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Sage Technologies
SAP Application Support Approach
And Guidelines Sage Consulting Division
Asian HQ: C - 102, Sector 65, NOIDA, UP 201301, India Phone: +91-120- 2406177 Facsimile: +91-120-2406177
www.sagetl.com
Global Headquarter 3400 Highway 35, Suite # 9Hazlet,
NJ-7730, USA Tel: 732-767-0010, Fax: 732-767-0015
www.sageci.com
Sage Technologies Confidential Page 2 of 11
Table of Contents
PROGRAM OVERVIEW………………………………………………………………………………………3
PROJECT ORGANIZATION STRUCTURE………………………………………………………………...4
ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES…………………………………………………………………………..4
PROJECT MANAGEMENT PRACTICES…………………………………………………………………..5
SUPPORT GUIDELINES……………………………………………………………………………………..5
PROJECT REVIEW MECHANISMS………………………………………………………………………..6
PRODUCTION SUPPORT REPORTS……………………………………………………………………..6
ISSUE MANAGEMENT………………………………………………………………………………………7
Sage Technologies Confidential Page 3 of 11
Program Overview As part of our application support and maintenance offering, we take complete ownership of our customer’s application. We provide services at both ends – at customer location as wells as from offshore locations. This is achieved through our onsite-off-shore model where we provide support at customer location and have an off-shore setup of dedicated team and infrastructure, called Offshore Development Center (ODC). We have developed our own well-defined and mature application maintenance process which allows effective control of the application environment and business activities.
Our Application Management Services offerings can benefit you by:
Reducing costs Providing greater availability of mission-critical business applications Providing enhanced reliability in every day support and maintenance tasks Providing greater efficiency and performance from development and support staffs Increasing internal employee morale – focused on core competencies Freeing up internal resources for revenue generating activities Providing consistent monthly reporting with agreed upon metrics ( SLA) Enabling the “Right-sizing” and “Right-sourcing” of tasks Injecting documentation and
Quality into the overall support process Providing access to the application support best practices developed and continuously improved upon by Sage Technologies’ Guaranteed service levels
Our ASM approach We have developed our own well-defined and mature application maintenance process which allows effective control of the application environment and business activities. Our transition process consists of unique knowledge transfer methodology and effective documentation of process and procedures provide safe means in transition to off-shore for greater efficiency and cost saving for customers. All of these activities are governed and monitored by an SLA framework
Sage Technologies Confidential Page 4 of 11
Support Process Overview Our Typical process flow for SAP support services
STPL will augment Client to provide complete SAP application support which includes helpdesk, L2 functional and L3 Technical (ABAP & Basis) as on need basis.
Helpdesk Support L2 and L3 Functional Support – All modules implemented (FICO, SD, MM, PP, PM, QM, HRPY, PS) L2 and L3 Technical Support (ABAP & Basis)
Sage Technologies Confidential Page 5 of 11
Client will route the incidents to the appropriate support team (internal or external). Client will continue to dictate the direction of SAP, design, delivery, support & project management services. The Service request priorities, reaction times, assignments and indicative SLA’s are identified as under:
Severity Definition Response Time Resolution Time
1 System is unavailable or required within 24 hours or a critical business function cannot be done and there is absolutely no work around.
1 Hour 4-8 hours
2 A significant business function cannot be done and a work around cannot be sustained beyond 3 days without a serious business impact.
1 hour 1 Day
3 A user is unable to do a given business application but a work around is sustainable or is not required.
1 Hour 1-2 business day
4 A non-critical, non-urgent situation. This is a request for enhancements/new requirements to functionality or business processes.
< 1 Day Negotiated with the Client
Project Team Structure
SAP ABAP Consultant
SAP SD Consultant
SAP FICO
Consultant
SAP BASIS
Consultant
STPL Project Lead/
Account Manager
STPL Program
Manager/Head
Client Project
Manager/SPOC
Client SAP
Super
Users/end users
Client IT Head/Program
Manager
Strategy, Risk Management, Escalations
Planning, Status, Issues, Metrics &
improvements
Daily Support issues, resolution,
root cause
analysis, reporting
SAP MM
Consultant
SAP HR
Consultant
Sage Technologies Confidential Page 6 of 11
Roles and Responsibilities STPL Program Manager
Managing the full team in the engagement Handling the induction of new staff and release of staff from the project(s). Ensuring that the resources are managed effectively and efficiently Reviewing project deliverables Setting up operational guidelines. Escalation point for Sev 1 and Sev 2 issues. SLA Management Meeting/reviewing transition plan requirements. Participating in Steering Committee meetings and project reviews(onsite/offshore) Interfacing with customer on regular basis through Telecoms/onsite visits Managing Project resources effectively and task allocation / Shift Planning / On Call List Coordinating with client Counterpart and other managers in the organization. Ensuring adherence of the team members to the specified Service levels Identifying and ensuring that all team members are given required training to enhance their
skills to perform their work effectively Identifying training needs for the team First point of escalation for problems related to their area Reporting in their respective areas
Sage SAP support team
Supporting 24 X 7 production support issues Respond to on call message if they are on call person Addressing regular requirements as defined within the parameters set Ensuring that interaction with colleagues is conducted professionally, and is in keeping with
established office etiquette Consistently improving the quality of work to improve upon previous quality ratings and deadline
adherence.
Sage Technologies Confidential Page 7 of 11
MANAGEMENT PRACTICES
Support Guidelines To support client, Sage will provide the live support till 19:00 pm IST .For any emergency issues, the live support person in the particular week can be contacted at any time. In non-critical situation, the support team member in his respective areas will acknowledge the issue and will respond back with the resolution as per the SLA. Here the response time will be the next working day if issue comes after 19:00 pm IST.
