First time SAP upgrade 4.6 to 4.7 - Help & How?

[Former Member]

Dear SAP on iSeries forum,

We are starting our planning for the upgrade from SAP 4.6 to 4.7, and we are wondering about the complexity, and do we need consulting assistance to make this happen. We have minimal local BASIS support and experience, and if SAP's documentation is good can we get through this without help? What is your experiences and recommendations?

We look forward to the replies.

Thank you!!!

Tim Murphy

Thermo Fisher Scientific

March 14, 2007

[Former Member]

Hi Tim,

ok, I'm a consultant and so I might be a bit "wrong minded" in the questions - but still "3 cents" from me:

- Why 4.7 and not 6.0 ? Most likely because of the SAP contract :-(( Please, keep in mind, that an upgrade to 4.7 or to 6.0 is similar expensive and therefore you gain a lot more time until you have to upgrade again ! 4.7 runs out in 2009 already and 6.0 will run out 2011 and is forseeable now already - becomes longer ...

- If your basis skills are limited - your upgrade will become a big pain

Why ? Not, because of the bad docu - there is millions of pages out, but every upgrade is different and you need a person, that really understands DDIC & ABAP in order to fix them in a timely manner.

- Are you on ASCII already ? If not, you need a Codepage Conversion on 4.6 first ... (and there you need a certified consultant)

Perhaps other true "customers" can reply here a bit as well and share their experience )

See you,

Volker Gueldenpfennig, consolut.gmbh

http://www.consolut.de - http://www.4soi.de - http://www.easymarketplace.de

[Former Member]

Hi Volker,

Thank you for the reply and information. We have already done the CPC from EBCDIC to ASCII conversation. Also, our SAP contract is written in such a way that an upgrade to ECC 5 or 6 would be very costly, so we are planning the 4.6 to 4.7.

So if I understand your reply you would recommend a "person" or consultant to assist with the upgrade. Can you share any comments about costs to execute or any firms that could offer a competitive quote?

Thanks again!

[Former Member]

Hi Tim,

I can still tell you:

You DO want to upgrade because you want to stay current and you want to stay with SAP - otherwise you would stay on 4.6C and do "just nothing" and then buy a different software.

BUT:

If you want to stay with SAP, you have to pay this money anyway ... and it becomes more expensive every year :-(((

=> Really get an offer from SAP on that and try to convince your management to make this GO now and not in 3-5 years !

a) you pay more for the license then

b) you have 1 additional upgrade then (to ECC6, as SAP delivers nothing newer until 2010)

See you,

Volker Gueldenpfennig, consolut.gmbh

http://www.consolut.de - http://www.4soi.de - http://www.easymarketplace.de

[Former Member]

Hi Tim,

Cost is one of criteria to select consulting service - quality of service and efficiency could be more important... BTW, Volker is very good consultant and has helpped many customers on SAP upgrades and installations.

The latest release of SAP does provide far more functions. It would cost your company to upgrade and implement, but eventually you are using better software product.

Best regards,

Victor