R/3 is configured to satisfy the business and strategic needs of many large
corporations. The strategic needs and historical IT environment of each of these
customer has a significant effect on the way the R/3 System is implemented.
One thing unites all these customers: their need to structure the implementation
according to a global approach. Global AcceleratedSAP is designed to
provide a uniform rollout concept.

The success of AcceleratedSAP as an implementation methodology
has made it clear that global implementations can also be carried out in this
way. Global ASAP builds on the existing ASAP methodology, using ASAP’s structured
procedure accelerators, modelling methods and tools. Project teams implementing
R/3 on a global level will find additional methodological guidance and functionality
in the Global ASAP Roadmap.

Basic Concept of Global ASAP

The basic concept of Global ASAP is to map all activities not
taking place at a local level onto a special structure called the Global Roadmap.
This roadmap is then optimally linked to the roll-out roadmaps for the projects
at the local level. The goal is to have a preconfigured central system – in
the form of one or many templates – and to roll it out locally as often as necessary.

A preconfigured global system, in the sense of a “global template”
is the sum of all common group-specific customizing settings, models, individual
templates, etc. These are included in one R/3 System as the sole source of reference
for productive systems on the global (that is, corporate headquarters) and local
levels (individual companies and plants).

In contrast to the existing AcceleratedSAP Roadmap, which only supports one
implementation strategy, Global ASAP must support various R/3 implementation
strategies, which may contain different methods situated at a very high level,
such as:

• Creation of a global reference system with group-wide standards and partial
  functionality being defined at this level.
• Extensive mapping of all group units in the reference system, for the subsequent
  complete rollout
• Creation of a global template from a template system in order to roll back
  the software to the local units
• Implementation of distributed R/3 systems at the same time as the creation
  and the rollout of a global template

Furthermore, Global ASAP must also support strategies for implementing
R/3 in various local and distributed R/3 systems, as well as support the planning
and execution of concurrent projects. Almost all global customers are having
to deal with the topic of distributed systems. For this reason, the Global Roadmap
contains accelerators for distributed processes as well as test and productive
system topologies. The prerequisite for an implementation strategy with distributed
processes and global templates is the standardization of organizational units,
groupwide processes and data.

Managing changes is critical in global implementations. This refers
not only to the correct communication of change procedures but also to the implementation
of change management procedures.

The communication of changes in global implementations basically
involves the same issues as in regular ASAP change management. For this reason,
please refer to the section on Change Management in the Chapter AcceleratedSAP.

Global Roadmap

The predefined Global ASAP Roadmap with its four phases offers
you the following implementation benefits:

• Proven strategic decisions used as the basis for effectively
  implementing R/3 and its installation tools
• The development of groupwide implementation standards
• The rapid creation of a group reference system and a central
  productive system for setting up master records, for example.
• Long-term and cost-effective support and maintenance concepts

Phase 1: Global Program Setup

In the first phase,
the global implementation program is set up. The workpackages Program Management
Preparation (see below) and Global Template Project Setup contain
administrative and project planning steps. The workpackage Define Global
Strategy is structured to facilitate the holding of senior management workshops
and follow-up studies on global implementation strategies.

The basis of global
SAP strategy decisions is formed by carrying out a strategy determination study.
This analysis includes modeling the organizational structure, defining the functional
scope and key business processes, reporting requirements and the corresponding
documentation. After this, the following elements of a global R/3 strategy need
to be worked out:

• System Architecture Strategy
  Describes the IT standards and requirements based on the global system topology
  of the corporate group.

• Distribution Strategy
  Describes the distribution of system functionality in a system topology defined
  for this purpose.

• Global Design/Configuration Strategy
  Specifies the type and number of reference template systems to be developed.
• Change Management Strategy
  Describes the type and scope of new implementations and the way change procedures
  are carried out for users and hardware.
• Gap Resolution Policy
  Describes the solutions needed to bridge identified gaps in the functionality.
• Implementation Strategy
  Describes the number, type and way that global templates are rolled out and
  local systems implemented.
• Center of Excellence Strategy
  Describes the organization required for training, maintenance and support
  functions.
• Customer Implementation Release
  Strategy
  Examines and describes the procedure for upgrading the R/3 System specific
  to country and industry solutions.

