How to choose the best SAP automation tool

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Can the SAP Automation Tool accept context?

SAP Automation tools, or any automation tooling for that matter, must be aware of what has occurred prior to its trigger and the environment in which it is executing. For example, automation reacting to an issue that has occurred makes perfect sense unless that automation can see that it has been triggered 3 times in the last 10 minutes and therefore the automated resolution is not working. You only get this level of context and awareness of the environment from an SAP Automation tool that is tightly integrated into the monitoring and management of your landscape. Context-aware automation is vital to an effective and resilient SAP Automation platform.

Are the Best SAP Automation Tools widely compatible?

The modern SAP Landscape is highly interconnected to both SAP and non-SAP systems, on-premise and Cloud solutions as well as cloud-based SaaS products. Any SAP Automation Tool you consider must be adaptable to a wide set of products as well as having the flexibility to integrate into non-standard, new, or homegrown solutions. Interconnectivity using industry-standard web technologies (as an example) like REST or SOAP is a minimum requirement for your SAP Automation tool and it should, ideally, bring a wide number of native compatibilities to your landscape to minimize the effort to get started and drive value.

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How does it integrate?

An SAP Automation tool must accept and drive handoff to other systems before and after automation has occurred. This requires a strong set of native and flexible integration points between your IT management suite of tools. For example, accepting automation triggers from an ITOM/ITSM system (read our ITOM white paper) such as ServiceNow combined with the ability to report automation status and completion back to that system or even another system, is vital to allow the creation and execution of end to end automation scenarios. When evaluating your SAP Automation Tool, verify that you have the flexibility to integrate it into any API-accessible solution to ensure maximum interoperability.

Are SAP Automation Tools flexible?

SAP Automation requires deep integration with SAP systems as a minimum. But that is not the whole story. Typically you also need to interface with a number of other subsystems such as the Operating system, Database, and more. Your tooling needs to be flexible enough to allow you to delegate portions of scenarios to other automation tools that might be in use within your business (non-SAP IT Operations). For example, most organizations apply security patches as part of a monthly cycle. If that involved an SAP Kernel upgrade, you may want to also complete your operating system patching during the same downtime window. Having the ability to complete your SAP Patching and then trigger, monitor, and report on the OS patching that might be completed by another corporate tool (e.g. Ansible) brings a level of flexibility and integration that is a significant value-add in this space.

A final thought on SAP Automation Tools

Choosing the right SAP Automation tool is all about these four topics. Does it have context, native support for the right products, robust integration, and the flexibility to interoperate with the rest of your business? If the answer to these is yes, then you're most likely on the right track for your automation strategy.

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