IT&I Magazine No. 28 - Article OPAF

Companies that outsource the support for their SAP^® system to an external service provider must be able to rely on three things: availability during certain core working hours, a qualified contact person, and a commitment to processing so that no tasks are forgotten. After all, there is nothing more frustrating than an unanswered query that you then have to spend what seems like forever searching for in your own mailbox to find out when it was sent, so you can follow up on it.

For many years, PROMOS has mapped the three-stage support concept (consisting of support, advice and development) using the SAP^® Solution Manager support desk. Processing all notifications in this ticket system creates transparency for all those involved and an Internet support portal guarantees access to all support functions regardless of location.

Transferring the creation of notifications to SAP Fiori^® and the improvements that come along with this makes the digital collaboration between Support on PROMOS’ side and key users on the customer side even easier.

Score points with the first impression

Overall, the environment for the creation of notifications in Fiori^® has a much tidier and clearer appearance. This impression comes from the fact that the complexity has been reduced to three relevant tiles and the screen structure has been optimised in general. Where customers previously sometimes found it confusing to scroll through the details of the ticket overview, the organisation now follows the Fiori^® design specifications. The user completes the electronic form, including using predefined selection catalogues for technical specifications such as PROMOS.GT components, meaning only the necessary information remains visible. In addition, instead of a list of the entire history, only open notifications are displayed in the overview. The advantage of this is that companies can quickly find out the current processing status of their ticket.

When creating a notification, users can specify the ticket type in advance by choosing between an error report and a consulting query. This separation allows both greater transparency on the invoice and faster processing of adjustment requests. The consulting query is executed simply in the form of a ticket, after which the processor at PROMOS documents the costs for implementation in the correspondence with the customer. To ensure that such additional expenses are not lost in the message history, all costs are clearly shown in the header of a ticket. If the customer has agreed a consultation quota with PROMOS, it is not necessary to create an offer and commission the job. Additional input fields for a consulting query facilitate assignment within the customer’s company. Proven features such as tracing of the communication directly in the ticket and notification via e-mail are also retained.

Enjoy new freedom

The change to SAP Fiori^® provides an excellent user experience and allows a central access point for both experts and occasional users. Whether in the office on a PC, on a tablet during a meeting, or at the airport using a smartphone – the responsive behaviour of the online application means it is not limited to one terminal device and allows end-to-end ticket processing even while you are out and about.

SAP customers in the PROMOS data centre who have already decided in principle on SAP Fiori^® as a work interface can benefit from particularly smooth integration into their launchpad. SAP itself calls this “seamless” If the tiles are embedded on the personal start screen together with all the other applications, users can access several systems centrally without an additional login. This saves a lot of time in daily handling.

However, access is also very convenient for all other users, as there are no technical prerequisites to fulfil. Users simply log in on their browser and can access the new world of Fiori^® directly. In this way, those who have been thinking about using Fiori^® can gain an excellent initial insight into how it works in practice.

Win another perspective

The S/4HANA^® technology also offers entirely new opportunities to assess the performance of PROMOS’ Support team thanks to live data from status tracking. How long in total does it take to process the notifications? Which specialist field generates the most notifications? In the future, customers will find answers to these and other questions in a new tile for analyses. In addition to the creation of notifications and an overview of open notifications, this tile collects important information in a central location and displays it in user-friendly charts, key performance indicators and forecasts. Customers thus gain a fast insight into, for example, the ratio of open and closed calls or the processing of all queries over time.

The PROMOS consult service pledge

107 customers already use the reliable service and support services from PROMOS. If a company chooses a full service in PROMOS’ own data centre, they can rely on three gold promises:

Your query is important to us! So we won’t wait too long – you will receive an initial response within a maximum of two hours.
You can reach us on various channels. You can send notifications 24 hours a day, seven days a week in the Support portal. During the core working hours between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. (Monday to Friday, excluding national public holidays in Germany), you can also reach us by phone. Many of our existing customers really appreciate this personal contact.
Our direct resolution rate speaks for itself. The Support team is ideally qualified and keeps its expertise at an excellent level with regular certifications.

Rapid help in the launchpad – convenient access to the notification process

The PROMOS consult service pledge