During my time working as a SAP consultant, I have been involved in numerous projects over
the last two years. Most of the projects took place onsite, so I’ve many customers during this time.
The field of activities from those customers ranges from public service for health insurance to oil
and gas industry, metal processing to retail services. Due to the various fields of activity it should
be easy to imagine that the requirements for customer specific developments are quite different
from each other. However, as different as the requirements are, they are as flexible are the tools
provided by ABAP to support consultants during the solution development. Some of those tools
provided by ABAP to support consultants during the solution development. Some of those tools
are: BADIs (Business Add-Ins), predefined classes with ready to use methods from ABAP Objects,
FPL(Floor Plan Manger), BOPF (Business Object Processing Framework), and so on.
One project I would like to mention was particularly interesting since it was complex with a huge
data amount and therefore it impressively shows the power of such ABAP tools. The project was
designed for a customer who operates in the area of public insurance. The target was to use
designed for a customer who operates in the area of public insurance. The target was to use
SAP CM and CD, as well as custom specific developments for the fee invoicing of doctors.
In addition to the SAP solution, a foreign system was used where the data about the business
partners are handled. At the project start it was desired to use the solution for just one division.
However, once the solution was in use, the customer was so happy that they decided to gradually
roll out the solution to about a dozen further divisions. In addition, the solution should be expanded
in its functionality.
in its functionality.
Despite the overall enthusiasm about the solution, the data migration for the first division did not
really meet the required quality. Thus, for a satisfying roll out to about a dozen divisions, the
really meet the required quality. Thus, for a satisfying roll out to about a dozen divisions, the
successful data migration was identified as one of the key factors. To make the data migration
successful the following must hold:
- Data must be checked for consistency
- Some data from the legacy system must be adopted to be compatible with the new system
- Data must be linked with data from the foreign system for a smooth communication
While the first two points are rather straight forward, the data link with the foreign system was quite
challenging. This is since the data in the foreign system are quite dynamic, so that they are changing
fast and in addition they do not have a good quality. Summarizing, the issue was exceptional so that it
was just not possible to solve it with standard migration tools.
To overcome this exceptional issue it was necessary to provide an exceptional solution. Therefore, a
custom specific migration program was developed which addressed the exact problem with the data
of the foreign system. For the development, standard ABAP Object classes were used so that the
of the foreign system. For the development, standard ABAP Object classes were used so that the
solution was accessible in an adequate time frame.
This program provides simulation options, reporting tables, interactive controlling options during the
migration process as well as reporting views for the completed migration process to evaluate the
data quality. As a result of the specific migration program the data quality was improved so that the
data quality. As a result of the specific migration program the data quality was improved so that the
roll out of the entire solution could be started. In the meanwhile, the roll out reached the final division,
and all other divisions are already using the SAP solution. At the end of the month, the final division
used the SAP solution, and the customer was once again delighted.
used the SAP solution, and the customer was once again delighted.
