Replacing SAP Solution Manager: Pathways to a modern ITSM platform

A recent webcast by Materna, Oxando and corporate Business Solutions Unternehmensberatung (cbs) highlighted the challenges and practical solutions for the coming years.

1. Background: Product status and the need for action

SAP Solution Manager 7.2 will remain under standard support for key scenarios such as ITSM, change management and implementation until the end of 2027. Extended maintenance is planned until 2030 for some areas. Nevertheless, this timeframe means that many organisations need to plan for alternatives at an early stage – particularly as SAP itself does not offer a successor solution for ITSM.

Looking ahead, SAP is focusing on two products:

• SAP Cloud ALM for implementation, monitoring and change scenarios (excluding ITSM components)
• SAP Focused Run for highly scalable monitoring requirements in large SAP landscapes

This leaves a key gap: organisations still need a helpdesk and ITSM system to replace the processes currently found in Solution Manager.

2. Key challenge: migration of ITSM data

Many organisations have been using SAP Solution Manager for more than a decade. The incidents, changes, attachments and documentation created there are often

• relevant to audits,
• security-related,
• necessary for customer reports,
• and vital for future AI-based knowledge databases.

In the webcast, Oxando presented a standardised migration technology that exports historical ITSM data from Solution Manager, cleans it up and converts it into a system-independent data format. This data can then be imported into various target ITSM scenarios – or used for AI analysis.

Experience gained from projects, including migrations involving over a million tickets, shows that the solution stands out in particular due to:

• scalable data extraction,
• selective migration,
• traceable audit logging

.

Data that is not to be transferred to the new ITSM system can also be archived in a structured manner, allowing the Solution Manager to be decommissioned.

3. Selecting a new ITSM platform

Materna outlined various approaches companies can take to identify a suitable future ITSM solution. Several strategic options are available:

1. Continued use of the organisation’s existing ITSM system –
   advisable if SAP tickets can be integrated into it in future.
2. Introduction of a new enterprise service management platform, e.g.:
   • ServiceNow
   • BMC
   • Atlassian
   • OpenText
3. A separate ITSM solution dedicated solely to
   SAP matters – suitable where SAP processes are organisationally separate from the rest of IT.

All the platforms mentioned support modern ESM concepts and already include extensive machine learning and AI functionalities that can be utilised for automation in the future.

Approach to tool evaluation

Materna outlined a structured selection process:

1. Current state analysis: processes, stakeholders, organisational framework
2. Requirement definition: SAP-specific, cross-IT or enterprise-wide
3. Use-case-based evaluation rather than purely Excel-based criteria lists
4. Vendor demos based on real-world use cases
5. Ranking and recommendation
6. Change and communication support for the roll-out

Key success factors here include a holistic view of processes, the involvement of end users, and assessing whether existing working methods can be simplified or automated using modern platforms.

4. Integration with SAP Cloud ALM

Whilst SAP Cloud ALM will in future cover many ALM scenarios (e.g. monitoring, change management, test management), the service desk functionality previously included in Solution Manager will be completely omitted.

This gives rise to two areas of focus:

• ALM processes: Assessing whether Cloud ALM fully replaces the existing Solution Manager scenarios.
• ITSM processes: Selection and integration of an external ITSM platform.

Interfaces, such as those between Cloud ALM and ServiceNow, are already available and can be used to transfer incidents or changes to the target system.

5. Recommendations for the next steps

For organisations planning to phase out SAP Solution Manager, the following are typical next steps:

1. Analysis of current use of Solution Manager (ITSM, ALM, documentation, monitoring).
2. Decision on the target scenario:
   • Where should ITSM processes run in future?
   • How will ALM processes be distributed between Cloud ALM, ESM platforms or other tools?
3. Launch of a structured selection process for the future ITSM system.
4. Planning of data migration, including the archiving of unnecessary data.
5. Workshops on process harmonisation and the assessment of AI potential.
6. Preparation for organisational change (communication, training, roles).

The aim is to achieve sustainable, user-friendly and future-proof IT service management that covers both SAP requirements and company-wide service processes.