From Social Media to Social Sales – Learn Customer Engagement Management
Join us for Alpha Sirius webinar on our most in-demand SAP product on Jan 16, 2013 at 2.00pm EST
Heard about Social Media, Big Data and Analytics – what next? In today’s world of Facebook, twitter, LinkedIn and much more, that cannot be ignored, you cannot rely only on your internal data and enterprise systems.
– Define the concept of the SAP Solution Manager
– Discuss the tools provided by the SAP Solution Manager
– Introduction to Operations and Support Tools of the SAP Solution Manager
– Description of the various tools that makeup the Operations side of Solution Manger as well as their features and functions.
– Understand the basic requirements for configuration of SAP Solution Manager
– Describe the various elements of Service Desk and Change Request Management as part of SAP Solution Manager
– Outline how to customize the Service Desk and the Change Request Management process according to your needs.
DEMO Details –
Dial +1 (213) 289-0010
Access Code: 593-394-280
Audio PIN: Shown after joining the meeting
Meeting ID: 593-394-280
SPECIAL FEATURES OF THE TRAINING….
• SAP Trained instructors
• 90days of Sandbox training
• Recorded sessions after every class
• Weekend class for busy professionals
• Immediate placements at ASI Projects
• High Paying SAP career
• 24 X7 access to our servers
****BOOM YOUR CAREER WITH SAP SOLUTION MANAGER ****
SAP Solution Manager ChaRM vs. 3rd Party Tools… Stay tuned for more info
Ajay Vonkarey, Alpha Sirius, presented ” Successful CHaRM Implementation Validated Environment” on June 25th at SAP Inside Track Newtown Square. Click here to watch the recording. I highly recommend watching all the recordings from this event. All the sessions I attended this day were excellent.
How do we manage without CHaRM?
Currently, without CHaRM, most of us manage transports in spreadsheets, still do approvals by e-mails, have difficulty adhering to governance, have overlapping issues with project and support landscapes and problems with traceability and audits. We have difficulty adhering to governance through SOX compliance or other industry standards.
ERP for your SAP
Ajay explained that SolMan is the “ERP for your SAP” since it provides the tools and processes for IT Service Management. Ajay said it provides “Process-driven transparency for the whole application lifecycle” in that is links transports/objects back to a change request.
He said his customers use the SolMan work centers, which provides a “central dashboard” for the user.
Ajay also indicated that SolMan 7.1 has more integration with third party applications; he mentioned there is a “gateway” with HP Quality Center.
CHaRM Extended Configuration
For his pharmaceutical customer, they extended the configuration and notification process using digital signatures, thereby extending the audit trails. Additionally, they extended the Web dynpros as in the inbox the user clicks on a link to SolMan to open the change request.
Ajay suggests for your CHaRM implementation that you build a prototype to help fit your needs. He also recommends using BI for reporting to generate service level agreements and establish metrics.
He also said you already paid for SolMan so you “might as well use it”. He suggested using SolMan has a repository for your SolMan project. There is a business process repository to implement functions in SolMan.
“Not just a tool for Basis”
A key challenge to overcome is that SolMan is not just a Basis job as it requires experience in project management, functional and programming knowledge.
Thanks to Ajay for presenting as I enjoyed his presentation.
SAPPHIRE 2010 Presenter & SAP Partner announces Memorial Day Training Event with $300 Discount on all Alpha Sirius Trainings.
Alpha Sirius Inc. being SAP Partners thrives on combining Project Management and Information technology. With expertise in PMI ( Project Management Institute), ASAP ( SAP implementation ) PRINCE2 and Six Sigma processes, Alpha Sirius Inc. helps and aids its customers in successful IT implementations.
Solution Manager is a software tool, content and gateway to create, operate, manage and monitor business management solutions. SAP Solution Manager is one of the products of software company SAP AG.
Alpha Sirius is RunSAP certified firm is one of the leading consulting practices for SAP Solution Manager.
Batches Starting From June 16, 2010
Alpha Sirius has developed a number of detailed, powerful training courses, dedicated to several SAP Solution Manager Areas. The main focus of our courses is on –
Solution Manager Consultants
Project Managers
End-users & Business Teams
Basis team
System Administrators
We conduct FREE introductory sessions on SAP Solution Manager training. By attending these sessions you will get to know about Solution Manager demand in today’s industry & Attendees will learn how the establishment of a COE is the most effective approach in supporting the SAP Solution Manager
Attendees will learn how solution manager supports the COE.
Delta-training and Cross Training for SAP Consultants who desire to upgrade their skills.
Help with SAP certifications.
Help with SAP Jobs and Job Interviews.
We provide placement services for qualified students
For more details, please visit – www.alphasirius.com. Please send us your interest and resume on rzaveri@alphasirius.com
We look forward to hearing back from you!
SAP Solution Manager – is it a tool, a system, part of a process, part of a methodology, it is a standard or part of best practices.
