SAP ERP Evaluations And Cost Analysis
Those working on development of the My SAP ERP system should document its construction and prepare operations manuals. Critical facts should not be stored in only one person's head since that person may not be available at the time of a problem.
Users of My SAP ERP system must be adequately trained. The degree of training depends upon the sophistication of the analysis technique. In general, data mining requires the most training because its success depends upon knowledge of the business domain and the statistical techniques used for analysis. Users must be able to determine whether the findings are valid. Irrelevant results can easily be obtained when questions are asked of billions of bytes of data. For example, data mining has tied stock performance to serial numbers and determined that customer ID numbers are the best predictor of interest in a marketing campaign. Recommending future activities based upon such findings would not be helpful.
Operation of My SAP ERP system involves three tasks. First, the data will be used in various ways to support decision making. This can range from preparation of management reports to sophisticated techniques such as OLAP and data mining.
Second, to maintain the usefulness of the repository, a plan should be developed for copying new data from the operational systems to the data repository at predetermined times. As previously discussed, the system may also summarize and store the frequently used data, depending upon users' needs. Finally, operation includes the archiving of some very detailed, very large data. Fortunately, the 80-20 rule applies to data: 80% of the queries can be answered by 20% of the data. The greater the size of the database, the longer it takes to load new data and retrieve output. Therefore, it will be useful to develop a schedule for archiving older data. Naturally, when needed, the system can make this data available. Several events will lead to changes in the repository. This phase of operation is called maintenance. Changes to the legacy systems that feed the repository will require changes to the cleansing process. Second, a welldesigned project will be popular among the users, who will request the addition of new data to the repository. Requests should be evaluated in light of the original plan and available resources. Any requests not consistent with the original plan should be rejected. Finally, technological advances occur frequently. On at least an annual basis, the capabilities of new hardware and software must be evaluated on the basis of their costs.
ERP SAP
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