Monday, October 24, 2011

SAP :: Go-live phenomenon ... Handling the pressure

Setup is ... you have worked hard ... either right from the beginning of the project or jumped in somewhere in between; either ways, whatever you have gone through uptil now was peanuts ... as compared to what lies ahead!!!

And its not just any go-live ... its SAP IS-U ... the utility billing solution ... so there is money on the line and lots of it. This is when the true nature of a person is revealed. Can you handle that???

Being part of the project right from inception, when the kick-off meeting was held in Sheraton (A top hotel) ... the aspirations were very different ... the objectives were even more diverse ... stakes were not understood well enough ... but nevertheless .. a truly cross-functional team was formulated .. and the ball started to roll

If I say it was a bumpy ride ... right from the word GO ... it would surely be an understatement. Nevertheless, there was always something to takeaway from those long, wayward, chaotic and at times dismal meetings called "Process Workshops" ... 

Things went on ... whatever that was taken away from the workshops was documented in the form of blueprint. Oh boy, BLUEPRINTS ... nevertheless ... there was fighting (constructive ahem ahem) ... but things went on ... dips and rise ... (let me skip to the end now) ... we all evolved and it was the time now! to cash in all the efforts that was put in ... in the past 22 months ... the heightened emotions ... all the efforts being put in to make it as smooth as possible ... no count of hours spent in the office ... doesn't matter if it is day or night ... the business is all at standstill waiting on us ... billions at stake ... all spotlight on us ... to faint was easy ... to breathe ... well ... a challenge ... but together ... we all pulled it through ... Credit should not be taken away from anyone ... even if someone put in just a month ... even if that someone isn't with us at the end ... but KUDOS!!! to all ... 

3 Cheers for us ... HIP HIP ... HURRAYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!

Saturday, October 1, 2011

SAP IS-U & CRM Go-Live ...

I'd like to share a few learnings from the SAP IS-U go-live experience. First of all ... immense ... if you are really into experiencing a transition ... this is the ultimate showdown for you

The areas that I would like to touch upon are

1. Handling the pressure
2. Authorization Matrices
3. CRM Roles

I am just listing the topics ... each of which would have its own posts (if I don't ... just put me a reminder)

Sunday, September 25, 2011

In Fashion ... Suo Moto

I believe you'll all agree with me ... :)

Saturday, September 3, 2011

How human memory works ...

Recently I was thinking and researching about how we remember stuff ... how does our memories work?

Haven't done much but I thought I share what I find and understand (may not be entirely true or agreeable as scientifically it is still a riddle and yet a marvel)

Anyways ... here's a start

We store our memories as a sequence of events ... with a starting point ... like first this happened, then that, then this and this goes on until the finishing point is reached, so its like

START > A > B > C > D > END

Where A is the starting point and D is the end point.

The most crucial point is the starting point as we "recall" our memories with the starting point. The recall trigger is point "A" ... and most of the times ... we cannot search form the middle. So, even if you want to get to B, C or D ... you will start with A

Try it out ... :-)

Friday, September 2, 2011

SAP :: Manually creating a transport request

Although against most of the configurations, a transport request pop-up automatically comes up, but certain configurations do not have such a behavior. It is actually related to the configuration table settings (if you want to know what are those settings, give me a ping)

For those configuration items against which transport request pop up does not come up ... following steps would enable you to create it. Case in point is a configuration related to SAP IS-U Work Management. Following is the menu to access the configuration

IMG > SAP Utilities > Work Management > Master Data > Define Service Objects

The table behind this configuration is T399A. Now follow these steps

  • Create a new transport request in SE10

  • Delete the sub-task

  • Double click the transport request and select edit mode

  • Specify the values as shown in the following screenshot

  • Click the object with keys button (icon with a key) and make the entry as shown in the screenshot below

  • Save and you have a transport request against the table T399A

Friday, August 26, 2011

SAP :: How to find BAdI

Business Add-Ins (BAdIs) are SAP enhancement techniques based on ABAP Objects. It has two parts - Definition and its Implementation; Definition can either be SAP provided or user may also create it.

How to find BAdI

You can look for BAdI definition in IMG and in component hierarchy. But there are some easier methods to find a BAdi. They are follows:

Method 1

These steps should enable you to find a BAdi related to any transaction in a matter of minutes.

1) Go to the transaction SE37 to find your function module.
2) Locate the function SXV_GET_CLIF_BY_NAME.
3) Put a break-point there.
4) Now open a new session.
5) Go to your transaction.
6) At that time, it will stop this function.
7) Double click on the function field NAME.
8) That will give you name of the BAdi that is provided in your transaction.

Method 2

1. Goto SE80, open CL_EXITHANDLER (Class)
2. Goto Method, GET_INSTANCE
3. Set a break point at
CALL METHOD cl_exithandler=>get_class_name_by_interface
    EXPORTING 
      instance = instance
    IMPORTING
      class_name = class_name
    CHANGING
      exit_name = exit_name
    EXCEPTIONS
      no_reference = 1
      no_interface_reference = 2
      no_exit_interface = 3
      data_incons_in_exit_managem = 4
      class_not_implement_interface = 5
      OTHERS = 6.
  CASE sy-subrc. 
    WHEN 1.
      RAISE no_reference.
    WHEN 2.
      RAISE no_interface_reference.
    WHEN 3.
      RAISE no_exit_interface.
    WHEN 4.
      RAISE data_incons_in_exit_managem.
    WHEN 5.
      RAISE class_not_implement_interface.
  ENDCASE.

4) Now open a new session.
5) Go to your transaction.
6) At that time, it will stop this function.
7) Double click on the function field EXIT_NAME.
8) That will give you name of the BAdi that is provided in your transaction.

Method 3:

1. Goto ST05
2. Select SQL trace and buffer trace
3. Activate trace
4. Now run your transaction
5. Deactivate trace
6. Display trace7. A pop will come
8. Enter V_EXT_ACT and V_EXT_IMP as the 2 objects
9. Now display the trace results. It will return all the BAPI and enhancement list in order of their execution.

Tuesday, August 23, 2011

I wonder why ...

Food for thought ...

Isn't it intriguing that us humans adapt bad habits very easily and take a whole lot while to adapt anything good

I wonder why ... 

Sindh Govt. Warns Extortionists ("Bhatta Khor" in Urdu) to Leave ...

Now this one is hilarious ... 

An official announcement is made by Sindh Govt. for Extortionists and target killers ... read this excerpt of news copied below

"A handout of the Sindh government has outlined important steps which will be taken for restoring peace in Karachi, Geo News reported. 
According to the handout, extortionists and miscreants have been asked to leave the city immediately and go somewhere else otherwise strict action will be taken against them."

So ... does this mean if these criminals decide to leave the city ... they will be left alone? will they not be prosecuted? the only problem is that they are doing this in Karachi? They can continue raising hell as long as its not in Karachi? Are these government really stupid or only act dumb???

I am sure each one of us know the answer to the last question ...

Chillzz

SAP IS-U :: Street Light Billing

Street Lights Billing
The blog covers the street light billing scenario based on burning hour method for determination of consumption and its billing.

Courtesy Sohail Ashraf 

Configurations Steps
       1. Define Operation Types for lighting
      The operation type specifies the type of lighting
      Menu Path: SPRO à SAP Utilities à Contract Billing à Billing Master Data àRate Structure à Operands à Lighting à Define Operation Types for Lighting











In our example, we have defined five types of lighting units as mentioned above.

      2. Define Type of Burning Hour Calendar Maintenance

      You can define whether the burning hour calendar will be maintained monthly or daily basis.



Menu Path: SPRO à SAP Utilities à Contract Billing à Billing Master Data àRate Structure à Operands à Lightingà Define Type of Burning Hour Calendar Maintenance








  • Burning hour calendar is maintained monthly
  • Burning hour calendar is maintained daily
In our example, we set the maint. Type to 0. It means that burning hours defined in the next step are for the whole month.

