Enhancement Packages
With the enhancement package delivery technology, SAP provides you with new developments and enhancements of applications for your existing SAP installations of the Business Suite. This means that you can use new developments offered for your business processes when you want to and according to your own requirements.
Note
Enhancement packages are available for SAP ERP 6.0; from 2010, they will also be available for further applications of SAP Business Suite.
The following explanations do not apply for the enhancement packages for SAP NetWeaver.
Prerequisites
You use the related full release (for example SAP ERP 6.0) and have configured the business processes relevant for you there.
Before installing the enhancement packages, you have obtained information about the business functions that are relevant for your business processes. Depending on the business functions that you want to use, you then implement the relevant software component versions and content packages. See SAP Note 1052470.
For information about the business functions of SAP ERP, see SAP Service Marketplace (service.sap.com/erp-ehp) and SAP Help Portal (help.sap.com) under
SAP ERP Central Component
<number of the enhancement package>
SAP Library
Business Function Sets and Business Functions
.You have implemented the required Support Package Stack for your SAP application of the Business Suite and SAP NetWeaver for the desired enhancement package in your system.
You can first implement the required Support Package Stack and then implement the enhancement package in a second step. However, we recommend that you implement the enhancement package when you implement the current Support Package Stack, since this results in synergy effects in the tests, for example. See the notes, dependencies, and prerequisites described in the Master Guide for the respective enhancement package.
Features
The new developments and enhancements are only active once you have performed the following activities:
You have decided to use a business function.
You have installed the technical components and contents required for using the business function.
You have activated the required business functions in your ABAP-based system.
Changes to interfaces and business processes only take effect for the applications that you have also activated in the system. There is no change to the system behavior and the user interfaces of the other applications.
This delivery concept offers you the following advantages:
It provides you with long-term planning security on a stable platform but does not mean that you cannot take advantage of innovations and new developments.
You can provide individual departments with new developments at any time while other departments can continue to work and there is no change to the system behavior or the user interfaces.
Since implementation activities are only necessary for the new features, this considerably reduces the efforts and time required for the implementation of new applications and functions. No activities are necessary for the business processes that remain uninfluenced by the new features.
Your employees and users only need training for those applications and functions that you have actively decided to use.
It provides tools that simplify the installation and implementation of new developments considerably. These include the following functions:
For each business function, SAP provides test case templates that make it easier for you to test the new developments. This also reduces efforts required for the test. You only have to test the applications of the business processes that you have actively decided to optimize by activating a business function.
It provides you with analyses that tell you, for each business function, which user interfaces for which roles and users are affected by the activation of a business function.
More Information
For information about the upgrade and the installation of the Industry Business Solutions (only SAP ERP), see the Master Guide for the respective enhancement packages.