Transcript

00:00:00 - [ANDRE_HOLTHUSEN]
Let's have a quick look at who wants to join as well, but I think it's time to start. Yes. Let's do it. And very welcome to our kickoff presentation, our SAP r three update kickoff presentation. And for you, happy afternoon. We will guide you through this present presentation, give you some information about our SAP r three update within the next thirty to forty five minutes. Hopefully, it will not take the whole hour, but it depends on how many questions you have. And just in case we will get too much into detail, then please stop us, and we will just focus on the topics. And we hope we definitely do this on the topics that are interesting for you and that are relevant for you. But first, why am Tobias and I presenting you this information or giving you this information? This that's the question we'll answer during this presentation. But for now, Tobias, would you like to introduce yourself that everybody knows who is sitting virtually in opposite of them and who will guide us through this presentation next to me.

00:01:42 - [TOBIAS_MAURER]
Thank you very much, Andre. Yes, my name is Tobias. I am in the team SAP Basis and Authorizations, and I am the technical part in this project. So for any technical topics, technical questions, or even for login topics or authorization topics, I am the right person. Back to you, Andre.

00:02:08 - [ANDRE_HOLTHUSEN]
My name is Andre. I'm supporting the program management team, means Felix Ammerich, Markus Moser, and I joined the program in 2023, so in June or July it will be three years I think, it's three years. So we definitely experienced a lot over the past years, in the past years, and for me I only had three years from much more, but it's very exciting what will follow and come within the next years as well. But right now, in front of us we will have the SAP R3 update. And as you can see over here, our slogan for this project that we have to focus on within the next three months is that we definitely want to legacy, that we will have the legacy stabilized and that we get future ready, and what it means we will show you and present later on. As you can see, we have three topics we want to talk about, and first of all, we'll start with the general information, giving you an update on the project organization, and of course, what definitely should not miss today's meeting is your contribution. Why do we need you and what is it what we need from your side. Beginning with the general information, as you can see on the left side on the slide, why are you producing Festool power tools? Why do customers buy these tools? Usually to build something and create something completely new, or as you can see in this case, to restore something. And sometimes restore something looks even better than new things, but it depends. What our focus will be with this project is to restore something, and still for the next three years, companies or some TTS organizations, Festool organizations will need to use the R3, you call it most of the times, P10 system. And this update, why do we need this? Even we only have to use it for some more years, for some countries and parts of the company, we need to prevent the loss of SAP maintenance. SAP told us that the latest status of our R3 P10 system will not be maintained anymore, So therefore, we have to make sure that in case something happens, in case of some legal changes, we will have the latest update, and this is what we want to make sure. As you can see, we will prevent the increase of operational risk because SAP tells us that they won't help us in case anything happens because of the old status of our system. We want to prevent potential project delays on our Sfour transformation activities because this could happen when we face and if we face some issues with the legacy systems, and we have to focus on the legacy system instead of going live and focus on our OS4 transformation activities. And last but not least, higher overall cost. Why do we have would have them? It's very simple and is nearly explained from the aspects before, because the costs would raise, because SAP will not help us. Therefore, many, many more people from our side would have a look at how can we fix something in emergency situations. We maybe would not be able to fix them very quick. We would have to update so so many things upfront, and this is what we definitely want to prevent. Are there any questions from your side about the why, why the update is needed? Lucky us, let's switch over to the next topic. When we answered why the update is needed, then I think the next question that comes up is the how. How do you want to update the system? Usually, you will have the main focus on the P10 system. We have several other systems, two of them, the E10 and C10 system, but you are just working in the production system, the P10, and that's your focus in your daily business. But before we will update the P10 system, the production system you are using a daily base, we will have some tests upfront. So first we will update the i10 system, C10 system, and then on the go live weekend, that's what we want to tell you later on, we will update the PTEN system, the ProbacTIVE system. What's very important for you and the information you should take out of the slide is that in the time slot from March 30 to June 21, we will not be able to make any systems changes except of emergency situations. What would an emergency situation be? For example, you cannot deliver any products because of something changed in the system, why ever, and we definitely have to fix it very quick. Otherwise you will not be able to get products out of the warehouse. This would be an example for an emergency situation that the business sucks and you cannot proceed and everything is stuck in the company. But for these emergency situations, we have only a way figured out that in this situation, we will be able to make some changes and bring the changes into the P10 system, but for emergency situations only.

