SAP Solution Manager FAQ

SAP Solution Manager : FAQ SAP Solution Manager From the very early versions, the SAP Solution Manager has been delivering benefits to to corporations around the globe. With the new version 7, the Enterprise Edition and the Enhancement Pack, the SAP Solution Manager is an unparalleled tool to implement, operate and enhance your SAP and ERP systems. You will find significant benefits and you will will find find that the SAP SAP Solution Solution Manager, combined combined with with SAP’s SAP’s RunSAP RunSAP Methodology, will save you significant effort and costs, while accelerating implementations and raising efficiency of your SAP and ERP operations. Below picture gives you an initial high-level overview on it’s capabilities :

Related

Update, Enhance and Analyze Business Process Change Analyzer Solution Documentation Assistant

Custom Development Management

Data consistency Management

Root cause analysis

Reports, Analysis & Dashboards

Quality Gates

Work centers

BMC Remedy / 3rd PartyIntegration cProje cProject cts sIntegration

Operate: stabilize and mature Incident Management Knowledge Database

Problem Management Change Management

EarlyWatch

System Monitoring

Service Level Reporting

Re-engineer configuration, developments & roles

Business process Monitoring

Test Management / HP-QC Business process management: ARIS ARIS / Vi sio

Implement: the foundation Scenarios, Processes and Steps

Process Documentation

Developments

Test cases

Tra nsactions

Configurati o n

Training Documentation

Project Methodol Methodology ogy & P lan

Business process management

PMO

Abu Ab u Dhab Dhabii • Du Duba baii • Lo Lond ndon on • Vi Viln lniu iuss • Ham Hambu burg rg • Ho Hong ng Kon Kong g • US USA A www.ne-pm.com • [email protected] V 1.0, 05/05/2011 © 2008-2011 NE-PM

SAP Solution Manager : FAQ SAP Solution Manager From the very early versions, the SAP Solution Manager has been delivering benefits to corporations around the globe. With the version 7, the Enterprise Edition and the Enhancement Pack, the SAP Solution Manager is an unparalleled tool to implement, operate and enhance your SAP and ERP systems. You will find significant benefits and you will find that the SAP Solution Manager, combined with SAP’s RunSAP Methodology, will save you significant effort and costs, while accelerating implementations and raising efficiency of your SAP and ERP operations. In this FAQ, you will find answers to typical, frequent questions we encounter when we start up Solution Manager projects. We appreciate anyone's input, any additional question anyone would see fit at this place to share knowledge.

Strategic / High – Level questions ► What is my benefit using Solution Manager ? Any enterprise operation SAP will realise major benefits from Solution Manager, ranging from ASAP Methodology with Roadmaps and many more implementation tools, including the SAP Operations Roadmap RunSAP with Service Management for Service Desk, Problem and Solution Management and Change Management for SAP ABAP, SAP Java, but also for non-SAP systems. But also business process monitoring, system monitoring, custom development management, solution documentation assistant, data consistency management and Root Cause Analysis are extremely helpful tools and functions, as many corporations found out, which deliver the full benefit as part of SAP Solution Manager. In many ways, Solution Manager delivers benefits, which have not been seen before and can streamline significantly SAP implementation and operational processes. ► When should I implement Solution Manager ? Many benefits and functions can be utilised fast and with low effort – quick wins are waiting to be realised. So there is no reason to wait with most functions. Solution Manager 7.1 will change Service Management significantly and is starting ramp-up in Q2/2011, which should finalise by Q3/2011, expecting a general availability towards Q4/2011. Abu Dhabi • Dubai • London • Vilnius • Hamburg • Hong Kong • USA www.ne-pm.com • [email protected] V 1.0, 05/05/2011 © 2008-2011 NE-PM