• Global Program Structure and Resource
  Strategy
  Specifies the sequence of the implementation program, its organization and
  the corresponding allocation of resources.

The global R/3 strategy
determination process is concluded with a Risk Analysis and a presentation to
the enterprise’s management, which then leads to the appropriate implementation
strategy decisions being made.

Phase 2: Global Business Blueprint

The second phase
of the Roadmap is characterized by the creation of the development systems and
template contents. This includes the reviewing of the scope defined in the setup
phase, the training of the template team, and the designing of the template
itself.

The analysis of local
and global requirements leads to a detailed model of the business processes
necessary at the global level. The standardization of business processes and
functions, as well as of best-practice cases is one of the main tasks of a global
template. In this connection, the special requirements for business processes
and functions running on distributed systems are an important consideration.

Phase 3: Global Realization

The work packages in this phase deal primarily with the creation
of the global template together with the local units. This phase also describes
the way to deal with group-specific customer developments at the global level.

In order for the concept of a global template to be successful
beyond the rollout phase, it is necessary to ensure smooth maintenance handling.
The step of Global System Management is therefore particularly important,
since it contains the description of the system architecture to be implemented
and the management of the systems involved.

A further important
step is the creation of a Customer Competence Center. This organization should
be able to carry out first-level support and coordinate all future developments.
Global ASAP provides guidelines for the establishment of a Customer Competence
Center.

Phase 4: Global Maintenance and Support

Besides administrative
activities, the phases after the rollout emphasize the support of the local
units. Phase 4 contains information on how to tune the local system and optimize
business processes. Experiences gained during the rollout should now be incorporated
back into the global template and be made available for later installations
of R/3. A suitable rollback procedure is also included.

Global ASAP contains
procedures for dealing with ongoing systems operations and the template upgrade
procedure relevant to the customer’s implementation release strategy.

Rollout Roadmap

The Rollout Roadmap
has as its goal the creation of a local productive reference system and, in
the case of distributed systems, the provision of a link to a central productive
system in order to, for example, set up and maintain R/3 master records.

The Rollout Roadmap
speeds up the implementation process in the local units, so that – depending
on the enterprise’s requirements – entire implementation series can be carried
out. Redundant project activities can thus be pinpointed and avoided. The advantages
of this roadmap are:

• The realization of groupwide implementation
  standards, through an efficient rollout in the local units
• A rollback procedure for the exchange
  of general experiences, which can then be incorporated into the template.
  In this way the changes are passed on to the local units quickly and comprehensively.

Program Management

The implementation
of the R/3 System in large multinational corporations is a more time-consuming
and complicated process than for mid-sized companies. For this reason , corporations
need to observe certain procedures in order to control costs and avoid the delays
that a lengthy rollout might entail. The following graphic shows an example
of how global templates can be used to carry out a rollout. On the global
level, that is, at corporate headquarters, it is necessary to co-ordinate all
activities carried out during implementation and the maintenance/support phase
after implementation.

Within Global ASAP, program management is regarded not as a
project, but as the providing of official channels of support for the further
development of the template, the ongoing work on group-specific standards and
the rollout of the corresponding system functionality. These global activities
need to be carried out and clearly defined centrally for all local systems.

When local project
activities are carried out, the program team at the global level is not actually
responsible for the productive start of any systems at the local sites. This
is the main task of the local project teams. Here it is important to differentiate
between tasks carried out at the global and local levels, as well as to differentiate
between resources used for development and resources used in the rollout itself.

The developments described here contain a global implementation
strategy based on global templates and distributed system topologies. This is
where R/3 customers will reap the greatest benefit. Within Global ASAP, further
release strategies and enhancements containing new contents and functions which
apply to the Global ASAP Roadmap will follow.