The SAP Transformation Navigator helps customers simplify their transition to SAP's future product portfolio to support the journey to the intelligent enterprise. Since it was first introduced at SAPPHIRE NOW 2017, the tool team has released many significant features and functions to further enhance and simplify the tool, the latest of which is the Customer Usage Data.
“Which solutions run my business?” ~ Customer
In order to effectively guide customers, the SAP Transformation Navigator prompts users to make certain decisions about their product usage, which means customers must define which of the many available capabilities they actually use within SAP's products (including SAP ERP, SCM, SNC, SRM, Net Weaver).
The latest feature, Customer Usage Data, helps customers identify and pre-select which capabilities they currently use by analyzing data from the SAP EarlyWatch Alert* (EWA) service and mapping it back to the solution capabilities. It eliminates the need to analyze numerous capabilities for each complex product and manually select which capabilities might be used by various lines of business within the company. This feature can automatically fill in which capabilities our customers use today; it takes an activity which potentially requires collaboration with employees in numerous departments (HR, Finance, etc) and imports the information in essentially 'one-click'.
*SAP EarlyWatch Alert is an automatic service which monitors the essential administrative areas of an SAP system, and it is most effective when activated for all SAP components in a customer's solution. It is included in SAP's maintenance agreement, at no additional cost.
The SAP Transformation Navigator’s recommendations for complex products are based on which specific capabilities our customers are using within each complex product. Along with other functions, EWA tracks and reports which transactions are regularly used by the customer; the SAP Transformation Navigator then leverages this data to analyze usage patterns and map these activities to the product capabilities.
The feature only went live in late August, and customers are already benefiting from it. Simon Townson, Chief Transformation Architect in SAP EMEA, recently used the Customer Usage Data feature with a large retail customer. He found the function was intuitive and helpful:
“The feature is very useful, as it enabled us to identify key used capabilities in the system rather than relying on 'people thinking that something is used or not' ".
How it works
Please note there are some prerequisites to utilize the Customer Usage Data functionality:
- EarlyWatch Alert must be enabled (in SAP Solution Manager) and usage data must be available for customer number and related systems (see this note to set up EWA).
- S-user IDs (i.e. users with SAP Support login credentials) can view this feature and access data from their systems monitored by EWA. (SAP internal users are not linked to SAP Solution Manager or EWA data, and will only see dummy data.)
- The user must accept the Landscape Usage Data Agreement when logging into the tool. If the agreement prompt does not pop up, it can be found under user settings at the top right of the screen, by clicking on 'change settings'
Accessing and Applying Usage Data
Once a customer logs into the SAP Transformation Navigator and begins to add products for their map (via the customer profile), they will see this icon
next to any products and/or systems for which the usage data is available.
The same icon is shown on the product card after the product is selected (this is independent of the product being added via customer profile, or manually via the browse/search function).
When the customer selects the “open decision” button, they select the:
- capabilities currently used in the current product, and
- deployment option (on-premise / cloud, if available).
The capability selection screen shows the number of system(s) where usage data is available. Users can select one or, if available, several systems from a drop-down list. Selecting the systems will pre-select the capabilities of the current product, based on the usage data of the selected systems.
To review the pre-selected capabilities, customers can expand the tree-view and scroll through the list of capabilities; they can also manually select additional capabilities or unselect others.
Then, the user clicks “proceed” to go to the next screen and view all the selected capabilities in alphabetical order.
The following process steps do not differ from previous behavior, the user can decide on their preferred deployment option (cloud, on-premise) for each selected capability and then continue with the next steps in the SAP Transformation Navigator.
Working With Multiple Product Maps (and multiple installations of the same product)
SAP Transformation Navigator allows users to create multiple product maps; and, within each product map, concentrate on different aspects of the current landscape – e.g. model the ERP transition in one map, and all other products in a different map.
Similarly, users can use multiple product maps to model multiple installations of the same product: the ERP installation used primarily as HR system in one map vs. another ERP installation which covers the finance processes in a different map.
The ability to select the systems & apply the usage data from only those selected systems makes the modelling and transition planning for different installations of the same product easy and transparent.
Other Recent Enhancements
An additional view for the ‘selected capabilities’ / ‘deployment decision’ screen was recently introduced. Users can now switch between a ‘General View’ with limited details, and the ‘Detailed View’ with full details on the capabilities.
Customers can apply their deployment preference (on-premise / cloud) for all other selected capabilities by checking the corresponding check-boxes on any capability decision point. Users should:
- check the first box to apply their decision to all other capabilities, where the deployment preference has not yet been selected (i.e. apply to all items with open decisions);
- also check the second box to apply the selected deployment preference to ALL selected capabilities. Caution: this activity will overwrite any previously selected deployment options.
Stay Tuned for More Enhancements
There are many more enhancements already in the works, including:
- Business Capability Model: an enhanced model / description of business capabilities to better map customer processes against SAP solutions’;
- Click to Trial and Demo: direct links to software demos and trials, where available;
- Value Maps: when adding capabilities, customers will be able to view an industry-specific value map (ie, a structural view of SAP solutions organized according to industry, business responsibility, and technology area). The Value Map shows an integrated end-to-end solution and highlights SAP’s competitive advantage by demonstrating the ability to provide functional, process, or technology integration. (End-to-end solution = a combination of solution capabilities.);
- Leonardo Scenarios: will be integrated into the tool. SAP Leonardo blends next-gen technologies with design thinking methodologies into an integrated system of software and services so customers can rapidly transform their business into an Intelligent Enterprise.
To stay up to date on the latest tool enhancements and enablement:
- Visit us at the SAP Expert Bar to Plan the Intelligent Enterprise at SAP TechEd in Las Vegas, Barcelona, or Bangalore
- View the SAP Transformation Navigator website
- SAP Managed Tags:
