When it comes to making the most out of your enterprise solutions, adopting a clear application deployment methodology and leveraging the right tools and integrations for each project can make or break your company’s success…

Read on to learn how SAP Application Lifecycle Management (SAP ALM) can help you realize the full value of your SAP investment, as well as how our senior-level SAP consultants can help.

What is Application Lifecycle Management?

Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) involves the people, products, and processes used to manage the entire lifecycle of a software application from the time it’s designed to the end of its life.

By adopting ALM across your application landscape, companies are enabled to improve collaboration across teams and business units, support DevOps and Agile app development methods, and leverage a defined framework to consistently manage and deliver application functionality over time.

The stages of Application Lifecycle Management include…

  • Application Governance: Governance involves assessing the initial idea for an application, determining how it relates to business needs and objectives, and creating a set of requirements that must be included in application development (i.e., data management, security, user access, etc.)
  • Application Development: Once teams have outlined specific requirements or restrictions for a specific application, teams begin designing, testing, configuring, and deploying the app within their business operations.
  • Software Testing: After initial software development for the application is complete, the app must be tested to ensure governance requirements are met and bugs are fixed before the solution is released and extended to end-users.
  • System Maintenance: Once the application is made available to users, app development and maintenance teams must conduct regular tests and updates to ensure proper functionality or determine the point in which an app version will no longer be supported by the software provider.

How Can SAP ALM Support Your Cloud Solutions?

SAP Cloud ALM is a member of SAP Enterprise Support and is SAP’s cloud-based Application Lifecycle Management solution designed to help customers implement and optimize SAP cloud solutions and streamline the way companies operate their cloud or hybrid solutions across their entire organization.

With SAP Cloud ALM services, customers are enabled to…

  • Manage implementation processes and operations with a holistic Cloud ALM approach
  • Understand the steps needed to efficiently deploy or manage any SAP cloud solution
  • Use pre-built, content-driven workspace to better understand operations capabilities for their SAP cloud solutions
  • Monitor integrations and exceptions during business process monitoring across teams
  • Build intuitive, functional applications without the need for hardware investment

Main Advantages of SAP Cloud ALM

1) Faster Time to Value

With SAP Cloud ALM tools, including preconfigured app development templates and solution best practices, SAP users are able to not only reduce the time needed to set up project guidelines and outline plans for development, but also offers more time for teams to focus on delivering quicker and better business value for end-users.

SAP Cloud ALM provides the functionality needed to…

  • Run fit-to-standard workshops more efficiently and effectively
  • Plan and deliver testing activities with a centralized solution
  • Automate task assignments and deployment operations in SAP
  • Leverage end-to-end traceability for more consistent development processes

2) Seamless Integration

SAP Cloud ALM provides built-in integration capabilities that seamlessly connect with other cloud-based SAP solutions, including the SAP Business Technology Platform, SAP Analytics Cloud, SuccessFactors, and Ariba solutions.

With Cloud ALM functionality, SAP users can not only improve the management and movement of important data between solutions, but they can also manage all project areas in a single solution.

3) Collaboration and Continuity

With SAP’s Application Lifecycle Management offering, customers can leverage cloud technology to simplify issue tracking and resolution, improve the delivery and efficiency of SAP applications, and streamline service collaboration across the SAP community.

4) Cloud-Based Functionality

The Cloud ALM solution is built under an “agile” methodology, meaning that SAP users can quickly and easily manage projects, track progress and performance, and promote collaboration across teams working on projects with added complexity or multiple moving parts.

The SAP Cloud ALM tenant makes it easier for cloud-centric customers to…

  • Leverage advanced analytics and machine learning functions to improve solution health and predict future system anomalies
  • Automate application development tasks and operations to reduce resolution time for any solution issues and optimize business process performance
  • Ensure service-level agreements (SLAs) are met through transparent analysis and reporting

5) Better User Experiences

With cloud-based applications, SAP Cloud ALM enables teams to access the solution wherever and whenever it’s needed, collaborate more easily and efficiently, leverage a well-established support system to make more informed decisions, and simplify the user experience across SAP applications.

Integrations with Other SAP Applications

The SAP Cloud ALM solution provides built-in functional integrations with other SAP applications to help customers realize the full value of all of their SAP cloud applications across teams, departments, and comprehensive business units.

SAP S/4HANA

  • Pre-configured workspace to guide customers through SAP S/4HANA implementation
  • Centralized point of entry for SAP operations on different technology platforms
  • Best practice methodology to manage implementation, testing, and deployment operations in the SAP S/4HANA Cloud

SAP Ariba

  • Multiple solution scenarios and processes from SAP Reference Architecture and SAP Ariba Activity Roadmap to implement SAP Ariba more efficiently
  • Streamlined documentation for project timeline, scope, tasks, and follow-up activities
  • Central entry point for IT and LOB operations tasks and activities
  • Erroneous message detection from SAP Ariba Sourcing, Procurement, Network, and Cloud Integration Gateway (CIG) solutions

SAP SuccessFactors

  • Role and task designation for project team members for more efficient SAP SuccessFactors implementation and development processes
  • Cloud support capabilities to track project progress, monitor data replication messages, and improve the quality of business process execution across teams
  • Detection functionality for exceptions in SAP middleware and the core integration center

How Can We Help?

Whether you need help understanding the difference between SAP Solution Manager and Cloud ALM functionality, additional support navigating complex app configuration processes, step-by-step guidance throughout each phase of development, or anything in between, Surety Systems is here to help.

Our team of senior-level SAP consultants has the technical skills and functional expertise needed to lead you to success with your cloud solutions, regardless of the size, scope, or scale of your project needs.

Getting Started with Us

Interested in learning where our SAP consulting services can fit in your organization?

Contact us today to get started with one of our expert SAP consultants!