Is it one or is it all. The mere definition of the word is – “A manager of your Solution”. A manager of your SAP Solution or your IT solution?
After reading all the blogs, listening to multiple podcasts and webinars, I wanted to share my thoughts on the most discussed topic – SAP Solution Manager.
Comparisons have been made to Solution Manager as a ‘Swiss Army Knife’, or a ‘shed with lots of tools’. Case is true – a Swiss army knife is very successful and Victorinox had made its name on it.
HISTORY:
SAP solution Manager has been out for a long time, since 2001. Here is a history of the tool with its functions.
CHALLENGES:
An interesting statistic – SAP Solution Manager is the 2nd most installed SAP product after SAP ECC. Much more than CRM, BI, APO and other SAP products. But the utilization of the tool – less than 10%. This leads to many questions and myriad answers. Depending on whom you ask the answers are:
Customer:
Integration Partner:
Functional Consultants:
Most of the talk today around is by the technical folks who have been using Solution Manager for their particular trade – BASIS RELATED FUNCTIONS.
What customers/consultants/SAP professionals do not realize that it has lot more potential to it. Few reasons for it:
Some of the customer survey’s today show that less than 20% use it for systems monitoring and less than 10% use it for Change Management. When asked the main challenges for Solution Manager Utilization, the response includes complexity, value of Solution Manager and actual cost of implementation. Refer to a great survey by Panaya at http://bit.ly/aJ4x4x
The other big challenge for Solution Manager is the skill set and expertise out in the market. The expertise need for Solution Manager is a mix of project management, technical, functional and much more. The customers need to understand that implementing Solution Manager is similar to implementing any other SAP tool – like ECC, BI, and CRM but at a smaller scale. Check our my podcast with Jon Reed on the skill set required for Solution Manager – http://www.jonerp.com/content/view/255/33/
The key for the success is also maintaining and being up to date with the latest Solution Manager Versions and enhancement packs. A top BASIS associate and a SAP mentor, suggest that having a sponsor for Solution Manager with realistic budgets is key otherwise prepare for disappointment.
The challenge is also the perception of the implementation timelines. When it is advertised that ChaRM can be implemented within few weeks, while we have seen the simplest ChaRM implementation took about 6 months. Hence it is taken with the wrong perception that it can be quick and dirty and implemented within few weeks with one consultant.
Unfortunately, in many SAP Solution Manager Implementations the focus is not on what the customer actually requires, but on those functions offered by SAP Solution Manager by default and out of the box implementation. This will work for more technical implementations like setting up systems monitoring and root-cause analysis. What is difficult is to adopt is using it for functions like Change Management, Business Process Monitoring, Implementation/Upgrades and test management.
A customer just emailed me and asked what are the potential risks that need to consider with Solution Manager as it is connected to all production systems. Very valid question, especially for a customer with a validated environment. Unfortunately there was no direct answer, no white paper to be referred to or a list of bullet points. Her decision – maybe we will look into implementing it in the future once we are comfortable with the risks and mitigation.
Also the other challenge customers face, with the right intentions of implementing Solution Manager is: what is a good roadmap, what is a good starting point? With the plethora of functionally in Solution Manager, does the customer start it with using it for a new SAP implementation, continue using it only for systems monitoring, may be use it only for small functionally for service desk or Change Management.
SOLUTIONS:
The success will come in by budgeting it as an implementation project, find the right SAP certified company and go thru the complete implementation life cycle. Just hiring a consultant, who is more of a technical consultant with BASIS background, will not help with the success of the system.
It is crucial to success that the customer has a clear picture of all functions in Solution Manager, but more importantly prioritize them for implementation. For example a customer with lot of batch job issues and downtime does not make sense in setting up Implementation or Service Desk functions. This means that the focus must not be on the solution management tool, but on the risks that are addressed and minimized by Solution Manager.
I did a presentation on Change Request mgmt and deploying it at an SAP Insider conference back in 2006. One of the comments was ‘as much as I like the BASIS folks, Solution Manager is NOT just a BASIS tool”. Unfortunately it is still considered a technical tool. It is time to change the perception and realize that I can be used by all of IT and business too.
Customers need some hard dollar numbers and relevant success stories to sell the same with their management. A basic cost matrix of a sample customer with cost information with and with our Solution Manager. I guess as a Run SAP partner, it’s a cue for us to take it up.
If you are making Solution Manager mandatory to the customer, make it the same for the implementation partners and independent consultants. What is the point if you do not have the skill set and expertise to implement it while it is mandatory?
Having been working on Solution Manager since 2002, it bothers me to see that it still has not taken off, the discussions is still around the technical functions and capabilities. I would like to see a webinar/podcast with user of Solution Manager, be it someone from IT or business.
| M | T | W | T | F | S | S |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | ||
| 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 |
| 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 |
| 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 |
| 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | ||
AlphaSirius's Blog 
