The document provides information about upgrading a CRM system. It discusses what a CRM system does, defines a CRM upgrade, and explains when an upgrade is needed. It covers selecting a vendor, main competitors, the upgrade process, best practices, advantages, and challenges. The main points are that a CRM upgrade allows companies to take advantage of new features, stay supported, and modernize their system. Planning, testing upgrades, and minimizing customizations during the upgrade are important best practices. Advantages include improved functionality and support, while challenges involve changing screens and ensuring consistent multi-channel experiences.

1. CRM upgrade..
SANGEETHA M L
SAP L3 TEAM

2. Table of Contents
 What does a CRM system do?
 What is CRM upgrade?
 When do you have to upgrade?
 Selecting the vendor
 Main competitors
 How to upgrade
 Dos and donts
 Advantages
 Challenges
5/7/2015
2

3. What does a CRM system do?
• CRM refers to practices, strategies and technologies that companies use to manage and
analyze customer interactions and data throughout the customer lifecycle, with the goal of
improving business relationships with customers, assisting in customer retention and driving sales
growth.
• compile information across different channels between the customer and the company like
company's website, telephone, live chat, direct mail, marketing materials and social media.
• give customer-facing staff detailed information on customers' personal information, purchase
history, buying preferences and concerns.
• consolidates customer information and documents into a single CRM database
5/7/2015
3

4. What is CRM upgrade?
 In order to meet the ever- changing demands of the market due to dynamic customer requirements,
it becomes necessary for companies to improve their services, provide innovative solutions and build
new business models. Hence, customers can adopt the newer functionality in standard SAP to run
their business. SAP Upgrade (Technical or Functional Upgrade) is needed to modernize the SAP
system, meet market requirements and provide richer functionality to business users.
Companies upgrade because:
 in order to take advantage of new features and functionality provided by the vendor- Work flow
tools, business process tools, WEB UI Framework
 If the product does not fit into their business needs or the business operating model has changed
 Fear of loosing continued support in their existing platforms. Clients using legacy client server
applications that never made an upgrade the web platforms are now scared whether they will lose
support for their client server applications.
 Is there features/functionalities important for the business in the new version and will the business be
able to see the impact in 6 months, 12 months etc. 5/7/2015
4

5. When do you have to upgrade?
 A CRM upgrade can be an opportunity to reassess your company’s business goals and improve
its services, efficiencies and costs. But switching to a new CRM version requires forethought,
planning and a company-wide agreement that an upgrade can substantially improve client
services.
 For companies that are currently using a client/server solution, a new CRM system means easier,
browser-based access, which eliminates a lot of IT support time. Finally, the more robust
database functionality of newer CRM systems can allow for managing business processes more
efficiently and even incorporating more business process automation into the CRM realm
5/7/2015
5

6. Selecting the vendor for upgrade
Investing in the right technology is the first step in a successful CRM project. Companies need to
carefully examine the vendor landscape, try multiple products and weigh the costs of different
platforms before they commit to a system. Business must think long term and define their business
strategies and ask vendors what they can provide out of the box, whether to configure or
customize and take advantage of tools that are already in CRM and minimize custom code. This
will help reduce cost. Mainly these factors are considered:
Does the product still fits the business needs and does it maps to their business model.
Is the vendor still relevant in the market place
 Cost : In some legacy products it will be more costly to support, maintain and upgrade an
existing implementation than to use another vendor’s product. So it is important to check what their
vendor gives vs other vendors in the market place.
5/7/2015
6

7. Main competitors
The four main vendors of CRM systems are
 Salesforce.com,
Microsoft,
SAP
Oracle.
Other providers are popular among small- to mid-market businesses, but
these four tend to be the choice of large corporations
5/7/2015
7

8. How to upgrade
Like any other project, implementing SAP CRM happens in phases. The
general phases are:
1) Project planning
2) Blueprinting
3) Realization
4) Final preparation (Business validation, quality assurance (Q/A))
5) Go live and support
5/7/2015
8

9. LANDSCAPE
So the typical system landscape for SAP CRM, at the minimum, are:
1) Development system
2) Q/A system
3) Production system
5/7/2015
9

10. TECHNICAL UPGRADE of SAP CRM
 SAP provides all modified objects which are redelivered (in an upgrade or Support Package) in
the upgrade adjustment of transactions SPAU and SPDD. These transactions help customers find
which objects were modified. Objects modified according to the old system must be manually
maintained after an SAP upgrade has been run.
In a typical technical Upgrade project process steps like
System preparation and stack level patch upgrade – Basis Team
SPDD Phase – ABAP and Functional
Up grade of the system – Basis Team
SPAU Phase – ABAP and Functional
DBACOCKPIT for indexing – (Issue resolution and error tracking) – ABAP TEAM and Functional
Custom programs corrections – obsolete function modules and objects
5/7/2015
10

