Notes from the underground

Кто лучше мог сказать, как не он:

Второй раз перечитываю записки человека подпольного:) Так сказать, подпольная читает о подпольном :)) Федор Михалыч гениален, глубокое чутье природы человеческой. 

CoCd country specific fields *presumably* bug

On the bbc, yesterday, they were discussing such topic as solitude. Such a coincidence :) Western psychologists were sharing their most recent experiences of total solitude. That was indeed interesting, how one percepts the meaning of the solitude. One was saying that last time she felt so very lonely was when she was in a passport -control -queue in some airport for one hour and a half, no wi-fi, no willing to talk queue- neighbors :)) One hour and something of solitude...  :)
They were saying that in the US, culturally, you are not allowed to be alone, by your own very self. If you ARE by your own very self, then you will be perceived as a total weirdo, there's something wrong with you. Never been in the US, can not say if this one is true or not. Also they've said that in eastern cultures people are more reserved, people do respect their/other's right on being by their own lonely selves, and that people do need time for themselves, in order to feel the ache of the feeling and stuff like this...
Also there was something about studies, whether it is better for students to listen to one single lecturer for the whole entire good academic hour, and be by their own solitude selves, or interact with others in group discussions.
What else... it is interesting that this becomes a topic of 'seriously scientific' discussion. Now-a-days when people are barely alone 'thanks' to advantages of civilization, people started thinking of escapism as something extraordinary :)


Ok, so...

The topic is quite straightforward, but there is that one thing which I really didn't figure out, if that one is some sort of bug or something.

Assuming that you're customizing company code from the scratch. And you need to add country specific fields into that.

What you're doing is, first, you go to table T001I (via SE16) and start creating entries you're required to:

Assume, you're done with all the fields:

Then assign values to these fields in T001Z table (SE16):

BUT... something went wrong, and fields didn't appear in OBY6 t-code (maintenance of global settings of CoCd). 

After series of experiments on that, I found out, that you need to blank ISO code in view V_T001I (via SM30), this is cross- client table, so, careful :). Have no idea, what is the trick, but before doing that, all I was getting in OBY6 is all of the country- specific fields related to Russian company code. 

ps: wondering if this too shall ever pass...

Norwegian wood and etc.

I've finished 'Norwegian wood' yesterday btw. That one was difficult to fully concentrate on, cause recently there's been so many things I had to accomplish at once. In any of the ways, that book is nothing but another one, sad-love-life story from the Murakami. Toru guy that has that strong and weird feeling towards the girlfriend of his friend which committed suicide. Midori girl with her deviant sex behaviour that fell with Toru. Ah now, that I think of everything I've read, it seems that he himself, I mean Watanabe, psychologically is not pretty normal, he attracts this kind of psychologically deviant people. His way too tough ,cold and always pretending to be cool Nagasawa friend. Naoko girl, my goodness... Kizuki guy, this Midori girl... It is not people being weird around Toru, it is Toru being weird in attracting total weirdos in his life. He gets hurt, but he really enjoys it. Yes, indeed, the fact that he enjoys being totally hurt was proved by his last 2 months trip to Tokyo, living this eremetical (let's call it) lifestyle in there for the good 2 months... Here I need to stop with Murakami, my brain doesn't accepts him any longer, I don't understand many things, for instance, why to have sex with Reiko, with married woman, 19 years older than you...
Thinking of re-reading something really 'life-asserting' from Franz Kafka, Metamorphosis maybe. Tell me what you read, and I'll tell you who you are :))) Heh :)))

Marketing in SAP and stuff

So here is the list of, from my point of view, pretty much interesting cases I myself experienced while doing all these managerial -marketing, pre-sale, sales stuff. This list if very specific, and related only to SAP, so... And, by the way, there's no way you can do decent managerial stuff if you're not from SAP world. Seriously, there's no way you'll understand what your prospect demands from the system, you are not able to convince the prospect that all they want is already there, all you need is just do this super expensive click :) and there you have it, enjoy! :))
You need to have technical background, you have to, otherwise you're out of the game.

So if you're SAP partner company:

(1) Collect all the possible knowledge of your competitors. As far as I know, if we talk about Kazakhstani area, there are 29 partner companies operating on the market. It is a lot. But each single company has its own, specific niche, its own specific industrial niche. One is fixed on providing implementation, deployment, enhancement and etc. services for oil and gas companies, another one for mining and so on and so forth.
Which means they have their own industrial expertise, which is valuable thing, actually. But I really believe that you need to leverage your industrial experiences- if you worked for telecommunication for God knows how long, don't be fixed only on that, go oil and gas, dare to. Experience and expertise is all that matters, after all.
And never underestimate your competitors. Underestimation is such an ignorance.

(2) What are your strengths? Maybe you're good at implementing roll- out projects (you're having good big company names references maybe, you do provide implementation services on timely basis without harming quality of services provided, and etc.).

