processes to a solution and identify any gaps
• Complete a business blueprint, which documents how the system will be configured

SAP recommends you conduct requirements gathering workshop by process, for example:

• Sales
• Purchasing
• Inventory management
• Production and MRP
• Financials and accounting
• Service
• Banking

Since each customer is different, you may want to organize the workshops in other ways. Remember to include master data and reporting in each workshop. The functional lead from the business area should attend the relevant workshop, also someone from accounting. In the workshop you should ask the functional leads to describe their existing process and operations. You can then demonstrate these processes in the system. The milestones for this phase are:

• Business process workshops completed and documented in the Business Blueprint
• Project plan revised (if necessary) and agreed with customer
• Official sign-off for this phase by the customer.

The recommended SAP best practices for this phase are:

• Conduct workshops with the customer functional leads from each business area or department. In these workshops, you should analyze the detailed steps in each of the customers processes. In addition to major processes such as sales, purchasing, and service, you should cover reporting and financial processes.
• When scheduling the different workshops, plan for overlaps and dependencies between departments.
• During the workshops, you should identify the sources and volume of the legacy data that needs to be migrated.
• Use SAP Business One during the workshops to demonstrate how business requirements can be addressed by the system
• Document all requirements in the Business Blueprint and make sure the customer understands that this is the scope of the project

Tools and templates you can leverage in this phase include:

• Blueprint Process Questions
• Blueprint Configuration
• Data Migration Assessment
• Data Migration Guide
• Phase Sign-off
• Project Phase Analysis and Risk to review the phase and assess how well the project is going and if any risks have materialized

The Blueprint Process Questions and the Blueprint Configuration are key implementation documents for SAP Business One.

Like all AIP documents they are provided as templates, and you can edit, extend and configure them for your use.

These two documents work hand-in hand:

• Use the business process questions during the requirements gathering workshops to ascertain the details of each customer process. Be sure to add additional questions to cover extended processes not covered in the list.
• Use the information gathered from the detailed questions to document the required system configuration and settings in the blueprint configuration document. capture the required setup and configuration changes needed to implement the business process. You can use the blueprint document as a checklist when making the setup and configuration changes in the company database. At the end of the project, provide a copy of this completed document to your support organization.

Questions are listed for each business process. try to use the customer's terminology, not SAP Business One terminology.

You should record the setup and configuration changes needed for each process.

Project Realization is the heart of the project. The milestones for this phase are:

• Production system configured and customized to run business processes. After the configuration is complete you should make a copy of the production database that can be used for testing and training.
• Legacy data migrated
• Customer completes validation of system. You should carefully plan the test cases with the customer. Test cases should cover not just the business process within SAP Business One but the end to end process including external system interfaces. The customer should ensure that test plans cover all test cases. The test cases supplied with the AIP can be used as a base for developing procedures for system testing.
• No outstanding issues from testing
• Training plan with timing and resources agreed by customer. During this phase the consultant should plan the training of end users. The training will occur in the next phase, but you should get a commitment from the customer now for users' time to attend training. The training might be delivered by the consultant, or by the customer, depending on the contract. The Training Guide in the AIP materials provides tips and guidelines for end user training.

Note: There may be a need for change management during this phase, since many users will be using the system for the first time and there could be a reassignment of roles or duties.

The best practices are:

• Early on, encourage end users to log into the new system and practice their own work to get a comfort level. Involve customer functional leads during the configuration of the new system in order to make them feel part of the process.
• Address the issue of data quality and integrity with the customer. Unless otherwise agreed, it is normally the customer's responsibility to "clean up" the legacy data before migration, and the consultant is only responsible for the actual migration.
• After you have configured the production system, make a copy of the database, and use this copy for system validation and system testing and for training.
• Encourage the customer to create operational procedures now. It is much easier to create these at the same time that the business processes are being validated. And they can also be used and proofed during system testing.
• Print a copy of all output documents, i.e., invoices, purchase orders, reports, etc., and financial statements and have the customer sign off upon acceptance
• During the customer validation there is the possibility of changes to scope. Make sure you document all requested changes and discuss with the customer any impact on the project scope and costs. The project plan should be updated to reflect any change of scope or timeline.

Tools and templates you can leverage in this phase include:

• Blueprint Configuration and Data Migration Guide from the previous phase
• Test Cases
• Issue Log
• Change Request Form
• Training Guide
• Phase Sign-off and Project Phase Analysis and Risk

The Data Migration Guide gives you a step-by-step approach to importing legacy data including a recommended order for data migration and opening balances.