00:09:44 - [TOBIAS_MAURER]
Yeah, and Andre, one additional information because we had this question last time. So this is not about changes like creating bills or using the warehouse like normal operation things. You can still change this and use the system normally. We are talking about technical changes like changing customizing or let's say doing another programming for you. So those are the changes which are not possible, or let's say which are restricted for emergency situations.

00:10:21 - [ANDRE_HOLTHUSEN]
Thank you, Tobias. And as you can see, during all the time, beginning from today on, There are no operational restrictions. That's what you already said, mentioned before, two beers. So there are no operational restrictions for you. You can use the P10 system as usual, and as you did today, as you're still doing it, except of the go live weekend. You may remember some emails we got in the past when in the email it was written that the system will have a downtime in a time slot and this will happen on the go live weekend as well. But except of this go live weekend, you have no operational restrictions. That's what you already explained to us. So then one system besides the PTEN system is also necessary that you know it because you will perform some tests upfront and make sure that all processes you are working with and you're working on every single day, that they are still in place, still work as expected even after the update. For this, as I already mentioned before, we will update the C10 system, prepare it with the update, and after this, you will be able and have a time, the so called integration tests, which start on May 18 and will long until June 12. In this time, you will have the chance to validate the processes, your processes, that they will work as expected and that they are working still as in P10. But to test these processes, what is needed? We definitely need an overview about the most relevant business processes and therefore as you can see, the first topic, the first activity and contribution from your side would be that you identify the most relevant business processes on your side, that you name them, that we know what they are, and that we know what needs to be tested, and then you are able to validate and test them during our integration test phase. Because this is the second step as the processes are identified, the test processes needs to be defined, and of course they need to be pregated as test case, and these test cases can be tested later on. Third, last but not least, is that you during the integration test will report the bugs that needs to be fixed, and for this, IT colleagues will have a look at the bugs, fix them, and after they're fixed, he will retest the process and hopefully the bug is fixed. Otherwise, we need to make some other changes to fix anything that occurs. Is there a question from your side until now? Because we'll get a little bit deeper in it into it. Hi.

00:14:22 - [BARBARA_BEMENT]
This is Barb in The US. I have a question about the process things that runin the background or overnight. Will those also run so our processes would imitate what we have now?

00:14:43 - [TOBIAS_MAURER]
That's a very good question. So we don't have all the background jobs applied from the productive system in the test system. That's correct. But we can, let's say, simulate those runs. So it will be kind of a manual task to do because it also prevents to have the test system doing any productive stuff. But we can run this manually, basically. So this would be the the case there. So if you can tell what is being done overnight or automatically even on daytime, then, yeah, we can figure it that out.

00:15:37 - [BARBARA_BEMENT]
Okay. So I'm gonna guess we have to test the invoicing, and that's one of the things that kicks off overnight.

00:15:44 - [TOBIAS_MAURER]
Yeah. Definitely.

00:15:47 - [BARBARA_BEMENT]
Okay. Thank you.