      3. Maintain Burning Hour Calendar
Menu Path: SPRO à SAP Utilities à Contract Billing à Billing Master Data àRate Structure à Operands à Lighting à Maintain Burning Hour Calendar













In this step, burning hours are defined for relevant operating types with the validity period.
 Operand
For the purpose of billing, operand with category REFVALUE will be required to be assigned at installation for the purpose of storing the information with respect number of bulbs and KW’s.

Menu Path: SPRO à SAP Utilities à Contract Billing à Billing Master Data àRate Structure à Operands à Define Operands




















Unit of measure is set to KW.
      5. Billing Class, Rate Category, and Rate Type
No special configuration is required in billing class and category. Whereas, rate type should permissible for rate category, facts and installation facts.

      6. Schema


Menu Path: SPRO à SAP Utilities à Contract Billing à Billing Master Data àRate Structure à Schemas à Define Schemas

In this step, rates are defined in the schema.








Variant REDVAL03 is used to determine the consumption in KWH. The formula is as follows:
STR_LIGHTS à Operand assigned at installation. Information regarding number of bulbs and KWs are store in the operand.
Number of Bulbs * KWs of each bulb * Number of burning hours = STR_LIG_QT (Quantity / Consumption in KWH)

Master Data Requirements
       Assignment of operand to installation.
  Put following values in billing-relevant data:
OperT: 0002
 Entry Value: This represents the capacity of bulb
Unit of Measure: KW
Rep. Factor: Represents the number of bulbs.

















Others
Once the above processes are complete, the system is ready for street light billing. Same process shall be followed as for any other scenario i.e. schedule record, create meter reading order and then billing.

Monday, August 22, 2011

SAP :: How to locate a transport request against a configuration item

This (expected) series of blog posts would be a slight digression from the venting part ... it would revolve around SAP and how-to stuff within SAP ...

These posts assumes knowledge of SAP and are, by no means, intended for new SAP users

First in the series is as follows

This would cover the steps used to locate a transport request of a particular configuration item. If you know what object and the type of object that is being captured in the task of the change request then you can work backwards using SE10 (transaction code).
  1. Go to SE10
  2. Select Transport Organizer Tools icon (SHIFT + F6)
  3. At the next screen, Click ONCE on the Search for Objects in Change Requests/Tasks
  4. Click ONCE on the EXECUTION icon at the next screen
  5. And this is where you need to know the Object and the Object that you want to search the Change Requests/Tasks for
  6. So in the new BLANK line click the CHECK BOX and then enter CDAT under DTEL
  7. In the blank space to the right of CDAT you can now enter V_JBP_CUST
  8. Then select both MODIFIABLE and RELEASED check boxes
  9. Hit ENTER just to ensure that it likes what you have put in thus far. If good it should populate the GREY box next to CDAT with R3TR
  10. EXECUTE
And you should see the change requests and tasks where changes to that object have been captured. The trick is knowing the Object Type
Most basic customizing tables are of type R3TR TABU

Cheers!!!

Sunday, August 21, 2011

A story about how money goes around ...

It is the month of August, on the shores of the Black Sea. It is raining, and the little town looks totally deserted. It is tough times, everybody is in debt, and everybody lives on credit. Suddenly, a rich tourist comes to town. He enters the only hotel, lays a 100 Euro note on the reception counter, and goes to inspect the rooms upstairs in order to choose one.

The hotel proprietor takes the 100 Euro note and runs to pay his debt to the butcher.
The butcher takes the 100 Euro note, and runs to pay his debt to the pig grower.
The pig grower takes the 100 Euro note, and runs to pay his debt to the supplier of his feed and fuel.
The supplier of feed and fuel takes the 100 Euro note and runs to pay his debt to the town's prostitute that in these hard times, gave her "services" on credit.
The hooker runs to the hotel, and pays off her debt with the 100 Euro note to the hotel proprietor to pay for the rooms that she rented when she brought her clients there.
The hotel proprietor then lays the 100 Euro note back on the counter so that the rich tourist will not suspect anything.

