What is Sure Transports?

The Sarbanes–Oxley Act (SOX) was instituted as a reaction to a number of major Corporate and Accounting scandals,

most notably the collapse of Enron in 2001. Non compliance penalties range from the loss of exchange listing to

Multimillion Dollar fines and imprisonment

The problem with SOX is that even if a company’s Accounting Practices are perfect and they pass a SOX audit, if the

data could have been corrupted/manipulated at the source (ie your SAP system), then no matter how good your

Accounting Practices may be, the Financial Reporting can still be flawed

Sure Transports is an add-on for SAP that introduces a Change Control System that integrates with the existing

Transport System that already exists in SAP and provides Companies with tighter Controls and greater Transparency

of their Development Lifecycles and Transport Processes

NOTE: The Prototyping for this add-on has been completed, ie we have designed the basic screens, DB tables and

found the required BAPIs to automate the Transport and Approval Processes. However we have not gone beyond this

stage. The reason for this is that ideally we would like to find a “partner” with more Change Control or Compliance

experience to be actively involved in the Implementation Phase

Sure Transports

How does it work?

Sure Transports

New Requirement

Create Change Request / Release

Approval Workflow Development QA / Peer Review

Auto Release of Transports

Auto Import of Transports

What are the Benefits of using Sure Transports?

Sure Transports will guarantee the following:

• Every Development will have the required Approvals in place before Development starts

• Every Development will have the required Documentation (ie Functional/Technical Specs/Program Documentation)

before Developments are released from the Development System

• Every Development will be Tested thoroughly with Test Scripts before Transports are imported into Production

• Every Development will have a “Quality Assurance” or “Peer” Review to ensure the quality of the work is to a high

standard before Transports are imported into Production

• Transport Automation: Sure Transports will keep track of which Transports are required for each Development, as

well as what Order they need to be imported in, and it will export and import them at the correct times

• Automated Audit Report: Sure Transports will be able to generate a detailed Change Control Report of every single

change on your system, complete with links to all the supporting Documentation

Sure Transports

Existing SAP Audits

SAP Audits do exist, but they are not ideal for a few reasons:

• “Setup Time”:Time needs to be spent to give the Auditors the access they require, ie setting up User Accounts so

that they can access your network, SAP system, etc

• “Handholding”: Typically the Auditors themselves are not familiar with your infrastructure or SAP itself. Therefore

you need to make resources available to assist them in getting the information they need

• “Incomplete Audits”: It is not possible for an Auditor to check each and every change that has been made on your

system. Typically they will select a handful of changes, and only check that all the approvals and documentation are in

place for those changes, which means audits are incomplete

Sure Transports

Change Request

Before a developer can start working on a new requirement, a Change

Request has to be created. A Change Request can be used to

represent a new Requirement or even a Project

The only documentation that is required is a high level Change Request

Document. Based on a combination of the Request Type and Request

Team, a lookup is done on a Config Table to find the appropriate

“Approver” for this type of Request

This Change Request will then be submitted to the appropriate

“Approver”. Once the Change Request has been approved a Transport

will be Created Automatically

A Task will also be created automatically for that Transport and

assigned to the Developer

Sure Transports

Approvals

The Approval Transaction simply lists all the Change Requests that are awaiting approval. From here the “Approver” can

navigate to the Change Request to view the Documentation or they can approve the Change Request

Sure Transports

Release

It is possible to create multiple Releases for each Change

Request. Effectively a Release can be a “Component” or

“Version” of the original Change Request

A Release contains the link to the Transports for that

Change Request

A release requires more detailed documentation than the

Change request, specifically:

• A Technical Spec

• A Functional Spec

• A Test Script

Sure Transports

Why implement a Change Control System in SAP?

The reason why it makes sense to implement a Change Control System in SAP are:

• Transports: Typically a SAP Landscape will consist of a DEV System, a QA System and a Production System.

Transports are used to move changes between the different systems, therefore if you control transports you control

the Development lifecycle

• SAP Business Workflow: Provides a number of tools for defining and analyzing workflows as well as for monitoring

operations. Workflows are ideal for performing Approvals or QA/Peer Reviews

• RFC: Remote Function Call is the proprietary SAP AG interface for communication between a SAP System and other

SAP or third-party compatible system over TCP/IP or CPI-C connections. By using RFCs it means that it is possible to

integrate Sure Transports with your existing Change Control System, ie your change Control System could still be

used and it will automatically create Requests/Releases in Sure Transports

Sure Transports

Transports

Transports are used to transfer data from one SAP installation to another. Think of a Transport as a “bucket” that

contains all the development objects. The most important thing about Transports is that every single development object

has to be stored within them, and they are stored using the following key:

• Program ID

• Object Type

• Object Name

Sure Transports

QA / Peer Review

When Development is complete a QA or Peer Review is required.

Sure Transports will explode the Transport into all of it’s components

as shown in this Example

Based on the combination of the Program ID, Object Type and Object

Name a lookup is done against a Config Table to see if there is a

corresponding QA Function Module

In this Example two objects require a QA, one of which has already

been done

Sure Transports

QA / Peer Review Function Example : Program Function

This is an example of a Program QA Function that is called for Programs. It simply has a list of checks that need to be

performed by the Reviewer. Once all checks have been performed and confirmed by the Reviewer, the Change Request Status

will change, and the Transport will automatically be released

Sure Transports

Transport Documentation

Once the QA / Peer Review has been completed, the

Transport will be released automatically

At the same time, the Transport Documentation Tab will be

updated with Sure Transport Specific Information

Sure Transports

Sure Transports Audit Report

The biggest advantage of using Sure Transports is the

Audit Report that can be run, which contains important

information such as:

• The Change Request Number

• Who requested the Change and when

• Who approved the Change and when

• Who the Developer was and how long the

Development took

• Who performed the QA / Peer review

• Hyperlinks to important documentation such as the

Business Requirements, Tech Spec, Functional Spec

and Test Scripts

• List of Objects linked to the Change Request

In theory this report contains everything an auditor could

possibly need

Sure Transports

One of our other products, Sure Landscapes, will be used to for the installation process.

Sure Landscapes will automatically create the following objects on your system in a matter of seconds:

• Development Class: A New Development will be created for Sure Transports and it will contain all objects

required by Sure Transports

• Transport: A new Transport will be created which will contain all components of Sure Transports

• Domains, Domain Values

• Data Elements

• Structures

• Database Tables

• Programs, Program Texts, Program Screens

Installation

Sure Transports

Cost and Support

Support Contract Service Contract

Initial Cost: TBC Initial Cost: TBC

Monthly Cost: TBC Monthly Cost: TBC

8 hours of Support per month 40 hours of Support per month

Free Support during a SAP upgrade Free Support during a SAP upgrade

Free Sure Transports Updates Free Sure Transports Updates

SAP Sure will manage the QA / Peer Review Process

Sure Transports