When to introduce XI?

[Former Member]

Hi folks,

I have the following scenario in our company; We want to consolidate our SAP landscape of 10 R/3 Systems across the organization into 5 systems. Currently we have a LOT of point-to-point interfaces between these systems, they vary from traditional ALE to RFC custom made interfaces.

We have heard of the "wonders" of NetWeaver and want to introduce XI in this landscape. However, the following question have arisen:

<b>When to introduce XI, Before or After consolidation of the SAP landscape?</b> <b>And what are the specific arguments of doing this before or after...</b>

I'm not too much involved into the functional aspects of XI so I can only rely on what our SAP friends have explained us about their marvelous product. That's why I would like to hear some of your thoughts whether it makes sense to introduce XI before we consolidate the systems or right after the complete migration of the landscape has been done.

I appreciate any comments/feedbacks, Thanks.

Message was edited by: Ruud Gertsch

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Well not being an "expert", I would ask the question could you use XI to help the consolidation effort? That is could you move your existing P-T-P interfaces into XI? This way when you start decommissiong servers the interfaces are documented in XI and XI be responsible for all the interfaces...

Other thoughts?

[Former Member]

Recently I got the same question from one of our customers. They wanted to know whether it was good idea to introduce XI before or after the consolidation of their SAP landscape. A couple of Keyfacts I mentioned to them:

The Abstraction level provided by XI, can give you great flexibility when your system environment is evolving/changing. Example: Functionality provided in SLD etc..

Early adoption of XI indirectly means putting the first steps towards ESA. Example: Loosely coupled components in XI, widely use of Open standards like SOAP, WSDL, etc..

Finally but surely not less important is the fact that the sooner XI (and thus the NetWeaver foundation) is adopted in your organization, the sooner your SAP infrastructure will be agile and flexible enough to support your company's business strategy.

That's my point view. Thanks!

R.

Message was edited by: Rob Viana

[Former Member]

Hi,

I believe for consolidation and migration you can consider following points as per i understand.

1. How R/3 Modules are distributed in 10 R/3 systems in your landscape?.

2. Do you want to consolidate the most matching R/3 modules in one R/3 System likewise?.

3. All 10 R/3 systems are having same version of they vary?.

You can use XI before or after consolidation of your systems it is up to you. But if you have some critical module in landscape then it should be first with XI. And if you do not any interdependency between different systems then you can implement XI later on also.

You can use XI in place of ALE / RFC custom point to point connection and benefited by the Hub-and- Spoke model of XI.

Regards

Gopesh

[Former Member]

Thank-you for all your feedbacks. You have pointed out very interesting things to consider before moving into XI. I'll post later on the outcomes of this discussion.

Regards,

Ruud