Showing posts with label SMP; OSS;. Show all posts
Showing posts with label SMP; OSS;. Show all posts

Thursday, November 20, 2014

Difference between SAP Note and KBA article

SAP Notes are very well known since beginning of first SAP software. They are intended to help while supporting run of SAP applications. Basically the main purpose of the Notes is to fix an issue within the software. For details on the Notes and their types see here. Over the years another type of support document raised. It is SAP Knowledge Base Article (KBA).

The KBA are intended to complement the SAP Notes by depicting additional features or issues which are involved within particular SAP application. But the KBAs do not contain the code which fixes the issue. The code is solely provided by the Notes.

Both the Notes and KBAs are available via SMP at:

Monday, February 3, 2014

SAP for SEPA

This weekend an Super Bowl XLVIII took place in East Rutherford, NJ was an event which dominated in North America. In Europe on other hand over the weekend happened something else which for the people who were involved wasn’t that much fun as Super Bowl. Actually Single Euro Payments Area or SEPA went live in post of EU’s banks. The SEPA is payment integration initiative within European Union aiming to simplify cross border payments and enables cashless euro payments to subjects located anywhere in the European area. This is possible by using a single bank account and a single set of payment instruments. As SAP systems are heavily involved in banking industry there were changes required into those systems.

Changes in SAP software are related to many solutions and components. Here’s I’m briefly introducing some of SAP ECC components which relates to the changes:

CA-BK – Bank
FI-AR-AR-N - Financial Accounting -> Accounts Receivable -> Basic Functions -> Master Data
FI-AP-AP-B - Financial Accounting -> Accounts Payable -> Basic Functions -> Payment Program / Payment transfer (DE, JP, US)
FI-BL-PT-FO - Financial Accounting -> Bank-Related Accounting -> Payment Transactions -> Payment forms
FI-CAX - Financial Accounting -> Non-industry specific contract accounts receivable, payable
FS-CD - Financial Services -> Collections and Disbursements
IS-PS-CA - Industry-Specific Component Public Sector -> Public Sector Contract Accounting
IS-T-CA - Industry-Specific Component Telecommunications -> Contract Accounting
IS-U-CA - Industry-Specific Component Utilities -> Contract Accounts Receivable and Payable
HCM – Human Capital Management

To see all the information on SEPA related to the SAP see following site on SMP and Note:

1855795 - SEPA composite SAP Note: Customer Connection

Sunday, October 28, 2012

SAP Forward Fit Plan

I recently blogged on topic of BusinessObjects software maintenance. Even though there is something more to be added. Speaking about BOBJ software there is so called Forward Fit Plan. Basically it is a matrix of particular patches and their path how they fit between different versions. You can easily realize what patch (feature pack) fits to what version of BOBJ software component. By component a particular BOBJ version (XI 3.1 or BI 4.0) is called as maintenance stream. 

Forward Fit Plan is available on SMP via following shortcut: /bosap-maintenance-schedule

Monday, December 26, 2011

Processing of SAP Support messages

SMP messages are kind of communication channel between SAP support organization and SAP’s customer. The aim is to support customers within their problems with SAP applications. Customer reports problems via SMP under /message link. There are 4 priorities (see below) defined from which customers can choose according problem’s severity. After submitting support message you may wonder what is the duty time range within SAP should respond. Please notice that this time may differ per particular contract between SAP and customer. Also if customer is using e.g. max attention product -> times may differ. However times specified below can serve as general guideline.

So to make it short the initial respond times/update periods and response goals are follows:

 Priority     Severity     Initial Response     Update period      Response goal
 ------     ---------    ---------------    --------------     ---------------
     1         very high     60 minutes           4 hours               2 days
     2         high             4 hours               1 day                  4 days
     3         normal         8 hours               2 days                8 days
     4         low              16 hours             4 days                16 days


For details see following SAP notes:

What are SAP Pilot Notes?

We all know SAP Notes; we all use them on daily basis along our job needs to. We search for an advice, explanation or fix of problems within SAP software. I already introduced differences between HotNews; TopNotes here. 

Today let’s say something about Pilot Notes. Basically it is very first version of SAP Note created by SAP development support. Usually it is SAP organization called IMS (Installed Base Maintenance & Support). When they provide correction for problem you reported via SMP (Service Market Place, formerly OSS) the note has status as Pilot release. If required later after note is tested by customers; note will be included in standard Support Pack for particular SAP software release. 

See details about Pilot release in following note:

Few more posts about SAP Notes topic: