SAP Server Landscaping

SAP SERVER LANDSCAPING 

It denotes the placement or the positioning of servers in a project. In a standard SAP landscaping their should be four minimum servers placed. Over and above four servers their can be more servers added to the landscaping depending on customer requirements.

Any server includes two clients i.e., consulting client and user client. The servers include,

1) SANDBOX SERVER: Plays as a play ground for the consultants to workout on the solution and find out the solution. It includes, SAP standard settings(reference data to find the solution) & SAP dummy data(testing data to know the process is working or not)

2) DEVELOPMENT SERVER:  This server will set up solutions for all the processes. It includes, SAP Standard settings + SAP dummy data + Customer specific settings.

This server has three clients. They are, Consultant, enduser and golden client.

Golden client: If all the solutions are perfect then they can be placed in this server as a request.

3) QUALITY SERVER: Quality of the solution will be checked by customer against their requirements and decisions will be taken. Quality and production servers will be empty and will not have any data, the data can be taken from golden client and save in this servers.

Golden Client     ------------------> Quality Server

It includes, customer specific settings and standard data.

4) PRODUCTION SERVER: In this server SAP system activates and company can actually start working on SAP. It includes, customer specific settings + live data.

If all the system is crashed then the company should have BACKUP SERVER.

We can also find UAT ( user acceptance testing ) SERVER : Users will check the solution first and will be transformed to production server.

Types of SAP projects

TYPES OF SAP PROJECTS

There are six types of projects.It includes,

1) Implementation Projects: These projects are the projects where the activities would be started from the scratch till go live. These are also called as full-life cycle implementations or end-to-end implementations.

The following are the phases involved in an implementation project. They are:

i) Plan 

ii) Blue Print 

iii) Build

iv) Test 

v) Go live

vi) Post implementation project

• Plan is a phase in which the scope of the project is friezed. 
• Blueprint phase is used to put the understanding of the scope of the project and the approach to map the same in SAP system on a paper.
• Build is the phase where the solutions are developed in SAP system as per the agreed scope in the blueprint.
• Test phase is used to test whether all the solutions developed in SAP system are meeting the customer requirements.
• Go live is the phase where the solutions given in SAP system would be accepted by the users and their after all the processes would be processed in SAP system.
• Post implementation support is a phase where support is rendered to the customer in order to resolve the initial hiccups immediately after implementation. 

2) Support/Maintenance Projects: These are the projects where the SAP systems which are already live would be supported in case of any change management.

3) Global Projects: It is a project which would be seen in case of multinational companies. In these kinds of projects the solutions are rolled across geographical locations in a phased manner.

4) Upgrade Projects: These are the projects where version of SAP would be upgraded from the old to latest.

5) Mergers & Acquisitions: These are the projects where the exisisting company is being merged or being acquired by another company.

6) Conversions: These are the projects where the process of a company would be converted from one platform to another platform.

Ex: People soft to SAP.

Structures in SAP-HCM

Structure in SAP-HCM is an important concept which is used to have the HR policies & processes of the customer into SAP system. It includes 3 types of structure. They are,


1. Enterprise Structure: It is a structure which is used to create an identity for the company & its various locations of operation based on the HR policies of the customer.


Elements in Enterprise Structure:


i.Client : Client is an enterprise structure  is an element which is used to denote the top most unit in the structure. Client is an element which should have 4 character alpha-numerical code.


ii.Company Code : It is used to denote every independent company under the client. It is an independent legal unit which draws it's own balance sheet. Every company code will have a 4 character alpha-numerical code.


iii.Personal Area : It denotes broad classification of the company on geographical boundaries based on the HR processes. It will have a 4 character alpha-numerical character. All the personal areas after successfully getting created must be assigned to the respective company code.


iv.Personal Sub-area : It denotes further classification of personal area. It will have a 4 character alpha-numerical code. Personal sub-area in enterprise structure will play a major role in the modules like payroll & time management to have policies differing on locations to be mapped in SAP system.
Example:
    Infosys ( Client )               -                 INFO (Code)

    Company -Code               -                INFS

    Personal Area                   -               INFH (Infosys Hyderabad)

    Personal Sub-area           -                INHH (Hitech City) & INHG (Gachibowli)

2. Personnel Structure : It is a structure which is used to create an identity for the employees in SAP system based on HR policies.

Elements in Personnel Structure:

i. Employee Group: It denotes broad classification of the employees based on the HR policies & processes. It should have a 1 character alpha-numerical code.

ii. Employee Sub-group: It denotes further classification of the employees based on HR policies. It should have 2 character alpha-numerical code.

iii. Payroll Area: It denotes group of employees who are grouped together on certain similar characteristics relating to payroll for the purpose of payroll processing. It should have a 2 character alpha-numerical code.

Example:

Employee Group:  Manager (M)

Employee sub-group: Senior manager (SM)

3. Organisational Structure: It is a structure which is used to set up the hierarchy of a company in SAP system.

Elements of Organisational Structure:

i. Organisational Unit: It denotes every typical unit of the organisation to be placed in the hierarchy. This can be a company, location, sub-location or a department.

ii. Job: It is an object which is generic in nature & to which general tasks are assigned.

Ex: Manager is a job

iii. Position: It is an object to which specific tasks are assigned  & position is always specific in nature.

Ex: Senior Manager

iv. Person: It is an object which holds the position.

v. Tasks: It denotes the functions or the responsibilities to be discharged. Takes are divided in to 2 categories,

a. General Tasks: It denotes the tasks which are generic or common  in nature. Always general tasks are assigned to job.

b. Specific Tasks: It denotes the tasks which are specific in nature. Always these are assigned to the positions. All the elements in organisational structure will have 8 character alpha-numerical codes.