SAP Solution Manager : FAQ General Implementation questions ► How long does the implementation take ? Depending on the desired scope, typically basic system management functions can be implemented within 2-4 weeks. Assuming operations processes are defined and do not significantly deviate from SAP standard processes, implementation of the Service Desk can be done in less than a week and also for Change Management within a week or 2. A full standard Solution Manager implementation with Implementation Projects, Systems, Solution and basic Process Monitoring, Service Desk, Problems and Solution and Change Management should not take more than maximal 6 weeks (we typically deliver such within 3 weeks with a small, dedicated team). Topics like non-SAP system, server and process monitoring or data consistency monitoring for non-standard monitoring objects may take significantly more time as may a review and/or design of operational processes. ► Who needs to be involved in the implementation from our side ? Considering that Solution Manager covers a very wide range of functionality, there will be customer staff required from the areas of: - SAP Project Management and SAP Project Management Office - SAP Basis for System, Server and Database monitoring - Service/Change Management for Service Desk and Change Management - Development Team for Custom Development Cockpit and parts of Project Management - Business Process / Functional leads for Business Process Monitoring, parts of Project Management and Data Consistency Management ► Who do I need to implement Solution Manager ? Similar versatile should be the skills of your implementation partner / consultant / team: - more than 5 years of SAP experience - 1-3 years SAP Project Management experience - 1-3 years SAP Basis experience - Strong knowledge and good understanding of cross-functional SAP - Good knowledge of ABAP Development and Tools - Good knowledge and understanding of roles, authorizations and security - Good BW knowledge Abu Dhabi • Dubai • London • Vilnius • Hamburg • Hong Kong • USA www.ne-pm.com • [email protected] V 1.0, 05/05/2011 © 2008-2011 NE-PM

SAP Solution Manager : FAQ Project Management questions ► What are the benefits from the Project Management ? The benefits of the Project Management are on the one hand during the implementation phase, providing with project roadmap/plan, business blueprint and realization a great implementation methodology, tool and processes and the perfect location to store, manage and share documentation. Even more benefits will be realised once you are operational with your SAP solution and the documentation from the project can be directly utilized for documenting changes, references in service desk incidents and service requests, development documentation, business process monitoring, data consistency monitoring, compliance review and many more. The business processes form the main foundation and basis for most more enhanced functions and tools. We have seen a number of companies making the full solution documentation a condition of hand-over of an SAP project to productive operations. ► Isn’t this documentation very time-consuming ? Well, our favourite answer to this argument is usually – if it was planned at all to do any documentation, just do it in the right place from the beginning. It does not take more time than enter transaction codes or programmes in an central Excel-Sheet – which typically is locked by someone else anyhow. ► How can I analyse my project with Solution Manager best ? Solution Manager project management reporting in version 7, well, let’s say, it leaves room for improvements. Which is why we provide an web-based reporting and analysis functionality as well as an Excel-Interface – and of course all data can be transferred to BW for further analysis. ► How can I share my project documentation with project team the easiest way ? The functionality for eLearning is perfectly suited to publish any document from Solution Manager – Project Management to any audience without access to Solution Manager in an web-based interface. It even gives the option for users, if enabled, to provide feedback on documents and rate them.

Abu Dhabi • Dubai • London • Vilnius • Hamburg • Hong Kong • USA www.ne-pm.com • [email protected] V 1.0, 05/05/2011 © 2008-2011 NE-PM

