Explaining the SAP Support Accreditation Scope

Before opening a Support Request, users must be familiar with the following support concepts. A wide range of free resources is available to assist users when assessing issues and evaluating if they belong to support or not. The differentiation between Support and Consulting can be derived as follows. Support applies when the behavior is based on an error or defect in the provided software. Or, when a behavior derives from a best practice configuration. It can also be root-caused from incorrect or missing documentation, or other factors.

It’s referred to Consulting when a user requires assistance related to a configuration, business process analysis, has how-to questions or implementation requests, or other requests that do not apply to Support.

Consulting-related issues can be reviewed and clarified with the support of a wide range or resources provided by SAP. For example, SAP for Me, Built-In Support and others.

Troubleshooting of Issues, executing diagnostics and secure connections are assisted with tools such as Kernel Snapshot Analyzer and Flexible Log Reader.

SAP for Me is the personalized central entry point to access SAP products, support, and services. With SAP for Me, you can view and manage the SAP software licenses, subscriptions, users, and important announcements. You can search for all support content here, from Knowledge Base Articles and product documentation to forums and answers to how-to questions from SAP Community. Finally, you can also log support cases using the Get Support application, interact with support experts, and find solutions to your technical issues when needed.

SAP for Me provides transparency across all SAP solutions and ensures a harmonized support experience. It makes performing support-related tasks easy, with an end-to-end view of the product portfolio in one place.

Customer Interaction Center

Customer Interaction Center is your central point of contact for all SAP customers, whether Cloud or on-premise. We provide Front Line Support, guiding you to maximize the value of your SAP services, enablement throughout your SAP journey, and effective first-level support for various nontechnical topics.

Customer Interaction Center is your round-the-clock assistance for case management, support resource navigation, S-user management, software licenses, remote service requests, and more. With strategically located teams globally, including Ireland, Brazil, China, India, and the Philippines, we guarantee continuous support whenever you need it. Contact Customer Interaction Center and connect with us anytime, anywhere for personalized and reliable support.

Contact Customer Interaction Center in the following situations:​

• You need assistance with requesting a license key​.
• You are unsure which installation to use.​
• You need advice on how to create or delete systems.​
• You need advice on how to purchase additional licenses/product.​

Expert Chat

The Real-Time Support live channel, Expert Chat, is a service that allows you to connect directly with SAP support experts via an online chat interface. It's designed to provide quick, efficient, and personalized assistance for resolving technical issues, answering questions, and addressing other support-related matters related to SAP software and services. It’s available for all support levels and almost all solutions–at no additional charge.

Schedule an Expert

The Real-Time Support live channel, Schedule an Expert, is a service that allows you to schedule dedicated one-on-one sessions with SAP support experts. This service is designed to provide personalized and focused assistance for resolving technical issues, addressing specific questions, or getting guidance on best practices related to SAP software and solutions. It’s available for all support levels and almost all solutions–at no additional charge.

Ask an Expert Peer

The Real-Time Support live channel, Ask an Expert Peer, is a service that lets you collaborate one-on-one with a qualified and approved expert outside of SAP on your technical, product-related questions.

Ask an Expert Peer has been integrated into the unified support experience and directly embedded in the optimized case management process. This channel facilitates collaborative problem-solving for technical and product-related questions through one-on-one interactions with qualified and approved experts external to SAP. Ask an Expert Peer is valuable for quickly resolving basic inquiries, including "how to" questions, and addressing low to medium-priority cases.

Schedule a Manager

The Real-Time Support live channel, Schedule a Manager, is a service that enables you to book a 15-minute one-on-one call with a support manager. This service elevates the customer support experience by providing a deeper level of engagement, expertise, and personalized assistance for nontechnical queries.

It’s available for medium and high priority cases that are sent to SAP, for all support levels and almost all solutions–at no additional charge.

SAP offers several tools that apply artificial intelligence technology to assist in case creation and to propose solutions, and predict and prevent issues, while enhancing the customer experience through case handling.

