PCOE Setup Guide 2014 05

Partner Center of ExpertiseSetup Guide For internal SAP and partner use only Copyright © 2014 by SAP SE. All rights reserved. Neither this document nor any part of it may be copied or reproduced in any form or by any means, or translated into another language, without the prior consent of SAP Active Global Support. SAP Active Global Support makes no warranties or representations with respect to the content hereof and specifically disclaim any implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for any particular purpose. SAP Active Global Support assumes no responsibility for any errors that may appear in this document. The information contained in this document is subject to change without notice. SAP Active Global Support reserves the right to make any such changes without obligation to notify any person of such revision or changes. SAP Active Global Support makes no commitment to keep the information contained herein up to date. These materials are subject to change without notice. These materials are provided by SAP SE and its affiliated companies ("SAP Group") for informational purposes only, without representation or warranty of any kind, and SAP Group shall not be liable for errors or omissions with respect to the materials. The only warranties for SAP Group products and services are those that are set forth in the express warranty statements accompanying such products and services, if any. Nothing herein should be construed as constituting an additional warranty. TRADEMARKS All rights reserved. SAP, R/3, SAP NetWeaver, Duet, PartnerEdge, ByDesign, SAP Business ByDesign, and other SAP products and services mentioned herein as well as their respective logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of SAP SE in Germany and other countries. Business Objects and the Business Objects logo, BusinessObjects, Crystal Reports, Crystal Decisions, Web Intelligence, Xcelsius, and other Business Objects products and services mentioned herein as well as their respective logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of Business Objects S.A. in the United States and in other countries. Business Objects is an SAP company. All other product and service names mentioned are the trademarks of their respective companies. Data contained in this document serves informational purposes only. National product specifications may vary. Please see http://www.sap.com/corporate-en/legal/copyright/index.epx#trademark for additional trademark information and notices. DOCUMENTATION VERSION Date: 17 October 2014 Release: 5.2 2 Table of Contents Copyright 2 Table of Contents 3 Introduction 6 Chapter 1. Partner Center of Expertise 7 1.1 Definition 7 1.2 Components 7 1.3 Setup Timeline 7 Set Up 8 Deliver 9 Certify 9 Chapter 2. Support Infrastructure 10 2.1 Dedicated Support Hotline 11 Alternative Modes of Communication 11 2.2 Remote Connection 12 2.2 Test Systems 14 2.4 Incident Management System 15 2.5 SAP EarlyWatch® Alert 17 2.6 Support Staff 21 Support Roles 21 First Level Tasks 23 Second Level Tasks 24 Third Level Tasks (usually SAP Support) 24 Development and Training 25 People Certification 26 Outsourcing or Subcontracting 27 2.7 SAP HANA Test System* 27 Chapter 3. Support Processes 28 3.1 Customer On-boarding 28 3.2 Incident Management 28 Preparing an Incident 29 Reporting an Incident 31 Receiving an Incident 31 © SAP SE 2014 Partner Center of Expertise Setup Guide 3 Acknowledging an Incident 32 Assigning an Incident 33 Processing an incident 33 Forwarding an incident 34 Closing an incident 35 3.3 After Office Hours Support 35 SAP Solution Manager 36 7x24 Support Operations 36 On-Call Support 36 3.4 Handling Complaints and Escalations 37 Complaints 37 Escalations 37 Chapter 4. Marketing & Communications 4.1 Support Presentation 38 38 SAP Enterprise Support 40 Structuring Your Potential Support Offer 40 4.2 SAP Communication 41 SAP Partner Account Manager 41 SAP Partner Service Advisor 41 4.3 Maintenance Agreement 42 Chapter 5. Continuous Improvement 5.1 Support Reporting 44 44 Service Level Reporting 44 Customer Incident Reporting 45 Team/Processor Reporting 46 Management Reporting 47 5.2 Feedback Gathering 47 Internal Feedback 47 External Feedback 48 5.3 Service Improvement 48 5.4 Support Readiness Activity 49 Chapter 6. SAP Solution Manager 50 6.1 Customer Landscape Validation 51 6.1 Project Administration 51 6.2 Solution Documentation 53 Technical Landscape Documentation 54 Business Process Documentation 55 Custom Code Documentation 55 6.3 Incident Management © SAP SE 2014 56 Partner Center of Expertise Setup Guide 4 5 Global VARs 81 Appendix A: Quick Links © SAP SE 2014 82 Partner Center of Expertise Setup Guide 5 .1 Relevant Roles for the Audit Process 71 7.6 Technical Monitoring 64 6.4 Combined Certification 80 7.7 Business Process Monitoring 66 6. Partner COE Audit Process 71 7.6.8 Root Cause Analysis 68 Root Cause Analysis for SAP HANA 70 Chapter 7.2 Audit Types 72 Readiness Audit 72 Validation Check 73 Re-Certification 73 7.5 Maintenance Certificate 63 6.3 Audit Process 73 Registering for an Audit 73 Conducting the Audit 76 Judging the Audit Result 79 7.4 Maintenance Optimizer 61 6. who are about to set up and operate a Partner Center of Expertise (Partner COE). They are the first and single point of contact for their customers concerning the SAP-based solution. Within this shared support delivery model. © SAP SE 2014 Partner Center of Expertise Setup Guide 6 . A Partner COE is that unit within a VAR which is responsible for provision of various support services for the indirect customer base. These guidelines should be used as a basis for building and operating support structures in a Value Added Reseller support organization.Introduction These guidelines are intended for Value Added Resellers (VARs) as participants of the SAP PartnerEdge channel program. Value Added Resellers take care of their customers while providing first and second level support and their related maintenance services. SAP Analytics) including maintenance. SAP Business All-In-One. as well as on the SAP PartnerEdge Portal. Information to set up a VAR-specific support infrastructure can be found on the SAP Support Portal under the section for SAP Solution Manager for Partners. They engage with SAP and their customers via a shared support delivery model. Further links to relevant items are provided in this document.g. called VAR-delivered support. SAP PartnerEdge VARs are entitled to sell specific software products (e. VAR Partners have to start setting up plans and strategies to establish their Partner COE. means and visibility through which the support and offerings. A Partner COE should be established with the recommended infrastructure. 1.1 Definition To ensure that all indirect customers receive the same high quality support. Quality assurances strategies including support process monitoring and reporting. 1. service desk applications.2 Components To enable a successful support operation. and processes to ensure a streamlined and effective delivery of maintenance services by both the VAR Partner and SAP. Detailed information with respect to the expected set up of these various components are discussed through several chapters in this document.3 Setup Timeline It is expected that from the signing of the PartnerEdge agreement and opting for the VAR-Delivered Support model. escalation and COE) delivers maintenance service to complaint handling. VARs should carefully go through the maintenance instructions under Exhibit 4 of their PartnerEdge agreement to determine the requirements and standards for the support organization tasked to deliver maintenance services to indirect customers. VARs are expected to set up a Partner Center of Expertise (Partner COE) whose primary responsibility is to deliver defined support processes and services for indirect customers. among others. operations can be introduced and presented competitively. Partner Center of Expertise 1. feedback gathering. services delivery indirect customers through SAP Marketing and Communications which provides the recommended infrastructure. These components are grouped into the following areas:       Support staffing considering relevant product and process certifications Service desk infrastructure including. processes. a Partner COE requires several components to work seamlessly and efficiently. remote connectivity tools and strategies Support processes such as those required for A Partner Center of Expertise (Partner incident or problem management. © SAP SE 2014 Partner Center of Expertise Setup Guide 7 .Chapter 1. process documentation Continuous improvement strategies through regular process reviews and customer feedback. Therefore. test systems. people. and VAR Partner. experience. software. or utilizing the assistance of both the Partner Account Manager (PAM) and the Partner Services Advisor (PSA) to ascertain the requirements and get the best advice with respect to the set up strategies based on the VAR Partner’s situation. Definition of support performance targets and measurement activities. Plan.Figure 1-1. The timelines shown from Figure 2-1 shows the phases of setting up a Partner COE. supported products. hardware. design. and set up physical infrastructure components such as people. Some of the pertinent activities expected during the set up stage are as follows:        © SAP SE 2014 Determine requirements for the Partner COE according to business goals and strategies. VAR Partners should clearly determine the requirements and standards for the Partner COE. and certification achievements. Ensure availability of product knowledge through continued development. These could be accomplished by going through the maintenance instructions from the PartnerEdge contract. networks. customer. training. SET UP During the Set Up stage. communications. Set up required connectivity infrastructure between SAP. Partner Center of Expertise Setup Guide 8 . Timelines towards Partner Center of Expertise Certification The setup of a Partner COE is dependent on factors such as the size. and maturity of the organization. Training and documentation of support processes and procedures. Activate functionalities or applications required for regular monitoring of customer systems and to engage proactive maintenance services. attending focus sessions on PCOE enablement.  Delivery of pro-active support services  Support process monitoring  Generation of regular support reports to review and measure support performance and execution. tested. and evaluated.  Regular review of customer systems based on proactive monitors and reports. the VAR should consider a go live activity by which the Partner COE commences the delivery of maintenance services with existing customers. The Partner COE audit process is a necessary step to achieve support authorization required to allow a VAR Partner to deliver support to indirect customers. © SAP SE 2014 Partner Center of Expertise Setup Guide 9 .  Go live of incident (and/or problem) management processes. CERTIFY After maintenance services have been delivered to customers and where Partner COE elements have been tried. The Partner COE questionnaire should be completely filled providing documents where necessary to better describe and showcase the VAR Partner’s Partner COE operations. the VAR Partner should be ready for an audit exercise. A more comprehensive discussion of the audit process is described in Chapter 7 of this document. Amongst the activities that are expected to be performed are the following:  Delivery of support awareness sessions either as an on-boarding activity or as a support readiness service.  Gathering of customer feedback Ongoing review of support elements and documentation of potential improvement points.DELIVER Once all physical elements are established and support processes are clearly understood by support staff. and Indirect Customers  Test Systems for all products productively used by customers  Incident Management System for incident and problem handling and documentation  SAP EarlyWatch® Alert data transfers between VAR Partner and Customers  Certified Support Staff  SAP Solution Manager (mandatory for VARs supporting SAP Business All-In-One and/or SAP HANA®) The compliance weight and level for each physical requirement are defined in the succeeding pages. support staffing.Chapter 2. Support Infrastructure Components For VAR Partners with an existing support business. compliance with SAP requirements necessitates a review of existing tools and systems to ensure that compliance is not compromised and is met as closely as possible to guarantee that support services are not jeopardized for both SAP and the VAR Partner’s mutual customers. when necessary. © SAP SE 2014 Partner Center of Expertise Setup Guide 10 . From the maintenance instructions as provided in Exhibit 4 of the SAP PartnerEdge Channel Agreement. applications and tools. and processes that comprise the essential components of a support infrastructure. SAP has clearly defined such infrastructure requirements in the SAP PartnerEdge Channel Agreement and VAR Partners are enjoined to establish these essential elements as a mandatory requirement. Support Infrastructure A successful support operation could not be possible without the physical infrastructure. the following infrastructure requirements are as follows:  7x24 Dedicated Support Hotline  Remote Connection between SAP. Any deviations from SAP’s standard requirements have to be clearly explained to an Auditor for clarification and recommendations. VAR Partner. Figure 2-1. or intermediary communication. a support hotline should be a dedicated number that can be reached by customer end users without need for routing. VAR Partners can offer alternative means for accessibility of their support organization to the customer end users. it is expected that the hotline has a voice mail facility for support staff to return calls as soon as a line becomes available. is not the most efficient process for incident reporting as an email typically contains unstructured content and there is no guarantee that the email has been received by the VAR support organization or. or product information and documentation. This. For example. when a customer calls after business hours. forums. This mode could be best used for incidents not requiring immediate resolution.2.  Dedicated Support Email Address As an alternative to a direct call. The call is answered by support staff that clearly identifies themselves as a member of the partner’s support organization. however. How may we help you?” ALTERNATIVE MODES OF COMMUNICATION Apart from a support hotline. a support staff member responds with “Good morning! You’ve reached <<company name>> support. depending on network traffic or unforeseen technical issues may delay receipt at the partner end. © SAP SE 2014 Partner Center of Expertise Setup Guide 11 . Have automated voice recording for out-of-office announcements. when the hotline is reached. Rarely returns a busy signal.1 Dedicated Support Hotline As clearly stated. It is preferred that the support hotline meets the following criteria:      Is a dedicated landline number that directly connects to the support organization Should have automatic call routing with several lines directly linked to the main support hotline. Online availability of the incident management system allows interactive and efficient means of communicating incident progress and resolution with the customer base and offers visibility of issues logged with the VAR. extensions. For such instances. The following means could also be considered to supplement an existing support hotline:  Online Support It is not uncommon for well-established support businesses to offer online accessibility of their incident management system or other supportrelated facilities such as knowledge bases. For example. VARs can also offer a dedicated email address which routes to their support organization. recorded instructions or guidelines are available from the support hotline providing instructions that a customer can clearly follow to secure support out of regular business hours. 2 Remote Connection Current communications and networking options offer various means of accessing customer systems in a remote environment. This is. a support hotline should never return a busy signal but should offer helpful instructions for guiding customers through after-office hours support procedures. After Office Hours The support hotline should be available at all times and should be properly set up and/or configured to respond appropriately for calls received outside of regular business hours. diagnose. Urgent calls after office hours are usually made by customers who are in distress and usually in a pressure-specific situation. customers could remember out-of-ordinary processes (and numbers) which probably occurs infrequently and thus would not be usually accorded due attention. Fax Although outmoded in current times. 2. This becomes the most cost-effective means to view. the customer has to receive new sets of numbers and names. Without this infrastructure. This does not offer a permanent and standardized solution but will most often confuse customers regarding appropriate contacts for specific situations. remote connectivity with SAP’s support backbone is a mandatory requirement for all productive instances. A dedicated support hotline must be a local land line available for use 7x24. by far. analyze. the most feasible alternative for assisting customers quickly and with minimum amount of delay. In such instances. a customer should clearly understand that SAP or the VAR Partner is not expected to fulfill service level commitments. For SAP customers. where any are made. having a dedicated fax number for such emergency situations is recommended. It is recommended to have phone routing capabilities or voice mail as well to handle busy lines and/or after-office calls. This is a necessary first step for allowing SAP to provide mission critical services when it is sorely needed. It cannot be expected that at such situations. and resolve incidents without necessitating the physical presence of an individual at the customer site. Providing a different phone number for after-office calls Offering different support numbers can create confusion regarding call hours and expectations. It is expected that a dedicated support hotline should provide any of the following instructions outside business hours:   Issue automated voice instructions offering alternative means for reporting incidents Routes to a dedicated mobile number or communications service fully monitored and available for emergency calls It is not recommended to offer alternative numbers to customer end users such as the following:   Issuing mobile numbers of specific consultants or other company personnel Whenever the individual leaves the company or changes numbers. This could also © SAP SE 2014 Partner Center of Expertise Setup Guide 12 . a fax machine still provides a valuable backup alternative to electronic means of communication. Thus. sap. Thus. Remote Connection Setup Remote connectivity has to be setup with customer systems for the following purposes:  View. as well as enabling RFC access between different servers. © SAP SE 2014 Partner Center of Expertise Setup Guide 13 .  Some tools such as Team Viewer or NetViewer. the SAP software program SAProuter is the most popular means for controlling and monitoring communication between SAP servers and frontend computers. As SAP mandates this requirement with its customers.  Customers can use various encryption methods for data protection and security.  Execute SAP and/or VAR services for either proactive monitoring (such as SAP EarlyWatch ® Alert. or Solution Monitoring.) Security Issues Customers do have valid concerns about remote connectivity and its potential risk for uncontrolled or undetected access to their critical systems.  Remote connection need only be set up once and can be opened by a customer only at their preference. SAP offers extensive information on remote connectivity types through the SAP Support Portal pages under http://support. VAR Partners have to request their customers to provide this means as a necessary first step for efficient support especially in critical situations. at their own means. it may be necessary to educate customers on the following aspects: Customer has full control of their connection and has sole capability to open the connection manually from their end at their own time. VAR Partners should ensure that their customers are fully aware of these security issues and how they are addressed with current methods. and resolve incidents from SAP or VAR side from any location at any time. allow SAP or the VAR Partner to only view customer screens that are made shown by customers without having an actual physical connection to customer systems. Figure 2-2. Root Cause Analysis. By far.com/access-support.allow SAP or the VAR Partner to downgrade priority calls as the expected resolution for incidents without immediate access would be lowered. analyze. 2. These can be mandated by company or even local policies. please visit http://support.sap. release. For information on the usage and application of various remote connection strategies and tools. The VAR Partner should initially peruse the document and explicitly indicate or pinpoint the page/chapter/paragraph where such restriction is stated. © SAP SE 2014 Partner Center of Expertise Setup Guide 14 . An 85% compliance target is required. One of the more popular and easiest methods is Netviewer. the VAR Partner should ensure that compliance for remote connectivity is generally high within its customer base and its own support infrastructure.2 Test Systems Customers reporting incidents may not necessarily welcome the idea of their systems being used as a test environment for resolving their own issues. This allows SAP to either view the customer’s screen via a Show Only permission or execute transactions via the Full Access privilege (requires SAProuter). Thus.Figure 2-3. the VAR Partner should request its customer for documentation of such policies and to present this to the Auditor for every audit session.com/access-support. remote connectivity is expected to be available for the following:  between SAP and customer production systems  between VAR Partner and customer production systems  between SAP and VAR Partner test systems  between SAP and VAR Partner/Customer SAP Solution Manager systems  between VAR Partner and Customer SAP Solution Manager systems Remote Connection Exception It is acknowledged that some customers may have strict policies regarding connectivity outside their network. Being a mandatory requirement. As a key ingredient for certification. VAR Partners have to set up a necessary back-up environment to allow simulation of customer issues on a standard SAP system with a similar product type. For such cases. customers can use other options available as listed from the SAP Support Portal pages. Remote Connection Page in the SAP Support Portal For non-ABAP platforms. and version. and functionalities could generally differ between products and release.  