SilverMine Plus

·"SilverMine Plus" is a tested process for SAP VC customers seeking better performance from their VC and wanting to enable VC configuration functionality to operate outside SAP.  

SilverMine Plus participation is offered at no cost, is voluntary and is designed for the SAP VC customer to benefit, too.  You will see your VC product models in a much different way - transformed, compiled and operate much faster on the internet or laptops

We introduced SilverMine I May 7, 2007 to attendees of the Spring European SAP Configuration Workgroup [CWG] Conference in Salzburg, Austria for companies wishing to participate.   Then it was an Early Adopter solution. 

After 6 months of exhaustive testing a much more complete SilverMine II was introduced to North American SAP customers October 8, 2007 at the Fall USA CWG Conference in Marco Island, FL.  It was no longer an Early Adopter Version.

Salzburg and Marco Island participants received a 1Gb USB memory stick with the SilverMine [SAP VC Extract] software installed and all that had to be done was to plug the USB into a computer that had a link to SAP.   

Over thirty [30+] high profile and recognized named companies volunteered one or more of their VC product models and these models have been instrumental for us in attaining a high quality of accuracy for the extraction process.  For all of you that participated, a big thank you.   

Check out the submitted model analytics presented at Berlin CWG 

Yes, we found omissions in the early versions of the product and made the necessary fixes.  It was a Beta process after all.  The participants have been patient and their patience is paying off with good results.   The extraction solution is Avenue from VC and it was released for General Availability early in 2008. 

The Configit Distiller for SAP and Configit Quote software products were also a byproduct of this testing effort and  will be Generally Available at the 2008 Fall USA Marco Island CWG Conference.

Introducing SilverMine Plus:  It extracts characteristics, characteristic values, configuration profiles, constraints, object dependencies, pre-conditions, selection conditions and all other objects from the VC Knowledge base and now includes Bills of Material and Variant Pricing.  

Although we have over 55 SAP VC models from CWG and web participants to-date, we are still inviting SAP customer participation.  There remains a very wide variety of how models are created and maintained, and we would still like to have even more comprehensive samples of customer product models to help assure that the SAP VC extraction technology handles as many variations as we can obtain.  To-date we have handled the hard stuff including pre-conditions, selection conditions, UI and constraints as examples.

Caution.  Participants should notice a significant performance improvement in a SilverMine generated product model operating outside SAP vs. a SAP based VC product model.  The behavior is the same.  The UI is the same if you want it to be the same or change the UI.

How SilverMine Plus Works...

SilverMine Plus enables you, the SAP VC customer, to login to SAP in a non intrusive way. After the SilverMine console detects that you have SAP permission to do so,  SilverMine identifies and displays all configurable product models or you make a manual entry.  You select which models to make available to SilverMine and those models are extracted, encrypted and placed in a secure location. 

We receive notification that new data has been added and we pick up your extracted model, create an XML version and translate and transform your SAP product model, then compile the models and generate several outputs that we place in a secure customer portal. 

We then schedule a mutual time to review your model so we can guide you through the process and highlight processing speeds, show you errors we found with any SAP rules, if any, bring up the product model using your UI [from the VC] and show you why rules exclude particular user selectable choices, show you the behavior of the model and we transfer on-line control to you so you can make the selections.  No smoke and mirrors here. 

After the review, we send you a username and password so that you can review it for yourself on your own or for you to show others.  No high pressure.   If you like what you see and want more detail we can schedule an on-site, multi-day workshop to get to more detail.  

If you are looking for the capability to move your VC product models outside SAP and put them on the web, or on mobile devices, you should participate.  By the way, you can make your UI look the way you want it to without impacting your SAP VC model.

If you require a Non Disclosure Agreement, let us know, we will provide you with a Mutual Non Disclosure Agreement by email.

What participants take home...

The SilverMine process includes many output files, screens and reports and we place all that information on a secure customer portal.  The first phase includes:

• a XML representation of your SAP VC model, .
• a hyperlinked documentation of your converted VC product model, and
• a "Pack n Go" translated version of our VC product model. 
  • This configurator can run off line with the same behavior as your VC model

As a second phase, we will lead you through the all the outputs [on the portal] in a web session and illustrate additionally for you:

• a much improved Product modeling environment
• report modeling errors and exceptions with detail explanations
• a performance analysis report, and
• you receive the Configit product model application so you can show it to others.

For More Information click here then click on "What is SilverMine Plus"