SAP Solution Manager : FAQ Service Desk questions ► Does the Service Desk offer the typically required broad functionality ? Yes, the Service Desk of Solution Manager is a very powerful tool and offers a wide range of functions. So there is not only the full integration with all your productive SAP systems, but also non-SAP systems can easily be connected and it can even be used to manage services and incidents for non-IT topics. There also are functions like attached inline HTML-Forms, with fields, questions, answers etc., a problem- and solution Database, a task-management, where tasks can be assigned to individuals or teams, automated notifications on progress, status etc. for endusers, support teams and management, full automated integration with SAP OSS notes service, fairly automated search, download and implementation of notes. Most corporations use the Service Desk for Incident, Problem and Service Request management, the service desk can easily be fully integrated with SAP BW for detailed analysis, statistics and service level agreement compliance tracking and of course it is fully integrated with Change Request and Implementation Management. ► Will it make life easier for our end-users ? Yes, since support tickets can easily be raised from SAP ERP and other productive systems with only 3-4 mouse-clicks and all relevant technical environment-information will automatically be copied into the incident. That way, e.g. the support team determination can immediately automatically determine the correct support team for e.g. the SAP ERP Component “FI-GL”. If e.g. BMC Remedy is utilised for other, non-SAP tickets, the Solution Manager tickets can easily be replicated and/or synchronized with into Remedy or other products, automated and fully in the background, ensuring the end-user finds all ticket at one place. ► And will it make life easier for our support-teams and management ? Yes, very much so and for a number of reasons – the service desk is also standard SAP product, enabling the support team to continue using standard SAP products and reducing significantly training effort. But also all typically required functions like notifications, raising change request, using a problem- and solution database etc. are available, making this a great tool for supporting SAP or non-SAP operations. Abu Dhabi • Dubai • London • Vilnius • Hamburg • Hong Kong • USA www.ne-pm.com • [email protected] V 1.0, 05/05/2011 © 2008-2011 NE-PM

SAP Solution Manager : FAQ Change Management questions ► How does Change Management benefit me ? Change Management enables a full end-to-end tracking of any change made to the SAP productive systems, from end-user request/incident to technical objects of transports, including change request approvals, technical change implementation, testing and any other activity related to an specific change. Change Request Management ChaRM enables also the utilisation of Maintenance cycles, going live with changes at periodical cycles, but also enables the use of urgend corrections, which can go live immediately, or whenever required. It also helps significantly to allocate automatically tasks like e.g. “Approve Change Request”, “QA Testing” or “Release for Production”, with a full track and trace of date, time, and users. ► Does it cause much additional work ? We have demonstrated to many companies, that the usage of Change Management does not cause s single additional keystroke, assuming any documentation has been planned to do at all. For an experienced consultant, a full change cycle from change request to go live with transports in production, including tests and all approvals, can technically easily be done in less than 2 minutes. ► Is it flexible enough for our organisation ? Yes, we have never had any problems implementing any requirements from customers. Considering the same GUI is used like in the Service Desk, it is easy to handle and can be extended with any functionality desired. Some functions we implemented for customers include e.g. automated check if e.g. Business Requirement and ABAP-Documentation are attached . ► How long does it take to implement ? Like always it depends on specific requirements and system landscape, but assuming the change management process is clearly defined, in can be done including initial workshop, implementation, testing, training and hand-over typically within a week or two. Abu Dhabi • Dubai • London • Vilnius • Hamburg • Hong Kong • USA www.ne-pm.com • [email protected] V 1.0, 05/05/2011 © 2008-2011 NE-PM

SAP Solution Manager : FAQ Monitoring questions ► What can monitoring do for us ? The monitoring in Solution Manager consists of a set of very different functionality, which typically is utilized by very different users : • System, Server and Database Monitoring: Typically for SAP Basis, but also we included any non-SAP infrastructure in this monitoring in projects • Service Level Monitoring and EarlyWatch Reports: Will typically be consumed by Application Management due to the information on overall system health status, current KPI’s and KPI trends, like response times, dumps, transports, etc. • Business Process and Interface Monitoring including Data Consistency Monitoring: Business Process owners and business end-users ► How does Business Process Monitoring help ? The Business Process monitoring can monitor and pro-activly alert on any unusual, unexpected or unwanted situation like unprocessed IDOC’s, printer queue getting to long, transaction failures, system dumps, but also based on business operation status like too many unapproved open purchase requisitions, too many outgoing deliveries for warehouse, or even if e.g. Sales Orders total in a week are below a threshold, accounts payable total is above a certain threshold or there are too many open unprocessed maintenance notification or too old maintenance notifications. So it helps you to monitor any aspect, technical or operations, of your business operations, ensuring that no problems goes by unnoticed and can be addressed immediately. ► What can data consistency monitoring do ? With SAP landscape’s become increasingly complex, data consistency monitor relies on the framework of business process monitoring and checks and notifies on pre-defined data inconsistencies. This could e.g. be that material data for “Sales” material for sales organisation AAA have not been maintained, customer name is not synchronized between SAP ERP and SAP CRM, Employee in country “AE” does have pay grade below 222, not all material used in production orders have production data maintained, and the more. So all aspects of data, setup, maintenance and synchronization can be check in the consistency monitoring and notifications and alerts, on SMS, Mail or Incidents are possible. Abu Dhabi • Dubai • London • Vilnius • Hamburg • Hong Kong • USA www.ne-pm.com • [email protected] V 1.0, 05/05/2011 © 2008-2011 NE-PM

