What is SAP Cloud ALM?

What is SAP Cloud ALM?

SAP Cloud ALM (CALM) is SAP’s cloud-based solution for Application Lifecycle Management (ALM), available for no extra charge (free) to any organisation with an SAP Enterprise Support, Product Support for Large Enterprises or an SAP Cloud Subscription contract containing Enterprise Support, cloud edition. Designed as a native SAP tool, CALM seamlessly integrates with SAP S/4HANA Cloud and other SAP cloud solutions like SuccessFactors and Ariba. This future-proof platform is ideal for SAP operations.

CALM also provides access to the SAP Business Transformation Centre, a standardised solution that facilitates data transition from SAP ECC to SAP S/4HANA Cloud, private edition, and SAP S/4HANA on-premises.

Lastly, CALM is a valuable tool for SAP projects of all kinds, including implementations, conversions, upgrades, and Clean Core Journeys.

Is CALM the successor to Solution Manager?

With the maintenance of SAP Solution Manager officially ending in 2027 (optional extension until 2030 for an additional fee), CALM was not designed to be a direct successor to SAP Solution Manager.

SAP Cloud ALM doesn’t fully cover the functional scope of Solution Manager, particularly in highly complex or customised environments. However, these are the environments most customers are now moving away from, opting instead for the “Clean Core” strategy with SAP cloud solutions.

What SAP Cloud ALM does provide is a comprehensive solution for many standard requirements. All functionality is based on the cloud mindset, whether public or private, which will be the future state of many SAP systems.

As a relatively young solution, some may perceive it as less mature, but remember, SAP Solution Manager itself started as a system for downloading installation keys. With daily code drops, the product is developing rapidly and constantly, making significant progress. It’s worth checking occasionally for new features or keeping an eye on the roadmap.

SAP Cloud ALM is characterised by its cloud nature, which is easily scalable, agile, and less maintenance-intensive. It eliminates many complicated installation and maintenance activities, making adoption easier.

Here are some key functions of Cloud ALM:

• SAP Solution Management: Combines powerful functionalities with a user-friendly interface to give companies holistic control over their SAP systems.
• Process Management: Utilises SAP best practices for process optimisation and supports the implementation of fit-to-standard workshops to adapt business requirements to standard processes.
• Project & Task Management: It offers a comprehensive suite of tools to manage implementation activities based (with project templates for many SAP cloud solutions) on the SAP Activate methodology. Check out our SAP Cloud ALM – The essential tool for any SAP Cloud implementation blog for more of a deep dive.
• Out-of-the-box: monitoring is easy to set up and includes business processes, integrations, real and synthetic user monitoring, and health monitoring with numerous useful metrics for system resources and performance (on-prem and cloud), all combined with out-of-the-box dashboards.
• Test Management: It offers centralised planning, execution, and analysis of test scenarios. This ensures the quality and stability of applications before deployment, including defect management.
• Change & Deployment: Modules manage the entire requirements lifecycle using an integrated Change Management workflow, with more features to come.

Our clients are seeing the value of SAP Cloud ALM and benefiting from its capabilities, including monitoring, certificate management, and access to up-to-date implementation roadmaps. We see significant advantages of the new SAP ALM tool in helping companies modernise their environments and optimise their SAP processes for the future. These advantages include cost efficiency, high-level automation, and integration of SAP solutions. SAP Cloud ALM acts as a central platform for project management, efficiently processing and documenting all activities in one tool.

In conclusion, SAP Cloud ALM is the future. It’s a powerful solution for companies seeking a cloud-based alternative to traditional on-premises solutions. Despite initial criticism, SAP Cloud ALM remains the only free solution available for companies looking to modernise their SAP environments, embrace the Cloud, and embark on the Clean Core Journey.