Support coverage
Key:
Live Support
On call
The on-call support is for the urgent issues and non-critical issues will be taken care by next working day.
Severity Level monitoring and escalation process:
Problem Area Source of monitoring Escalation Sage level 1 Escalation Sage level 2
Role
Trigger for escalation and mode Name Trigger for escalation
Severity level 1/2
Critical transaction not happening for all authorized users which impacts business immediately
User reports problem
Functional support team
Immediate by call
Program Manager Immediate by call
Critical reports which can stop business are not functioning for all authorized users.
User reports problem
Functional/Technical support team
Immediate by call
Program Manager Immediate by call
Severity level 3
Others
User reports problem
Functional/Technical support team None None
In case of Sev 1, Sev 2 issues, Client team should call up the relevant on call person in the respective area apart from following the escalation procedure for Sev1/ Sev 2.
Sage Technologies Confidential Page 8 of 11
In case the on call support person does not respond within 1hr of calling, then the CLIENT team needs to escalate it as per the guidelines below: If a response is not received within 1 hr please escalate in the following order. Escalate to next level if no answer is received. EL1: Contact STPL Delivery Lead……………………… EL2: Contact STPL Account Manager……………………… EL3: Contact STPL Program Manager………………………
Project Review Mechanism
Periodic reviews and meetings have been jointly agreed by client and STPL Managers for tracking the support and enhancement activities.
The meetings are at four levels:
1) Managers Meetings – Monthly 2) Meeting with team - Daily ( internally by STPL Project Manager) 3) Issue Clarification ( as on need basis) 4) Ad hoc – As and when required basis
However the meeting schedules would be changed as we progress and stabilize into production support.
Sage Technologies Confidential Page 9 of 11
Reporting Mechanism
Type of Reports Description Time & Frequency
Monthly
Consolidated issue report for the month
Lists all the issues opened by support team members and resolved within 1 month
1st
of new month
Monthly Issues consumed report Issues consumed from support bucket
1st
of new month
AdHoc
As per any specific requirement from CLIENT
As on need basis
Issue Management
Issues related to the engagement are logged into issue resolution sheet, which is then circulated amongst client and STPL Managers and taken up for discussion and resolution. Any Manager can log in an issue for discussion.
We have also developed our own issue management tool to support our SAP ASM clients. It is web-based tool to interface with customers on issues and resolution. The customer can log-in issue online and with automated workflow the ticket is assigned to relevant support team. Issues, action, decision, resolution, estimation and actual efforts can be tracked.
Reporting will help to extract reports which can be used as a powerful tool for doing root cause analysis for repetitive issues and can be permanently fixed.
All type of SAP issues can be logged in the tool with least effort as all the modules and type of issues already defined for selection.
Sage Technologies Confidential Page 10 of 11
STPL’s Quality management process The Project Quality standards shall be worked out right at the outset of the project in consultation with
PE. The Project Quality Assurance plan, which would detail these processes and standards, shall be
adhered to throughout the life of the project.
Quality Assurance will focus on:
Comprehensiveness of functional specifications
Compliance with all functionality stated in the functional specifications
Compliance with the ABAP Programming Standards
Compliance with the Development Methodology
Preparation of Quality related documentation
Compliance with the Documentation Standards
Compliance with Estimation Guidelines
Consistency in coding
Compliance with user interface standards
Unit Test & Integration Test Plan preparation
Unit Testing & Integration Testing
These Quality Assurance activities span across the phases as listed below.
Step Description Quality Assurance Activities
Project start-up
1. Project start-up
Define Processes and standards
Define quality goals and performance levels
Prepare/finalize checklists and references
Development Lifecycle
1. Review of Functional specifications Review of comprehensiveness of functional
specifications
2. Technical Specifications / Solution Blueprint Preparation
Compliance with the functionality stated in the functional specifications
Compliance with the Documentation Standards for Technical Specifications
Internal review of the Technical Specs 3. Test Plan & Test Data Preparation Preparation of test plans with test data
Compliance with the functionality stated in the functional specifications, as a part of the test plan preparation
Compliance with formats and procedures for test plan preparation
Sage Technologies Confidential Page 11 of 11
Step Description Quality Assurance Activities
4. ABAP Code Generation / SAP System Configuration
Compliance with the ABAP Programming standards
Compliance with the user interface standards
Consistency in coding
Compliance with the Documentation standards for SAP system configuration
5. Unit Testing and String Testing Code Walk through by peers and testing by techno-functional consultants who have prepared the test plan and test cases.
Testing to ensure compliance to desired functionality, as per test plans
Conformance to the expected test results.
Defects Documentation and Bug Fixing
Causal analysis
5. Acceptance testing Defect and Problem logging
Causal and impact analysis
Error tracking and reporting
Sub-Project Closure
Sub-Project Closure Internal and External Feedback
De-allocate Resources
Compile Project Closure Report
Lessons Learned
Project Management
1. Requirements Management Requirements are Documented
Allocated & approved (baseline) requirements forms the basis for development
Requirements are managed & changes to baseline are done as per formal change control
2. Change Management Controls changes to baseline work
3. Project Tracking and control Projects plans and data are centrally maintained and regularly updated.
Work packet tracking based on unique reference number
Quality is an integral part of our commitment to deliver timely and cost effective software services. Our
goal is to achieve excellence and maintain customer confidence by means of prevention-based,
continuous improvement processes. Quality engrossed processes are followed at every step of the
project life cycle ensuring the highest possible quality of the project delivered. Established well-defined
project controls and quantitative monitoring provides our clients with the transparency in our work and
also enables us to improve further.