© Panaya Inc, 2009 www.panayainc.com

SAP and SAP ERP 6.0 are registered trademarks of SAP AG

10 Ways to Justify the Upgrade to Your

Management

Every upgrade project should start with a clear business justification. We have

listed below some of the most common drivers SAP directors report as a

justification for an upgrade to SAP ERP 6.0. Of course, not all of them will

apply to your situation. Choose the ones that apply to your business.

End of standard support

This one is simple. If your release is not supported, you will need to pay more

for extended maintenance and you may not be able to receive the prompt

problem resolution your business requires.

Sooner is cheaper than later

The longer you wait with your upgrade, the more it will cost. Why? Because

you will have more customizations to upgrade, because some of them will be

so old that no one will know how they work, and because some of the original developers may not be around.

Compliance

According to a recent survey1 conducted with 163 companies, Governance,

Risk and Compliance (GRC) is a key business driver for upgrading to SAP ERP

6.0. Older systems are sometimes not set up to handle increased regulatory

requirements. SAP ERP 6.0 with SAP BusinessObjects™ GRC solutions provides extensive support for financial and environmental compliance such as

SOX, WEEE, and RoHS.

Standardization If you have a substantial number of custom objects, a good deal of them can

probably be replaced by standard SAP functionality that is now available in

SAP ERP 6.0. Plus, you can simply move some of your customizations to be

part of the new enhancements framework. You will reduce your TCO and

increase your flexibility.

Shed redundant code

According to a recent study2, on average, 20%-50% of custom development

is unused. That’s a lot of excess weight that you are paying for every day. If

you use upgrade simulation tools, they can automatically locate unused

objects for removal as part of the upgrade project.

1 Contact Panaya at info@panayainc.com for full details of this survey.

2 Contact Panaya at info@panayainc.com for full details of this study.

© Panaya Inc, 2009 www.panayainc.com

SAP and SAP ERP 6.0 are registered trademarks of SAP AG

New functionality

SAP ERP 6.0 adds hundreds of new, general and industry-specific, features via

enhancement packages. If your business needs this functionality, the upgrade

will save you the cost of custom development.

Enhancement & switch framework

SAP ERP 6.0 brings important benefits: you now get all industry solutions in a

single copy, you can alter the SAP system without the traditional

modifications, and you get new functionality via enhancement packages.

Increase user productivity

SAP ERP 6.0 offers an improved user interface, updated role-based access,

and increased use of Adobe forms. The new user interface can increase productivity and shorten the learning curve.

Consolidating instances

If you are running multiple instances, you could save substantial amounts by

consolidating them into a single instance or into a smaller number of

instances.

Reduce hardware costs

Changing the underlying hardware is a potential area for cost savings.

According to AMR Research Analyst, Derek Prior, switching from UNIX servers

to lower-cost and energy-saving Linux or Windows servers can substantially

reduce costs3.

About Panaya

Established in 2006, Panaya Inc. provides software tools that save SAP

customers up to 50% of their software upgrade and maintenance costs, while

minimizing risks and proving clear ROI. Provided as Software as a Service

(SaaS), Panaya's SAP environment simulation shows which custom SAP

programs will break as a result of an upgrade, explains how to fix them, derives the most efficient test plan, and calculates the required budget and

resources for the project.

To learn more, or apply for a free upgrade evaluation click here:

http://www.panayainc.com/Free-Upgrade-Analysis-for-your-SAP.html

3 Source: http://searchsap.techtarget.com/news/article/0,289142,sid21_gci1340883,00.html#