Reader Reviews

"I would just like to thank you for your amazing document on Packing. I have been instructed to find an urgent solution to generate and print barcodes, and use SAP's standard Packing functionality to pack cartons onto pallets and then into containers, all of which must have their own SSCCs. I struggled for a week to get information until someone told me about the ERPtips white paper on Packing. I have been using this article to pull the system apart, testing and finally understanding the basics of Packing in SAP for the first time in my life! Thank you very much for the time and effort put into this topic, and for the fun way of explaining this 'secret' with readers."

Lizel de Villiers, SAP SD Systems Analyst, Distell Information Technology

Comments from the IT Staff at SaskPower, Canada

"This journal is an interesting read - especially for a subject such as SAP that can, for many folks, be quite technical, overwhelming and complex. The feature articles are varied, relevant, current and an appropriate length. The articles are interesting, enlightening and entertaining."

"I liked the writing style - all of the articles seemed to be written in a conversational style and I really appreciated the Editor's Note at the beginning of each article as well as a conclusion or summary at the end."

"This issue had great variety and although I was interested at a high level in all of the articles, I found myself wanting to share selected articles with specific support team members. ERPtips is written in a manner that is 'light on excess quantity (ie. articles are to the point) and heavy on quality (ie. value add substance)'."

"Panasonic is subscribing to ERPtips due to the very positive evaluation of your free download issue. The number of topics covered, such as Financials, APO, Architecture, Data Archiving as well as access to White Papers presents a compelling knowledge resource at a low cost.   Our expectation is that ERPtips will continue to provide us with outstanding knowledge and will help us keep up with SAP's changing technology."

Glen J. Hoos, Panasonic Industrial Company, Applications Development Project Manager
Business Systems Division

"We enjoy the unlimited membership of ERPtips. ERPtips allows us to consistently and economically share this useful information with a varied group of business analysts, IT technologists and some business folks. The articles are timely and are helping us develop business and performance strategies that are proven!"

 Julie Jacobs, IT Security and Directory Services, Steelcase, Inc.

"Caltex Oil has acquired an unlimited subscription to ERPtips because it contains very practical ideas and solutions covering a wide range of SAP modules. It applies not just to our IT professionals, but also to our SAP users. We see it helping us in planning, implementing, and making the most of our SAP system."

 Glen Bradnum, Application Support Team Leader, Caltex Oil

"Wow, in-the-trenches first-hand experience that will benefit clients and consultants alike. In particular, the data conversion matrix by Jaihar Murli is thorough, complete and an excellent example of managing your project risk. This matrix alone is worth the price of a year's subscription.

Getting the best business result out of the CO module by Russ Hardy and the article by Jim O'Day on executing a release upgrade both really struck a chord with me. Their comments about core SAP R/3 underutilization or cluttered with configuration not used are on target. Optimizing or maximizing a company's return on their SAP investment is truly value-added. Both articles provide concrete, albeit different means towards this goal.

And the CIO Corner by Harry Joiner illustrates a critical point: Optimizing SAP investment means focusing on people and processes, the software is only an enabler. Harry has it right."

Kent Bettisworth, Bettisworth Associates

"Congratulations on an in-depth, comprehensive guide for SAP users; technical, functional, and business group strategists. As an HR professional, and applications specialist, I have to say your publication is so valuable to the SAP community.  The authors approached their topics in clear and concise ways that make the articles very practical and user friendly. The fact that the articles are written in lay terms is a definite plus, and the reader is clearly warned against actions which may lead to problems. The articles not only teach you how to perform the task at hand but they also provide details and teach fundamentals along the way. This Journal is a keeper...a must read for anyone serious about utilizing and leveraging SAP. "

Linda Armstrong, Crompton Corporation, HR Systems Analyst

"It was both interesting and useful to read the first issue of the ERPtips Journal. With our Business Warehouse project just around the corner, we mostly focused on Arthur Pesa's article about BW. After reading it together with our Basis people, who are still beginners in BW, we got much clearer impression about factors of performance. Our data conversion from legacy system to R/3 is in the past, but I completely agree with conclusions of the article by Jaihar Murli. Some other topics, such as APO, were also excellent."

Giedrius Staskevicius, Systems Implementation Manager, VP Market, Lithuania

"The articles were well-written, and understandable. Information was provided on current topics with practical solutions. ERPtips provides readers with the tools and techniques that allow you to deliver exceptional results to end users. In today's environment, you have to evaluate what's changing and what's staying the same, what's working and what's no longer working. Reading ERPtips will help us perform our jobs better and find new ideas that will work for our company."

Top Martinez, Crompton Corporation, IT Audit Manager

"Your articles are very insightful. I find that rather than "pigeon holing" the contents to a particular reader base, ERPtips presents a range of perspectives. An example of this can be seen in this past edition's cover story, "An opinionated guide to the Best (and Worst) Approaches to Portals Installations."

Not only does this article explore the basic factors that should be taken into consideration when planning an SAP Portals project (i.e. how to scope, staff, train, estimating deliverables, etc..), but in addition, it goes a few steps deeper to analyze a point that many project managers may easily miss: don't overwhelm end users by over-building content and providing additional functionality that they don't need. Instead, roll out small chunks of functionality to small groups of users--functions that will add significant business value to their day-to day tasks.

I found this article to be very beneficial, because in addition to recommending the right way to deploy a SAP Portal implementation, it also analyzes other SAP Portal rollout strategies and addresses the potential pitfalls that can arise. This cover story is typical of ERPtips articles: well written, very easy to read, and, most importantly, very informative.

Harris Quddos, National Drilling Company