SAP SOLUTION MANAGER

DOCUMENTATION AND REPOSITORY

Ajay Vonkarey

SAP SOLUTION DOCUMENTATION AND REPOSITORY

PURPOSE
The purpose of this document is to provide a clear picture of the documentation
features of SAP Solution Manager and the industry best practices of utilizing other
documentation tools.
ISSUE
The current issue most customer face today is to identify and establish the right
place/location/tools for SAP Solution Documentation. During SAP implementations
and support, large scale of documents are created, managed and maintained.
These include project management documents and SAP Solution documents.
CURRENT SCENARIO
As customers embark on an SAP implementation various documents need to be
created and maintained during the implementation and for an optimized support
after go-live. Some of the documents that get generated are:
Project Management documents project scope, blueprint, project plan,
project charter, Meeting minutes, resources plans
SAP Solution Documents Business Process Procedures (BPPs), Design
documents, Functional specifications, technical specifications, technical
docuemnts

SAP SOLUTION DOCUMENTATION AND REPOSITORY

SOLUTION:
Most of the customer have already established tools like SharePoint, Documentum
as the central documentation storage repository It is quite important the follow the
best practice and identify the best location for creating and maintaining these
documents. Customers need to weigh the pros/cons of utilizing the tools compared
to SAP Solution Manager for documentation
SharePoint provides a central repository of all the documents with the business
organization. This is used as a portal tool for all business, including IT
documentation.
On other hand, SAP Solution Manager the Single Source of Truth for the SAP
solution, needs to have the solution related documents readily available to utilize
functions like implementation, ChaRM, service desk and Business Process
Monitoring.
Customer need to identify the current needs and long term goal and establish the
right documentation and repository tool accordingly. As a quick start and easy to
utilize, SharePoint works well during the implementation when there is not a lot of
SAP expertise with in the organization.
SAP consultants on-board during implementation lean towards using SharePoint do
to ease of use and accessibility

SAP SOLUTION DOCUMENTATION AND REPOSITORY

SHAREPOINT
PROS

SAP SOLUTION MANAGER

Quick and easy to deploy

SAP Recommended and
Typically a corporate wide
industry best practice tool for
documentation and repository
ALM ( Application life cycle
tool
mgmt.) and ITSM( IT Service
Easy adoption for both employees
Management)
and consultants
Robust and well designed to
Standard documentation program
implement, manage and
and flexible to be adopted as per
optimize an SAP Solution.
the customers requirements
A long term benefit for the
customers, when functions
like Business Process
Mentoring and ChaRM are
enabled
No additional license cost
part of SAP Enterprise
Support

SAP SOLUTION DOCUMENTATION AND REPOSITORY

CONS

SHAREPOINT

SAP SOLUTION MANAGER

Limited or no security or
authorizations
Additional licensing cost
considering new SAP users in the
system
Additional hardware/database
costs

Takes longer time than

SharePoint to deploy
Need SME/additional
expertise on Solution
Manager
Not as flexible or adaptable as
SharePoint

SAP SOLUTION DOCUMENTATION AND REPOSITORY

APPROACH:
Typically implementation projects are under tight schedule and budgets.
Customers can get started using SharePoint as the standard documentation and
repository tool
All the documents including technical and functional can be created and housed
in SharePoint
Solution Manger can be setup to add the links to these documents in the Business
Process hierarchy
A web link can be added specific to these documents in the Solution Manager
Business Process Hierarchy ( SOLAR01/SOLAR02 Transaction)
During or after the implementation go-live, these documents can be migrated into
Solution Manager in a phased approach
The eventual goal for the customer is to have all the Solution related documents (
BPPs, Design documents, Functional/Technical Specs.) in SAP Solution Manager
After go-live and for an optimized maintenance, these documents will be used for:
Business Process Monitoring
ChaRM Change Request Management
BPCA Business Process Change Analyzer