Recently we created a new "getting started" presentation to give you an overview about the key components of SAP Enterprise Support and to help you to leverage them in the best way.
This presentation is a good starting point for customers who are new to SAP Enterprise Support. You will get you a jump-start into the support topic with all essential information and recommendations from SAP.
And here are the 5 essential steps which you need to take in order to benefit from SAP Enterprise Support:
Step 1: Engage with SAP Active Global Support
Get the most out of SAP Enterprise Support for seamless implementation, innovation, and operations. Plus, benefit from our tailored support engagements and project-based offerings that provide on-demand support and help you manage technical risk in all phases of the SAP application lifecycle.
The organization providing support is called SAP Active Global Support and supports more than 176,000 customers in more than 120 countries.
Thereby SAP Active Global Support acquires comprehensive and unique knowledge about customers. This expertise is shared in a customer tailored approach for a successful implementation, operations and continuous improvement through SAP Enterprise Support.
A key part of the support infrastructure is the Customer Interaction Center. The Customer Interaction Center is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year, and provides a central point of contact for assistance with nontechnical queries. You can contact them by telephone or by e-mail. Details can be found here: http://service.sap.com/supportcenters (login required)
The Customer Interaction Center also acts as a key entry point to the Support Advisory Center. Our team of support advisors in the Support Advisory Center from SAP can be contacted – for instance, if you have questions about your SAP Enterprise Support report or about application lifecycle management. Global 24x7 root cause analysis, production-down support, and message escalation can also be initiated by contacting the Support Advisory Center.
Step 2: Join the SAP Enterprise Support Academy
The SAP Enterprise Support academy is your collaboration platform that fosters company-wide enablement on end-to-end operations. It is your one-stop shop for SAP Enterprise Support Services. Benefit from role-based content from experts for experts.
Make the SAP Enterprise Support engagement your strong foundation for your enterprise-wide business and IT operations. And realize the value of the SAP Enterprise Support engagement methodology throughout the respective phases of implementation, operation and innovation.
Leverage the flexible learning program of the SAP Enterprise Support academy, consisting of guided self-services, expert-guided implementation services, webinars and best practices.
SAP Enterprise Support academy at a glance:
- Guided Self-Services which you can run any time and at your own pace in your own system landscape
- Expert-Guided Implementation Services that permit direct access to an experienced SAP service engineer
- Meet The Expert Webinars to stay on top of the SAP product and support strategy
- Best Practices to get your employees up to speed on how to leverage the SAP Enterprise Support services for their daily tasks
Learn more about SAP Enterprise Support academy at: http://service.sap.com/ESAcademy (login required)
Step 3: Setup Remote Supportability and SAP Solution Manager
With SAP Solution Manager, you can be sure your entire SAP solution environment is performing at its maximum potential. The toolset addresses your entire IT environment, supporting SAP and non-SAP software and covering current and forthcoming SAP solutions. SAP Solution Manager targets both technical and business aspects of your solutions, focusing strongly on core business processes. It supports the connection between business processes and the underlying IT infrastructure. As a result, it eases communication between your IT department and your lines of business. And it ensures that you derive the maximum benefits from your IT investments. Of course, SAP Solution Manager covers all key aspects of solution deployment, operation, and continuous improvement.
SAP Solution Manager provides all capabilities and enables all services for SAP Enterprise Support.
Key steps to set up SAP Solution Manager are:
- Install and configure SAP Solution ManagerEstablish remote connection to SAP
- Activate SAP EarlyWatch Alert on productive systems Document technical landscape, core business processes and modifications
- Enable efficient root cause analysis of the entire landscape
Learn more about SAP Solution Manager at: http://service.sap.com/SolutionManager (login required)
Step 4: Establish Customer Center of Expertise
When you establish a Customer Center of Expertise organization, you can count on a single source of truth and hub for functional collaboration between your business and IT units – and between your company and SAP. This helps you increase the transparency of business processes, minimize downtime to boost system and business process availability, and reduce total cost of ownership. A center of expertise helps stimulate innovation by keeping software up-to-date with changing requirements, providing skills training, making use of expertise on demand, and much more.
Set Up a Customer Center of Expertise: A designated and certified Customer Center of Expertise (Customer COE) organization must be in place to act as the central point of contact for interaction with the Support Advisory Center. Without a Customer COE organization in place, there are delivery restrictions that will impact the degree to which we are able to provide mission-critical support.
Every customer is asked to set up a Customer COE location within 12 months of signing the contract for SAP Enterprise Support. The Customer COE is an organizational unit that serves as the central point of reference within a customer organization for contacting SAP. Because it covers all core business process flows, it strengthens the connection between the customer's user departments and the customer's IT department. A Customer COE must support all the SAP applications and solutions on which the customer's maintenance agreement for SAP Enterprise Support is based.
Learn more about Customer COE at: http://service.sap.com/coe (login required)
Step 5: Engagement Methodology
The engagement methodology of SAP Enterprise Support offers a structured approach for SAP customers by building both enablement and collaboration elements into every engagement phase.
The underlying philosophy of the engagement methodology is:
- Enablement of the customer to both analyze and implement derived action plans in a self-reliant fashion
- Collaboration between the customer and the advisory center of SAP Enterprise Support
In essence, the methodology is a closed-loop approach for companies of any size and complexity to identify areas for improvement, define an action plan, execute on it, and finally, measure the resulting impact.
Key phases of engagement methodology:
- 360° Review
- Benefit Case
- Support Plan
- Services
- Measurement
- Reporting & Results
Learn more about the engagement methodology at: http://service.sap.com/TSM (login required)
You can download the complete presentation here: http://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/scn/index?rid=/library/uuid/908c6d07-32fe-2e10-9e86-c3174997e95d
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