SAP SolMan - The Egg-Laying Wool Milksau?

At marketing presentations, there is hardly anything that SolMan (SAP Solution Manager) cannot do. The software for the entire application lifecycle management is usually free of license costs for existing SAP customers, an argument that pleases CFOs.

SolMan maps everything - from the start of the project to implementation and maintenance. The comprehensive tools can be used to manage monitoring data, project documentation, faults, problems and changes, among other things. It also acts as a gateway for SAP into the customer infrastructure. It sounds like the perfect solution that satisfies all needs at a reasonable price.

System landscapes at customers are becoming increasingly complex, and the same applies to SolMan. It is, to put it another way, crammed with tools to map the entire software lifecycle (implementation and operational support).

The effort required to get these tools up and running - including basic configuration, customizing and adaptation to customer needs - varies not only from tool to tool, but also from customer to customer.

The huge freedom is both an opportunity and a curse. Because SolMan is so powerful, you even have to slow customers down now and then. Without the right advice, you can quickly get lost in SolMan; you need expert know-how. Without it, the customer can reach a dead end, for example, when setting up the very flexible and powerful "Solution Documentation" in Release 7.2.

From my point of view, it is the task of a serious consultant to first explain the SAP standard to the customer - before asking what he would like to have. You have to show the customer that a customization is not just a one-off, but involves a lot of extra work - for updates, migrations, further extensions, etc. The list is long. The list is long.

Of course, you could say that the more extensive the customer's customization requests, the more we can charge (my CFO might even be happy, the customer's less so).

But such an approach can take revenge very quickly. This is when the user, who needs the tools on a daily basis, is dissatisfied with the complicated handling. And it is not conducive to a sustainable customer relationship.

There are many tools that look great on slides and trigger a wow effect. I have already experienced - keyword BPCA (Business Process Change Analyzer) - that weeks pass for the implementation and the outcome is zero in the end. Effort and return are not in a healthy relationship.

With the last SolMan release it was said "everything is getting better, everything is getting easier" - in my opinion it is getting more and more complex. But one should also be fair: There are definitely small and still relatively unknown features in SolMan, which can be set up quickly and offer real added value.

Our experience shows that there are tools that are either not mature enough (dashboards, Fiori apps) or simply too costly; unless you have too many internal resources, but who does? Who wants to mess around with a change management tool?

They are almost exclusively cumbersome tools for end users, so you should make their operation as simple and clear as possible to increase adoption. Also in testing, it is important to understand what needs to be clarified before you start documenting test cases. It is essential to define test data and work out a refresh process.

Technical monitoring is one of the really complex tools. This is where SolMan clearly reaches its limits. We advocate automated SAP monitoring tools from the specialist, simple and elegant, such as our SAP sensors for PRTG.

We trust - sorry, SolMan - in the PRTG Network Monitor from Paessler, it is self-explanatory, inexpensive and still works after updates of the systems to be monitored. It allows us to monitor all SAP systems and surrounding systems at a glance.