More Automation and Content with ILM Version 7.02 – Available with ERP 6.0 EHP5 Ramp-up

With SAP NetWeaver Information Lifecycle Management 7.02 a new ILM version is ante portas. Early adopters can obtain it as part of the SAP ERP 6.0 Enhancement Package 5 ramp-up that started on December 20, 2010. The ramp-up will presumably end in May 2011.

What’s New in ILM 7.02?

Through experience with ILM projects from the first version, tests, and customer feedback, we have added many improvements to SAP NetWeaver Information Lifecycle Management, mainly in the following areas:

• Increased usability
• More automation
• Greater scope of predelivered content

Let’s take a closer look at some of the main improvements:

• End-to-End Audit Area

This new concept is at the heart of the retention management process. Basically, it is used to select the data for a particular audit purpose, e.g. tax. Technically speaking, an audit area contains all data types, including the relevant structures, tables, fields etc., necessary for the corresponding audit. Audit areas help you automate the data selection process for reporting on legacy data, and eliminates the manual selection of archive file from the archive. SAP predelivers the audit areas Tax and Product Liability, which can be used as a template for defining customer-specific audit areas.

• Automation for System Decommissioning

You can now automate the process of transferring archive administration data and archive files from the legacy system to the ILM retention warehouse system. The new function also provides an automated process for converting the transferred files to apply retention rules and storing those files in the storage system. The originals of the converted files can be deleted manually or automatically through this function.

• New Industry Content

New content for the industry solutions IS-U and IS-Oil&Gas is now also available. To be more precise, we added ILM-enhanced archiving objects and context data to extend the ILM reach into these applications.

• Destruction of Archived Data

In the first ILM version destruction for database data was introduced. The new version now also supports the destruction of archived data in the storage system, as well as attachments.

If you’re interested in using the new version of ILM you can join the ramp-up to get the software delivered. You just need to talk to your SAP account executive (AE) or SAP customer engagement manager (CEM), and jointly fill out the online scoping document. They will know where to find this document and how to deal with it. “Scoping” is a special process within ramp-up dedicated to verifying whether the customers fulfill the technical and legal requirements (for example, these customers need to sign a Customer Approval Letter) for joining the ramp-up.

How Does the Ramp-up Work?

During ramp-up only a limited number of customers can obtain the new software. This is to ensure that all ramp-up customers are supported with the highest attention possible, since the ILM team has only limited resources to answer customer queries, help them set up the system, and support them in using the new product features. In the scoping questionnaire you need to answer several questions about your system landscape, your project timeline, and provide contact information for your enterprise. Apart from these more general questions, there are also some ILM-specific questions that need to be answered. For example, you need to indicate whether during ramp-up you are planning to use retention management, system decommissioning, or both.

Based on the scoping results that are evaluated regularly during the ramp-up phase, the ramp-up team and the ILM team decide on which customers have qualified for ramp-up and notify these customers. They can then obtain the software, either by downloading it from the software distribution center (quick link /SWDC) in the SAP Service Marketplace or by requesting a set of installation media, and start using it.

As a ramp-up customer you are expected to provide regular feedback to SAP about the new functionality to help us solve possible problems before mass rollout. A dedicated SAP ramp-up coach will be your primary contact during the ramp-up. He or she will guide you through the ramp-up process and help you address problems that may come up, in SAP development.

At the end of the ramp-up phase, if no major problems have remained unsolved, the product will eventually get the status GA (general availability). It can now be obtained by every interested customer worldwide.

For more information, please refer to the SAP Service Marketplace, quick link /rampup, and look for SAP Business Suite 7 Innovation 2010, solution SAP enhancement package 5 for SAP ERP 6.0. You can also contact us at ilm@sap.com.