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From the CEO
Welcome to our sixth SAP Change Control eNewsletter for 2009.
This month marks the end of another financial year for us and once again it has been very pleasing to see the high number of new companies trusting us with their SAP change control needs. In fact I think it would be quite reasonable to say that RSC is now the leading SAP change control technology vendor, particularly for those companies running extensive and complex SAP environments and so, thank you to those we have started to work with this past financial year. We look forward to working with you for many years to come.
As a leader in our field we do work at keeping you informed about things we know about and that you are interested in, and so have released a new white paper around the subject of how change control fits into SAP's solution management approach. You can read about it in this issue and request a copy if interested.
Once again our Rick Porter has been out and about, presenting his thoughts on SAP change control. You can learn a little about his latest presentation and request a copy if it strikes a chord.
Be sure to register for the latest RSC US webinar coming up early next month.
Once again the Rev-Trac Tips and Tricks and Q & A sections are included and I trust you will find them of value. Remember, if you have any of your own you would like to add, be sure to submit them.
As always, we continue to lead innovation in SAP change control, developing software technology to help you reduce the risks and lower the costs of introducing changes into your SAP systems.
David Drake, CEO and Founder
Mastering SAP Technologies Presentation
This month RSC's Rick Porter, Vice President Business Development, presented at Eventful Management's Mastering SAP Technologies conference in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, where his topic "Java, Dual Stack Technologies, CTS+ and Change Control: Managing Emerging Complexity" covered a range of SAP specific change management considerations.
In essence, his presentation discussed:
- The emergence of multiple stack technologies and the impact this is having on SAP change control.
- The availability of recently introduced SAP initiatives such as CTS+ and SAP Solution Manager ChaRM, and how these tools can assist SAP COE owners serve the business better
- How SAP certified third party change control technologies can fit into an SAP Solutions Management strategy and under what conditions it may be a better fit than the SAP Solution Manager offerings.
Among a range of discussion points, during his presentation Rick discussed the correlation between regulatory compliance, quantity and frequency of change and complexity (of process and SAP environment) and the need for advanced change control technology.
His main point being, the higher the volume of change or regulatory compliance requirement and the more complex the change control
process(es) or the SAP infrastructure environment, then the more likely the need for an advanced change control technology to consistently manage, track and control changes made.
To learn more about what Rick presented, request a copy of his presentation. Request copy >>
New White Paper
This month RSC released its new white paper:
Rev-Trac® and Your SAP® Infrastructure - How Change Control Fits Into SAP's Solution Management Approach
This white paper answers a range of questions around how an automated change and request management strategy can fit into a large, SAP solution-based IT infrastructure.
It shows how the enhanced automation of RSC's market-tested and mature Rev-Trac change control technology can complement SAP solutions, including SAP Business Suite software as well as other third-party components, while it strengthens the system as a whole.
Providing a perspective on SAP's evolving infrastructure and illustrating the growing complexity of IT systems, the paper also introduces the role of third-party solutions in the SAP eco system and discusses why change request control and change management have become key concerns with a high priority today.
If you would like a copy of this white paper, ask for one by contacting us.
Rev-Trac Tips and Tricks
Unavailable system rules
Inevitably, SAP systems sometimes become unavailable or inactive, due to maintenance or upgrades, or something less planned.
When this occurs, migration to the system obviously cannot occur, however you may wish to continue adding transports for migration to the system to the Rev-Trac migration queue. Normally this would not be possible, but available from Support Package Stack 17, the Rev-Trac "Unavailable system rules" feature provides a solution.
Unavailable system rules determine what behaviour Rev-Trac should observe when attempting to add a transport to the Rev-Trac migration queue at a time when a system is not currently available, either as a result of the system being flagged "Not active" in the Rev-Trac system configuration, or if Rev-Trac is unable to communicate with the system when a function requires Rev-Trac to do so.
When creating a rule, there are four options for how Rev-Trac should behave:
For further information on unavailable system rules, please consult the Rev-Trac Administrator Guide. The latest copy of the guide can be downloaded from the support area of the RSC website.
[ More tips >> ]
Rev-Trac Q & A
How can I manage non-ABAP change with Rev-Trac?
There are two options for managing non-ABAP (e.g. Java) changes with Rev-Trac: SAP CTS+ and the Rev-Trac xDeploy add-on.
SAP CTS+ allows you to migrate SAP-based non-ABAP changes inside your regular workbench transports. As Rev-Trac utilises CTS/TMS for migration, there is little Rev-Trac configuration required to take advantage of CTS+, once your SAP systems are configured. However, CTS+ will only handle SAP-based non-ABAP changes that are supported by CTSDEPLOY/SDM, and there is little flexibility when it comes to package management and sequencing.
Rev-Trac xDeploy allows you to handle any non-ABAP changes, whether they reside within the SAP solutions environment or not, with packages managed as individual entities attached to a
Rev-Trac request. This provides full change logging, as well as support for flexible sequencing. Normal transports can be managed on the same Rev-Trac request, and dependencies can be configured between all of the components to ensure that dependent multi-stack changes are migrated and deployed in the correct sequence every time.
Finally, while xDeploy provides out-of-the-box support for many common deployment scenarios, including SAP package deployment via CTSDEPLOY/SDM, its extensible architecture allows new deployment actions to be defined quickly and easily with an appropriate script, giving xDeploy the ability to deploy change to any third-party system.
For further information about managing non-ABAP change with
Rev-Trac, please read our whitepaper "Rev-Trac and SAP CTS+: Extending Transport Management to the SAP Java Environment" or download the Rev-Trac xDeploy add-on data sheet.
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