These announcements bring AI-led transformation to focus and are very relevant as we approach the end of mainstream maintenance for 麻豆原创 Solution Manager on December 31, 2027*, many customers are transitioning to 麻豆原创 Cloud ALM to stay competitive and future-ready. 麻豆原创 recommends that customers complete the transition to 麻豆原创 Cloud ALM before this date.

We are proud that 麻豆原创 Solution Manager has served thousands of customers exceptionally well over two decades as a key element of 麻豆原创鈥檚 support offerings, providing the governance, monitoring, and lifecycle management capabilities needed to support mission-critical landscapes.

Twenty-five years in, the business environment that it was built for has significantly evolved to one where enterprises innovate continuously, scale globally, adopt AI, maintain a clean core, and deliver business outcomes at unprecedented speed. Market expectations have changed, technology stacks are running on cloud-ready architecture, and the revenue potential of businesses has exponentially grown. These realities require a fundamentally different approach and functional scope for application lifecycle management. 麻豆原创 Cloud ALM was designed with exactly these factors in mind. As a cloud-native solution coming with 麻豆原创 Enterprise Support, or any cloud subscription from 麻豆原创, it can close the gaps that modern organizations face in an increasingly fast-moving digital landscape.

All the information required for the transition from 麻豆原创 Solution Manager to 麻豆原创 Cloud ALM is available on the page. You can access essential tools for a seamless transition as well as recommendations based on your current landscape, project plans, and operational needs. You can also find focused .

Take action now:

• Request your 麻豆原创 Cloud ALM tenant via听.听
• Join the听, a 90-minute onboarding designed to help you get up and running quickly.听
• Run the听听to get an exact understanding of your current 麻豆原创 Solution Manager footprint and receive guidance for your transition journey.听
• Expand your knowledge through the听听and join our听.听
• Subscribe to the monthly听听to stay updated on innovations, tips, and use cases.听

While 麻豆原创 Solution Manager’s end of mainstream maintenance in itself is a call to action, it isn’t the primary business case. The real need for transitioning lies in the value that 麻豆原创 Cloud ALM delivers: accelerated implementations, AI-powered and autonomous operations, continuous feature innovation, lower TCO, and a platform purpose-built for modern, cloud-first landscapes. As every digital touchpoint around you is being modernized and optimized for value, your ALM landscape should not be an exception.

Stefan Steinle is executive vice president and head of Global Customer Support at 麻豆原创.

*Details related to maintenance options are covered in 麻豆原创 Notes 52505 and 3255311.

Updated March 2, 2026

Usually in the cloud, 麻豆原创 partners provide implementation and operations services that complement 麻豆原创 cloud services. In such scenarios, partners utilize support services from 麻豆原创 on behalf of the joint customer. Typical scenarios include, for instance, requesting support for a technical issue by creating a support case with 麻豆原创 or leveraging 麻豆原创 Cloud ALM in an implementation project.

As partners regularly request support, 麻豆原创 closely collaborates with its partner ecosystem along all dimensions of support and equips partners with the tools, insights, and self-services they need to deliver consistent, high鈥憊alue services alongside 麻豆原创. This includes:

• Best practices for partners to self-sufficiently handle common consulting and 鈥渉ow-to鈥� questions from customers
• Data insights and dashboards, such as the customer insights dashboards and Support Collaboration Analytics (for partners) in 麻豆原创 for Me, to help monitor performance, identify trends, and proactively realize quality improvements
• Best practice guidance embedded in 麻豆原创 Cloud ALM with the opportunity for partners to enhance process content and methodologies represented in the solution
• Support Accreditation training that can guide partners to efficiently engage 麻豆原创 for support
• Enabling transparency on partner action on customer鈥檚 behalf through dedicated partner S-users

Partner selection based on trusted support expertise

Customers can now receive higher value from partners with trusted support expertise. Partners that have built strong capabilities for an effective support collaboration can accelerate project execution and reduce risks. For example:

• Partners that self-sufficiently address customers鈥� consulting and 鈥渉ow-to鈥� questions can resolve inquiries much faster, as it avoids involving 麻豆原创 in the process.
• Partners that use 麻豆原创 self-services or automatic responses to support inquiries as the default without creating redundant cases can minimize delays and disruptions.
• Partners that effectively follow 麻豆原创鈥檚 best practices, for example in 麻豆原创 Cloud ALM and the 麻豆原创 Activate methodology, can be better equipped to help mitigate project risks and escalations.

Customers are therefore encouraged to review partners鈥� support capabilities when selecting and working with partners. Effective partners apply 麻豆原创 support best practices to help resolve issues and self-sufficiently handle customers鈥� consulting and 鈥渉ow-to鈥� inquiries. As a target for showing trusted support expertise, no more than 30% of partner-created support cases should fall into these categories. High-performing partners will establish standard operating procedures and continuously optimize service delivery by leveraging 麻豆原创鈥檚 data-driven support insights. Such partners also engage more efficiently with customers and 麻豆原创 by speaking the same language because consultants are qualified on support offerings, channels, and best practices through the Support Accreditation training. They can also deliver best practice-based implementations by applying 麻豆原创 guidance available through 麻豆原创 Cloud ALM.

To simplify partner selection, also based on their trusted support expertise, 麻豆原创 will show such qualified partners in 麻豆原创 Partner Finder from March 2026 onwards.

As a prerequisite for showing such trusted support expertise, customers need to ensure their partners are working with partner S-users.

Customer action recommendations to realize incremental value when engaging partners

When seeking a partner, select those with trusted support expertise, visible from March 2026 onward in through a support proficiency designation.

When working with your partner, enable transparency by authorizing partner S-users for support case handling via the and leverage the in 麻豆原创 for Me for transparency on partner support collaboration effectiveness.

Jens Bernotat is head of Strategy, Portfolio, and Ecosystem Management for Global Customer Support at 麻豆原创.
Marcus Blaesi is head of Global Ecosystem Programs for Global Customer Support at 麻豆原创.

Among the many announcements at 麻豆原创 Sapphire in 2025, the company unveiled new innovations, partnerships, and integrations that can deliver real-time, proactive assistance. For example, 麻豆原创鈥檚 AI copilot Joule is now available to users across 麻豆原创 and non-麻豆原创 systems. 麻豆原创 also expanded its agentic AI footprint across 麻豆原创 Business Suite by introducing Joule Agents for multiple use cases and an evolving AI Foundation as the AI operating system designed to simplify development, enabling developers to build, deploy, and scale solutions with ease.

The impact of AI on the delivery of customer support at 麻豆原创

As announced in Q2 this year, 麻豆原创鈥檚 simplified, tiered, services-and-support engagement model will be generally available in early 2026. Here, 麻豆原创鈥檚 customer support is a centerpiece of the Foundational Success Plan, delivered via the proven 麻豆原创 Enterprise Support offering included in every 麻豆原创 cloud solution subscription. The Foundational Success Plan can support in-house teams by helping to onboard and run solutions, keep business continuity, and drive ongoing value. It includes customer self-service options, application lifecycle management solutions centered around 麻豆原创 Cloud ALM, and preventative mission-critical support. With the plan, 麻豆原创 turns on Joule for a customer鈥檚 business and supports the team ramp-up with learning journeys for 麻豆原创 Business AI.

