Power of the To Do List

03SepJune 27, 2016

Now everyone has their own style of getting things done. What I’ve discovered about myself is that I need to make a list. It’s one of the things I’ve heard over and over again in the personal development audio programs I listen to. The funny thing is that now I’ve really started doing it, I notice just how much more I get done. I literally knocked off 12 things on my list today. Many of them, I would’ve put off (for who knows how long). The simple task of adding an item to the list means I get it done. I see that outstanding item, and it bothers me till it’s done. Now don’t get me wrong, some of the items just get postponed till tomorrow, but it forces me to look at it daily.

Now I use a tool called Remember The Milk. I love it. it works great on the iphone, and it serves as a constant reminder of what I need to be working on. I encourage you to give it a try. It doesn’t matter how you do it, a notebook, a smart phone app, or a deck of index cards. The trick is, don’t do anything that takes more than 10 mins unless it’s on the list. It forces you prioritize what you need to do. Anyway, I’m going to keep this one short because you get the point. Make a list, and watch your productivity increase.

good luck.

Unique Selling Proposition – USP

24AugJune 27, 2016

Today’s post is again, more on the business side, and not focused on SAP. I’m big on learning, and trying to make myself better. lately, I’ve been focusing a lot on sales and marketing, because that is where I’m the weakest. I recently joined up to a training called the Remarkable Marketing Blueprint. Sounds like exactly what I need. The basics behind this is that every week you get a some MP3 files, some pdf’s and the instructor helps give you the map to effective marketing. Like everything, you have to actually do it, if want the results. Week 1 had 2 focal points, the first I’m going to talk about today. It’s the Unique Selling Proposition, or USP for short. The concept behind it is very simple. Why should someone buy from me rather than someone else (or buy nothing at all). Since I’m in the midst of creating a new joint venture, it seemed like the right time to start solidifying this stuff. Afterall, it makes perfect sense. If I can’t verbalize why someone should buy our products, why would they bother to buy from me.

Now, I still haven’t come up with my final piece, but I have narrowed down a lot of reasons why my applications should be purchased. If anyone out there has some thoughts… or can even give me a different spin on this, please post a comment. I welcome an outside opinion.

Why is Paper Street Enterprises, and soon to be JaveLLin Solutions the place to buy SAP Add-in’s?
1. Industry experience. I’ve worked at or consulted to 12 different companies, all with their own flavor of service management (many also encompassing Variant Config, my other specialty). I believe my partner Mike is in the same ballpark on the PP side of the house.
2. Not only have we implemented the solutions, we design them. I have a special combination of skills that allows me to not only see the problem, but I can define it and solve it using ABAP.
3. We design the best of breed, or best practice solutions out of the box. No more painful design cycles. We give you the tools to improve your business today, not 3 months from now. Sure, you could hire a developer to do what we’ve done, but you also need to think through all the scenarios we’ve already factored into our tools. In addition, we can provide updates for any issues encountered by any of our clients… so your software purchased from us will mostly like cover any processes you have, if not, we can add it.
4. We are small and nimble. We can quickly react to the needs of our customers. If you need a solution that we don’t currently offer, and it looks like it could be a useful tool for other companies, we can quickly change directions and design.

These are really the big things that make us special. NOW… how do we work that down into a sentence or two? I’m still working through that… the good news is, we know why we’re special. We just need to get some customers to prove it…

As always, learning things the hard way, so you don’t have to.

Cloning a WordPress Website

23AugJune 27, 2016

Hello again, the past few days I’ve been working pretty hard on getting things setup for the new website. Being the CTO means that I should probably be able to handle little things like a website. If you’re been following me, “and judging by the attendance, you haven’t”, you’ll know that I recently had this site redone. I worked with a guy, Ben Fitts, that I would highly recommend. Well, I spent a bunch of money to launch that site, and My partner Mike said he also liked it, so why not use it again for JaveLLin Solutions. In my head, it sounded like a simple task. I’ll just take my paper street website, copy it over to JaveLLin, and rebrand it. I’ll give you time to time to stop laughing.

Well, as any good newbie would do, I went to the web and started searching. It wasn’t long before I found a several pieces of software offering to do this. I looked at the price tag, and it was $100. I only needed to do this one time, so I kept digging. I finally found someone that did the smart thing. They found out how to do it, added some screen shots, and then sold it for $15. I bought it. The instructions were good, and pictures clear, and it was as easy as 8 simple steps… “mostly”.

