At Rapid ERP we pride ourselves on being able to bring a wealth of knowledge on the topics of Application Lifecycle Management and SAP Solution Manager to our customers. Here are a few of our insights into this ever evolving field.
Celonis for Process Excellence
Process optimisation is not an aspiration, it’s a priority If there’s one thing that all top market leading analysts agree on it is that in 2023 we are going to see an accelerated demand for process mining and process intelligence technologies as the stark realities of geo-political and economic instability continue to take their toll. The drive [...]
BPA Metrics on SAP Analytics Cloud via Focused Insights
In our previous Insights on the topics of Business Process Analytics & Improvement and Simplified Process Monitoring, we have covered in depth the attributes and functionality of the range of tooling available, but always within the context of SAP Solution Manager itself. Dashboard Builder and Focused Insights have recently provided IT and Business Process Experts with contemporary dashboarding alternatives, but [...]
Simplified Process Monitoring in SAP Solution Manager
Many of you will be familiar with and indeed utilising the Business Process Monitoring functionality in SAP Solution Manager 7.2 to identify and keep track of both IT and Business process exceptions. Although the early detection of issues in your company’s SAP operations is hugely beneficial, the day to day working with alerts, the alert inbox, and associated functions [...]
Make your S/4 transformation programme a success – Part 2, Realize Phase
The Realization Phase This is the second of three blogs on how SAP Focused Build can transform your approach to SAP programme delivery. The first blog covered easy requirements capture, the re-invention of documentation in Solution Manager, and project planning with an Agile twist. This blog continues the story to introduce how Focused Build is used to break work [...]
End-to-end process insights with BPA Process Progress KPIs
In a previous insight we introduced you to Business Process Analytics and Improvement (BPAI) in SAP Solution Manager 7.2, and focused on how the standard out-of-the-box KPIs and associated visualisation and dashboarding tools could aid your business in improving the execution of its OTC and P2P processes. A new type of KPI has now been launched with the recent [...]
Are you still using spreadsheets for SAP testing? Try this…
Technology, and specifically SAP, has moved on leaps and bounds over the last few decades, yet it still surprises us how many customer support and project teams rely on fairly basic spreadsheets or word documents to document and record their system test activities. Surely there must be a better way, without having to spend thousands on a licensed tool?…afterall, [...]
Make your S/4 transformation programme a success – Part 1, Explore Phase
Make your S/4 transformation programme a success - Part 1, Explore Phase SAP sell software. They generate revenue from license fees. So when SAP start giving away a major set of tools to their customers, it’s worth taking a closer look at what these tools offer. That set of tools is SAP’s Focused Build, a free add-on for Solution [...]
Order out of chaos: Capturing Requirements.
Various approaches have been tried to coordinate the business and IT functions with the aim of improving the capture and management of change requirements. For example, single points of contact 'Demand Managers' from within the IT function or so-called 'Hybrid Managers' with a mix of business knowledge and IT skills. With the release of Solution Manager 7.2, SAP [...]
Automated Testing through SAP Solution Manager
Test Automation is, as it says on the tin , ‘Automated Testing’. The big difference between automated and manual testing is that in manual testing a human being is responsible for testing the functionality of the software in the same way an end-user would. On the other hand, automated testing is performed via an automation tool or machine. [...]
Why document in Solution Manager? The reasons may surprise you
The traditional approach to documentation "Good Documentation is great. But when it's not, at least you're getting some." Every Service Manager, since forever. The above reaction illustrates the rather low bar that has sustained many a system support contract. In many people’s experience, handover documentation from project teams tends to be patchy. This is an expensive oversight, as the [...]
SAP’s IT Service Management – allowing everyone to know everything
To a service provider, Service Management is a dark art. To them, it’s a bit like the game of Bridge. In Bridge, two players must work together to defeat an opposing partner pair, with the seemingly impossible restriction that any communication is conducted out in the open, also visible to their opponents. So how does this metaphor relate to [...]
Do you really know how efficiently you are executing your core end-end business processes in SAP?
Business processes need to work efficiently in order to be effective. Disruptions in an end-to-end cycle such as OTC or P2P can happen anywhere, and so trying to keep tabs on them as and when they happen in SAP is a difficult and daunting task, particularly if you are heavily reliant on manual data extraction from reports, queries or [...]
What does GDPR mean for SAP Solution Manager?
It’s unlikely you’ve not heard of the phrase ‘GDPR’ given the amount of news time and ‘junk’ mail that the subject has attracted, but just in case, GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) is officially Europe’s strongest data protection rule that came into force as of the 25th of May 2018. It has totally overhauled the personal information laws that [...]
