TERP01 SAP ERP: Introduction

Gavin Jones

MM Introduction to Solution Manager

SM001 V.084 Introduction to SAP Solution ManagerBusiness Example

As your project moves into the planning stage, project team members of need a high-level overview of the SAP Solution Manager. Since the project will include multiple solutions consisting of potentially complex system landscapes, it is imperative to provide consistent and persistent documentation of the existing systems and the planned systems. Understanding the benefits of a central repository is essential.

Solution Manager Definition

The SAP Solution Manager is the central application management platform that customers can run in their solution landscape to help them efficiently implement, operate, monitor, and support their SAP solutions.

SAP Solution Manager is thus used for both Implementation and Operational Functions.

The SAP Solution Manager provides tools, content, and a gateway to SAP that helps to:

Optimize the management of your SAP solution

Ensure reliability of your SAP solution

Ensure efficient operations

Ease implementation and upgrades

Continuously adapt and improve your solution

Customer's System Landscape

The SAP Solution Manager is a separate, complete Web Application Server installation that is connected to all systems in your solution landscape. These various systems are called satellite systems.

In this way, SAP Solution Manager acts as the central system of your solution landscape, allowing business processes to be implemented, tested, and even monitored in an integrated manner, thus avoiding duplication of effort and information and streamlining your activities.

Quiz:

Based upon the information provided in the topic, choose the answers from the list below:

Solution Manager is a stand-alone system that communicates with the systems in your various landscapes

Increasingly Complex Systems

In the last few years, the IT world of SAP customers has grown much more complex. Instead of one single SAP R/3 system, there are now extensive system landscapes distributed over the entire globe involving different solutions. Thus, it has become much more complicated to manage all of the components of the various solutions.

The management process has also become more complicated for SAP itself. For example, over the last several years, SAP has consolidated separate information sources and services into the SAP Service Marketplace (service.sap.com). By having a solution management system at every customer site, SAP can offer a virtually seamless link from customer systems to the service marketplace, helping to reduce the time for support, notes access, and so on.

Why Solution Manager?

Faster implementation and more efficient operation of solutions

All available implementation and upgrade content is included

Optimal access to all support services

Optimal support of all operations, maintenance and improvement activities

Faster issue resolution through collaboration with Active Global Support

There are several reasons to implement SAP Solution Manager. First, SAP Solution Manager enables the customer to have a faster implementation of SAP solutions and helps optimize operations once implementation is complete.

Second, implementing SAP Solution Manager gives the customer access to all available implementation and upgrade content.

Third, customers have easy access to all support services that are relevant to operations, maintenance, and improvement activities. This leads to faster issue resolution through close collaboration with Active Global Support.

Quiz:

The purpose of SAP Solution manager is to smoothly integrate various SAP solutions to achieve which of the following?

Faster Implementation

Faster issue resolution

Optimal support for operations

Optimal access to support

Solution Manager Usage Scenarios

There are many scenarios in which SAP Solution Manager can be used. Each scenario occurs in one of the three life cycle phases, implementation, operations, and optimization. This is also known as the cycle of continuous improvement.

There are six common scenarios for Solution Manager. They are:

Implement SAP Solutions

Monitor SAP Solutions

Manage the Service Desk

Link to SAP Services

Manage Change Requests

Upgrade SAP Solutions

Quiz

Which common usage scenario is missing from the following usage scenario?

Implement SAP Solutions

Monitor SAP Solutions

Manage the Service Desk

Link to SAP Services

Manage Change Requests

Upgrade SAP Solutions

Benefits of SAP Solution Manager: 1

More reliable IT solutions

Minimize risk during implementation

Avoid inconsistencies

Resolve issues quickly resulting in less down time

More efficient implementation and change management projects

Reduced cost of implementation and continuous improvement

Reduce cost of process design technical setup, business setup, support and operations, testing, and knowledge transfer

Centralized project handling blueprinting, configuration, and testing

Reduces the costs of upgrades or continuous improvement projects.

