SAP® Standards for Solution Operations: Helping Customers Harness IT Landscapes and Prepare for Enterprise SOA

Companies expect high availability and continuity of their applications, flexibility to quickly implement changes, and low total cost of ownership (TCO). To accomplish this, customers need an IT strategy that focuses on the management of complexity, risks, and costs – not to mention the right skills and resources. Having standardized procedures that leverage the experience of their organization and software supplier is a key prerequisite for optimizing application management.

If you are one of these companies, you will be pleased to know that SAP has just announced a new set of standards for solution operations. This program is a collection of 16 end-to-end operational standards that help IT and business-process experts harness widespread IT landscapes and better implement your enterprise service-oriented architecture (enterprise SOA) strategies.

Implementing Service-Oriented Architecture Landscapes – The Prep Work
These end-to-end solution operations standards are a collection of operational best practices, designed to help organizations optimize their processes and solution landscape. By introducing these standards, SAP aims to empower its customers to establish mission-critical support of their SAP® solution. Dr. Uwe Hommel, Executive Vice President of SAP Active Global Support, explains further, “The new standards are a response to the changing times our customers are facing. The form that enterprise SOA is taking and its effect on business administration is becoming increasingly clear. Analysts are advising companies to focus more on system operation.”

A New Program, Based on Proven Practices and Years of Experience
Your IT strategy needs to focus on parallel management of complexity, risk, and cost – providing flexible solutions for rapid implementation of changes, yielding high application availability and continuity, and resulting in low TCO. Standardized approaches (customized to meet each customer’s unique environments and based on historical successes) are crucial. The new 16-step program blends all these requirements, seamlessly, to deliver the best-of-breed solutions that companies expect from SAP.

A Step-by-Step Approach to Managing Your Enterprise SOA
This solution set is comprehensive, unlike any other one to come before it. All 16 steps include procedures for individual tasks, tools to use, training and service, and support recommendations. A sampling of the standards includes change control management, root cause analysis, incident management, and data volume management. They are assigned to a half dozen end-user responsibility areas – such as the program management office, application management, and business process operations – so each group can maintain its specialized expertise while still working within the big-picture framework.

SAP Solution Support Enablement Package Completes the Comprehensive Solution
SAP has also introduced the SAP Solution Support Enablement package to complement the 16 standards. This preconfigured package, an extension to the functionality of the SAP Solution Manager application management solution, is designed to help further increase solution stability – via standardization and support – for complex IT upgrades and consolidation.

Learn More About SAP’s Proactive Effort with Some Proactive Effort of Your Own
SAP standards for solution operations are another example of the proactive effort by SAP to reduce customers’ TCO and maximize their ROI. These standards are taking another great step forward in helping customers create a best-run business.

Learn more by visiting the updated SAP Solution Manager information online.

For specific details about the 16 standards for solution operation, click here. 

To see how the SAP Solution Support Enablement package complements these standards, click here. 

Or, to find out more, you can call your SAP representative or click here.