00:15:51 - [ANDRE_HOLTHUSEN]
Thank you for the question, Barbara. And usually, jobs that will run overnight will be processed by you, for example, to create an invoice that you will have a look at on the invoice during the integration test. So there's there are some things that run automatically right now in p 10, but that we have to take a closer look during the integration test. This this would mean after you created the sales order and you delivered the products that you will create you might create an invoice manually that you have a look on the result and if the invoice is created correctly, just as an example. When talking even about how, how do we update our systems? That's what I already mentioned before, and we just need there's a lot of information on the slide, but we just need to focus on two, the red highlighted activities. First of all, as we talked about the integration test preparation that you need to identify the relevant processes, that we will create the test cases for these processes that you can test then in the integration test already mentioned before that time from May to June. And then we are prepared for the go live weekend. Besides this and all these activities needs to be runin parallel, this is nothing you have to do. You have to focus just on the preparation of the test phase. You have to test the test cases and perform the tests and besides this all other things and activities will be done from our side. This slide is just to give you a little overview about what happens in parallel to your activities and what needs to be done in parallel to get a successful go live and to get the systems updated. Please interrupt and raise your questions in case you have one. After we answered the question why we need the update, we answered the question how we will update the systems. But right now the question what will be changed and is changed is still open. So what will change is that definitely you cannot you cannot think about new features that will come and that the update will bring you new features. So this will not happen, But instead, this update will impact some existing or might have an impact on existing functionalities. And this could be reports you are using, white transaction codes, or any other modification. Modification is usually something like the white transaction or reports, but this is what the IT will help you with and identify so that we definitely can make sure that all modification on the r three systems are known and that we can test them and that you can test them and will validate that the process still is working and as expected. In some cases, updates can change the SAP standard functionalities. What does it mean? You could expect that it might be that there is another field in one transaction. Usually it's not the case, but it could be and could happen just in case you will see another field. Most of the time you can ignore it, but then we'll have a closer look to this, but usually this should not happen. Most important is that the scope of the SAP r three update is limited to the main maintaining an existing system functionalities. So whatever is in place and works in the p 10 system today Is this you can expect that it will work after the update, but what you cannot expect is that we will bring any new features into the p 10 system. This will not happen. We do not have time for this to bring any features or updates on new functionalities into the legacy system landscape, therefore this is highlighted that you definitely know that this is something that will not happen. And hopefully, do do not expect a tool from our side that we will do this because this is something we cannot cannot deliver.

00:21:28 - [TOBIAS_MAURER]
Yeah. So in detail, this is about the support package stack update. So we are not doing an enhancement package upgrade, which means we are getting bug fixes from SAP standard software and also getting security improvements, all the security notes implemented. And also if there are, like, legal requirements and so on, they can also be activated then. So this is the scope basically, but no enhancement package there.

