SEM Upgrade and NW2004s Upgrade

[Former Member]

Hello Gurus,

I have few questions regarding Upgrades. We are currently doing NW2004s upgrade and my management also wants to do SEM upgrade simultaneously, if possible because they want to go with BCS. Before we starting anything with SEM upgrade I want to know

 If there is any interdependencies between these two upgrades?

 If so what are they or can we start simultaneously?

 Does SEM & BI sit in different serves or it’s the same server but we maintain 2 different instances?

 How does this mechanism work?

Can anyone send me any links or documents related to this? And thanks in advance,

Thanks,

[Former Member]

Dear Mary,

We have installed SEM-BW 6.0 but we still do not have those functions. Any other thing to do?

[Former Member]

Hi bw expert online,

I think your basis could provide more info about the dependencies.

To answer your other question on where each component sits, based on my experience with SEM 3.2, SEM and BW can sit on same OR different servers.

There are choices for the installation.

Pls give me some points if this helps.

Regards

Sanjay Patel

[Former Member]

Well, it is not entirely corrrect. Many companies who had separate servers/landscape for BW and SEM-BPS has moved their BPS to the BW instance to consolidate things.

If you have separate servers for BW and SEM, you are working with RFC and you need to think about master data synchronization, additional HW, additional basis time, etc.

[martin_lehmann4]

Hello BW expert,

>  If there is any interdependencies between

> these two upgrades?

If you go to BI 7.0 (2004s) you only have the possibility to use SEM Version 6.0.

>  If so what are they or can we start

> simultaneously?

You have to do it simultaneously, because SEM BCS (also CPM, SRM and the old BPS) works on top of a BI data basis.

>  Does SEM & BI sit in different serves or

> it’s the same server but we maintain 2 different

> instances?

SEM and BI sit on the same server, see the last answer.

>  How does this mechanism work?

> Can anyone send me any links or documents related to

> this?

Documents about the functions of SEM BCS you can find here:

<a href="https://websmp108.sap-ag.de/~form/sapnet?_SHORTKEY=01100035870000598273&">Presentations about SEM BCS</a>

and here

<a href="https://websmp108.sap-ag.de/~form/sapnet?_SHORTKEY=00200797470000067138&">SEM BCS Tips and Tricks</a>.

Hope this helps

Martin Lehmann

[Former Member]

Thank you so much for the reply Martin but we don't have SEM at all in our client place and now they are planing to go with it because they want to use BCS and BPS. I know that BI is giving some part of BPS with some functionality missing from SEM. So, our management decided to go with SEM BPS and BCS.

Also we already started our NW2004s upgrade which is in process? and what exactly you mean that we have to do it simultaneously? I am little confused here and can you please elaborate it?

Thanks in asvance,

[martin_lehmann4]

Ok I see, it wasn't clear for me, that you start with SEM BCS. In your situation I would finish the 2004s upgrade, try out the integrated planning functions within BI (BPS) and evaluate, whether it is possible to have the BCS application on the same server as your standard BW server (depending on your data volume in BW and the complexity of your BCS data) or on a dedicated second server. It's no problem to install the SEM components in a second step (my first answer was related to the assumption that you already have SEM in your company).

In this step you have to install the two components FINBASIS 6.0 and SEM-BW 6.0 on your system. And you are right, BPS is now integrated in BI, so you don't have to install the SEM components to use the integrated BPS.

But it is recommended to have a training (e.g. SEM240 "BW based Consolidation") and a good expert advice (consultancy?) before you start with BCS, because it is too difficult to customize with standard BW know how. Or do you use EC-CS in your company? Then it might be easier...

Many regards,

ML

[Former Member]

Martin,

Thank you so much Martin for the reply and what I understand from you is that SEM implementation is divided into two portions/components - one SEM BCS and SEM (BPS, SRM, PM & SM). If we are happy with BI-BPS then we don't need to go with SEM-BPS and we can just go with SEM-BCS? Is my understanding correct? if so then I will suggest my management to go with SEM-BCS.

And what about the components that u were mentioning? Is it for BCS or complete SEM 2 parts implementation? Please clear this to me and thanks a lot!

Thanks,

[Former Member]

Can anyone tell me if we still have the missing functions which are part of SEM-BPS are not included in BW-BPS (NW2004s)

Offsetting Entry

Accumulate Balances

Depreciation

Net Present Value

Internal Rate of Return

Time Lag Functions

Valuation

Allocation

Rounding

Currency Translation (Account-Based)

Thanks in Advance,

[Former Member]

Thanks!

[Former Member]

If you want any of those 10 functions, you need SEM-BPS 6.0 on NW04S since they are not in BW-BPS. The ones clients miss the most are allocations, account based currency translation probably.

If not, you can use either SEM-BPS 6.0 on NW04S or BW-BPS 7.0 but since you will be installing the SEM addon for BCS 6.0, might as well use SEM-BPS 6.0 if you are decided on BPS.

But I would suggest that you look seriously at BI Integrated Planning in NW044S rather than SEM-BPS 6.0 since BPS is essentially in support mode and only BI-IP will be further developed. Planning on node level/totals is suppose to be out in SP11 and BI-IP can have multiple hierarchies, etc. that BPS cannot.

Hope this helps,

Mary