11. SPDD phase
 The system compares all the dictionary objects – data elements, database tables and
structures of the latest system (say CRM 7.0 EPH1) with the previous or the old system (e.g CRM
5.0).
 These elements are present under two nodes – with modification assistant and without
modification assistant. Objects present under with modification assistant have the
modification assistant ‘ON’ and we can see the modification logs. The objects in green color
as shown below are the objects processed already and the ones in blue are the ones which
still need to be processed. These two objects are to be processed by the ABAP team.
 Apart from the nodes – ‘With modification assistant ‘and ‘Without modification assistant ‘,
there is one more node sometimes – ‘Deleted objects’. This node contains objects which are
deleted in the newer version of SAP and this node is to be left as it is.
 Developer has to decide whether to keep the latest version of the object / Reset to
Original /Adapt modification in the previous system.
5/7/2015
11

12. T-code spdd
5/7/2015
12

13. SPAU phase
 The SPAU transaction contains the objects – Programs, Reports, Screens, Messages, Notes,
Function Modules etc. which have difference in the Latest SAP request and the previous ones.
 Compare the objects in ‘Version Management’ and decide whether to ‘Reset to Original’ or
‘Adapt Modification’. In adapt modification, the SPAU gives us the empty space to write our
code – by having a reference to the code in previous request, we can decide and write the
code with some corrections when required. This is in the case of objects present in ‘Without
Modification Assistant’.In case of ‘With modification Assistant’, it opens a the program code in
grey mode and we can insert or delete or modify code by pressing corresponding buttons in a
similar way we do to modify any SAP standard code by using the access key.
 The objects present in SPAU do not require any access key for a period of around 15-20 days
after which SAP automatically locks those codes and after this locking, if we want to change or
delete any code in SPAU objects, we would require an access key. So it is a good practice to
finish the SPAU phase in 10-15 days time. In SPAU also, only one transport request is to be made
for all objects as a best practice.
5/7/2015
13

14. T-code spau
5/7/2015
14

15. T-code wcf_cc
 Run Webclient UI Framework Check transaction WCF_CC to check the consistency of the
enhanced views. This will highlight the issues with the enhanced components.
 Compare the Repositories and adjust to be in sync with the current SAP version
 Compare the HTML source / BSP definition of all views to make sure the page attributes and
HTML are in sync with the SAP version
 Validate/compare any methods that
were redefined and verify before calling
"super“for adjustments.
5/7/2015
15

16. Upgrade dos and dont’s
 1. Do a Hardware Evaluation:A hardware evaluation will determine whether the upgraded software
will run--and run well--on the current servers and user machines. To determine whether or not your
hardware can handle the upgrade, you will have to access the system requirements. You may find
that some existing servers or PCs may not have the power to run the new software.
 2. Use the Upgrade Document to Plan the Process :Some CRM vendors provide informative documents
to ensure you aren't reinventing the wheel during an upgrade. However, it's important to be aware of
your own environment and how it fits into the plan; the upgrade steps may be a useful outline, but they
don't take into account your particular circumstances. It's beneficial to create a plan outlining the
places you expect to run into issues, such as customizations and problems with shared servers. These
particular business nuances are important to your upgrading process, helping ensure the upgrade itself
does not negatively impact other parts of your business.
 3. Perform a Test Upgrade First In order to implement a new system you have to take down the old
one. A test upgrade allows you to figure out solutions to problems before the actual upgrade. When
performing a test upgrade, first minimize the downtime during the transition and figure out what bad
data or customizations will be a problem. Then, when you do the real upgrade you already know
where you will have problems and how to quickly fix them.
5/7/2015
16

