The end of Solution Manager (SolMan) and the built-in ChaRM change management tool isn’t news; we’ve known about it for some time. In this blog, we investigate ChaRM replacement alternatives, focusing on migrating to Cloud ERP and SAP S/4HANA. SAP offers two deployment paths: SAP Cloud ERP Public and SAP Cloud ERP Private (formerly RISE with SAP).
For most customers, support for ChaRM officially ends in 2027; however, the actual end of support for any given implementation may be 2025, 2027, or even later in special cases, depending on the version of ECC or S/4HANA and the support contracts or Cloud ERP migration commitments in place.
Additionally, SAP has introduced Cloud ALM, which offers many new capabilities along with multi-year roadmap plans, and is focused on Cloud-centric SAP customers. However, Cloud ALM is not a direct replacement for ChaRM, especially for customers with complex on-premises change management in highly regulated environments or with custom CI/CD pipelines and integrations with external DevOps tooling. Due to the complexity, replacing ChaRM is not straightforward; it requires careful consideration and evaluation.
The Replacement Case
In addition to the end of support, organizations are likely to find further reasons to consider moving away from SolMan and ChaRM as a primary change management solution for SAP. Some of these reasons include:
Innovation
- Support for the Business Technology Platform (BTP) and Cloud: While ChaRM has some support for BTP transports, the solution was designed before Cloud-centric ERP became common and has limited hybrid capabilities
- The end of development of SolMan means no new features and capabilities in the platform, effectively ending innovation in the solution
Sophistication
- Global Templates / Complex Landscapes are supported by ChaRM but limited by STMS routes in terms of branching, merging and retrofit capabilities
- Retrofit support exists in ChaRM but is less sophisticated than 3rd–party solutions and doesn’t provide retrofit between ECC and Cloud ERP or even ECC and S/4HANA and BTP – something many hybrid migrations will require
- Unified change across estates is difficult to achieve with ChaRM when introducing non-SAP and Cloud ERP technologies
Modernization
- DevOps integration is not a strong capability of ChaRM, and when synchronizing SAP change to external systems or using external requirements solutions or enterprise service management tools – think JIRA, ServiceNow, and others – ChaRM can be challenging to integrate
- The user experience with ChaRM is still SAPGUI vs. elegant and modern Web applications, typical with newer technologies more appealing to a broader range of end–users
ChaRM has been with the SAP community for decades and served many customers well over the years, but it has reached the end of its innovation and product lifecycle. ChaRM’s flexible – and complicated – design as an on-premises solution, combined with the end of support, are the primary reasons many customers will look for alternatives moving forward.
CALM before the storm
SAP positions Cloud ALM as the next generation of ALM solutions. For many customers, Cloud ALM will be a good choice, and it may be their first consideration for replacing SolMan and ChaRM. Let’s look at the case for Cloud ALM:
Positives
- Cloud ALM is Cloud ERP–centric and specifically designed for the next generation of cloud ERP solutions
- Cloud ALM is deployed and runs in the Cloud, provided as a solution-as-a-service
- Cloud ALM will continue to evolve and innovate for the foreseeable future
- Cloud ALM has new APIs, new features, and a modern design
But Cloud ALM isn’t for all customers, especially those with a long tail of existing ERP implementations. SAP’s own documentation points to this, indicating “The focus [of Cloud ALM] is on different customers, mainly cloud-only, cloud-first and cloud-centric customers. It provides those ALM functions that are required in the cloud” and “SAP Cloud ALM provides support for on-premises components as well. However, there is no feature parity with SAP Solution Manager.”
So, for customers with plans to run hybrid beyond a short migration period – common for larger enterprises – Cloud ALM may not be a good choice yet. And, for the years of legacy operations during transition periods typical for complex estates, another solution might provide broader coverage and reduced risk for enterprise needs.
In addition, the transition from ChaRM to Cloud ALM isn’t automatic – Cloud ALM is a new solution with a different approach to change workflow and a significantly different feature set. As a result, a transition from ChaRM to Cloud ALM is effectively a new implementation.
ChaRMing alternatives
The good news is that there are already great alternatives to SolMan and ChaRM in the market, and the best solutions have decades of complex, large enterprise tested success in their portfolios. Some solutions already support Cloud ALM integration, too, and complement both on-premises ERP and Cloud-centric ERP from a single control point.
This is where Rev-Trac Platinum, an advanced SAP change management solution, adds value. ECC and S/4HANA customers have been using Rev-Trac Platinum for decades to manage some of the most complex SAP estates. The software supports sophisticated change management, DevOps workflows and enterprise tooling, including Azure DevOps, JIRA, Git, Jenkins, and ServiceNow integrations. And Rev-Trac Platinum does this while managing change, retrofit, and traceability across ECC, S/4HANA, and BTP environments.
For SAP customers facing the end of SolMan and ChaRM but not yet fully on Cloud ERP, this hybrid approach enables a transformation path without sacrifice during the transition period and supports future Cloud-centric or hybrid ERP approaches based on business needs.
SAP ALM shook up
The end of SolMan and ChaRM is a pivot point for many SAP users. But the transition doesn’t have to be abrupt or disruptive. Solutions like Rev-Trac Platinum manage SAP change elegantly across legacy systems, transformation projects, hybrid environments, and Cloud ERP-centric futures.
For more information on managing SAP change given the end of SolMan, contact our experts and schedule a consultation to discuss your needs.