When it comes to customer support in general, agentic AI can redefine the support process by moving beyond scripted responses and basic automation. It can assess situations, make decisions, and take action鈥攐ften before the customer even knows there鈥檚 an issue. 麻豆原创鈥檚 customer support harnesses agentic AI to help deliver smarter assistance, faster resolutions, and a stronger human鈥搕ech partnership.

We focus on elevating support experiences for customers and improving support delivery for engineers by employing a combination of agents and assistants. For example, we use autoresponders and smart log analyzers to help process issues, while configuration advisors, language services, and proactive notifiers can guide customers toward self-service solutions. At the same time, our support engineers rely on co-pilots to help summarize cases, recommend solutions, escalate using intelligence, assist with communications, and create a continuous feedback loop for learning. For strategic customer support, we use tools like feedback collectors to help capture customer insights and channel recommenders to help ensure that every interaction is handled in the right channel. Together, these innovations can redefine support as faster, smarter, and more human.

The impact for customers

When it comes to 麻豆原创 Business AI, we build trust and create customer confidence by being relevant, reliable, and responsible. Unlike traditional AI that only suggests answers, agentic AI can reason, decide, and take action. For customers to feel confident, they expect accuracy, reliability, and transparency from the system.

As we support and guide our customers, we recognize that while agentic AI is a game-changer, it is not a magic pill. Coupled with ethical and responsible AI, real impact comes from 麻豆原创鈥檚 business expertise and a deep understanding of what our customers truly need. When knowledge is combined with AI to infuse autonomy and interoperability in our agents, we can unlock the ability to simplify processes, remove friction, and deliver experiences that feel effortless.

AI technology amplifies human insight and delivers delightful user experiences, but when it comes to business AI, it is our domain expertise that fuels 麻豆原创 Business AI into a tool for creating genuinely easy, productive, and meaningful experiences for our customers.

Stefan Steinle is executive vice president and head of Customer Support & Cloud Lifecycle Management at 麻豆原创.

When it comes to customer support, these capabilities are game-changing not only for current applications but also for future implications. The way businesses deliver support is improving every day, thanks to the rapidly evolving framework: technological breakthroughs, business innovations, and process agility. Here are six key methods that can transform the delivery of customer support.

1. Real-time monitoring

With AI-infused features in diagnostics, an electric car can detect potential malfunctions and schedule its own service appointment automatically, preventing issues like battery depletion or tire pressure drops before they become critical.

How does real-time monitoring play out in the world of business software? 麻豆原创 Cloud ALM provides a feature-rich observability platform that can collect telemetry data, like metrics, logs, and traces, from applications and their supporting infrastructure, allowing support teams to review the health of these systems. By providing real-time analytics and a centralized dashboard, 麻豆原创 Cloud ALM helps empower IT teams to quickly respond and fix issues, so the business remains operational with minimal interruptions. Additionally, the use of OpenTelemetry standardizes observability within a modern customer landscape.

鈥淭he 麻豆原创 Cloud ALM solution has been instrumental for our IT operations. It offers real-time insights and seamless integration across all our enterprise applications, making everything run more smoothly. It鈥檚 like having a bird鈥檚-eye view of our operations, ensuring efficiency and helping us stay proactive rather than reactive.鈥�

Omprakash H, Senior Director, Blueprint Technologies Pvt. Ltd.

2. Proactive resolution

Customer feedback loops play an important role in improving products and services and refining customer relationships. Repeat requests, in customer and user feedback, help service providers identify critical needs and also prioritize features to be delivered.

For example, users within 麻豆原创 Business Network and 麻豆原创 Ariba solutions go to the help center for self-service or case assistance 10.8 times less than they did years ago. This drop in end-user support sessions is the result of features that have been built into the product, based on customer feedback.

AI-enabled outbreak detection is another significant process in proactive resolution that allows support teams to address unexpected increases in anomalies, customer complaints, or issues.

“We continuously identify the reasons for frequent customer demands and challenges from inquiries raised to 麻豆原创 support. This allows 麻豆原创 to proactively deliver the most impactful product changes before they become a challenge for more customers. This way, we improve our products while also focusing on key product capabilities used by our customers today.鈥�

Alexey Ukrainsky, Solution Support Architect, 麻豆原创 MCC

3. Predictive analytics

In the retail industry, predictive analytics is used effectively for proactive and preventative support. One prominent example is 麻豆原创’s holiday season readiness program, which helps position 麻豆原创 as a front-runner in AI-driven, predictive, and proactive support solutions. With the goal of issue prevention at its core, the program can provide a comprehensive, 360-degree customer support profile, helping to accelerate issue detection and anticipate potential problems with AI-driven features like a virtual support assistant, resource prediction,鈥痺eb traffic prediction, a鈥痳ecommendation engine, case history analysis, issue correlation, and pattern recognition.

鈥淒uring Cyber Week 2024, 麻豆原创鈥檚 holiday reason readiness program equipped our support and ops teams to achieve 100% uptime for our customers with the predictive, proactive, and bi-directional support model implemented by the program.鈥�

Tarun Luthra, Head of Support, I&CX Solutions

4. Customer journey mapping

麻豆原创 Signavio solutions can help businesses visualize the end-to-end customer journey, tracking interactions across different touchpoints. This enables companies to identify areas of improvement in their customer support processes, leading to more personalized and effective interactions.

With the help of 麻豆原创 Signavio Process Intelligence, 麻豆原创 can successfully map support processes to help implement AI improvements for optimizing our services. The result: a 100% increase reported in customer value.

For example, a business that struggles with connecting customer experience data and operational data can take advantage of the 麻豆原创 Signavio Journey-to-Process Analytics solution to help reduce time to insight and uncover anomalies and trends.

鈥淭he challenge in increasing our customer experience lies in the direct link between process and journey activities. I see 麻豆原创 Signavio solutions as the perfect tools for consolidating these two perspectives to develop operational excellence in step with customer experience.鈥�

Stefan Gammel, Business Process Consultant, Hilti Group

5. In-app support

Seamlessly integrating support features in a product, service, or system gives users easy access to directly request assistance within the interface, without needing to contact a support team or leave the platform. Built-In Support can include contextual, AI-assisted, self-service options like help application-specific documentation, troubleshooting tools, knowledge bases, and FAQs or real-time options like live chats with support engineers.

For example, WalkMe solutions and Built-In Support鈥攍ayered over multiple applications in a business workflow鈥攃an provide real-time, proactive, in-app guidance to users, helping to significantly reduce the need for live assistance or support tickets.

鈥淐ontext significantly enhances the quality of support. Built-In Support works like a pit stop at a racetrack. The repair crew is right where the action is. The interruption is brief and far less disruptive than taking your car to the workshop, ensuring a smoother return to your activities. In the context of your company, this helps you win your business race.鈥� 

Wilhelm J眉tte, Chief Product Owner, Customer Support, 麻豆原创

6. Proactive mindset

None of the tools and processes that we deploy to implement a proactive and preventative support strategy are sustainable if our teams are not tuned to a proactive mindset. I believe high-performing support teams deliver the best results with a combination of human-machine collaboration, in a culture that promotes a forward-thinking, outcome-driven, service-oriented, and data-driven mindset. 

