Digital transformation has accelerated since 2020 by a pandemic that has demanded new levels of agility and resilience in order for businesses to remain successful. Remote work seems to be here to stay, and newly decentralized systems require sophisticated IT management that many companies aren’t accustomed to maintaining.
Enter SAP consulting services. By partnering with a trusted SAP consultant, or MSP (managed services provider), companies can implement strategies for continuous improvement, optimization and modernization of their mission critical SAP business applications, while they stay focused on their core business priorities.
With the correct MSP Partner engagement & guidance, Companies can sponsor and seamlessly run new projects like adoption of SAP S/4HANA and migration to cloud providers like AWS or Microsoft Azure, both of which enable higher levels of operational flexibility and innovation without disrupting their ongoing business.
In the sections that follow, we’ll explore what it means to work with an SAP services provider and how your company will benefit from the partnership.
Quick Takeaways
- SAP consulting services provide an ongoing partnership that includes technical and functional SAP support to run steady state business operations and strategic guidance to plan for future digital business transformation roadmap.
- According to Gartner, enterprise software (like SAP) and IT services will experience the two highest IT spending growth rates worldwide in 2022.
- Specific use cases for SAP consulting services include SAP implementation or modernization, cloud migration, application & information security and disaster recovery.
- Through its SAP managed services model, Protera can operate your applications, improve your processes, and optimize your business starting with moving your SAP and all other business Applications on AWS or Microsoft Azure Cloud Platform to converting your business applications to more advanced application platforms such as S/4 HANA & SAP Business Technology Platform.
What are SAP consulting services?
SAP consultants specialize in helping companies optimize their SAP software. They support the technical and/or functional aspects of managing SAP software, including:
- Help organizations to build roadmaps and strategy for Digital Business Transformation
- SAP Products implementations as per the business requirements
- SAP Products portfolio modernization and migration to public cloud platforms
- Data security and growth management
- SAP Product Application Lifecycle Management such as upgrades and maintenance of release levels of application software and databases
- Continuous governance and management of infrastructure and applications as services with industry standard guidelines & best practices
In some cases, SAP consultants are hired on a project-by-project basis. SAP managed services, on the other hand, involve a more ongoing approach. In a managed services model, companies partner with a SAP consulting services provider to continually optimize their SAP systems, reduce cost, and maximize business value.
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Why do companies need SAP consulting services?
There are several time-tested benefits to working with a trusted SAP consulting partner. An SAP consulting service helps companies save on IT management costs, provides expert knowledge and support, and enables companies to maximize the ROI from their SAP Product implementations. Timely events like the COVID-19 pandemic and its lasting impacts — specifically, the rise of remote work and the imperative to be more operationally flexible — have made these benefits even more critical.
Businesses are recognizing this need and investing in the systems and services necessary to help them get there. In their IT spending forecast report earlier this year, Gartner predicted that in 2022, enterprise software will experience the highest spending growth of all — an increase of 11.5%. Right behind it is IT services at 8.6%.
When companies use qualified, trusted SAP consulting & Managed Services Partners, they know that their systems portfolio will remain optimized without unexpected interruptions. They can confidently focus on the core business priority that matters most: serving their end customers.
One of the important aspects of running SAP applications smoothly is Application Lifecycle Management. With the increasing rise of application security vulnerabilities and continuous threats, it's critical that organizations keep their SAP applications updated - without disruption to their business processes.
With the increased complexity, risks and challenges around running business processes successfully, CIOs and application owners will require a strategy and partner who can help them respond to challenges with the use of available and upcoming technology advancements around business application platforms.
Important Use Cases for SAP Consulting Services
As we know, SAP consulting services provide ongoing technical and functional support for SAP users. Let’s look at some of the most important use cases included in these services.
Start your Digital Transformation Journey with SAP Products cloud migration planning and execution
SAP consultants & Managed services partners can guide you through the often complex — but increasingly necessary — cloud migration process to modernize your current SAP systems and adopt new cloud capabilities.
Services typically include planning steps — a recommended approach, architecture, cost, timeline, etc. — as well as actual implementation execution and any needed integrations with current systems. Consultants can also support the adoption of SAP S/4HANA or Rise with SAP, options to consider as SAP phases out support for traditional Business Suite applications in 2027.
Optimize SAP security and disaster recovery
SAP disasters are defined by unexpected downtime that occurs as a result of a system outage, security breach, or application failure. Just a single hour of downtime can cost companies hundreds of thousands of dollars. As such, it’s important that organizations have strong security strategies and disaster recovery solutions in place.
One of the important aspects of running SAP applications smoothly is Application Lifecycle Management. With the increasing rise of application security vulnerabilities and continuous threats, it's critical that organizations keep their SAP applications updated - without disruption to their business processes.
SAP consulting service providers can help companies maintain a stronger ongoing security posture, reducing overall risk and enabling more proactive recovery steps when a breach or other security event does occur.
SAP performance metrics reporting
Data analytics and continuous performance measurement create more agile organizations and are a core part of modern enterprise management. SAP consulting service providers support the centralization of data on the cloud for a single source of truth (SSOT) that drives efficiency, improves productivity, enables real-time insights, and increases overall ROI on IT investments.
However, companies often find when they move their applications to the cloud that the uncontrolled, unplanned, or unmanaged growth of application databases can be a challenge. With the help of a strategic MSP or Consulting partner, organizations can build data volume management strategies and manage their digital transformation efficiently.
Protera as Your SAP Partner
Through our SAP managed services model, Protera operates your mission critical and surrounding applications, improves your processes, and optimizes your business with SAP on AWS or Microsoft Azure.
- Operate - We provide technical management including basis support, database, OS, security, patching, performance, and cost management.
- Improve -We support your agile development projects with automations, self-service, and project support to help you improve your business.
- Optimize - We continually improve your performance, reduce your costs, and provide insights to help you optimize how you run SAP.
Protera brings visibility and automation to improve performance, reduce costs, and increase the agility of your SAP related systems.
Schedule a discovery call to start modernizing with cloud today.