Test systems can be used to simulate incidents Based on standard SAP product that could otherwise not be performed in a version and release customer’s productive environment. The SAP Solution Manager Service Desk is able to fulfill both first level and second level processing activities as recommended from the agreement and should be able to cover the following processes:  Receipt and classification Incidents should be received immediately upon posting by a customer end user. 2. These should have remote connection established with SAP.  Should use the partner’s own demo/productive installation numbers Test systems should use the partner’s own licensed installation.A test system. a remote connection to SAP is also necessary. Delivered objects. Test systems should generally not be used productively nor should be part of a transport route. Thus. therefore. Thus.  Has remote connection to SAP In the event that a VAR Partner should be able to simulate an incident in their own test systems. For VARs supporting SAP Business All-In-One and/or SAP HANA®. this is a required infrastructure component. features.4 Incident Management System It is preferred that VARs should use the SAP Solution Manager Service Desk as the primary incident management system. © SAP SE 2014 Partner Center of Expertise Setup Guide 15 . Test systems should be available for all products with versions and/or releases used by the customer base. There should be minimal delay in receipt of the responding support unit so as not to cause any reason for complaint or frustration on the part of the customer end user. should fulfil the following factors:  Available onsite at VAR Partner office for immediate use by support staff Test systems should be available at the VAR Partner’s office and is not meant to be the customer’s own test system. it is essential (and to avoid conflicting results) to have the same product version and release while performing simulation activities. Thus. this could be used as an alternative system by SAP support in the event that a connection to the customer is not possible. it is not expected that a partner uses the installation number of their customers to be used for their test environment. © SAP SE 2014 Partner Center of Expertise Setup Guide 16 . or service levels. online accessibility of incident management systems play a crucial functionality for this purpose where end users can monitor progress of their reporting incidents online and be able to correspond with the support processor as close to real time as possible. and call contents.  Progress documentation An essential component of an incident management system is its capability to store information on the following activities: o Communication between support processors and customer end user o Internal documentation on findings. Thus. These should be made available during incident receipt to allow the support unit to identify the customer’s needs. error messages.Incidents should have various classification areas to enable proper determination of expertise requirement and urgency status. logs. Incident Management systems that can be set up to send automatic emails or phone messages to either the support team members or customer end users are ideal as they offer alternative and supportive communication channels. The most popular of these from an SAP perspective is the specific SAP component and priority level. and communication copies Documentation should not be modifiable to preserve the integrity of documented processes. Different text types or memos should be available to easily distinguish the documentation type. It is also possible that some support operations also have further classifications such as for incident type.  Ownership and/or assignment An incident management system should either have the capability to assign an incident automatically based on classification factors or allow manual assignment to appropriate parties.  Communication across involved parties There should be interactive exchange of information between the VAR support unit and customer end users. Examples are ‘Internal Note’ for discussions exclusively within the support unit and ‘Reply’ solely for responses to customer end users. test simulation data and results. incident details. and discussions o Date and Time stamps on all activities o Attachments such as screen shots. customer classification. It is also beneficial to have information on last changed date. Tracking. if applicable. It is highly required to provide for tracking of pending incidents. short text. Online availability should be possible and is integrated with the SAP Support Portal. priority. The collected data can then be transferred to the VAR Partner’s SAP Solution Manager (Scenario A of Figure 2-5). Partners should ensure that their incident management systems online address is available for access through the SAP Support Portal.5 SAP EarlyWatch® Alert The SAP EarlyWatch® Alert is a tool that monitors the essential administrative areas of SAP components and provides information on their performance and stability. Monitoring should be conducted several times daily while reporting can be run periodically depending on business requirements as well as for performance monitoring. To activate the SAP EarlyWatch® Alert. VARs should review the SAP EarlyWatch® Alert reports of their customers at least four times a year. This should include information on the unique incident number. Online accessibility of an incident management system is a must and should be fully integrated with SAP’s support network. Figure 2-4. it is strongly required to have an incident management system with flexible monitoring and reporting capabilities. 2. © SAP SE 2014 Partner Center of Expertise Setup Guide 17 . You can access the Best Practice at the Solution Manager Setup page for VAR. Please see SAP Note 1285423 for instructions to accomplish this integration. VAR Partners are required to activate this functionality for all productive installations of its customer base. and reporting To enable the support organization to immediately identify incidents that require processing. You can also use the SAP Online Help on SAP Solution Manager. simply follow the instructions given in the Best Practice: Activating SAP EarlyWatch® Alert in End Customer's System. SAP Solution Manager Service Desk Reporting Use SAP Solution Manager Service Desk for incident handling and/or integrate 3rd party systems. It is always preferred that customers run their own SAP Solution Manager system (Scenario B of Figure 2-5) and transfers this data therein but a close alternative is for customers to transfer data into the VAR’s SAP Solution Manager system if they have none of their own. This is a facility that executes automatically so that customers can react proactively before an issue becomes critical. monitoring. service level adherence. and escalation flags (if available). processor name and incident status. Any SAP EarlyWatch® Alert report that receives a critical (red) rating overall should be referred to SAP for further action. or test systems the service can be activated as well. © SAP SE 2014 Partner Center of Expertise Setup Guide 18 .g. To create the report. data from productive systems can be sent to SAP for processing (Scenario C of Figure 2-5). yellow. or green traffic light to indicate to what degree the threshold values are exceeded. If SAP EarlyWatch® Alert data cannot be processed in a local SAP Solution Manager system. development. the backup frequency may be of little importance for a training system. E. SAP EarlyWatch® Alert issues a red. training. To learn about the restrictions and to activate SAP EarlyWatch® Alert data to be processed at SAP. SAP EarlyWatch® Alert is most effective when activated for the production system of each SAP component in your customer’s solutions. Alternatively. SAP EarlyWatch® Alert reads system data and analyzes it against set threshold values. This gives you a complete overview of all components and their effect on performance and stability. As the check thresholds and rating rules are set for production system. The symbols are visible both in the report and as a graphic alert in the system monitoring area of the SAP Solution Manager. Depending on the analysis. For non-productive systems such as quality assurance. it is possible to automate sending HTML reports per email to assigned recipients. and so the rating for backups in the SAP EarlyWatch® Alert report can be ignored.Figure 2-5 SAP EarlyWatch® Alert Data Transfer Setup The report can be generated and read from the SAP Solution Manager in HTML or Microsoft Word format. some results in the SAP EarlyWatch® Alert report do not apply to non-productive systems. please follow the instructions from SAP Note 1172939 . If the overall rating of the SAP EarlyWatch® Alert report is red. if required. SAP EarlyWatch® Alert Workflow Depending on the criticality of the SAP EarlyWatch® Alert report. Figure 2-7 shows further details on the workflow for SAP EarlyWatch® Alert data and activities that could be performed depending on the result ratings. SAP strongly recommends contacting the SAP Partner Support Advisory Center and subsequently open an incident to SAP with an attached SAP EarlyWatch® Alert report within 24 hours. The SAP Partner Support Advisory Center will inform VAR Partners on the analysis result and. schedule service delivery of the relevant Technical Quality Check service jointly with the VAR Partner and its end customer. The SAP Partner Support Advisory Center will analyze the situation based on the report and decide if a Technical Quality Check (TQC) is required.Figure 2-6. necessary action is to be taken by the VAR Partner. In evaluating SAP components. SAP EarlyWatch® Alert monitors the following:  General component status  System configuration  Hardware  Performance development  Average response times  Current workload  Critical error messages and process interruptions  Database administration © SAP SE 2014 Partner Center of Expertise Setup Guide 19 . see SAP Note 1162164. For details. SAP EarlyWatch® Alert Report Analysis SAP Note 1257308 provides information with respect to SAP products and components for which SAP EarlyWatch® Alert is available. such as performance or stability.Figure 2-7. SAP EarlyWatch® Alert for Solutions The SAP EarlyWatch® Alert for Solutions enables users to gain an overview of the current status of the entire solution landscape within one consolidated system report. The report tool accesses the Solution Manager Solution Repository and hence provides a link between standard SAP EarlyWatch® Alert and individual core business processes with regard to performance evaluations. Features SAP EarlyWatch® Alert for solutions.  … is an automated and periodic off-line monitoring service provided by the SAP Solution Manager  … is solution oriented and comprises all systems relevant to the business processes of production  … consolidates SAP EarlyWatch® Alert reports. aggregated solution KPIs and detailed statistics about dedicated systems of the solution. This overview includes historical developments. The solution-based report consolidates alerts generated by the regular SAP EarlyWatch® Alert (EWA) monitoring services and classifies them in order to identify potential areas for improvement... focusing on system key performance indicators and SAP EarlyWatch® Alert alerts  … reports on “Solution KPIs”  … establishes a relationship between business processes and SAP EarlyWatch® Alert alerts © SAP SE 2014 Partner Center of Expertise Setup Guide 20 . For instance. the roles could either be shared with other roles or could be owned and performed by a single individual. SAP EarlyWatch® Alert is also made available for specific products/releases and in conjunction with the Remote Support Component. please visit http://support. Depending on the size of the organization. There are times that the Support Manager also performs the Coordinator role. SUPPORT ROLES Within a support organization.sap. 2. Coordinator. formulate basic workflow processes. a VAR has to identify critical areas that need to be supported. At an early stage.sap.com/access-support.6 Support Staff A successful support operation relies heavily on the competencies and expertise of the people responsible for incident resolution. for a small support operation. Dispatcher. Dispatcher. exceptions and changes each retrieved from the BI of the Solution Manager Diagnostics (SMD) … reports the current software and hardware components and tracks changes in the solution landscape Figure 2-8 SAP EarlyWatch® Alert for solutions in the SAP Solution Manager The SAP EarlyWatch® Alert topic is also covered in section 2. The following are examples of roles that could be identified from any support organization: Help Desk. and Processor. and identify the infrastructure components required to support operations. Knowledge Base and Services Information To find setup and usage information on SAP EarlyWatch® Alert. © SAP SE 2014 Partner Center of Expertise Setup Guide 21 .com/ewa. For SAP Analytics. there are some roles that are key for seamless operations. do visit the SAP Support Portal at http://support.    … facilitates a comparison between system KPIs in order to enable fast detection of main bottlenecks … reports on the solution performance as well as the solution stability … provides statistics about workload and performance. All productive systems should have SAP EarlyWatch® Alert data transfers sent to the VAR Partner on a weekly basis. the Help Desk staff could perform both the Help Desk role. A compliance rate of 85% for all customer productive installations is required. For more information. and Coordinator roles. determine the support structure and roles.5 of this guide. knowledge base. processes. Manager     Defines strategies and outlays procedures.Help Desk  Support hotline frontline personnel  Receives calls from customers and either (a) creates a new call into the incident management system.  Documents progress and findings in the incident management system  Forwards incidents to relevant parties (higher support levels and/or SAP) if current expertise is insufficient in finding a resolution. For some support organizations. can forward calls to respective processor upon request  May not necessarily have product knowledge but understands key components of incident posting. targets for support operations Central role during de-escalation operations. (b) for existing incidents. the Processor role can be divided into several levels depending on product expertise. Dispatcher  Processes incidents for resolution  Utilizes different tools. document customer call for processor. or provided solutions. support levels are sub-divided into two: First Level and Second Level. either as contact or coordinator for de-escalation procedures and activities Evaluation and appraisal of support staff Key decision maker for process improvements Depending on the size of the support staff and/or the customer base. own and/or peer expertise to resolve incidents  Simulates or reproduces incident steps in a test environment or customer systems (if allowed)  Communicates with customer on progress. Following are the duties attributed to each support level: © SAP SE 2014 Partner Center of Expertise Setup Guide 22 . substitution). Within the SAP PartnerEdge Channel Agreement. additional information. (c) for existing incidents with processor. Coordinator   Performs support process monitoring/reporting and ensures processing complies with policies and adherence to targeted service levels Ensures appropriate resources are available for incident processing on a daily basis (duty roster. some of the key support roles can be performed by one individual. General SAP know-how      IT experience and. mail program) © SAP SE 2014 Partner Center of Expertise Setup Guide 23 . GUI version. localization or language settings) comprehensive problem description. system name. This enables a relationship to be built with the customer so that his specific requirements can be understood and communicated to the upstream support organizations. country-specific circumstances that may need to be communicated to other support organizations  Ability to adapt to different situations (for example. depending on the Level. This includes .Basic desktop know-how . database version. including steps leading to the incident and full syntax of the error message surrounding factors ( ex.  Basic understanding of the products supported by the Support Desk so that qualified questions can be asked when entering and completing the incident. If necessary. escalations). project experience Familiarity with the terminology used in the company Readiness to participate in ongoing training measures to further consolidate and update existing know-how Fluency in a foreign language (especially English) Knowledge of the internal communication means (for example. detailed knowledge of the supported product or product area. recent upgrades/transports) incorporate attachments when necessary  Checking incident priority  Assigning the proper component  Ensuring availability of remote connection  Searching for previous customer incidents with identical symptoms from various knowledge bases  Splitting up incidents that describe more than one incident  Summarizing status of incident before forwarding to the next level First Level Employee Profile  Excellent ability to communicate directly with the customer  Good knowledge of local. system type. OS. installation number. product version and patch levels.FIRST LEVEL TASKS Duties  Accepts the incident  Performs translation (if necessary) for incidents to be sent to SAP  Complete the problem description meaningful incident header technical information on incident context such as log files technical information on the incident system (system id. and Materials Management. dump. solution database. or support packages Recommend workarounds and alternative solutions Access customer end user systems through the SAP Support network o to analyze end user’s system regarding the incident o assist end user in order to perform the required and applicable incident remedy by using workarounds or fixes o change coding. bug fixes. However. trace. for importing patches.g. bug fixes. © SAP SE 2014 Partner Center of Expertise Setup Guide 24 . patches. workaround description) to update SAP’s support system Specify expected duration to fix defects by patches.SECOND LEVEL TASKS Duties Subsequent to First Level and includes the following tasks:  Searches for errors using the data from end user  Checks customizing settings  Looking for fault through … o system and core dumps o debugging o trace analysis  Analyzes technical data and document incident progress  Reproduce and isolate the incident  Decide if incident is due to a defective or non-defective cause o Propose appropriate system configuration or work-around if the cause is non-defective o Forward incident to Third Level (SAP) if the cause of the incident is a software defect / fault and no SAP note is available to correct it  Document the solution approach  Check and test the solution in a test system Second Level Employee Profile  Finding the solution using their own expertise. debugging)  Provide direct support to the reporter in complex cases (for example. VARs should always look into products and/or components installed at customers to appropriately determine the correct support staffing expertise needed. and create patches A VAR should also clearly determine which product areas will be supported depending on the products/components installed at their customer base. Financials & Controlling. or product documentation  Completing the incident by requesting the missing information from the previous Level or directly from the reporter  Performing a detailed problem analysis (Customizing. Foremost amongst these core components for SAP Business All-In-One are Basis. provide fixes. and so on)  Training new employees by means of internal courses  Collaborating with the SAP Support Organization  Detailed SAP know-how  Technical know-how THIRD LEVEL TASKS (USUALLY SAP SUPPORT) Duties      Detailed analysis of recorded traces and error messages Creating or modifying SAP Notes regarding … o Identified cause of defect o Incident resolution process including all material/information (e. Sales & Distribution. To view these training curriculums. Appropriate knowledge should already be present from support staff with at least two (2) years’ experience either as an SAP consultant or has been providing support for their respective SAP components within a similar duration. solved customer incidents. visit the PartnerEdge Portal page with the links provided for each specific product area. For more information on product certification. Thus. please visit http://www. implementation process and integration o Optimize technical team infrastructure Incident Processor o Provide first and second level support by processing customer incidents on different components o Root cause analysis: analyze root cause of an issue via remote connection and resolve known errors by means of SAP notes.sap. The following should be considered: System Administrator o Plan and perform the implementation of SAP Solution Manager across all related IT-components by setting clear objectives for the system infrastructure. it is important that support staff is well-versed with their specific industry Figure 2-9 SAP Education Certification page or component areas and has had experience with actual implementation of their product.DEVELOPMENT AND TRAINING Support staff should not lack in training opportunities and should continue to acquire skills and competencies not only through delta training but also onsite experience and knowledge-sharing from other colleagues.com/education under the Education tab. incident is forwarded to SAP Support Support Coordinator o Plan and coordinate the support center o Interact with the Partner Account Manager regarding specific support topics o Define new services within your SAP Enterprise Support offering © SAP SE 2014 Partner Center of Expertise Setup Guide 25 . documentation or verifying customizing entries or hardware parameters o Evaluate problem category and forward to next level of expertise o If incident processor does not find a solution. Support staff with the relevant role equivalents should take the various e-learning materials as provided in the SAP PartnerEdge Portal. It is recommended to supplement existing expertise with SAP classroom training and to evaluate their knowledge through SAP product certification with the achievement of an SAP Education Associate certificate at a minimum. The VAR has to ensure that the support staff has similar expertise as its SAP Global Support Center counterparts in SAP. PEOPLE CERTIFICATION The Partner COE program requires the fulfillment of two people certification variants:  Support-specific qualification and  Product-specific certification Support-Specific Qualification Every VAR support unit should have at least two (2) support staff who have completed a support-specific web-assessment qualification. These are equivalent to SAP Associate Certification at a minimum. VAR Partners having support staff providing incident handling services should have at least two product-specific certificates for each supported product area. Q_SUPP_1.0 C_TERP10_6* SAP Certified Business Associate with SAP ERP 6. as a mandatory requirement.0 C_THR12_6* SAP Certified Application Associate – Human Capital Management with SAP ERP 6.0 Administrator Applications Mobile © SAP SE 2014 Partner Center of Expertise Setup Guide 26 .0 C_TCRM20_7* SAP Certified Application Associate – CRM Fundamentals with SAP CRM 7.0 C_AFARIA_01 SAP Certified Application Associate – SAP Afaria 7.0 C_A1LOG_* SAP Certified Application Associate – Logistics with Business All-InOne Solution C_A1FIN_* SAP Certified Application Associate – Financials with Business AllIn-One Solution C_SRM_7* SAP Certified Application Associate – Supplier Relationship Management 7. until further notice. C_PXSUP_90 or C_BOSUP_90 certification will continue to be accepted in lieu of Q_SUPP_1. Product-Specific Certification In addition to support-specific certification. Examples of these product or application-related certification are as follows: SAP Product Family Exam ID Exam Description Analytics C_BOBIP_4* SAP Certified Application Associate – SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform C_EPMBPC_* SAP Certified Application Associate – SAP BusinessObjects Planning and Consolidation C_EPMFC_* SAP Certified Application Associate – SAP BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation C_GRCAC_10 SAP Certified Associate – Access Control with SBO GRC 10. A minimum of two achievements should be fulfilled regardless of the number of products supported. Partners must demonstrate that they have the knowledge and ability to set up Root Cause Analysis and perform SAP EarlyWatch® Alert data transfers via SAP Solution Manager for their SAP HANA test system. an audit may not include services provided by third party and could lead to critical gaps in your maintenance provision. CRM.1 Administrator C_SMPADM_23 SAP Certified Application Associate . During the PCOE readiness audit (or recertification audit). This must be in place.    