What's new in SAP Solution Manager SP05 - IT Service Management?

[Former Member]

SAP Solution Manager SP05 was released earlier this month.  With it comes some really good functional enhancements that enable SAP Solution Manager to be used for IT Service Management, not just for SAP Products, but for non-SAP and IT Infrastructure components as well.

What are the key new developments in SAP Solution Manager SP05 that are turning Solution Manager into the ERP for IT?

IT Service Management

The new ITSM functions in SAP Solution Manager are there to standardise IT processes and enable IT to become a strategic partner to the business.  We know this has always been the plan but guess what, the platform has never allowed this to happen.  SAP Solution Manager 7.1 has been a game changer in managing both SAP and non-SAP systems. Version SP05 will be the game changer that will enable companies to utilise SAP Solution Manager for all solutions and infrastructure components.  As David Birkenbach, Senior Solution Manager from SAP, said, "why would you not use SAP Solution Manager for ITSM".

What is new in SAP Solution Manager SP05?

• Quick creation of Incident Tickets for highly repeatable issues, e.g.  password resets.  With a click of a button an incident ticket can be now be
  created
• A new collaboration portal for business users which acts as a self-service portal for reporting incidents, checking status and requesting service
• An e-mail  based procedure for creating and managing tickets
• Mobile Apps that enable basic processing of incident messages
• New Management Dashboards for IT Service Management that provide an overview of the current status.

Why is SAP Solution Manager SP05 going to be a game changer?

This is due mainly to the collaboration with Realtech on IT Infrastructure Management. I will discuss this shortly.  

IT Infrastructure Management

In the past IT Infrastructure was not really possible in SAP Solution Manager. In SAP Solution Manager SP05 there are some game changing enhancements that will enable companies to use Solution Manager  as an IT Infrastructure Management tool. 

As I mentioned before, SAP has collaborated with Realtech to integrate Realtech's theGuard into Solution Manager.  I have to say that this is a
marriage in heaven and will be very interesting.

With SAP Solution Manager SP05 you can use theGuard to perform an auto discovery of the IT infrastructure.  Anything with an IP Address can be found
and with Solution Manager, a Configuration Management Record is created with the information about the discovered item.

theGuard also provides a network map of all items and shows how they are connected.  So you can see what items are within a given data centre, how they
are connected to routers and switches, and which systems are running on the devices. 

Integrating SAP Solution Manager and ERP

Now that there is a possibility to maintain a Configuration Record for every device in the IT Infrastructure it made perfect sense for SAP Solution Manager
to be integrated into SAP ERP.  So now it is possible to create a Request in the Service Desk for a new IT asset, and then trigger the ordering and receiving of the asset in ERP, and then managing the asset through its lifecycle in SAP Solution Manager.

So why do I find this exciting?

I remember my days in the pharma industry where it was also important to understand how a change in the infrastructure could impact a system.  With IT
Infrastructure Management in SAP Solution Manager, this is possible.  If a router fails you can see which SAP systems will be impacted.  In addition you
can provide monitoring information, so you can see from the diagram if the SAP system has a performance issue, or an exception.  This enables you to trace completely through the infrastructure.

Because IT Infrastructure Management is an SAP product, it is very well integrated.  You can create an Incident, Problem, or Request for Change, for
each Configuration Item.  Within the Configuration Record you have a trace of all history regarding that device.

Since the release of SAP Solution Manager 7.1 we have really seen some very interesting innovations coming from the ALM And SAP Solution Manager product team.  How refreshing, and please keep it up!