That has proven to be a difficult question to answer accurately because the Solution Manager scope has been expanding over the years to cover many different functional and solution support areas.

One of the best resources to help understand the overall size and scope of Solution Manager is the recently published SAP Solution Manager 7.2 Adoption Framework. This lengthy document describes 40 different functional areas in Solution Manager 7.2. SAP also provides some rough guidelines regarding estimated efforts to implement the functionality. What struck me was the overwhelming amount of effort required when you take a closer look.

Here are a couple of figures from the guide to help understand the potential effort involved with configuring and implementing (not considering ongoing administration) SolMan:

    • 94 Days of recommended Expert Guided Implementation (EGI) sessions to introduce you to the specific functionality and basic implementation steps
    • 13 days of formal training courses listed, with about 30 days of additional SolMan training courses shown on the SAP training website
    • Approximately 60 to 70 weeks of estimated effort for implementation

Of course, implementing all aspects of SolMan are not practical. According to SAP, “Typically, SAP customers do not utilize all options but concentrate on those that are most valuable for them. To do so, you need to understand not only the value but also the related efforts for setting up the individual capabilities.”  In other words, choose carefully because you can’t do everything.

So the key question should be, “What are the most valuable SolMan areas for your organization?”  We would like to hear from you because we’re continuing to expand Rev-Trac’s integration capabilities with SolMan and want to make sure we focus our efforts on the most valuable functional areas.  Let us know by emailing us at sales@xrsc.com.