At the end of the day, the best issue is the issue that we can prevent. Proactive and preventative support is not just about solving problems, but about creating peace of mind for end users, customers, partners, and support engineers so every customer receives custom care, even before they need help.

“Knowledge management within support is not just about enabling self-service through portals to deflect incoming tickets, but about eliminating the need to come to the support portal in the first place.”

Derek Matthews, Technical Support 鈥� Procurement Chief Innovation Officer, 麻豆原创

Stefan Steinle is executive vice president and head of Customer Support & Cloud Lifecycle Management at 麻豆原创.

Whether aiming for agility, resilience, sustainable growth, or efficiency, a successful transformation requires a strategic approach, full leadership commitment, and a clear understanding of challenges and opportunities.

True business transformation goes beyond merely executing a technical 鈥渓ift and shift鈥� to the cloud. It involves reengineering an organization’s business model, operations, processes, and culture to align with long-term goals, adapt to market demands, and leverage new technologies. The focus must be on creating lasting value and ensuring the organization can thrive in a rapidly changing environment.

Crucial Business Transformation Levers

While there is no precise formula, all transformations have four crucial levers in common:

• Activating people: Collaboration is at the heart of any successful transformation. Through partnership and clear accountabilities, we break down barriers, and that鈥檚 the basis for any change. Software is ultimately a people business.鈥�
• Optimizing systems: Efficient systems are the backbone of any transformation. We ensure that the underlying enterprise architecture of applications is robust, secure, and scalable. This also means leveraging the latest innovations like artificial intelligence (AI), enhancing performance of existing systems, and ensuring that all components work seamlessly together to support the business objectives.
• Reinventing businesses processes: We don鈥檛 take existing processes and merely create fancy new interfaces; no 鈥渘ew wine in old bottles.鈥� Companies need to reinvent business processes to ensure agility, future-readiness, reliability, and scalable business operations to drive their business strategy. SaaS/PaaS help to streamline processes based on best practices while preserving company differentiation, but with clean extensibility on the platform.
• Leveraging data: Business data is the lifeblood of modern enterprises, fueling insights and innovation. At 麻豆原创, we harness this data to power 麻豆原创 Business AI, driving intelligent automation, predictive analytics, and personalized experiences. Our focus is on turning raw data into actionable intelligence that supports and accelerates our customers鈥� transformation journeys. Let鈥檚 not forget that the real value of the data lies in the semantics, which is our key differentiator to help our customers.

By focusing on these four elements, business can take a holistic approach to identifying which of their business processes and systems need analysis, revision, or complete redesign.

Navigating Digital Transformation: The Essential Role of Enterprise Architecture

To fully capitalize on these transformation levers and manage the complexities, organizations are increasingly turning to RISE with 麻豆原创, our holistic offering designed to accelerate their journey to the cloud and speed innovation adoption. RISE with 麻豆原创 simplifies the move to 麻豆原创 cloud ERP, offering flexibility and reduced complexity, and most importantly, provides a seamless experience across our modular (but tightly integrated) architecture.

Nevertheless, for many organizations the challenges remain significant: systems complexity, scattered systems, and diverse business models that may not be keeping pace with industry and consumer changes. Many organizations also underestimate the complexity of their transformation, leading to unrealistic timelines and budget overspending.

Enterprise architecture tools are crucial for overcoming these challenges because we need a structured and system-based approach to cope with and manage the complexities at scale, and to maintain a continuous innovation cycle.

The enterprise architecture provides a framework for aligning IT strategy with business objectives and improve the agility and efficiency of an organization. Imagine a ship navigating without a compass: this is how businesses operate without solid enterprise architecture. Just as sailors rely on navigational tools, modern organizations depend on enterprise architecture to navigate today鈥檚 digital complexities.

In addition, the enterprise architecture provides a blueprint for cloud adoption, ensuring that cloud services — like those offered by RISE with 麻豆原创 — integrate seamlessly with existing systems, business processes, and applications.

However, it鈥檚 not just the tools that matter; it’s the people behind them. Our recent efforts to further elevate the RISE with 麻豆原创 experience include making many changes in how we engage with customers, particularly by strengthening the role of the enterprise architect and introducing the . The enterprise architect not only helps customers utilize these tools, but also harmonizes all elements and guides the customer throughout their cloud journey, ensuring a cohesive and effective transformation. As a result, the enterprise architect will evolve into a real trusted advisor for the customer.

We have learned that customers can realize the true power of our business transformation tools when they work seamlessly together. It鈥檚 why we have been working hard at integrating 麻豆原创 Signavio, 麻豆原创 LeanIX, 麻豆原创 Cloud ALM, and 麻豆原创 Business Technology Platform (麻豆原创 BTP), including 麻豆原创 Build, to provide a holistic transformation experience.

Taken together, this is  how our integrated toolchain benefits business transformation:

• 麻豆原创 Cloud ALM orchestrates the entire process of transforming systems to meet evolving business needs. From fit-to-standard analysis and capturing requirements to project management, test automation, and final deployment, this cloud-based tool for application lifecycle management (ALM) enables organizations to effectively translate strategy into execution, ensuring the solution is optimized for the specific IT environment and business objectives. In today鈥檚 dynamic digital landscape, this comprehensive approach is crucial for staying competitive.
• 麻豆原创 LeanIX not only helps businesses capture the as-is systems landscape, it enables organizations to visualize, assess, and manage the transition toward their target IT architecture. The integration with 麻豆原创 Cloud ALM streamlines project management by reducing manual duplication and syncing project-related activities in real time. This enhances visibility into project progress and reduces administrative overhead.
• 麻豆原创 Signavio enables deep understanding and optimization of business processes, ensuring they are both efficient and compliant. The business leaders that I speak to are keenly aware that to succeed, they must focus on business processes transformation to help them adapt, stay resilient, and transform continuously and at scale. It鈥檚 simply what today鈥檚 pace of change demands. 麻豆原创 Signavio enables holistic, data-driven business transformation across organizations. Starting in Q4 2024, we will bridge the gap between business and IT teams by providing consistent process structures and synchronized data between 麻豆原创 Signavio and 麻豆原创 Cloud ALM.
• 麻豆原创 Build helps developers, without deep coding skills, quickly extend applications on 麻豆原创 BTP. That means they can innovate without changing core functionality — essential to keeping the core clean.

Customers want access to all relevant data across solutions, they want to derive better insight across solutions and access relevant the best-practices that are most relevant to them. That鈥檚 the seamless end-to-end experience we are striving for. This strategic approach leads to significant competitive advantages, allowing organizations to focus more on business improvements and explore new growth areas with confidence.

Embracing the Future

Unlocking value throughout your business transformation journey involves a strategic blend of people, processes, and solutions. As you focus on these elements and leverage 麻豆原创鈥檚 comprehensive toolchain, remember that the essence of true transformation doesn鈥檛 lie in holding onto the old, but in embracing and building the new.

Thomas Saueressig is a member of the Executive Board of 麻豆原创 SE leading Customer Services & Delivery.

Here, she shares about how the pair work together to help supercharge customers鈥� digital transformations.

Q: Can you give a little background on 麻豆原创 Business Transformation Center?

