SAP ChaRM and Retrofit

ChaRM Your SAP Solution:
Learn How AmerisourceBergen Extended the Use of ChaRM to
Further Enhance the Transport Management Process
Aurora McLean – AmerisourceBergen
Mark Hansraj – Alpha Sirius

LEARNING POINTS
 Learn how to make SAP Solution Manager ChaRM work
for your organization
 Use ChaRM to bring organization and controls to your
transport management process
 Streamline your process to manage transports in ABAP
and non-ABAP based system landscapes
Questions comment: #Solma

AGENDA
 Who we are
 Our SAP Journey
 SAP Change Control Challenges
 Requirements
 Timeline
 Best Practices
 Technical Considerations
 Lessons Learned
 Benefits

Introduction
Mark Hansraj –
Senior Consultant
Alpha Sirius Inc.
•Over 16 years of experience in Information Technology & other industries with
Fortune 500 companies. Excellent Project Management, technical and
communication skills.
•Involved with SAP Solution Manager since 2007.
•Implemented Solution Manger at various SAP clients.
Questions comment: #Solman

About Alpha Sirius Inc.
Alpha Sirius Inc Facts:
 Founded in 1998.
 Expertise in project management, portfolio
management Operations Optimization
 Provides end-to-end solution development caused
by disparate functional and technical
implementation processes.
 Delivers value by bridging this gap by providing
consulting services and implementation assistance
with tools such as Solution Manager.
Our core
competencies lie
in several areas
of SAP ® :
Program Management
Portfolio Management
Software Lifecycle Mgt.
Change Management
Training & Development
Systems Management
Offshore Support/Development
One of the first
certified
partners with
SAP for Run
SAP
Methodology

Introduction
Aurora McLean
Director SAP Change Release
Management
AmerisourceBergen
• Over 5 years of SAP experience
• Managed up to 7000 transports a year
• AmerisourceBergen is driving innovative partnerships with global manufacturers,
providers and pharmacies to improve product access and efficiency throughout the
healthcare supply chain and enhance patient care

AMERISOURCEBERGEN - WHO WE ARE

A DAY IN THE LIFE OF OUR DISTRIBUTION

OUR SAP JOURNEY
2009 2010 2011 2012
Decision: Replace
multiple legacy
apps with SAP
Go-lives: SAP CRM, SAP
NetWeaver Portal, SAP
NetWeaver IDM
Go lives: SAP ERP, SAP
NetWeaver BW & SAP
NetWeaver PI
Considerations &
more Go-lives:
SAP HANA,
SAP NetWeaver
Landscape
Virtualization
Management

SAP VOLUME
Aggressive response
time & availability
requirements for customer
facing ordering systems
Extremely high
daily volumes
(75,000 invoices and
1.2 million line items)

Challenges
 Thousands of transports
 Complex, integrated
environment
 Manual processes
SAP CHANGE CONTROL
#Solman

WHERE WE STARTED….
 Time consuming and manual process to identify transports for a
given Release
 3 Sources to Reconcile
 HPQC
 Clarity
 SAP CTS Buffers
• Transports get moved in the wrong sequence
• Transport dependencies get missed
 Want to reduce the amount of time it takes to build the Release
bundle, improve efficiency and accuracy
"We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we
used when we created them."
~ Albert Einstein

REQUIREMENTS
 Assembled core team to identify process priorities related to managing
SAP transports :
 Change Control – SAP transport approval workflow
 Automated SAP transport migration based on approval
 Audit Traceability
 SAP Transport Object Collision Detection
 SAP Transport Dependency Management (across systems)
 SAP Transport Retrofit processing (SYNC Transports, N & N+1; i.e.;
managing changes in 2 development environments for all systems)

Phase I Project
Preparation
System Upgrade to 7.1
8 weeks
Upgrade Solution
Manager 7.0 to 7.1
oBM1-Sandbox
oDM1-Dev
oPM1-Prod
oBM1 & DM1
System Setup &
Validation
Phase II Blueprint Design
10 weeks
Fit-Gap Analysis ABC &
SAP ChaRM
Transition Plan
Implementation Plan
Phase III Realization
14 weeks
Configure / Unit Test
Functional Testing
Landscape Plan
Establish Proof of
Concept ChaRM for
N-1 Landscape
Document Training
Material
Phase IV
Final Preparation
/ Go-Live
2 weeks
Implement Solution in
Production
oPhased Lanscape
Cutover
Deliver Training
Post Implementation
Hypercare
Transition to support
TIMELINE
#Solman

