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JULY 15, 2006 WINSHUTTLE, INC. 2005 WINSHUTTLE, INC. 18323 BOTHELL-EVERETT HWY, SUITE 375 BOTHELL, WA 98012, USA (800) 711-9798 WWW.WINSHUTTLE.COM ! The Legacy System Migration Workbench (LSMW) is a technical tool provided by SAP to help with the data migrations during initial implementations. It is also used by some SAP customers to make mass changes to master data in SAP. This article describes an easy non-technical alternative to update customer master records in fewer steps than LSMW; without technical involvement or requiring extra-authorizations in SAP. Using the tools and techniques described in this paper, hundreds of SAP customers are realizing vast productivity improvements in their SAP data loading and data update projects. Moreover, these projects are being carried out by business users themselves. " A recent series of published articles 1 2 3 4 describe a business application common to many SAP customers making mass updates to data in SAP R/3 or mySAP systems. The particular application of interest in these articles is to make a mass change to customer records such as Sales Office, Sales Group or Customer Group fields via the XD02 transaction in SAP. In the referenced articles, the suggested tool for making such changes is the Legacy System Migration Workbench (LSMW) tool from SAP. The articles give an excellent description of LSMW and go through a series of 14 steps involved in making a mass change to the customer master data. In this article, we introduce a much easier alternative to make such a mass update to the customer master records. We will show how the TxShuttle software can be used to easily accomplish the same business application in fewer steps. These steps can be run by business super-users or functional analysts without requiring extra authorizations to run LSMW sessions in SAP. 1SCM Expert Article (http://www.scmexpertonline.com/downloads/SCM_LSMW_StepsOnWeb.doc) 2 CRM Expert Article (http://www.crmexpertonline.com/archive/Volume_02_(2006)/Issue_02_(March)/v2i2a2.cfm) 3 FICO Expert Article (http://ficoexpertonline.com/downloads/0703.doc) 4 All SAP Links Article (http://www.allsaplinks.com/lsmw.html) Untitled DocumentJULY 15, 2006 # WINSHUTTLE, INC. 2005 Towards the end of the article we provide some other points of comparison between the TxShuttle application and LSMW. %& ' The following are the 14 steps required for updating the customer master records using the LSMW tool. More details about each of the following steps can be found in the above referenced articles. 1. Maintain Object Attributes - First the transaction XD02 is recorded using a batch-input recording session. Each field on every screen in the recording is edited and given a name. Depending on the number of screens visited and the number of fields to be uploaded, this step could take a long time to finish. 2. Maintain Source Structures In this step, a source structure is named for the upload. 3. Maintain Source Fields Here, all the fields that will be uploaded are given names and their format is precisely defined. 4. Maintain Structure Relations In this step, a relationship I defined between the source structure and source field. For the customer master loading example, this relationship is automatically determined and this step does not require any work. 5. Maintain Field Mapping and Conversion Rules Here, every field recorded in Step 1 is mapped to the source fields defined in Step 3. 6. Maintain Fixed Values, Translations, User-defined Routine In this step of LSMW, any data translations that need to be done are defined. In the customer master example, this step is skipped. 7. Specify Files In this step, you point at a tab-delimited file to be uploaded. If the source data file is in Excel, then that Excel file would need to be saved as a tab-delimited file. 8. Assign Files - This step is automatic for this example. 9. Import Data Here, the source file is imported into the system. 10. Display Imported Data -This is an optional step where the imported file can be displayed for verification. 11. Convert Data Here the imported data is converted into the appropriate input format. 12. Display Converted Data This is another optional step where the converted data can be displayed for verification. 13. Create Batch Input Session In this step, a batch session is created which can run the XD02 transactions to make the change to the data. 14. Run Batch Input Session - In the final step, the batch session is actually executed via the SM35 transaction. Even though not all 14 steps are required, the process of carrying out such a mass data change with LSMW is involved and can be quite lengthy. Untitled DocumentJULY 15, 2006 ( WINSHUTTLE, INC. 2005 ) In this section, we introduce the TxShuttle program and show how simple it can be to update customer master records. Assuming you already have an Excel file with data that needs to be uploaded; the three basic steps involved in uploading this data to SAP using TxShuttle are: 1. Record any SAP transaction via TxShuttle. 2. Map the recorded fields to Excel fields, via an easy drag-and-drop mapping. 