ECC 6 Upgrade - Gui rollout with BW 3.0

[Former Member]

Hello everyone,

I am hoping you can help us. We are preparing for a ECC 6.0 upgrade and will have to do a rollout of SAPGUI 640. We currently have BW 3.0 and are wondering if we can avoid two rollouts by implementing BI 7 patches in our rollout. Are the BI 7 patches backward compatable to BW 3.0 or will we have to do either another rollout or patch level update, when we upgrade BW 3.0 to BI 7?

Thanks in advance,

Sarah Conway

Canadian Braodcasting Corporation

ABAP/BW Team Lead

sarah_conway@cbc.ca

613-823-0654

[Former Member]

Ron

Just a small question as a follow up on sarah : can we use the BEx from a 3.x version with Netweaver 2004s ? This could simplify the roll-out for partially migrated users.

Thanks

Fabrice

[Former Member]

Hi Sarah:

The entire front-end (BI tools) have changed significantly with the new release, SAP NetWeaver 2004s BI (which many people have been calling 7.0, but the whole name has changed - "7" is not an official SAP term). The BEx Analyzer, Web Application Designer, etc have been redesigned. Therefore BI FEP (front-end patches) for the new release (SAP NetWeaver 2004s BI) are not applicable for BW 3.x front-end tools. We would recommend to deploy those new BI FEP's as part of an SAP NetWeaver 2004s project, but only within that context. Otherwise, you will have technical issues with patch application, as the tools will not be present.

Furthermore, a migration strategy to the new tools is necessary as part of an SAP NetWeaver 2004s BI project - for example, if you open a query in the new BEx analyzer , it can no longer be opened in the old BEx Analyzer after that. These things need to be considered as part of change management strategy, and FEP (Front-end patches) should be considered as part of that strategy.

Note that there is no hard technical requirement to go to the new version of BI (aka BW) if you upgrade to ECC 6.0, however some of the new functionality / business content is only available across ERP and BI when ECC is on 6.0, and BI is on SAP NetWeaver 2004s BI.

Best Regards -

Ron Silbestein, SAP NetWeaver backoffice (SAP Labs)

[Former Member]

Sarah

Welcome To SDN

It's good if you upgrade your BW system to BI7 before your R/3 Upgrade to ECC7 so that both the systems will be in sync in terms of all new functionalities. As you said even though if you implement BI7 patches as part of your R/3 upgrade they won't use until you upgrade your BI system so In my opinion don't mix up two upgrades and do it individually.

Also take SAP suggestions before you take any decissions

Hope this helps

Thnaks

Sat