It's a common misconception that SAP support packs are routine business. In fact, support pack installations are mini-upgrades, with significant testing and compatibility issues to resolve. Fortunately, there are ways to streamline SAP support package installation. In this ten minute podcast, Jon Reed of JonERP.com interviews Amit Bendov of Panaya to get to the bottom of the SAP support pack issues facing SAP customers. The podcast also explores how Panaya can help, and what kind of returns customers are actually seeing from Panaya's solutions. Some results from Panaya's recent SAP Support Packs survey are also revealed.

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(.48) Why are support packs more than a routine series of fixes and updates? SAP Support Packs are a series of changes to the SAP system, from security issues to functional fixes. SAP customers are not always clear on how these changes will impact their environments. This requires thorough testing, which often results in a postponement of support pack installations, which creates its own set of problems.

(2:00) In Panaya's conversations and formal surveys with SAP customers, what is their biggest pain point around support pack installation? Their most recent SAP support packs survey, released in the summer of 2009, indicated that the number one challenge was understanding the impact of support pack issues on the SAP users' systems. The number two "SAP support packages pain point" was how to do efficient testing. Every SAP support pack contains hundreds of changes, but most of them are not relevant to a particular system. So understanding what needs to be tested and what doesn't is key.

(3:05) Given the challenges around SAP support pack installation, it seems tempting to not worry about any OSS Notes or fixes that are not mission critical to the SAP production system. What are the drawbacks to falling behind on support pack updates? You never know how SAP's changes will impact your system. Falling behind means you have to later comb through numerous notes and documentation. The ideal scenario? Keep up with the latest SAP support packs, but not invest a lot in testing or introduce new risks to the system. 

(3:47) Panaya's surveys have shown that testing seems to be a major resource drain during a support pack installation. So how can Panaya can help with that? Panaya's SAP support pack solution analyzes SAP support packs (or even individual notes) and tell very easily what will be impacted by the new fix (and therefore what needs to be tested). It usually is a lot less than what people really test, so you can save a lot of time in testing. Panaya does this by running a virtual test of SAP support package installations on a users' own system. Panaya has a cloud-based, virtual supercomputer that runs this virtual test, and you will have the results in less than a day.

(5:47) Another major problem with support pack installation is conflicts with existing projects in the development system. How do Panaya's solutions address this? There is always a challenge for the IT department to put the SAP support package in place. There is never a good time to do it; there are always projects running and a several week development freeze is needed. But Panaya can shorten that from 18 days on average to 3 or 4 days, and 70 percent of the testing can be eliminated. This makes it much easier to co-exist with ongoing development projects. 

(6:55) We live in an age of ROI. People don't just want ease of use, they want to point to some real numbers on how third party software can help them. What numbers can Panaya share from customers who use Panaya's SAP support pack solutions? With Panaya, you can try before you actually buy, so you can actually see what the savings will be before you buy the solution. So you will know the ROI before you actually purchase the product. A typical benefit is 70 percent of the testing and 50 percent of the preparation work. Beyond the formal ROI numbers is the risk reduction benefit Panaya offers via SAP support package simulation.

(8:14) So if you are an SAP user listening and you have a couple more hard questions or you want to learn more, what do you do? The next step is to come to the Panaya web site and request a trial. You will have a fast response, usually within 24 hours. Panaya will guide you through the rest: you'll paste in some ABAP code and provide the needed information, and with a few days, you'll know exactly how the SAP support packs will impact your system and what testing you will need to do. You don't have to buy anything to get that visibility into your system.

We'll be releasing another podcast which explores Panaya's recent SAP Support Survey next week. In the meantime, you can learn more at Panaya's SAP support packs solutions page.