What is SAP COE?

Centers of Excellence provide business and application expertise to support the effective daily operations and improvement of different business or IT functions. The SAP Center of Excellence (COE) focuses on these tasks for SAP systems and solutions in place at an organization. They provide functions such as implementing new SAP systems, designing new processes, optimizing existing processes, managing projects, providing user support and training, and keeping the SAP landscape running 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

What is SAP COE?

Centers of Excellence provide business and application expertise to support the effective daily operations and improvement of different business or IT functions. The SAP Center of Excellence (COE) focuses on these tasks for SAP systems and solutions in place at an organization. They provide functions such as implementing new SAP systems, designing new processes, optimizing existing processes, managing projects, providing user support and training, and keeping the SAP landscape running 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Some of the benefits that a SAP COE offers include: a repository of SAP deployment best practices; a central point-of-contact for all SAP-related matters; a place where strong competencies can be developed; a means to enhance the value of SAP solutions; improved SAP personnel retention; and improved service levels. While there is an investment involved in creating a SAP COE, with many organizations running dozens or hundreds of SAP systems there can be a significant organizational benefit to setting up a COE.

Key Considerations for SAPinsiders:

  • Building a successful COE requires planning and investment, both financial and from a resource perspective. According to David Jantzen and Dan Haynes of Deloitte, some of the key steps to setting up a successful SAP COE include: ensuring appropriate leadership, defining how the organization will work, building tight relationships with business and IT teams, and defining appropriate metrics.
  • You can boost the success of your SAP COE by developing and defining the right metrics. Many organizations view their SAP COE as little more than a support organization. However, given the value of SAP systems and the resources invested in the COE itself, this limits the overall value the team can provide. By developing the right metrics it is possible to transform the COE from a support team to a key part of the business. In this article SAPinsider spoke with Ken Grady of Novartis how they appropriately defined metrics to help transform their SAP COE into a valuable part of the business.

635 results

  1. Define Test Requirements and Create and Execute Testing Components as Part of Your Automated Testing Solution

    Published: 10/August/2011

    Reading time: 15 mins

    ManagerLearn a step-by-step procedure for defining and transferring test requirements from SAP Solution Manager to SAP Quality Center by HP. Create test components in SAP Test Acceleration and Optimization and execute the test cases in SAP Quality Center. Key Concept The business process testing model supports the workflow of the user interface design that allows…...…

  2. Improve Your Cost Center Planning with Driver-Based Planning

    Published: 15/March/2007

    Reading time: 16 mins

    See how to plan cost center activities automatically with driver-based planning. Learn how it works in both manufacturing and service departments. Key Concept Driver-based planning is a best practice in the manufacturing industry, in which companies often use the sales plan as a starting point for the production plan and the production plan to determine…...…

  3. Eliminate Duplicated Inter-Company AR/AP Postings in Cross-Company Sales Orders

    Published: 15/May/2008

    Reading time: 25 mins

    Learn how to prevent duplicate inter-company AR/AP postings when working with cross-company free-of-charge sales orders. Key Concept Inter-company journal postings are common when processing a cross-company business scenario. The SAP system automatically generates inter-company journal postings for you if you post a credit in one company and a debit in another company In a typical…...…

  4. Simplify Segment Reporting with the New General Ledger

    Published: 15/November/2005

    Reading time: 16 mins

    Find out how the new General Ledger (G/L) in mySAP ERP differs from the classic G/L. With its new segment functionality, you do not need to create a Special Purpose Ledger to meet different compliance standards. Key Concept One of the requirements of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) is to report financial information by line…...…

  5. How the Use of an Org Charting Tool Enhances Your SAP Organizational Management Experience

    Published: 25/June/2012

    Reading time: 17 mins

    Learn an SAP Organizational Management data model approach that is consistent with SAP system standard functionality. Supplement display and reporting capabilities with the functionality available in the leading org charting tools to reduce complex custom developments while improving end-user experience. Key Concept An organizational structure in an SAP system is used to support many HR-related…...…

  6. A Step-by-Step Setup Guide to SAP Solution Manager Adapter for SAP Quality Center by HP: Part 2

    Published: 25/February/2010

    Reading time: 11 mins

    ManagerIn the second half of this series on setting up the integration between SAP Solution Manager and SAP Quality Center by HP, find out how to set up and finalize the connection between the two systems. Key Concept The integration between SAP Solution Manager and SAP Quality Center by HP enables quality assurance teams to…...…

  7. Selecting Suitable Delegates for Critical Staff in SAP ERP HCM

    Published: 19/July/2016

    Reading time: 14 mins

    Learn how to embed standard SAP ERP HCM master data, such as requirements, restrictions, work centers, tasks, and profile-matchup results, in your SAP ERP HCM Delegation Application. Using an example of safety and trainee workers, learn how to enhance your Delegation Application to determine the most appropriate delegate when personnel who are considered to be…...…

  8. People in office working

    Achieve Excellence in Sales and Operations Planning

    Published: 24/April/2020

    Reading time: 19 mins

    Sales and operations planning (S&OP) functions live at the tactical level of the planning hierarchy in an environment that synchronizes demand, inventory, and supply plans and considers profit objectives. S&OP has been discussed in multiple forums over the years because of the value it delivers to the organization as whole. In this article you will…

  9. Understand Your Project Costs in an Engineer-to-Order Manufacturing Environment

    Published: 17/February/2014

    Reading time: 17 mins

    Financials/SCMIn the engineer-to-order manufacturing process, a product with the exact specifications desired by a company’s customers does not yet exist. Instead, you design and then produce the product specifically for that customer, using Project System (PS). As you collect costs and bill the customer, an accounting entry is made at each step; some of these…...…

  10. Test Management for SAP Business Suite on HANA Migration Projects

    Published: 12/December/2013

    Reading time: 47 mins

    Find out what you need to know about test management when you make the switch to SAP HANA. Learn how to assess your company’s readiness, how to prepare the necessary decisions for adequate test tools from SAP and its partners, and the required test management set up and execution activities. Key Concept Testing plays a…...…