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c821311
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Solution Manager 7.1 Ramp-Up

During the SAPPHIRE Now 2011 event, there were so many exciting announcements, more than I ever remember at a single SAP event ever. The big announcement which largely went unnoticed was the official ramp up of Solution manager Version 7.1. This particular release was nearly 3 years in the making and has been crafted to fulfil the many demands of customers. I should know, during my time at AusPost I was involved in the Solution Manager influence council.

 

My wishlist.

My suggestions for improvement during my time in the influence council were largely centred around the following opportunities:-

  • The User Interface: Too much switching between WebDynpro, SAP Gui and Internet explorer. Especially for the Service desk and ChaRM, this switching between Work Centres and SAPGui made it feel like several products under the hood.
  • The CCMS style alerting and monitoring looks tired and is quite outdated. We saw glimpses of what might be possible with the introduction of End User Experience Monitoring, but we wanted more
  • Integration with other SAP offerings. The integration of a slick Business Objects 4 interface for the visualisation of metrics, and an updated CRM offering were inevitable ingredients required for a Solution Manager makeover.
  • Run the Landscape like a factory. Instead of having several different processes and repetition to do similar things across the landscape, many customers looked to Solution Manager for common alerting , monitoring and solution documentation processes across the entire landscape of SAP and non-SAP products. A more open Solution Manager interface where other partners can cleanly integrate their products was required.
  • An improvement in Change Control processes. This would require a simplification of the ChaRM process in the form of ChaRM Lite, more flexibility to automatically retro fit changes across Development systems, and the ability to automatically detect and prevent change downgrade across conflicting objects.

 

SAUG Influence works.

I can gladly report that many of my wishes will be realised once the Solution Manager 7.1 goes into unrestricted shipment in August 2011. Constructive feedback though the SAUG Influence Councils really pays dividends. Right now, there are over 30 customers participating in the Solution Manager 7.1 Wave 1 ramp up program since May 16th, with another 130 customers joining the Wave 2 ramp up program on June 15th.

 

 

Interview with the Solution Manager movers and shakers.

 

As you can tell from the attached YouTube video, I had a lot of fun with Marc Thier and Matthias Melich. They are both good sports who are always keen to listen to customer feedback. During SAPPHIRE Now 2011, SAP demonstrated how seriously it regards product feedback from customers, industry analysts and SAP Mentors.

 

More to come

In closing, we have been busy configuring Solution Manager 7.1 in the Acclimation office for several months now, and this can only lead to one thing - another series of Solution Manager SDN Weblogs showing the slick new 7.1 features.

You can also expect a ton of information at the upcoming SAP TechEd event in Las Vegas.

 

Useful Links

Some other useful Solution manager Links include:-

The Classic Uwe Hommel sexy UI video

Official Solution Manager 7.1 dates

Value Centre for Solution Manager 7.1

Getting ready for SAP Solution Manager 7.1 (Dr. Matthias Melich)

Solution Manager Customer Quotes

Changes and New Features in SAP Solution Manager 7.1

Solution Manager 7.1 SAP Online Knowledge Product (OKP)

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