What is it? How should you structure it in our opinion?

How should you prepare to activate and evaluate it?

What is SAP Application Maintenance System (AMS)?

There are different terms used to define it, but the main ones are:

• Application System Maintenance or Application Management Support
• SAP Application management services or SAP Managed Services
• SAP system support
• Outsourced SAP system management
• Assistance and maintenance of SAP systems

We could simply define it as SAP AMS or SAP AMS services. It's the management of SAP enterprise systems from a specialized company.

But what's inside this assistance/support service and what sections make it up?

How should it be structured?

The application content and modalities are the most important aspect of a SAP maintenance contract.

In our opinion the AMS support for SAP should be formed by three main parts:

• AMS SAP applicative
• AMS Systematist (SAP Basis or SAP Remote Admin)
• AMS SAP Security

Now, should you have one supplier or several? A single supplier could seem the best choice, for various reasons:

• A single point of contact for all all operations
• A greater possibility of contracting
• A simplification of administrative management of collaboration

But is it always like this? What are other points of view?

• A single supplier, often, isn't always specialized on everything
• Having different points of view can be useful for a productive discussion

As for my experience, probably, the ideal solution is to activate an applicative and system support leaving the security part ad a specialized supplier.

How can you prepare yourself to activate or evaluate it?

The use of a ticketing system is fundamental to classify the requests based on the topic.

This will allow you to estimate a possible service effort once outsourced. Or simply evaluate if it's worth doing it or not.

Is your system documented? Do you have a repository of your company's processes? Operating manuals bound to business processes or a SAP authorization manual (description of the authorization model).

Do you focus on doing or on governing?

In several companies, it is common to find corporate resources overburdened with operational activities. In this case, the use of such services can be strategic for the company.

Allowing internal resources to focus on long-term and strategic goals by better governing systems. Delegating operations to a specialized supplier.

Focus points?

It is a contract between two companies, customer and service provider. Of fundamental importance, therefore, are the following aspects:

• The scope of work (systems, included and especially excluded activities)
• The service levels or SLA (service level agreements)
• The ability of the customer to perform or request inspections on the supplier
• The certifications of the service provider (company certifications i.e. ISO or of the personnel who are to operate the systems)
• The supplier's turnover related to the requested service

How much does SAP AMS cost?

There is clearly no one answer; it depends on several factors:

• The scope of work, such as how many and which systems
• The degree of customization by the customer. Management of a standard system is different from management of a highly customized system (such as very custom)
• Service levels. A service offered in the standard work band, 9-6 p.m. is different from an H24 service.

When is the time for change?

Do you already use these kinds of services? The feeling with the support company is not always optimal. What are the motives for possible change?

• Support is not accurate or does not have the appropriate knowledge
• Compliance with SLAs does not always happen
• Cost of service, in the case of fixed fees, does not reflect quality (remember that it should always be possible, for both parties) to revise the fee based on actual consumption
• Service evaluation processes, periodic, are not defined.

For further informations, read here!