# SAP SRM - more light on POWL

During implementation some organisations do not give much attention to POWL (aka POWER LIST / Personalised Object WorkList) or its not considered much weightage. I would advise to pay early attention from end user point of view and make easier and informative.

I will give POWL relates tips shortly.

# SAP SRM and Ariba - what do you want - mocktail!?!

SAP own the larger landscape of Procurement solutions (P2P) with SAP SRM and Ariba. Each application has niche market. SAP SRM offers on-premise solution and Ariba offers (new license on premise is going to cease soon) the subscription based "pizza" style portfolio.
The capability of the each application can be leveraged to acheive the best of deployment for the procurement solution. 
I will keep posted around this thread.

# Whats in basket? - SAP SRM 7.13 (SAP SRM EHP 3 with HANA)

SAP has released SAP SRM EHP 3 with HANA capabilities. In next few threads we will see the things packed in the box.

HANA enables reports/processes (SAP SRM 7 EHP 3 with appropriate Netweaver)
- Monitor shopping cart
- Sourcing Cockpit
- RFx , Purchase Order
-POWL
-Many custom/bespoke reports possible

# Whats in basket? - SAP SRM 7.13 (SAP SRM EHP 3 with HANA)

SAP has released SAP SRM EHP 3 with HANA capabilities. In next few threads we will see the things packed in the box.

HANA enables reports/processes (SAP SRM 7 EHP 3 with appropriate Netweaver)
- Monitor shopping cart
- Sourcing Cockpit
- RFx , Purchase Order
-POWL
-Many custom/bespoke reports possible

# SRM 7 and capability for the contract negotiations

In earlier posted I have touch based on the soucing capability of SAP SRM 7; here we will see how SRM 7 could be enabled for the Contract negotiations.

# SAP SRM 7 - Upgrade or fresh implementation

SRM 5 to SRM 7 upgrades, earlier version of the SRM upgrades

Most of organisation might be using the SRM 5 or the earlier versions and would be looking for the upgrade or the fresh implementation.

SAP SRM has the specific upgrade path and supports as one step upgrade from SRM 4.  Some customers would like to change the technical scenario to leverage the functionality; some may want to implement the new scenarios. Based on the requirements and the evaluation the decision to upgrade or implement could be derived.

The existing customers with SRM version lower than SRM 4 would benefit from the fresh implementation rather than the two step upgrade. Though the considerable efforts required the migration of the documents could be considered.

The new customers should install SAP SRM 7.02 (or the latest release).

# SAP SRM - Business switches

The enhancement framework used by SAP comes with the Business function switches.
The Enhacement packages (EHP1 and EHP2) brings the switches in mutiple areas. A few interesting areas I have covered in earlier posts.

The advantage of the switches is the customer can pick and choose the functionality also can utilise the SAP delivered solutions to meet their requirements.
 If you are the upgrade customer or the consultant you may like to consider these switches to be implemented along with scenarios (for example - SSP,Strategic sourcing, MDM catalog) to bring the new functinality features.

The most of the switches are irreversible and can not be reverted back except a few. Hence customer should implement these switches in their Sandbox environment and test thoroughly.

# SAP SRM 7.0x upgrade - SAP NetWeaver 7.03 or 7.3x platform

SAP NetWeaver 7.03 and 7.3x shares the same platform of ABAP stack of 7.31 and different release versions of the JAVA stacks.

For the existing installation to upgrade would be SAP NW 7.03 and for the standalone or isolated fresh installations will be based on SAP NW 7.3x

The application upgrade will (for example SRM 7.0x, CRM 7.0x, SCM 7.0x, ERP 6.06 or so) could be based on the SAP NW 7.03. Also the latest release adaptability possible.
However fresh installation will have baseline of SAP NW 7.3x

As SAP is shipping the business suite's new releases based on the 7.3 platform, existing customer needs to plan their future landscapes based on their business strategy.

Customers planning for the near future upgrade to SAP SRM 7.0x, please utilise SAP Solution Manager tool to optimize the landscape and seek the advice from an SAP NetWeaver architect.

SRM 7 and localisation

Since SRM 5 SAP provides the standard localisation support for some countries (for example, India, Brazil). With SRM 7 and SRM 7.02 the support has grown to more countries with more functionality support (taxation, custom fields). If you are upgrading please check the standard localisation provided by SAP for which custom development was done in earlier installation.

SAP SRM and NetWeaver technology

SAP uses the numeric based naming convention nowadays and moved away year based conventions (for example NW 2004s). SAP NetWeaver is the foundation for the SAP products and recently evolved too. Many customers would be having quite complex landscape where SAP Business Suite applications – ERP, CRM, SRM, SCM, PLM and industry specific products would be installed. SAP provides the rules based approach to check the dependency for the SAP SRM upgrades. Please visit the SAP marketplace for details.

SRM 7 and EHP 2

It seems the enhancement pack (EHP) methodology is doing well for SAP and its customers. After ERP (ECC) system SAP has been following the EHP release path for SRM as well.

The EHP 2 is released to customers and the upgrade/implementation customers would be looking for the new features from this EHP.
 I would like to highlight following points for upgrade-
* The latest version brings lot of new functionalities (core and PPS)- Please check which functionalities would you like to implement.
* Existing bespoke (custom or z) modifications may need to adjusted or re-visited (possibly a few could be part of Business switches)
* Existing data and master data impact
* User experience and change management
* Possible pain points could be addressed or scenarios could be enhanced
* Impact on the connected system landscape - BW reporting, ECC (back end) system or catalog, supplier systems (SAP and non-SAP)
* Hardware and other software logistics issues. As on today the ERP (ECC) has the EHP versions (latest) of EHP 5 and EHP 6, soon I will post on the ERP features which would be helpful in SRM context.