A: 麻豆原创 Business Transformation Center was envisioned as a one-stop shop for customers that want to transition from 麻豆原创 ERP Central Component (麻豆原创 ERP) 6.0 to 麻豆原创 S/4HANA. The challenges to such a transformation are, of course, numerous and daunting. Customers need to cull current data, pull together fragmented tool sets, line up the right human resources, and keep an eye on time to value.

With 麻豆原创 Business Transformation Center, we鈥檝e done our best to bring together the latest functionality and expert guidance to smooth the way 鈥� in a single, powerful software-as-a-service (SaaS) offering. And 麻豆原创 Business Transformation Center is easily accessible, deployed on 麻豆原创 Cloud ALM atop 麻豆原创 Business Technology Platform (麻豆原创 BTP). It comes with any implementation of RISE with 麻豆原创 or any cloud solution from 麻豆原创 and can be ready to use in less than half an hour.

Q: Where can customers go for further details?

A: The support materials at include a quick summary of features and benefits, along with the .

Q: What does 麻豆原创 see as the core mission of 麻豆原创 Business Transformation Center?

A: Kilian Carolan from the Premium Hub 鈥� CoE Ireland Data Management has described the mission this way: 鈥淭o play an active part in the 麻豆原创 S/4HANA adoption journey by supporting key data management and data migration topics and to serve as the trusted advisor for our customers.鈥� He continues to explain that we do this through end-to-end support, including hands-on execution, optimization, transformation, upgrade, and migration of Big Data and data platforms. In short, we apply our vast portfolio of enterprise information management and landscape transformation tools, methodologies, and processes to the customer鈥檚 unique transformation scenario.

Q: Where are we in the ongoing evolution of 麻豆原创 Business Transformation Center?

A: Our first step was to help customers fully understand the structure of their 麻豆原创 legacy systems through the digital blueprint. This supplied the background they needed to begin scoping the transformation project. And now we鈥檝e completed the second step for moving data across to the target system 鈥� with lean selective data transition for 麻豆原创 S/4HANA.

Q: What exactly does the lean selective data transition for 麻豆原创 S/4HANA do?

A: Data transformation is traditionally a highly complex undertaking, and we鈥檝e made a huge dent in that complexity. Right at the start, lean selective data transition for 麻豆原创 S/4HANA helps radically reduce the decision-making efforts involved in choosing data to migrate. The underlying principle is to provide smarter suggestions and fewer difficult choices through market-leading services and tools 鈥� and end-to-end advice on making the most of them. That approach helps customers ensure that they only move data that will continue to be useful, reducing the volume of data for the testing and go-live phases and accelerating the transition exponentially.

With lean selective data transition for 麻豆原创 S/4HANA, customers can pare down 麻豆原创 legacy data and bring the target system live with a clean data foundation. In combination with the digital blueprint, lean selective data transition for 麻豆原创 S/4HANA can give 麻豆原创 Business Transformation Center the power to do all the heavy lifting of accessing source systems; extracting, transforming, and loading relevant data; and validating data for completeness, consistency, and correctness.

Q: What types of data can customers choose to exclude from the transfer?

A: For example, they could decide to completely ignore obsolete company codes, such as data for companies they have since divested or which are no longer in use.

Q: What does the wider market see as the single most revolutionary aspect of lean selective data transition for 麻豆原创 S/4HANA?

A: For the very first time, 麻豆原创 provides standard functionality not only for complete rebuilds, greenfield implementations, system conversions, or brownfield implementations, but also for projects somewhere in the middle. This is a third path, if you will, and it鈥檚 a holistic approach to the big transformation from 麻豆原创 ECC 6.0 to 麻豆原创 S/4 HANA Cloud Private Edition.

Q: Can you take us a little deeper into how lean selective data transition for 麻豆原创 S/4HANA works and how customers can benefit?

A: With the 麻豆原创 Readiness Check tool for 麻豆原创 ERP usage and data profiling, we can collaborate with the customer to read the data from the source system and identify legal entities that are no longer in use or will soon be obsolete. 麻豆原创 Business Transformation Center then can propose that these entities and the associated data are “removed from the scope” before starting the data transition and can provide clear instructions on how to do this. It can also help to identify customer-specific data in the 麻豆原创 legacy system. Here, too, the customer has the option of leaving this data behind on the way to 麻豆原创 S/4HANA to support its clean core strategy and move closer to the standard again.

Both these jobs would previously have meant time-consuming manual work for the solution architect 鈥� and higher costs and longer time to value for the customer. With the addition of lean selective data transition for 麻豆原创 S/4HANA to the already popular functionality for digital blueprinting, 麻豆原创 Business Transformation Center can now provide optimal support and transparency in each phase of the transformation project. It helps customers analyze the source system, define migration scope, create migration cycles, and finally transform the leaner body of data they鈥檝e elected to move across. From strategy to execution, we serve as a trusted partner, helping to ensure that every step of the way leads to meaningful insights and sustainable results. And that lowers both total cost of implementation (TCI) and total cost of operation (TCO).

Q: What have customers been saying about lean selective data transition for 麻豆原创 S/4HANA?

A: Long-term partner BMW Group, for example, has told us, 鈥淭his feature significantly speeds up our evolution into an intelligent enterprise by applying sustainable and efficient solutions and methodologies.鈥�

Karin Baeumler is part of Go-to-Market, Business & Data Transformation Solutions, at 麻豆原创.

To serve these requirements, 麻豆原创 has provided customers and partners with separate learning and assessment courses on our support offerings, enabling them with support tools and resources that help maximize their support experience. While our customers could benefit from Product Support Accreditation in the past, our partners had access to an equally in-demand enablement course, “Support and Success Essentials for 麻豆原创 Cloud Solutions.” 

Both versions have had great success and it was time to consolidate the best parts of these two accreditations into one impactful learning offering. As of December 5, 2023, we have merged these two options into , making it 麻豆原创鈥檚 baseline support enablement for all consultants. 

What is this new offering in a nutshell? Support Accreditation is a course and assessment that enables customers and partners to make the best use of 麻豆原创鈥檚 support offerings and tools. This accreditation is available for all customers and partners of 麻豆原创 鈥� at no additional cost.

To learn more about the latest developments on the topic, I sat down with Stefan Steinle, executive vice president and head of Customer Support & Innovation, 麻豆原创 SE. 

Q: Can you give a brief description of Support Accreditation? 

A: This training was developed to showcase all the available support services and tools provided by 麻豆原创. We cannot assume that our customers and partners have the bandwidth to research what鈥檚 available 鈥� and this does not just apply to support, it applies to all our offerings at 麻豆原创. We have proactively curated all the tools and related resources that can assist our customers and partners in resolving their issues effectively and efficiently. The four-module course is packed with focus topics, one-page snapshots, how-to videos, and interactive quizzes. As with any course, all eligible participants receive a digital Support Accreditation badge.听听

What about the actual content of the training?听What areas are covered?听听

The course introduces you to channels like Expert Chat, Schedule an Expert, Schedule a Manager, and Ask an Expert Peer, which can enable customers and partners to have direct contact with support. For example, with Schedule an Expert, a customer can have a 30-minute session with an expert to help resolve a specific issue related to a support request. This is valuable information that consultants need.听

Participants can benefit from similar how-to’s and guides on self-service, case prevention, live support channels, and supplementary material. We have a unit on , our application lifecycle management solution that is included in cloud subscriptions. This is a fantastic module that guides users on how they can benefit from an out-of-the-box, cloud-native solution designed as the central entry point to manage customers’ 麻豆原创 landscape with content-driven, guided implementation and highly automated operations. 