Support staff available on a full time basis. Thus.SAP HANA C_SUPADM_01 SAP Certified Application Associate – Sybase Unwired Platform 2. do expect that the Auditor may request documentation and participation from the third-party unit to verify support arrangements and integration of support operations between both parties. Remote connection types SSH and SAP-DB are established and connected to SAP. 2. or some industry solutions. Thus. This could ultimately lead to an audit failure.SAP Mobile Platform Native and Hybrid Application Administration (SMP 2. some VARs would outsource either the Basis component or specialized components such as HR. even if they have no customers with SAP HANA systems yet. Should an explicit approval be available. Each VAR Partner with support staff performing incident management processing should have at least two (2) support consultant certificates PER support unit. The PCOE auditor may also request that a third-party representative be present during the audit interview should this be deemed necessary.3) C_HANASUP_1 SAP Certified Support Associate – SAP HANA OUTSOURCING OR SUBCONTRACTING It is also not uncommon for some VAR Partners to outsource some components to other parties outside of their general area of expertise. © SAP SE 2014 Partner Center of Expertise Setup Guide 27 . It is important to note that the PartnerEdge Channel Partner agreement does not allow sub-contracting of any maintenance service without explicit approval by SAP. do contact your Partner Account Manager for current SAP policies on this arrangement prior to PCOE registration. the following will be checked:   The partner’s SAP HANA test system is connected to an SAP Solution Manager system through which the functionalities for root cause analysis and SAP EarlyWatch® Alert should be operational. For instance. It is a mandatory requirement for VAR Partners supporting SAP HANA to have a functioning test system for this product.7 SAP HANA Test System This section is only applicable for VAR Partners providing support for SAP HANA. People certification (both support-specific and product-specific) requirements should be achieved by VAR Partner support units. Such situations are considered as sub-contracting. 3. These should include standardized and streamlined procedures from the introduction of new customers to activities performed for both corrective and preventive maintenance offerings. there are processes that should be present to ensure that maintenance services are delivered based on defined strategies and methods. for mentoring purposes. VARs should ensure that an activity exists where support-specific topics are clearly discussed. improvement. Is connected to an SAP Solution Manager system. It is a good practice to review existing processes from experience by internal staff and explicit feedback from the customer base.1 Customer On-boarding Customers have to be familiar with maintenance procedures and deliverables. Root cause analysis via SAP Solution Manager has been set up and is operational. 3.For VAR Partners supporting SAP HANA. an SAP HANA test system must be available which fulfils the following requirements:     Has remote connection to SAP including both SAP-DB and SSH connection types. These should include standardized and streamlined procedures from the introduction of new customers to activities performed for both corrective and preventive maintenance offerings. Chapter 3. SAP EarlyWatch® Alert reports are available to demonstrate that data transfers have been executed through SAP Solution Manager. and as reference both for improvement and extraordinary circumstances.2 Incident Management Incident and Problem Management could be extremely simple or complex usually depending on several factors such as: © SAP SE 2014 Partner Center of Expertise Setup Guide 28 . Support Processes Within a support operation. there are processes that should be present to ensure that maintenance services are delivered based on defined strategies and methods. The audit process considers the following basic processes that are expected to be available for VAR support operations:  Customer On-boarding  Incident Management  After-Office Hours Support  Complaint and Escalation Handling  Support Readiness Checks Every support organization should clearly document their support processes as a general guideline for new hires. or modifications. This helps support organizations focus on areas which need further development. Procedures should also be in place for critical situations which could occur outside of normal scenarios. Within a support operation. Procedures should also be in place for critical situations which could occur outside of normal scenarios. These individuals or units could perform initial review of the incident and could offer potential solutions. This also helps to ensure that expected outcomes for an incident are correct.   size of the support organization incident management system capabilities organization targets and goals Differences occur in the execution but should usually follow the same seamless process. Thus. Following are some of these relevant details (see also SAP Note 16018). Self-Service Before an incident can be created for the VAR support organization. Reporting incidents to a central competence group within the customer organization is also a good practice as this helps to prevent end users from posting the same incidents to the VAR especially in cases when the incident occurs with multiple users within the same period. Equally important are the details required by a support organization to immediately process an incident. Customer end users can refer their incidents with internal key users or business process owners as the initial resolution step before incidents are raised to the VAR. This could be through the use of an available solution database. Continuous Improvement. Preparing an Incident It is important for the support organization to have provided clear directions which methods are available for logging of incidents. or training materials. Once the customer has decided that it could not resolve the incident. then it can refer to the VAR support organization for handling. Following should be mandatory information for an incident to be processed. help documentation. incidents are not an unlikely event. An end user could also refer the incident to their own key users. or competence teams. PREPARING AN INCIDENT Even for the most mature organizations. © SAP SE 2014 Partner Center of Expertise Setup Guide 29 . business process owners. it is expected that customers are dutifully prepared to respond to such situations by appropriately compiling information necessary to report the occurrence and justify expected outcomes. An incident management support process from the VAR support unit has the following basic workflow actions:  Incident Receipt  Incident Acknowledgement  Incident Dispatch  Incident Processing  Incident Forwarding  Incident Closure  Feedback The Feedback process would be explained further in Chapter 5. it is highly recommended that the customer end user tries to resolve the incident within their means. the speed by which an incident was created and sent to the support organization would be fruitless if the support organization only sends it back with request for additional information that should’ve been included in the first place. This should include field values in case such values are significant. For incidents of a technical nature.  Product Area / Component For incidents to be dispatched or routed to the right support team or processor. This would help to lessen potential delays with incident handling amongst the support unit. System identification This would include the system id. o Error details including logs. dumps and screen shots o Situation with the system prior to the incident (Has there been a modification? Was there a recent upgrade? Are there any identified changes/improvements on the system? Was this the first time to execute the transaction?) o Can the incident be reproduced? o Is the incident happening with just one user or multiple users?  Impact For issues that have serious business or financial impact. Following information should be included in the incident description: o Steps performed prior to the incident. This helps the processor to understand what the customer is attempting to perform and to immediately discern if the customer has executed the appropriate steps to arrive at their expected outcome. the reporter should properly identify the specific product/component where the incident occurs.  Priority Customers should be able to convey the urgency of the incident appropriately.  Reporter Details The customer should supply contact information of the person who can best discuss and respond to the VAR support processors. Reports of an incident should meticulously prepare their incident providing the relevant details to avoid further ping-pong situations between the customer and the support team for incidents that have unclear or incomplete information. it is important for customers to inform the support unit of the consequence(s) to the business so the incident can be appropriate processed with urgency and attention.  Short Description Most incident management systems provide a facility for describing the context of an incident in a brief one-liner statement. error codes. o Expected result of the transaction and actual result. information on lower-level components such as the database and/or the operating system information should be provided. This statement should be as descriptive as possible to indicate transaction codes. © SAP SE 2014 Partner Center of Expertise Setup Guide 30 . report/program names or other reference terms where readers could immediately discern or perceive the content of an incident. For incidents reported with top priority.  Incident Details Understandably that most reporters want to send an incident off as soon as possible. contact information and personnel from the customer side should be available at all times. The VAR should also be clear about their priority definitions and educate customers on the use of priority levels. system type and client number as basic information. a customer should be dutifully prepared to provide all relevant details to the VAR support organization. Information gathered from this process is significant as it would direct the efficiency by which an incident can be processed by the support organization. and execution of the company’s business process. RECEIVING AN INCIDENT There are different methods by which a support organization could receive an incident from its customer base. Competence Team: a group of individuals set up by the customer organization to function as a support unit for its end users. Incident received online     Preferred method Near real time receipt by the VAR support organization depending on network traffic Provision of forms for detailing relevant incident information Depending on incident management system features. the VAR Support organization should generally be communicating with an individual which will be herein designated as a Reporter. Depending on methods used.REPORTING AN INCIDENT Depending on the setup arranged with the VAR. The team is comprised with individuals experienced in the implementation and execution of the company’s business processes. phone or email. can immediately dispatch an incident based on priority and/or component area to a specific support unit or processor Incident received via phone      © SAP SE 2014 Received real time Requires manual work from the VAR to collect information from the Reporter and post this subsequently to the incident management system Details can be requested from the Reporter by following a pre-defined form from the incident management system Depending on incident management system features. an incident could be reported by any of the following individuals:     End User: any end user from the customer could report an incident directly to the VAR support organization. decisions. Execution plans vary depending on the method by which an incident is logged as discussed in the following topics. A customer would be provided methods and tools by which an incident can be reported to the VAR support organization. Either an individual or unit is responsible for posting an incident. Business Process Owner: an individual who has detailed knowledge of the business process for which the incident is related to. can immediately dispatch an incident based on priority and/or component area to a specific support unit or processor Possible confusion or misunderstanding of Reporter’s statements which could lead to improper dispatch or delays in processing Partner Center of Expertise Setup Guide 31 . Key User: individuals within the customer organization who have in depth knowledge of the transaction for which an incident is to be reported on. This depends greatly on the provided communications infrastructure as well as the features available from the incident management system. The most popular communication media are either online. This individual could also have been involved in the implementation process and is aware of the activities. the customer should be informed of any changes Confirm component or product area. create additional tickets for other incidents posted. Support staff can also have a checklist of areas to be reviewed before an incident can be qualified for processing. Once this has been completed. it is important to immediately provide a reply to the Reporter to state that the incident has been received. The support staff could check the following from an incident:     Complete and comprehensive incident details (includes error information. If this is set incorrectly. can immediately dispatch an incident based on priority and/or component area to a specific support unit or processor Less possibility for confusion if incident reported can be summarily copied into the incident management system     Incident received via fax   Received near real time depending on network traffic. © SAP SE 2014 Partner Center of Expertise Setup Guide 32 . It is also during the incident acknowledgement process that the initial reaction time is set.Incident received via email   Received near real time depending on network traffic No guarantee that email is received by VAR support organization pending their acknowledgement. For example. this can then be reviewed by a support staff. Fax may not be regularly monitored by the VAR support team. logs. an incident can then be assigned to the appropriate support consultant. Requires manual work from the VAR to post the faxed incident into the incident management system Less possibility for confusion as reported incident can be entered verbatim into the incident management system    When a VAR has received the incident and has this subsequently posted in their incident management system. screen shots. if the transaction code is mentioned. steps leading to the incident. Ensure that only one incident has been reported. No guarantee that fax is received by VAR support organization pending their acknowledgement. expected and actual result) Verify priority setting. Whether an incident has been logged online. an SAP note search can be performed to verify if most notes received use the same component. Typically contains information in an unstructured format. Utilize various means to match the incident with its proper product/component. This identifier usually comes in the form of a number series. Otherwise. fax. via phone. This incident number should be communicated to the Reporter to help identify their specific incident amongst others. or email. a unique identifier should be available. ACKNOWLEDGING AN INCIDENT Once an incident has been received by the support organization. often leading to the support personnel having to get back to the incident reporter Requires manual work from the VAR to post the emailed incident into the incident management system Depending on incident management system features. the support staff with the Dispatcher role can then assign an incident to the relevant consultant. During processing. and that incidents that have been returned for their review and continued processing has been returned to their specific queues. There are cases. These could be any of the following sources:  Training Materials  Help Documentation  SAP Support Portal  SAP Notes Database  Own Solution Database  Peer Networks  Product Forums In some circumstances. a support employee may need to use several sources for responding or verifying their responses to the Reporter. the processor can change the component and subsequently send it back to the Dispatcher for re-assignment. support consultants are responsible for assigning incidents in their name. Thus. the processor is informed when an incident has been assigned to him.ASSIGNING AN INCIDENT Upon receipt and subsequent review. the Processor reviews the contents of the incident. that the Dispatcher role no longer exists. PROCESSING AN INCIDENT Once an incident has been assigned for processing. it can be assumed that the incident is local to the customer’s solution landscape Partner Center of Expertise Setup Guide 33 . however. This may include the following activities:  Determining whether the component / product have been properly assigned. This could apply to large support organizations where support consultants are primarily responsible for ensuring that their queues (assigned areas of responsibility) are properly monitored. This could also trigger an automated response through email upon assignment. ensuring that incidents are prioritized based on defined criteria. it may also be necessary for a support employee to simulate the incident through a test system with the standard SAP product installed. Thus. Simulation is needed in the following cases:   © SAP SE 2014 Verify if the steps performed by the end user is correct and conforms to proper procedures If errors are not received in the standard test system. An incident is dispatched based on the following criteria:    Component/product Priority Availability of consultant Most incident management systems allow for the input of assigned processors. then it may be necessary to discuss options with the customer.  Verifying priority setting and adjust as necessary with proper communication to the Reporter.  Determining whether the incident is related to an error or requires consulting work. Otherwise. For the latter case. this could be forwarded to SAP. it is most prudent to inform the customer that the incident has ‘changed hands’. For incidents forwarded to SAP. Appropriate approvals (within the VAR support process) has been received to allow forwarding of the incident to SAP When an incident is forwarded to another Level. the VAR should decide whether they will act as interface to the customer or if the customer themselves would be responding directly to SAP. Support employees should properly document their findings. has been provided including detailed information on tasks performed. Remote connection has to be checked and should be available upon request. SAP notes used. if necessary. Contact information completely provided Complete summary of the incident and inclusion of attachments. Information provided therein could be used by succeeding support employees to whom the incident could be forwarded to later on. and communication in the incident. For some situations. This information would also be vital to SAP Support in cases when the incident would be forwarded to SAP Support as this would help to lessen the effort in root cause determination and would help SAP Support to focus on other untested areas. Before an incident is forwarded to SAP …       Incident should be written (or translated) into English. Incidents forwarded to another level should provide for a comprehensive summary on activities performed so that the next Processor will not have to redo the same tasks which would delay the incident resolution process. and customer situation at current. It is recommended that the former is used and to use the latter for incidents that are forwarded to SAP after the VAR’s business hours. FORWARDING AN INCIDENT After an incident has been reviewed and processed by a Processor. © SAP SE 2014 Partner Center of Expertise Setup Guide 34 . there may be instances that the expertise level of the current processor may not be sufficient and. thus. simulation efforts. The incident can then be forwarded to the next support level in some cases. a reply to the customer should be made to provide information that the incident has been forwarded to the next level of support or to another component as the case may be. Confirm that proposed solutions achieve the desired effect on a test system before recommending to the customer. if needed Verify that the incident refers to SAP products and/or third party applications supported at SAP otherwise refer the incident to the proper vendor. This could either be visible or not visible to customers. the incident may need to be referred to someone of additional expertise or experience. Thus. This may not be an acceptable task for VARs with a huge customer base.  