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SAP Activate Community Call Session - Q&A

kelseylapczynsk
Advisor
Advisor
‎12-07-2021 6:32 PM
The SAP Activate team nfatima14 (SAP Activate Community Lead) and jan.musil (Chief Product Owner of SAP Activate), hosted a global "Get to know SAP Activate | SAP Community Call" (recording) on October 27th to discuss various topics within SAP Activate and to take a deep dive in getting to know SAP Activate.

We had colleagues join in from around the globe - across various time zones including: Germany (hallo), Romania (buna ziua), Czech Republic (ahoj), and the US (hello)! We were so glad you could join us in this great discussion.



We covered many topics including our new SAP Activate Community within the SAP Community. During the call we discussed what SAP Activate is and the benefits it has for project teams going through a deployment, the resources, and the value it brings to customers. Next, we covered the new exciting innovations which we recently rolled out for remote work (see lbettuzzi's  latest blog on Remote Fit-to-Standard and the playbooks here). Lastly, we went through the Q&A portion of the call where we received a variety of questions spanning the topics in SAP Activate (the exciting part which leads me to this blog post!).

Let's jump into the Question & Answer part of the SAP Activate Community Call session. We had many questions come through on the call (most answered during the session), but we had so many which we weren't able to get to because we reached the top of the hour. We wanted to follow up with a blog to address those questions as well. Please find the list of Q&A below:

  1. Question: Can we get the copy of the presentation from this session?


  2. Question: How do I enable email/system notifications for SAP Activate Community ?

    • Answer: On the community page, go to your profile > Manage My Account > Account & Settings > Communications



  3. Question: What does SSB stand for?

    • Answer: Solution Standardization Board



  4. Question: Does the SAP Learning Hub Journey "SAP Activate for Cloud Solutions - Project Management" cover the SAP Activate topics discussed on the call today? I am planning to start this journey next (once I complete my current journey).

    • Answer: The Learning Journey which you mentioned covers the following topics which will enable you with SAP Activate and various topics which support you on a project implementation: SAP Cloud ALM, SAP Activate Methodology (ACT100), Agile Project Delivery (ACT200), Intelligent Spend Management Applications, SAP SuccessFactors, and SAP S/4HANA Cloud. It will expand your skills on these learnings for the specific solutions.



  5. Question: To which extent is the Roadmap Viewer is applicable to on-premise SAP S/4HANA installations? 

    • Answer: You can find the SAP Activate Methodology for Transition to SAP S/4HANA implementation roadmap here. It coves three scenarios (which you can filter on in the navigation under the "Content" tab). These scenarios are: System Conversion, New Implementation, and Selective Data Transition.



  6. Question: Can you please provide the link to the SAP Activate certification? Thanks.

    • Answer: Yes, you can find it here.



  7. Question: How do I get access to Mural fit-to-standard templates/boards that was mentioned in remote fit-to-standard workshop prep slide (link provided is generic mural.co)?

    • Answer: You can find the Mural template for fit to standard workshops under the "Fit-to-Standard Analysis" deliverable. For example, in the SAP S/4HANA Cloud implementation roadmap under the various tasks which fall under it. For example, if you click into the "Service - Conduct Workshop" task, you will see the Mural template is located in the "Accelerators" section of the page ("Fit-to-Standard Workshops – Mural Template").



  8. Question: I was looking for SAP Activate methodology for SAP SuccessFactors, but I can't find it, could you share some resources or link to resources for partners please? Are there any trainings planned with focus on this solution?


  9. How does ASAP differ from SAP Activate?

    • Answer: It is a different paradigm from ASAP if you used ASAP in the past. The paradigm shifts quite dramatically especially in the second phase of your project (the phase where you design the solution where you collect requirements). In the ASAP Methodology, we used to create a massive blueprint document with all of the requirements and design that was locked after the blueprint sessions were conducted and signed off - then it let project teams through the realization. With SAP Activate, we are starting with pre-configured content where we have it readily available and project teams can create requirements that are deltas to that standard. This requires a different type of thinking on the part of the business users as well as the project team. The value is strong with this new process.



  10. Question: Can you share what kind of benefits SAP Activate offers for project teams?

    • Answer: There are a multitude of benefits using SAP Activate but we will shorten this answer to a few which we would like to highlight. Organizational Change Management is severely underestimated and with proper alignment and preparation using SAP Activate as we are introducing a new solution and new process for the end users. Standardized processes brought by SAP and your bringing them into the organization uses themselves something else. You need to manage that using change management and it's even more important in projects that are shorter in duration (as the window will be shorter for accelerated or shorter projects as well) so you need to allow users to get ready for that change. We want to have project teams set up for success from the start. Additionally, Self-Enablement which is part of the change management is a key part especially in cloud implementations. You want to make sure the business users are well prepared and enabled on the solution, especially for the fit-to-standard workshops. Otherwise, the fit-to-standard workshops will be a version of training which is not efficient.



  11. Question: With what kind of population are you working with to build this framework? PM, PMO, consultant...?

    • Answer: In SAP Activate, we keep the focus on Project Management but we have reduced it to the level that provides standardization and guidance for projects and we have significantly expanded areas of application requirements, design and configuration, integration, extensibility, data migration, cutover activities and planning - all of those areas are significantly expanded including technology and architecture. SAP Activate is broken down into phases, workstreams, deliverables, tasks, and supporting accelerators for the project teams for their project deployments.