To manage expectations, could you also elaborate on what is not covered by this accreditation? 

Expert course content is not covered in this accreditation. For example, we have further deep dives for 麻豆原创 Cloud ALM that are, understandably, not covered in this first-level accreditation.  

Also, this is a learning offering around support topics so enablement on solution knowledge is not in scope. 

What鈥檚 in it for customers? What is the benefit of the course?听

Not every customer is fully aware of the complete suite of support tools. With the Support Accreditation course, they can learn to easily engage with our support teams and to achieve smoother case resolutions. We provide easy-to-use, easy-to-consume self-enablement to any customer or partner at no additional cost. It is a must for all those who interact with the support channels of 麻豆原创.听听

What about partners? 

This training is especially important for partners as most implementation projects are run or supported by them. They also manage most ongoing operations on behalf of the customer.听

Both customers and 麻豆原创 expect partners to manage customer projects and operations with high quality based on 麻豆原创鈥檚 best practices. These include methodologies, tools, services, and procedures 鈥� especially those dealing with upcoming issues.  

We highly recommend the Support Accreditation training 鈥� and the resulting badge 鈥� for every partner consultant.听

What have been the biggest changes you have seen in the course?听听

With every growth milestone at 麻豆原创, you can be sure that there is a corresponding ripple in the world of support. Therefore, we take a lot of effort to keep the training content up-to-date. For example, we now have a whole new unit dedicated to 麻豆原创 Cloud ALM. We are also moving to , having been a standalone application previously. This is a huge development, as the course is now available in the public space. Anyone can participate now that it is opened to a wider audience. Upon successful completion of the course, participants receive a record of achievement.听

We are increasingly moving from a reactionary model to one that is more real-time and predictive. We have AI-powered support offerings that help enrich the customer experience 鈥� for example, new features in Incident Solution Matching.  

Will customers and partners still be able to get their Support Accreditation badge now that the training has moved to the 麻豆原创 Learning site?听

Absolutely. I must say this is a very popular badge in the ecosystem.   

The Support Accreditation badge indicates that the participant has completed the course and has the requisite knowledge to navigate 麻豆原创鈥檚 support channels and offerings. This badge can be used on social media and can also be included in your signature when you interact with our support teams.听

More broadly, how do you use AI in support enablement? 

We use large language models (LLMs) to refine and expand the scope of our existing AI-driven solutions. Based on the learnings from Enhance AI and Assist Support, we utilize LLMs to help generate automated responses to specific how-to questions. This allows us to leverage 麻豆原创 Knowledge Base Articles, 麻豆原创 Notes, and documentation contributions from our experts.  

How popular is the course?听听

Approximately 5,000 customers and partners take part in the course and get their accreditation every year! People who complete the training have the option to provide feedback and rate the content. Currently, the course has a rating of 4.75 out of 5. The numbers speak for themselves!听

Where do you see the course going in the future?听

As always, we keep it simple 鈥� to help you simplify your support priorities. As I said before, the content reflects the ever-changing market growth and business requirements around us. We encourage our customers and partners to renew their Support Accreditation badges once a year to get an update on improvements and enhancements. 

Renuka Abraham is part of Customer Support & Innovation at 麻豆原创.

Now 麻豆原创 Cloud ALM will extend its capabilities to centrally operate Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) applications and custom extensions built and run on 麻豆原创 Business Technology Platform (麻豆原创 BTP), including 麻豆原创 BTP Cloud Foundry environment.

In an interview, Janko Budzisch, chief product owner for Operations Platforms at 麻豆原创, shares what this means for 麻豆原创 BTP customers.

Q: 麻豆原创 Cloud ALM has been available to customers for many years now as a cloud-based tool for 麻豆原创 solutions. What is new with respect to support for 麻豆原创 BTP?

A: In 麻豆原创 BTP we saw a gap in particular for the custom-built applications on top of 麻豆原创 BTP, Cloud Foundry environment. This was mainly due to the fact that both the Cloud Foundry environment and the Kyma environments of 麻豆原创 BTP are being based on open-source technology. Thus, there was a strong wish to have 麻豆原创 BTP support for , an open-source standard for observability.

Therefore, we introduced an OpenTelemetry-based approach with 麻豆原创 Cloud ALM. This includes central tools to reduce the mean time to detect issues, plus local tools to debug and fix issues. These help reduce the mean time to resolve. The approach also comes with library support to enable observability for custom-built applications. We now take this approach for both customer-built applications and also 麻豆原创 BTP-based SaaS applications.

Could you explain some of the new capabilities of 麻豆原创 Cloud ALM for 麻豆原创 BTP customers?

In the end, our approach is to enable observability based on our central operations platforms. This doesn鈥檛 mean we replace all local tools. Instead, we concentrate on the things that should be unified across all the different products in 麻豆原创, including applications provided by 麻豆原创 BTP.

One of these capabilities is the alert management. We think it鈥檚 essential that customers have one central place to access integrated monitoring with their existing IT service management processes. As an example, customers typically have their own ticketing systems. The observability data coming out of the observability tooling generates events. For these events we prefer to have automatically generated tickets. Instead of doing this for every local tool, it鈥檚 a good idea to do this centrally with 麻豆原创 Cloud ALM.

A second example is interfacing. We expose with 麻豆原创 Cloud ALM raw data interfaces based on the OpenTelemetry standard, also with a centralized approach. Otherwise, if every tool would get handled in an isolated way, the target infrastructure of the customer would need to adapt to all the different application programming interfaces (APIs). We are really driving the strategy of centralizing problem detection and analysis. Plus, the integration with the local tools help to debug and to resolve problems.

Could you summarize what other capabilities are available in 麻豆原创 Cloud ALM for 麻豆原创 BTP services?

A major target of 麻豆原创 Cloud ALM is to provide so-called end-to-end monitoring. One of the most interesting and known use cases here is . Here we safeguard reliable data exchange for instance via 麻豆原创 Integration Suite. We collect data from all the involved components — whether these are consumer or producer systems, or even integration components, so-called integration artefacts. Here we have the integration with 麻豆原创 Integration Suite, the cloud integration, where we retrieve message artefacts. Examples are master data integration and the 麻豆原创 Event Broker for 麻豆原创 cloud applications service.

A second use case I鈥檇 like to stress is . This provides transparency regarding the monitoring of automation created using 麻豆原创 Build Process Automation. These are processes or process steps that are executed automatically, like workflow management. We need to make sure, with our monitoring capabilities, that the processes are not interrupted and all is working.

A third use case is . It checks the technical health of 麻豆原创 BTP, such as for 麻豆原创 BTP Neo environment, 麻豆原创 S/4HANA Cloud, 麻豆原创 BTP Cloud Foundry environment, and 麻豆原创 Integration Suite. We have several technical KPIs the customer needs to know about so they can react appropriately. Also integrated in health monitoring is the monitoring of all applications built by the customer.

Some 麻豆原创 BTP customers may already have application performance management tools which they would like to use or want integrated. How do we help them to integrate into our operations platform?