Allow for automatic closure after a reasonable period depending on priority level. Europe. provide 7x24 round-the-clock incident processing services globally. SAP follows automatic closure processes and the incident will be closed if there has been no action after a specific amount of time. For incidents that have also been referred to SAP for resolution. and the Americas to allow continuous support to its customer base everywhere in the world. This approach would require a resource and corresponding effort to follow-up with customers. © SAP SE 2014 VAR Partners are not expected to set up an operation as vast as SAP. but is enjoined to use SAP’s global support network to similarly provide 7x24 support to its local customer base. An incident management process must be in place and documented in alignment with the incident management system. the VAR should not forget to explicitly confirm the incident with SAP. Nevertheless. For VARs supporting either SAP Business All-In-One and/or SAP HANA. 3. This could lead to situations when an incident could be left unclosed for a long time unless the customer is constantly reminded to do so. Outside of this facility. SAP Standard Support and SAP Enterprise Support. It is important to ensure that customers have provided either a reply to confirm that their incident has been resolved or that they explicitly close the incident. VARs are enjoined to utilize the SAP Support network to provide 7x24 support for its customer base.CLOSING AN INCIDENT An incident can be closed if the customer confirms that the solution proposed by the VAR has resolved their incident. This should be clearly known by the customer to avoid complaints.3 After Office Hours Support Both SAP maintenance offerings. This helps eliminate any further manual follow-ups from the support unit. SAP utilizes all major support hubs within Asia. VARs need to offer after-office hour support through its own resources Partner Center of Expertise Setup Guide 35 . The VAR can consider the following strategies for closure:  Allow the customer to close the incident on their own.  Conduct follow-up sessions regularly to remind customers of incidents that could be closed. a connection must be set up between its incident management system and SAP’s support backbone using SAP Solution Manager as the interface between both parties. On-duty support staff could determine the urgency of the call and can determine whether further expertise may be required within the support team or if the incident necessitates referral to SAP Support. a fully-staffed 7x24 operation may already exist with support staff working beyond office hours on roster or similar to SAP operations. Hence. It is not recommended to consider this strategy during an audit. This is not encouraged as this does not allow permanency and could change as many times as support staff changes.and facilities. component XX-SER*. where support could be handed over to other subsidiaries outside the local business hours. A 7x24 support offering is a mandatory requirement and should normally be accomplished using the SAP Solution Manager Service Desk functionality for connectivity with the SAP Support backbone. 7X24 SUPPORT OPERATIONS For some mature and/or larger VARs. incidents from other priorities are not forwarded and could be processed by the VAR support team during their regular business times. The default and most common set up with the SAP Support network is to only forward incidents under priority Very High and to do so only outside the VAR’s business hours.e. For VARs with a small customer base. Therefore. VARs often provide on-call support providing alternate phone numbers to customers that is most often an individual mobile number of specific support staff. this is not a recommended approach due to its cost implications and the minimal possibility of incidents being posted outside regular hours. incidents can be reviewed at all times and where resolution activities are able to proceed even outside a customer’s normal business hours. It is more preferred to utilize the dedicated support hotline which should automatically route to other numbers as an alternative rather than providing multiple numbers for customers to remember. ON-CALL SUPPORT For VARs who do neither use SAP Solution Manager Service Desk nor have a 7x24 fully staffed support operation. i. This is performed through customization of the Service Desk facility to identify out-of-office hours and to also identify certain conditions for immediate forwarding such as for components that are mainly processed through SAP support. incidents received after office hours could be routed to an on-duty support staff via its support hotline. © SAP SE 2014 Partner Center of Expertise Setup Guide 36 . The following common strategies could be used for this purpose:    SAP Solution Manager 7x24 support operations On-call support SAP SOLUTION MANAGER SAP encourages its VARs to use the Service Desk functionality within the SAP Solution Manager to allow automatic forwarding of priority incidents to SAP outside business hours. a customer experiences a hardware crash and realize that they have no available backup from the past months. and timelines. incidents contributing to a possible delay in go live needs to be addressed expediently. action plan. ESCALATIONS Escalations would normally be viewed as either a functional escalation or a hierarchical escalation. activities. For example. A hierarchical escalation involves the elevation of an incident not only through support levels but also across management or different lines of business. Thus. Though this can occur in the middle of incident processing.  Go Live Endangered: Go live is a highly critical phase not only involving the customer. A functional escalation is generally executed within the a normal incident handling process where an incident could be forwarded (“escalated”) to the next higher support level if lower levels are unable to offer a satisfactory solution. a customer can contact the support unit if they are. System could not be restored immediately and without prolonged effort which could lead to potential business loss. the customer could contact the support organization to address such complaints and these have to be properly noted and monitored to avoid the complaint from escalating any further. © SAP SE 2014 Partner Center of Expertise Setup Guide 37 . such as added consulting man days. The complaint owner has to dutifully monitor that the incident progresses and is resolved to the customer’s satisfaction and to constantly provide feedback and communication as well. escalations could be identified through specific triggers such as:  Severe financial or business impact: This pertains to a significant loss of business or revenue until an incident is resolved. re-adjustment of resources. Complaints have to be reviewed and ownership has to be set where an individual takes responsibility for addressing the complaint and ensuring that a satisfactory response is provided. These situations have to defined events or situations that would normally merit be properly identified and should have a defined expedited processing due to business or financial risks. in any way. the situation becomes more critical if it has been clearly identified that the application may not be brought up within a short period.  Service Level Exceeded: There could be financial aspects to missing service levels which could necessitate extra attention and faster processing. This involves situations when an incident may require exceptional processing and may deviate from the normal support Escalation procedures are triggered by specifically processing procedures.3. After a complaint has been resolved. Thus.  Production Down: Though it is not uncommon to have situations when an application goes down. This has the potential to affect both financial and business aspects. This would normally merit attention from high-level management and require immediate resolution and constant monitoring. it is a good practice to review the case and to derive possible lessons from it as a means to improve the overall support performance and quality. but other parties as well such as the implementation team. these can also be identified at the onset of incident receipt. displeased with either the progress of resolving an incident or the solution quality. their business.4 Handling Complaints and Escalations COMPLAINTS During the processing of an incident. In such cases. the VAR should be able to properly communicate and sell their maintenance services clearly outlining their relationship with SAP as and co-delivery partner of SAP support services. should be followed in day-to-day operations. it is also a necessary requirement to have remote connectivity available to ensure that assistance can be provided by the SAP Support network globally and around the clock. Capitalize on resource competencies such as certifications and experience. VARs have to capitalize on its successful relationships and achievements. A support presentation should generally have the following elements:  Description of competencies and capabilities Start the presentation with an introduction of the support organization. In this. and key achievements.Similar to complaints. its staff competencies. For small customers who may hardly have the manpower and infrastructure to build their own application competencies. escalations should have clear ownership for resolution. Support processes should be in place. At the onset of the sales cycle. goals. a support business is nonetheless a significant factor for continuing business. identified action plans. VARs may have varied support offerings but this should be complementary to SAP’s support offerings as well. Marketing & Communications Though support primarily keeps a low profile in most cases. © SAP SE 2014 VARs should have available presentation material discussing various support-specific aspects to set proper expectations with respect to support operations and delivery. and should be documented clearly and in line with the incident management system. plans. Partner Center of Expertise Setup Guide 38 . For such situations.1 Support Presentation VARs should have a compelling presentation of their support services and this could be further supplemented by collaterals. its structure. support should be introduced as part of the offering. and constant monitoring and communication until its resolution. it is important to ensure that SAP has a clearly identified contact from the VAR side as well as the customer to properly coordinate activities. a lot rides on its VAR to provide assistance and advise not only on continuing improvements of its business and productive operations but also on day-to-day incidents that also contribute to the overall product experience. In cases when SAP becomes involved in an escalation situation. Chapter 4. and its support capabilities should not take a back seat. 4. Having an application that runs seamlessly is a boon and having immediate support with excellent service and quality is not far behind. and resources. targets.  Presentation of support offering(s) VARs could offer either one standard offering while some could offer variations. while some could offer additional services separately. Actual references are added advertisements and having good quotes and feedback from existing customers offers factual and realistic samples that boost the VAR’s credibility with an audience. As customers come in different sizes. systems. and orientation. For instance. This should already introduce the different means and methods by which the support unit can be accessed and the different roles that come into play during an actual incident handling operation. and activities A support presentation should provide its audience with an idea of the required tasks and activities that would also be expected from the customer end user in relation to their interaction with the support organization. it is also possible that VARs could offer different levels of support services. procedures. It is also vital that VARs do not forget the different SAP Technical Quality Checks (TQCs) that a customer can utilize in certain situations from SAP. This is provided that the VAR has set up the appropriate and recommended infrastructure for connecting their customer to the SAP Support network. © SAP SE 2014 Partner Center of Expertise Setup Guide 39 . Infrastructure components that would be of relevance for SAP integration are the following: SAP Solution Manager Network infrastructure for remote connectivity Test systems Communications systems Incident Management Systems Back-up facilities  Discuss support operations.  Customer successes and references A support introduction presentation would be a VAR’s initial gateway to advertise their capabilities and market themselves as the right choice for lasting relationships. VARs should review their duties for SAP and the End Customer as provided in Exhibit 4 of the SAP PartnerEdge Channel Agreement. These have to be clearly provided as a service and benefit and should be showcased in a VAR’s support offering. A brief workflow of the support processes providing an overall view of the support activities should be available. a VAR should not charge extra for providing support after office hours and should delegate this task to SAP. This could also be used to elaborate on key operations and how the infrastructure integrates with the VAR’s processes. different needs. maturity.It is also relevant to showcase the growth of a support organization if it conveys the results of continuous improvements. Different processes and variations in incident handling could be discussed such as escalation processing. At a minimum. all services delivered through SAP’s support offering should be clearly packaged into a VAR’s standard offering and these should be clearly aligned with SAP. complaint handling. and experience of the organization as a whole. It is important to earn achievements and highlight actual successes in a presentation material. since SAP offers 7x24 support for SAP Enterprise Support customers. and after-office hour procedures.  Showcase support infrastructure and resources The customer could be presented with existing applications. This helps to advertise to customers/prospects that the organization shows and promotes growth that could benefit them as well. hardware to indicate the VAR’s commitment to invest in the support business. Thus. with the support of the Partner. but pay thereafter. but it is important to ensure there are not too many ‘Premium’ Packaged offers. Because of this. and manage the lifecycle of applications. where the servers are lost but a back-up held offsite could be reloaded to a spare server. The same is true with support. accelerate innovation. For more information on SAP Enterprise Support. VARs should look into SAP Enterprise Support offering and build their services. This is often when they are busy and therefore these extra hours are the most critical. or optimizing the database remotely. with only highly specific increments falling into the Premium category either because of their unusual nature or very high cost to provide. For example. many of your customers have periods when they are working outside normal hours. The SAP Services organization. they became dissatisfied and went in search of companies offering a comprehensive base level. Ad hoc support may be used for such things as managing the back-up process when the IT manager is on holiday. please visit the Support area through the SAP PartnerEdge Portal product pages. could be structured in three parts:  Basic services that are required by the majority of your target customers. so that the customer does not constantly find they are not covered. for example. and is best delivered using the support team. premium offers. minimize risks. competencies. Remember. © SAP SE 2014 Partner Center of Expertise Setup Guide 40 . and capabilities within this framework. STRUCTURING YOUR POTENTIAL SUPPORT OFFER Although this training module is designed to help you sell support as part of your offering. These can be charged and delivered at a premium. getting the customer back live in a short period of time. organizations need the proactive expert support that can help them manage the complexity of integrating solutions across and IT ecosystem and optimizing each application’s life cycle. but something the customer may want.SAP ENTERPRISE SUPPORT Competing in today’s global marketplace increasingly requires organizations to operate IT landscapes that are shaped by global business networks and innovative business processes. it is possible that your organization has not spent much time in structuring and formalizing what your offer is in this area. as an example. very specific.  The final category of support service you need to be able to offer is Ad hoc. The support offering from a VAR. can provide the expert support that can help customers optimize their SAP and non-SAP solutions. So let’s explore what support could mean to you as a VAR. software maintenance which provides for guaranteed response times 24 hours a day as part of a service level agreement to investigate “breakdown” or critical faults.  Additional services that you can package as an insurance. Typically not part of a standard support pack. or a facility where the customer can. This also means you don’t have to ‘negotiate’ what needs to be done to keep a customer’s solution running. but when customers always found the policy didn’t cover the specific incident they had encountered. such as disaster recovery for a catastrophic incident. sure as a fire. Support is much more than just maintenance or reactive incident management. with a few. At a minimum. use 5 hours a month for free. 90% of what 90% of your customers want needs to be in the Base Level. Ten years ago many insurance companies went down this route of offering a high degree of choice in extras. This usually is charged to the customer ‘as required’ but may involve a retainer. driving the desired objectives while also acting as feedback channel into SAP to improve our go-to-market strategy to the ecosystem. It should have comprehensive information on support offerings. 4.  Coordinates with Partner Services Delivery organization where appropriate. These regular contact points are the Partner Account Manager and the SAP Partner Service Advisor. Tasks   Develops an ongoing enablement plan for partner organization based on individual targets and requirements Provides technical knowledge related to SAP product and solutions. Tasks  Helps VARs to analyze and leverage business potential using available processes and best practices.2 SAP Communication VARs should always keep abreast of any new strategies. SAP PARTNER SERVICE ADVISOR Objective: Acts as a trusted advisor to his/her personally assigned partners.  Monitors overall partner performance including partner satisfaction and develops action plans to correct as necessary.  Responsible for partner pipeline management. and reviews business and marketing plans together with the assigned partners using standard tools and templates. infrastructure. new features. recommendations. offerings. and other general service/support related feedback. support processes. and events within the SAP community. a VAR should have regular and ongoing communication with their different interfaces to SAP. and information on new releases © SAP SE 2014 Partner Center of Expertise Setup Guide 41 . applying mid-long term view. Thus. ensures partners become self-sufficient in this. The Channel Manager will support and drive development of new business areas for partners. as well as contact methods.A support-specific presentation package should be prepared and actively used for both prospects and customers.  Communicates SAP support strategy to Partners to ensure Partners understand the services value proposition as well as requirements and obligations.  Keeps SAP internal teams informed about partner’s service/support requirements. SAP PARTNER ACCOUNT MANAGER Objective: The Partner Account Manager is tasked to develop and enable the business of their assigned VARs and help them extend to their fullest potential. coverage and reporting.  Creates. monitors. Elements that could be included in a maintenance agreement between a VAR and its customer base are the following:  Availability and accessibility of software versions / releases Explains delivery methods for software upgrades. applications.  Service level agreements. a legal document exists that cements these provisions and clearly identifies elements that are deliverable between the VAR and its customer base.     Helps coordinate access to many of the benefits that the partner organization is entitled to according to SAP PartnerEdge program level Proactively informs partner organization of updates and rollout of SAP initiatives Helps partner understand the program framework and requirements and identify opportunities to maximize partner performance in the SAP PartnerEdge program Connects partner with experts from various SAP organizations. This should set proper expectations between both parties to ensure that support will be available at agreed times and shall be executed through defined methods of delivery. solution management. This also explains the standard processes or procedures for effecting incident or problem All customers should have a valid maintenance resolution activities. activities. and so on Acts as another feedback conduit into SAP VARs should have regular communication with their Partner Account Manager and Partner Services Advisor. if any States committed response and resolution times for identified conditions or scenarios. 