Executive Summary
- This page describes the issues with SAP BW support and how our SAP support offerings help.
- We offer support coverage that far exceeds what is available from SAP or other providers.
Introduction
This is the SAP BW Support page of LaunchPad SAP Support.
On this page, we cover the specifics of our BW support. For explanations of the broader package related to our BW support, which explains many essential topics about SAP support, see our main SAP Support Page.
Issues With BW
After years of working in BW improvement, we know very well that BW is a high overhead application that usually overwhelms the ability of companies that have implemented BW to maintain BW appropriately. And SAP only provides minimal support but is extremely expensive, which consumes the resources from SAP customers to properly maintain BW.
Most companies that have BW do tend to staff it more than other SAP applications. However, there is also a lot of work required to support BW that is not well provided by SAP. The list of shortcomings is a long one. And this is not only mid-sized companies, but even the largest companies that often can use more help than they get from SAP maintaining BW.
What This Means for Outcomes at BW Customers
This places a significant emphasis on manual overrides to account for what BW is not doing, which also undermines the credibility of BW with users. SAP tries to make it seem that these shortcomings are only specific to each customer, when, in fact, they are universal issues for companies that implemented BW.
Improving BW typically means bringing in a consultant or utilizing SAP’s exorbitantly priced Max Attention. Max Attention is really just a renamed type of consulting.
Right now, SAP customers around the world are sitting with the worst of both worlds. This means
- Consumed IT budgets by yearly BW support costs, which provide close to no value to SAP customers.
- No hope for future improvements or future versions of BW.
- Constant pressure from BW to purchase BW/4HANA, which is quite expensive.
Getting Something Better
Imagine if you could radically improve BW and cut costs at the same time. You can. But to do so, you will need to reject the advice from SAP and SAP consulting firms.
- BW is at the end of life, and there are zero reasons to continue to pay SAP support money for their evaporated support.
- Even if companies want to purchase BW/4HANA, many won’t, and SAP will sell BW/4HANA to BW customers at any time in the future.
- Overall, there is no reason to accept a pivot from SAP sales reps to BW/4HANA and a complete diminution of the customer’s decade or more investment in BW.
What Do We Cover for BW Support?
We cover the following for BW in our support.
- Data Warehouse Admin
- All Upgrades (DS, LC, OS, Kernel, Security, Patches, Ehp)
- User Security Self Help Templates
- BW Security Patches
- BW Database Refresh
- Optimization of Design Elements
- Reorganization of Process Chains and Jobs
- Keeping Planning and Execution systems in Sync with 100% matching Master Data
- Transaction Data (e.g. Sales History) Matching Based on Rules
Notice that many of these items are not covered by SAP. However, we cover all of these and more.
This presentation illustrates the problems with SAP support and how LaunchPad SAP Support addresses these shortcomings.
What Kind of Support is This?
If this does not sound like standard support, you are right. And that is the point.
We designed our support to help our customers get the most out of SAP, not to maximize our margin or to try to protect previous sales inaccuracies. We know how to get your SAP applications working better.
To see the broader information about our SAP support see our main SAP Support Page.