麻豆原创 Cloud ALM is an open platform. This means it鈥檚 clearly our target to expose via APIs all data to third-party tools. There are examples where customers are using third-party analysis capabilities, or we have customers that want to work with their own data lake across all the platforms. 麻豆原创 Cloud ALM provides an OpenTelemetry-based approach to expose data to third-party APMs. The nice thing here is that we are not just doing this at the outbound side, it also includes the inbound side. So, if a customer has data somewhere else, they can import this data into 麻豆原创 Cloud ALM.

There certainly is a lot of functionality for 麻豆原创 BTP customers in 麻豆原创 Cloud ALM. What would be the next steps for customers or partners that want to leverage 麻豆原创 Cloud ALM for 麻豆原创 BTP?

We should distinguish two use cases. The first is those who want to monitor their own built applications. Here you would use our . This library helps to accelerate the whole instrumentation process. Let鈥檚 say you bind your application to this library and make the instrumentation visible in your application. Most of this is done via auto instrumentation. You don鈥檛 need to do something to your source code. It鈥檚 pure configuration that more or less gets the data from your own applications into 麻豆原创 Cloud ALM.

The second use case is if you want to connect SaaS applications from 麻豆原创 built on 麻豆原创 BTP with 麻豆原创 Cloud ALM. Here, we have descriptions in our expert portal on how to connect an 麻豆原创 BTP-based SaaS offering with 麻豆原创 Cloud ALM. With this you can send the data directly. This is also pre-configured and pre-instrumented. You only need to connect your SaaS service based on 麻豆原创 BTP with the 麻豆原创 Cloud ALM tenant. Then you get the data.

So, if you are a customer, go ahead and today. It鈥檚 available as part of your subscription and support contract. Configure it and then you have all the functionality needed for monitoring 麻豆原创 BTP.

This phenomenon is growing more apparent with each new infrastructure upgrade, intelligent innovation, and shift from on-premise solutions to software as a service. Such game-changing modernization can also help to improve the efficiency along the service delivery process and accelerate the time to value of service deliveries of premium engagements.

A modern cloud-based infrastructure 鈥� such as 麻豆原创 Cloud ALM for service 鈥� can bring all stakeholders together in one place while helping ensure the same level of information and full transparency on all relevant information related to service delivery. In a digitalized format, service delivery outcomes become faster, simpler to consume, and trackable.

What Is 麻豆原创 Cloud ALM for Service?

麻豆原创 Cloud ALM for service runs on the 麻豆原创 Cloud ALM solution, helping to facilitate every step of the service delivery process. As a cloud-based collaboration platform hosted by 麻豆原创, it can provide three major capabilities:

• Service delivery center: Helps support direct interaction with a single point of contact at 麻豆原创 and access to a dashboard that transparently provides information on service delivery history and current and scheduled services
• Service results: Helps provide service results documentation in a digitalized format that allows business and technology decision-makers to drill down the information to various levels of detail
• Issues and actions management: Helps simplify handling and tracking of all issues, action items, resolutions, and resulting outcomes

All elements of 麻豆原创 Cloud ALM for service can work with each other like building blocks and can leverage artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning capabilities. Together, they help form a single collaboration platform where you can exchange data in real time between 麻豆原创 process and technology experts and your organizational users. In return, you can not only benefit from the lessons of thousands of deliveries completed in the past, but you can also gain extensive insight into your organization’s needs through continuous analysis, enhancement, and automation advancement.

How to Gain Access to the Service Option

麻豆原创 Cloud ALM for service is available free with an active or services contract.

If you’re new to the 麻豆原创 Cloud ALM solution, you can get through 麻豆原创 Support Portal. Here, you can find step-by-step documentation on how to directly or enter the to get a full picture.

Once your tenant of 麻豆原创 Cloud ALM has been provisioned, you can use 麻豆原创 Cloud ALM for service. To activate the option, follow the steps described here: .

Interested in learning how 麻豆原创 Cloud ALM for service can take your IT modernization journey to the next level? Check out our听expert-guided implementation sessions for 麻豆原创 Cloud ALM in听听and visit for more information. You can also reach out to听your technical quality manager to further discuss the advantages.

Andreas Krueckendorf is vice president and chief service architect at 麻豆原创.

Feeling a bit overwhelmed or uncertain about this transformation process is normal. Those feelings are the reason tools and guidance are available to help you plan and execute a smooth transition to 麻豆原创 S/4HANA Cloud. Get the best possible support in understanding your data and visualizing the ways you can transform it.

Simulate How You Would Transform to the Future State

An important step in any transformation is to understand all the data and data objects that are underneath. This is where the new, cloud-based solution comes into play. This solution helps guide you through the relevant steps required for your business transformation and data migration.

麻豆原创 Business Transformation Center also helps make sense of the data that鈥檚 in your systems, so you understand your transformation needs. You can look at the existing data, analyze the data objects, and then scope your business and data transformation project. The first feature of 麻豆原创 Business Transformation Center is the digital blueprint, available as of March 2023. Based on data-driven guidance, it can enable you to define the migration and transformation scope from 麻豆原创 ERP Central Component (麻豆原创 ECC) to 麻豆原创 S/4HANA Cloud, private edition or on premise. Next steps would be the transformation of the data and finally the verification.

麻豆原创 Business Transformation Center can give you a streamlined and holistic approach to help manage your data transformation challenges with less effort and more satisfaction. It helps simplify, accelerate, and safeguard the project鈥檚 data stream with ready-to-use content, data-driven insights, and recommendations. It鈥檚 a software-as-a-service (SaaS) cloud solution powered by , the strategic cloud-based solution helping customers manage their entire application lifecycle. 麻豆原创 Business Transformation Center is included in 麻豆原创 Cloud service subscriptions and the 麻豆原创 Enterprise Support services.

Have Confidence in Your Decision

麻豆原创 Business Transformation Center comes with content and methodologies that can guide you through the necessary steps of data transformation 鈥� and guidance means quicker decisions with reduced complexity, effort, and risk. Overall, there can be an efficiency gain, which can translate into a shortened timeline of your transformation project. You should now feel confident in your decision and move to 麻豆原创 S/4HANA Cloud.

Read more about how to plan your 麻豆原创 S/4HANA Cloud transformation with .

Regina Postman is part of Customer Support and Innovation Communications at 麻豆原创.

麻豆原创 is moving into the second year of its transformation of support. Andreas Heckmann, executive vice president and head of Customer Solution Support and Innovation at 麻豆原创, is excited about all that鈥檚 planned. 鈥淲e鈥檙e making great progress on our comprehensive vision to serve customers better along the entire lifecycle. We look forward to providing an even better experience around customer self-services,鈥� says Heckmann. 鈥淭his year is going to be a year of getting even more prescriptive and offering even more guidance to our customers. Functionality will be substantially expanded with a lot more content added for new products.鈥�

In this conversation, Heckmann gave more details on the goals and progress of this vision.

Q: 麻豆原创 Business Transformation Center will be introduced at this year鈥檚 麻豆原创 Sapphire, held in Orlando, Florida. Can you give details on what鈥檚 planned?