At that moment, the tourist comes down after inspecting the rooms, and takes his 100 Euro note, after saying that he did not like any of the rooms, and leaves town. No one earned anything. However, the whole town is now without debt, and looks to the future with a lot of optimism.

And that, Ladies & Gentlemen, is how the United States is doing business today ;)

Democracy ... Shove it

Dedicated to all the upholders of democracy and nothing else ...

If democracy means hundreds of dead bodies each day without remorse ... shove it
If democracy means lack of law and order ... shove it
If democracy means no peace for common man ... shove it
If democracy means lack of economic stability ... shove it
If democracy means heightened inflation ... shove it
If democracy means rampant corruption ... shove it
If democracy means rule of uneducated idiots ... shove it
If democracy means administrative failure ... shove it
If democracy means lack of decision making ... shove it
If democracy means no accountability ... shove it
If democracy means no enforcement of rules ... shove it

And if this is all what democracy stands for ... then really ... SHOVE IT!!!

Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Circular Debt : A solution??

Power sector in Pakistan is plagued with the issue of circular debt (dated today and for the time to come). By the way, I assume you all know what circular debt is, otherwise maybe we can talk about it later.

Current government is taking steps (it already sounds funny) and thinking up of way to reduce this problem which has been affecting companies from E&P up till power distribution. The committee includes of water and power ministry officials, Ministry of Finance officials to name a few. Now these are educated, seasoned people (Dr. Hafeez Shaikh ... its "DR."). And the suggestion mostly likely to take affect ... increase the tariff and thereby recover more money from those who pay to ease the problem. WOW.

Let's just analyze if this GREAT idea is going to work or not

There are three types of customers.
  1. One who don't steal and pay
  2. One who steal
  3. One who don't pay
The first type is the best customer a distribution company could have. These customers have a minimum demand for power which is out of necessity. They may consume some more on top of it ... based on convenience. Now, as tariff increases, minimum demand stays in-tact but "convenience" driven demand may reduce to manage the hike in cost. It has been observed that the "convenience" demand isn't relatively more elastic than the increase in price, thus increase in price most definitely increase the revenue per customer and "MAY" contribute in the reduction of the circular debt. But wait, this is only one part of the equation

Those who steal ... well ... that's mostly unaccounted for. Areas affected are mostly "kachi abadis" and politically influenced areas, which are not well-off in SEC class perspective. Those who are politically backed, are headed by the political elites of this very country who are ... well ... that's anybody's guess [Kudos to "reconciliatory politics"]. The increase in tariff will immediately increase the loss in Rupee term, even if we assume that theft does not increase. But considering the level of inflation and the poverty level ... increasingly more of the population is pushed towards the poverty line, which unable them to pay for even the "minimum demand" and hence leads to either non-payment or theft altogether

Those who don't pay are ... well ... majorly the public sector consumers to the likes of KWSB, Police Departments, Other govt. Departments etc. and some part the type of consumers defined in the previous paragraph. And clearly, increase in tariff will result in increase in non-payment rupee amount

Now, the increase in tariff will only work to "ease" the circular debt only if the revenues from the type 1 customer is enough to offset the losses from type 2 and type 3 customer. So, do you think this is going to work???

