Why is automation so important in IT companies, but also especially in SAP Basis operations?

Automate SAP Basis Operations with automatics

By automating various SAP operations with the help of a comprehensive SAP system discovery, automatics helps companies reduce complexity, create more security, save time, and minimize risks. 

In view of the ever-increasing complexity in the IT landscape and the growing number of IT services, cloud services and the functional dependencies, it is becoming more and more difficult for operating teams and administrators to maintain an overview of current system statuses and effects due to changes.

Automation to optimize technical processes has become a significant topic for companies. We would like to take a concrete look at two important drivers for automation here:

1. resource situation

The shortage of skilled workers is already strongly felt among SAP Basis administrators. Due to retirements, growing parallel projects (for example SAP S/4 Hana Conversion) and a lack of people on the labor market, this situation will worsen significantly in the coming years.

Whether it's a shortage of skilled workers, the work-life balance, or freeing up employees for urgently needed projects, the automation of SAP Basis operations can relieve employees in their daily business by fully automating many tasks that have to be performed manually on numerous SAP systems, often at night or on weekends.

2. increase IT security

Companies use SAP as a business application for their core business processes. They often store their most important data, including intellectual property, in the SAP systems. This data must be protected from unauthorized access. Due to the drastic increase in the number of cyber attacks, it is therefore essential for companies to keep the security of their SAP systems as high as possible. Regular audits of system configurations and effective application monitoring ensure a stable and secure state of SAP systems. Automated detection and implementation of new security hotfixes in SAP systems and automated patching of all SAP components further enhance system security. 

One is often confronted with the following questions in connection with the implementation of an automation solution:

Where are admins going to find the time to automate?

In most cases, administrators and key resources who have such specific know-how hardly have any free time or the necessary motivation due to urgent requests, project work and the important aspect of daily stable operation. Automation does not end with the one-time development; on the contrary, it must be ensured on an ongoing basis that scripts and operations continue to function reliably even when changes are made to the products and in the system landscape.

How can the continuation of automation be ensured?

Often it is individual employees in companies who strive to implement such solutions. What happens when these employees are unintentionally and briefly no longer available? Who takes over these tasks? How can new employees with this knowledge be found quickly?

Are all aspects considered in the automation?

A script is quickly written or a command issued - but how do companies and employees deal with reducing the associated risks? Do the scripts and operations contain sufficient checks to ensure that everything runs smoothly? What happens if a technical error does occur? How does the script deal with it? Changes in the SAP Basis always mean very deep interventions in the system configuration, which have a large and direct impact on the functions, security and performance of the applications.

How do you deal with differences in the system landscape?

An SAP ERP system with Hana or Oracle database running on Linux, application server running on Windows, a new S/4 Hana system, web dispatcher, etc. The larger an SAP system landscape becomes, the more varied it will develop over the years and the more complex its composition will become. Automation only gains really great added value when as many system characteristics and products as possible are covered.

Is transparency provided for all critical configurations?

System settings are the basis of SAP security, and there are numerous configuration options in SAP systems here. Settings are made at database level, by SAP transactions or by the so-called SAP profile parameters. Security-relevant specifications for system settings must be adhered to both during installation and during ongoing operation of SAP systems. Only regular audits of the system configurations and effective application monitoring (kernel version levels, security notes, etc.) can ensure a stable and secure state of the SAP systems.

Where are the results of the system change documented?

For many operations teams, ISO 27001 requirements, KRITIS guidelines or other directives and the processes that go with them are hard to imagine without. Requirements for information security, auditability and traceability of changes are constantly increasing. Admins have to provide reports about changes made to systems and related details at regular intervals. In most cases, the information is highly distributed and available in different formats, so a lot of time goes into collecting and preparing information. A central platform for storing changes to SAP systems and easily evaluating audit logs reduces the effort and enables employees beyond the SAP operations team to identify and track changes. 

automatics solves many of these challenges!

automatics has taken on these challenges and solves them with a cross-platform automation solution including integrated discovery of SAP systems, with workflows that can be used immediately, as well as a modern and intuitive user interface. With just a few clicks, our automatics software fully automates recurring SAP system operation tasks and thus reduces dependencies, errors and risks in daily business.

Our goal is to relieve employees in their daily business by simplifying and automating tasks that have to be performed manually on numerous SAP systems.