A: Customers will see a first version of what we call 麻豆原创 Business Transformation Center. This is part of the business transformation suite. The focus is to support customers in the planning stage of their 麻豆原创 S/4HANA software transformation. With this, customers can simulate their transformation and plan and anticipate what the transformation could look like when complete. Let me give an example. If a customer says, 鈥淲hat will it look like if we exclude certain company codes or business data?鈥� they will see in real time what this means to the amount of data and information needing to be transformed. The ultimate result is up-front insights that help customers shape and drive their transformation planning.

Can you share what鈥檚 planned around 麻豆原创 Cloud ALM?

We鈥檒l deeply embed business process modeling capabilities of the 麻豆原创 Signavio portfolio in 鈥� our strategic cloud-based platform for customers to manage their entire application lifecycle. Customers can get access to a world-leading business process management solution to discover and adapt 麻豆原创 best practices for accelerated solution delivery. Our focus is to give customers the best possible experience for their business users.

We鈥檙e also extending access to the to our 麻豆原创 Enterprise Support on-premise and cloud edition customers at no extra cost. Our customers can use the solution to help automate testing during their 麻豆原创 projects and validate their business processes when new 麻豆原创 releases are applied to the 麻豆原创 solution landscape. We expect to seamlessly integrate the Tricentis testing capabilities with a fully automated setup within 麻豆原创 Cloud ALM. These cloud-based test automation capabilities will help ease the testing of the 麻豆原创 solutions and help facilitate the adoption of 麻豆原创 cloud product releases.

In a world where we want to innovate and deliver value to end users and customers at an always higher speed, 麻豆原创 and Tricentis are significantly lowering the barrier to test automation. I鈥檓 very satisfied with the great partnership with Tricentis. This unique solution now brings test automation capabilities fully integrated in our business transformation suite for 麻豆原创 Enterprise Support customers.

You mentioned plans for new support functionality. Can you give some examples?

We are reshaping our content and knowledge management strategy to give customers a more robust search experience that leverages artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning optimizations, and analytics functionalities. This search index scans knowledge from many different data sources during a single search. “” will be the main entry point to 麻豆原创 support and for searches. Additional features help us understand and optimize the search and knowledge relevancy at every step of the support journey.

Within , we expect to see progress on the bidirectional dialogue in and 麻豆原创 for Me. This proactive, two-way communication will help keep customers informed about news related to the solutions they are using, alert them to potential issues to watch out for, and deliver support-critical information they need to know.

Furthermore, our focus for Built-In Support is to provide predictive and preventative support. Our biggest wins are when we resolve potential problems without customers even knowing a problem might exist or could have occurred. Our AI services help us continuously improve the quality of real-time recommendations for when customers search for a solution to an issue or create a case for support.

This year, Built-In Support will expand into more 麻豆原创 solutions and will grow the functionality and adoption across our cloud solutions.

There鈥檚 also a lot going on in 麻豆原创 internally as part of the transformation of support that indirectly benefits customers. Can you describe a few of these indirect benefits?

An important internal change is that we鈥檙e increasing our capability of cross-expert interaction. More and more cases require close collaboration of various experts with different knowledge, experience, perspectives, and so on. We鈥檝e introduced an internal framework and technology that lets experts dynamically assemble and quickly collaborate on the same problem. This reduces redundancy, eliminates handover delays, and collapses the time it takes to get experts aligned. That obviously accelerates the resolution substantially for our customers.

We鈥檝e greatly improved the predictive capabilities of our cloud solutions. These predictive capabilities will give us early indications when something isn鈥檛 right. This, in turn, prompts us to start analyzing the situation and take steps to mitigate and resolve issues before the customer even recognizes or experiences problems or service degradation on their end.

These capabilities have been successfully tested and applied to a set of our solutions. This year we鈥檒l extend the reach of these technologies and onboard increasingly more solutions. Plus, we鈥檒l also integrate this more closely into our processes so our experts can respond swiftly to evolving situations.

What suggestions do you have for customers in 2023?

While our focus is to be more prescriptive and provide more guidance to our customers, it鈥檚 important that they also make an effort to stay up to speed on the things we鈥檙e doing. Follow closely on what we鈥檙e doing, embrace the new ideas and improvements, and start consuming them. It鈥檚 my motto to 鈥渄elight customers always,鈥� and we鈥檝e had the customer in mind with all the improvements that we provide and whatever we do.

Customers should talk within their organizations about how they can use all of these improvements. If you have questions, reach out to us. Let鈥檚 explore together how you can make best use of them. At the end of the day, we can invent the best features and options, but if customers stick to their old ways and don鈥檛 embrace new approaches, they鈥檙e missing out on the many benefits that can make their work lives easier. That would be a shame.

Follow Andreas Heckmann on and .
Regina Postman is part of Customer Solution Support and Innovation Communications at 麻豆原创.

When we started to talk, Andreas Heckmann, executive vice president and head of Customer Solution Support & Innovation at 麻豆原创, stated, 鈥淎lthough it was one of the most challenging years in my professional history, it was still a year filled with opportunities. We are seeing traction in the transformation of customer support I described 11 months ago, and we delivered a great amount of product innovations to our customers.鈥�

In this interview, Heckmann gives insight into how the transformation is continuing.

Q: How has 2022 been going for you in the transformation?

A: I鈥檓 proud of the notable, award-winning product releases that are directly relevant to supporting economic needs and helping with sustainability. Take, for example, the solution. We鈥檙e enabling agribusinesses to tap into their vast source of farming data by leveraging data science and machine learning. This farming intelligence helps them leverage processes and services to better forecast and increase farming yields and quality. It will also help them use the right balance of water resources and help keep fertilizer and crop protection to a minimum. This will help agribusinesses play their part in becoming more sustainable and efficient.

Let me also point out the Hasso Plattner Founders鈥� Award-winning . It鈥檚 helping prevent pharmaceutical drug counterfeiting by enabling traceability and verification of products. With an estimated 50% or more of drugs in Africa being counterfeit, this product is definitely helping businesses to protect their intellectual property and, more importantly, people鈥檚 health and lives.

Another exciting sustainability-focused app release this year is the . In this project, we developed a solution extension to help neutralize carbon emissions. Our customers can access data collected from business travel and consider ways to watch their carbon footprint.

All of these solutions make me proud of our Customer Solution Support & Innovation organization and underscores the many ways we have our customers鈥� goals and priorities front of mind.

With 麻豆原创 Cloud ALM being available for a while now, how do you see it being taken up?

is the strategic platform to help customers manage their entire application lifecycle, both on premise and in the cloud. We will close out this year seeing quite an amazing uptake and increasingly more customers using the solution to help implement and operate their cloud and hybrid environments. There鈥檚 a big uptake on 麻豆原创 Cloud ALM, with functions being used more intensely for managing project teams and business processes. And it鈥檚 also getting third-party products integrated to give customers even more access to content such as guidance, tools, and checklists for their implementation projects and operations.

What progress are you making around Real-Time Support during this transformation?

We鈥檙e seeing momentum in continuously transforming the support experience for customers towards a more personalized and preventative experience. This could be when they search for a support answer in or , or when they report an issue. At the beginning of this year, we received a for the innovative way we鈥檙e capturing our customer problems in a structured and guided fashion. It鈥檚 what we call support assistant. This assistant guides customers through the process of logging an incident. Machine learning functionality suggests answers from our knowledge repositories along the way. Often the answer is found in the first bunch of suggestions and no incident needs to be created.

