Sap Solution Manager 7.2 Landscape
Engagement with a Service Provider
SAP Solution Manager has been around for long enough to be found in most if not all SAP Landscapes. The extent to which is being used other than to download patches varies greatly, and so does its effectiveness.
A large percentage of installations where done out of necessity in order to satisfy some primary need, others where done as an experiment, or out of curiosity by the technical team. In these cases, very little value has been derived and the toolset will be pretty much forgotten about until a compulsory upgrade or patch.
Often, trying to get from this initial state to a level where the product can offer value to business is almost insurmountable as the understanding or knowledge to plot a roadmap and then implement that roadmap is often not a core competency of the parties involved. This is why the SAP Run Partnership exists.
There are specialized partners in the SAP eco systems who make it their business to ensure they are well skilled and up to date in the latest best practices around the deployment and operation of SAP Solution Manager in the customer landscape.
Traditional Support model
A typical or traditional engagement model for support is the 'Bucketed Hours' concept. Here, the customer buys a bundle of support hours and the engaged partner consumes these hours as the work is carried out during the contracted period. There is typically no roadmap and most the time is spent maintaining the status quo with respect to the technical stack. Very little effort is placed on evolving or maturing the SAP Landscape.
This model might work in the Functional or Technical support arena for the typical SAP landscape, however, in the SAP Solution Manager space, we find this model lacking.
Fully Managed
In order to fully benefit from the SAP Solution Manager capabilities, a fair amount of effort and skill is required. These skills are not always readily available within the organization. The next best option is to engage with a partner who does have the skills, however, with no clear roadmap or understanding of how to properly plan and implement the roadmap, there is very little hope of realizing the value, especially if the skills are engaged purely to maintain the status quo on the SAP Solution Manager system.
An alternative model to consider is to opt for a fully managed engagement with the SAP Run SAP partner.
Here the partner looks at the long-term objectives, the strategic objectives for the landscape and business and then designs, implements and monitors the roadmap. These engagements are partnerships and are based on a mutual goal of ensuring the SAP Solution Manager is used to its fullest potential and the benefits realized are tangible.
The Fully Managed concept does not dictate where the SAP Solution Manager is installed, so whether on-premise or in-cloud should not matter, as the primary focus of this engagement is to drive the value realization from the capabilities. Where the location of the installation will have an effect, is related to the role and responsibilities with respect to the technical layer and the service offering by the cloud provider, if relevant.
To further support the case for the Fully Managed engagement, SAP Solution Manager is SAP's most complex product, and it is still evolving at a fairly rapid rate. This not only makes it very relevant and up to date to the ever-changing IT landscape, it also makes it very difficult for staff to keep up with the new capabilities especially if it's not their core responsibility.
The Run SAP Partners are fully focused on SAP Solution Manager and the knowledge they gain from multiple clients multiplies the value they can bring to the managed engagements.
Sap Solution Manager 7.2 Landscape
Source: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/sap-solution-manager-72-part-6-partner-engagement-graham-henderson