Solution Manager provides many benefits for the customer. One of the benefits is more reliable IT solutions. With SAP Solution Manager, companies can minimize risk during implementation and operation. They can avoid inconsistencies in heterogeneous environments by performing cross-component consistency checks. With the SAP Solution Manager Service Desk, customers can resolve issues quickly. The result is better IT service and less down time.

The tools and content provided by SAP Solution Manager make implementation and change management projects more efficient. Companies can reduce the cost of process design, technical setup, business setup, support and operations, testing, and knowledge transfer. Centralized project handling, blueprinting, configuration, and testing ensure consistency and avoid redundancies, which reduces the cost of implementation projects in multi-component environments.

SAP Solution Manager provides a framework for consistent solution documentation and preserves documents for later use, which reduces the costs of upgrades or continuous improvement projects.

Benefits of Solution Manager: 2

Faster return on investment (ROI)

Accelerates implementation and continuous improvement

Availability of implementation road maps, best-practice documents, and SAP solution management services speed learning and accelerate project

Reduced cost of operation

Provides central point of control for multi-component environments.

Facilitates technical and application integration.

More leverage from IT investments

Integrates with IT landscapes that include both SAP and non-SAP applications

Reduce their total cost of ownership without making major changes

Another benefit of SAP Solution Manager is faster return on investment. SAP Solution Manager accelerates implementation and continuous improvement. It provides implementation accelerators and a library of preconfigured business processes as a starting point for projects. This means that companies don't need to begin from scratch, and can benefit from SAPs business process experience. Content and services available through SAP Solution Manager such as implementation road maps, best-practice documents, and SAP solution management services, speed learning and accelerate projects.

Using Solution Manager can also reduce the cost of operation by providing a central point of control for multi-component environments. In heterogeneous environments, SAP Solution Manager facilitates technical and application integration.

Finally, Solution Manager gives the customer more leverage from their IT investments. SAP Solution Manager and integrates with IT landscapes that include both SAP and non-SAP applications. Companies can use it to reduce their total cost of ownership without making major changes to their IT environments.

QuizIdentify the benefits of Solution Manager

More reliable IT solutions

More leverage from IT investments

Faster ROI

Reduced cost of implementation

Reduced Cost of Operation

Summary

This topic provided an overview of SAP Solution Manager. You reviewed the uses of SAP Solution Manager, such as allowing customers to integrate their SAP Solutions and manage other components, including the SAP Service Desk. You also learned about the many benefits of implementing SAP Solution Manager, such as faster ROI and reduced cost of operations.

Finally, you learned that SAP Solution Manager is a separate installed Web Application Server that offers a complete tool set to manage the life cycle of customer solutions.

ASAP Methodology Defined

The AcceleratedSAP (ASAP) methodology is a proven, repeatable, and successful approach to implement SAP solutions across multiple industries and customer environments. This methodology evolved from a time in the mid-1990s when SAP realized that customers needed a better approach to SAP R/3 implementations.

ASAP was first introduced as a PC-based tool set called ValueSAP, which eventually included the Implementation, Global, and Upgrade roadmaps. The ASAP methodology is now fully integrated into SAP Solution Manager and AcceleratedSAP roadmaps provide content, tools, and expertise from thousands of successful implementations.

SAP is continually improving these roadmaps with enriched content based on experience gained in implementing solutions.

Standard ASAP Roadmaps

ASAP roadmaps outline the activities involved in implementing, upgrading, or enhancing SAP solutions. These roadmaps are enriched with set of deliverables, accelerators, role descriptions, and additional guides. The five standard roadmaps are listed below. To learn more about the functions of each, move your pointer over the name of the item you want to learn more about.

Implementation Roadmap for SAP Solutions provides the methodological framework for the project team to leverage in the implementation of a SAP solution. It covers, among other things, the necessary project management, requirements gathering, design, configuration of business processes, technical implementation, test procedures, training and organization change management.

Implementation Roadmap

The Solution Management Roadmap provides a methodology for the implementation of the technical infrastructure and its operation. The Solution Management Roadmap complements the Implementation Roadmap.

