SAP Solution Manager 7.2: New Features, Adoption, and How to Maximize Value Essentials

Panelist: John Krakowski, SAP

Sponsor: Basis & SAP Administration 2018

SAP Solution Manager product manager, John Krakowski answered reader questions surrounding the SAP Solution Manager 7.2 release, from best practices for upgrading or installing a new system, to what new capabilities have been added and how to best utilize them to accelerate and maximize IT and business value. Read the transcript below to obtain answers to your most pressing questions

Bridget Kotelly: Hello, and welcome to today’s live Q&A, SAP Solution Manager 7.2: New Features, Adoption, and How to Maximize Value Essentials. We’re looking forward to a lively discussion. Thanks to everyone who has submitted their questions in advance.

We’re joined for today’s event by John Krakowski with SAP. John is a frequent speaker at SAPinsider events and will be presenting on this topic at the upcoming SAPinsider Basis & SAP Administration 2018 conference, which will be held 27-29 June in Prague.

To learn more about the event, click here.

Comment From John: Do you have standard documentation for Change Request Management (ChaRM) 7.2?

John Krakowski: Go to  Change Request Management

Comment From Warren: How close is SAP Solution Manager 7.2 Information Technology Project and Portfolio Management (IT-PPM) to SAP Project Portfolio Management (SAP PPM) functionality? An online demo seems to have restrictions and bugs — for example, financial planning, capacity planning, using Cross-Application Time Sheet (CATS), and so on. What Business Add-Ins (BAdIs) are available as I would like to produce a weekly status report directly from IT-PPM. And, yes, I know about the Focused Build add-on.

John Krakowski: SAP PPM 6.1 is included in SAP Solution Manager 7.2. For more information go to SAP Solution Manager WIKI – Project Management.

To learn about the usage rights, go to Extension of SAP Solution Manager’s license free capabilities (PDF)

Comment From Baru: Does SAP Solution Manager 7.2 have any new features for the following tasks?

• Monitoring interfaces and reporting failures and successful processing of interface failures that include IDocs
• Leveraging the SAP Business Process Automation application by Redwood (formerly SAP Central Processing by Redwood) tool (that has been deployed for batch job scheduling ) and reporting specific batch job failures and successful remediation of batch job failures
• Monitoring SAP Process Orchestration failures and reporting

John Krakowski: All the latest information is available at Technical Operations

Also refer to the What’s New online help information at What’s New in SAP Solution Manager 7.2

Comment From Shahul Farouk: What are the recommended “mandatory” SAP Solution Manager  modules for an organization? For example, is SAP requiring all organizations to have an SAP EarlyWatch Alert (EWA) report set up?

John Krakowski: There are no “mandatory” scenarios; however, there are scenarios (i.e., EWA, Maintenance Planner, Monitoring, Root Cause Analysis, Process Management, etc.) that would greatly benefit and add value to the business and IT sides of any organization.

Comment From Shahul Farouk: What SAP Solution Manager modules need additional licensing fees?

John Krakowski: Please view the detailed information about usage rights at Usage Rights

Comment From Santiago Fernandez: What skills are required for getting the best from the SAP Solution Manager 7.2 features (configuration, usage)?

John Krakowski: The most precise information is covered in the What’s New release at What’s New in SAP Solution Manager 7.2 See Change Control Management within each Support Package sublink.

Comment From Santiago Fernandez: In the monitoring is it possible to monitor non-SAP solutions or connect with them and have a common view from SAP Solution Manager?

John Krakowski: Yes. Review the comprehensive non-SAP Monitoring sublink from the AppOps homepage at Access SAP Solution Manager Expert Knowledge WIKIs

Comment From Santiago Fernandez: How can I be agile while documenting and modeling processes in SAP Solution Manager 7.2?

John Krakowski: Being agile requires adopting best practices with Process Management, Project Management, Change Control, Test Management, and Requirements Management. View the details at Access SAP Solution Manager Expert Knowledge WIKIs

You should also be aware of the Focused Build for SAP Solution Manager offering at Focused Build for SAP Solution Manager

Comment From Santiago Fernandez: How much effort is required to automate tests?

John Krakowski: View the details at SAP Solution Manager WIKI – Test Suite

You can also get information in the Adoption Framework white paper at SAP Solution Manager 7.2 Adoption Framework (PDF)

and the SAP Solution Manager Value Report SAP Solution Manager Value Report

Both of these documents provide effort, time, and cost estimates.

Comment From Santiago Fernandez: What are the options for connecting process modeling tools with SAP Solution Manager 7.2? We would like to have automated testing and better quality of our risk and impact activities, as well as a good place for storing documentation. What would be your recommendation with SAP Solution Manager 7.2 to not end up putting a lot of effort in modeling, documenting, or generating scripts by linking processes modeled with the changes?