3. Run the upload to SAP. When you start TxShuttle, the TxShuttle screen as displayed Figure 1 is brought up. Figure 1 The TxShuttle Main Screen ' *+,# Click on the New button on the TxShuttle screen to start a new recording. When prompted, enter the transaction code XD02. TxShuttle then launches XD02 transaction and prompts you to complete the Change Customer transaction, as shown in Figure 2. Enter the key customer information and choose Sales view within Sales area data . Make changes to the three required fields (sales office, sales group, and customer group) and save the transaction. Untitled DocumentJULY 15, 2006 - WINSHUTTLE, INC. 2005 Figure 2 Transaction Recording for Transaction Code XD02 #' . Once the recording is completed, TxShuttle allows you to choose the Excel file data source and displays a mapping screen; which is divided into two parts: (1) a listing of all the SAP fields that were touched during the recording, with the field values that were entered during the recording, and (2) a preview of the Excel spreadsheet to be uploaded. See Figure 3. Figure 3 TxShuttle EasyMapper Initial Screen Excel File Preview SAP fields touched during recording Untitled DocumentJULY 15, 2006 / WINSHUTTLE, INC. 2005 The process of mapping the Excel columns with the SAP fields is as simple as dragging and dropping the Excel columns shown in the Excel Preview to the SAP Fields on the top-half of the mapper screen. At the end of the drag-and-drop operation, the mapper appears as shown in Figure 4. Excel column A is mapped to the Customer Account Number field, column B is mapped to the Sales Organization field, and so on, for all 7 fields that were touched during the recording. Figure 4 TxShuttle EasyMapper Mapped Screen (' Once the mapping is complete, we are ready to run the transaction. As shown in Figure 5, simply open the XD02 script in TxShuttle, point to the Excel file that you wish to upload, specify the start row, the end-row, and the column for the results to be logged in. Once all the input parameters have been specified, click on the Run button to start the upload of the Excel file into SAP. The user is prompted to log on to SAP just before the run. This logon verifies the user has authorization to run the XD02 transaction. If the user has the appropriate authorization, the transactions are processed in real-time and the messages coming back from SAP are displayed in the column specified as the log column, as shown in Figure 6. Transactions that result in an error are clearly highlighted. The records with data errors can be fixed and a second upload run can be performed only for those records. The audit-trails in SAP are completely preserved with the name of the user who carried out the upload. Untitled DocumentJULY 15, 2006 0 WINSHUTTLE, INC. 2005 Figure 5 TxShuttle Screen showing the fields to be entered before the transaction run Figure 6 Excel sheet showing the data and the resulting output from SAP Untitled DocumentJULY 15, 2006 WINSHUTTLE, INC. 2005 &) As can be clearly seen from the past few pages, using TxShuttle for updating customer master records is an easy alternative to LSMW and can significantly improve productivity for mass data loading. Some key points of comparison between LSMW (used in the Batch Input Recording mode) and TxShuttle: " Authorization: TxShuttle does not require extra authorizations and runs with authorizations that a user typically has. The use of LSMW typically requires developer-level authorization in SAP and is not available to most business users or functional analysts. " Integrated Logs: In TxShuttle, the results that are returned from SAP reside in the same spreadsheet as the data making it very convenient and quick to correct and reprocess erroneous records. In LSMW/SM35, the results that come back from SAP reside in a separate screen and it can get painful to iteratively identify and fix erroneous records. " Header & Multiple Line Item Data: TxShuttle allows the loading of common transaction data such as invoices, journal vouchers, purchase orders, etc. where each record can have a variable number of line items. This kind of data is impossible to upload with LSMW s Batch Input Recording mode since the number of fields in the recording has to match the number of fields to upload exactly. " Native Excel Integration: TxShuttle works natively with Excel data without needing to convert it to tab-delimited or comma delimited formats. TxShuttle also works with Excel formulas natively so individual fields can be calculated or referenced from other sources. With LSMW, data has to be converted to a tab delimited or comma delimited file format before it can be uploaded. Native Excel integration leads to significant productivity improvements. " More Powerful Recording: TxShuttle provides a few different recording modes and a more powerful recorder than the LSMW batch-input recorder. Thus, TxShuttle is able to handle significantly more transactions and application, compared to LSMW. " Download data from SAP: With TxShuttle, you can also download data from SAP. While running transactions, TxShuttle allows you to download specific screen fields into an Excel column. With TxShuttle you can also automate the running of reports and downloading these reports into local files. LSMW does not allow such downloads. " No Transports Required: With TxShuttle, no transports are required to move upload programs from one system to another. A script can be easily recorded in a QA system and immediately run on production without waiting for transports. " Run-time Version: TxShuttle is also offered in a light run-time version for users who may not be creating scripts, they only run upload scripts previously created. With LSMW, all users by definition are allowed to create or change the upload script. Thus, deploying TxShuttle across the enterprise is much easier and safer. " Fully Supported: TxShuttle users are fully supported by telephone and email by the technical support team at Winshuttle, Inc. Winshuttle support engineers have extensive experience and knowledge of SAP transactions in many SAP modules and they can individually help users build their specific upload scripts.
