From the CEO

If your organization is like most we are introduced to, then it's likely you are tending towards introducing a range of SAP solutions into your SAP environments that span several technologies.

If this is the case, then you will be finding change control an increasingly important activity. Why not take a few minutes to read our new whitepaper on 'what senior managers need to know about managing change in complex SAP environments', which can be downloaded using the link below.

Towards the bottom of this eNewsletter you will find new Rev-Trac Tips and Tricks and Rev-Trac Q & A sections. Previous tips can be found on the RSC website.

If you missed any of the last RSC webinars held in early 2008, don't forget to register for the upcoming series (see side panel).

As always, we continue to lead innovation in SAP change control, developing software technology to help you to reduce the risks and lower the costs of introducing changes into your SAP systems.

David Drake, CEO and Founder

Managing change in complex SAP environments

SAP change control teams are dealing with increasing volumes of change and as their organizations begin to take in additional SAP solutions that also span new technologies, they must find ways to manage increasingly complex change requirements. In many cases companies are also required to document change control processes and activities carefully in order to comply with regulatory obligations.

Accordingly, the challenges associated with managing high volumes of change, in an auditable manner, and for increasingly complex SAP environments, are ever increasing.

As your SAP environment tends towards this levels of complexity you or your Senior Managers and Directors are likely to be concerned about how to maintain system stability and how change control processes and systems can ensure it.

Rick Porter, Vice President of Business Development here at RSC, has recently written a whitepaper that highlights common change control challenges experienced by SAP change control teams in complex SAP environments and offers a range of considerations to be thought through when looking at developing change control processes to meet the challenges. It is an enlightening read.

[ Download whitepaper >> ]

Why Your Organisation Should Be Using An SAP Change Control Technology

SAP change control as a regulated activity

With the ever-increasing number of SAP landscapes and systems to manage, combined with the need to adhere to Sarbanes Oxley, CFR Part 11 and other audit-compliant change control processes, using existing paper-based manual systems is becoming a serious barrier to best practice SAP change control.

Human error is inevitable, so by utilizing a change control technology that can automate and enforce SAP system changes, users can ensure an accessible audit trail for 100% of regulated changes is achieved with minimal risk and low cost.

[ More Reasons >> ]

TechEd Las Vegas

RSC Booth #73

SAP TechEd is SAP's premier technical and business process conference. This event brings together the best technology minds and RSC is looking forward to be one of many exhibitors.

If you are attending, please feel free to drop by booth #73 for a chat.

SAP TechEd '08 Las Vegas
September 8 - 12, 2008

The Venetian & The Palazzo Congress Center
3355 Las Vegas Boulevard South
Las Vegas, NV 89109

[ TechEd Details >> ]

Rev-Trac Tips and Tricks

Request Cloning

Automatically cloning requests from one Rev-Trac project into another is a convenient and reliable way of ensuring that all changes made in one project (e.g. production support) are tracked as candidates for subsequent application to another project (e.g. system upgrade or a separate project landscape).

Request cloning can be initiated in Rev-Trac in one of two ways:

• Implement a Rev-Trac customer exit that is called every time a request's status is changed.
• As of SPS17, it is now possible to implement the Rev-Trac cloning function using a configuration dialog.
  
  Using the “Request cloning rules” configuration dialog, it is possible to instruct Rev-Trac to create a clone of a Rev-Trac request assigned to a specific Project/Request type combination at an appropriate point in the request’s lifecycle.

For more detail on this topic, see the section ‘Setting up request cloning’ in the current version of the Rev-Trac Administrator guide available for download from the support area of the RSC website.

[ More tips >> ]

Rev-Trac Q and A

What are the differences between Rev-Trac’s background and foreground migration methods and which do you recommend?

Two migration methods are available in Rev-Trac. Rev-Trac's queued migration method migrates transports in a two-step process (this is the recommended method).

In the first step, users send transports to the Rev-Trac migration queue usually via an approval step on a Rev-Trac request. In the second step, Rev-Trac's batch migration utility migrates items in the queue to their destinations. This utility usually runs in the background.

Rev-Trac's non-queued method migrates transports immediately using a foreground (dialog) process. This method of migrating transports is less flexible than queued migration and is no longer recommended.

As mentioned above, the recommended migration method is background as the logs produced by this method make problem determination and resolution easier to diagnose.

For further information and a summary of the differences between the two methods, see the heading ‘Migration’ in the current version of the Rev-Trac Administrator guide available for download from the support area of the RSC website.

[ Ask a question >> ]