How SAP will guide you. Everything you need to know about the SAP producer’s service
All companies using SAP are obliged to pay an annual fee related to its maintenance. In this way, they are guaranteed access to the knowledge base about the system and its capabilities, any updates and the manufacturer’s technical support. In practice, this means that after the implementation of the system the company will not be left high and dry with any problems that may arise during the utilisation of the system. But that’s not all: as part of the maintenance, the producer of SAP AG leads each client by the hand, offering a number of online training courses, meetings with SAP experts, and reports on the effectiveness and safety of the system.
Access to this knowledge is free of charge; however, companies rarely use it. As it turns out, this is often due to a lack of knowledge on the subject. In order to take advantage of this knowledge and dispel any doubts regarding the SAP maintenance system fee, we present information about the benefits of customer service and the most interesting services available under the SAP maintenance programme.
Standard or Enterprise?
Clients are offered two levels of support: basic (Standard Support) and extended (Enterprise Support). The Standard Support level is indeed cheaper but companies who depend on uninterrupted support 24/7 select the Enterprise Support level; just as those who want a guarantee of quality of support and defined response times on every reported problem. Companies who take advantage of Enterprise Support, however, get a lot more: access to a huge number of training options for project managers, IT directors and SAP administrators; access which companies very often know nothing about. So it can occur that they pay external consultants for training or services that they have already purchased with the maintenance package.
Support Academy
Support Academy in SAP Maintenance means access to knowledge on how to improve the operation of the system in different areas, for people in different positions: IT administrators, directors and IT managers or SAP project managers. Training topics relate mainly to the technical layer of the system, but they also include sessions relating to the optimisation of business processes. Among others there are the following:
- Self-Guided Training Services in the fields of change management, increase in system performance, system security, optimisation of business processes and many others. The guide shows how you can improve system performance in specific areas step by step. Access to the sessions for companies using Enterprise Support is unlimited;
- Training, expertise, configuration examples to practice on your own during the SAP Expert Guided Implementation session in which SAP Support Academy offers high-quality, multi-day theoretical training combined with practical exercises. It is one of the most valuable SAP training elements because the participants are continually in touch with the coach. Each day during a web session, and step by step, a SAP expert explains an aspect of configuration, then the trainees, in accordance with the guidelines, make changes in their own system, constantly remaining in touch with the SAP expert. Among others, the session topics are as the following: Business Process Improvement and Analytics, Data Volume Management, Performance Optimisation and many more.
- Information provided directly by the manufacturer during the session Live Meet the Experts: on topics related to SAP support.
Analyses and reports
The benefit of Enterprise Support is not simply access to guides and knowledge on how to improve the system, but also the ability to take advantage of SAP consulting services. In the session: Continuous Quality Check, managers, IT administrators and project managers have access to a number of reports and analyses of system performance, project risks and ways to optimise processes in the system. Once a year, customers to whom SAP provides SAP maintenance services directly, can request SAP experts to apply the required expertise, system analysis or analysis of the existing environment in their area. They then prepare a report with a summary and recommendations for an action plan, for example, before the implementation of additional functionalities in the SAP system.
Connecting to the client’s system, the SAP experts verify the technical capabilities of the system, stability, performance and configuration, as well as make recommendations to facilitate any implementation and launch the productive start to new solutions. A similar service may also beneficial to companies that use SAP Maintenance via a SAP partner. The service is then called the Technical Quality Check.