(3) What are your weaknesses...

(4) I already mentioned leveraging your expertise 'portfolio'. Don't be single- industry -player. It is difficult to switch, cause business processes might be different, or prospect might be a bit sceptic whether you'll be able to do it or no, but there's no way you doubt your own superior abilities. Never stop believing in your own self :)

(5) Threats. Entrance of new rivals on the market brings a very small threat, cause it is difficult to enter that particular market. It is unfair, but that's how this SAP market operates. If you're in the game, then you have to be too big, and there's a very tiny probability for you to fail :))
Among real threats of the market I might mention that most of the companies are already there, most of the large enterprises already run SAP... that's why recently SAP turns to SMB... but again, SMB industry is way too competitive, competitors are way too strong, they have their own strong positions in that niche. If you're 1C fan, why to consider buying some super expensive three lettered click? :)
Speaking of SMB solutions from SAP.. I've tested that SAP Business One OnDemand solution. Cloud based solution, with none SAP interface.. Even I myself, as an SAP 'adept' ;)), wasn't that impressed from what I've seen in there. The only alternative solution for SMBs is SAP A1, on premise.

(6) It is a social marketing era, so don't be afraid to go social, do the networking, meet new influencers or C-level people from different industries.

(7) Customer acquisition ... well, everything has to be clear here, cause probably that's the only thing you were doing since you are there, on the market. Retention of clients ,that's what is really important. Having loyal customers, willing to work with you only is a real success. Unfortunately, there are top managers that are not interested... no, let's say, they are way to busy to care about their own customers they've worked with years ago. It is a huge mistake. You need to care.
Like, for instance, you did the implementation for that pharmaceutical company, everything went well, everyone is happy, you've provided services beginning from business processes analysis phase till go-live and slightly post go-live support. And what happens after? Is there a life that exists after post go-live support? Of course there's a life. And people will certainly need every 5-10 years upgrade services. They might certainly need implementation of new SAP functionalities. They might be in need of further support, development. But you, of course, you are way too busy with your new ideas and projects, so you couldn't care less of your previous clients' needs. And that's way too wrong. Remind of yourself, invite them to your workshops, talk to people, ask their current needs, be in touch with them, it will pay off.
They say that 2-3% of clients' retention brings 25-90% of profit to SAP partner company.

(8) Brand awareness. Participation in SAP workshops, all the possible events organized by local office of SAP is important, period. Not only local office, expand this awareness on international area. If you're working with some specific SAP industrial solution, and there are no consultants/experts available in your own, or neighboring countries, go abroad, meet people, tell them about your own experience in your own geographical area. There's that HERUG conference that will take place this April/May in Latin America, it will be such a shame to miss that one if you're working with SLcM solution.

(9) Green technologies. SAP went green years ago. It can be really interesting for Kazakhstani market to adapt green IT. Need to mention, that there was that Energy Saving Law adapted in 2012. Besides that ,they approved that Governmental Energy Efficiency Program. They also do have official requirement to decrease GDP's energy content by 10% by the end of 2014.
Think of utilizing SAP's Business Objects Sustainability Performance Management in order toanalyze ways of  achieving that 10% decrease of energy content.

(10) Cloud computing, mobile apps, as far as I know, there are no successful precedents on Kazakhstani market..

Migration to New G/L

First thing that comes into your mind is why you need this. 

Seriously, if you're already using the system for quite a while, why to activate new features you're not sure if they migh suit you or not.

That's the question.

Parallel accounting, that's fine. If you were using FI-SL for this, that's fine, you were using parallel accounts- that's also OK.

From my experience, there's one thing I can memorize, when I was so very in need of parallel accounts, and it is one thing only- tax depreciation of fixed assets. From that point, running actual depreciation for assets for depreciation area different from 01, on real G/L accounts to me ,back then, sounded so very cool :)) Or revaluation of fixed assets.

I've tried to dig deeply into the issue. Not that much I know so far about the migration itself, but this is, at least, something. 

First of all check for SAP note 812919 on migration issue. It gives you some hints, also provides you with quite useful links on SAP sources.

There's that migration tool, Migration cockpit which is used to transfer the data from classic Accounting to New General Ledger Accounting and, where necessary, to implement the new functions (such as document splitting) in General Ledger Accounting. This Migration cockpit tool includes some initial standard templates, so if you want to be aware of the consequence of steps you're going to deal with, while implementing your desired scenario (there are 7 scenarios so far, by the way), then you might take a look what cockpit's offering.

Migration to the New G/L has to be considered as a separate project, which is ,on average, 6-8 months length. Why for so long I am wondering, and what is the scaling of 6 months migration project (how many company codes, what functionalities involved, what features are being activated and things like that).

