To extend the SAP S4 HANA solution to newly merged entities in AMER, EMEA, China & APAC with MiniMaster integration process being an upstream for P2P modules, such as Concur and Ariba.
- The challenge was to bring together various teams and elements of this cross-release process, giving them insight of what is stored in the HR System of Record, the minimum data set coming into S4 and finally ensuring that any anomalies, issues and deviations are managed and resolved.
- A dedicated project management solution was required to ensure the successful replication for each release and phase of the program.
- Issues arising during replication activities typically impact the quality of data flowing into various environments prior to test phases and further compound the complexity of the overall task, impacting timelines.
SAP HR MiniMaster is a business-critical interface that creates employee records in S4, enabling then to create a vendor record used in P2P for processing of the payments of travel expenses. Employee records in S4 are used to provide access to the Ariba system.
Integrity worked with the client SME Lead and the MiniMaster Project team to streamline the process that aimed to create new employee records in S4, as well as improve the quality of data towards its move to the production environment.
Tasks included:
- Project planning, based on the experience gained during previous releases.
- Stakeholder management, including expectation setting, defining task owners, roles and responsibilities.
- Status reporting via cutover.com platform.
- Additional team support during critical stages of the project.
- Ad-hoc explanatory or on-boarding sessions set up for wider program stakeholders.
- The smooth replication process for key testing phases (SIT, UAT and RT) was a key success criterion for this project.
This project managed to replicate organisation structure, employee data and position assignments to employees in 9 entities for approximately 894 employees and non-employees in America and EMEA regions.
First phase was followed by a similar project in China and APAC regions – replicating over 2000 employees in 12 entities.
Successful and timely replications ensured better testing quality and timely management of key program milestones. Additionally, some important lessons were learned as part of this project, specifically identifying issues with data and flows in governance process.
- AP Success Factor HR Connect
- S4 HANA Finance System
- Ariba
- Concur
- Custover.com
- Expect business requirements correctly configured. Missing configurations are the biggest cause of issues and faults in replications.
- Recommend undertaking proactive and detailed data audits, early data checks and thorough data remediation before the start of replication activities.
- Take into consideration half-annual organisational changes that affect data and planning.
- Establish clear ownership and accountability for S4 and align with HR test data and scenarios required for S4.
- Understand scope of testing in downstream systems prior to the actual execution of tests so any gaps in the teams’ understanding are identified and mitigated before it is too late.
- Brief the HR Project Team on all activities that are relevant from the S4 Finance Programme / Project teams plan.
Over 2800 employee records replicated for the production environment in 17 countries.
100% Success rate execution of the MiniMaster activities were replicated for China and APAC releases.
Planning and management matrix has been established throughout the phases of this multi-geographies project, enabling future success and efficiency