Business Package for SAP xRPM 2.0 
Overview
The Business Package for SAP xApp Resource and Portfolio Management (SAP xRPM) is designed to manage the capacity and deployment of human capital assets across multiple projects.
SAP xRPM integrates information from existing project management, human resource, and financial/controlling systems to provide an overview of the project portfolio with easy drilldown to details for project executives, project managers, and resource managers.
Business Scenario
In today’s competitive economy, the effective management of resources can make or break new product launches. Delaying long-term or complex projects increases costs and diminishes productivity.
To manage high-value projects, companies must minimize the risks by assigning and maintaining the right mix of human and financial resources. For this reason, an ongoing evaluation of requirements, resources, schedules, and employee capabilities is essential.
Forward-thinking companies are constantly evaluating new business opportunities based on emerging technologies and their own ability to take advantage of those opportunities. The primary challenge is to provide a comprehensive and up-to-date view of the entire portfolio of company projects. Without a centralized view of enterprise-wide data for complex projects, it is difficult to understand the full extent of project risks and opportunities and delays can occur as information is collected from disparate sources.
One of the main problems is assigning the right employees to the right project at the right time, in order to benefit both the project and employees’ career motivations. Satisfied employees are more productive, but they are rarely empowered to market their skills across the enterprise to search for career-advancing project assignments.
SAP xRPM addresses these issues. It culls and organizes scattered data into a collaborative dashboard for project executives and managers as well as resource managers and project members. By putting more information and advanced tools at their fingertips, SAP xRPM helps them better choose and execute new sources of revenue.
SAP xRPM facilitates tasks in the following areas at different levels:
Area |
Level |
Description |
Portfolio management |
Strategic |
SAP xRPM offers a dashboard of project data that includes key performance indicators related to budget, schedule, and staffing issues. This centralized view of performing and at-risk elements is critical for managing an enterprise-wide portfolio of projects. |
Project execution |
Operational |
SAP xRPM integrates data from disparate project management systems to create a complete suite of calendar, to-do items, threaded discussions, document management, and role-based notifications across the project team. |
Resource assignment |
Transactional |
SAP xRPM provides comprehensive information about employees’ capabilities and availability. Both managers and employees contribute skills, experience, and aspirations that enable you to match the right employees to the right project at the right time. |
By using SAP xRPM, you can:
· Align projects with corporate objectives and mitigate risks using project portfolio management techniques
· Gain visibility in real-time to project costs, staffing, schedules, and results
· Assign, deploy, redeploy, plan, and forecast resources based on skills and strategic priorities
· Discover sources and deployment of expertise and skills within the organization, without complex and laborious data entry projects
· Institute effective “gates and measures” between project phases
Supported Roles
SAP xRPM is designed around roles within an organization and includes an administrator role.
SAP xRPM supports the following roles:
Availability and System Requirements
The tables below summarize the required and optional software components and supporting systems for running the Business Package for SAP xRPM.
For full details about the exact versions, including plug-ins, support packages, and patches, see the SAP xRPM Master Guide on SAP Service Marketplace at http://service.sap.com/instguides ® SAP xApps ® SAP xApp Resource and Portfolio Management ® SAP xRPM 2.0.
Software Components
Required |
· SAP Web Application Server 6.20 with plug-ins · SAP xRPM Add-On 2.0 · SAP BI Content 3.5.3 Add-On · SAP GUI 6.20 with Business Warehouse extensions · SAP Internet Graphics Server 6.20 · SAP Enterprise Portal 6.0 · SAP Content Management 6.0 · Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.01 or higher |
Supporting Systems
Required |
· Project System At least one of the following: ¡ SAP Product Life-Cycle Management - Project System (PLM - PS) 4.6B or higher with plug-ins ¡ SAP cProjects 3.0 or higher ¡ Microsoft Project 98 or higher ¡ Microsoft Project Server 2002 ¡ Microsoft Project Server 2003 If you install Microsoft Project Server 2003, you must also install the Project Data Services (PDS) extender. |
Optional |
· SAP Exchange Infrastructure (XI) 2.0 or higher · Human Resources System SAP Human Capital Management (HCM) 4.0B or higher with plug-ins. · Financial and Controlling System SAP Financial/Controlling (FI-CO) 4.6B or higher with plug-ins. |
Package Languages
The Business Package for SAP xRPM is available in the following languages:
· English
· French
· German
· Japanese
· Spanish
Implementation
For information about installing and configuring the Business Package for SAP xRPM to run in SAP Enterprise Portal, see Technical Description and Configuration Information.