Phase 4: Final Preparation

The purpose of this phase is to complete the final preparation
of the R/3 System for going live. This includes testing, user training, system
management and cutover activities, to finalize your readiness to go live. This
Final Preparation phase also serves to resolve all crucial open issues. On successful
completion of this phase, you are ready to run your business in your productive
R/3 System.

In Phase 4, your end users go through comprehensive training.
The last step will be to migrate data to your new system. In particular a going-live
check is carried out and an R/3 Help Desk set up.

This phase builds on the work done in the previous two phases
so that R/3 can be handed over to the individual departments for productive
operation. This includes creating the user documentation and training the end
users. The technical environment is installed for the productive system and
the project managers make plans for going live, including the transfer of data
from legacy systems and user support in the startup phase.

End-user training can be the area an organization spends the
most time and money to complete, since proper training is critical if the project
is to be successful. A high-level training plan should have been developed within
the Project Preparation phase, but now more detail is added. The training program
is set up according to the number of users, their location and their tasks.
Once the site of the courses and the trainers have been chosen, the courses
can be held.

To accelerate your training activities, you can purchase the
R/3 Info Database (InfoDB), a blend of R/3, multimedia content, and tools. The
R/3 InfoDB contains over 250 standard courses that we use in our SAP training
facilities worldwide. These courses are available for multiple R/3 releases
in up to 14 languages.

Computing Center Management System

As part of setting up the Computing Center Management System
(CCMS), the system administrators are trained and the network administration,
backup, archiving, and capacity monitoring systems are prepared and tested.
Some of the tasks involved here are configuring the printing facilities, conducting
system volume and stress tests and conducting a going-live check.

Furthermore, R/3 logon groups are now set up, enabling you
to provide application servers with improved response time for particularly
important work groups using time-sensitive transactions.

Operation modes (resource configurations for each instance
of the R/3 System) now need to be defined, with the times that the services
are available. Alert monitors and backup schedules are set up. Productive system
printing procedures and spool administration procedures are defined according
to the Systems Operations Manual set up in the Blueprint Phase. Finally, the
R/3 job scheduling system needs to be configured, as well as alert monitors
and backup schedules defined.

Also in Phase 4, the system administration staff needs to be
trained in a workshop session. Topics include troubleshooting, tape management,
and user management, as well as escalation procedures.

In Phase 4 you simulate the productive operation of your R/3
System, a step of great importance. The test plan contains all the most important
situations that arise in the normal course of business:

• Testing conversion procedures and programs

• Testing interface programs

• Conducting volume and stress testing
• Conducting final user acceptance testing
• Developing a final go-live strategy

The test situations are selected on the basis of importance
and frequency of expected use. Printers and other output devices are also included
in the tests, in order to, for example, check print volumes or print layouts
in printed invoices or purchase orders. End users are included in the planning
and execution of the tests.

Volume testing also involves checking the critical parameters
for specific business procedures, for example, adhering to a two-second average
processing time to create a sales order.

CATT Test System

The Computer Aided Test Tool (CATT) can be used to automate
test sequences for key business processes. The results are logged in detail
and then reviewed. CATT is also used for quality tests during release changeovers
and for simulating complete business processes.

System administration testing involves testing the activities
of a System Administrator, such as managing job scheduling, administering corrections
and transports, reacting to R/3 System alerts and logs.

Phase 4 also provides for the testing of the disaster recovery
plan and of the procedures defined for the productive environment. If a third-party
provider has been engaged for these services, their services and responsiveness
can also be tested. Disaster downtimes are verified and details on de-escalation
procedures are documented.

Now that the technical configuration for the productive system
is finalized, plans are drawn up for transferring legacy data. At this
point, the system settings (Customizing) and R/3 Repository objects are transferred
from the quality assurance system, and automatic and manual data transfers to
the productive system are carried out and tested.

GoingLive^TM Check

The GoingLive^TM
Check involves an analysis of the major system components of the R/3 installation
with regard to system consistency and reliability. For this, SAP experts log
on your R/3 System via a remote connection, inspect the configuration of individual
system components, and provide valuable recommendations for system optimization.
By analyzing the individual system components before production startup, SAP
can considerably improve the availability and performance of the customer’s
live system. In addition, the technical application analysis provides information
on how to speed up the core processes within R/3.

In the second step of optimization the transactions with high
resource consumption are searched for and necessary adjustments made. In the
third step of verification, the changes from the two prior sessions are validated.
This check is performed in the productive operation system.

After a system goes live, some fine tuning and eliminating
of potential bottlenecks is still necessary. This is carried out four weeks
after going live with the R/3 System.

Refining the Cutover

At the end of Phase 4, it is necessary to refine and validate
the cutover plans generated in the Realization phase. Among other things, this
includes tasks such as the reviewing of the runtime of test runs to estimate
runtime for the complete data size. A conversion checklist for transporting
all changes into the productive system is provided for all the configuration
settings to be imported.

At this stage, it is important to verify that required tasks
have been successfully completed, for example, that the technical environment
is in place, the cutover programs are ready and the application data is verified.
Approval is now sought from project management and company senior management
to start the cutover process.

Here you can also refer to the Data Transfer Made Easy
Guidebook created especially for this purpose. It is located in the Knowledge
Corner of the ASAP CD.

The help desk is particularly important in the first weeks
after going live, but you will require help desk support throughout the productive
life of your R/3 System. An internal help desk should be staffed and supported
mainly by employees of the enterprise. Setting up a help desk involves, among
other things, installing office and technical equipment and defining OSS users.
Problems which cannot be solved by this internal help desk are forwarded to
SAP via the OSS system.

As soon as you know when you will go live with the R/3 System
or with new R/3 applications you should inform SAP. Thus you can ensure that
SAP can provide optimal support throughout your going-live phase. For the last
weeks before and first weeks after the go-live date, SAP offers the R/3 GoingLive
Customer Care Service, accessible via SAPNet and OSS.