If no answer can be provided instantaneously, the incident information collected is packaged for a support engineer to process further during a or a scheduled appointment. We found that real-time interactions get completed on average within 30 minutes and two of every three issues are solved in the first chat. And these interactions support nine different languages, allowing for multi-language dialogues in real time. For either way the customer decides to go, the support assistant and help customers get their issues resolved much more quickly and efficiently.

Now imagine, we鈥檙e already working on the next generation of the entire support experience for customers to look forward to. With Built-In Support, we鈥檙e making significant progress as the tool for continuous two-way dialogue with customers. It鈥檚 our goal to proactively notify customers about critical issues or relevant new features and to take care of any potential problem before a customer becomes aware of it. We鈥檙e also eagerly awaiting the go-live of our new customer facing portal, 麻豆原创 for Me, with its completely redesigned user experience.

麻豆原创 is getting into customer-centric observability. What does this mean?

Customers trust us with their critical business processes. Service availability is the foundation of that trust and naturally a prime topic for us. We see it as a prerequisite for customer success. A focus of our transformation is to become more predictive and proactive. It鈥檚 what we鈥檙e calling customer-centric observability. This is a methodology that focuses on observing real user experience and outcomes to get advanced warnings ahead of customer-reported incidents and to quickly react upon them. By monitoring 1.5 billion system actions daily, we鈥檙e proactively watching for potential issues and preventing them from happening.

What can we expect for 2023?

Personally, I’m excited to see the launch of the bi-directional dialogue in Built-In Support and 麻豆原创 for Me. This means customers can look forward to getting an even better support experience in 2023. In addition, they should expect to get significantly improved results and optimized recommendations when searching for solutions or creating incident tickets for support. Plus, there will be more times when potential problems are resolved without customers even knowing any problems existed. While we will certainly not be done next year, given all we鈥檝e planned for our customers, I鈥檓 confident that we鈥檒l already begin reaping the harvest.

Follow Andreas Heckmann on and .
Regina Postman is part of Customer Solution Support & Innovation Communications at 麻豆原创.

Let me describe three big examples of innovation developed to make your lives easier: continuous updates that are no longer disruptive to the business; artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning that produce more precise search results; and real-time support at your fingertips that is built into your application.

Continuous Updates That Are No Longer Disruptive

System updates are important as they provide new or improved functionality, enhance stability and security, and enrich the user experience. However, what鈥檚 been a challenge in the past for on-premise software is the downtime, test efforts, and spike in system issues that often followed a bigger release cycle. For cloud solutions, you should 鈥� and already can 鈥� expect ready-to-use, manageable updates with minimum disruption.

With the , our application lifecycle management platform developed on 麻豆原创 Business Technology Platform (麻豆原创 BTP), we solved that issue by introducing 鈥渄eploy with confidence鈥� as a new way of how we develop this solution. Deploy with confidence works to increase developer productivity and helps ensure high quality while delivering daily system updates. From a technical side, it incorporates many development tools to help automate the daily deliveries of multi-microservice software-as-a-service applications like 麻豆原创 Cloud ALM.

All this allows us to provide regular feature updates to 麻豆原创 Cloud ALM with daily deployment and enables a robust lifecycle without disruption or downtime. Additionally, as our teams are in continuous exchange with customers using 麻豆原创 Cloud ALM, we can quickly bring their feedback into the solution to further improve our software quality. Introducing deploy with confidence as the development method for 麻豆原创 Cloud ALM is a great example where we as a team leveraged innovation to increase productivity and quality while at the same time lifting customer experience to a whole new level.

AI and Machine Learning: More Precise Search Results

Continuous updates are one thing. What about using technology to get answers faster? With companies working in a faster-paced digital world, making decisions and finding answers also need to move faster. This is also the case when business processes aren鈥檛 running as expected.

Think about yourself and if you are someone who prefers to find answers on your own and not wait on support to respond. You鈥檒l be happy to know we have various ways to help you find the right answer. When you search in or 鈥�,鈥� you can get an increasingly personalized search experience that considers the topics most relevant for you. As this applies machine learning to improve search relevance and we are continually optimizing our knowledge base for better discoverability, you鈥檙e more likely to get the needed answer instantaneously 鈥� listed as a proposed solution within the first bunch of search results.

When you actually contact 麻豆原创 support directly, your request and all of its context, such as system and product information, text input, and soon even attachment data, are evaluated in real time by a highly optimized, AI-powered algorithm to provide you with precise solution recommendations. This Incident Solution Matching algorithm helps to make sure you are shown the best available solutions even before you send a ticket to 麻豆原创 or start an Expert Chat session. This helps reduce your effort to solve the problem.

Real-Time Support and Answers at Your Fingertips

It鈥檚 definitely an advantage to tap into modern technology for finding the answers you need. How about the convenience behind it and having answers at your fingertips? One of the things we鈥檝e learned from research and talking with customers is how annoying it can be when you must drop everything you were doing and leave your IT workspace to raise a ticket in a central support portal. This meant you would need to rethink what you were doing when the issue came up and where it happened. Plus, you needed to enter all the contextual information the portal doesn鈥檛 have, such as the system where it happened or the application you were using when running into problems.

We鈥檝e made this obsolete and convenient: is available in many of our cloud solutions and can be used right away, if needed. It鈥檚 a click of a button to ask a question, search for solutions, get tailored recommendations for your problem, or to just report an issue. Built-In Support knows where you were working when the issue came up and what you were doing when you got the error message. Through the usage of AI and machine learning technologies, the tool either already finds possible answers while you are typing in your issue, or it pulls together the necessary information for the support engineer. This is a more personalized support experience tailored to your specific situation. How convenient to not need to post a ticket elsewhere or explain your situation.

And even better, this click can get you connected in a or a scheduled appointment with a support expert. You can more quickly describe and resolve your question or problem 鈥� avoiding the ping-pong back-and-forth happening through a traditional ticket resolution. Talk about a way to free up time and resources to focus on the business.

On top of this, Built-In Support will evolve towards bi-directional communication: if there鈥檚 a brand-new solution to a critical issue in the application you are currently working with, why not get it shared with you right away? And if there is supporting information around a new or changed feature in the app you might have questions about, why not see it published proactively before you run into problems? This is exactly the future-looking direction of Built-In Support. Tailored to every screen of your application, it can proactively provide you answers and solutions and not wait until you run in to a problem and need to report it. Built-In Support is ending the one-way communication. If we know a customer has a problem but isn鈥檛 yet aware of it, we鈥檒l proactively take care of it.

In Summary

All this sounds smart, right? Let me summarize my key messages to you. You鈥檝e learned that 麻豆原创 system updates are important as they bring you new functionality, but they don鈥檛 need to be disruptive. Finding answers to your support problems is just as quick as what you know from a regular Web search. And finally, you鈥檒l experience the convenience of having support at your fingertips and getting your support questions and issues quickly worked out without needing to leave the application you are working in.

I hope I got you excited about some of the existing support innovations that will further improve your support experience. And we鈥檙e not stopping there. We鈥檙e already working on more great things.

Andreas Heckmann is executive vice president of Product Engineering and head of Customer Solution Support and Innovation at 麻豆原创. Follow him on and .