What is SAP Application Management Services?
SAP Application Management Services (SAP AMS) are management services for your SAP applications. These services include the people, processes, and methodologies to maintain, improve, and manage mission-critical SAP environments. AMS includes enterprise application development, enhancements, implementation, integration, testing, maintenance, and support for functional and technical sides of SAP landscapes. It can also include service desk or help desk services. You can think of SAP AMS as giving you on-demand access to a team of certified SAP subject matter experts focused on supporting your SAP environment. AMS support of your enterprise platform makes it possible to get the full value of your SAP investment at a much lower total cost of ownership (TCO) than an internal application support model.“When working with our SAP AMS customers, we’ve seen total cost of SAP ownership cut by 20 to 50%,” says Allen Abell, Vice President of AMS at Syntax.A high-quality SAP AMS model utilizes a pool of named, experienced SAP specialists outside of your own organization.
What are the Advantages of Working with an SAP AMS partner?
There are many benefits to working with an SAP AMS partner. There are four main benefits:- Cost savings through shared expertise. With a shared model, you’re no longer paying for underutilized, full-time SAP talent. You can fractionalize the cost while still gaining access to the SAP expertise you need.
- Consistent and timely support. Responsiveness can suffer when enterprises lack internal expertise to support every SAP module. Comprehensive AMS allows for better response time and consistency for your SAP landscape.
- Predictable budget. Having a contracted baseline of hours of SAP AMS support facilitates the planning process.
- Flexibility to scale up or down. As your business changes and grows, the AMS support model helps you avoid hiring delays and the costs associated with your fluctuating workforce.
What Should You Look for in an SAP Application Management Services Partner?
There are some key areas you should consider before working with an SAP AMS partner. Here are four key considerations:-
Business improvements
The cornerstone of SAP AMS is the business process improvements and enhancements. It is more than just break fixes. An SAP AMS partner should really know their customer’s business processes. Can they provide recommendations and systems for consistent improvement to daily business processes?
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Flexibility and creativity
Larger SAP AMS providers typically spend less time and attention on their smaller clients. They can also overwhelm them with bureaucracy in terms of paperwork. This inflexibility means large SAP AMS providers are less likely to tailor support SAP AMS solutions. It is important to work with an SAP AMS partner that provides flexibility and creativity.
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Access to global resources
It is critical that an SAP AMS partner operates in the countries where your enterprise has a presence. To reduce the potential for error and reduce downtime, it is vital to have cultural proximity, familiarity with the local language, and knowledge of local systems. For example, “farshore” resources in counties such as India can be augmented with same time zone support and accessibility to “nearshore” resources in countries such as Mexico.
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Relevant certifications
One way to assess whether an SAP AMS provider has the skills best suited for your company’s needs is to request a list of SAP certifications and other industry or technology certifications earned by its employees. Furthermore, these certifications guarantee compliance with standards such as ISO 27001 (the international certification standard for information security management systems) or ISO 20000 (the standard for IT service management).
