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SAP Benchmarking Program tracking KPIs of System Performance

SAP is in the process of bartering an increase in the cost of the Enterprise Support service with the user measuring key KPIs of their systems. The KPIs being measured are CPU utilization and storage performance.

In all 11 KPIs will be tracked via the Solution Manager supervision tool. The KPIs were defined by SAP and the SAP User Group Executive Network (SUGEN).

This will help improve the ability of SAP to help optimize the performance of its systems.

SAP facing pressure from Oracle and Netsuite

SAP is seeing pressure from all the sides. Oracle, due to the recent acquisitions has been pushing SAP down this past year. The new software sales from SAP plunged 33% last quarter, while Oracle's stock has been performing better than SAP's. It may be even losing market share as the companies start looking for alternatives to SAP because of various reasons.

SAP is "clearly losing market share," said Adam Wood, a Paris-based analyst at Exane BNP Paribas who rates SAP "underperform." "Because of the acquisitions Oracle has made recently, it's left them with a bigger product range for their existing customers."

So, maybe after all, all the acquisitions by Oracle have started showing their results.

Identifying similar incoming invoices

This is a useful video on How To identify similar incoming invoices during the process of posting documents. Please share your comments on this.

Oracle vs SAP - Which way should you go?

A lot of companies discuss the

differences between Oracle/Peoplesoft and SAP, when they go for any implementation. I feel there are two BIG ones:

1.

Superior Integration in SAP due to Organic build up vs acquisition strategy of Oracle.
2. SAP's vision for next 5-10

years is very tangible and clear - so reduced risk for a CIO vs Oracle with its stable full of various competing and myriad

products like Peoplesoft/Oracle/Siebel and no clear, well defined, strategy for a CIO of the next 5-10 years.

How Google's Technology could possibly Change SAP BI

Query Execution and Efficiency is a major

concern in organizations with large amounts of data! SAP has come out with a Business Intelligence Accelerator (BIA) tool

that does a good job.. but Google's technique and architecture is still the best!

Here is what Naeem Hashmi says about BIA:

PowerSim and SEM BPS Intergration

The Integration between Powersim and SEM BPS is a very interesting one. Not many clients

use it. But those who do, find the body of information hard to come by. Here is a little primer that maybe used for help in

configuring the integration.

There are five broad steps for the configuration and to get the integration

going:

1. Variable Selection in PowerSim
2. Creation of the Planning Hierarchy (Area/Level/Package) within SEM BPS

SAP Training Courses

I have been asked so many times about the SAP

training facilities in India. Well, here is the basic list.

Only two - Siemens and Genovate are SAP Training

partners. This means that only these two institutes can help you get SAP certification at the end of their courses. Now

this also makes them expensive!

Genovate: Genvate promises these

services:

Finance Process: Outsourcing vs SHared Services

Despite the conventional wisdom about outsourcing of processes, here is some Best

Practices reality check from the Best Practices Big Daddy The Hackett Group on where the direction for Finance Processes is

headed to.. its the Shared Services that clients feel most comfortable about while outsourcing. Currently the onshore Shared

Services are ruling the roost but this trend will change soon to the offshore Shared Services Centers as the demand and

maturity grows!

SAP and On-demand CRM

On-demand CRM is a hot

thing these days!

As webpronews puts it best:

On-demand solutions offer good value to the

customers, which is why companies such as Microsoft and Oracle are now joining the established players such as

Salesforce.com.

On-demand CRM provides enterprises with the opportunity to concentrate on their core-competencies and

let the hosted provider take care of the maintenance and technical aspects. According to research firm IDC, the on-demand CRM

was of $ 4.2 billion in 2004 and will rise to $ 10.7 billion by 2009.

As against on-premise solutions, on-demand

solutions are easier and quicker to install. The process of installing and deploying a traditional CRM can be a long-drawn

process that may take anywhere between nine to twenty-four months. It begins with the purchasing of the required hardware,

enlisting the help of professionals for configuring the hardware, setting up a data center, configuring routers, and making

arrangements for backups.

First Things to Target in a New SAP Implementation?

I was recently thinking that

if you are starting a new SAP implementation - what are major things that you would like to nail down first at the team

level? Some of the things that you would attack the first! Here are some of the Org Structure and other stuff that I could

think of. Do you have anything to add to this list?

  • Chart of Accounts - Fiscal year Variants, Posting Period

    Variant

  • Company Codes

    - incl. International Company codes.