Changing business conditions lead to changing IT solutions, and every growing organization needs to adapt its IT environment accordingly. Upgrades allow you to benefit from the latest available functionality, leverage new technologies that foster innovation, and guarantee long-term protection of your IT investments

1. SAP Solution Brief
SAP Safeguarding for Upgrade
SAfegUArding
UPgrAdeS of YoUr
SAP® APPlicAtionS
ensuring Upgrade Success by identifying and
Addressing Potential challenges Proactively
As your organization evolves, you Changing business conditions lead to changing IT solutions, and
need to adapt IT solutions to every growing organization needs to adapt its IT environment
accordingly. Upgrades allow you to benefit from the latest avail-
meet changing business require-
able functionality, leverage new technologies that foster innova-
ments. In many cases, this drives
tion, and guarantee long-term protection of your IT investments.
the need to upgrade SAP® soft-
ware. However, challenges may However, with any significant technology change, software
arise at any stage of an upgrade upgrades can be challenging. Various factors affect the success of
your upgrade and need consideration. Their relevance depends
project. The SAP Safeguarding
on any number of factors, including the shape of your solution
for Upgrade portfolio of services landscape, your model for operations, the nature of your busi-
helps you identify and address ness processes, the combination of technologies integrated into
potential challenges associated your landscape, and the upgrade path from start to target release.
with an upgrade of your SAP
The scope and procedure of the project and the organizational
setup and readiness are also key criteria. To ensure a successful
solution early – and ensure its
upgrade, you should understand the risk factors and cost drivers
success. that could affect the project and find answers to critical ques-
tions such as:
• How will the upgrade affect your IT infrastructure?
• How should you handle application and modification
adjustments?
• How can you minimize downtime during the upgrade?
• Does your team have sufficient technical, project manage-
ment, and risk management skills?

2. The SAP® Safeguarding for Upgrade portfolio of services can help Supporting the evaluation and definition of Your
you identify and address potential challenges associated with Upgrade road Map
an upgrade of your SAP solution proactively, before any business In the project evaluation phase, we invite all internal and exter-
disruptions occur. These services involve assignment of a techni- nal stakeholders involved in your SAP solution to a workshop
cal quality manager from SAP, who is the key facilitator of all where we assess alternative scenarios for your SAP software
activities throughout the engagement, committed to meeting upgrade and rollout strategy. A standardized assessment meth-
your expectations for the support services. odology allows us to review the different alternatives and opti-
mize the timing and sequencing of the upgrade projects. Based
The starting point is a tailor-made service plan, which is adjusted on the current situation regarding affected components and
along the life cycle of your upgrade project. The ultimate goal is hardware, we identify potential restrictions for the planned
a smooth transition with minimal downtime: a “non-event” for target landscape and releases using a high-level impact analysis
your business. for the different upgrade options. Your project team receives a
report encompassing a detailed description of the options, identi-
ensuring Success with a Portfolio of Proven fied risks, and our suggestions for your upgrade road map. After
Services this comprehensive review, we are able to tailor a more complete
SAP Safeguarding for Upgrade offers assessments, optimization engagement proposal.
potential, and tools that effectively reduce the technical risks of
your upgrade and improve the technical robustness of your solu- Supporting the Upgrade Blueprint Sign-Off
tion. These services address the following critical topics and key A team of SAP support engineers performs an on-site service
success factors: that identifies and rates the technical risks in your project after
• Maintenance situation and available options your upgrade blueprint is defined. We discuss and review your
• The optimal upgrade path for your solution landscape upgrade plan, verify its feasibility, and perform a high-level check
• Compatibility and dependencies between components of your of your overall strategy. We ensure that the planned technical
solution architecture can support the expected load and check the com-
• Additional requirements regarding the sizing of technical patibility of the software components and whether the software
system resources skills support your business processes postupgrade.
• Required adjustments of your customization in repository and
interfaces Ensuring a Fast and Efficient Upgrade
• Required data migrations The realization phase normally starts with setting up a tempo-
• Test strategy rary project landscape, where initial upgrade tests and necessary
• End-user training concept adjustments are performed. We check the completeness of your
• Minimum downtime for your business operation test plans and address any unforeseen problems during test
• Unicode conversion upgrades. We also provide detailed information about the latest
SAP tools such as SAP Upgrade Road Map content, the SAP Tutor
All services combine remote and on-site activities performed by application, and more.
certified SAP support engineers. They cover the complete
upgrade project life cycle from the evaluation phase through
upgrade realization and testing until the final preparation for
cutover and go-live.

