Vestas Part I – Introducing “The Elephant”

Vulnerability is the birthplace of innovation, creativity and change. When we knew that SAP EasyDMS was on the “decommissioning” list from SAP we also were aware that as soon we went live with an S4/Hana platform we would be vulnerable.

Vestas Winds Systems A/S is using SAP DMS for handling documentation related to other SAP Objects e.g. materials while we have been using SAP EasyDMS for the last 10 years as a tool and as we have more than 6000 installations of the program what are we going to do now ??

Issues we face…

• SAP is not enhancing the platform SAP EasyDMS anymore
• SAP EasyDMS is not working in the S4/HANA environment
• Interface performance and usability is not supporting the end-users requirements
• General performance and instability is complexing VESTAS GLOBAL IT support area

….and many more.

We needed to make a choice…

We investigated the existing options:

• The document centre – a tool based on “cloud” platform (also as on-premise available) but SAP has chosen to remove all the required capabilities from SAP EasyDMS, not even classifications are available at that point of time – so for us this was not an option
• Engineering Control Center – a classic add on from SAP supporting the CAD environment. Here DMS is important but not in a clear focus seen from our requirements

But what are our requirements?
We have looked into the usage of SAP DMS at Vestas Wind System and concluded the following areas as essential for the future usage of SAP DMS:

1. Usability is key – it give us the following capabilities in the environment we use
2. Decrease the number of homegrown solutions – Use Standard Capabilities
3. Minimize one size UI fits all and deliver capabilities without UI dependencies
4. Stability, performance surveillance and scalability is key

With these 4 key requirements, we have started to look for the options.

We searched and found an Elephant…
We talked to many people, contacted the DSAG(Deutsche SAP Anwender Gruppe) a german user group for SAP customers, PLM forum, SAP connections and other customers.
We found a handful but it was fulfilling the requirements we have about architecture and technologies.
Again SAP EasyDMS is broadly used at Vestas and should be replaced by a tool as efficient as the existing one.

Then we found “The Elephant”.
A combination of SAP DMS and developers are a strong combination especially when they are dedicated to finding a common solution.
The downside – it is up until now an un-released solution. But that gives a fantastic opportunity in that we can influence the product with a minimum of risk.

So we agreed on a BetaPhase project.
A short introduction to the Architecture in the solution. The UI is based on UI5 capabilities enhanced with usability logic. All is based on utilising OData services in the backend.
As a project we get transports and we do testing in our Sandbox system. But what do we get?
A full list you can find on Netcare International page

The next step is testing….