Commerce gets a helping hand from new SAP

Back in Australia, the NSW Department of Commerce announced the completion of their two-week upgrade to the latest version of SAP’s enterprise resource planning software, MySAP 2005, as part of an ongoing drive to standardize their technology platforms.

The department implemented the upgrade under the terms of the SAP Ramp-Up program, a program designed for early users of relatively new product. The department of commerce was the first to perform the SAP upgrade within the state government, though basically all other departments will follow with the program. (Assuming, of course, no unforeseen disasters strike the upgraded system.)

According to the nice folks over at Australia’s ZDNet.com, the department of commerce has, since 2003, “decommissioned four data centres and formed a single personnel structure across its merged IM&T department.” Reportedly, a wide area network upgrade is underway, as this department boasts no fewer than 80 offices.

The reason for the single-system push is the actual formation of the department of commerce, a whole new department formed from the merger of several other agencies three years ago. Today, the department has 4,000 users of its ERP system.

According to ZD, the department will “take a cautious approach to adopting currently hyped technologies such as Windows Vista and voice over internet protocol telephony.” Said one department representative: “We’ve got no immediate plans to upgrade to Vista.”