Solution Management Roadmap

The Global Template Roadmap describes how to organize and run a project in which a corporate template is developed. The Global Template Roadmap is geared toward more complex implementation or harmonization projects, typically involving more than one kind of SAP solution and a variety of sites, possibly in different countries. The corporate template is rolled out to other sites in a follow-up project.

Global Template Roadmap

The Upgrade Roadmap is designed to help you carry out the customizing activities required for an upgrade. These customizing activities are essential if you want to continue to use the same functions in your business application components after an upgrade.

Upgrade Roadmap

The Enterprise Portal and Exchange Infrastructure roadmaps are simply variations of the Implementation Roadmap.

Other Roadmaps

Above are the four MAIN types of ASAP roadmaps reviewed

ASAP roadmaps outline the activities involved in implementing, upgrading, or enhancing SAP solutions. Each roadmap has a set of deliverables, accelerators, role descriptions and additional guides. The five standard roadmaps are listed on this screen.

The Implementation Roadmap for SAP Solutions provide the methodological framework for the project team during the implementation of an SAP solution.

The Solution Management Roadmap provides a methodology for the implementation of the technical infrastructure and its operation.

The Global Template Roadmap describes how to organize and run a project where a corporate template is developed.

The Upgrade Roadmap is designed to help you carry out the customizing activities required for an upgrade.

There are also other roadmaps, such as the Enterprise Portal and Exchange Infrastructure roadmaps, but we do not go into detail on these here..

To learn more about the each roadmap, move your pointer over the name of the item you want to learn more about.

Five Phases of the Implementation Roadmap

The implementation roadmap consists of five phases. The first phase is Project Preparation. This is the initial planning for the customers' SAP project. The activities include general project management requirements, an issues management plan, an organizational change management plan, and the establishment of other policies and procedures for running the project.

This phase must be completed before the next phase begins. The next phase, the business blueprint phase, comprises activities for aligning the customers business and technical requirements to the SAP standard software. Just as a blueprint of a house is a plan by which an architect conveys the building requirements to the contractor, so the business blueprint in ASAP becomes the plan for the eventual configuration of a customers SAP software solution. This phase concludes with the approval of a business blueprint document.

The realization phase comprises the building and testing of the solution as prescribed by the business blueprint document. Activities in this phase include customizing in the Implementation Guide of the associated development systems. The realization phase also includes software enhancements, special progamming, building and executing test plans, and finally, signing-off the configured system.

During the final preparation phase many crucial tasks remain, such as acceptance testing of the production system hardware, the completion of end-user training, and plans for transfer to the production system.

The final phase is Go Live and Support. During this phase, items such as service level agreements and help-desk procedures are established and tested. The conclusion of this phase is the hand-over to the operations and monitoring staff.

IMPORTANT DIAGRAM

Summary

In this topic, you reviewed the basics of the ASAP methodology. You learned that the ASAP methodology is fully integrated into SAP Solution Manager, and Accelerated SAP roadmaps provide content, tools, and expertise from thousands of successful implementations.

You also learned that there are several roadmaps available to the customer, the most popular being the Implementation Roadmap. Finally, you learned that the Implementation Roadmap has five phases: Project Preparation, Business Blueprint, Realization, Final Preparation, and Go Live & Support.

Business Example

Project progress managers are responsible for several areas of an implementation project, from requirements gathering and definition to configuration and testing. Coordination of these activities demands one toolset. SAP Solution Manager supports you through each phase of your project, from planning to testing and hand-over to operations.

Project Management in SAP Solution Manager

The ASAP Implementation Roadmap provides a work breakdown structure that can be used to plan and track the underlying activities and tasks of the implementation; however, it is not meant to be characterized as a project management tool. In fact, there are links to Microsoft Project from the roadmap, allowing a project manager to download the entire structure into an MS Project plan.

Each phase of the roadmap provides a list of general project management activities, such as project team status, scope management, training plan management, and so on.

Elements of the Implementation Roadmap

The main elements of the Implementation Roadmap are:

Roadmap structure

Viewing/text area

Attachments area

The roadmap structure gives the project team a list of what to do and when to do it. This appears on the left-side of the screen displayed. The roadmap structure can be filtered by roles so that each team member can focus only on those items requiring their attention.