4. solution databases. © SAP SE 2014 Partner Center of Expertise Setup Guide 42 . agreement detailing support deliverables and provisions.  Preventive maintenance processes and procedures Identifies facilities.  Identify facilities and/or applications inclusive and in aid to support provision This could mention accessibility of websites for product or support-related topics. and services providing aid in ensuring stability and continuous operation of the customer solution.3 Maintenance Agreement While VARs may have presentation material to introduce or explain their support offering. A maintenance agreement could solely be a software maintenance agreement or could be extended to include hardware components and could then be a system maintenance contract. and services to assist in maintenance provision. corrections and/or updates  Corrective maintenance processes and procedures Discuss the different facilities available for addressing incidents or problems. forums. The focus of a PCOE audit is primarily on the software maintenance component as system maintenance involves firmware and firmware which is not covered by the standard SAP maintenance. particular with specialized technical resources in industry business units. do submit the template / copy which includes the SAP Enterprise Support scope.  Between basic maintenance templates with SAP Standard Support and SAP Enterprise Support scope.  Typifies the basic maintenance coverage for indirect customers.VARs should review basic maintenance offerings from both the SAP Standard Support and SAP Enterprise Support portfolio and strive to include elements from these offerings into their own basic support services. VARs should provide maintenance agreements for all customers that are in alignment with their own offering and/or SAP’s. facilities. or responsibilities that are deemed deliverable through SAP but are not inclusive within SAP’s maintenance offering  Are not aligned with committed deliverables by the VAR in comparison with current documents or presentations made available to customers  Has no defined support elements The audit requires the submission of a maintenance agreement template or any scanned copy of an existing maintenance agreement signed with an indirect customer with the following conditions:  Submitted template or scanned copy should not contain any price points. Section 4. These could either be removed or covered upon submission. Content of maintenance agreements are reviewed with particular attention to the following risk areas:  States provision of services. These could be mentioned during the audit interview but are not subject to evaluation or review except in situations where these are defined as inclusive amongst the SAP standard offers.1 of this chapter further explains the possibilities of having additional or packaged offerings as well as ad hoc services that could be provided on top of a general basic offering. © SAP SE 2014 Partner Center of Expertise Setup Guide 43 . © SAP SE 2014 Partner Center of Expertise Setup Guide 44 . Reports have to be distributed to appropriate individuals who may need statistics and trends analysis information to recommend or adjust services and resources where it is needed. support should not stand idly but should be open to review existing processes and infrastructure against ongoing trends. a VAR should promote a culture of feedback acceptance not only from its customers but also from internal staff. Whether a support organization improves for its internal benefit or due to customer suggestions. reporting on support performance and trends should be acknowledged as an integral part of support processing. ownership. SERVICE LEVEL REPORTING SAP has provided service levels pertaining to response and processing time targets for VARs based on priority level. and an incident management application that can produce relevant reports demanded by the business. This requires frequency. This section tries to cover the more common and relevant support reporting for VARs such as service level reporting. Customer feedback is also a strong factor for promoting changes and improvements. This chapter examines different ways and methods by which a VAR could execute simple monitoring tasks and utilize results for service improvements. matures. team/processor reporting. it is essential that there are continuous monitoring tasks to determine ongoing performance. VARs are to consider the availability of regular statistics to document their performance with respect to these defined targets. Thus.  Creation Date/Time Actual date/time when the incident has been posted by the end customer.Chapter 5. customer incident reporting . This is usually be used to start calculation for initial response time. As the industry grows. Continuous Improvement “Change is constant” and this is still be true for a support organization. The following elements can be considered to produce such the required information to evaluate service level performance:  Incident number Uniquely identifies an incident when additional review may be needed. and with increasing technology changes.1 Support Reporting Regardless of the size of the support organization or the amount of incidents received from an existing customer base. A high level overview of overall support performance against service levels could be created for management review as well. 5. Monitoring of support performance should be a regular activity supplemented with reports targeted at measuring identified KPIs. These same monitoring activities should be subject for review to assess alert conditions that could require more proactive measures or to examine current trends that may trigger added services and support. Last Change Date/Time This indicates the period by which the incident has been last replied by either the support unit or the end customer. This would usually be used to start calculation for initial response time.  Status This indicates the current progress of the incident. Thus. if a VAR provides service levels for initial response time and processing time. CUSTOMER INCIDENT REPORTING An incident management system should have a facility by which a customer end user. This may or may not necessarily indicate that the customer has confirmed that the incident could be closed. Though it is also good to have a facility to compute processing time at the customer side. Processing Time Indicates the amount of time spent by the support team in processing the incident. This could also be produced by the support organization as a value-added service or as an ongoing measure for keeping customers informed of pending incidents while it can also be used as a conversation piece to elicit feedback from a customer. or report on their own incidents. Status This indicates the current progress of the incident. Service Level Indicators For easy reference. there should be two separate indicators whether these elements have been met for each specific incident. Completed Date/Time Indicates the date/time when an incident has been classified as closed by the support unit. this could indicate total processing time by the support unit or could be processing time per group/level within the support unit. should be able to display. additional data could be provided as with service level reporting.      First Response Date/Time Actual date/time when incident has been acknowledged and replied to by the support organization.  Last Change Date/Time This would indicate the period by which the incident has been last replied to by either the support unit or the end customer. This would be used for calculating initial response time usually computed as time elapsed between first response date/time and creation date/time.  Completed Date/Time Indicates the date/time when an incident has been classified as closed by the support unit. in cases when a customer complains about the speed by which an incident is processed. on their own. it is recommended to have a column or any indicator in the service level reporting that clearly shows whether defined service level targets have been met. A good customer incident report would contain the following elements:  Incident number Uniquely identifies an incident when additional review may be needed. It should be clear that the processing time should not include the amount of time spent while an incident is pending at the customer end. especially by Management. This may or may not necessarily indicate that the customer has confirmed that the incident could be closed. For VARs with committed service levels. © SAP SE 2014 Partner Center of Expertise Setup Guide 45 . For some incident management systems. list.  Creation Date/Time Actual date/time when the incident has been posted by the end customer. © SAP SE 2014 Partner Center of Expertise Setup Guide 46 . Would generally have relevance to the report especially when needed to assess processing time.  Processing Time Indicates the amount of time spent by the support team in processing the incident.  Status This indicates the current progress of the incident. then it is important to include some elements from the service level reporting within the processor/team reporting as well. Depending on performance targets for the support staff. this could indicate total processing time by the support unit or could be processing time per group/level within the support unit. This is relevant since it indicates the effort utilized for resolving an incident. then it would be good practice for the processor to check with the customer if the incident can be closed or if they are satisfied with the solution. For VAR Partners with service level adherence as a performance indicator.TEAM/PROCESSOR REPORTING Support staff should also monitor their own performance and this should be performed regularly especially if this involves their individual KPIs.  Last Change Date/Time This would indicate the period by which the incident has been last replied to by either the support unit or the end customer. there are some key elements that should be available in either a team or processor-specific reporting. For individual reporting. Team/Processor reporting is normally being used by support management for regular evaluation or assessment of support staff. it would also be good to note if the Processor/Team has processed the incident efficiently or if the Processor/Team requires additional training or expertise to resolve incidents faster. it is expected that VAR Partners are able to demonstrate or produce reports that are generated out of their primary incident management system. This may or may not necessarily indicate that the customer has confirmed that the incident could be closed. Within an audit exercise.  Creation Date/Time Indicates the actual date/time when the incident has been posted by the end customer. the following elements should be considered and should be filtered either specific to team or individual support processor:  Incident number Uniquely identifies an incident when additional review may be needed. If this has not yet been performed by the customer. For some incident management systems. This information is relevant in conjunction with the status of the incident as the expectation should be that the incident is confirmed by the end customer.  Completed Date/Time Indicates the date/time when an incident has been classified as closed by the support unit. For team or individual statistics. MANAGEMENT REPORTING It is also a good practice to have consolidated and statistical information for support management or company management on a regular basis. Do note that support should also be considered as an avenue for additional business and services, thus, reporting can also be reviewed or assessed for indicators that would trigger these. For management, it could be important to present the following information in summary:  Number of incidents received  Resolution rate  Number of escalations, its progress, and lessons learned  Service Level Adherence  Status reporting Regular incident reporting could also show trends that can be translated to potential services and offerings. Statistical inputs and/or trends analysis would also be welcomed for the following reporting information:  Customer(s) with most number of incidents  Component(s) with most number of incidents Reporting on support process compliance as well as support performance should be generated on a regular basis and should be available for support staff, customers, and management. Support reports should be aligned with support-specific targets and contractual commitments. 5.2 Feedback Gathering While it is important to get information from customers on support performance, internal staff could also provide valuable feedback in their execution of support processes. Thus, there has to be regular communication with the support organization, its internal staff, and the customer base to determine areas where services can be improved, what can be removed, or what needs to be changed. INTERNAL FEEDBACK Within the support staff itself or within the company, providing avenues for staff to contribute their experiences and lessons learned on-the-job is a valuable forum for considering improvements with support operations. Thus, having regular meetings with support staff and encouraging experience sharing as well as fostering a culture where suggestions are respected and considered should be available. Regular incident reporting could also show trends that can be translated to potential services and offerings. © SAP SE 2014 Internal meetings could also be used to discuss improvement areas and obtaining direct feedback from colleagues on acceptability or receiving comments on potential issues that could best be identified from different perspectives with a larger group. It would also be easier to gravitate Partner Center of Expertise Setup Guide 47 towards improvements or changes if these have been discussed with staff that will be immediately affected by these. Have regular meetings with support staff to discuss experiences, issues, action items, and on-going performance. All meetings should be properly documented and reviewed. EXTERNAL FEEDBACK Customers definitely have a stake in service improvements by the support organization. Thus, there should be constant and regular communication with customers on improvement areas while also offering a forum to get their overall experience. Though it is important to get individual feedback per incident, this might become too redundant and some customer end users would tend to ignore this. However, a regular survey session, such as one conducted annually for instance, might be more welcome. For support-specific surveys, it is important to have a minimum amount of questions and to focus on areas specific to support. These could be any of the following factors:  Response/resolution time  Solution quality  Staff competence and behavior Auditors can request for the most current survey results if this is conducted on a regular basis by the VAR Partner. The Partner COE questionnaire should include this information as well. Regular survey sessions should be conducted with customers at least on an annual basis. Feedback should be requested for relevant factors such as efficiency, solution quality, staff competence and behavior. 5.3 Service Improvement Based on feedback from internal and external sources, the VAR should also review current trends and technologies as possible indicators for upgrades, improvements, or process changes. VARs would generally offer a standard support package but could potentially offer additional services or premium offerings depending on need or request. As customers mature and expand their solutions, it would also be necessary for a VAR to be aware of these changes and expand their own offerings to accommodate changing demands and needs. Competition would also drive improvements where VARs can also look for offerings that would differentiate or relegate their maintenance services in a different level from other VARs. Thus, constant development of support staff is a necessary investment and keeping abreast on strategies related to their products and support services should be encouraged. Thus, a VAR’s support offering should evolve and grow not only with its customer base but with emerging technologies. Though it is a good practice to always be a few steps ahead of others, VARs have to clearly determine areas of need and ensure alignment with existing resources and infrastructure. © SAP SE 2014 Partner Center of Expertise Setup Guide 48 There should be available avenues for process improvement that is regularly reviewed and discussed with relevant parties. This should generally be spearheaded by Support Management. 5.4 Support Readiness Activity The VAR Partner has to ensure that its customer has the required knowledge with respect to the VAR Partner’s support operations and has fulfilled all required infrastructure and activities to ensure that maintenance services can be delivered seamlessly. Customers should have proper expectations with respect to services that are delivered within maintenance and how to request for it. A support readiness activity should be established between the VAR Partner and the Customer to address the following elements:      Prepare and validate infrastructure required on both parties to ensure seamless communication and delivery of maintenance services. Gather information from the customer to identify key contacts for both business and technical aspects. Communicate maintenance deliverables both by the VAR Partner and of SAP. Discuss and clarify support procedures and processes. Identify action plans for gaps identified where follow-up work needs to be addressed by either or both parties. It is expected that a support readiness activity should be completed for all customers, especially for those under SAP Enterprise Support, at least prior to go live and to ensure a re-visit of this task on an annual basis. Within the PartnerEdge exhibit, a support readiness activity is also known as the Initial Assessment service. This could be fulfilled with the execution of an SAP Enterprise Support Setup Service via SAP Solution Manager. However, a VAR Partner can define its own activity to render the same content. As this activity validates the preparedness of both the VAR Partner and the customer with respect to maintenance delivery, this is a critical element for ensuring that both parties are aligned and informed. A support readiness activity should be available and conducted for all customers to set proper expectations with respect to maintenance deliverables and allow a comprehensive review of support setup between both parties. © SAP SE 2014 Partner Center of Expertise Setup Guide 49 Chapter 6. SAP Solution Manager To deliver first-rate support to their customers VARs require access to knowledge hubs in SAP’s service infrastructure, transparency on their customer’s solutions, as well as secure remote access to customer systems. SAP Solution Manager is the adequate tool for VARs to deliver high-quality support to their customers and to fulfill their daily tasks efficiently. Figure 6-1. SAP Solution Manager in a Service Provider environment The VAR is the central contact of indirect customers for questions regarding the SAP solution. Tools are needed which makes the technical complexity of their customers’ solutions transparent, and supports the entire SAP solution lifecycle. Integrating VARs into the SAP Global Support Backbone allows SAP and VARs to support their customers together, leverage valuable synergies, and add value for themselves, SAP, and customers. There are functionalities which are tailored for VARs such as that for Service Desk. Where such VAR-specific functionalities exist, this platform is to be used. VARs sell SAP solutions which are tailored to the requirements of small and medium-sized enterprises, to which they provide first and second-level support. It is assumed that VAR customers may not have their own SAP Solution Manager. Thus, the VAR should operate an SAP Solution Manager system for its indirect customers in the event that SAP requires to deliver services under this platform and where customers may not be able to set up one on their own To date, SAP Solution Manager is a mandatory requirement for VARs supporting SAP Business All-InOne and SAP HANA. It remains highly recommended for other product families. Starting from July 2013, the SAP Solution Manager 7.1 version is required for VARs as SAP Solution Manager 7.0 ends mainstream maintenance by end of 2013. The SAP Solution Manager currently supports VARs in performing the following processes and related tasks:  Project Administration  Solution Documentation  SAP EarlyWatch® Alert (EWA)  Incident (and Problem) Management  Maintenance Optimizer  Maintenance Certificate  Technical Monitoring © SAP SE 2014 Partner Center of Expertise Setup Guide 50 VARs should document new implementation projects or upgrade projects in an SAP Solution Manager system. Thus. the SAP Auditor may conduct a validation check of the SAP Solution Manager system with respect to the availability of all maintenance customers. for instance. accelerators. at a minimum. solution) components are maintained especially by people involved in this activity. where new customers are added into the VAR Partner’s customer list. among others. and critical milestones. All maintenance customers should be identified in the SAP Solution Manager system of the VAR Partner. the VAR Partner should then ensure that customers are maintained. identification of the customer’s landscape (as soon as it is available) should be defined in the SAP Solution Manager system. an audit failure could result. roadmap. Figure 6. This paves the way for utilizing customer information for various functionalities as mentioned above. It should also be noted that. Thus. © SAP SE 2014 Partner Center of Expertise Setup Guide 51 . where SAP Auditors may deem that customer data in the SAP Solution Manager system is missing. project standards (such as keywords and document types). Thus. During an audit process. 6.  