Executive Summary
- This page describes the issues with SAP DP support and how our SAP support offerings help.
- We offer support coverage that exceeds what is available from SAP.
Introduction
This is the SAP DP Support page of LaunchPad SAP Support.
On this page, we cover the specifics of our DP support. For explanations of the broader package related to our DP support, which explains many essential topics about SAP support, see our main SAP Support Page.
Issues With DP
After years of working in DP improvement, we know very well that DP is a high overhead application that usually overwhelms the ability of companies that have implemented DP to maintain DP appropriately. And SAP only provides minimal support but is extremely expensive, which consumes the resources from SAP customers to properly maintain DP.
Most companies that have DP cannot create custom models, manage the best fit procedure, nor can they make the adjustments they need to use DP properly. The list of shortcomings is a long one. And this is not only mid-sized companies, but even the largest companies have problems maintaining DP.
What This Means for Outcomes at DP Customers
This places a significant emphasis on manual overrides to account for what DP is not doing, which also undermines the credibility of DP 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 DP.
Improving DP 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 DP support costs, which provide close to no value to SAP customers.
- No hope for future improvements or future versions of DP.
- Constant pressure from DP to purchase IBP, which has not developed a good implementation history.
Getting Something Better
Imagine if you could radically improve DP 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.
- APO 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 IBP, many won’t, and SAP will sell IBP to DP customers at any time in the future.
- Overall, there is no reason to accept a pivot from SAP sales reps to IBP and a complete diminution of the customer’s decade or more investment in DP.
What Do We Cover for DP Support?
We cover the following for DP in our support.
- Data Warehouse Admin
- Forecast Model Tuning
- All Upgrades (DS, LC, OS, Kernel, Security, Patches, Ehp)
- User Security Self Help Templates
- APO Security Patches
- APO Database Refresh
- Management Summaries of Demand Planning
- Design Hygiene Checks
- Clean up of Unwanted Objects and Data
- Macro Organization
- Maintenance Utility Programs
- Reduced Manual Intervention
- Enhanced Interactive Planning Experience
- Collaboration Workbench Outside of SAP
- Integration of Competitor Research.
Notice that many of these items are not covered by SAP.
We also offer Boosters to improve things like forecast error management, as we cover in the article How to Access Weighted Monetary Monetized Forecast Error Calculation. Without a highly unusual forecast error report, most companies have a dysfunctional relationship with forecast error. We address this with the Brightwork Explorer.
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.