John Krakowski: Review the information on the Process Management Application Programming Interface (API) at SAP Solution Manager WIKI – Process Management

Comment From Steve Eaton: How much of the Customer Relationship Management (CRM) functionality for Solution Manager 7.2 is now available via the SAP Fiori front end?

John Krakowski: The user experience is greatly enhanced in SAP Solution Manager 7.2. For more information view the What’s New release information at What’s New in SAP Solution Manager 7.2.  You will see improvements in many scenarios leveraging SAP Fiori.

Comment From Steve Eaton: What SAP Solution Manager 7.2 improvements are available in SAP IT Service Management (SAP ITSM) that will be a significant help working with incidents and service requests in SAP Solution Manager?

John Krakowski: Once again, the What’s New release provides information about all the new SAP ITSM features. Go to What’s New in SAP Solution Manager 7.2 .

The new Create Incident SAP Fiori app and improved reporting are particularly noteworthy.

Comment From Steve Eaton: Keeping everything up-to-date in SAP Solution Manager 7.1 requires setting up technical monitoring, alerting, and EWA reports. These tasks take a lot of configuration, patches (tools, etc.), and maintenance. Is there something in SAP Solution Manager 7.2 that makes these tasks easier?

John Krakowski: In the What’s New release you can see all the improvements concerning configuration that SAP considers a priority. Go to What’s New in SAP Solution Manager 7.2

Note also that SOLMAN_SETUP has been improved with more automation regarding setup and ongoing maintenance.

Comment From Evelyn: Is it possible to set up SAP Solution Manager dashboards on an SAP Solution Manager 7.2 system running on Sybase? If so, what documentation or training do you recommend to set them up?

John Krakowski: Generally, the database of choice has no impact on features. You can review the dashboard details at Technical Analytics and Dashboards

The SAP Enterprise Support Academy can also provide assistance via the Value Maps and Accelerated Innovation Enablement (AIE) offerings at SAP Enterprise Support Academy

Comment From Rehan: Does an upgrade to SAP Solution Manager 7.2 lead to reconfiguring the entire ChaRM?

John Krakowski: No, but depending on the customization and due to the impact of the new Process and Project Management capabilities, there can be a high impact on ChaRM.

Comment From Odilon: What are SAP’s recommendations for upgrading to SAP Solution Manager 7.2?

John Krakowski: For information on upgrading to SAP Solution Manager 7.2 click the following links to view the Get Ready for 7.2, Transaction Essentials, Upgrade Guide, and Upgrade Service information:

SAP Solution Manager

Introduction to SAP Solution Manager 7.2

Transition to SAP Solution Manager 7.2 (PDF)

Transition to SAP Solution Manager 7.2 All You Need to Know (PDF)

Comment From Rehan: When you upgrade to SAP Solution Manager 7.2, is the ChaRM configured in older versions retained after the upgrade?

John Krakowski: Helpful information is available SAP Solution Manager 7.2 – Change Request Management: Usual questions and known errors

Comment From Srini: We have one system landscape for SAP Solution Manager 7.1. We use SAP Solution Manager only for the Transport Management System and a few job alerts. If we need to upgrade to SAP Solution Manager 7.2, should we have at least two system landscapes? Is creating one more landscape before upgrading a mandatory step? Also, we would like to use the automated process documentation feature available in SAP Solution Manager 7.2. What are the steps that we need to follow? Any link to a best practices guide or documentation would be helpful.

John Krakowski: The recommendation has always been a two-tier SAP Solution Manager landscape. For high-impact scenarios (e.g., ChaRM, etc.), SAP recommends a three-tier landscape.

The SAP Solution Manager Master Guide provides guidance about the landscape options. To read this guide, go to SAP Solution Manager Master Guide

Comment From Evelyn Curreri: What are the minimum system requirements for implementing dashboards? What documentation or notes are available for setting up dashboards?

John Krakowski: I suggest searching and reviewing the available SAP Notes for “Dashboards” “SAP Solution Manager 7.2” at SAP Support Knowledge Base Search

You can also engage support experts via the Expert Chat at the SAP One Support Launchpad.

There are also the Accelerated Innovation Enablement (AIE) and collaboration platform Value Maps offerings via the SAP Enterprise Support Academy at SAP Enterprise Support Academy

Comment From Tom: Are there some best practices that we could import to our SAP Solution Manager?

John Krakowski: You may be referring to SAP Note 2418929.

Comment From Dave: We’re using ChaRM and have downgrade protection (DGP) activated, but when we perform imports (using ChaRM), the DGP checks take a long time, and imports have failed to start. We have several open incidents with SAP, and the situation is improving, but it still is not satisfactory. Can DGP checks either be more efficient, or can they be released asynchronously (along with the import)?