SAP Solution Manager : FAQ Remedy/Third party integration questions ► What can be integrated ? The SOA Interface in Solution Manager is enabled to synchronize / replicate any Service Desk transaction incoming or outgoing with any thrid-party, SOA compliant solution. So in a typical world, this includes Service Desk Transactions like Incidents (“SLFN”), Change Requests (“SDCR”) and Change Implementations (“SDHF”, ..). Custom transaction types can easily be synchronized as well, also incoming transactions from third-party system will have transaction types as defined in “Default new transaction type”. ► How about Problem- and Solution Database records ? With Solution Manager 7, the Problem- and Solution Database are not service transactions and can therefore not automatically be synchronized (However, with a bit of BADI coding). With Solution Manager 7.1, it is expected that Problems and Solutions become service transactions and therefore can easily be synchronized using the standard SOA interface as well with third-party products. ► Is it a high effort in Solution Manager ? The effort depends of course on complexity, user-exists, BADI’s etc., but in general it can be done within few days. If you have a solution on the third-party side, which has an pre-defined field-mapping and maybe even value-mapping, this might be a straight plug-in. But we have not come across such a complete solution. Without such, there will be a field-mapping and value-mapping required and both can easily be setup on Solution Manager side or it can be done on Remedy side. Make sure all Service Desk, specifically all business partners data, are all in place.


SAP Solution Manager 6 Years - > 50 Projects 2005: Implementation Projects at GE SeaCo Our first implementation and utilization of Solution Manager at GE SeaCo, focused on Implementation Projects.

2007: Deliver trainings on behalf of SAP AG Delivering a number of SAP Solution Manager training courses for SAP Project Managers and SAP’s external customers.

2007: Change Management at ADGAS Implementing Change Management, Implementation Projects at ADGAS.

basic

monitoring

and

2007: Solution Manager at Samsonite Implementing Change Management, Service Desk and System Monitoring.

Implementation

Projects,

2008: Implementation Projects at Carlsberg Implementing Implementation Projects, Service Desk and design business scenarios and processes.

2008: Implementation Projects at Siemens Implementing Implementation Projects and delivering training to Siemens consultants

2008: Solution Manager projects at Borouge Perform reverse business engineering, update documentation and implement Implementation Projects

2008: Solution Manager projects at Al-Futtaim Implementing Implementation Projects, Service Desk, Management, Change Management, System Monitoring

Test

2009: Solution Manager projects at RMG Implementing Implementation Projects, Test Management, Change Management, System Monitoring and Dashboards

2009-2010: Solution Manager projects at emal Implementing Implementation Projects, Service Desk, Change Management, System Monitoring, Dashboards, Remedy integration Abu Dhabi • Dubai • London • Vilnius • Hamburg • Hong Kong • USA www.ne-pm.com • [email protected] V 1.0, 05/05/2011 © 2008-2011 NE-PM

SAP Solution Manager Our background

About us We are delivering SAP consulting services since 1989 and have a wide range of experience across our European, USA, Middle East and Asian customers. The vast majority of our projects are fixed-price based – guaranteeing that way, that our customers always will receive the services at the investment they plan within a schedule agreed. Besides SAP Solution Manager, we are focused on SAP GRC, SAP cProjects and RPM and BusinessObjects implementations.


SAP Solution Manager FAQ

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