SAP Gears Customers to Adopt and Orchestrate Innovation

LAS VEGAS, Sept. 13, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- As promised just prior to SAPPHIRE® NOW 2011 from Orlando, the new release of the SAP® Solution Manager application management solution is now generally available to help customers better orchestrate their IT landscapes. The release from SAP AG (NYSE: SAP) provides better support for both SAP and non-SAP applications than ever before. Today's announcement was made at SAP® TechEd 2011, being held in Las Vegas, Nevada, from September 12-16.

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SAP Solution Manager 7.1 orchestrates the implementation and operation of new technologies, helping customers understand how these innovations should be implemented and operated. Importantly, the 7.1 release helps customers get ready to adopt innovations from SAP such as the SAP HANA™ platform, and to integrate these innovations into the life-cycle management that they have today. The same also holds true with mobility.

"With business managers increasingly demanding top performance from software supporting mission-critical business processes, enterprise IT organizations are turning to proactive and preventive support tools and utilities to help maximize performance and minimize downtime," said Elaina Stergiades, research manager, Software Support Services, IDC. "Comprehensive offerings like SAP Solution Manager can help enterprises monitor and track performance in the IT environment across heterogeneous systems, manage support for business processes and potentially resolve critical issues before they can affect front-line performance."

New Features Further Strengthen SAP Solution Manager

The latest release of SAP Solution Manager provides a complete, new user experience, helping IT organizations establish a common language between business and IT. It is the industry's only integrated, end-to-end orchestration platform for accelerating innovation and application life-cycle management, improving operational quality and lowering costs.

The 7.1 release allows managers to faster derive benefits from the information stored in SAP Solution Manager, such as data about emergency changes or overdue outbound deliveries. The latest version also removes the need for customers to buy separate application management tools, while at the same time making better use of any pre-existing IT management tools that may already be present within a technology stack.

With SAP Solution Manager 7.1, SAP strengthens its relationship with HP in regards to improved testing of SAP solutions. All SAP customers holding a contract for SAP® Enterprise Support services or SAP® MaxAttention™ support are entitled to use two licenses of HP Quick Test Professional, HP's premier automated testing tool, integrated into test management of SAP Solution Manager 7.1. This allows customers to dive into automated testing without up-front investments.

One of the Largest and Shortest SAP Ramp-Ups Ever

SAP Solution Manager has evolved to become the most open orchestration platform for SAP-centric customer solutions in the industry. More than 100 customers worldwide participated in the SAP® Ramp-Up program, which was one of the largest as well as one of the shortest ramp-up programs ever undertaken by SAP. The benefits to customers of this new release are evident. Customers that participated in the ramp-up cite better business process monitoring and increased transparency as key benefits to their businesses.

"After upgrading to SAP Solution Manager 7.1, our dedicated SAP experts were able to deliver reversed business process documentation analysis, which gave us a complete view of both used and unused functionalities in our system," said Saji P Oommen, general manager, Group IT, Al Batha Group. "And the standard documentation we obtained from the business process repository allowed us to save up to 70 percent of the initial workload required."

"The new release of SAP Solution Manager offers true support for both SAP and non-SAP applications alike," said Uwe Hommel, executive vice president, SAP Active Global Support. "It is the most advanced platform for running SAP-centric customer solutions with factory-like precision. For example, availability, performance and data quality are monitored in an operations control center, which improves business continuity and solution quality. SAP Solution Manager is also the core value pillar for SAP Enterprise Support services and SAP MaxAttention support."

Read more on what customers and partners have to say: "Customers and Partners on the Comprehensive New Release of SAP Solution Manager"; watch a video featuring customers and SAP executives: "SAP Customers Run Better With SAP Solution Manager"; and view screenshots: "Screenshots: SAP Solution Manager 7.1."

Follow SAP Solution Manager on Twitter at @SAPServices and join the conversation at #SolMan.

For announcements, blog posts, videos and other coverage during the event series, visit the SAP TechEd newsroom.

SAP® TechEd 2011 in Las Vegas, Bangalore, Madrid, and Beijing

More than 19,000 SAP customers, partners and technical experts are expected to convene at SAP® TechEd 2011, the company's largest ecosystem education event series. The conference brings IT managers, software developers, administrators, and business process experts together for a look under the hood of today's business motors: the latest advances in in-memory and mobile technologies, and in on-premise, on-demand and on-device applications from SAP and more. In its 15th year, SAP TechEd will be held in four locations around the globe: Las Vegas, Nevada, from September 12-16; Bangalore, India, from October 19-21; Madrid, Spain, from November 8-10; and Beijing, China, from November 15-17. Follow SAP TechEd on Twitter at @SAPTechEd and join the conversation at #SAPTechEd.

About SAP

As market leader in enterprise application software, SAP (NYSE: SAP) helps companies of all sizes and industries run better. From back office to boardroom, warehouse to storefront, desktop to mobile device – SAP empowers people and organizations to work together more efficiently and use business insight more effectively to stay ahead of the competition. SAP applications and services enable more than 172,000 customers (includes customers from the acquisition of Sybase) to operate profitably, adapt continuously, and grow sustainably. For more information, visit www.sap.com.

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To speak with press contacts on site during SAP TechEd 2011 Las Vegas (from September 13 to 15), please dial the SAP press room at +1 (610) 661-0469.

SOURCE SAP AG