SAP Solution Manager – Focused Build 3 now available!
With Focused Build, SAP have delivered a seamless tool-based Requirements-to-Deploy process within SAP Solution Manager. This includes the capture of business demands, requirements management, integrated risk management, and clear-cut collaboration features that allow you to orchestrate business and IT units as well as global development teams remotely. For more details on what Focused Build is and how it can [...]
Simplify SAP Change Approvals with the new Fiori App
SAP Fiori has simplified the way in which users interact with a variety of applications, especially in SAP ECC and S/4 systems, but until recently SAP Solution Manager was largely left out of the loop. With Support Pack 07 the latest evolution of the SAP user experience is now available across several Application Lifecycle Management functions, providing users with [...]
How SAP Solution Manager supports Digital Transformation
Over the last few years, SAP Solution Manager has progressed from being SAP’s ‘Application Lifecycle Management’ (ALM) toolset to becoming the new ‘Digital Business Service Delivery Platform’. In addition to the mature ALM toolsets of the previous release, 7.2 brings a wealth of new functionality, including: Process Management Agile innovation Cloud and Hybrid SAP solutions SAP [...]
Solution Manager 7.2 SP05 – New & Enhanced Features
SP05 is out now! With the ever-evolving maturity of SAP Solution Manager 7.2, the latest support package stack, SP05, brings new and enhanced features across a broad spectrum of the Solution Manager functional scope. SP05 was released on 9th May 2017, and is available right now to implement for your SAP Solution Manager system. This article takes a look at [...]
SAP Solution Manager 7.2: Process Management
New & Improved Business Process Management in SAP Solution Manager 7.2 - now with an integrated process modelling tool! The previous Solution Documentation and Process Management functionality of SAP Solution Manager 7.1 was, let’s be honest, far from perfect. When used correctly, it was a valuable asset; it gave customers a central repository to store and share information about [...]
A New User Experience with SAP Solution Manager 7.2
It's no secret that SAP has somewhat lagged behind other enterprise applications in terms of the general user experience. Users are typically presented with clunky looking screens, with many buttons, screen areas and information that is irrelevant and often confusing to users. We touched on how the general user experience can be improved in our insight on SAP Personas and Fiori [...]
Kickstart your HANA Adoption with Solution Manager 7.2
One of the most significant announcements relating to Solution Manager 7.2 is the option for SAP Enterprise Support customers to use SAP HANA as the underlying database technology to support their SAP Solution Manager installation, WITHOUT additional license costs. This offers some significant benefits to those customers who are not only considering a transition to SAP HANA, but for those who are [...]
A new methodology, realised in SAP Solution Manager 7.2: Introducing SAP Activate
SAP Activate - A new approach to implementing SAP Solutions ASAP has been the tried and tested SAP implementation methodology of SAP systems for well over a decade. During that time technology has moved on leaps and bounds; we now have On-premise, Cloud and Hybrid based SAP solutions, in addition to fast in-memory computing. We also have new ways of [...]
What’s New Solution Manager 7.2 – Introduction
SAP Solution Manager 7.2 is out! As our customers and regular visitors know, we at Rapid ERP are great advocates of SAP Solution Manager 7.1. Over the last 5 years this release of has been instrumental in increasing the adoption of Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) best practices across SAP’s customer base. It has changed the perception of ALM from ‘something [...]
SAP Fiori Apps and SAP Screen Personas…”Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication”
Modernise your SAP User Experience with SAP Fiori Apps and SAP Screen Personas. SAP Fiori User Experience (UX) and SAP Screen Personas are now free, but what do they do and how can you benefit? In this insight we aim to explore the use cases for each of these two products, to show how you can bring a modern [...]
SAP Solution Manager goes mobile
Since SAP Solution Manager 7.1 was released over 2 years ago, SAP have been working on the delivery of mobile applications to cover the core functions of the tool. With the most recent release of the SAP Job Progress Monitor there is now a comprehensive set of useful mobile applications that will further aid in the user acceptance [...]
SAP Solution Manager; a tool for the techies..Right? Wrong!
SAP Solution Manager is, without a doubt, an extremely powerful tool for SAP Basis Administrators; but it also offers much more value than first meets the eye. In this blog we will briefly discuss why SAP Solution Manager is important for every business using SAP. Starting with an overview of the core functionality, we'll provide an insight into the real business [...]
Ten Secrets to Success with SAP Solution Manager
Interested in our top 10 secrets to success?Click the above image to find out more... Can an implementation of SAP Solution Manager be successful and bring business benefit? Absolutely...and we've got the knowledge and experience to help you do the same! When we first sit down with our customers, we are often met with scepticism over the value of [...]