Upgrading to SAP Business One 2007

[Former Member]

Dear SAP Business One Community Members,

We would like to provide you with a possibility to share your knowledge and experiences about upgrading to SAP Business One Version 2007. This forum will also be able to answer your questions you might have around the topic.

Some Background Information

SAP Business One Version 2007 is our latest release and is available on the market since April 2008 for A Clusters and since November 2008 for B Cluster countries.

Some of the benefits of the new version are higher performance, new internal reconciliation engine fully integrated XL Reporter tool, new user interfaces and contextual help, Web-based customer relationship management and e-commerce functionality for some markets. SAP Business One 2007 version also delivers new tools such as memory optimization, all designed to deliver much higher system performance. SAP has also made some significantly improvements in the area of stock valuation handling and provides complimentary data check-up services for customers upgrading to 2007 version.

Many of our partners and customers that have upgraded to SAP Business One 2007 say that the entire upgrade was very straightforward and much easier than they had expected. We have many tools and programs available for our SAP Business One partners, which will help you to accelerate and optimize the upgrading process, such as the Accelerated Upgrade Program.

This is only a short overview, but I am very much looking forward to hear your opinion or questions you might have to the topic of Upgrading to 2007 and am sure that this will be an interesting and valuable information exchange.

Best Regards,

Patricia

SAP Business One GTM

[Former Member]

Hi experts,

I have tried many times to upgrade SAP B1 2007b to 8.8. but really drive me crazy. it didnt work. no service manager upgrade...etc

In my full version of 8.8 doesnt exist 'upgrade.exe' file(does it existed in original folder / or am I missing something?), so I have changed to use 'upgrade.exe' file in 8.8 PL11 package instead.  All testing is in VMware player environment. It also didnt work,

I am using microsoft SQL 2008.

My Qs are;

1. should I ready/insert any 'files' before upgrade?

2.  any proccess missing during upgrade, like DB or...?

Sorry if I am not explain very clear. I can reply after

Thanks a lot,

Robert

[Former Member]

Hi,

How about the Inventory Valuation Checkup prerequisite for the upgrade? How do I request for the free IVC of our selected clients? Do we need to post a message in the portal per client? Kindly advise. Thanks much.

Best Regards,

Jeanette Bago

[mario_schoenberg]

Hi,

Recently a new tool "remote support platform for SAP Business One" has been released. Current functionalities are described in this [blog|/people/maciej.fuchs/blog/2009/08/20/remote-support-platform-for-sap-business-one] and on the landing page [http://channel.sap.com/sbo/rsp|http://channel.sap.com/sbo/rsp] (landing page is accessible for partners only).

The tool will ease any upgrade preparation and IVI checkup service.

Kind regards

Mario

[Former Member]

Hi,

Does anyone know if it is OK to upgrade from 2005A to version 8.8?.

We plan on upgrading towards the end of this year, and do not see the point in an interim 2007 step if it can be helped.

Any advice much appreciated.

Thanks.

Martin.

[jbrotto]

Thanks for the link. This will help test out SAP B1 upgrade.

[Former Member]

Hi All,

We are using the Version SAP Business One 2005 B (7.40.252) SP: 00 PL: 39.

We want to upgrade our system to 2007 B.

Please suggest me the step by step procedure to upgrade.

or provide me the links to the documentation of upgrade process.

Thank you.

Regards,

Shailesh.

[richardduffy]

Hi Shailesh,

I am assuming you have access to the SAP Channel Partner Portal.

There is a [dedicated page|https://service.sap.com/smb/sbo/2007A] which takes you through all the resources available for you.

