Migrate from Order Based Planning with External Master data to Flexible Master data (SAP7 to SAP7F)

Background – Order based planning has been now around for roughly ~7 years now and have gone through extensive changes. Order based planning has been designed to handle short term Supply planning and responding to order changes.

Order based planning area can be done in standard delivered SAP7 or SAP7F planning areas.

What is SAP7 and SAP7F ?

Both SAP7 and SAP7F are standard planning areas delivered by SAP in standard IBP solution.

SAP7 works on external based master data which is very tightly integrated with ECC or S/4, with SAP7 the integration of both Master and Transactional data is batch based. In general its not possible to modify any Master data directly in IBP if you are using SAP7.

On the other hand SAP7F works on Flexible master data which means its possible to enhance the Master data and attributes directly in IBP. Also, SAP7F does support Real time integration of Master and Transactional data from ECC or S/4 to IBP, please note that integration of planning results from SAP7F to ECC or S/4 is still batch based.

For more information on Order based planning please refer below SAP help links –

Order based planning with External Master data :

https://help.sap.com/docs/SAP_INTEGRATED_BUSINESS_PLANNING/09154e4f345c46edb1d74f782be4d9bd/59f697c4d9a3454689d5c2ad02228f79.html

Order based planning with Flexible Master data

https://help.sap.com/docs/SAP_INTEGRATED_BUSINESS_PLANNING/343592b029c94595896e51477ca08505/f8f50b56c182792de10000000a44538d.html

Why should I migrate from SAP7 to SAP7F ?

Well you can still continue to work with SAP7 however there are some serious consequences of staying with SAP7, one of them is that all new developments delivered or will be delivered by SAP are/will part of the new planning area which is SAP7F so if you continue on SAP7 you will miss all new updates part of future release. Additionally SAP7F will serve as a base for future harmonized data model. Some of the features supported or on roadmap for SAP7F are shown below –

• TLB
• Shelf life planning
• Subcontracting
• Master data extension
• Synchronized Planning (Integration with S/4 HANA PPDS)
• Characteristic Based Planning (roadmap)

Migration strategy from SAP7 to SAP7F ?

SAP has started an initiative where called MOVE2F which aims to transition customers smoothly from SAP7 to SAP7F planning area. Customers can reach out to SAP and after proper approval the migration kit can be utilized by experts to do this activity. Below are the list of things possible to migrate :

There are certain objects for which migration is not covered shown below :

You can use below 2 links in case you want to know more about SAP7 to SAP7F migration :

• Recent webinar from SAP – https://event.on24.com/wcc/r/4418272/18299A61AEFF599E8F99D4998E1760E3
• PDF guide – https://d.dam.sap.com/a/yHJsJ1M/12.13.23%20Move%20from%20SAP7%20to%20SAP7F%20for%20Order-Based%20Planning%20Customers%20Recent%20advancements.pdf?rc=10

Summary/Conclusion – we highly recommend customers to review their Order based planning setup and start working on a roadmap to migrate from SAP7 to SAP7F. Lot of customers have been missing some key functionalities like TLB, Subcontracting, Shelf-life planning in SAP7.

MOVE2F is a good initiative which does provide help to make migration a bit easier however for clients looking to migrate please do consider efforts which will be spent in below activities when a roadmap for migration is being setup –

• Migrating Interfaces (ECC or S4) – there may be number of enhancements which you might have done to enhance data before it was brought to SAP7, all these would have to be carefully reviewed
• Migrating Interfaces (CI-DS) – while it is not the most complex task but there would definitely be lot of re-work required to migrate your CI-DS tasks
• Testing/Training – you would have to consider efforts for regression testing with users and re-training them on the newt setup
• Data loads/Profiles/Roles/Batch jobs setup etc

If you are looking for a partner who can help you in a successful migration journey please do reach out to us on info@smartcons.nl