For SAP IT teams, managing risk is about reducing the possibility of something adversely impacting business operations. And in complex SAP environments with many moving parts, the chance of unforeseen outcomes is considerable.
Complex landscapes and business transformation projects like S/4HANA and Cloud migrations increase the risk of unpleasant surprises.
To reduce risk, it’s essential to develop a framework that helps to proactively identify problems and resolve issues in-flight, which curtails costly services outages. And automation is the foundation for the delivery of rapid, low-risk SAP change.
Automating SAP management enforces consistent processes that guarantees compliance and minimizes interruptions to your daily business as your systems aren’t prone to human error.
Automation equals compliance and ability to reduce risk
Automated solutions like Rev-Trac allow SAP IT teams to reduce risk to production systems and enforce standardized change management processes. You can lower transport-related SAP production incidents by 60% or more with tightly controlled automation and governance.
Utilizing automation to guarantee compliance allows you to respond quickly to changes in business demands, eliminate conflicts between SAP transports and maintain production stability.
Numerous key areas where Rev-Trac – an automated SAP change management platform – can enforce a compliant approval process include:
Transport enforcement
All transports must be associated with a Rev-Trac request, ensuring teams can control how SAP changes progress through your landscape and reduce risk accordingly.
High-risk transports or transports currently being worked on by another change can be configured to use processes that increase levels of change control or even prevent unintended development on common objects.
In this scenario:
- There are no workarounds or rogue transports as every transport is attached to a Change Request
- When objects are being worked on in parallel, users are notified, and management can assess the risk and determine whether parallel development is suitable
- High-risk objects can use special processes that require more testing and higher levels of approval
- Low-risk objects can use an accelerated approval process
Enforceable workflow process requirements
Rev-Trac processes can be configured to force users into compliance by preventing SAP changes from progressing unless standards are met and necessary information is provided.
Configuring workflows to enforce compliance ensures:
- links to external information such as blueprint mapping, specifications, test scripts, business justifications etc. are captured;
- documents like test results are attached before proceeding; and
- fields or forms are completed before proceeding.
Root Cause Analysis
Organizations can easily enforce company standards by automatically calling the ABAP Test Cockpit (ATC), ensuring codes meet required specifications or are upgradable for future use cases.
Segregation of Duties (4 eyes)
Rev-Trac can be set up to require peer review, preventing users from progressing change or forcing approval from a different user for production sign off.
Audit and Compliance Guarantees
Correct configuration and enforcement guarantee audit compliance. Rev-Trac also provides a complete and transparent trail of every SAP change.
Integrated Workflow Process
Rev-Trac bi-directionally integrates with other ALM technologies like ServiceNow, Jira, Tricentis Tosca and LiveCompare. So, it works seamlessly with these other solutions as the SAP DevOps orchestration engine. As a result, it’s crucial to ensure SAP changes don’t progress unless risk threshold or desired outcomes are achieved.
An automated DevOps toolchain, with Rev-Trac as the orchestration engine, ensures all ALM tools are called at the appropriate time – none are bypassed. This guarantees ROI from other ALM and DevOps tools by cementing them into your SAP change management process.
The bottom line
Delivering predictable and low-risk deployment of change relies on a robust, automated and fully integrated SAP DevOps orchestration platform.
Adopting automation enables SAP IT teams to deliver more high-quality SAP change more frequently and faster than ever before with the ability to reduce risk.
For more information on creating low-risk predictable outcomes through automation and guaranteed compliance, please contact one of our SAP change management professionals.
