SolMan is not enough

SAP didn't invent it. Before SAP Solution Manager (SolMan), there were already numerous IT tools that were capable of monitoring and controlling complex software installations such as an ERP.

But under the wise and foresighted leadership of ex-SAP executive Gerd Oswald, a toolbox was created that was offered free of charge and initially optional to SAP's existing customers - later prescribed.

SAP learned quickly and SolMan got better every year. Acceptance in the community, on the other hand, grew only marginally. Why? SAP's existing customers who needed a powerful IT management and monitoring program had stocked up on IBM, HP and other software companies years earlier.

However, many existing SAP customers also mastered the "manual" administration of their R/3 system and used SAP's service marketplace according to their own specifications.

At first, SAP was not allowed to and could not tighten the SolMan thumbscrew because the functional scope still had many gaps, but Gerd Oswald and his troop worked diligently - until one day it was clear: SolMan is a mandatory exercise!

The outcry in the SAP community was enormous and understandable, because this compulsory obligation to use SolMan was associated with high costs. Naturally, SolMan could still be obtained free of charge, but the training courses, the establishment of a new IT infrastructure, and the adaptation of basic processes cost SAP's existing customers a lot of money. All know-how about competitor products became null and void because SolMan was now mandatory.

SolMan has arrived in the SAP community. The initial outcry has subsided. In the meantime, many existing SAP customers have recognized the advantages of SolMan, and even this magazine has published many praising texts about SolMan in recent months.

Particularly noteworthy here are the technically perfect and competent SolMan column by Matthias Kneissl and the many helpful texts by Carl Christoph Winter.

But SAP's SolMan is not enough, is it? For the management, administration, release upgrade, etc. of an on-premise ERP system such as ECC 6.0 or S/4, the SolMan is certainly enough. However, SAP continues to develop.

Earlier this year, a multi-cloud concept was presented that extends the data streams of an SAP Cloud Platform (SCP) to the cloud platforms of Amazon, Google and Microsoft.

SAP has acquired many IT companies in recent years and is beginning to consolidate its software offering: Hybris and other acquisitions will become the new CRM system C/4 based on the Hana database; SuccessFactors is to become the universal HCM system in the cloud.

The list of consolidations, plans and projects can be continued almost indefinitely. What is missing is a "Swiss army knife" for all these on-premise and cloud platforms. A SolMan for Hybris, SuccessFactors, Concur, Fieldglass, etc. is missing.

Hardly any existing SAP customer operates a stand-alone ERP/ECC 6.0 or S/4. If not with Legacy-IT via NetWeaver, then the ERP base is at least connected to other SAP software components.

And here the fun is over more and more often when SolMan is faced with unsolvable problems: System copy in an ECC 6.0 system is no problem. But who does the same job with the SAP component Hybris?

For existing SAP customers, the combination of ERP, CRM and Hybris is nothing special anymore. SolMan, on the other hand, only serves the "old" ERP basis, making the CCoE manager happy and leaving the Hybris manager in despair.

Multi Cloud with SCP, Amazon, Google and Microsoft is just the beginning. Global production facilities with millions of IoT sensors that send their data on to SAP Leonardo via the hundreds of Cloudflare data centers are just as little "seen" by SolMan as blockchain in S/4 logistics.

SAP is not leaving any IT topic lying around at the moment. The ERP world market leader is trying to get into the game everywhere - but the SAP base, which only has a "short-sighted" SolMan at its disposal, is falling by the wayside.

But perhaps in the future, the existing SAP customer will not need a system copy for Hybris, no management software for Multi Cloud, but simply the confidence that instead of SolMan, Leonardo will now solve all the problems.

PS: On October 4, I will be in Vienna to give a presentation on "Digital Transformation at SAP ERP Customers" at the VÖSI Software Day 2018.

Naturally, I will be looking beyond SAP's own horizons and commenting on digitization at SAP partners and competitors. I will then give the same talk again on October 11 at AKI in Würzburg.
See you in Vienna or Würzburg.