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Agility for classic SAP landscapes

Failures in SAP systems usually result from the import of configuration and function changes or new application versions. However, the business demands more and more agility. This is where the DevOps principle comes into play.
Daniele Di Croce, Realtech
March 1, 2018
Agility for classic SAP landscapes
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This text has been automatically translated from German to English.

Months of practicing and testing ... and yet importing changes into the production systems is still often a "high risk, high drama affair" at the weekend.

Hopefully everything will run smoothly in the morning and production will not come to a standstill. It would be unthinkable if hundreds or even thousands of employees did not do their work as planned, customers did not order their goods or orders could not be processed.

If an "escalation case" occurs, it is expensive and solving the problem requires intensive and close cooperation between all specialists. So why not move away from silo thinking in a "plan-build-run" cycle and work closely together on a daily basis?

Plan-build-run has had its day

It is time for a rethink towards more agility. Also because digital champions such as Amazon, Netflix and Spotify are conditioning the expectations of end customers accordingly. The pressure to change is growing and has long since arrived in the B2B environment. Even in SAP landscapes.

The increasing pace of innovation and change is putting long-standing practices and habits in SAP operations to the test. Are new releases of once a month or even twice a year and less often still sustainable today?

Can companies still keep pace with the digital champions in terms of service quality, user experience and customer satisfaction?

Agile methods have been proving their worth in software development for years. DevOps, i.e. the close integration of development and (IT) operations, combines agile methods with close collaboration across departmental boundaries.

Even in traditional SAP landscapes, DevOps principles can be used to sustainably improve collaboration between development and IT operations: away from hierarchical silos and towards agile, networked teams. The new guiding principles are collaboration, sharing and automation.

Instead of extensive changes at long intervals, DevOps releases are deployed more frequently and in smaller volumes. This means that changes no longer necessarily lead to more failures and system downtimes.

On the contrary: The regular supply of production ("continuous delivery") becomes a well-established routine. Business added value is created on an ongoing basis without any fright. The risks of adjustments are reduced and confidence in the SAP systems and IT increases.

Impulses through tools

Automation tools such as Realtech's Transport Manager help to minimize or avoid manual activities in this context. Additional self-service access to important telemetry and performance data also enables developers and administrators to quickly identify and resolve problems.

Chat and collaboration tools such as Slack or Microsoft Teams, which speed up the flow of information, are also important. Last but not least, automated testing tools ensure the continuous flow of changes from development to production. Time-consuming manual tests can thus be reduced.

However, automation and tools do not automatically lead to more agility and speed. DevOps starts in the minds of everyone involved: it is about a new type of collaboration and cooperation between specialist departments, development and IT operations with the common goal of continuously creating added value for your own customers.

If this way of thinking is adopted, classic SAP landscapes can be further developed in an agile manner and the requirements of digitalization can be managed easily, securely and quickly.

https://e3mag.com/partners/realtech-deutschland-gmbh/

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Daniele Di Croce, Realtech

Daniele Di Croce is co-founder and board member of Realtech


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Working on the SAP basis is crucial for successful S/4 conversion. 

This gives the Competence Center strategic importance for existing SAP customers. Regardless of the S/4 Hana operating model, topics such as Automation, Monitoring, Security, Application Lifecycle Management and Data Management the basis for S/4 operations.

For the second time, E3 magazine is organizing a summit for the SAP community in Salzburg to provide comprehensive information on all aspects of S/4 Hana groundwork.

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Wednesday, May 21, and
Thursday, May 22, 2025

Regular ticket

EUR 590 excl. VAT

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Venue

Hotel Hilton Heidelberg
Kurfürstenanlage 1
D-69115 Heidelberg

Event date

Wednesday, March 5, and
Thursday, March 6, 2025

Tickets

Regular ticket
EUR 590 excl. VAT
The event is organized by the E3 magazine of the publishing house B4Bmedia.net AG. The presentations will be accompanied by an exhibition of selected SAP partners. The ticket price includes attendance at all presentations of the Steampunk and BTP Summit 2025, a visit to the exhibition area, participation in the evening event and catering during the official program. The lecture program and the list of exhibitors and sponsors (SAP partners) will be published on this website in due course.

Informationen Teilnehmer:

Die nachfolgende Abfrage zur Altersgruppe dient rein statistischen Zwecken. Wir bitten Sie freundlicherweise um eine freiwillige Angabe.


Rechnungsadresse:

Falls Sie hier Ihre E-Mailadresse angeben, wird Ihre Rechnung ausschließlich per E-Mail nach Veranstaltung an die angegebene Adresse gesendet.

Laut Steuergesetz müssen Firmenbezeichnungen in Rechnungen korrekt sein. Ihre eingegebenen Daten werden zur Rechnungsstellung übernommen.