Upgrade Options

Posted on May 03, 2010 at 04.38 PM - Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

There are 2 types of upgrade:

1. Technical Upgrade

2. Reimplementation

Both of their pros and cons.

Pros for technical upgrade:

a. Faster upgrade, especially when there is no new scenario needed

b. Cost effective as the team may not need to 'dig out' the business requirements anymore

Cons for technical upgrade

a. Grosser upgrade result, as we can not pick and choose scenarios to be used in the higher release

b. New SAP functionality is not explored, as such the benefit is minimum

Pros for reimplementation:

a. High flexibility, can deploy individual optional scenarios separately and reuse scenarios for several solutions

b. Cleaner upgrade result, as we can pick and choose scenarios to be reimplemented in the new system

Cons for reimplementation

a. Recustomizing and redevelopment takes slightly longer

b. Requires bigger and skillful team to perform the task

How do we choose which way to go?

1. How much new functionalities in the new SAP version are required?

If there are a lot new SAP functionalities which needs to be implemented in the new system, then it makes sense to once again reimplement the whole solution, so that we can have cleaner upgrade.

2. Does the current system functionalities generally satisfy the current and future requirements? \

If the only reason to upgrade is just because of the SAP maintenance package is going to be expired, then technical upgrade is a very reasonable way to go.

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