The Project Phase Analysis and Risk spreadsheet contains questions to assess project risk during each phase of the implementation project. You can evaluate overall risk by entering the likely risk for each question.

The goal of Final Preparation is to bring the newly configured system, along with the infrastructure and the users, to the point where it can be switched to production use. This phase ends with the switch to production from the legacy system to SAP Business One.

The milestones are:

• End users trained and able to use the system to perform their jobs
• System readiness for "go-live" is confirmed and a go-live data agreed with customer. The readiness check should include criteria that must be met before go-live. All remaining critical open issues must be resolved, the hardware and infrastructure must be in place, and operational procedures documented.
• Cutover activities completed before the switch to production, The cutover period happens just before go-live, when many activities must take place in the correct sequence and in a very short timeframe, so that the new system can fully run the production workload. Activities include:
  • Freezing the legacy system
  • Migrating last-minute master data, final item quantities from stock count, open transactions such as purchase and sales orders, and balance sheet accounts. See the Opening Balances topic in this training for more details.
  • Reconciliation of accounting between the legacy system and the new system
• Phase sign-off by customer

The best practices are:

• Use and adapt SAP provided slides for end user training (slides are provided for download from PartnerEdge).
• During training, allow each user to work on the SAP Business One system individually. It is imperative that end users are fully prepared to use the new system. Even if you do not conduct the training, you need to assess that the users are ready.
• Cutover activities are documented in the AIP project plan.
• Suggestions for the system readiness check are documented in the project analysis and risk spreadsheet in the AIP materials.
• Reference the data migration guide for step-by-step instructions for opening balance migration.
• Schedule cutover activities over a weekend or other quiet time.
• Make sure the customer signs off on this important phase - the sign off commits the customer to the go-live date.

Tools and templates you can leverage are:

• Data Migration Guide
• Training Guide
• Phase Sign-off
• Project Phase Analysis and Risk

• Go-Live and Support is the final phase in the project. As the name suggests, the newly-built system is now running in production. Support in this context means that you resolve any issues related to the new system, for a period of time which should be specified in the contract.
• When all critical issues are resolved, the implementation team "hands over" the system to the customer team and to the partner's support team, and to SAP. Make sure that the customer's IT administrator is fully trained and able to support the system in operations. Also your own support department should be prepared to support the new customer.
• As far as the AIP is concerned, this is the closure of the project. The customer accepts the system in production by signing the phase sign-off form.

Best practices include:

• Provide your support staff with the documented Business Blueprint and any other project documentation.
• Involve the SAP Business One account manager as well as the customer's steering committee (if applicable) in project closing.
• Schedule a "Review and Optimization Conference four to six week after the project closing meeting. This gives you the opportunity to assess how well the system is performing and also allows you to plan additional enhancements.

• The AIP materials are shown here organized according to each phase and by purpose:
• Business Process Analysis tools and templates are provided for pre-implementation scoping and fact finding, for gathering detailed business process requirements, and for gathering data migration requirements. A Data Migration Guide provides a step-by-step approach to data migration and is a good reference for entering opening balances.
• Configuration, Infrastructure and Testing tools and templates are provided to record the handover of software to the customer, and to document the setup and configuration. A tracking spreadsheet tool is provided for object migration. Sample test cases are provided in a spreadsheet, along with a Test Strategy guide.
• Project Management tools and templates include a PowerPoint template for the initial kick-off meeting with the customer, and a sample Service Level Agreement (SLA). You can use the Training Guide as a reference for planning training during the implementation. Also supplied is a Change Request form and a change/issue log for managing issues during the implementation. The final tool worth a mention is the Phase Sign-off form. You should use this to get customer sign-off for a key deliverable or phase in order to keep the project on track.
• The Risk Assessment spreadsheet is a tool that automatically calculates the estimates project risk, based on a series on answers that you supply.

• An implementation project plan is provided with the AIP materials. You can also find this plan embedded in the SAP Business One client application with the Implementation Center tools.
• The plan is fully aligned to the AIP phases and can be used for on-premise or Cloud deployments.
• You can expand and view the tasks at six different levels of granularity.
• Many partners will find the embedded plan easier to use and it has several advantages. Because it is part of the client application it is translated into the localization language and can be easily accessed by users on the project team including customers. And you can attach and share project documents, and record planned and actual time for a task or phase.

