Important Message for RPT Users

Posted on by Katie Babcock

September 8, 2020

Katie Babcock

Administrative Management Systems (AMS), UofT Enterprise Modernization Program

Date: September 8, 2020
To: RPT Users
From: Enterprise Applications & Solutions Integration
Re: Important Message for RPT Users

Dear all RPT users:

As you may be aware, Enterprise Applications & Solutions Integration (EASI) is launching the next phase of an upgrade to the Administrative Management Systems (AMS). As part of this phase, called the S/4HANA Migration, we are moving to a new SAP platform and recently entered our third and final testing cycle. An important change to note is that after we go live with the new platform, the RPT instance will no longer be refreshed and you will need to use AMS to run all future reports. 

RPT was built in the late 1990s to offload the reporting functionality of AMS in order to improve the performance of AMS. Since then, we have learned that RPT is being used for running reports during scheduled AMS downtimes, to provide a static data set and compensate for historical performance shortcomings in AMS. With the move to the Azure Cloud last year and the upcoming S/4HANA upgrade, these historical constraints no longer exist. We thoroughly investigated the possibility of continuing with the RPT instance in S/4HANA; however, due to both technical and cost constraints this option is unfortunately not feasible.

As a solution to the issue of not being able to run reports during AMS system downtime, we will be piloting a modern user interface to enable users to run a range of key reports, which will be available 24/7. This new user interface will be part of the University’s first steps into SAP’s latest and greatest web-based user experience offering: the SAP Fiori Launchpad. We will be sending out future communication on this to advise which key reports have been developed and ask for your feedback on potential additional reports that could be added. We believe this will provide the required reporting functionality during scheduled AMS downtimes (Fiscal Year End, Holiday Shut Down, Fiscal Month End and pay runs).

What do you need to know?

  • The last time that RPT will be refreshed will be at the end of October 2020.
  • To assist with the reconciliation and comparison of pre and post S/4HANA migration financial results, this RPT clone will remain available to the end users for a period of time.
  • After the S/4HANA migration, you will be able to use AMS to run your reports with the following improvements:

o   Added horsepower to the AMS system.

o   A new database called AMS HANA that lays the foundation for future improved performance.

  • To further mitigate the impact of the loss of RPT, we will be reducing our scheduled downtimes – please stay tuned for the details. It is anticipated that the new 24/7 reporting solution will be available by the holiday shut down period. The EASI team will be optimizing the post go live downtime periods in November and December to ensure maximum availability.
  • A link to the new reporting landing page (with login using UTORid) will be provided on the Administrative Web Services webpage in advance of the holiday shut down period.
  • A Connect & Learn session for interested users will be scheduled in advance.

Learn more about the U of T Enterprise Modernization Program. 

Thank you for your support in making these improvements.

Sincerely,
Enterprise Applications & Solutions Integration (EASI)