Business Process Monitoring Root Cause Analysis 6.1 Project Administration Project Administration allows the definition of various project components such as the system landscape. scope.1 Customer Landscape Validation VAR Partners should ensure that all customers are identified or maintained in their SAP Solution Manager system. persons involved.2 All Systems defined in the SAP Solution Manager Failure to have customers defined within the SAP Solution Manager can entail delays in provision of services as most functionalities require this specific information to be available. within the Technical Monitoring or System Monitoring areas and especially where the Service Desk functionality is used. However. as best practice. At a minimum. defining other system types is also encouraged. the customer’s productive landscape should be maintained in the VAR Partner’s SAP Solution Manager system. the productive landscape should be defined. This is highly encouraged to ensure that relevant data with respect to project (and later on. project language. define business scenarios. process steps and the upload/import of relevant project documentation. processes. The right panel allows the project team to provide related documents. Figure 6-2 below shows the initial screen for identifying key elements in the project. Project Administration Work Area Organizational Units identifies specific organizations or units that are affected by the project Project Standards defines specific keywords. After completing these initial definitions for the project.Amongst the initial preparatory tasks for starting project administration via the SAP Solution Manager is the identification of the project as well as the project type. test data. The involved business processes are defined in the left panel which shows the business process structure. documentation types. planned and actual timelines. © SAP SE 2014 Partner Center of Expertise Setup Guide 52 . Figure 6-2. and templates as the project progresses. Scope identifies the functionality or solution relevant for the project as well as the roadmap used. planned and actual resources used. materials. and even related incidents where available. configuration data. the Project team can proceed to define the business blueprint. System Landscape identifies the systems relevant for the project Milestones set specific dates for achieving defined milestones and also to document the actual start times when milestones were achieved. transactions and object information. current status. involved roles. Figure 6-3 shows the screen used for during the design stage. Amongst the most relevant elements defined at the initial project creation activity are the following: General Data allows the identification of project management owners. project status values to be used throughout the project. This chapter identifies three (3) types of documentation in a solution.” A solution includes the technical landscape information via the logical components referenced by business processes. At a minimum. the solution “is the entirety of all system components and processes that represent a central function or a business area in an information system.After go live. or can be created through solution validation functionalities within SAP Solution Manager. business process documentation. Figure 6-3. VARs should strive to ensure that all customer solutions be made available via an SAP Solution Manager system. and custom code documentation. the project documentation can then be transferred to a solution for maintenance activities or technical and business process monitoring tasks. Solutions can be manually created from the bottom up. Implementation project documentation can also be adapted or transferred into a solution.2 Solution Documentation As defined in SAP’s Support Standards documentation. whether this be the customer’s own or hosted by the VAR. such as Reverse Business Process Documentation (RBPD). technical landscape documentation. Business Blueprint Work Area It is highly recommended that customer projects (such as implementation or upgrades) should be documented via the Project Administration facilities of SAP Solution Manager. the customer’s core business process(es) should be documented. imported from existing documentation (such as spread sheets). 6. © SAP SE 2014 Partner Center of Expertise Setup Guide 53 . As a prerequisite. Once the technical data of systems are captured. In SAP Solution Manager 7. This also defines the transport route between systems. hardware information. be performed within the early stages of the SAP Solution Manager configuration. This allows the capture of relevant technical data such as installation numbers. the Landscape Management Database or LMDB was introduced which takes system information from the System Landscape Directory (SLD) into the SAP Solution Manager system. defining which systems are connected to the production system such as the development. Thus for VAR customers.1. Figure 6-4.TECHNICAL LANDSCAPE DOCUMENTATION The technical landscape documentation is generally performed within the initial configuration of the SAP Solution Manager system. For example. or even training systems and grouping them together as a logical component. Managed Systems Configuration © SAP SE 2014 Partner Center of Expertise Setup Guide 54 . systems ids. test. The necessary remote links (RFCs) can also be generated automatically as part of the initial setup phase. These also allow the possibility to connect to customer systems directly. a logical component can be defined which groups systems that logically belong together. all systems (so called “Managed Systems”) involved in the solution should be connected to the SAP Solution Manager. and client numbers to be made. customer Customers should document core business systems (defined as managed systems) could processes in an SAP Solution Manager system. business scenario. reports. and process steps.BUSINESS PROCESS DOCUMENTATION Following the technical solution landscape documentation. configuration. and transactions. a V AR Partner could consider all the options above. Business Process Documentation via the SAP Solution Manager. monitoring. test documents. and continuous improvement. processes can be documented in three (3) levels. A business processes is a set of logically-related activities performed to achieve a defined business outcome while a business process step is an elementary activity performed to accomplish a process. This covers monitoring of application-related as well as technical-related aspects of the business process instead of the classical system monitoring by components. The best option is to build documentation from the Implementation phase is by using the Project Administration functionality within SAP Solution Manager. training material. business process. The same business processes documented in an SAP Solution Manager system can be used to set up Business Process & Interface Monitoring (BPIAM). etc. or processes manually entered by the customer or a combination of these options. Information maintained therein can then be transferred into a Solution for maintenance. the possibility to make custom objects. importing process documentation from other mediums where interfaces are available at SAP. CUSTOM CODE DOCUMENTATION As with documentation of standard SAP business processes. For customers that are already live and where project information was not documented Figure 6-5. These should also be documented especially for the following reasons: - © SAP SE 2014 Modifications could be lost during an upgrade that has not been carried out properly Validation of usage to identify modifications that have been unused for a significant period and could increase maintenance cost and performance losses Partner Center of Expertise Setup Guide 55 . A business scenario is a set of processes that define a business task on a macro-level. business blueprint. programs. As such. documenting business processes could include project information. It is recommended to have at least the core business processes defined at the least. These could be defined from existing implementation content from the SAP Solution Manager business process repository (BPR). SAP also understands that each customer has their own specific requirements and unique processes. Thus. With SAP Solution Manager. the business processes can then be documented. Figure 6-6. Figure 6-7. © SAP SE 2014 Partner Center of Expertise Setup Guide 56 . The IT Service Management (ITSM) functionality within SAP Solution Manager helps both customers and partners to accelerate the resolution of support incidents. their root cause identified and their effects minimized by immediate corrective action. Custom Code Documentation To learn more about solution documentation from SAP support standards. VAR Partners offering support for SAP Business All-In-One and SAP HANA are mandated to have SAP Solution Manager Service Desk operational regardless of any third party incident management system used. 6. the Support Provider scenario should be used as there are other scenarios available for other user types. Incident Management for VARs For VAR Partners. to increase the availability of the IT solution and minimize negative business impacts.sap.com/supportstandards. It is highly recommended that customer’s core business processes are documented and/or maintained in an SAP Solution Manager system. it is highly recommended to use the SAP Solution Manager ITSM for handling the incident management process. and to gain 100% transparency on issues and challenges. For SAP Solution Manager Service Desk. visit https://support.3 Incident Management Incidents during the operations of mission critical applications can cause severe business loss if they are not properly managed. Learn more about SAP Solution Manager functionality related to solution documentation under Solution Manager Processes Solution Documentation. VAR Partners should ensure that all current maintenance customers are defined in the Service Desk system. reply to the support unit. These are Key User. assign incidents across the support organization. Processor.0 version where SAP Solution Manager 7. This helps to minimize manual creation and / or update of customer systems by the VAR Support team. Key User ITSM Interface Incident List A Processor role is expected to be part of the VAR support unit and has required authorizations to view customer incidents for incident processing. SAP Auditors can validate the existence of all customers in the Service Desk functionality where needed. Figure 6-8 shows the basic ITSM interface for a key user’s Home screen.1 offers a few changes which should barely affect customer users who have been working with the work center interface since. VARs have the option to use either the work centers or the ITSM user interface. customer users can report incidents to the VAR support team. VARs can download information related to its customer systems as defined from the SAP Support Portal into their SAP Solution Manager system. For creating incidents Figure 6-8. From this screen. and to also have a widget (Figure 6-10) that shows incidents that requiring user action.Provided that the SAP Solution Manager system has established an operational connection with the SAP Support backbone and where appropriate customer authorization are available. This should allow any customer user to log incidents with their support provider should this be necessary and critically in urgent situations. Processors could create incidents on behalf of the customer base. Thus. and confirm incidents posted. process them. Key Users pertain to customer users and are granted limited authorization to primarily post incidents. Within SAP Solution Manager 7. forward incidents to SAP as well as to respond to incidents sent to SAP. SAP Work Centers have been widely used in the previous SAP Solution Manager 7. © SAP SE 2014 Partner Center of Expertise Setup Guide 57 .1. and Administrator. User Types There are three user types that echo the authorization profiles that are created for the IT Service Management in SAP Solution Manager. completeness in this aspect of the Service Desk functionality configuration should be ensured. display all incidents created by the user. “Action Required by Me” widget for Key Users Processors could have access to reporting capabilities for ITSM. configuration. This could include creation and maintenance of users. maintain time recording. and the possibility to convert incidents to problems and/or change requests provided these functionalities were set up with ITSM.Figure 6-9. Figure 6-10. User Interface for Processor role The Administrator is responsible for the maintenance of the IT Service Management functionality. the capability to build and/or maintain knowledge articles. customization and improvement of the functionality. as well as providing support and resolution efforts for incidents related to the IT Service © SAP SE 2014 Partner Center of Expertise Setup Guide 58 . This helps support staff to identify the required expertise for an incident. Thus. These articles can include keywords that could be used when searching for potential solutions to incidents.Management. BW reporting. Times recorded can be further classified based on work or activity performed. sending emails to a target group / individual) based on a defined set of conditions such as the customer priority. and some pre-defined BI Dashboard applications With the integration to the SAP Support backbone. Administrators would be relevant for instances when there are new customers and where these have to be defined within ITSM along with respective user ids for new customer users. Home Screen for Processor role Amongst the relevant features of the ITSM functionality that can be used are the following:  Service Level Agreements can be set up to trigger specific actions (i.  Access to the SAP Notes Database can be performed directly from ITSM where the user is redirected to the SAP Support Portal where an SAP notes search can be performed.  Knowledge Articles can be created by a VAR to document incidents and solutions that can be referenced by other users or by the support staff itself.  Multi-level Categorization allows better classification or grouping of incidents relative to defined criteria. Using full authorization or Processor authorization for customer users is strictly disallowed and would result to an audit failure. To cater for assisting VARs in providing 7x24 support.. category. SAP Notes can be attached to incidents for reference by customer users or other support staff. decrease authorization to perform tasks that can affect the processing of incidents. incidents posted via the SAP Solution Manager can be forwarded seamlessly to SAP Support without having to manually create a separate incident via the SAP Support Portal. This could be for reporting purposes. SAP Solution Manager can © SAP SE 2014 Partner Center of Expertise Setup Guide 59 . for potential billing.e. Figure 6-11. or in some cases. and disallow forwarding of incidents to SAP except for potential Very High priority incidents raised outside business hours.  Support Reporting has been significantly improved with the availability of either list reporting. additional authorization is provided to this user for performing stated tasks on top of those held by a Processor role.  Time Recording is essential for situations when effort utilized requires documentation. VARs have to ensure security of its customer data by strictly utilizing the provided authorizations for specific roles. These could be checked by SAP Auditors to ensure that customer users have delimited authorizations which prohibit visibility of other customer systems. Here you will find information on e-learning materials. hence. technical and business process monitoring applications and other functionalities running within SAP Solution Manager that can either manually or automatically trigger creation of incidents. For available schedules within your region.sap. It is mandatory for VAR Partners supporting both SAP Business All-In-One and SAP HANA to maintain all customers in the service desk functionality to ensure that incidents can be forwarded to SAP through this medium. an SAP Auditor can validate that business hours are appropriately maintained per customer. For guided configuration assistance. © SAP SE 2014 Partner Center of Expertise Setup Guide 60 . SAP offers channel partners the Expert Guided Implementation Session for Incident. do visit the VAR-specific partner pages on SAP Support Portal . Where VAR Partners offer after-office hours support through SAP via the SAP Solution Manager Service Desk. For such cases.automatically forward Very High incidents to SAP outside defined business hours by the VAR. This service is designed for VARs to support them during setup and configuration of Service Desk. and various white papers on the incident management and application life-cycle management topic. Knowledge Base and Services Information To find setup and usage information on the Service Desk functionality. This is an efficient and interactive possibility to set up SAP Solution Manager Service Desk in a defined period of time. usage information. this has to be ensured for each customer and any new customer. and Request Management (ITSM) for VARs. As an advantage of integration.com/solutionmanager  Services  Expert Guided Implementation  Expert Guided Implementation Calendar The SAP Solution Manager Service Desk functionality is the recommended incident management system platform for all VARs. solutions. Insufficient setup on this aspect could result in an audit failure. Thus. SAP then relates directly to the customer without the necessity of having VAR support staff available during those times. ITSM can receive incidents from other inbound channels such as projects. configuration and setup information. Problem. thereafter. training roadmaps. after-office hours support will not work and. please check http://support. Where this has not been set up for some customers. incidents on Very High that are posted beyond business hours will remain at the VAR Partner’s SAP Solution Manager system until its next business day / hour. the Maintenance Optimizer offers a comprehensive procedure for software maintenance. Then the customer had to import the patches into the development system. As part of the SAP Solution Manager. 4. So far. Knowledge Base and Services Information To find setup and usage information on the Maintenance Optimizer. Download the software. To efficiently manage the resulting combinations. Import the software (furthermore uses familiar tools such as SPAM.6. © SAP SE 2014 Partner Center of Expertise Setup Guide 61 .0 contains more than 50 different software components. These steps are now simplified by the SAP Solution Manager Maintenance Optimizer. Maintenance Optimizer in the SAP Solution Manager can be installed centrally on one server or distributed over multiple servers. Close the maintenance procedure. thus the customer can always have an overview of the maintenance activities in all systems and solutions. Maintenance Optimizer shows relevant maintenance files for the customer’s solution. customers selected the relevant maintenance updates from an unfiltered list of software packages in the SAP Support Portal and downloaded them. …) 5. Select the required packages and approve the download of the maintenance files. SAINT. test them in the quality assurance system and finally release the patches to the production system. SAP ERP 6. including: 1. 3. For example. 2. professional support is necessary.4 Maintenance Optimizer The flexibility of SAP applications and high supportability standards has led to a considerable increase in the number of software components that are used by individual customers and that Figure 6-12. do visit the SAP Support Portal under Solution Manager Processes. © SAP SE 2014 Partner Center of Expertise Setup Guide 62 .Figure 6-13. Maintenance Optimizer interaction with the SAP Global Support Backbone It is mandatory for all customers supporting SAP Business All-In-One to ensure that the Maintenance Optimizer functionality is operational at all times. For example. Today. SAP offers the maintenance optimizer to support an endto-end. Automatic Distribution of the Maintenance Certificate for Customers supported by a VAR’s SAP Solution Manager system transport management system makes the management of all software and configuration changes consistent. Knowledge Base and Services Information You can find detailed information how to use the Maintenance Certificate on the VAR pages on SAP Support Portal at Solution Manager Processes → Maintenance Management.5 Maintenance Certificate It has always been important to SAP that our customers receive full support for their SAP solutions. © SAP SE 2014 Partner Center of Expertise Setup Guide 63 . This includes the delivery of software corrections and improvements that can boost an IT solution’s performance and stability.6. This will also improve the quality of your customer’s SAP solution by preventing patches from being deployed to the wrong system accidentally. The integration with SAP’s Figure 6-15. Automatic Distribution of the Maintenance Certificate for Customers with their own SAP Solution Manager system Maintenance Optimizer was integrated with software lifecycle manager service to further automate the download of support packages and SAP enhancement packages as well as the deployment of the packages to satellite systems connected to SAP Solution Manager. The certificate enables software logistics tools to identify your customers’ system and the exact scope of your customer’s corresponding SAP maintenance agreement. Figure 6-14. the maintenance optimizer is the central application within SAP Solution Manager to control and ease maintenance of your customer’s SAP solutions. fully pre-configured maintenance management process. Another improvement was the introduction of a maintenance certificate. alert instances and single metrics and events  Integration of analysis capabilities as problem context and monitoring applications © SAP SE 2014 Partner Center of Expertise Setup Guide Figure 6-17. Figure 615 below shows the various features available from this work center the foremost being the centralization of all alerts via the Unified Alert Inbox. The following features describe various capabilities under the Technical Monitoring work center. incidents. particularly under System Monitoring. Technical Monitoring and Alerting Capabilities in Detail with their productive solution landscape. It is preferred that customers use this functionality with their own SAP Solution Manager system as a local network infrastructure is a relevant consideration for real-time data availability. This is relevant information for other functionalities within the SAP Solution Manager system and can also be used for technical landscape information of customer systems. These can be implemented centrally from the VAR Partner’s SAP Solution Manager system or preferably through the