I am one of the end users of SAP. We complete time sheets, Reliability reports after maintenance and look up parts lists and order parts to support our own repairs to machines.
My question; Is SAP built to be highly user unfriendly? We find it very cumbersome, so much unnecessary information in each form and so many forms to go through to find data.
We have had to abandon our stores catagories and use the SAP ID number, which is given to equipment or parts when the item is entered in the database. Therefore there is no logical seqence. There seems to be no problem with the database itself. It is very stable and doesn't crash, but the GUI is highly unfriendly.
Is this life in the SAP envirnment. I would be grateful for your opinions.
Regards,
Joe Mc Cormack

Which SAP version do you have? What do you mean by store categories which you have to abandon? If you want sequential numbers for equipment & materials, you mass-upload them using templates rather than creating one by one.

I used to dislike SAP PM & MM when I was doing project engineering (for 3 years) but after I moved to maintenance, I start to think of lifecycle cost & reliability which starts from good design. After 4 years in maintenance, I start to teach my ex-colleagues in project to use SAP PM & MM. Now everybody in the company uses SAP PM & MM regardless of their dept or discipline. Previously project people only use SAP MM to raise their PRs & thus no work order history.

I think SAP looks complicated because of the design with many functinalities which users have to master to reap its full benefits. I remember when I was in design class in the U, the prof said that only 20% of functionalities of a well-designed product will be used by users after purchase and the remaining 80% is left unused or to be discovered.

Good luck!

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Josh,

Have you checked NRX?

Josh - you could make a small fortune in the US with that SAP PM know how!

Terry O

Are you sure Terry? Where should I start? I heard US is the land of many dreams come true. Tq

Josh you live in Indonesia?

Josh - a lot of people work hard to make thier dreams come true in the USA although dreams can come true anywhere.

Email me off list and I will make a few suggestions.

Terry O

Svanels, I'm from the western side of the island. The eastern side belongs to Indonesia. TQ

Josh,
We use SAP 3. I had a look at the NRX site which Terence had recommended and it appears to be delivering the GUI which I thought that SAP should be capable of. When you suggest that the functions should be mastered, that's OK for the power users, but for the casual users, it should as complicated as a dictionary. i.e. the information is there, so as few steps as possible should bring the info to the surface. That is my opinion anyway.
NRX looks interesting. I had tried to do the same with MS Access, including drawings and photos in the page. It was partly successful as it was a part time project but I was satisfied with the results and could see that there was great potential for a slick system.
Regards,
Joe Mc Cormack

Have you looked at GUIXT. (See http://www.gixt.com) It is an add-on solution which is bundled free of charge with SAP R/3 release 4.0 and higher. It allows user to enhance the R/3 user interface by customising the layout, defining own push buttons etc.

I haven't used it personally but have seen it demonstrated by SAP at a user conference.

Hi,

I think GuiXT is a potential tool for changing Screens of SAP to look differant. It is quite simple tool also. I have attached a simple IW31 screen that can allow order creation along with important details and to even close the order.

I could do this mock up in a day. Though I am not a great software development oriented man.

Just few simple points

1. GuiXT bundled with SAP can make simple changes in screen. It does not allow multiple transactions and their screen merged in a single screen. (Example given by me is to create an order and also confirmation related data and close a simple maintenance order ). If one needs to do that he will need an special component called Input Assistant from Synactive system, they own GuiXT product. This is priced component, though not much.

2. Changes in the screen should not be too many because many time we need fields that are not thought initially as essential. User than has to get used to two screens. One for simple entries and other for full entries.

I found that more I use SAP more I would capture information and keep details up to date. Integrate differant system in to one simple system. So before venturing in to some simple screen based on some legacy system, I would normally have detailed look at all functions offered by SAP and check if I can use standard screen instead.

As mentioned by Josh, I am now so much used to screen that I may not need to make it simple.

Regards
Hemant

IW31.bmp (1,814 Kb, 26 downloads) IW31 screen with GuiXT

I dont mind the majority of the PM layouts, my issue is that there are so many different styles of screens: ALV, Muti Level Lists, Structures, Enjoy screens, plus the MM "blue screens", planning boards, FI-CO reports etc.

I think SAP would generate a lot more user accptence if they were to start a rationalisation of the different screens.

ATC

Have you looked at LinkOne? People looking for parts can zoom-in and drill-down into a plant drawing, all the way down to a bolt or whatever. Then, they can bring up a work order populated with the SAP part numbers. So, they don't have to use any SAP screens other than the work order to find parts and service info, which is also located with the part.

http://www.mincom.com/products/linkone/integration.asp