SpinifexIT Products Upgrade / System Questions
General Upgrade/ System Questions
How difficult is it to load up the spinifexIT Software?
No formal implementation or configuration is required. The software is distributed out to the customers in a transport which is sent by email or via a shared data download site on the internet. The transport can simply be loaded into your SAP System by your Basis Team.
Is my release supported since I am not looking to upgrade for some time?
SpinifexIT maintains only one single version of its software. This means that even if you are on an old release you will still be supported and continue to receive updates to the software. However, depending upon the age of the release, some functionality may not be possible to deliver. It is recommended that a customer stay within SAP supported systems releases to ensure they can take advantage of any new functionality. SpinifexIT software works on all versions of SAP from 4.6C and above.
Will Easy Reporter work if I am looking to upgrade to a Unicode version of SAP?
Yes. The Easy Reporter has been modified to work within a Unicode environment. What are the minimum client or server requirements? There is not a minimum requirement. The spinifexIT reports all use the existing SAP data so other than the execution of these reports there is no overhead. The execution of the reports generally sees no additional overhead as they are to replace manual reconciliation and reporting processes which often mean that the load on the SAP system is less.
What are the minimum client or server requirements?
There is not a minimum requirement. The spinifexIT reports all use the existing SAP data so other than the execution of these reports there is no overhead. The execution of the reports generally sees no additional overhead as they are to replace manual reconciliation and reporting processes which often mean that the load on the SAP system is less.
Does the software come with a manual?
The software comes with a very detailed user manual that includes detailed pictorial examples and exercises. Additionally a three day onsite training class is delivered with the software.
What is spinifexIT’s software written in?
The software is written in SAP ABAP.
Will the application support scheduling?
Yes: The reports can be scheduled to reduce load on the system. The scheduling is using the standard SAP scheduling functionality.
Does the application use data compression?
No: The software reports on existing data in SAP, which means there are very little data / tables used by the spinifexIT tools. This means that due to the extremely small amount of data, there is no need for data compression.
How will upgrades be delivered?
Upgrades to the software are delivered on a quarterly and annual basis. These are delivered as SAP transports and will either be emailed directly, or can be sent via the mail.
How much time will it take to implement the SpinifexIT software?
Other than the work in loading up the software (application of the transports which usually is quick), there is minimal need for an implementation. Once the software has been loaded up, it can be executed straight away.
For example, Easy Reporter comes pre-delivered with over 100 reports made for you for each core application area. Any new reports you wish to develop need to be created, but this is done by the end user by dragging fields onto the report.
When I upgrade SAP, do I need to do anything? Will I lose my report variants?
In terms of the upgrade, there shouldn’t be any loss of the existing variants as part of an upgrade. Basically the upgrade should involve something along the lines of:
● Taking your existing production system
● Applying the new software
● Applying and fixing any technical issues with the upgrade
● Applying new spinifexIT Transports The SAP production system would be upgraded and as part of this and new SpinifexIT transports would be applied.
The new transports really don’t affect the variants or existing functionality, they are just required to make it compatible with the upgraded system.
Can I move a report from one system to another?
Reports can be moved from one system to another in two ways. For a one time move from one system to another, the simplest way is to download and upload these reports. This is done through the existing menus in Easy Reporter and takes only a moment to complete. If you need to move a large number of reports it is possible to transport them. This would require the creation of a transport and the manual entry of the transport tables. SpinifexIT has instructions for how to do this.
Privacy & Security
Do SpinifexIT Solutions store any data?
There is only a minimal number of tables that the SpinifexIT tools use and these are generally for setup and execution of the reports. Where these may hold data, it will not be payroll related data. As these tables sit within SAP these can be restricted, if required, using the standard SAP authorizations. These tables all exist in a namespace provided by SAP.
What logical security arrangements are built into the information systems application?
The reports link directly into the standard SAP authorizations. Each report / product has its own set of SAP transaction codes which the individual users can be given authority to execute if they are allowed. Additionally, the reports then use the SAP logical database security. This means that if you have limited a person to only be able to see certain employees within the SAP application, or only certain master data, then the solution will still only read the data that the user is allowed to see.
What security must be setup within the tool?
There are no security setup required because SpinifexIT Solutions uses standard SAP security. Access must be given to the SpinifexIT transaction codes for any users wishing to use the solutions. If there are existing authorizations which limit the employees that the staff has access to, all of the products will adhere to this security. So, for example: if a person could only access a particular payroll area, then they will only be able to access employees within this payroll area when executing all of our products. The only security setup that is required is determining who you wish to have access to the solution (via a transaction code) and what they can do in the tool (which folders they can see, run reports only etc.).
How does spinifexIT integrate with SAP?
SpinifexIT solutions are fully integrated into SAP. This has been loaded into hundreds of sites with no changes required to make this work.
Does it have auditing?
Yes, it is possible to track who has run the reports, using the standard SAP transaction audit functionality.
Is it possible to give users access to simply run reports only and/or can you designate that reports be created and automatically emailed to these users?
As mentioned earlier SpinifexIT solutions will only allow a user to see what their SAP security already permits them to see. No additional setup is required.
Disk Space and Memory Consumption (Easy Suite)
Memory Consumption
The memory consumption will depend upon the report data. The reporting tool holds the entire report in memory as part of displaying this using the SAP ALV (ABAP list viewer) functionality.
A few examples to explain the memory consumption:
● If you execute a spinifexIT report for 10,000 employees and you had one line of output per employee, then you would be holding in internal memory 10,000 records. If each were 100 bytes in size, then this would equate to 1Mb
● If each employee had 10 Wage Types that were displayed (resulting in 10 lines per employee), the output table would have 100,000 records, so the size of the memory consumption would increase to 10mb.
Overall we are currently running the reports on customers in excess of 100,000 employees, and have not had any concerns or issues rose relating to memory usage. The above example is exactly the same as if you ran Wage Type Reporter, and included a large amount of data on the report. In summary, the size of memory used is directly related to the size of the report. When training customers in the building of reports this can become a consideration and only the data you require should be included on the report.
Disk space required on the server
The spinifexIT products do not really require additional disk space to be included on the server. Other than the actual ABAP programs and some internal configuration tables, which should not be greater than 20Mb in total, there is no additional ongoing space required as would often be required with Data Warehouses and other products which make a copy of database tables. All of our reports work on the core SAP data so this minimises any additional database size requirements and also ensures we are reporting off the same data that is used day to day in payroll.