customer’s own SAP Solution Manager. VAR Partners have to ensure that at least all customer productive systems are maintained in this section. Unified Alert Inbox  Central access point to handle all types of alerts  Efficient alert handling based on consolidation of single alerts to alert groups  Integration of most common alert handling mechanism as status tracking.6. an SAP Auditor can validate whether customers are defined Figure 6-16.6 Technical Monitoring The Technical Monitoring work center provides tools and capabilities for monitoring system landscapes defined in the SAP Solution Manager system or the Landscape Management Database (LMDB). notifications and 3rd party integration  Drill down from alert type to alert groups. System Monitoring Views 64 . Within the Technical Monitoring work center. Incident Management. databases and hosts  Allow to access landscape information and problem context for technical system  Drill down from status information to single metrics and events provided by End-to-End Monitoring and Alerting  Visualize metrics and events including thresholds and current rating / value  Jump-in capability in metric viewer including zoom functionality in detail information Process Integration Monitoring  Growing PI landscape complexity and distribution leads to growing requirements towards a central monitoring approach  Reduce the TCO by providing one central entry point combining monitors for PI overall status with drill-down options  Enable tight integration with: System Monitoring and Alerting Root Cause Analysis Notification and Incident Management  Relieve productive systems from individual monitoring activities by central collection of monitoring data  Reduce time for regular as system health checks and hand-over procedures as well as from incident detection to root cause analysis End User Experience Monitoring  Automated execution of recorded end user scenarios  Measurement of availability and response times from end user point of view  Client performance data is correlated with server side performance data  Direct access from monitoring to Root Cause Analysis (End-to-End Trace Analysis)  Deep integration in End-to-End Monitoring and Alerting Infrastructure  Support of Metric Reporting. SLA Reporting and Management Dashboards Business Intelligence Monitoring  Central system status overview for all technical components involved in SAP Business Intelligence Solution  Capability to monitor cross-system SAP Business Warehouse process chains and single process chain steps  Central monitoring of Business Objects specific jobs and correlation to system specific metrics  Central monitoring of SAP BW queries and templates  Integration of Business Intelligence specific alerts in Alert Inbox including Notification Management. Task Assignment and forwarding to 3rd party  Reduce the TCO by providing one central entry point combining monitors for overall status Connection Monitoring / Interface Channel Monitoring  Central status overview for connections between SAP systems based on pre-selected RFC destination definitions  Support of peer-to-peer connections (two managed systems involved) and scenario specific connections (more than two managed systems involved)  Access to SAP Incident Management and SAP Notification Management  Complete integration in End-to-End Monitoring and Alerting Infrastructure © SAP SE 2014 Partner Center of Expertise Setup Guide 65 .System Monitoring  Provide status overview regarding technical system including instances. Interface Channel Monitoring    Provides customers with transparency regarding technical interface landscape covering RFC calls. availability and exceptions All customers with productive installations should be defined in the SAP Solution Manager system. particularly. The exception handling standard explains how to define a model and procedures to manage exceptions and error situations during daily business operations. open and central. enabling customers to identify problems long before typical IT alerts would be triggered. Effective and efficient handling of these exceptions is a crucial factor for both: an optimized total cost of operations and smooth business execution. exceptions may arise from within business applications. The procedures also describe who is responsible for certain activities in the business process operations team or the business unit. The execution of these procedures can be supported by monitoring and alerting tools within the business process and interface monitoring concept.7 Business Process Monitoring During operations. © SAP SE 2014 Partner Center of Expertise Setup Guide 66 . These procedures describe what proactive monitoring activities have to be executed to detect businesscritical exception situations and what corrective actions are required in the given context. the Technical Monitoring work center. After the exception handling model has been defined. usage. The advent of more complex and diverse business scenarios crossing application borders plus the immense volume of business transactions processed today require an exception handling that is scalable. Web Service calls as well as Very High priority incident handling Allows mapping from technical interface information to human understandable entities by usage of Interface Channels with appropriate attributes Delivers an unified approach to visualize the different interface types including sufficient monitoring and alerting for performance. the business process and interface monitoring standard supports the monitoring of the mission critical business processes. The business process champion and the responsible business process operations team have to define a model and procedures for handling exceptions and error situations during daily business operations. 6. and embedded into business operations and sup-port processes. error handling procedures. legacy environments. alert and problem detection. Business Process Analysis and Monitoring Business process monitoring includes monitoring activities. © SAP SE 2014 Partner Center of Expertise Setup Guide 67 . notification of experts.Figure 6-18. Today’s system landscapes are often decentralized and consist of various interfaces to different systems. and well defined interface towards end-to-end root cause analysis (a separate standard). All those interfaces need to be monitored in terms of processing errors. backlog situations and performance. where customers and vendors use different technologies. Provision of pre-filled alert information/context. Incidents can be tracked. Offers pre-configured SL reporting. Server-side processing may take place in an SAP Netweaver Enterprise Portal (based on Java technology). then reach out to an SAP ECC backend (based on ABAP technology) and finally call the database and the storage subsystem for data retrieval. Service desk incidents can be automatically filled with meaningful alert information. Subsequent business process steps that might be affected are immediately visible. Flexible ad-hoc reporting with business process relations. Early warning of (technical) incidents before end users report it. Storage of historic alerts. © SAP SE 2014 Partner Center of Expertise Setup Guide 68 . Emails and SMS messages can be sent to appropriate support or business employee. trend analysis for job runtimes. End-to-end root cause analysis offers a systematic analysis and resolution of incidents for a distributed mission critical customer environment. the performance hit may be in the client. Service Desk Integration. Central Documentation. if an end user experiences a performance problem in his browser. A performance problem or functional defect may occur at one or all stages of this round trip launched by the end user from the browser. Facility for central documentation of business processes. BI Integration. Business Process of customer-specific monitors via customer Status Indicators rd 3 Party Tool Integration. trend analysis for throughput & backlog integrators. Customer-specific Monitoring. Auto-reaction Methods. Alert History. analyzing the root cause of an incident requires a systematic top down approach to finally pinpoint the primary cause. logging of alert confirmations. For instance. error handling procedures and escalation paths.8 Root Cause Analysis In today’s distributed. Root cause analysis tools help identify the specific component which causes a performance bottleneck. multi-technology customer solutions with multi-channel access through diverse devices and client applications. which itself comprises different instances of also different technologies. Easy integration Figure 6-19. trend analysis for job runtimes. pre-configured web templates.The Business Process Monitoring functionality within the SAP Solution Manager system offers the following features:             Business Process Orientation. comments for problem resolution. Service Level Reporting Integration. Proactive Alert Monitoring. Service desk incidents can be opened in dialog or background. Alert from other monitoring tools can be brought in business process context via CCMS integration. in the network or somewhere in the server environment. All alerts are (uniquely) assigned to specific business process steps and/or to specific interfaces. monitoring responsibilities. trend analysis for throughput & backlog indicators Cross-Application Monitoring Interface Monitoring 6. Host and Database Analysis: Central. © SAP SE 2014 Partner Center of Expertise Setup Guide 69 . Root Cause Analysis for Mobile Applications The standard root cause analysis offers systematic analysis and resolution of incidents for a distributed mission critical customer environment. the root cause analysis infrastructure is open for fast track integration of new SAP technologies. OS and DB including links to read-only monitoring and administration tools like CA Wily Introscope. applications and also for third-party software. safe and remote access to file system. root cause analysis tools are designed to work towards reducing the number of resources in each step of the resolution process. Additionally. The following features are offered in the SAP Solution Manager Root Cause Analysis functionality: E2E Workload Analysis: General performance overview for heterogeneous solution landscape E2E Change Analysis: Statistical change data cross all technologies based on daily snapshots E2E Exception Analysis: Statistical exception data for trend analysis or review exception E2E Trace Analysis: Identify the problem causing component (performance and functional) and jump-in to detailed component specific trace analysis for single user request Figure 6-20.Figure 6-20. Root Cause Analysis for Mobile Applications System. A small team of support consultants with technical core competence in root cause analysis and an expert for the specific component who can delve deep into the component is enough to drive the issue and nail it down to a component. The goal is to identify and provide: o an immediate corrective action (workaround) to restore service operations as quickly as possible with minimal disruption to end users by isolating the area of concern o a complete solution to the issue at hand Operationally. during an audit exercise. © SAP SE 2014 Partner Center of Expertise Setup Guide 70 .ROOT CAUSE ANALYSIS FOR SAP HANA For VAR Partners supporting SAP HANA. the VAR has to be able to show that their SAP Solution Manager system is able to show real time data being transmitted from their SAP HANA test system. setting up Root Cause Analysis to actively monitor an SAP HANA test system is a mandatory requirement for support authorization. Therefore. To ensure that data is current. it is preferred that an SAP HANA test system exists within the VAR Partner’s local area network. The Root Cause Analysis functionality should be operational and actively monitoring an SAP HANA Test System for VAR Partners supporting the SAP HANA product family.  Communicates audit results to the Auditor. VAR-delivered support or SAP-delivered support  Informs the Partner Services Advisor (PSA) on VAR’s support model preference Partner Service Advisor  Works with the Partner to assist and explain the various VAR support delivery models  Receives Partner decision on support model preference. The PCA is an SAP employee with extensive experience on the Partner COE audit process and requirements and. Before an audit. the PCA can either validate application usage (such as SAP Solution Manager) directly or conducts an interview process which helps to clarify aspects of the VAR Partner’s support set up and usage. or are opting for VAR-Delivered Support. Before and after the audit process. hence. © SAP SE 2014 Partner Center of Expertise Setup Guide 71 . execute. Partner COE Audit Process The primary purpose of this set up guide is to provide ample information to discuss the different elements required for establishing a Partner Center of Expertise that meets the defined standards by SAP.  Reviews audit report findings and recommendations and ascertains compliance against Partner Center of Expertise requirements and standards. and the Judging Committee. and interviews. Partner Account Manager  Works with the Partner to assist and explain the various VAR support delivery models  Receives Partner decision on support model preference. where necessary. Partner Services Advisor. After an audit process. is an invaluable resource to ensure a successful achievement of support authorization. 7. It is expected that the previous chapters have been read and clearly understood before a VAR triggers the audit process. and achieve this certification. these interfaces can help to clarify the Partner COE requirements at the current period. Submits to PCOE judging. PCA recommendations are documented in a report which is provided to VAR Partner where improvements are noted. This process involves several key personnel working with the VAR to commence. The tasks performed by these roles are further detailed below. VAR-delivered support or SAP-delivered support  Informs the Partner Services Advisor (PSA) on VAR’s support model preference Partner Certification Auditor  Conducts audit session with VAR.  Participates as VAR Partner interface for Judging  Communicates certification results with VAR Partner and internal SAP relevant personnel Judging Committee  Receives audit report from Auditor. are required by SAP to certify their Partner COE through a stringent audit process. these roles can also be referenced for guidance with respect to fulfilling the recommendations as may be required by the audit report.  Liaise with the Auditor for clarification and immediate improvements. Partner Certification Auditor. documentation. During the audit process.  Creates audit reports based on audit findings. The following roles are relevant for the audit process.1 Relevant Roles for the Audit Process VAR Partners opting to deliver support for their customer base. Partner Account Manager.Chapter 7. The Partner Account Manager and the Partner Services Advisor would be the best resources within SAP to assist the VAR Partner with respect to the audit process. The Partner Certification Auditor (PCA) becomes available to the VAR Partner only within the audit period. 2 Audit Types Depending on the Partner’s current support authorization status. VAR Partners should ensure that registration is executed well before any deal is to be signed so as not to hinder or delay deals in cases where the initial certification checks find gaps in support requirements. support readiness activities. The primary difference between VAR Partners that undergoes a readiness audit exercise with other audit types is its absence of customers through which delivery if support services and execution of support operations could not be assessed. This helps to ensure that a support operation will be in existence and is readily available to provide maintenance services for new (or even transferred) customers. Remote connection infrastructure strategies Full time support staff with required support consultant certification Test Systems for products supported SAP Solution Manager functionality knowledge Support introduction or presentation materials for understanding the VAR Partner’s maintenance offer. In conjunction with the findings from the PCA as documented in the audit report. thus. processes. support reporting and feedback gathering. Readiness Audit. all new VAR Partners should undergo an audit exercise that would ascertain the availability of a Partner COE infrastructure and process before customers are acquired. the Auditor would evaluate all key components of a Partner COE operation such as:          Incident Management system with SAP Solution Manager Service Desk being mandatory for VAR Partners supporting SAP Business All-In-One and/or SAP HANA.The Judging Committee is comprised of senior support employees at SAP Active Global Support with expert knowledge on PCOE operations. escalation/complaint handling. an audit result is decided by the Judging Committee which is later handed over by the PCA to the VAR Partner as either a pass or fail rating. and people certification should be completed and application or registration for the readiness audit can be made thereafter. PCOE requirements may change over time and. Auditors will require a full demonstration of end-to-end incident handling processes. © SAP SE 2014 Partner Center of Expertise Setup Guide 72 . A VAR Partner should commence the setup of a support operation following SAP standards as soon as possible following its acceptance as a Value-Added Reseller of SAP. During this audit exercise. READINESS AUDIT From February 2014. VAR Partners have to gauge the appropriate audit requirements by understanding the scenarios where specific audit types are relevant. The required infrastructure. it is always a good exercise for the VAR Partner to have active communication with their Partner Services Advisor and Partner Account Manager for any new developments on support authorization requirements. Customer maintenance agreement Knowledge of SAP maintenance provisions for both the VAR Partner and indirect customers Support processes and procedures including documentation available. 7. Another clear difference is the mandatory interview required between the Auditor and key support roles within the VAR Partner’s Partner COE such as the Support Manager. and Re-Certification. This includes all key processes for incident handling. They review audit reports to cross-check compliance areas and can add improvement suggestions where necessary. Validation Check. the Partner COE program offer three (3) audit types. the support authorization of the VAR Partner is further extended for another 12 months. Judging.2 of this chapter. support authorization is granted for a 12 month period commencing from the audit interview date. This allows the VAR Partner time to acquire customers and implement solutions to yield productive systems. The following sections discuss the audit process as executed for the different audit types. This should be requested explicitly by the VAR Partner via a support incident (see Section 7. a validation check should be conducted.3 Audit Process Between the audit types as mentioned in Section 7. SAP Solution Manager adoption and usage. VALIDATION CHECK Before the 12 month period allotted for VAR Partners who has successfully achieved support authorization via the Readiness Audit. REGISTERING FOR AN AUDIT Step 1. as examples. low billable incidents count. Registration. 7. Complete Your Checklist Prior to Registration. The expectation at this stage is that the VAR Partner has acquired a customer and was able to bring their customer systems into productive operation. The Partner should fully complete the questions in the checklist and provide supporting documents.Where a VAR Partner completes the readiness audit successfully. An audit interview may also be conducted where necessary to clarify support concepts. where applicable. SAP can conduct a short validation exercise with respect to the integration of customers into the VAR Partner’s execution of its support services and operations. RE-CERTIFICATION VAR Partners who has achieved support authorization through either a validation check (starting from February 2014). A successful re-certification grants the VAR Partner a further two-year extension of their support authorization. the audit processes are generally similar while the audit content offers differences. Audit. Thus. the VAR Partner should download the latest PCOE Checklist available from the SAP PartnerEdge Portal. A Partner COE re-certification activity re-evaluates the VAR Partner’s performance against SAP’s quality matrix which includes continued maintenance of mission critical elements such as remote connectivity to SAP and SAP EarlyWatch® Alert data transfers (where applicable). low customer maintenance termination ratio. Once completed successfully. © SAP SE 2014 Partner Center of Expertise Setup Guide 73 . The audit process contains 3 stages. This can be found directly from the “Key Resources” area. via a certification exercise (before February 2014) or via a re-certification exercise are required to re-certify their Partner COE support infrastructure and operations at least three (3) months before their current support authorization expires. absence of customer complaints.3) with short text “Request for Partner COE: Validation Check”. Continuous Improvement: Requests information pertaining to support-specific reporting and satisfaction surveys used. SAP Solution Manager: Requires details of the SAP Solution Manager installation and functionality usage where applicable. incident management system used. VARs should endeavour to provide answers to all questions from the checklist and to provide supporting documents where additional information may be necessary. Content is applicable to answer information required from the checklist question. test system availability.The checklist itself has the following sections: 1. Step 2. Current Support Performance Data: Chapter 4 focuses on performance figures as may be gathered through SAP internal systems and the VAR Partner’s own. a default solution – SAP Solution – is created. content could be copied from SAP. the VARs involved should be PartnerEdge VARs opting for VAR-Delivered Support and are related to each other. the Partner has to prepare that a Solution has been created in their SAP Solution Manager system and where data has been forwarded to SAP. Further. 7. 4. It is expected that all products with status “Authorized” shall also be supported by the VAR Partner unless the corresponding support dimension for the product have been maintained as “Opted Out”. Support Processes: Chapter 7 requests for information pertaining to support procedures and respective documentation. 