Author is a crazy crackpot associated with the utility sector

Saturday, August 6, 2011

Pak Passport Renewal Process

This blog lists down the steps required to renew a green (Pakistani) passport. Please note
  1. The process applies to a holder of computerized passport
  2. The passport is within 6 months of expiry
  3. The passport office is Karachi (preferably Saddar Office)
Following are the steps
  1. You must submit the passport renewal fee in the bank within the premise of passport office
  2. Get the Bank Chalan from the entrance of the passport office. It is free of charge
  3. Check the fee for the passport renewal. There are two (as on 5th August 2011) processing fee options. Urgent and Normal. Urgent is supposed to get the passport renewed in a week or 10 days. Normal takes 4 weeks as per the documented time
  4. Once the fee is submitted (note that Bank Processing Fee is on top of the passport renewal fee), get into the line for photo snap
  5. Make sure you have your original CNIC and passport (along with a couple of photocopies) with you.
  6. Once you get the photograph taken, you will be provided with a token so that you can proceed to the next step
  7. Next step is applicant details amendment/verification. If its a simple renewal with nothing changed, then same form will come up and you just need to acknowledge it. Otherwise make sure you check for the changes whether made correctly or not. You will be provided with a copy of the details in a form
  8. Next step is Bio metric impression.
  9. Each of these steps are prioritized according to the token number given to you. Follow that number to avoid confusion and chaos
  10. Last is that your form is signed and verified by the commissioner present on-site. They may ask for Photographs, Matric/Intermediate certificates, CNIC Copy, Domicile, Parent's CNIC/Deadth Certificate (in case deceased) for verification and submission and may ask your name or chat you up for a couple of minutes
  11. This completes your process.
  12. Next step is to pick up your passport from Saddar Passport Office. There is a separate line for each division in Karachi (east, west, north, south) as present on your CNIC

For me, I applied for renewal in early June 2011 and was supposed to get it end of June but when I went there on the stipulated date, I was told that its running late and I will get it after 20 days. So effectively it took 50 days to get it renewed

Some tips and recommendations for passport renewal
  1. If you are in a hurry like 3-4 or even 5 weeks for passport renewal, go for urgent renewal to be safe
  2. The lines for both, Bank Chalan submission and Photograph/Token is pretty long. Its recommended to first get the Bank Chalan submitted and come very early (8:30am or so) and get in the line for token. This will considerably speed up the whole process and dodge the waiting bit
  3. Keep photocopies of some of your original documents with you like CNIC, All previous passports, Matric Certificate, Intermediate Certificate, Parent's CNIC, Photographs. It is advisable to keep more than one copies of each
And of course ... Good Luck with the whole process :)

Sunday, April 3, 2011

3-step approach to success

There are 3 very simple steps to success in life (in short term atleast) ... or get appreciation from other on what one does ...

1. Identify the expectations
First know what the context is ... how the other person values you ... how do you (currently) fit into the bigger picture ... what are your expected contributions ... what is your expected value addition ... all in all ... what is it against which you will be appraised

2. Manage the expectations
Once you know what people expect you to do ... or perform ... you need to set the context right ... if you think the expectations are set too high, you may need to pull them down for you to match it ... remember ... world appreciates those who surpass the limits set for them ... so "manage" the expectations so that it ... for once ... achievable by you and secondly valued by the other ... if either of these components are missing ... you'll lose the game ... no matter what you do

3. Deliver on the expectations
Last but not the least ... deliver! the farther you go from the expectation ... the higher the appreciation ... but remember ... your achievement in the current cycle becomes a benchmark in the next cycle ... so don't over exceed too much ... its like playing a game of cards ... you don't show all your good cards in one go ...

Good Luck!!!

Thursday, March 17, 2011

How the world ticks (part 1)

This is intended to be one of many little posts titled ... to simply observe the way of the world ...

Observation # 1 .. People who do .. do more ... people who do less ... diminish further ...

example ... if someone works more ... they get more and more work and are squeezed further ... but someone who does less work (intentionally or unintentionally) ... keeps on having the plate empty ...

another example ... in Pakistan ... more tax is squeezed out from people who already pay a lot of taxes ... but who evade tax ... still stay untouched ...

any more examples???

Resurrection ...

Hello earthlings (and aliens if they read it) ... after ~ 11 months ... I thought I should resume blotting (yup ... not blogging) ... there are so many thoughts that pass by without being captured ... its like wasting something so precious ... so even if its just one line ... lets just write it down ... and maybe ... sometime ... someday ... we can put it all together like the pieces of a puzzle ... and see what's really there ...

so this marks the RESURRECTION (with a small "R" please) ...