• Three different project plans are provided to you:
  • Detailed project plan. This plan contains tasks for the five phases defined in SAP's Accelerated Implementation Program (AIP) methodology.
  • Narrowed project plan. This plan contains tasks for just the Project Realization, Final Preparation and Go Live phases of the Accelerated Implementation Program methodology. This is useful for an implementation-only partner.
  • Pre-configured project plan. This plan contains the necessary tasks to manage an implementation based on the entry-level SAP Business One Starter Package.
• The project plans are designed to be used as templates: open a plan template and select the duplicate template icon to generate a new plan that you can edit. The new plan has all the tasks from the template.
• You can also select the add icon to create a new, empty plan and set up your own tasks.

There are two tabs on the project plan - Progress and Plan.

On the Plan tab, you can estimate the planned time in hours for a task at any level, or for a phase. The times are rolled up to the higher level parent task and phase.

You can also add information, notes and attach documents to a task. For example, you could add the Handover from Sales AIP document to the Project Preparation task, or the Business Blueprint document to the Business Blueprint task.

When you add info, notes or documents, the gray icon changes to blue.

Note: To save a document as an attachment to a project plan, you must define the path to a project attachments folder. This is not defined in the General Settings but is done in the Path Settings of the Implementation Center. The document you browse for will be copied to this folder for us8e in the project plan.

On the Progress tab, you can enter the estimated start and end date for a task, and record the actual time spent on a task. To enter time, click the orange arrow in the Actual Duration column to open the Time Record window.

Note that the owner name is required when you record time. The owner needs to have an employee master data record but does not need a user account.

The time is recorded in the Actual Duration column and rolls up to a higher level task.

Progress to date is calculated and appears in the Progress % column.

• The project tasks contain direct links to relevant SAP Business One setup and configuration screens.
• In the example shown, when you select the link arrow for the task "Set up Warehouses", the relevant setup window automatically opens.
• As you can imagine, this can speed up the time for a consultant to share and configure settings with the customer. Once the setting is done, the consultant can then select the task complete checkbox to indicate as a record that the configuration is done.

• To add a new task, select a task and use the plus icon. The new task is added after the selected task.
• You can move any task to a new location by selecting it and using the up and down arrow icons.
• You can change the level and indentation of any task using the right and left arrow icons.
• To remove a task, select it and use the minus icon.

• When you add a new task to a plan, you have the option to add links to related configuration screens. This is useful if you have an add-on as part of the solution - you can add tasks for installing the add-on and provide links to the configuration of the add-on.
• To add a link to a task:
• First, select the checkbox for the task.
• Next, choose Add Link from the context menu.
• In the Menu Selection Form, you can select the appropriate menu item from the SAP Business One menu.
• After you make a selection, the orange link arrow appears to the left of the task name.

• Refer to theSAP Business One landing page in SAP Partner Portal
  • Best practices - SAP Business One Accelerated Implementation Program (AIP)
• One Pager: SAP Business One Enablement

Here are some key points to take away from this session.

• You can improve the success of an implementation project by adopting certain strategies such as change management, risk management, and leveraging the experience from SAP and other partners.
• SAP's Accelerated Implementation Program (AIP) is a proven project methodology for an SAP Business One implementation. It is based on the practical experiences of SAP and many partners.
• The AIP methodology divides an implementation into phases with milestones. These phases cover the period starting with the handover from the sales team to right before the handover to the support organization:
  • Project Preparation: The project plan is created for the implementation. A kick-off meeting is held with the customer, and the software is delivered.
  • Business Blueprint: The focus is on analyzing the customers business processes and requirements, and mapping them to a solution.
  • Project Realization: The heart of the project where the company is configured to match the business blueprint. Testing also takes place.
  • Final Preparation: The focus is on preparing for go-live. The go-live date is set, the users are trained, and the final balances transferred over.
  • Go-Live and Support: After go-live the customer moves into support mode.
• The methodology provides best practices, tools and templates to assist you with business process analysis, data migration, risk analysis, change management, test strategy, and training plans.
• The project plans embedded in the SAP Business One client are easy to use, include all the recommended project activities, and integrate tasks with the configuration screens.
• You can generate your own project plan from one of the templates, or create a blank plan in the system. You can attach shared project documentation to the embedded plan, and record planned and actual time and progress.