BEST PRACTICES
Assemble your core team with
representatives of each role within
the process
Bring in skilled expertise,
somebody who has done this before
Get buy-in and support from
Leadership and Management
Define and document your
processes, As Is – To Be
Establish a development & test
environment with systems to
simulate your production support
landscape
#Solman

BEST PRACTICES
 Establish Clear Scope
 Define your Roles
 Engage Internal Audit
 Test, Test, Test
 Create “Buzz”

ChaRM EMBEDDED IN ALM
Maximo Solution Manager (BPH) HPQCClarity
ABC Tools
Solution Manager
Change Request
Management
Technical Infrastructure
Transport Management System Enhanced Change & Transport System
S AP S olution Manager
Reques
t for
Chang
e
Service
Desk
Messag
e
DEV
QAS
PRD
Controlled transports
Controlled transports
ServiceDeskChangeRequestManagement
Chang
e
Transa
ction
Feedback
Requester
Service
Desk
Employee
Change
Manager
Dev eloper
Tester
IT Operator

TECHNICAL CONSIDERATONS
 Decision to apply SP5 has enabled the ability to leverage
functionality that allows document/transport management
flexibility that was not available in SP4
 Movement of transports from one document to another
 Movement of documents from one project to another
 SP5 has delivered functionality that is the foundation for our
Solution Manager ChaRM Project and Document strategy
through the ability to do status dependent imports

ChaRM & CTS
DE1 PRDQE1
DE1K900001
PRD
Transport buffer
DE1K900001
DE1K900002 DE1K900001
Release Route: Defines target buffer for release of a transport
Delivery Route: Defines target buffer after transport is imported
Import Job: Imports transport to target system
Transport of Copies: Test transport to QE1
SE1
DE1K900001
SE1
Transport buffer
DE1K900001
DE1K900002 DE1K900001
QE1
Transport buffer
DE1K900001
DE1K900002

ChaRM SCREEN
#Solman

21
AmerisourceBergen Corporation – Proprietary and Confidential
All rights reserved. This document contains confidential information which may not be reproduced, transmitted or
discussed with third parties without the express written consent of AmerisourceBergen.
UPGRADE LANDSCAPE (N-1 concept)
D#1
V#1C#1
Q#1
S#1 P#1
DEVL Q/A STAGE PROD
(N-1)
Current transport path
starts Nov 4 - CE1/CC1/CB1 now active for Dev prod support
starts Jan 13 - VE1/VC1/VB1 now active for prod support
starts Mar 3 - SE1/SC1/SB1 removed from prod support landscape
Sept 1 – Build 4 live (same as current transport path)

22
What is Retrofit - Dual Landscape Synchronization

23
RETROFIT – Fully Integrated with CHARM

24
Retrofit – Identify what can be Retrofitted
Critical
Retrofit
Show
Sequence
Description Transport
Method
To be processed by Auto-Import
Show Sequence Dependencies Dependencies must
be processed first
Object to be processed Manually
To be processed with the Transport Tool
Empty Transport
Questions comment: #Solman

Define Key Terms
Agree upon the ChaRM Solution
Manager Project Strategy
Design your “workflows” &
procedures
Use the ChaRM document types
to support the change types
Work with Security to define
and test all roles
Develop Detailed Cutover Plan
KEY LEARNINGS
#Solman

 Improved planning, coordination and communication of changes across the entire solution
 Process improvements in combination with tool automation, would reduce the amount of time
spent on each change
 Reduce transport inspection from 100% to those likely to have impact based on automated alerts
from ChaRM
 Minimize errors in process due to manual steps
 Improved procedures for keeping dual landscape in SYNC through use of Retrofit
 Reduction in total # of transports imported to Production through the use of Transport of Copies
ChaRM BENEFITS

SAP ChaRM and Retrofit

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