Adapting to Your Specific Requirements

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Most organizations have developed their own ways of conducting internal business to suit their products, services, markets, and organizational style. SAP R/3 is designed to allow each organization to adapt how the system works in the same way ”to fit its own needs. Configuration ”the process of adjusting SAP R/3 to your specifications ”can make your SAP R/3 program match the way you do business.

Configuration and Change: An Inevitable Combination

Changing the way you do business is often a big part of the SAP R/3 equation, and the change process usually begins right away. Sometimes business methods aren't well documented within an organization; sometimes they're understood differently by different departments. Therefore, when your organization begins using SAP R/3, the first thing to do is determine and document how various departments work together.

The first aspect of configuration normally involves assembling department experts into an SAP R/3 implementation team. These experts (and some SAP R/3 consultants ) document how things are done in your company. Doing a good job here is critical to the success of any SAP R/3 project.

Next, the implementation team decides whether the existing business processes should be modified. In many cases, the process of documenting and reviewing how an organization does business produces many important ideas for improvement.

The implementation of SAP in your organization gives you a chance to introduce best practices ”ways of doing business that have evolved at some of the most successful companies in the world.

If the project team decides to make changes in addition to installing SAP R/3 (most companies do make some changes), it has the following options:

Change the business process first and then implement SAP R/3 with the new processes
Implement SAP R/3 with the old business process and change the process later
Implement SAP R/3 and change the business process at the same time

Note, however, that these aren't mutually exclusive choices; companies usually choose a combination.

Moving with the Changes

An organization normally starts with a plain vanilla copy of SAP R/3 set up for a generic company (see Lesson 23, "SAP R/3 Industry Solutions," for exceptions). Configuration is the process of adapting this vanilla copy to your business.

SAP is working to develop more generic out-of-the-box solutions with SAP. The downside is that you need to adjust your business more to fit the product.

Given the number of complex interactions that a company experiences daily, inevitably configuration changes will need to be made up to, during, and after implementation of your SAP R/3 system.

CAUTION

Reactive or Proactive?

In a perfect organization, all configuration changes are proactive (you see the need for changes and make them before any problems surface). In the real world, unforeseen problems necessitate reactive changes to the configuration. These difficulties are normal and usually can be dealt with quickly.

Whatever the reason behind it, configuration change is normal for any implementation. Don't be alarmed if something that works one way today works a little differently tomorrow. Here are some configuration issues that you should be aware of:

Don't be afraid of change ”

Your SAP R/3 configuration will change most significantly before and during implementation. After that, it will continue to change when your company makes business process changes, when a new release of SAP R/3 offers a better approach for your business, and when your company is reorganized.
There are several kinds of changes ”

A business process change could be, for example, changing the way purchase orders are approved. An organizational change might be splitting the Materials Management group across your divisions. Either move could call for configuration changes.
Did you find a problem? ”

Don't be surprised if you discover a need for configuration changes. It's nearly impossible for the implementation team to consider all the possible variations of business processes and their interactions with the SAP R/3 program.

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