SAP Activate with SolMan 7.2

SolMan 7.2 is designed to ensure a smooth and efficient transition to SAP S/4 and into the world of Digital Business. SAP Activate is based on S/4 Hana technologies and is a combination of best practices and Guided Configuration with the aim of using an optimized agile methodology. This allows the SAP projects under consideration to be simplified and made significantly leaner.

SAP Activate consists of three building blocks that can be used to varying degrees depending on the dependency of the IT landscape based on the customer's requirements. SolMan is used as the platform for Activate Content.

Pre-configured solutions can be used through the S/4 Business Process Content. Furthermore, preconfigured solutions for data migrations and test integration are also available.

Special tools for Guided Configurations: By recording all configuration activities, customers are supported in documenting and continuously improving the implementation.

Process diagrams

There is particularly strong support for the use of project accelerators. SAP puts the process diagrams in the foreground and supplements them with tools such as project management.

The SAP Support Portal contains preconfigured scenarios that are loaded into SolMan 7.2. Depending on the requirements or the use cases, preconfigured scenarios are available for the application lifecycle management area (solution documentation, test management and business process management) in the integrated editor. The implementation takes place in four core steps:

1. Preconfigured structures and documentation are loaded from the SAP Support Portal.
2. Structure elements are selected for editing.
3. Changes are made to the details.
4. Changed information is visible again in the process flow.

So far, SAP Activate sounds similar to earlier deployment frameworks like SAP Rapid Deployment Solutions (RDS).

Addressing the needs of a hybrid world: SAP is committed to this new approach: enabling is definitely the way forward. SAP partners can also leverage their specific industry knowledge or expertise.

"Partners can use the same tools to build their own model companies"

said Bernd Welz, Executive Vice President and Global Head of Solution and Knowledge Packaging at SAP.

"I believe customers will soon have a rich portfolio of options from SAP and from our partners."

Conclusion

With Activate, SAP wants to take the idea of Rapid Deployment Solutions (RDS) to the next level. In other words, it's not just about accelerating an organization's first S/4 Hana implementation, it's also about making the new features quickly usable across the lifecycle of a business application.

Since S/4 is on a quarterly release cycle, it is advisable to keep the Activate framework up-to-date and synchronized with the latest functionality. For example, new best practices can be deployed as additional parts of the in-memory business suite become available.

Hopefully, existing best practices will be continuously improved as the number of requests and resulting feedback from S/4 Hana customers increases.

According to SAP, content lifecycle management technology is used in SAP Activate to continuously update best practices and guided configurations.