Introducing SAP Maintenance and the SAP Maintenance Strategy

SAP software represents a substantial investment for any organization. SAP solutions form the foundation upon which the organization's most critical and important business processes run. Therefore, it is crucial that each solution be available and functioning properly to support business operations.

Software maintenance is a natural part of the SAP application lifecycle and represents a critical skill set for any SAP Basis Administrator. Maintenance activities often begin during implementation and continue throughout the application lifecycle.

Watch the following video to learn more about SAP Maintenance Strategies.

SAP provides a comprehensive AI-Powered Support Portal. This portal documents all the support tools, processes, and resources needed for customers to support their SAP solutions.

You can find the SAP Maintenance Strategy by selecting the Maintenance dropdown menu.

Support options can vary depending upon the specific SAP product or solution implemented by the customer and whether the solution is deployed on-premise at the customer, in the SAP private cloud, or if the customer has an SAP S/4HANA Public Cloud subscription.

For SAP S/4HANA, the maintenance strategy is generally divided into four distinct phases, which are:

1. Mainstream maintenance

   Mainstream maintenance starts from the first customer release of a software version, typically called "release to customer". It covers both the restricted shipment (ramp-up customers only) and unrestricted shipment phases (general availability).

2. Extended maintenance

   Customers can extend the support period, in which corrections or legal changes are considered, for an increased maintenance fee. The support scope provided during the extended maintenance period is identical to that under mainstream maintenance.

3. Customer-specific maintenance

   From a specific point in time during the lifecycle of a release, this release is no longer adjusted to meet external requirements. Such requirements are, for example, the implementation of legal changes or the support of new technologies. The time in question is marked by the end of extended maintenance (or the end of mainstream maintenance if no extended maintenance is offered). Customer-specific maintenance starts at this point.

4. Priority-One Support

   After the end of mainstream maintenance, SAP offers priority-one support for selected releases of the former SAP BusinessObjects portfolio and SAP Predictive Analytics.

In this video, David learns about different maintenance activities and how SAP delivers support.

During mainstream maintenance, SAP maintenance support is delivered using several methods:

• SAP Notes

• Support Packages

• Support Package Stacks

• Feature Packages

• Enhancement Packages

Each method is designed to deliver functional updates, bug fixes, or new features and functions in various ways. To learn more about these delivery methods, please watch the following videos.

Watch the following video to explore the SAP system architecture and how it influences software maintenance.

Watch the following video to learn about maintaining your SAP system with SAP maintenance packages.

You are now be able to discuss the SAP Maintenance Strategy and describe the options available for supporting your SAP software.