The official roadmap is at https://websmp106.sap-ag.de/~sapidb/011000358700001435482012E.pdf (SMP logon is required)
The usual disclaimer applies that things in the future are subject to change.
Matthias Melich, SAP, provided this webcast
Current release is 7.1 with maintenance commitment to 2017
Solution Manager 7.2 will into ramp-up middle of next year; by Q4 2015 SAP expects to be GA
Then if you are on Solution Manager 7.1 you have 2 years to transition
Figure 1: Source: SAP
In the past there have only done a few investments in implementation. The next release will see a big investment – “pragmatic business process management” – most of this presentation is on this topic
Most customers have large on-premise
SAP is actively driving cloud
Lifecycle shown in Figure 1 means most of customers will be in a hybrid situation to support on-premise and cloud solutions and integrated
SAP wants customers to use SolMan for hybrid environment
There is a difference: Solution Manager for HANA and on HANA
Solman 7.2 will be available on SAP HANA
SolMan 7.1 is IT and less for business
SolMan 7.2 is a more business balanced SolMan
Figure 2: Source: SAP
Figure 2 on the left in Development system – planned, Solution Manager 7.2 will provide “state of the art” process modeling
Picture shows what is typical in modeling environments
PowerDesigner , which SAP acquired during Sybase acquisition, is being used
Today – 7.1 need a landscape to enter business process steps; business process experts can’t use
SAP wants to decouple this
Use 7.2 early in project and hand over to business process experts, wants to make it easier to use for documentation for business processes
SAP wants to extend diagnostic and analytics framework in Solman for managing business case
SAP wants to extend framework to innovations area of SolMan - relate business case to KPI’s
SAP is investing in pre-configured solutions – have RDS’s (rapid deployment solutions)
Figure 3: Source: SAP
Figure 3 shows processes will have more than 3 levels
Figure 3 shows a screen shot, non-graphical view of Solman
SAP wants openness to other modeling tools
SAP will have a marketplace on SCN; will allow vendors to certify interface similar to Service Desk, with a bi-directional interface
This will be for business process – not full-blown UML ; for full-blown look at PowerDesigner
SAP hopes to have interface added by then; but will not be part of the ramp-up scope
Figure 4: Source: SAP
SAP will do away with some of the restrictions today
Figure 4 shows a technical object library – transactions, reports, all objects in system only once – e.g. VA01 only once
SAP will structure this library according to application component hierarchy
Library is based on usage – object only goes to Technical Objects Library (TOL) if used
It will generate this library automatically
Process Step Library or PSL is based on usage – using application component hierarchy as a reference. The PSL is the home for documents, test cases – can have multiple occurrences of technical objects – PSL is available per system. It is generated automatically; built on top of TOL
E2E documents business processes across systems – business process library – can’t build automatically – this is optional – pull steps from individual systems
Figure 5: Source: SAP
Figure 5 shows several paths
If customer has no solution documentation today, then the libraries are generated and build up to end to end
If have solution documentation today, all documentation is in read-only after upgrade, customers migrate projects to new environment – not automated fashion
Figure 6: Source: SAP
Figure 6 shows the link to business case; once technical implementation is done, look at how implementation is by usage of systems – business view in pink
IT view – requirements, test, change, application usage verification
Part 2 of my notes is coming; focusing on the Cloud, HANA, future direction and question & answer
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Hopefully we'll learn more details at SAP Insider's Basis SAP Administration 2015