Automation Booster

It is well known that, especially in the SAP Basis area, there is still a need to automate various recurring processes or work steps instead of implementing them manually or by means of individual scripting. This was also the case at Leonhard Kurz, a global player in hot stamping and coating technology with over 5,500 employees and over 4,000 SAP users in almost 40 SAP systems. All operated in high-availability and redundant data centers in 7×24 operation. The company relies on the Hana database for all SAP systems and various S/4 applications are also already in use.

As Thomas Bauer, Team Leader IT ERP Systems and Servers at Leonhard Kurz, explains: "We have in fact always aimed to minimize the existing SAP Basis workload through automation - ensuring a consistent approach as well as accompanying quality improvements in processes." 

Import of security updates

Against this background, the SAP user company was extremely enthusiastic about a new solution: a framework for SAP Basis system management with high automation functionality called EPOS (Empirius Planning and Operations Suite). Kurz has already been using BlueCopy for the automated creation of SAP system copies from Empirius for some time. The specific trigger for the use of the new software was the need to import security-relevant updates into SAP more and more frequently, and to do so on several systems at the same time. For example, SAP kernel, DB patches or updates of the SAP host agent.

"The primary expectations with the new Empirius solution were to automate and improve the import handling of the large number of SAP systems and to optimize downtime reconciliations as a result of the updates. In other words, to better manage this process by means of time-controlled actions. In addition, the focus was on further establishing a uniform methodology and thus quality improvements in the processes in the SAP Basis area.says SAP infrastructure expert Bauer.      

The start or use of the new SAP Basis system management suite practically took place at Kurz with the system installation at the end of March. A proof of concept (PoC) was carried out in advance by the SAP user company. The PoC results have so far been confirmed at Kurz in productive operation and in the use of EPOS to date.

Team leader Bauer on this: "Our experience can be rated as very good. Many systems can be updated smoothly in a very short time, which means a significant gain in productivity. Now, for example, we are able to automatically update up to four systems in parallel, Abap and Java stack mixed. As was the case with BlueCopy, the new Empirius solution is intuitive to use and reliably performs the requirements or services we set. Once again, it has also confirmed that we have access to very good support with short response times and responsiveness to our individual needs."

Further SAP Basis automation

The company sees the current EPOS deployment as a starting point for further automation initiatives for processes in the SAP Basis environment. A kind of automation booster for SAP Basis. Because further automations with the new software are to follow quickly. Both with the features from the software supplier and through in-house developments based on Empirius components, such as compliance checks, setting and checking SAP profile parameters, DAA updates, transport imports and more. 

As Thomas Bauer puts it, "the motivation is great after the smooth system implementation as well as the experience gained with the SAP Basis system management automation solution. With it, we want to handle many SAP infrastructure tasks systemically and make manual interventions or activities superfluous."