5. This section also clearly discusses the remote connection requirements and necessary authorizations to be provided for an SAP Auditor to validate usage and set up of the SAP Solution Manager system. Note: During the basic configuration of the SAP Solution Manager system. subsidiaries. it is expected that VARs are able to properly discuss such content should these be requested by the Auditor. Register Solution with SAP This step is only applicable for VARs with SAP Solution Manager installed. It is understood that in some presentation materials with respect to SAP-related offerings. © SAP SE 2014 Partner Center of Expertise Setup Guide 74 . 8. remote connectivity strategy. This includes support staffing. Confirmation: This requires a valid signatory of the company attesting to the correctness of all responses provided in the checklist. systems and database used. Supported Products: the VAR Partner needs to confirm products that will be supported by their Partner COE. Once the checklist has been fully accomplished. Original content created for VAR purposes.e. 3. 6. i. 2. Where English is not used for either the checklist responses or submitted documents. This can be used if no other solution has been created in the SAP Solution Manager system. This helps SAP to understand the VAR Partner’s continued commitment for SAP standards by maintaining high compliance rates and satisfaction levels. Combined Certification: Chapter 9 of the checklist should only be answered if the audit request is by more than one VAR. Documentation submitted should have the following attributes:    Current and in use by the VAR during the audit period. the VAR Partner has to provide confirmation that SAP Auditors may use translation tools and services (private or public) to convert data and information into English. However. Partner Center of Operations Structure: Chapter 5 requires information pertaining to the physical elements of a Partner COE setup. select option . Step 3. As the SAP Auditor can directly validate the set up of the SAP Solution Manager for VAR Partner usage. data is not being sent to SAP. It is preferred that default user id SAPSUPPORT is used for the SAP Solution Manager login. Verify that the solution for your Figure 7-2. Once selected. Maintain the secure login details of the SAP Solution Manager system (if used) in the SAP Support Portal. This could be checked from the column ‘Sending Data’ where a tick mark should be present for your solution. If no tick mark is present. Create an SAP Support incident under component SV-BO-REQ following short text template below specific to the audit type requested: Readiness Audit : Request for Partner COE certification: Readiness Audit Validation Check : Request for Partner COE certification: Validation Check Re-Certification : Request for Partner COE certification: Re-certification If SAP Solution Manager is used as the primary incident management system. HTTP Connect or SAPGUI+Browser for the next seven (7) days. 4. 5. To do so. The following tasks should be performed by the VAR Partner: 1. Log an SAP Support Incident To register for an audit. the VAR Partner should log an incident with SAP Support preferably via the SAP Solution Manager Service Desk (if being used). Open the connection types R/3 Support. from the SAP Solution Manager system. the SAP Support incident should contain the following attachments: Fully completed and signed Partner COE Checklist Supporting Documents If preferred. you will be prompted to select your data transfer settings. do provide a template or reference user id example for a customer user. 3. Solutions created in your system will be displayed in a table. access the Solution Manager Administration work center and select Solutions. Solution Table SAP Solution Manager system is sending data to SAP. this has to be explicitly registered with SAP. the VAR may request for container where all documents can be compiled and sent to SAP. Except Validation Check requests.Once a Solution has been identified. To do so. the following authorization roles should be available for the user id provided to ensure that the necessary checks can be performed. Choose either ‘Send All Data’ or ‘Send Production Data’ and save your settings. Please reference the table below for the required authorizations for the user. Solution information will then be transferred to SAP. 2. © SAP SE 2014 Partner Center of Expertise Setup Guide 75 . Partner Center of Expertise Setup Guide 76 . The VAR can use materials that are also submitted with the checklist on this topic. an SAP Auditor will contact the VAR Partner to arrange a convenient interview schedule. The Auditor will provide a standard audit agenda which includes the following topics:  Support introduction: The VAR is expected to present how support is generally introduced to customers. CONDUCTING THE AUDIT For a readiness audit. The Auditor can use this opportunity to understand the VAR’s support offering and operations and allow clarification of concepts during the audit.  System Demonstrations: VARs are expected to discuss their incident handling system and show how this is performed via their incident © SAP SE 2014 The audit interview requires the availability of key support staff for various demonstrations and discussions with respect to general support operations. This can be requested by the SAP Auditor where delays are incurred due to remote connectivity issues.User ID Authorization Role SAPSUPPORT Work Centers: SAP_SMWORK_IMPL SAP_SMWORK_TECH_MON SAP_SMWORK_SYS_MON SAP_SMWORK_DIAG SAP_SMWORK_BASIC_SM SAP_SMWORK_BASIC_INCIDENT SAP_SMWORK_INCIDENT_MAN_SPC SAP_SMWORK_BPM Individual Roles: SAP_SOLAR_RO SAP_SM_SOLUTION_DIS SAP_SV_SOLUTION_MANAGER_DISP SAP_BI_E2E SAP_DBA_DISP SAP_EM_DISPLAY SAP_RCA_DISP SAP_RCA_SAP_DISP SAP_BC_SEC_USER_DISPLAY Composite Roles - SAP_SM_L2_COMP SAP_SUPPDESK_SP_ADMIN_COMP Stated roles above primarily allow only DISPLAY ONLY privileges to validate the usage of specific functionalities in the SAP Solution Manager. This can be used for issues with respect to remote connection or authorizations. once the audit request has been received at SAP Support. The VAR Partner can also opt to request for remote view (such as via SAPConnect) in lieu of actual login by the SAP Auditor. Provision of SAP_ALL authorization is at the discretion of the VAR. knowledge of SAP Solution Manager functionality should also be demonstrated. However. remote connectivity with SAP. conduct a remote login to the system to check for functionalities used. Within this section. Where support authorization has been granted from a successful readiness audit exercise. accessibility. SAP Auditor recommendations for potential improvement is also documented in the report.  Random Interviews: the audit also consists of interviews conducted with different support roles to determine knowledge and consistency of processes and procedures. validate customer user authorizations. this primarily uses the same report received from the readiness audit and updates the information therein with the customer-specific © SAP SE 2014 Re-Certification would focus on validating actual execution of PCOE requirements through direct checks into support systems and applications. SAP EarlyWatch® Alert. The audit report is submitted within a few days to a judging panel with the Auditors own recommendation for either a pass or fail rating. These audit activities could include the following:   Review and assess performance indicators that are available from SAP internal systems such as the SAP Support Portal. A validation check offers the shortest audit effort and primarily checks those elements that could not be assessed during the readiness audit in the absence of a productive customer. and performance. This would include information such as the customer list. If SAP Solution Manager Service Desk is used as an incident management system. the VAR Partner has to trigger the validation check to be performed at least two (2) months before expiry. If SAP Solution Manager is used. This requires that documents can be opened by commonly used tools and applications and are generally in English. within the audit session the following tasks should be performed and completed by the SAP Auditor:       Validate the completeness of the submitted Partner COE checklist including submitted documents. and their own support systems (especially if support systems are not locally-based) to verify availability. an audit interview and/or demonstration of systems used can be scheduled to clarify and understand support operations. After the audit session. The discussions assist the SAP Auditor to determine actual support provision and capabilities of the Partner as well as confirm the availability of the Partner’s support infrastructure and operations. In general. the SAP Auditor creates a certification report containing findings from the audit session as well as the VAR’s documents. Review and assess improvements from the readiness audit report. Trigger test calls within and outside business hours for the identified support hotline number(s). Documents submitted can be opened and read. Remote connectivity is a critical aspect for provision of maintenance services. test systems.management system from creation to closure. Similar to a readiness audit. Partner Center of Expertise Setup Guide 77 . where applicable. among others. The audit is usually completed within 5-6 hours. Where necessary. the validation check also produces a report. VARs will also be asked to show that they are able to access customer systems (only in cases where partner has existing maintenance customers). © SAP SE 2014 Partner Center of Expertise Setup Guide 78 . it is expected that the VAR continues to operate its support functions in congruence with SAP standards. an audit exercise can normally be completed within 3-5 days. Information requested by SAP Auditor is not provided in a timely manner. the SAP Auditor shall also reevaluate the VAR’s compliance against any additional requirements at the time of audit. Over 30 maintenance customers involved. it is encouraged to liaise with your Partner Account Manager and Partner Services Advisor on a regular basis to ensure that your Partner Center of Expertise is continuously operating on SAP recommended infrastructure and processes. an audit result is determined. Thus. Documents require translation effort. an SAP Auditor will perform tasks both from the readiness audit and validation check. In addition. The audit report documents relevant findings and compiles recommendations for improvement. it is not expected that previous recommendations are ignored and no improvement is determined within a re-certification exercise. SAP Auditors would be geared towards direct checks into systems and infrastructure rather than requiring VARs for demonstrations. An audit report is generated for both the readiness audit and re-certification following the activities mentioned above. Therefore. Therefore. The following situations may contribute to delays in audit completion:       SAP Auditor encounters problems with remote connection to identified systems. this could be minimized with the absence of an interview session should it be deemed that this task is no longer needed Where no delays are incurred.performance checks that were not included from the readiness audit exercise. Do note that a re-certification has more stringent standards with respect to execution of support services as it is expected that VARs had utilized the two-year duration to improve its support offering and operations. Though the checks performed may be longer in a re-certification effort. Increased workload where a high number of audits are performed within the same period. the Auditor will reference the VAR’s previous audit report and shall check and assess the VAR’s improvement against previous recommendations. a VAR should ensure that it has read the recommendations as provided from its previous audit report and ensured that suggestions for improvement have been performed and are visible during the re-certification effort. Therefore. During the re-certification audit. For re-certification requests. Apart from reviewing improvements from the previous audit report. Insufficient documents or where documents could not be opened by commonly used tools and applications. a review of the previous report’s recommendations and its application will be reviewed. A VAR should also ensure that they are familiar with current requirements for Partner Center of Expertise in the event that existing requirements and standards have been changed. Based on the SAP Auditor’s evaluation of compliance data. Judging entails a review of the certification report to validate content. Following are the implications for failing an audit effort:  Deals sold thereafter shall only be under the SAP-Delivered Support model  Maintenance for existing customers shall be delta-billed  Support authorization. VARs are allowed two (2) tries only. Upon receipt of the Judging result. Judges can additionally include recommendations or require clarification towards the Auditor. The audit report is finalized and attached to an email that is subsequently created and sent to the VAR representative (typically. if previously granted. the SAP Auditor starts the closure process.JUDGING THE AUDIT RESULT The judging period starts from receipt of the audit report until a decision is made that is handed down by the SAP Auditor to the VAR. What to do with a PASS result? VARs who successfully comply with the Partner Center of Expertise requirements and standards are granted support authorization with a two-year duration starting from the audit date unless specified otherwise. Failure to do so within the six (6) month grace period will render the second audit a failure by default. Judges can also require improvements done within a specified deadline where critical. What to do with a FAIL result? Within a 12-month period. the VAR is encouraged to trigger the re-certification registration step at least six months prior to expiry. A final review determines the judging result which is submitted to the Auditor. the Support Manager). For example. Therefore. shall not be renewed © SAP SE 2014 Partner Center of Expertise Setup Guide 79 . questions could be raised by a Judge to the SAP Auditor either to clarify findings or to request additional supporting information or content. recommendations. The judging committee constitutes individuals with significant experience with support operations as well as a detailed understanding of PCOE standards and requirements. pass or fail. After such time. Before the two-year duration expires. Judging requires a review of audit findings to validate content. gap analysis. Note that a VAR who does not successfully recertify before the allotted expiry date loses its support authorization thereby being unable to sell VAR-Delivered Support and also being subject to delta billing for existing customers. This is to ensure that ample time is available for addressing any critical points that may be found from any initial recertification attempt. a VAR who fails the first audit attempt is allowed to register for a second audit within the next six (6) months following the previous audit date. if a VAR had an audit on March 15. and verify compliance areas. Within the judging period. they have to register for their second audit no later than September 15. and recommendations. an updated report is re-submitted for final review. The email clearly states the audit results. A VAR who fails their second audit attempt within the 12-month period can only register for another audit no earlier than 12 months following the second audit date. incident handling process is the same across all and utilizes the same applications throughout) or those operating under a centralized support hub. support staff may be located in different VAR subsidiaries.  A minimal audit interview could be required for random subsidiaries of the SAP Auditor’s choosing. This is only applicable.  Identification of the leading support unit representing all other participants in common aspects or components. where applicable. localized materials. This will deviate from a common process and will require the SAP Auditor to perform an individual evaluation. the product-specific certification should be achieved by at least two (2) individuals. For example. to VARs who either follow similar support processes (for example. Is it expected that VARs who initially certified under a combined scope should also do so upon recertification? No. 7. or to revert to individual audits. support representatives. A combined certification request does not change the audit process but would require a few additions in the following areas:  Chapter 9 of the Partner Center of Expertise Checklist should be completed where the relationship between participating VARs should be clarified. In some cases. statistics.  For each product family supported per support location. the audit phase could be longer than that of an individual scope.For a Readiness Audit. It should also be further noted that there is no guarantee that all VARs participating in this joint exercise shall have the same results as the execution of support deliverables and compliance elements shall still be evaluated on a per VAR Partner basis. it is not possible for a VAR to request for a combined audit if even one VAR is using an alternate incident management system. Do consider the following guidelines:  The VAR Partner should ensure that all support locations fulfil the support consultant requirement which mandates that at least two support staff achieve Q_SUPP certification per support location. to add more or reduce participants. the audit date reflects the certification report creation date. the audit date represents the date of the audit interview session. the VAR is free to have the same entities participate in a re-certification effort. For other audit types and if there is no audit interview conducted.  The PCOE questionnaire should also include localized information such as support hotlines. © SAP SE 2014 Partner Center of Expertise Setup Guide 80 . however.4 Combined Certification VARs with various subsidiaries could opt to jointly register for the audit process. The audit effort and strategy is dependent on the VAR situation and preference at the time of recertification. Therefore. Therefore. Determine the certification route for each variant.7. Further determine the solution areas supported by each subsidiary and the support model (VARDelivered Support or SAP-Delivered Support) chosen moving forward. infrastructure usage. c. Thereafter.3 of this chapter. support model chosen).5 Global VARs There are no differences in the audit process delivered for a VAR that is involved within a Global VAR (gVAR) agreement. These could include the following areas or criteria. Individual or Combined. a gVAR subsidiary can choose to certify on their own (individually) or to participate in a combined audit scope as discussed in Section 7. As such. b. Considering all identified subsidiaries. Further consider timelines for certification and continuous review sessions for additional and/or new subsidiaries. geographic location (region). It is advisable for Global VARs to look into the following steps to formalize a Partner Center of Expertise certification strategy: a. check for similarities in support execution. Identify all subsidiaries that have signed the Country Specific Participation Agreement (CSPA). © SAP SE 2014 Partner Center of Expertise Setup Guide 81 . solution areas they support. these common areas should then define the different variants by which certification can be planned. com/supportstandards Tools https://support.sap.sap.com/support-programs-services/about/vanity-linksquicklinks.com/swdc Remote Connection http://support.com/access-support © SAP SE 2014 Partner Center of Expertise Setup Guide 82 .sap.Appendix A: Quick Links All Quick Links https://support.sap.html http://www.com/runsap RunSAP Methodology https://support.html Software Download http://support.sap.html Incident Handling SAP Notes Database http://support.html VAR Partner General Information https://partneredge.com/incident Correction Downloads http://support.html Application Lifecycle Management End to End Solution Operations https://support.html Support Standards http://support.com/notes SAP Incident Wizard http://support.sap.sap.sap.youtube.sap.com/support-programs-services/solutionmanager/processes.com/support-programs-services/methodologies.sap.com/support-programs-services/solutionmanager/integrated-tools.sap.com/en/partnership/about-sap-partneredge/sellpartners/var.com/patches Software Center https://support.sap.com/documentation. com/ Maintenance Information http://support.sap.html Functionality https://support.com/solutionmanager VAR specific information https://support.sap.com/support-programs-services/solutionmanager/partners/sp/setup.com/maintenance Platform Availability Matrix http://support.Partner Center of Expertise General Information https://partneredge.com/en/partnership/support/pcoe-certi.html SAP Products General Information http://support.sap.com/runsap https://support.sap.com/solutionmanager?current=alm&show_children=false E-Learning http://service.sap.html Online Help http://help.sap.com/incident SAP EarlyWatch® e General Information http://support.html http://www.youtube.sap.sap.html SAP Incident Wizard http://support.sap.com/kb-incidents/inbox.com/rkt-solman © SAP SE 2014 Partner Center of Expertise Setup Guide 83 .html Remote Support Component https://support.com/support-programs-services/solutionmanager/processes.com/ewa EarlyWatch® Alert Reports https://support.sap.sap.sap.com/support-programs-services/remote-supportcomponent.sap.sap.com/support-programs-services/solutionmanager/integrated-tools.com/pam SAP Solution Manager General Information http://support. html © SAP SE 2014 Partner Center of Expertise Setup Guide 84 .com/education Maintenance Optimizer https://support.com/en/partnership/support/ep-support/toolsassets.sap.sap.html http://support.sap.Training Information http://www.com/support-programs-services/programs.com/community/it-management/alm/solution-manager Expert Guided Implementation Expert Guided Implementation Portfolio SAP Support Offerings General Information https://support.com/maintenance SAP Enterprise Support https://partneredge.html Maintenance http://support.sap.com/enterprisesupport SAP Standard Support http://support.com/support-programs-services/solutionmanager/processes.com/standardsupport Technical Quality Checks https://partneredge.html Solution Manager Forum http://scn.sap.com/en/partnership/support/ep-support.sap.sap.sap.sap.