My first challenge was using a poor hosting site. For those of you looking for a hosting site, take my advice and avoid Fatcow. For a long time, they were good enough for me. But as soon as I started to up my game, I quickly discovered that all of the stuff they offer is out of date. I can’t updated to latest wordpress, or database, the blog platform was aweful, and the help desk was substandard. Short story, I’m cancelling my account there. Hostgator has been great and i would highly recommend using them. Reasonably priced, and great service.

Anyway, after playing with my site on Fatcow and not figuring out what I did wrong (this took about 2.5 days), I finally decided to make a new domain on my existing hostgator account. Almost instantly, the cloned site worked. However, since Ben set me up with a login and protected area to download files, I had to completely reconfigure that. Not rocket science, but it was time consuming. However, I’m excited, because the new site is up and running and seems to be great. One of my next challenges will be adding all the information for Proximity (our newest product). Adding pages is easy, but coming up with graphics that looks good… well, that will be a learning exerpience again…

Anyway, that’s why you have me… I learn things the hard way, so you don’t have to…

Upgrading the SAP Kernel

22AugJune 27, 2016

You never know what I’m going to talk about next. Even I wonder if there is a method to my madness (I hope so 🙂 ). Anyway, today’s task is to update the SAP kernel on my ERP 6.0 EHP4 system. I can’t get the crazy thing to start, so one of the suggestions online was to upgrade to the latest kernel, so here I am.

Step one. Download the files. YOu need the database file, the database independent file, and of course SAPCAR.EXE. You can find all this on service.sap.com. Normally, I just do a search and look for Kernel and my version. In this case, I needed to find Kernel 7.01. From here, SAP will guide you down the path depending on your OS and your DB type. Look for the file with the biggest number or latest date.

Next up, save all these files to a location, and extract them. This is what SAPCAR is for. Since I’m on windows, I use the cmd.exe and navigate to where I saved the files. I then use the command sapcar -xvf *.SAR. The only catch is that once you start the extract, make sure and move SAPCAR.EXE to a different directory. It gets extracted out the files you are extracting and will dump when it encounters the same file. You can also extract to a different directory, which probably the better approach.

Next, save a copy of your current kernel, just in case. For me, the path is: c:\usr\sap\<SID>\SYS\exe\us\NTAMD64\. I’ll just grab all of these files and save them somewhere else. If things go horribly wrong, I’ll just wipe out the changes and paste these files back in.

So obviously, I copy the extracted files to the kernel location. Be sure to leave all of the existing files in the directory. Depending on the Kernel, not everything gets updated.

Now test. I usually restart my system, just to be safe and then fire up SAP. in general, it’s that’s easy… Hopefully this gets my EHP4 system working so I can take advantage of the new testing and debugging tools not available in kernel 7.00. Unfortunately, for me, my Kernel doesn’t seem to be the issue. So back to the drawing board. It might mean a new install 🙁

Thanks,

Mike

My 2nd Real Product – Service Dashboard

09AugJune 27, 2016

I’m pretty excited right now. A couple months ago, I completed Broadsword: SM Dashboard, an SAP Dashboard. I took my own advise this time around and designed something that some of my previous clients specifically asked for. It helps because I know the process so well, that I came up with all the scenarios I’ve seen throughout my career.
It’s pretty awesome because I was able to learn several new skills building this product (I’ll post more about those in some future posts) and more importantly, I actually have interested parties in this tool. Like everything else, I need a starting point, and once I have several clients running the tool effectively, that should open the door to future sales. Anyway, things are getting exciting, and between the new products I’m developing and joint venture with DMS I feel like my business is about to take off…

A Whole New Adventure – Joint Ventures

08AugJune 27, 2016

About 2 months ago, I did the SC Mud Run with a friend of mine that I consulted with. During the hour car ride, and then over dinner and drinks, we realized that we both were interested in launching products. My friend Mike also had a lot of ideas of things we could develop and sell to companies. Finally, I found a like minded soul. Since then, we’ve actually designed the first 2 pieces of Mike’s PP offering. The bad news, and it’s not really bad, but it is more work, is that now we’re looking to do a joint venture between the 2 of us. While this i awesome because I finally have someone to help with the workload, it brings about a whole new set of challenges.
1. We need to determine how to structure ourselves into a new entity. This may be a new LLC, it might be an operating agreement, or it might be both. While it sounds easy because I’ve already set up a business, it turns out because I already exist it’s a whole new set of challenges. I need to work closely with SAP to make sure that I don’t lose all of the development work I’ve done. Partnering with SAP is a great thing, but I’m being told I can’t transfer all of my development work to a new company. So I’m working through those details now.
2. For the first time, I need to work with someone else and listen to their ideas, and work together. Simple things like coming up with a company name, deciding where to incorporate, etc. Not bad, but I can’t just make a decision. We need to work together.
3. Determining revenue splits. It’s great because i have someone to share the costs with, but now I have to split the revenue as well.
And that’s just the things we know so far… I’m exciting for this new venture, but like every change, it’s always a bit scary. I’ll keep you posted as things progress.
Thanks,
Mike