The viewing/text area, on the upper right-side of the screen, displays procedural guides, prerequisite information, and deliverables of the highlighted structure items on the left-side of the screen.

The attachments area on the lower right-side of the screen displays various items, such as accelerators, issues, and supplemental documentation. In this area you can also carry-out various tasks, such as assigning project team members and tracking the status of the highlighted item in the roadmap structure.

Features of the Business Blueprint

There are several features of a Business Blueprint transaction. We will focus on the following features:

Blueprint structure

Business scenarios

Business process groups

Associated items

Blueprint document

Each feature has a direct impact on the other. Let's take a closer look at these features and how they relate

Business Blueprint Features

The Business Blueprint structure is displayed on the left side of the screen. This structure is developed through the business process workshops; all requirements gathered are recorded and associated with a structure item. The content used to establish the structure is found in the Business Process Repository (BPR) Central repository for components of SAP Solution Manager solutions. These components can be: Structure elements: organizational units, master data, processes and process steps

Assignments to structure elements such as transactions or IMG activities

The business structure displayed on this screen is based on a business scenario. The business scenarios are first defined, and then supporting business process groups are chosen from the BPR based on those scenarios.

These decisions are based upon the activities outlined in the Business Blueprint phase of the Implementation Roadmap, where workshops are organized with the purpose of defining the business process needs of the project.

On the right side of the screen, associated items are available to support the line items in the structure on the left. Additional features such as project documentation, transaction assignments, and graphical flow of processes are also available.

Once the blueprint structure is finalized, the blueprint document can be generated and becomes the "master plan" for the realization phase of the project.

The Business Blueprint Structure is displayed on the left side of the screen. This structure is developed in the business process workshops. All requirements are recorded and associated with a structure item. The content used to establish the structure is found in the Business Process Repository.

The business structure displayed on this screen is based on Business Scenarios. The business scenarios are defined first. Then, supporting business process groups are chosen from the Business Process Repository, based on those scenarios.

On the right side of the screen, associated items are available to support the line-items in the structure on the left. Additional features, such as project documentation, transaction assignments and graphical flow of processes are also available.

Once the blueprint structure is finalized, the blueprint document can be generated and becomes the master plan for the realization phase of the project.

Components of the Configuration Transaction

The purpose of the Configuration transaction is to use the Business Blueprint structure to configure IMG objects in your development system. Here is a list of the most commonly used components available in the Configuration transaction:

Project documentation

Transaction assignments

Configuration of IMG objects

Development items

Test cases

Graphics

Training materials

Functions of Configuration

Using the blueprint document generated in the Business Blueprint phase, the project team will go into the Configuration transaction in the SAP Solution Manager to customize the attached development system. Customization is the configuration of the Implementation Guide (IMG) objects in the target system. The blueprint structure is replicated in the configuration screen. The associated items on the right side of the screen provide a place for documentation, administration, tracking, IMG objects to be configured, test cases, and team members assigned.

Configuration Testing Features: 1

Testing is one of most important components of Configuration. A crucial part of the Realization phase is the ability to test the functionality of the solution as you build it. Integrated into Solution Manager is the Test Workbench, which includes the test organizer, automated testing tools, and interfaces to third-party testing tools.

The figure depicts the integration of the testing tools provided by the SAP Solution Manager

Configuration Testing Features: 2

This figure shows the components of the testing workflow, from the building of test plan to the execution of the test cases within the plan to the analysis of results.

The benefits of the testing features include:

Reduced time for test preparation and execution

Single point of access to complete system landscape

Central storage of testing material and test results

Re-use of existing testing material

Let's walk through the test workflow outlined on this screen. First, a project structure is created and test cases are collected. In the second step, the collected test cases are assigned to different test packages in the project structure. Then, the test packages are given to the assigned testers the project. The test packages are executed and then the test results are analyzed.

