department of computer
and systems sciences
ENTERPRISE SYSTEMS
ASSIGNMENTS FOR THE COURSE IS1 SPRING 2000
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Nasrin shakeri and Paul Johannessondsv
The purpose of these assignments is to give the student an understanding of enterprise systems including their execution, architecture, methodology for implementation, and future applications.
The assignments are to be carried out in groups. Assignment 3 and 4 are to be discussed with a teaching assistant at the computer. Assignments 2, 5, 6, 7, and 8 are to be handed in to Nasrin Shakeri. All assignments will be discussed at a seminar.
Some of the assignments are based on course material from Michael Rosemann at Queensland University of Technology, Australia.
1. SAP R/3 interface
task description
Follow the detailed instructions in the document “R/3 Exercises”, Section “Initial Exercises”.
objective
The students will learn how to use the SAP R/3 interface.
Before starting with the assignments, you should study the following material:
The Harvard Business Review article by Thomas Davenport
The excerpt from the book “Mission Critical”
Chapters 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 17 in the course book
2. Organisational units
The SAP organisational units are the skeleton of a configured SAP-system. All of a company’s master and transaction data is linked to these organisational units. The definition of the organisational units is the main task during the specification of the company structure as a task within the introduction of SAPR/3.
Task description
Investigate the organisational structures supported by SAP R/3 by studying the Online Help (menu path: Help - R/3 Library – Logistics – SD Sales and Distribution – Basic Functions). Outline the organisational structure of the company Ericsson from an SD perspective. In order to get background information for the task, consult Ericsson’s web site ( The structure proposed should include all kinds of organisational units described in the Online Help sections. Based on the information on the web you will only be able to form a hypothesis of Ericsson’s organisational structure – motivate clearly why you have introduced certain organisational units. The documentation should consist of a number of graphs, where the nodes are organisational units, together with descriptions and explanations.
Objective
The goal of this task is to gain an awareness of the importance of the SAP organisational units for the specification of the whole SAP-system. The student learns the meaning of the organisational units of one module and how they are related to elements from other modules. This is an ideal platform for the understanding of the SAP business processes.
3. Standard order handling
Task description
- Follow the detailed instructions in the document “R/3 Exercises”, all remaining sections.
- In the previous subtask, you have yourself executed all transactions. In a large organisation, many people with different roles would carry out the transactions. Define a number of organisational roles. For each transaction you have executed, specify the organisational role responsible for that transaction.
Objective
The students will gain an understanding of the execution of processes in an Enterprise System, in particular how different functional areas are integrated through the system. The students will understand the role of master data. Finally, the students will get an overview of standard sales order handling.
4. Document flows
A document flow is a chain of inter-related documents in SAP R/3. Document flows provide a history of the handling of related business activities, e.g. a sales order, a delivery, and an invoice. Document flows can be useful for facilitating problem resolution.
Task description
Read about document flows in the Online Help (use the index and search for “document flow”). Investigate the document flow for the sales order 5162 by navigating:
Logistics Sales and distribution Sales Order Display
and enter the number 5162 and press Enter
In order to view the document flow, choose Environment Display document flow
Investigate and describe in natural language each document in the document flow (position the cursor on a document and press the button labelled “Display document”; note that not every document can be displayed). In the description of each document, you should include every field appearing in the document. If the meaning of a field is unclear, position the cursor on the field and press F1 for help.
Objective
The student will learn about the concept of documents in R/3 and how they are related to each other. Furthermore, the student will gain a detailed understanding of all the fields in standard sales order documents.
5. Third-party order handling
The management of the IDES company has monitored and analysed its business processes, in particular the supply chain. One observation is that the costs for inventory have been rising during the last years. In order to address this problem, the CEO has decided to switch to a third-party handling for a selected set of customers, vendors and products.
Task description
You will carry out the transactions in a typical third-party scenario. The transactions are variants of the transactions in the previous exercise. The following steps are to be carried out (all information stated is to be entered into the system):
1.Add a customer. The customer is to be situated in Hamburg, its language is German, the telephone number is 998877. The annual sales of the customer is 500M DEM, and it has 1500 employees. The shipping condition is 2, and the transport zone is Hamburg. The payment terms for the customer includes that if it pays within 14 days, a 3% cash discount is given.
- Add a vendor. The vendor is to be situated in Hamburg, its language is German, and the telephone number is 445544. The payment terms for the vendor includes that if for payments within 14 days, a 2% cash discount is given.
- Add a material. The industry sector should be Mechanical engineering and the Material type non-foods. The volume of the material is 3 cubic metres. The material is highly viscous and environmentally relevant. The material must be stored in refrigerator. It can be stored at most 14 days. The material should be TAS.
- Add prices and conditions for the material.
- Add transactions according to the figure below:
Objective
Carrying out this task will reinforce the knowledge gained in the previous task. The student will also learn the differences between different types of order handling.