  12. Question: How useful is SAP Activate for an on-premise implementation compared to cloud?

    • Answer: It is as useful as the cloud implementations with the SAP Activate roadmaps. With on-premise, we can look at the Transition to SAP S/4HANA for example. That roadmap is one of our longest standing and most mature implementation roadmaps in terms of guidance! When we started, we started with our core SAP S/4HANA. So, we started with public cloud and on-premise around the same time. These two assets have similar maturity in terms of guidance and content. The update cycles for on-premise are less frequent compared to cloud. The on-premise releases a major release once per year and then have feature packs that come throughout the year. Whereas in public cloud, we have switched to releases every two weeks (which has been in place for some time now). With the public cloud, we have bi-weekly releases and then have major releases on any RTC (release to customer). In terms of usability and detailed information guidance, they are similar in maturity and usability is the same. There are similarities and shared content where applicable between cloud and on-premise such as Project Management which is shared across all of our implementation roadmap assets. When it comes to differences, we have topics such as provisioning details which will remain specific for cloud versus on-premise solutions. We do have great coverage for different scenarios such as new implementation, system conversion, and selective data transition - all of these transition oaths are supported in the on-premise implementation roadmap. Therefore, there is no significant different between the two (on-premise and cloud).



  13. Question: Where can I find the link to the SAP Activate Certification?


  14. Question: Can SAP Activate help to break up functional silos and think more E2E when implementing SAP S/4HANA?

    • Answer: Yes, it can. There is one key thing you need to do in the setup of your project governance. If you are setting up the project teams into those functional silos, no methodology will break that up. If you set up your projects along the key processes that you're implementing, that will help with the breakup of the silos. There is a content for how to set up the projects which is in the governance. You may have a better chance of breaking up the silos by running the agile of implementing because we get together as a team across those silos once a week in the scrum of scrums. Also, the governance in setup by the process should definitely help.



  15. Question: In the prepare phase, all demo would only be shown in the cloud system correct? The one which we have 14 days trial access?

    • Answer: The trial system is available prior to the Prepare phase. Once the subscription is started, then the Starter system would be delivered and can be used with preconfigured content and test scripts, etc.



  16. Question: Is there a brown field scenario?

    • Answer: Yes, so for brownfield, we have the system conversion which is depending on the target. We have brownfield covered for the SAP S/4HANA Cloud, private cloud edition (SAP Activate Methodology for RISE with SAP S.4HANA Cloud, private edition) as well as the on-premise (SAP Activate Methodology for Transition to SAP S/4HANA) where you have the system conversion and can convert from your existing ECC system into SAP S/4HANA - that's fully covered in both of those implementation roadmaps. You can navigate to the "System Conversion" tag in these implementation roadmaps where you can see content specifically for this scenario (see screenshot below).



  17. Question: How is SAP Activate related to RISE paradigm?

    • Answer: RISE is a commercial offering. SAP is commercially offering SAP S/4HANA solution under RISE which includes additional components. If you're not familiar with RISE, you are receiving the software, BPI (Business Process Intelligence) components, technology credits for the business technology platform, Ariba or business network starter pack, and embedded tools and services (see additional details here). In the SAP Activate Methodology for RISE with SAP S/4HANA Cloud, private edition implementation roadmap, we have already incorporated these components mentioned so there is quite a bit of new content. You can filter on the content within the implementation roadmap per the filter option as shown in the screenshot above. A lot of new content was incorporated including the Ariba and Business Starter Pack, BTP is fully covered. You can find this content in the implementation roadmap per the new "SAP Business Network," "Customer COE" tags. BTP is also covered in the implementation roadmap as well - we use it for integration and extensibility which is incorporated into our workstreams which you can also filter on in the filter option.



  18. Question: Will there be RISE with SAP S/4HANA Cloud public?

    • Answer: Yes, RISE with Public Cloud is available and on sap.com.



  19. Question: How does the SAP Max Attention team fit in SAP Activate? What are SAP MAX attention roles in SAP Activate?

    • Answer: We have worked closely with our Premium Engagement Services teams since the beginning of the SAP S/4HANA roadmap development and we have overlaid the key offerings of services that SAP delivers under Max Attention across that transition to SAP S/4HANA roadmap. You can fins the details in the SAP Activate Methodology for Transition to SAP S/4HANA implementation roadmap itself. There is a document in the "Road Map Summary" which details out the services so it provides details on the transition paths and overlays the services on the implementation roadmap. In this document, you can see where the different services fit in different stages of your project. In the image overlays, the offerings which customers can consume are shown. If they are on a Max Agenda contract, we have detailed links and resources on how SAP can help.



  20. Question: A question about best practices content, can public sector implementation use best practices content?

    • Answer: Yes, with a qualifier of course. So in SAP Best Practices Explorer, test scripts, process flows, and standard processes that cover the core SAP S/4HANA functionality regardless of the sector, regardless of where you are implementing. For example, if we look at the on-premise packages, we can look into the SAP S/4HANA package and in here we have the standard set of processes across areas of HR, procurement, finance, manufacturing, etc. For the public cloud, we have many areas just as in on-premise but tailored to our cloud solutions where test scripts, details, and process flows are available.



  21. Question: Do you have any examples of SAP Activate supporting the SAP Intelligent Enterprise adoption?

    • Answer: Great question, yes! We have an implementation roadmap specifically for SAP Intelligent Enterprise. You can find that in our SAP Activate Roadmap Viewer here.




 

A big thank you to those who were able to join the live session to interact with us on the call with your questions and areas of interest. If you weren't able to make the call when it was held in October, click here to view the recorded session. I hope you enjoy the questions which were asked across many topic areas within SAP Activate. Please reach out in the comments or to us directly as we are looking to your feedback. We look forward to hosting calls throughout the year on many SAP Activate topics. Looking forward to seeing you all at our next community call in February. Stay tuned and make sure to follow the SAP Activate page here to stay up on all of the updates.

If you want to win an SAP Activate e-book, take part in our blogging challenge!

 



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