The project was carried out jointly by InTeco and SNP Poland (currently All for One Poland). The two companies have been cooperating in the process of administering Amica’s hardware and software infrastructure for more than a dozen years. During this time, joint and intertwined administrative activities have allowed them to develop effective methods of cooperation, which result in efficient project implementations of SAP systems.

New version of the solution

SAP Solution Manager (SolMan) is a tool that supports application cycle management in accordance with the Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) methodology. The new version of SAP Solution Manager 7.2 has undergone a number of changes to make ALM work easier for users:

  • A new interface based on SAP UI5 has been delivered,
  • new dashboards have been prepared to support the conduct of projects, testing, monitoring and many other activities from which metrics are collected,
  • New business process modeling tools have been added to prepare documentation and configuration for monitoring these processes.

Landscape in Amica

With manufacturer support for version 7.1 of Solution Manager ending in December 2017, Amica decided in mid-2017 to upgrade SolMan to version 7.2.

In the case of Amica, this was a major change for several reasons. It was decided that “on the occasion" of the Solution Manager version change, the system landscape would also change. In place of a single Solution Manager on an Oracle database, which acted as both DEV and PRD, two completely new systems were established – development and production.

SAP, along with a license for Solution Manager 7.2 also provided a license for SAP HANA under SAP Solution Manager. Amica opted for this solution, which in turn forced the use of the Linux operating system instead of Windows.

More scope, more possibilities

Amica has decided to use SAP Solution Manager systems to a greater extent than before. Prior to the upgrade, the SolMan system was used in its basic scope, i.e.: as maintenance of a central database on all SAP systems in the Amica environment (LMDB), for Early Watch reports, and as a central place to perform daily monitoring.

With the migration to the new version, it was decided to use SolMan for technical monitoring and business process monitoring in addition to its existing use.

By using Technical Monitoring, responding to any potential system failures can be faster and more efficient than before. Technical Monitoring presents data on monitored systems in convenient graphs, in near real-time (depending on the defined sampling frequency) and in the form of alerts. In addition, the ability to configure Guided Procedures in detail, in which we define a set of steps to identify a problem, allows basic administrative and incident response tasks to be performed even by novices. Full implementation of Technical Monitoring enables better and more accurate analysis of systems, as all performance information that is monitored is stored in a database and can later be analyzed through various reports and charts, which has a significant impact on the quality of the analysis performed.

Business Process Monitoring gives users the ability to model business processes in the system and then monitor them proactively. The monitoring indicator is the business process, which can include all the systems used in it along with the interfaces used for data transfer.

SAP Solution Manager increasingly important

In a large company like Amica, where we are dealing with increasingly complex SAP environments, SAP Solution Manager is starting to become an important and necessary tool for system administrators. Effective monitoring and management of a complex system landscape is only possible if you have the right tools for it. SolMan is just such a tool, the new version 7.2 of which includes many additional features and improvements. Previously, Amica used Solution Manager to a limited extent, but the new version of the system, as well as the much faster HANA database, have resulted in the platform being actively used to manage the SAP environment, monitor system load and maintain documentation, as well as providing the ability to conduct tests in the SAP environment.

Dominik Tylczynski, InTeco Business Solutions Ltd.

Amica S.A. is Poland’s largest home appliance manufacturer, which has been present on the Polish market since 1945. The company offers a full range of intelligent large and small household appliances. More than 65 percent of revenues come from sales in more than 50 foreign markets, including Germany, the United Kingdom and Scandinavia. The Amica Group’s brand portfolio also includes foreign brands Gram, Hansa and CDA. Since 1997, the company has been listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange. In total, it employs 2,500 people in all factories and offices in Poland and abroad.