6. Processes in the Business Blueprint
The SAP R/3 system contains a huge number of processes documented in the Reference Model (Business Blueprint). A user can navigate through the processes using a tool called the Business Navigator.
Task description
The purpose of this task is to describe, analyse, and compare a number of similar business processes. The task is divided into four steps:
- Read the paper “Tools for inventing organizations” on
- Study the process “Sales order processing” in make-to-order. The process can be found by means of the Business Navigator (From the main menu, choose Tools Business Engineer Business Navigator. Click on the icon to the left of “Reference model 4.0”. Expand “Sales”, “Sales order handling make-to-order” and “Sales order”. Click on the icon to the left of “Sales order processing”.)
- Use the Business navigator to locate three other sales order processes that are similar to the process above.
- Describe and compare the four sales order processes using the concepts of decomposition and specialisation introduced in the paper in 1. above. Discuss to what extent the notion of co-ordination is useful for analysing the processes.
Document the description and comparison in a 5-10 page report, which should include:
-A generic sales order process that is so general that all the processes studied can be viewed as specialisations of this one. If you think this is impossible to achieve, argue why this is the case and construct a process that is as general as possible.
-For each sales order process, a description of how this process specialises the general process. This also includes a discussion of the reasons for the special features of the process.
-An evaluation of the Business Navigator tool including suggestions for improving the tool.
Objective
The student gets an in-depth knowledge of a number of selected processes. The student learns techniques for structuring processes through decomposition and specialisation. The student also learns how to handle the Business Navigator, including how to navigate through the enormous number (>800) of processes. Finally, the students will critically evaluate the Business Navigator and its usefulness for navigating among the processes in the Reference Model.
7. Methodology for enterprise systemS implementation
Major problems in implementing Enterprise Systems are the time and costs required. In order to ease these problems, vendors have proposed different implementation methodologies. SAP has introduced a methodology called ASAP (Accelerated SAP), which consists of a roadmap, tools, education and services, and knowledge management support.
Task description
Compare the ASAP method to some systems development method you have encountered earlier in your studies or professional life. You may choose any systems development method, e.g. RUP, SELECT, SSADM, SVEA. Document your comparison in a 5- to 10-page report. Your comparison should address the following issues:
-What are the major components of ASAP and XXX?
-What are the major differences between ASAP and the XXX method?
-Why do ASAP and XXX differ in some respects?
-Would ASAP benefit from incorporating certain parts from XXX?
-Many modern systems development methods claim to be use-case driven, architecture-centric, and iterative. To what extent is this true of ASAP and XXX?
-What are the strengths and weaknesses of ASAP?
Objective
Implementing an Enterprise System differs in many ways from other systems development projects, which means that tailored methodological support is needed. By studying the ASAP methodology, the students will obtain an understanding of the process of implementing an Enterprise System. By comparing ASAP to another systems development method, the students will understand the specific features of an Enterprise System implementation. Furthermore, the students will critically evaluate the ASAP methodology.
A brief overview of ASAP is given in Section 16.7 of the course book. Additional information can be found at Click at Implementation/ASAP in the left frame, and then click on “Read more about ASAP” in the main frame.
8. Business domains and information scope as a framework for future Enterprise Systems applications
In his recent book Mission Critical, Thomas Davenport suggests a framework for Enterprise Systems applications based on business domains and information scope. A business domain is the range of domains in which an ES operates. Davenport distinguishes between three business domains:
-internal to an organisation
-along the supply chain
-among a set of collaborative peers
ESs were first used internally in an organisation. Recently, they have been used to support supply chains, i.e. connecting an organisation to its suppliers and customers. Interpeer processes interrelate an organisation to complementing organisations that are not directly linked in the supply chain.
Information scope is the level of information processing and analysis provided by an information system. There are basically three levels of information scope:
-Transaction automation. On this level, the ES handles internal or external transactions such as the sales of a product, the request for a quotation, or the hiring of an employee. The system presents data to a user, offers options to the user, and updates a database.
-Process management. On this level the ES, together with humans, take actions based on information to ensure that pre-specified business processes are followed. An analogy can be drawn to control systems that automate manufacturing processes. In process management, administrative processes are automated and the need for human involvement is limited. The system can itself take actions such as issuing purchase orders when inventory levels drop below a given threshold.
-Knowledge management. On this level, the ES extends the user’s abilities to store and process knowledge by providing tools for analysing data. Such tools may utilise techniques from machine learning and data mining.
Task description
Based on the dimensions introduced above, a 3x3 grid can be constructed as below. For each of the boxes in this grid, give a description of how an ES could be applied with this combination of business domain and information scope. Each description should be complemented with a concrete scenario.
Objective
The student will learn how ESs may be used in future applications, in particular how they can be used beyond the state-of-art applications in transaction automation. The students will reflect on the use of ESs for connecting enterprises not only in the supply chain but also in other contexts.
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