The benefits of this systems are:

Fast test preparation and execution

A single point of access to the complete system landscape

Central storage of testing material and test results

and

Re-use of existing testing material

Summary

This topic focused on the various tool sets available in SAP Solution Manager. You reviewed the major project management features such as links to Microsoft Project and a work breakdown structure. You also learned about features of the Implementation Roadmap, such as the roadmap structure and the accelerators area. Finally, you reviewed the major features of both the Blueprint and Configuration transactions.SAP Solution Manager During Productive Operations

Customer's "central system"

Customer's Help Desk

Customer's link to SAP Services and Support

Once we have a live production system, Solution Manager takes on the role of a central system that integrates tools such as system monitoring, business process monitoring and the help desk.

Solution Manager is a powerful tool because it is your gateway to SAP Support. Based on your solution configuration, Solution Manager automatically triggers recommendations for services such as remote consulting, self-services, and best practice documents.

We'll examine these features in more detail.

Solution Monitoring (3 components that define concept of solution monitoring) IMPORTANT

The continually increasing number of IT solutions and components is a growing challenge for the administration team in a computer center. The number of components has increased from what was required with SAP R/3 (including SAP instances, database, hardware, and operating system) to include an ever-growing range of technologies. As a result of this development, computer center managers demand a monitoring method that is centralized (with all information in one tool), yet can be extended to cover new components.

Instead of classic system monitoring of individual system components, we now talk about Solution Monitoring, where entire business processes can be monitored as a whole across multiple components. This concept is realized through the following three monitoring sections within the SAP Solution Manager:

Real-time monitoring with a focus on the graphical display of business processes based on the Computing Center Management System (CCMS)

Business Process Monitoring

Administration and real-time monitoring based on the Computing Center Management System (CCMS)

System Monitoring: Central System

Service Level ManagementThe increasing number of IT solutions is a growing challenge for the administration team in a computer center. As a result, computer center managers demand a monitoring method that is centralized (with all information in one tool), yet can be extended to cover new components.

Instead of classic system monitoring of individual system components, we now talk about solution monitoring, where entire business processes can be monitored across multiple components. This concept is realized through the following three monitoring sections within the SAP Solution Manager: Business Process Monitoring, Central System Monitoring, and Service Level Management.

Monitoring Recommendations

Use Service Level Management in the SAP Solution Manager to lay the foundation for setting up the correct procedures for monitoring of your SAP solution. The recommended technique is to define an explicit monitoring concept for central system monitoring using the Computing Center Management System (CCMS) in conjunction with the SAP Solution Manager. This form of system monitoring, that starts with monitoring all business-process-relevant system components, is known as the inside-out approach. The complementary outside-in approach involves using tools from third-party manufacturers. To achieve comprehensive monitoring, SAP recommends using both approaches simultaneously.

Solution Monitoring-Workflow

Service Desk Features

Now that we have talked about some of the features of solution monitoring, we will look at another component of the SAP Solution Manager: Service Desk. The service desk offers a complete infrastructure for organizing and operating a solution-wide support organization at your site.

Features include:

Message handling process

Customer solution database

Managing SAP

Solution Manager diagnosticsService Desk Scenarios

Quiz

Change Request Management

After reviewing the features of the Service Desk, let's examine some of the more advanced features of SAP Solution Manager. Two commonly used advanced features are Change Request Management and Solution Manager Diagnostics.

Change Request Management, as part of the SAP Solution Manager, integrates service desk functionality for managing change requests. The processes supported by Change Request Management include urgent corrections for implementing fast and direct changes in the productive environment, and maintenance cycle activities such as regular releases and implementation, upgrade, or template projects

Three Tiers of Change Request Management

End-to-End Root Cause Analysis and Solution Monitoring with SAP Solution Manager

Solution Manager Diagnostics

A key requirement for efficient and safe support of IT solutions is the ability to perform root cause analysis with speed and efficiency. Solution Manager diagnostics provides all functionality to centrally analyze and monitor a complete SAP solution. It also reduces the time needed to train a support consultant in root cause analysis The SAP Reference IMG

The Enterprise IMG

The Project IMGPAGE 111/1/2012