SAP
4.6 Upgrade Issue:
SAP
4.6 Upgrade Announced
MIT Community Involvement
Training
and Documentation
Other Support
Other Important Information: DURING
SHUTDOWN
_______________________________
SAP
4.6 Upgrade Announced
On
December 21, 2000, Chuck Shaw, Director of Financial Systems
Services, sent email to all SAP users at MIT. His message
announced that MIT's Administrative Systems and Policies
Coordinating Council (ASPCC) had approved the timing of
the SAP 4.6 upgrade for the last weekend in January. This
was one of many Upgrade Information and Communication
pieces coordinated by Janet Snover, Special Assistant
to the Executive Vice President. (See the SAP for MIT
Upgrade
Info web page.)
Why
Upgrade?
|
*
|
We
are upgrading from release 4.5 to release 4.6 of
the SAP software.
|
|
*
|
4.6 is needed for work to proceed on the HR-Payroll
project and SAP implementation at Lincoln Lab.
|
|
*
|
Upgrades
are a fact of life with software systems.
|
Expected
Impact
|
*
|
Some
changes to the SAPgui; none to SAPweb.
|
|
*
|
Most
changes are to "look & feel" and navigation, NOT
to the business processes.
|
|
*
|
Mac
and PC will look slightly different. |
|
*
|
A
brief Production service outage will occur.
|
_______________________________
MIT
Community Involvement
MIT
community involvement in the 4.6 upgrade revolves around
four groups of community representatives. They were organized
specifically to provide FSS with a variety of user input.
The composition of each group was determined according
to guidelines established by ASPCC. (See the list of MIT
Community Volunteers in the righthand column.)
The
preview group consisted of members who were generally
considered advanced users of SAP. The new SAPgui was installed
on their desktops, and the preview group explored the
new system for about a week on their own, emailing feedback
and questions to the FSS Community Support Team.
The
focus group included users with varying experience
levels within SAP. They met in W89, performed several
hours of transactions in SAP, and reconvened with members
of the preview group to participate in a focus group discussion
to review their reactions, assess training needs, and
comment on how they thought the upgrade would affect the
community.
The
integration test group provided two vital sets
of feedback. Several of them tested the SAP Upgrade Self-Studies,
and gave feedback on quality, usability, and accuracy.
In addition, the integration test group met in the Learning
Center where they partially simulated a fiscal period's
worth of business activity. They began by entering transactions
typical to their jobs in the new system, and after a week
of processing by central offices, they returned to W89
to ensure that the reporting on their transactions was
accurate.
Finally,
validation testers will verify the system following
the upgrade and before SAP is made available to the rest
of the MIT community.
|
Roughly
90% of focus group members felt that users would
need training and/or documentation to begin working
in SAP 4.6.
|
_______________________________
Training
and Documentation
Training
and documentation during this period focuses on "deltas"
and is targeted for current SAP users. Training is offered
as Self-Studies that you do either at your desk or in
supervised labs. Training is available but not required.
Note that there are three more Upgrade
Demos scheduled for this month.
Training
Self-Studies at your desk:
|
*
|
Access
the training practice system
|
|
*
|
Full
instructions included
|
|
*
|
You
will need the new SAPgui |
Self-Studies
in supervised Labs at W89:
|
*
|
Registration required (see SAP
Training web pages)
|
|
*
|
Platform-specific
(Mac or PC)
|
|
*
|
Work
at own pace with help as needed |
Documentation
_______________________________
Other
Support
School
and Area Business Consultants
If
you are new to SAP and need help, contact the school and
area Business
Consultant for your area.
Business
Liaison Team
As always, if you have a specific problem using SAP,
contact the Business
Liaison Team.
Email: business-help@mit.edu
Phone: (617) 252-1177
_______________________________
Other Important Information:DURING
SHUTDOWN
- Procurement
will be unable to create POs. However, partner companies
Office Depot, VWR and BOC Gases, as well as MIT's internal
providers, will accept paper requisitions on January
26.
- The
VWR stockrooms on campus will be open as usual on January
26.
- Supplies
can be ordered on VIP Credit Cards. Standing blanket
orders are another viable option.
- Walk-through
checks cannot be processed by Accounts Payable or the
Travel Office.
- The
Cashier's Office will be open on January 26, but only
for necessary processing of cash and services, and temporary
receipts will be issued for cash deposits. Any staff
who need the SAP deposit slips are asked to return after
3pm on Monday, January 29.
- The
journal voucher and credit card verification processes
will not be accessible.
- Reporting
processes in SAP will be unavailable, but the Data Warehouse
will have information that is current through the close
of business on January 25.
_______________________________
|
Current
Issue
Back
Issues
At
a Glance...
|
|
Final
Three Upgrade Demos
One-hour,
platform-specific demonstrations will be offered
at 10am in Room 1-190:
January
17 - Mac
January
23 - Mac
January
25 - PC
<top>
|
|
|
|
Don't
Forget the New SAPgui
Don't forget! You will need to get the new
SAPgui in order to use SAP 4.6.
<top>
|
|
MIT
COMMUNITY VOLUNTEERS
Janice
Ahern
James Blanchflower
George Brennan
Peggy Bryan
Steve Burke
Fionnuala Coary
Marybeth Costa
Anna DiMaria
Dineen Doucette
Timothy Downes
Virginia Esau
Joan Farrell
Judy Finn
Lee Finnegan
Christine Foglia
Karen Fosher
Gertie Gillen
Ken Goldsmith
Dave Goodwin
Karen Griffin
Ron Hasseltine
Sheila Hegarty
Ken Higgins
Jeanne Hillery
Donna Hudson
Richard Janus
Edmund Jones
Mara Karapetian
Linda Lancaster
Ann Marie LeBlanc
Christine Malnati
Leo McCue
Loida Morales
Robert Murray
Lorraine Ng
Mark Pendleton
Genevieve Paratore
Kathleen Reposa
Laura Rose
Alison Salie
Susan Shansky
Lorraine Simmons
Cecilia Talamantes
Amanda Tat
Brian Tavares
Jack Valleli
Laurie Ward
Jana Ziemba
<top>
|
|
|
Publisher's
Box
Financial
Systems Update
is an occasional Web-based publication designed
to keep the MIT community informed about
the Institute's new financial tools. Comments
and suggestions for future articles are
welcome! E-mail the entire editorial board
at fss-eboard@mit.edu
or contact individual members. They are:
|
|
EDITORIAL
BOARD
John
Hynes
Financial Systems Services
hynes@mit.edu
Linda
Lancaster
Controller's Accounting Office
lindal@mit.edu
Peggie
Mc Grath
Information Systems
mmcgrath@mit.edu
Robert
Murray
Financial Systems Services
rmurray@mit.edu
Shirley
Picardi
Financial Systems Services
picardi@mit.edu
Daniel
Pope
Financial Systems Services
dpope@mit.edu
Janet
Sahlstrom
Financial Systems Services
janets@mit.edu
Janet
Snover
Office of the Executive
Vice President
jsnover@mit.edu
Peg
Warner
Office of Budget and
Financial Planning
pwarner@mit.edu
Production
Staff
Nancy Gift
Financial Systems Services
Contributing
Writers
Eileen Nielsen
Financial Systems Services
|
|
Paper mail
for Financial
Systems Update may
be sent to the newsletter in care of:
|
Financial
Systems Services
W92-210,
MIT
77 Massachusetts
Avenue
Cambridge,
MA 02139-4307
|
|
|
|
