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Saplicity: the Free Excel-based SAP Data Automation Suite

People being busyLoading data into SAP is a niche that many vendors try to fill with tools that are confusing, cumbersome and absurdly expensive. Some vendors, instead of including all features together, license their products for thousands or tens of thousands of dollars per user based on what features are included and then charge thousands more in recurring annual fees on top of the initial licensing fee.

The promise made by many of these vendors is to eliminate the need for expensive technical resources, but that promise is seldom kept; the customer is inevitably forced to find technical resources to support the new product. If it were the case that their products made data migration easy for non-technical resources then job search boards would not be flooded with job requisitions for "Expert in ________" or data migration roles for people that have "at least n years of experience using ________".

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Learn BODS in a Day

Data FlowProficiency and confidence in the use of Business Objects Data Services (or "BODS") can be achieved in a single day by an experienced programmer. BODS does most of what Access does and comes with some exceptional features right out of the box.

Features like importing from ever-changing source files, exporting to UTF-8 text with headers, exporting to Excel with multiple tabs and extracting tables directly from an SAP system were not available in off-the-shelf products like Access and had to be added in the form of VBA snippets in the past. BODS comes complete with these features and many more for extracting and transforming source and load files.

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Transitioning from LSMW to LTMC

S/4HANA LogoAfter 20 years of success in the realm of R/3 and ECC, LSMW finally has a viable competitor called LTMC or Legacy Transfer Migration Cockpit. LTMC is native to S/4 and enjoys a small advantage over LSMW in most cases, but only when implementing S/4; it isn't available for R/3 or ECC.

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SAPLSMW is on Sabbatical . . . Again.

Sleepy goatThe founder and sole contributor to SAPLSMW.com is on sabbatical to tend to a family that is about to increase in size by one very small person. My beautiful bride is about to bless me with my very first child and I am over the moon with joy.

Naturally, I'll still be answering questions, but I am not on a project at the moment and my simple MiniSAP system is shuttered for a while, so I might not be able to answer every question. In the meantime, I am restoring a 1940's post-war home in Pensacola that is large enough for my growing family.

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The persistent relevance of LSMW

Despite being 17 years old and having the look and feel of an old R/3 report, LSMW is still used by millions of business professionals every day, but there are whispers of obsolescence from a tiny minority. The only problem with a conclusion of obsolescence is that is LSMW enjoys 100% target market penetration; all SAP customers have it.

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An increasingly-large host of vendors promise an alternative to LSMW that is better, but few come even close in terms of functionality and none come close to the price. Many of these alternatives promise to eliminate the need for programmers by making the process simple and that works as well as trying to eliminate doctors from an operating room by making surgery simpler.

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The favorite client pulls us back in.

Bacardi Coral GablesIt is an incredible honor to be invited a third time to work at the greatest client in the world. SAPLSMW is offically off sabbatical and back in the data migration saddle.

While not nearly as rewarding as saving old buildings or coaxing small engines back to life, the return to work couldn't be with a better client. Miami is a wonderful international city filled with warm, beautiful and vibrant people and we're very happy to be here again. It seems like yesterday, but it was five years ago that we were last hear.

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SAPLSMW is on Sabbatical

Sleepy goatAs of April of 2015 SAPLSMW.com is on sabbatical and taking some time off from the hectic life and constant travel requirements of SAP implementations. In addition to recently becoming a husband, I am investing a lot of time in parallel endeavors to insure that there will always be time in my life to support the Data Migration community.

The risk of neglecting my new family has opened my eyes to a great number of things that I have taken for granted or just put off until such time that I'm not on a project. Little things like repairing a dash camera take a back seat to a client's needs and are forgotten for years.

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SAPLSMW helps with rollout to dozens of Shred-it locations

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/52/Shred-it.jpg/220px-Shred-it.jpg|https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/01/Shred-it_service_truck_Farmington_Hills_Michigan.JPG/220px-Shred-it_service_truck_Farmington_Hills_Michigan.JPG|https://pivot.today/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2016/10/shred-it-truck.jpg|https://www.washtrust.com/Portals/0/Uploads/Images/ShredDay_Truck.jpg|https://s3-media2.fl.yelpcdn.com/bphoto/XCRVWNsbusJ7x1AHDojp6w/ls.jpg|https://www.paulhallinsurance.com/Photo_Albums/Community/shredit3.jpg|http://signpalace.integraphix.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/Sign-Palace-Shred-It-Truck.jpg|http://media.timesreview.com.s3.amazonaws.com/shelterislandreporter/files/Shredder_truck.jpgThe tools and expertise available only at SAPLSMW have been utilized to roll out SAP's CRM product to dozens of US locations from their headquarters in Canada. Using a brutally tight four-week life cycle, the team managed to complete three full implementations and successfully convert dozens of sales and service offices from three disparate legacy systems to SAP in just three months.

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SAPLSMW now first eight hits on Google

It was four months ago when we discovered that we were the first four hits on Google. We're not as obscure today as we were then. SAPLSMW is now the top eight hits on Google!

Years ago when we first set out to provide support for the data migration community one of our secondary goals was be recognized by Google in any way possible. We have far exceeded all of our goals and are recognized throughout the data migration community as an authority on the subject.

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SAPLSMW Used By International Manufacturer for Americas Rollout

liquid soap pumpThe tools and knowledge from SAPLSMW are being utilized by an international manufacturer that produces closures for bottles and cans of food, soap and cosmetics. While the legacy systems in this implementation are older versions SAP the transition is neither easy nor smooth because of simultaneously-changing methodologies and changing business requirements.

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