Solution Manager October Update - Two upgrades a year, how is that possible?

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Active Global Support and RunSAP Partner Conference

The buzz around this year’s conference was Fast Innovation Cycles ie HANA, Cloud, Mobility, etc. This is the fourth cycle in the investment plan that accompanied the introduction of Enterprise Support in 2007. This cycle will be completed mid to late 2014.  This plan has delivered a full set of tools and best

practices to:

1. Provide Mission Critical Support/Performance
2. Reduce Total Cost of Operations
3. Enable Continuous Improvement - Run SAP Like a Factory
4. Accelerate Innovation

Accelerate Innovation - Two Value Releases per year

How can IT Deliver Releases with Tangible Business Value Every Six Months? Build SAP like a Factory! SAP have quietly been investing in Solution Manager to build the tools and processes, once implemented, to enable customers to combine Upgrades (Enhancement Packs- EHP) with Major Business Releases in six monthly cycles. This significantly reduces the cost of upgrades and enables customers to access the latest functionality and technology in order to be responsive and innovate (create business value). So what are these tools?

• Zero Unused Modifications - Custom Code Lifecycle Management – The Green City
• EHP Scope and Effort Analyzer – Coming soon
• Zero Technical Downtime – Coming soon
• Zero Unnecessary Regression Testing - Risk based testing
• Retrofit – Manage Dual Track Landscape
• Innovation Control Center

Once these have been implemented in conjunction with the supporting ALM processes, IT will be better placed to become enablers, rather than inhibitors, of business innovation. This will be quite a cultural change for many IT organizations as they move from being “Asset Managers” to “Business Partners”.

Latest News and Featured Content from SCN:

• Best Practice: Test Management for SAP Business Suite on SAP HANA Migration Projects – prepare for migration to HANA for ECC
• Matthias Melich & John Krakowski - #SAPTechEd 2013 Speakers of the Week
• SAP TechEd 2013 ALM Sessions - TechEd is fast approaching and will be held in Las Vegas again this year October 21-25. If you can't make it the you can watch replays here. There will be 62 ALM related sessions - ALM Sessions Catalog.
• SAP Solution Manager - ITIL Pink verified! SAP is the first and currently only vendor awarded in all 15 certifiable ITIL processes of the Pink Elephant’s PinkVERIFY ITIL v2011 edition certification.

Solution Manager Maintenance:

A Reminder that Solman 7.0 or below maintenance expires at the end of 2013. There is no extended maintenance available so it is a good idea to start planning for an upgrade to 7.1 now to ensure continued maintenance support. GROM can provide Solution Manager as a Managed Service (SMaaMS) for as little as 1,000/month if you wish to avoid the cost of upgrading.

• Solman 7.0 Mainstream Maintenance ends Q4 2013 (7.1 will be supported for 6 years)
• Support Pack 9/10 is scheduled for release in Sep/Oct (see Solution Manager Roadmap).

Free EGI’s - Schedule for October:

• Online schedule for Expert Guided Implementation sessions
• Online schedule for Meet the Expert sessions

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Tool & Process Setup on SAP Solution Manager 7.1

• Custom Development Management Cockpit – 14^th to 17^th Oct
• Custom Code Quality and Clones – 21^st to 23^rd Oct

Guided Self Service Execution (Also run as an EGI on below dates):

• Data Volume Management (DVM) – 28^th1^th Oct
• SQL Statement Tuning (SQL) – 7^th to 11^th Oct

Meet the Experts (1 hour presentations with Q&A)

• The SAP Support Portal Demo – 15^th Oct
• Secure Your SAP HANA Implementation, Premium Support Engagement – 9^th Oct
• Support Essentials – What a Customer COE should know about Message Processing – 16^th Oct
• SAP Solution Manager SP10 Work Center Overview – 15^th Oct

Schedule for November:

Tool & Process Setup on SAP Solution Manager 7.1

• Solution Manager Basic Configuration 7.1 – 11th to 15th Nov
• Configuration Validation – 12th to 14th Nov
• Business Process Monitoring & Stabilization - 11th to 15th Nov
• Change Control Management 1: CTS+ - 5th to 8th Nov
• Change Control Management II: Quality Gate Management – 19th to 22nd Nov
• Data Volume Management: Methodology and Infrastructure – 11th to 15th Nov
• SAP HANA Advanced Database Monitoring - 11th to 15th Nov
• SAP HANA Data Modeling – 25th to 29th Nov
• SAP Mobile Implementation - 25th to 29th Nov
• SAP Mobile Project Planning - 11th to 14th Nov
• System Consolidation & Rollout of Country Versions – 13th to 15th Nov
• System Monitoring & Reporting – 18th to 21st Nov

Guided Self Service Execution (Also run as an EGI on below dates):

• Performance Optimization (PERF) – 25^th to 29^th Nov
• Security Optimization Service (SOS) – 11^th to 15^th Nov

Meet the Experts (1 hour presentations with Q&A)

• The SAP Support Portal Demo – 12^th Nov