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Access to SAP Notes

Juwin
Active Contributor
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Why is access to SAP Notes, KBAs etc, restricted by S-User login? Is there anything so much secretive in there? It is just knowledge, right? Shouldn't atleast the PDF version be available to read without having to login? There are many other websites, which basically copies SAP notes and publish them on their website for free. They will all die down if SAP doesn't have this restriction, isn't it?

Or, is there such a functionality already available that I'm not aware of?

Thanks.

Accepted Solutions (1)

Accepted Solutions (1)

Matt_Fraser
Active Contributor

SAP charges customers big money for annual maintenance support. A big part of that maintenance is regular access to upgrades, support packs, and note corrections, so that essentially represents intellectual property for them, and a revenue stream.

There are third-party companies that provide maintenance to SAP customers for roughly half the price, but they do not have access to upgrades, support packs, and so forth. Generally, the support model for these competitors is they will help you with bugfixes and legal changes (tax updates, mostly) for a "stable" release, meaning you have no plans to ever update the system again, ever. You just want it to stay the same for the remainder of your time using it.

If those third-parties had unrestricted access to note corrections, what would stop them from siphoning off more of SAP's support customers? Perhaps it's the wrong strategy, but this is at least part of the reasoning behind restricting access to note corrections. For that matter, customers might say "Why pay support at all, to anyone? I can just download notes whenever I need to."

There is also the matter of products that go out of maintenance. For many of them, SAP offers the option to customers to purchase an additional three years of "extended maintenance," for an extra fee on top of the regular maintenance fee, of course. During those three years of extended maintenance, SAP continues to release new notes and new support packs for the product, but they only make the new notes and support packs available to customers who have paid the extended maintenance fee. Other customers will only see notes and support packs that were available as of the end of regular maintenance. Or, at least this is how it's supposed to work in theory. So, if the notes aren't restricted by s-number, how would they control that?

Then there are pilot customers, and pilot notes. If you are a pilot customer for a particular development, you are granted access to notes that aren't yet generally available. Again, controlling access via s-number is the only way to keep a handle on that.

Finally, what does "It's just knowledge" mean? For all of us here, are we not classified as knowledge workers? We don't earn our pay by the sweat of our labor, but by the application of our knowledge. That directly implies that our knowledge has a financial value. Ergo, knowledge = money. So, saying something should be freely available because "it's just knowledge" is equivalent to saying that you shouldn't be paid for any consulting work you do, because you don't have to use your muscles to do it. It's just knowledge, after all.

It's not dissimilar to the arguments over intellectual property rights and copyright that authors, artists, and musicians struggle with. That movie you enjoyed at the cineplex last weekend? Someone (or more likely a whole bunch of someones) spent countless hours, days, and months of full-time labor to make that so you could enjoy it. Likewise, at SAP there are numerous someones spending most of their time developing note corrections and feature updates and so forth, in order to add value to your ERP software.

But, it's just knowledge.

former_member189845
Active Participant
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Well Said Matt, But at last it is just knowledge cool

Answers (5)

Answers (5)

ozgur_caglar
Explorer
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I think it is not fair that a freelancer spends their entire working hours on SAP, making a living out of it but at the same time contributing to the customer satisfaction every minute, and wastes hours looking for a simple information available in a KBA easily but can be accessed only by permanent IT staff. SNOTE transaction does not download KBAs.

Do they want money for this access? Yes, I can pay some reasonable fee to access SAP Support Portal, but partner scheme is too cumbersome. And let us face it, I am not a partner as such, I am a freelance worker.

ozgur_caglar
Explorer
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I suspect those supporting the existing access scheme here, already have an S-id somehow 🙂

thanga_prakash
Active Contributor
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I also thought the same thing many times, they might have restricted because of the security reasons.

In transaction SNOTE you won't be able to browse the notes until you download them in the system.

Might be SAP can enable a login to Service marketplace by using the P ID assigned under SCN profile.

Jelena
Active Contributor
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Thanga Prakash wrote:

Might be SAP can enable a login to Service marketplace by using the P ID assigned under SCN profile.

That would be the same as opening access to everyone. Anyone can register on SCN, you're not asked for any credentials to confirm you have anything to do with SAP.

I'm kind of curious why is this even an issue? If you need to search for the notes for work then you need to be given access, period. But otherwise why does anyone need to go digging in the notes?

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I believe that comes under the privacy policy of SAP.

Strangers just can't access SAP notes and KBA's.

Anyways nowadays it is easy for getting S-ID, also after certification you now get SID.

Regards,

Sagar

Jelena
Active Contributor
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Only KBAs contain "knowledge", most notes contain corrections, so I can imagine exposing them to anyone could be a bit of a problem. Other companies don't do that either, AFAIK. You can't just upload a service pack for some paid program that you didn't purchase.

And managing KBAs separately or copying all notes as PDF is probably too much of an effort at this point. Also - who cares about those **** who can't get an S-user?

Not sure if you can also get to the note text through ANST. But not giving someone access to the notes and then expecting them to analyze the notes seems pretty stupid IMHO.

former_member186746
Active Contributor
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Hi,

whenever I'm not bothered to find out my S number and password I just use transaction SNOTE in SAP to read notes.

Kind regards, Rob Dielemans

Juwin
Active Contributor
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Problems:

1 - Access to SNOTE T-code is restricted by our Security team, because they fear we might install some notes in the system without analyzing it.

2 - I don't think SNOTE allows to search for available SAP Notes, the way support website does.

Thanks.