3. Based on our knowledge of best practices gained during numer- The goal is to verify that the software change-management strat-
ous upgrade projects, several optimization possibilities exist that egy is aligned with the test strategy and the SAP software mainte-
may be relevant in your situation. Examples are as follows: nance strategy. This alignment minimizes downtime and ensures
• Our support engineers perform a remote analysis and compare the stability and consistency of your systems and business pro-
expected downtime versus affordable downtime. You receive cesses, particularly after your development system has been
a detailed action plan that enables you to minimize the down- upgraded. Using the change-request functionality provided by
time appropriately. the SAP Solution Manager application management solution,
• A solution may require additional configuration settings to you can document any changes made to your tested software to
make new functionality available after the upgrade. In other determine the reason for a problem that occurs after making the
cases, existing modifications require adjustments. We can change. SAP engineers verify that all the processes are in place,
support you with sophisticated analysis tools and services that as follows:
help you plan and prepare necessary adjustments. • System landscape strategy
• Functional regression testing is a critical step in the upgrade • Transport strategy, including code freeze strategy and approval
process that often requires more time and effort than antici- procedures to make changes into production
pated. To simplify and streamline the testing process, we can • SAP software maintenance strategy, including release manage-
support you in optimizing test procedures and administration ment, support packages, and patches
processes by improving the current test environment and
using the latest SAP test automation technologies. Final Preparation for Cutover
• Our support engineers also evaluate the need for adjustments In the critical stage of cutover to production, an SAP team is
in interfaces and sizing to avoid performance bottlenecks. on-site to help if critical issues occur and to provide fast, efficient
access to SAP resources. If a complex situation arises, our team of
If the user interface of an application changes as the result of an experts establishes an on-site war room and performs a root-cause
upgrade, it is important to provide documentation and training analysis of the problem. SAP engineers and your project team
materials that enable users to continue working efficiently. work together to ensure fast issue resolution and ensure the success
To support the training process, we can introduce the latest of the go-live. We manage existing service-level agreements for
e-learning tools to accelerate knowledge transfer and reduce problem resolution and make sure all necessary stakeholders are
learning delivery costs significantly. involved. While on-site, we focus on the following:
• Monitoring of upgrade
Managing Change Requests for Smooth Transition and Full We monitor the upgrade and related data conversion processes
Compliance (such as Unicode conversion), including a timely analysis
Appropriate setup of change management procedures is included of errors and problems affecting the processing. For projects
in the engagement. We support your quality and software change occurring over a weekend or holidays, we provide an SAP
management processes during the entire software solution life specialist to serve as a single point of contact.
cycle – from the early stages of your upgrade project until the • Problem resolution
stabilization after go-live. We conduct root-cause analysis on-site or remotely with the
support of our global back office.

4. www.sap.com/contactsap
Delivering Expertise On Demand find out More
The goal of the expertise-on-demand service is to provide access To take advantage of this comprehensive support engagement,
to the right expert at the right time to speed the resolution of please contact your customer engagement manager or account
complex issues. Requests for this service are usually initiated for support contact. You can find additional information about
technically complex issues or issues that are beyond the experi- SAP Safeguarding for Upgrade at www.service.sap.com
ence of your staff. /safeguardingupgrade. For more information on SAP upgrade
offerings in general, please refer to
Ensuring Optimal Operation www.service.sap.com/upgrade.
SAP Solution Manager is the delivery mechanism for SAP Safe-
guarding for Upgrade services. It serves as a centralized solution
management and collaboration framework and provides access
to the tools, integrated content, and a direct gateway to SAP that
you need to implement, operate, and upgrade your SAP soft-
ware. SAP Solution Manager helps reduce your total cost of
operations.
SAP Solution Manager runs in your solution landscape and facil-
itates the technical support of your distributed systems. It auto-
matically captures and relates all information about current
issues, speeding up root-cause analysis and issue resolution.
SAP Solution Manager offers a variety of tools particularly for
upgrades, such as those that combine upgrade documentation
and testing for test administration and automation.
50 076 064 (07/02)
© 2007 by SAP AG. All rights reserved. SAP, R/3, mySAP, mySAP.com, xApps, xApp, SAP NetWeaver, Duet, PartnerEdge, and other SAP
products and services mentioned herein as well as their respective logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of SAP AG in Germany and in
several other countries all over the world. All other product and service names mentioned are the trademarks of their respective companies. Data
contained in this document serves informational purposes only. National product specifications may vary.
These materials are subject to change without notice. These materials are provided by SAP AG and its affiliated companies (“SAP Group”)
for informational purposes only, without representation or warranty of any kind, and SAP Group shall not be liable for errors or omissions with
respect to the materials. The only warranties for SAP Group products and services are those that are set forth in the express warranty statements
accompanying such products and services, if any. Nothing herein should be construed as constituting an additional warranty.