SAP Solution Manager

SAP Solution Manager as the name suggests is for managing the whole gamut of SAP and Non-SAP solutions in the IT Landscape of an organisation. It provides you the tool, content and gateway to create, operate, manage and monitor your solutions over time. It is supported and enhanced by SAP's support organization, SAP Active Global Support, in conjunction with the other SAP development organizations. The system is designed to be a centralized support installation in what is generally a distributed set of system installations that support the business computing functions of the SAP software suite. SAP Solution is the managing system, and the business suite applications (e.g. CRM) is the managed system.

Solution Manager provides an extensive array of software features in the IT Support area for enhancing, automating and improving the management of SAP's MySAP Business Suite and NetWeaver Software Components:

* Centralized Administration (Work Centers)

* Project Management

* Test Management

* Centralized Monitoring

* E2E Root Cause Analysis

* Business Process Monitoring

* IT Technical Reporting

* Centralized Alerting

* Installation Keys

* Early Watch Reporting

* Change Management

* Support Call Management between Customer and SAP

* Service Desk

* Software Maintenance and Patching

SAP is assertively improving and extending many of the above feature areas.

SAP Solution Manager is the successor to ASAP ValueSAP. SAP Solution Manager helps in implementing and managing complex system landscapes. Globally systems are getting distributed across geographies and business processes cover more than one system. In such complex scenarios, integrating technical and business requirements is important for the success of IT. SAP Solution Manager provides SAP customers with an efficient means of handling both the technical and business process side of solution implementation.

As part of SAP Solution Management Solutions, the customers receive best practices relating to:
- Global Strategy and Service Level Management
- Business Process Management
- Management of MySAP Technology
- Software Change Management
- Support Desk Management

SAP delivers this using support programs during implementation of the system solution. Some of the benefits of using SAP's Solution Manager are that it helps:
- Manages the technical risk associated with the implementation of the solution ensuring technical robustness
- Helps leverage users core competencies in implementing solutions
- Ensures solution works as intended with best practices built in.

References

A General overall discussion on Solution Managerhttp://www.sap.com/platform/netweaver/components/solutionmanager/index.epx

SAP Solution Manager Overviewhttp://big4guy.com/index.php/2007/06/14/sap_solman_solution_manager_toolset

Frequently Asked Questions - The SAP Solution ManagerA Highly useful link. Here you can find answers to many frequently asked questions about the SAP Solution Manager, as compiled by Solution Manager expertsSolution Manager applies to many different SAP contexts. It bridges pre-NW(NetWeaver), NW, and the eSOA and analytics era .It automates usual processes and provides a central spot for managing system performance and business processes.The topics covered are:

Using SAP Solution Manager for SAP ERPSolution Manager DiagnosticsInterfaces to SAP's Support ApplicationsService DeskSolution MonitoringTroubleshootingInstallation Questions..

https://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/sdn/go/portal/prtroot/docs/webcontent/uuid/16eaf8ea-0c01-0010-c1af-b3febfa33574

A Basic Description of what Solution Manager is

https://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/sdn/wiki?path=/display/BPX/SAP+Solution+Manager&https://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/sdn/advancedsearch?query=solution+manager&cat=sdn_all

ee also

*SAP AG
* [http://help.sap.com/saphelp_sm40/helpdata/en/45/51fbdbd4941803e10000000a1553f7/frameset.htm SAP Help]
* [http://www.sdn.sap.com SAP Software Developer Network - SDN]