3 phases of the project, 8 possible scenarios, 8 months length implementation... what else should be mentioned. 2 training courses available, one is for New G/L itself and another one for migration. I guess, latter is pretty new one.. 

It says that just a regular consultant is not capable of implementing migration, so there's that special migration service team in SAP you have to deal with while doing this thing.

Scenarios...

From 1-8, they are ranged by the complexity, i.e. features included in each scenario. Say for instance, only parallel accounting, no document splitting... or parallel accounting + document splitting... or everything mentioned before, and Controlling stuff and etc. Scenarios 6-8 for customers already working with new G/L, they have just decided to add some more feautures in it.

It is way too risky... So even if you're doing it yourself, with no SAP migration people involved, think twice. I personally, if there's that super urgent need in using new G/L, I would just do the copy of my current system, with new G/L stuff activated in it, and would start from there, without ruining anything.

Spring is in the air

1Q84..

Q stands for question. Actually, there are lots of unanswered questions left after you're done with the reading. Quite ambiguous, 1000+ pages trilogy btw)) My humble opinion is that the author could have squeeze everything ,he wanted to tell to his loyal readers, in one single book. The whole trilogy is way too static. Yeah, may be God is in the details, but there shouldn't be that sort of exaggeration. Too much of attention you're paying to clothes Aomame wears, of what Tengo thinks again and again when he memorizes his mother's breasts... And all these descriptional stuff on breasts theme. What's the whole idea of emphasizing on this kind of, some ,and I myself, may find disgusting deviations? They were way too much in 'Kafka...', and now once again, main character psychologically 'deceased' with Oedipus complex...You see the dynamics only by the end of the third book, that's why there are so many questions left. Dowager, Tamaru, Little people, for God's sake, what happened to all of them? Knocking on the doors, NHK fee collector's story read from the newspaper... What happened to the idea of causal connection? 

 Murakami often appeals to Chekhov's famous line about the 'gun hanging on the wall'... But what about his own gun?

 Oh, need to admit that almost extreme level of sophistication of 1Q84's characters. Physically strong, god like human beings, able to transcend themselves into the parallel worlds, which in fact, were created within their own imagination, intelligent, having good taste of books, of music... Tolstoy's quote about happiness ...initial idea of it was so very different.

 But those are details))

 I think the book itself is a bit over rated. I do remember, first release of the book in English, while I was living in Italy. Bookstores full of huge ads screaming 'yay, finally the book has been released, BUY it!'. Over- rated. Collective unconscious. 

 So main disappointment is that I didn't find central idea of these good 3 books. You know, when you read the book, you see the movie, there MUST be that central point, that gives answers on unanswered questions, that clarifies doubts, that makes you cry, makes you laugh, shortly touches you, so that after reading it, even if you're forgetting names, forgetting sequences of acts, you do remember that small little thing, that tiny central take away that stays with you. 

Aomame and Tengo were living in their own separate worlds for way too long, so their unification by the end of the book has that unnatural, fake taste. As if they were supposed to unite by the end, no matter what, and they did, no matter what.

ps: everyone is such a critic these days :))) But seriously, I do love Murakami, and I do have a feeling that I myself prefer early Murakami, the one before 'The Underground'.   

SAP Closing Cockpit w example

First ,do all the customizations related to your closing matters (CLOCOC t-code): 

• Create task template (do it by copying one of the standard templates, don’t complicate things:)). So go to menu Template/Task List- Other template/task list:

Save as (do the assignment to organization structure, it can be both CoCd and Controlling area, or each of them separately):

Check for ‘Change value’ option for each of the org structure in your template:

Same goes with CoCd values.

• Now let’s create folder that will include tasks we need to implement during the period- end closing (assume, we’re working with monthly closing routine. I am going to plan depreciation posting run for current period).

So create variant for t-code AFABN:

Variant has to be created for background processing only due to requirements of that particular program:

Assign deprecation run task to newly created folder in your template:

To set the precise date and timing for depreciation run, use Monitor function on the control panel (toggle between monitor and list display):

So we’re getting following parameters for our task run:

Length of the task run and all that is adjustable by using ‘Change task’ function:

Un-tick all the non-relevant assignments to closing type btw (we’re working with month- end closing).

• Now, based on this template we need to create our actual task list. Go to main menu in CLOCOC, then ‘Create task list’ option:

Key date is going to be –today.

Closing type- M (i.e. montly).

Posting period and year- February, 2014.

And release the task list by changing status of it:

Now your task list is ready- ready.

• Next go to CLOCO t-code, which is actually Closing Cockpit, check if your task list has been created. Schedule it. And that’s it.

That’s about it.

After our task has been implemented successfully, you can check for output of implemented task:

Double click on spool column:

Check for the log:

As it was already mentioned, you can also add your own developments into the task list. In order to do so work with the following t-codes: SCMATRANSACT and SCMAPROGRAMS ,for transactions and programs respectively.