Heres a few of them

[Why you should upgrade to Release 2007 A |https://service.sap.com/~sapidb/011000358700001515072008]

[Accelerated Implementation Program |https://service.sap.com/smb/sbo/aip]

[Accelerated Upgrade Program|https://service.sap.com/smb/sbo/aup]

[Best Practice System Setup & Sizing |https://service.sap.com/~sapidb/011000358700001077772007E]

[Upgrade Strategy |https://service.sap.com/~sapidb/011000358700002863642005E]

[Administrator's Guide |https://service.sap.com/~sapidb/011000358700001185612007E.zip]

Hope this helps

Richard

[olaf_kroeger]

Hi,

why don't you make these resources available to customers?

Thanks

Olaf

[Former Member]

I agree. We have our in house IT staff do all of our B1 implementations, which works fine and saves us a ridiculous amount of money. It is so frustrating that SAP feels like they need to prevent their customers from gaining access to information and tools that we have paid tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars to purchase.

[Former Member]

Why is it that only a SAP Channel Partner has access to the upgrade of 2007, which cannot I as a SAP Customer have access to it.

Regards,

Murtaza

[richardduffy]

Hi Murtaza,

You can ask your Channel Partner to grant you access to the upgrade software if you are covered by maintenance and they should be able to proviide it to you.

However we recommend that you do engage the Channel partner to perform the upgrade for you.

Regards

Richard

[Former Member]

Hi all,

i can tell you the experience made by one of my Partner in Italy with one of most bigger customer in Italy, and the time for upgrade is confirmed not more than 2 day. In a week-end you are able to upgrade a Customer.

What is important, and I suggest to you, is to check very well are all the add-on's made the third party, to make some practice/test with IVI and IRU tools, for check before the inventory valuation system and the internal reconciliation system, for better understand what will be necessary to do after the upgrade to 2007A release regarding the inventory and the reconciliation of BP and G/L Account.

Regards,

Massimo Sala - LPE

[Former Member]

Is there any reason why a customer with in-house IT expertise cannot perform the upgrade from 2005 to 2007 with minimal input - review and training - from the SAP partner?

[Mulder]

Hi Andrew,

In principle, yes a customer can do the upgrade himself but there are a few things to consider.

The upgrade process is not only technical but there are also functional area's that need to be validated and depending on the implementation it is relatively simple or very complex.

Issues to consider from a functional point of view.

- As the database structure will be changed, the key figures will have to be checked (financial/inventory/etc)

- The business processes need to be validated in the upgraded system

- Impact to possible layouts will have to be checked

If you have any add-on's running next to business one, the impact might even be higher.

It's not as straight forward as an office update!

Your SAP partner will give you the best advise what is the best way to perform the upgrade in a successfull way. Your SAP partner has already a lot of experience upgrading the software and companies to the new version and knows what to expect (or not) and where to focus on.

[Former Member]

Our Gold Partner is suggesting that the upgrade will take 2 days to complete.......In your experience is this correct ?

[Mulder]

Hi Shaun,

As I have totally no understanding of your installation, business processes and setup (# of users / reports / layouts / etc). Please keep in mind that an acurate assessment is very difficult to make.

But 2 day's really does not sound as too much. Based upon the informaiton I have, many upgrades are done between 2 - 4 day's. But some project with larger number of users, specific add-on development and more complex processes and reporting, etc. there are cases that require a lot more effort.

Peter

[Former Member]

Hi Shaunn,

I can tell you the experience made by one of my Partner in Italy with one of most bigger customer in Italy, and the time for upgrade is confirmed not more than 2 day. In a week-end you are able to upgrade a Customer.

What is important, and I suggest to you, is to check very well are all the add-on's made the third party, to make some practice/test with IVI and IRU tools, for check before the inventory valuation system and the internal reconciliation system, for better understand what will be necessary to do after the upgrade to 2007A release regarding the inventory and the reconciliation of BP and G/L Account.

Regards,

Massimo Sala - LPE

[Former Member]

We are thinking of upgrading to Business One 2007, is it true that SAP will no longer support Business One 2005 from July 1st 2009?

This will obviuosly be a big decision factor for us!