00:22:09 - [ANDRE_HOLTHUSEN]
So what would help us a lot would be if you still focus on the processes that are working today. We mentioned before that we need to identify the processes, the main your main business processes, that we definitely test them. But, of course, during the tests, it would be great if we just can focus on the functionalities that are in place and that are used by you and not focus on anything that would change or bring bring any changes or new features. That's that's all for the general information and our answers to the questions why, how, and what. Let's have a look on and a closer look at the project organization. Tobias, you told before that you are responsible for the technical part, and yes, that's the answer why Tobias and I are presenting you or and giving you this presentation today because we are the project management team for the SAP r three update. Tobias, you you are the technical lead and the organizational lead means you can just directly contact me, and we'll make sure that we will answer you as soon as possible and you can raise questions or any other things that are unclear, please contact us directly and we hope that we can help you directly and very soon. As you can see, on the slide, have different departments or so called SAP modules for each country. For you, it's The US on the right and Canada on a little bit more to the left. As you can see, we already typed in some names. Why do we have these names on this chart and on the slide? We just want to make sure that we will have one person in charge of or who's responsible for the SAP module or business department. In case we have some questions, we can directly go to this person who is in charge of the processes, who can give us answers, for example, about the main business processes, about the test procedure, etcetera. So this is what we need, a responsible person. We already typed in some names. Please check these names if they are correct. In case it's not the case, please just give us a short information and then we will change the name and the responsibilities. As you can see for Canada, we do not have a person in place for sales, so this would be very helpful if you can name one person who's responsible for Canadian sales, and is it that you already have? That would also be Pascal. Pascal, okay, you. So then I will make sure to type in the name. And just in case other names are not correct for The US or Canada, please let us know and we will change it right after the presentation. What's the structure of our project besides the project organization? So first of all, we have the Teams channel in place and also created it, and right after the presentation, we'll send out the link to the presentation via email In case you do not have access to the team in Teams, then please let us know and we will make sure that you will get the access and that you can have access to all relevant files. You can also upload some files and data information from your side in case you miss folders, for example, something that you miss in the folder structure, please contact me and we will make sure that we will update it and add it to the already existing structure. This meeting was a little bit on a short notice, so what we want to make sure is to give you an outlook on the meetings that are still in front of us, and for this we have figured out some dates. First of all, it will be the March 31 where we have a little training on test case creation. For this, for example, we wanted to know who's responsible for each business department or SAP module that we know who to invite to. Then we will have on the May 5 the TTS tool training. All test users will be invited. Please make sure to forward the invitation to every colleague who's in charge or responsible for, for example, some further tests. In future, we will just invite the person and the people, the colleagues who are responsible, and the named colleagues on the slide for the different departments, and please feel free to forward the meeting invitations in case someone else should attend. The meetings will be sent out until the end of this week, but I did not tell you about the other ones. So on May 18, we will have our kickoff of the integration test. Fridays, all Fridays during the time of our integration tests, we'll have a weekly update meeting that we just get in touch, get an overview about the status, any other questions you might have, for example, we can answer in these meetings, but of course if you have some other questions that needs to be answered upfront, just give me a call or send us a chat, email, whatever, it fits to you and is suitable for you. The last meeting during our integration test will be the summary on the June 12, and last but not least, we will have the update meeting on the P10 Go Live right up front, the Go Live Weekend. We assumed and saw in the internet that on the June 19, you will have public holiday. Is it correct? June 19?

00:30:21 - [TOBIAS_MAURER]
I actually can't remember if we got that off this year or not.

00:30:25 - [BARBARA_BEMENT]
No, we do not have that as a holiday.

00:30:28 - [ANDRE_HOLTHUSEN]
Okay, then thank you very much for giving us this feedback. To be honest, we have to rethink about our go live procedure on the weekend, but we will definitely make sure that we will give you all information you need from our side, what will happen during the go live weekend, more important for you, what will happen on Monday when you open your notebook and the P10 system with a new update in case you face some issues, bugs or something like this, we will make sure to give you all the information you need, where to raise tickets, for example, etcetera, etcetera. So this will be in the week before the go live weekend. We got the information yesterday from European colleagues that we will have another international meeting going on from Festool on the June 18, so we will have a look that there are no other meetings in the same time slot. That's what we will make sure until the end of this week. Last but not least, we have the test tools where the tests are performed, you will have the descriptions what to be tested and how it will be tested, etcetera, etcetera. So we will have three test tools. So there are three test tool and the Focused Builds test tool. You will just usually use one except of the intercompany, but for this to be asked yesterday, we raised the question and asked the other colleagues, who is familiar with our R3 test tool? Is there someone in this call and meeting who is familiar with this test tool? And Tobias, may I hand over to you that you can just share your screen and give us an overview about this tool because I think this might help.

00:32:43 - [TOBIAS_MAURER]
Yes, sure, I can show it.

00:32:47 - [ANDRE_HOLTHUSEN]
Out of my understanding, this tool was used six years ago, I think, the last time.

00:32:59 - [TOBIAS_MAURER]
Yes, that's correct. So on 2020, there was the last support package update, which is basically the same technical thing we are doing now. So I will log on into the C10 system. I switched my language to English. So the test tool is basically in a in a menu, or you can also find it via the transaction. So let me change the settings so you can see the transaction because I think you know it from the transaction, maybe. So basically, you start with ytt approach, like project, and then there you can find all the projects. And the thing we are talking about is basically this one SAP ERP support package tests, like IntegrationTestUS, for example. And now we will pick everything, And then you see all the test cases, and the test cases do include steps. So if you go, like, daily actual posting, then you see, okay, those are test steps with transaction codes. What is test? And our question is, is somebody of you familiar with this one? Does anyone know it?