Making Friends – How to connect with new business contacts

07AugJune 27, 2016

Today, I wanted to talk a little about making friends. Now this sounds simple, we learned this before we even started kindergarten, but in the business arena, it’s a little different. Not everyone wants to be your friend. It’s often a “what’s in it for me?” attitude.
I recently was lucky enough to talk to someone that has made it to where I’m trying to get to. His name is Sumit Sangha and he runs Security Weaver. They are a company that provides applications to SAP customers in the area of security. Needless to say, I was able to learn a lot from Sumit in a short amount of time. But I never would’ve met Sumit if it wasn’t for one of my consulting friends. He made the introduction because he knew I was trying to get my business off the ground and Sumit was a friend of his. I doubt I would’ve ever talked to Sumit if I wasn’t introduced to him by someone he knew and trusted.
The point of this is to remind you that everyone you know in your business life potentially knows someone with the next piece of information you need to go to the next level. So remember, promote yourself to your friends too. You never know when they might connect you to someone that can help.

Learning to Market – baby steps

01AugJune 27, 2016

Well, my continuing adventure of trying to sell my first product is certainly no cake-walk. I really thought the hard part was designing a good product. Turns out, it’s a lot tougher to find customers than to build something. Right now, I’m working on my “Consumer Awareness Guide”. I got this tip from an audio program called Piranha Marketing. I’ll talk more about audio programs a different day. Anyway, the Consumer Awareness guide is basically a couple page educational document to give to prospective customers. In essence, it’s a document to convince someone they need my services without actually selling. Not as easy as it sounds. You have to start by figuring out a lot of mistakes that people make and explain those mistakes. Short story, by educating your potential customers, you build rapport and credibility. I’m trying to finish mine now. If you want a copy, please let me know. I’d be happy to send you one… =)

Picking a Product to Build and Sell

31JulJune 27, 2016

A few years ago, I came up with this great idea. Build a product that I could sell, so that I wouldn’t have to do traveling consulting every week. The idea behind it was simple. Build something one time, and sell it to a lot of companies. Then all I’d have to do is sit back and collect the profits, and then start making something new. Little did I know what I was getting myself into. I’ll talk about the creation process some other time, but right now, I’ll focus on current events. I completed my product about 1 year ago, and I thought the hard work was over. However, what I didn’t take into account is just how much work (and potentially cash) it takes to get a product launched. Right now, all of my free time is spent coming up with ways to drum up some interest in Paper Street Enterprises. I thought it would be a no brainer, I’ve been doing SAP for going on 14 years, I’m really good at what I do, how could people not want to work with me. Well, it’s pretty easy, they don’t know me. I’ve spent all of my time designing the product, and very little of that time showing I’m an expert. Sure I can fall back on the companies I’ve consulted for, but as it turns out, most of them are no longer interested in the product I thought everyone would want. So… my take away from this, before you spend days, weeks, months or even years designing and developing something, make sure you have someone that wants to buy it from you. I thought Rapier would be the sort of thing that everyone would want, and they still might, but the fact is, no one asked for it. I made the make of assuming they wanted it or needed it. Going forward, I’m focusing on known items that people want. I start simple. Every time I hear a client say, “I wish SAP did this”, or “I can’t believe SAP doesn’t provide that”, I quickly add it to my list of development ideas, and move it to the top of the list. Why? because I know that at least one company is interested in using it (maybe not buying it, but you need to start somewhere). So learn from my mistake… make sure you have a market before you build a product. Good luck.

VC – Moving a product line with ALE

29JunJune 27, 2016

Alright, today I’m switching gears. For those of you that know me, you’ll know that VC is actually my first job in SAP, so I still hold a fondness for everything variant configuration related. I recently helped out a client to move a product line from one system to another, so I thought I’d share it with all of you how we used ALE to accomplish this.

Now let me begin by saying I’m not a basis person, I only know enough to be dangerous. So, in order to initially get ALE up and running, work with your basis team. They need to set the EDI partners, and all of the object types. Some of it may also be trial and error the first time. Simply because SAP provides multiple options for the same object, and some options only work with certain processes. If there’s interest, I can do more homework and go into this on another post. For today, I’m going to assume your ALE connections are properly setup.

