Final spurt in the changeover to SolMan 7.2
As you know, maintenance for Solution Manager 7.1 will end at the end of the year. Users who have not yet migrated should start preparing for the changeover as soon as possible.
Customers who are already using the solution documentation in the old version 7.1 still have a tight program ahead of them to master the migration. Here, the Prepare phase should already be used in the existing version of the Solution Manager.
Even though time is of the essence, it is not a good idea to wait until after the migration to Solution Manager 7.2 to perform the Prepare phase, which calculates which documents will be transferred or need to be adapted.
If you choose this option, you can and must go through the "preparation", but you have no chance to react to errors and have to live with them, or to subsequently capture and coordinate the documents that cannot be migrated.
It therefore makes sense and is expedient to prepare in Solution Manager 7.1. However, this must have a relatively current status and be prepared accordingly with instructions. Planning for this is essential.
Royalty free on Hana
Still unclear to many SAP users is the fact that Solution Manager can be operated on SAP Hana without license costs. The upgrade and Hana migration can be done in a single step.
This significantly minimizes testing and migration efforts. A changeover to the Hana database is already recommended today in order to get to grips with the new technology and to prepare for the changeover to SAP Hana or S/4 both technologically and from the point of view of operating concepts.
While the migration runs relatively smoothly from experience, it should still be weighed up here whether a new Solution Manager 7.2 should not be installed after all. Especially for users who do not run more than Early Watch Alerts, a new installation is definitely cheaper and easier than a migration.
Incident Management
The adjustments in Incident Management are manageable, provided that the customer has not carried out massive in-house developments. Here, the interfaces may need to be adapted, as well as the authorizations and authorization structures.
The situation is somewhat more complex in the area of change request management. Here, adjustments have to be made to the transaction types and a new authorization concept has to be rolled out.
Training for administrators and adaptation of the operating manuals also remain essential. Here, a project must certainly be planned accordingly and also calculated with sufficient testing effort.
The biggest adjustments are certainly to be considered within the scope of the solution documentation. Users who have not yet converted and already have this scenario in use should actually start planning and implementing it now.
Test plan
In fact, you will only experience real added value from the upgrade to Solution Manager 7.2 if you are already familiar with the new database technology and actually start using the solution documentation.
The upgrade itself should be well thought out and started promptly with a test plan in order to successfully master a changeover even within the maintenance period.