00:34:44 - [ANDRE_HOLTHUSEN]
And please raise your hand. Looks like nobody is familiar with this. Okay, then what we definitely will make sure is that you do not use both test tools. We will make sure that you are just using one test tool. Thank you, Tobias. As you already could see, there are some test cases defined in the old test tool, and we would be able to download all test cases and make sure that you can have a closer look at these test cases. Maybe they will help you and give you just an explanation of what level the description is expected and would be helpful, etcetera, etcetera. But this is what we will do right after and within the next two days to make sure that you will get all information you need and that we will just make it as easy as possible for you. And I think that's the time right now to talk about your contribution. We already mentioned that we will have the integration test preparation. What is needed from your side is to identify the most relevant processes. For this, we will make sure to download the test cases that are already in the old test tool. They might help you to identify these processes, but also think about what do I mainly do. For example, every single day I think you will create a sales order. You will make bookings. You will have inbound, outbound deliveries, etcetera, etcetera. This is what happens on a daily basis, and this is what we have to identify and definitely test during our integration test, as well as reports you are using, especially in finance and controlling why transaction codes, they are in place I think a lot in The US, you're using lots of them, and so this is what we definitely have to make sure, that when you use them that they look like in the P10 system, and that's what we will make sure during our integration test. Prepare test cases would be the next step right after the identification. As you can see, we will have Let me have a look. It's one and a half, one and a half to two more weeks for the identification. Then we will start with the preparation of test cases. For this, we have one month planned. Why one month? Because especially in Europe, have some public holidays, but also you have your daily business working on and you have to focus on. So this is what we want to make sure. We know that everything with the R3 update is on top on your daily business and daily work. So therefore we wanted to make sure that you have some more time for the preparations. The last day will definitely be the May 1 for the preparations because then we need two more weeks to set up test plans, make the system ready that you can start on time on the May 18. With the testing, you will have four weeks for the testing phase itself, as already said before, and then we will have the go live weekend on June 20. From 06222026 on, you will be able to work on an updated system and on an SAP system with the latest version that is then in place. That's all from our side. Are there questions from your side? Any information that you miss, anything that, for example, we did not explain good enough or made it not clear, then please ask and raise your questions, because we have still some time left.

00:40:18 - [TOBIAS_MAURER]
While we are waiting for questions, I have one additional information. So all you know, we had an outage of the P10 last week, starting from Wednesday. And we are very sorry about the downtime, about the problems occurred, but I just want to tell you that this was not related to this project here and that we are very happy that it also is not affecting this project timeline. So we can still manage to get this project done in the timeline we planned. But yeah, now it's for you, for your problem sorry, for your questions. Do we have any questions?

00:41:02 - [ANDRE_HOLTHUSEN]
The presentation will definitely be shared with you. I will send out the link via email right after our meeting. So, of course, yeah, it won't come. Just in case, some questions, phrases during the next hours or the next days, please ask us, reach out to us, give us a call via Teams, chat us via Teams or send an email, whatever you like. But please make sure that you raise the question and that we are able to answer them. Thank you very much for joining our meeting. Thank you very much for your time. We are looking forward for the next months and are very happy to bring the R3 system into the latest status and to bring the new updates into the system, but without new features. This will not happen, but everything that is included in the update, especially for security reasons, this will be updated and brought into the systems. Thank you very much. Have a great and successful afternoon and have a good evening. Bye bye. Have a good day.

00:42:35 - [BARBARA_BEMENT]
Bye. Thanks.

00:42:37 - [TOBIAS_MAURER]
Goodbye. Bye, guys.

00:42:38 - [BARBARA_BEMENT]
Thank you. Bye.