Customers are always surprised how easy it actually is to configure Business Process Monitoring in SAP Solution Manager. A common reaction is "had we known that it is so easy and with so little effort, then we would have started already earlier with Business Process Monitoring". Now SAP went one step further in order to further speed-up the set-up process for its customers. A template solution with eight different standard ERP logistic processes is available for download on the SAP Service Marketplace. These processes have already selected Business Process Monitoring key figures configured that are just "waiting" to get activated. This blog will just briefly outline how you can come to a productive Business Process Monitoring for your core logistic processes within less than half a day.

The following eight pre-configured processes are part of the template solution:

Prerequisites:

We assume that your SAP Solution Manager 7.0 is implemented and basically configured. You should additionally check that all technical perquisites for Business Process Monitoring described in SAP note 521820 "Availability of Business Process Monitoring" and SAP note 784752 "BPMon in SAP Solution Manager - Prerequisites" are met. Especially all mentioned RFC connections need to be established and working, including the authorization check. Your SAP ERP backend system should have the plug-in ST-A/PI 01L* implemented, see SAP note 69455 - "Servicetools for Applications ST-A/PI (ST14, RTCCTOOL, ST12)" for further details.

Roadmap - From template download to active Business Process Monitoring:

On the SAP Service Marketplace you find a presentation Template Solution for BPMon - Detailed Description which describes step by step together with screenshots what needs to be done in order to come to a productive Business Process Monitoring. Therefore this blog will only describe the rough roadmap on how to get from the template download to an active Business Process Monitoring for your core logistic processes.

1) Go to http://service.sap.com/bpm --> Media Library --> Technical Information and download

- zip-file Template Solution for BPMon

- Presentation Template Solution for BPMon - Detailed Description for a detailed step by step setup guide.

- Presentation Business Process Monitoring - Setup Roadmap to quickly study what is needed for a Business Process Monitoring configuration

2) Create a new solution in your SAP Solution Manager and navigate into this new solution.

3) Call transaction SOLUTION_TRANSFER and upload the zip-file

4) Adjust the logical component in the Solution Directory

5) Adjust the Business Process Monitoring where needed

6) Generate and activate Business Process Monitoring

7) Done - your selected core processes are monitored with application specific key figures

Now you say that this sounds very simple. That's what it is. So get started and within less than half a day you will monitor some of your most important processes.

Of course you will see that the template processes are very simple and just represent those process steps that are absolutely necessary for a process like e.g. Order to Cash. But now that you started, it is also very simple to adjust your business process documentation in the Solution Directory by

• adding/deleting business processes & steps
• adding logical components (for additional systems)
• adding (graphical) interfaces
• adapting the business process graphic (changing texts, colors, and arrows)

Or you add additional data collectors in the BPMon Setup Session for

• cross-application monitors (background jobs, dialog performance, application log, short dumps, update errors, etc.)
• interfaces (e.g. IDocs, qRFC, tRFC, XI/PI, etc.)

Frequently Asked Questions about Business Process Monitoring are answered under http://wiki.sdn.sap.com/wiki/display/SM/FAQ+Business+Process+Monitoring.

The following blogs provide further details about Business Process Monitoring functionalities within the SAP Solution Manager.

• SAP Solution Manager - ALE / IDoc Monitoring
• SAP Solution Manager - qRFC Monitoring
• SAP Solution Manager - Functionalities For Inconsistencies
• SAP Business Process Monitoring within SAP Solution Manager
• SAP Solution Manager - BPMon Trend Analysis Reporting
• Best Practice - Business Process Monitoring for a typical manufacturing process
• Best Practice - Business Process Monitoring for Procure to Pay  
• Best Practice - Business Process Monitoring for a typical Order to Cash process
• Functional Scope of Business Process Monitoring in SAP Solution Manager
• New key figure catalog for Business Process Monitoring available

Corresponding session abstracts for TechEd 2009 in Phoenix, Vienna and Bangalore:

ALM112 - Business Process Analysis & Monitoring

During this session you will learn how Business Process Analysis & Monitoring within Enterprise Support helps to optimize the return on your investment in SAP ERP software, by identifying optimization potential for your core business processes. You will learn what kind of errors/problems could be identified by analyzing customer systems. The benefits of this service are the following and should all help lowering your Total Cost Of Ownership (TCO):

• Allows internal benchmarking of different organizational units, e.g. sales organizations or manufacturing plants
• Learn in which organizational areas you

- Could speed-up and streamline your most critical business processes

- Could improve service levels

- Might need to train your end-users to better follow intended procedures

- Could improve your daily operations

You will also learn how the Business Process Analysis can be a good starting point for setting up Business Process Monitoring in SAP Solution Manager.

ALM273 - Business Process Monitoring setup for a typical Order to Cash process

This hands-on workshop describes a use case for business process monitoring for a typical order to cash scenario. In this session you will use the SAP Solution Manager in order to set up the continuous alert & trend monitoring of important application specific key figures in SAP ERP. Typical examples are overdue sales orders, overdue deliveries, goods delivered not invoiced, incorrect billing print-outs. You will also learn about integrated reporting capabilities using the trend analysis SAP NetWeaver Business Warehouse dashboard.