• The Get Support guides you to solve a technical product issue in real time or reach SAP experts. It provides an integrated and personalized support experience to simplify and streamline the case creation process.
• Bi-directional support leverages AI and proactive outreach to predict and prevent issues. This approach fosters a collaborative, anticipatory relationship, enhancing customer satisfaction and operational efficiency.
• Guided Answers tool helps you troubleshoot and find solutions to technical problems using a step-by-step guide. SAP experts document exact steps for analyzing issues and make that available to you.
• Support assistant asks pertinent questions to help categorize your issue to get it assigned to an expert that can help you resolve your issue faster, all while recommending content and solutions in real time.
• The support log assistant tool analyzes text files such as logs, traces, and configuration files automatically. The tool then recommends solutions to known issues found and highlights the most important details in the files provided.
• Incident Solution Matching, as part of our machine learning-empowered support process, proposes tailored solutions automatically within the case form so users can find support content quickly, without searching manually.

SAP Cloud ALM is a valuable tool included in your SAP Support subscription. It serves as the central hub for implementing and operating intelligent cloud and hybrid business solutions. Implementation and operations run in parallel. To prevent unwanted impacts, SAP Cloud ALM supports activities related to:

• Implementation: design, build, test, deploy.
• Operations: detect, analyze, correct, automate.
• SAP Cloud ALM also makes service activities—preparation, delivery, sharing, and follow-up—efficient and transparent.

The following image summarizes the activities SAP Cloud ALM supports for implementation, operations, and service.

Working with SAP Procurement Support (only intended for customers using SAP Ariba and SAP Fieldglass)

Interaction with SAP Procurement support depends on two factors; which SAP Procurement platform is used, and whether you are a Procurement S-user. The help center for SAP Ariba is a comprehensive Knowledge Base and support portal that offers a wide range of resources, including documentation, user guides, tutorials, FAQs, and troubleshooting information. Access this platform to answer questions, learn how to use SAP Ariba features, and resolve issues.

The help center for SAP Fieldglass provides step-by-step guides, tutorials, and troubleshooting tips to help you get the most out of SAP Fieldglass.

Working with SAP Concur Support (only intended for SAP Concur users)

For SAP Concur customers, SAP assigned two to five people as authorized support contacts (ASCs) who are the only ones authorized to access resources on the SAP Concur Support portal and are responsible for managing SAP Concur Support issues across your organization.

SAP Concur customers have access to the SAP Concur Support portal offering features such as a knowledge center, chat support, case creation facility, improvement requests section, and access to the SAP Community.

When you become aware of an issue, a good first step is to consult the self-service options on the SAP Concur Support portal. The following resources can often answer your questions immediately; Ask Us Anything, Information Center, or Knowledge Base.

Partners request SAP support on behalf of customers when providing implementation and postimplementation services. Providing the opportunity for SAP and partners to expand customer satisfaction by collaborating effectively on support.

The service partner user management application enables closer collaboration between SAP and partners by allowing partners to use their own S-user IDs to create and manage cases on behalf of the customer.

SAP recommends that customers / partners leverage the service partner user management application for scenarios where partners engage with SAP support at the request and on behalf of customers.

Step 1. Customer invites partner’s own S-user

Customer cloud admin accesses the Manage Service Partner Users access card & invites a partner’s existing S-user.

Step 2. Partner accepts the customer invitation

Partner S-user receives an e-mail notification of the invite and accepts it in the Service Partner User Cockpit access card.

Step 3. Customer assigns the authorization to partner

Customer selects user in Manage Service Partner Users access card and assigns the authorization validity period and systems.

Step 4. Partner creates case on customer’s behalf

Partner consultant (S-user) is now able to create / manage cases for customer’s systems with own S-user ID.

The service partner user management application enables closer collaboration between SAP and partners by allowing partners to use their own S-user IDs to create and manage cases on behalf of the customer.

With this application, customers can grant case management authorizations to SAP partner S-users. This means that consultants can log into SAP for Me with their own partner-granted S-user ID and create or manage cases for all their authorized customers using their own S-user ID.

It also means that customers no longer have to create brand new S-users for partners under the customer's support account in SAP for Me. They can grant the rights to an existing partner S-user ID to create cases for their installations or tenants.

SAP strongly recommends that customers/partners use the service partner user management application for scenarios where partners engage with SAP support at the request and on behalf of customers.

SAP empowers partners to collaborate more effectively with SAP support by providing Support Collaboration Analytics in SAP for Me. The Support Collaboration Analytics dashboard in SAP for Me offers insights on support cases created by partners on behalf of SAP Cloud customers. Besides a consolidated overview of support cases, it provides analytical capabilities and support metrics for more efficient case handling.