Proof of Concept Upgrade Service

An Investment that Pays Dividends

Experienced SAP users are in agreement in pointing to a Proof of Concept Upgrade project as one of the best expenditures of time and money you can make to ensure the success of an SAP Upgrade. Why exactly is this? Such a project consists of copying your productive environment to a new system (or systems), performing the technical Upgrade on that system, and then performing initial functional testing. Software testing tools may be involved as well. As no two SAP systems—comprised of servers, software, configuration, data and connecting elements—are exactly the same, it pays to have this heads-up preview of just how much effort will be involved in your Upgrade. It is commonly advised to run a Proof of Concept Upgrade six months before the planned start of an Upgrade project, for in doing so several important things are accomplished:

• Any technical dependencies your Basis group will need to recognize will be identified. Dependencies on software versions, pre-existing issues with your SAP system (especially those perhaps unseen or not fully recognized) or compatibility issues anywhere may tend to get otherwise overlooked until they complicate the Update itself. This has the potential to seriously delay or add otherwise avoidable expense to an Upgrade.
• Your functional, security and ABAP teams are thereby better prepared for necessary changes. Properly planning the actual Upgrade timetable is made easier.
• Your team has an opportunity to become familiar with new features of the software in a more relaxed setting.

The closer your Proof of Concept Upgrade is to your existing productive landscape, the better. The cost of exactly reproducing all systems involved is offset by the help it gives in identifying compatibility issues. The landscape to be used should, in any case, be isolated from the operative one. But plan on using a full database copy of production data for the system to ensure that data-related issues are replicated during the sandbox phase.