John Krakowski: Continue to provide feedback via your SAP incident to resolve the issue.

You should also be aware that there is a current ChaRM Customer Connection Program that you can review and follow at  https://influence.sap.com/sap/ino/#campaign/1122

Go to the following sites for information about additional Customer Connection Programs for SAP Solution Manager:

• Change and Release Management 2018: https://influence.sap.com/sap/ino/#campaign/1122
• Process Management 2018: https://influence.sap.com/sap/ino/#campaign/1120
• Test Suite 2018: https://influence.sap.com/sap/ino/#campaign/1121

For your information SAP Enterprise Support Academy Value Maps are a very helpful channel to collaborate with SAP, partners, and other customers. For more information go to SAP Enterprise Support Value Maps

A new document titled “First Steps with SAP Solution Manager 7.2” is available at SAP Solution Manager 7.2 Adoption Framework

This information complements the Adoption Framework white paper (available at SAP Solution Manager 7.2 Adoption Framework , and the SAP Solution Manager Value Report is available at SAP Solution Manager Value Report

The SAP Solution Manager Virtual Roadshow is a great channel to jump-start your learnings about SAP Solution Manager 7.2. Go to https://blogs.sap.com/2018/.

I hope these hints have been helpful. At the upcoming SAPinsider Admin event in Prague, I will have more news and the latest updates from SAP SAPPHIRE.

Comment From Mohamed: Do you have resources for IDoc monitoring, job monitoring, and business process monitoring?

John Krakowski: Comprehensive information is available at Technical Operations

SAP Solution Manager WIKI – Business Process Operations

Comment From Fairwell: Would you recommend a sandbox installation for SAP Solution Manager 7.2 to use on the discovery phase for configurations? And are there any issues that you see in setting up a sandbox?

John Krakowski: Sandbox systems are good ways to test upgrades and other configuration stages.

Comment From Mohamed: Could SAP Solution Manager 7.2 be used in a machine learning scenario?

John Krakowski: The answer is not currently; however, there are discussions on how to leverage SAP Solution Manager regarding machine learning and artificial intelligence.

Comment From Henco Coetzer: What can I do to improve the performance of the front end of SAP Solution Manager? Most screens load rather slowly even when seemingly not containing much data to be gathered. This issue is causing a negative user experience.

John Krakowski: I suggest opening a customer incident. It should not be slow.

Comment From Lutz: We have SAP Solution Manager 7.1 using monitoring, EWA, and some configuration. We tried to evaluate the lowest effort to come to SAP Solution Manager 7.2 — either an upgrade of SAP Solution Manager 7.1 or a greenfield installation of SAP Solution Manager 7.2 and taking over configuration done for monitoring, EWA, SOLAR01, and SOLAR02. What do you think, John? Which way is best?

John Krakowski: If you want to protect your configuration, an upgrade is needed. If you are willing to lose all data and configuration and are willing to redo all configuration, a new installation is an option.

For more information go to Transition to SAP Solution Manager 7.2

Comment From Nilanjan: Is it possible to send interactive reporting output as an attachment through email automatically?

John Krakowski: Possibly. For information go to Technical Operations .

You can also post your questions in the Lifecycle Management Value Map.

Comment From Evelyn Curreri: We are getting ready to patch our SAP Solution Manager 7.2 Support Package 03 system to Support Package 06. What’s the recommendation for handling custom templates after applying Support Packages?

John Krakowski: The templates should be protected, but you can perform at test upgrade to ensure they are protected.

Comment From Lutz: Will the Business Process Change Analyzer be faster in SAP Solution Manager 7.2? In SAP Solution Manager 7.1 I get time-outs when using a project ID with a technical bill of materials as a process scope. The time-outs occur even for small object lists.

John Krakowski: They should be optimized. Yes, it should be faster.

Comment From Jay Connell: If I want to use Job Documentation in SAP Solution Manager just to keep the information about the job, do I then have to make SAP Solution Manager the job scheduler for the job? I’d like to keep the managed system as the scheduler for the job. Is that possible?

John Krakowski: Review the information at Job Management

Comment From Mohamed: Is there a way to export SAP ITSM data from SAP Solution Manager 7.1 to 7.2 in a fresh installation scenario?

John Krakowski: No.

Bridget Kotelly: Hello, everyone. That wraps up our time. Thanks to everyone who participated for your great questions. And thanks, John, for staying a few minutes late.

To learn more about SAP Solution Manager and other important topics for administering your SAP landscapes on-premise and in the cloud, join us at Basis & SAP Administration 2018, which will be held 27-29 June in Prague. Find out more and register here.