17. Upgrade dos and dont’s cont..
 4. Learn from Prior Upgrades If you want to make an upgrade happen quickly and smoothly, your best bet is to
call in an expert. Once you have seen the same issues resurfacing over and over again, and have completed a
few successful upgrades, you'll be able to recognize issues before they become major problems. As a result, your
experts will not have to spend a lot of time troubleshooting--they'll already know what the problems will be and
how to fix or even prevent them
 5. Do Not Mix New Changes with the Upgrade When upgrading a system, it can be tempting to tweak a few
customizations for yourself, but it will do little good when the personal requests become problematic. By adding
more customizations, you create more variables in the upgrade, which hinders the main goal of a smooth and
uncomplicated process. (The project team has to figure out if it was the upgrade itself or the additional changes
that caused any glitches in functionality.) Minimizing the variables will make it easier to reevaluate in the event
you encounter problems after the upgrade.
 6. Always Have Your Network Administrator Available It's critical to always have access to your network
administrator because a CRM system generally touches multiple secure networks. Access to each of these
networks requires passwords, which must be kept confidential to protect security. If you have easy access to your
network administrator, your project won't grind to a halt whenever a password is needed--instead, the
administrator can allow access at a moment's notice, and the upgrade can continue
5/7/2015
17

18. Best practices for CRM upgrades
 Develop consensus between IT and business users: ensure that business have early visibility of
the new look and be fully involved in design decisions around the new UI and screen
sequences. Consensus on what the to-be operating model and value proposition for CRM will
be , must be secured prior to upgrading.
 Realistic about time frame and budget: Training the end users before the roll out is important.
 Managing the scope of the upgrade: companies must distinguish between the enhancements
they need to have versus what is nice to have
 Plan that there will be enhancements : take advantage of new functionalities identified during
the upgrade and implement them with the consensus of business users.
5/7/2015
18

19. Advantages of SAP CRM 7.0
The current release of SAP CRM EhP3 is Support Package 04. This means SAP already released 4
service packs for EhP3.
CRM for Utilities solution, Product modelling for Utilities (PMU), Product Finding and Configuration
(PFC), release of the solution on HANA, improvements in call center efficiency, rapid application
development and mash up tools, authorization concepts and business roles.
flexibility in terms of integration with your other business systems. With SOA enablement and pre-
built web-services out of the box, it is a lot easier to leverage SAP CRM data and functionality
including mobile and social media solutions
SAP CRM 7.0 is now fully supported until 2020 with innovations and functionality delivered on top of
the current platform via Enhancement Packs. This means that upgrade costs are much reduced
over the coming years, with less business testing required to implement Enhancement Pack releases.
Support costs are also reduced as the technology has been rationalised and simplified, rapid
application development tools have been included and extended configuration options are
available.
5/7/2015
19

20. Advantages cont..
 there is the chance to revert back to standard with the new Web UI screen flows that are much
easier to customize and can be altered without enhancement.
More functionalities :
 Loyalty Management
 Real Time Offer Management (RTOM)
 Fully integrated Multi-Channel Support via BCM
 Improved Web Shop Functionality
 Enhanced Trade Promotion Management Functionality
 Improved analytics
 Shared Service Centre
 Data Quality Management
5/7/2015
20

21. Challenges of upgrading
 When upgrading to SAP CRM 7.0 from 5.0 or lower the user base will be moving from the SAP GUI
and PCUI screens to the new SAP Web UI screens. Even if you are currently using the Web Client in
SAP CRM 4.0 or 5.0, there is no direct upgrade path to SAP CRM 7.0 and therefore the screens will
change and some re-work is required.
 without the proper management, a CRM system can become little more than a glorified
database where customer information is stored. Data sets need to be connected, distributed and
organized so that users can easily access the information they need. Challenges arise when
customer data is siloed in several separate systems or when data is complicated by duplicate or
outdated information that slows down and hampers the business process. These problems can
lead to a decline in customer experience due to long wait times during phone calls, improper
handling of technical support cases and other issues.
 They demand multiple avenues of communication with a company and expect a seamless
interaction across many different channels, the most popular of which tend to be Web chat,
mobile apps and social media. The main challenge of a CRM system is delivering a cross-channel
customer experience that is consistent and reliable. 5/7/2015
21

22. Challenges cont..
 Social media, for example, has been touted as a more efficient channel by which customers can
reach companies and get problems resolved or queries answered, rather than enduring the
traditional method of waiting in a phone queue or awaiting an email response. In some cases,
particularly in high-touch customer service scenarios , social platforms can fall short for customer
service.
 Companies also continue to struggle to identify real sales prospects with their data. New lead-
generation technologies that combine CRM data with third-party data from companies like Dunn
& Bradstreet and social streams have also been emerging to provide sales and marketing teams
with better sales prospects. These methods work best, however, when companies spend time
cleaning up their existing data to eliminate duplicate and incomplete records before they
supplement CRM data with external sources of information.
5/7/2015
22

23. Thank You!
5/7/2015
23