The potential impact of SAP RISE on your ADM services can be big – but knowing exactly how to harness it is massive 

SAP RISE has the potential to impact ADM services profoundly. In this blog series, I’ll lay out just how much it can transform your ADM landscape – and detail all the benefits (and potential drawbacks) of utilizing SAP RISE within your ADM model. 

SAP RISE (also called RISE with SAP) was launched in 2021. This is a subscription-based service, comprising multiple SAP components that join to form an Intelligent Enterprise with the primary purpose of enabling companies to take full advantage of the power of the Cloud within their core systems. 

ADM services refer to the outsourcing of different IT areas, for example, infra services, security management, application services, etc. Prior to SAP RISE, these services were normally provided by specialized vendors that held expertise in these areas. ADM without SAP RISE was mature – and of course competitive – with a wide range of outsourcing options available between these vendors. However, their services, abilities, and pricing would vary depending on the individual provider. 

SAP RISE in ADM: Improving the productivity of ADM services by standardizing development and management 

With the introduction of SAP RISE, various managed services could be combined into a comprehensive offering. This gives organizations the option to take advantage of synergies that will help in simplifying the overall managed service experience by having access to SAP’s comprehensive managed services across infrastructure, platform, and application management all together. This is an attractive option for the companies already utilizing SAP – and can provide them with a more streamlined approach to managed services. The role of SAP RISE in ADM is to standardize the development and management of services with the overall objective of improve the productivity of all ADM activities. 

SAP RISE fits into application and infra management – and includes TAM services as well. It covers application services like patching, change and release management, and the usage of pre-defined templates and libraries for development and enhancements. Infra services include basic security management, job scheduling, server/storage management, and other TAM services like event and incident management. SAP RISE with managed services can provide your business with comprehensive solutions to outsourcing IT functions. These include hosting, monitoring, and maintenance to a third-party provider outside your in-house services. To understand the true impact SAP RISE can have on your managed services, let’s look at the advantages and disadvantages of using SAP RISE within your ADM landscape. 

Cost reduction, Hyperscaler services, continuous improvement, and business alignment 

Some of the key potential benefits of SAP RISE integration with ADM services can be clubbed into the following four categories: 

Major cost reductions: SAP RISE is subscription based, which means you pay only for the services you use. Also, outsourcing IT functions to a managed services provider will help you save on overall IT costs. It offers a range of built-in monitoring and troubleshooting tools, which help to quickly identify and resolve any potential issues that may arise. For example, this could come in the form of real-time monitoring – and the problem could even be solved before it arises – thus optimizing your overheads and costs. 

Hyperscaler services: The usage of Hyperscalers like Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google Cloud Platform (GCP), or Microsoft Azure will bring benefits like scalability and high availability (they can easily handle large amounts of data and traffic). Additionally, they offer cost effectiveness benefits here, as you can use pay-as-you-go pricing models. 

Continuous improvement: SAP RISE can lead to a host of different continuous improvement opportunities. SAP Basis tasks such as installation, configuration, monitoring, and managing SAP systems can be outsourced to SAP. This will bring continuous improvement within the process through standardization and automation, as you don’t need to manually apply patches or updates. SAP RISE is built upon a Cloud platform can easily integrate with wide range of other services and applications when designed as a “plug and play” solution. This user-friendly interface will help remove any lethargy from the integration process with SAP RISE APIs. 

Heightened business alignment: SAP RISE has a wide range of templates and libraries, which help in customizing the development and enhancement of applications – faster and with more efficiency. This improves the response time to changing markets and corresponding business requirements through heightened alignment.  

What to watch out for: Integration with other systems, dependency on SAP, pricing, and connectivity issues 

There are also other business advantages like Business SLA management, vendor management, and ease of contracts, etc. But to understand the full impact of SAP RISE on ADM, we need to be aware of some of the disadvantages as well – especially from ADM perspective. 

Integration with other systems: We’ve talked about seamless integration with third party apps – but this also removes the ease of doing business. For example, for any bank integration, instead of “pick and shift” (i.e., creating an XML file and keeping it on the server for a third party to pick it up), we need to have integration with all third parties that need this banking information. This can be tedious and costly. 

Dependency on SAP: Many times, with SAP RISE, Basis is completely done by SAP, which means you are dependent on SAP for all Basis-related activities. While this does bring standardization as pointed out earlier, it also brings dependency. 

Pricing can be a problem: For ad hoc and “non-standard” Basis requirements, there is a separate additional charge from SAP, which earlier would have been part of routine activities done by an in-house team (e.g., taking a copy of production to pre-production). 

Connectivity issues: SAP RISE is cloud-based, so it requires a stable internet connection to function seamlessly. This can be a problem if some operations are in remote areas with limited internet bandwidth. 

RISE with SAP isn’t about subscription licenses alone – it is about developing an optimal target operating mode. Bringing SAP RISE to ADM services will lead to more accountability. A big success factor hear is the ability to articulate clear RACI needs between SAP, Cloud provider, and client. This will streamline the process. SAP RISE within the future of ADM will continue to evolve with more and more integration with other SAP offerings in the context of SAP S/4HANA, which will help businesses take advantage of the latest and greatest solutions that SAP has to offer. 

I hope you have a better understanding of how SAP RISE can help your ADM ecosystem on your journey to becoming an intelligent enterprise with its wide catalogue of services. In my next blog, I’ll cover the broad benefits described earlier in much more detail to show you how SAP RISE can ensure rapid business outcomes and speed up your transformation journey.  

But in the meantime, you can explore our broader PoV on the best approach for utilizing the latest changes within the SAP product suite. You can also visit us here to learn more about how we can help you take advantage of everything SAP RISE has to offer. And to talk in more detail, you can reach out to me at: himanshu.ambani@capgemini.com