Thanks in advance for your replies

[Mulder]

Hi Compusol,

• The mainstream maintenance for release 2005 A has been extended untill July, 31st 2009

• The mainstream maintenance for release 2005 B has been extended untill December, 31st 2009

This is accordance with the overall maintenance strategy of SAP

Peter Mulder

[Former Member]

Hi:

Where can I find specific infomation and wording by and from SAP on the SAP portal re the discontinuance of mainstream maintenance for release 2005 A which has been extended untill July, 31st 2009?

Not just the statement re extending to July 31st but details of what that means to the customer and what they will be told specifically.

Edited by: Larry Thwaites on Apr 20, 2009 11:02 PM

[richardduffy]

Hi Larry,

I am assuming you are a channel partner and will have access to the Channel Partner Portal.

If so there is a landing page that covers the questions you have asked and you can access it [here|https://service.sap.com/~form/sapnet?_SHORTKEY=01100035870000714648&_SCENARIO=01100035870000000183&_ADDINC=&]

Most communication regarding SAP Business One and maintenance is done by our channel partners to our customers and all the mterials are on the page that I provided.

Hope this helps

Richard

[former_member186095]

Hi Peter,

When will this following version ending its maintenance :

1. B1 2007 version

2. B1 8.8 version

Rgds,

[Mulder]

Hi Jimmy,

The current shipping release is 2007 and we are planning the ramp-up for release 8.8.

This is a personal note, not an official SAP note but when we look at the past we have atleast one year of mainstream maintenance while a new version is released.

As to current planning release 8.8 will exit ramp-up Q1-2010, the mainstream maintenance for release 2007 is not expected to end before Q1-2011, most likely this will even a longer period.

Again this is a personal opinion based upon the current planning.

Peter

[former_member186095]

Hi Peter,

Thanks for the info. For B1 customer, it would be better to have it so that they can prepare their resource before upgrade to the newest version after current one end its maintenance period.

Although you've given not an official statement but just opinion, I think it will not far from it except the newest version (8.8) have trouble when it is being in the ramp up process.

I will push our SBO customer to pay their maintenance fee so that they can receive 2007A version product.

I hope the maintenance period for 2007 will end in Q2-2011. SAP must concern about this so that the users can anticipate their resource and time.

One of the customer's weakness here is no self confidence to upgrade their current version, too fast release of new version (3 years only) and the feature of new versions is not available in a complete documentation.

Another question is that 8.8 is being in the ramp up version, is its maintenance period begun or after launched to the market (unrestricted shipment) ? if not, it means that 2007A version maintenance period is begun from Q1-2008 until Q1-2011 (April 30, 2011). Hopefully it is extended to July 31, 2011 as it is also applied to SBO 2005A version. Hope there is also a tolerance for B1 customer in Indonesia.

Rgds,

[richardduffy]

To simplify the SAP Business One 2007 upgrade process, we have also put together a special Accelerated Upgrade Program to help SAP Business One partners complete the upgrade process as quickly as possible for our shared customers.

SAP Business One partners can learn more about the Accelerated Upgrade Program by attending the session that is part of the 2009 SAP Business One On-Demand Education and Enablement sessions.

You can access that [here|http://service.sap.com/~sapidb/011000358700000104422009E/OnDemand_AccelUpgrade.wrf] if you are an SAP Business One partner.

if you are an SAP Business One customer and you would like an overview of the program please download the presentation below.

Please feel free to post any questions about the upgrade program or the 2007 release on this thread and I will try to answer as many as I can or get you the answers you need.

Cheers

Richard Duffy

SAP Business One Evangelist

<b>[Download the SAP Business One AUP Overview presentation|http://service.sap.com/~sapidp/011000358700001272982008E.pdf]</b>

[Former Member]

Hi Richard,

I would just like to know whether the 2007 version has been released in Asian countries like India and Sri Lanka?

And also does it have a Support Desk function like Solution Manager in R3?

Thanks,

Savindi

Edited by: Savindi Doranegama on Mar 18, 2009 9:01 AM