Moving all of the VC master data is no small feat. When I first started in 3.0F, there was no ALE, so we actually wrote ABAP to do uploads and downloads to other systems. ALE is much easier and much faster. Like everything in VC, there is a process a certain order to things, so I’m going to run down those right now.

About this guide: All of the fields you need to be concerned with are listed below in the screen shots. Every one of the transactions contains the field Logical system. I will refer to that as the Target system. In addition, most screens contain a field for Engineering Change Number. Below, I define these fields. It is up to you determine if you should be populating the ECM field, and you must work with your basis person if you are not sure the correct value to use for the Logical System.

Target System: The SAP system you wish to populate. Please note, your basis person must creating/maintain the ALE system.

Engineering Change Management (ECM): Your VC modeling may or may not include engineering change numbers. I encourage all clients to use ECM due to the high level of maintenance required. In order to transfer most pieces of a VC model with engineering change management using ALE, you must maintain ECM in all systems, including the development system.

Note: For All screens, you can often use the wild card, if you maintained a standard naming convention. in that event, simply enter XYZ* to capture all product line specific data.

Engineering Change Management:

TXN: CC92

For the ECM number you have 2 options depending on your system setup.

Typically, most companies will create the change number in their production system, then move that ECM to other system. In that event, execute CC92 in the production system, and logical system will be the development or QA system. This, by the way, is my recommended way of doing things.

You can also use a Push system, if you wish to have your ECM driven from the test system. Usually, this would require a unique ECM number range specific to VC, but it can be accomplished.

Characteristics

TXN: BD91

Note, if you use preconditions at a characteristic or characteristic value level, some of your characteristics may fail to load. If this occurs, continue loading the classes and object dependencies. After that is completed, reload the failed characteristics.

Classes

TXN: BD92

The following items must exist first:

Characteristics

Variant Table Structures

TXN: CLD3

Please note, this transaction does not allow for ECM because the table structure is not under ECM control.

The following items must exist first:

Characteristics

Variant Table Contents

TXN: CLD4

The following items must exist first:

Characteristics
Table Structures

KMAT Material Masters

TXN: BD10

Message Type: MATMAS

Classification

TXN: BD93

Please note, this data only needs to be moved if you maintained classification at a material level. This is often used with class type 200 functionality, as well as nested KMATs with restricted characteristic values.

The following items must exist first:

Characteristics
Classes
Materials

Variant Functions

TXN: CUFD

Note, this functionality is not always used. Only in the event of an instance where ABAP coding is required. This is discouraged, if possible, since this functionality cannot be easily converted to the IPC.

The following items must exist first:

Characteristics

Object Dependencies

TXN: CLD2

The following items must exist first:

Characteristics

Dependency Nets

TXN: CUK2

Please note, it is not necessary to move individual constraints, moving the constraint net automatically moves all constraints.

The following items must exist first:

Characteristics
Classes

Configuration Profiles

TXN: CLD1

The following items must exist first:

Characteristics
Classes
Object Dependencies
Constraint Nets
KMAT Materials

Bill of Materials

TXN: BD30

Please note, if you have Sales BOMS and Production BOMS, you will need to call this transaction separately for each.

Also, you may have a list of materials BOM’s to move, be sure to enter the change number in every row of the Target System Chng. NO column.

The following items must exist first:

Characteristics
Classes
Object Dependencies
KMAT Materials
Components in the BOM

Interface Design

TXN: CUID

The following items must exist first:

Characteristics
Classes
Configuration Profile
KMAT Materials
Object Dependencies
Constraint Nets

Pricing Condition Records

TXN: VK12

The following items must exist first:

KMAT Materials

Routing/Reference Operation Sets

Program: RCPDIRO1

Program: RCPTRA02

This the one piece that does not use ALE. It actually uses a more simple technology of downloading a file, and then uploading it. You need to make sure the basis person has defined a directory that is valid in both the original and target systems.

Remember, if you use reference operation sets, you must first transfer those. Use Type S. Then execute again using Type N.

The following items must exist first:

Characteristics
Classes
KMAT Materials
Object Dependencies
Work Centers

How to check for errors:

IDOC Status Monitor

TXN: BD87

To monitor the success or failure, log into the target system and execute this transaction.

After executing the transaction you’ll be able to see what failed and what succeeded. If anything failed, you’ll be able see the IDOC log to see exactly what failed and why. (See the next section).

Analyze Application Log

TXN: SLG1

Use this log to understand the errors. Certain errors may require manual changes in the target system. Other errors simply need a piece of data that has not yet been moved. As soon as the missing data is created in the target system, you can re-execute the IDOC in BD87, or you can send it again using the transaction in the original system.