Determining Issue Relevance within Support Scope

The customer support team can assist with most issues that arise. However, there are some issues that fall outside the scope of the customer support team. These issues are consulting issues.

Before opening a support case, you must understand the difference between 'Support' and 'Consulting'.

For on-premise solutions, support handles the following types of case:

• There is an error/defect in the software
• An error/defect in the software causes subsequent errors
• Problems exist when implementing corrections (by implementing the SAP correction instructions)
• Standard functions have incorrect documentation

For cloud solutions, support agrees to handle the following types of case:

• There is an error in the software, SAP Best Practices configuration or with customer-requested configuration carried out by SAP
• An error in the software or in SAP Best Practices configuration causes subsequent errors
• Standard product functions have incorrect or missing documentation

All other cases are considered a consulting request.

This includes the following types of inquiries:

• Advice or assistance relating to configuration, business process analysis, or implementation specific to the customer’s unique environment or already documented in product guides
• "How-to" questions seeking assistance with documented features
• Assistance with customization of the core product, core functionality, or problems or errors caused by customization that has been implemented or completed by customers or partners

Note

Unless otherwise specified in your maintenance contract, consulting requests are priced separately, at the discretion of SAP. 

What should be your first step if you have a how-to question, configuration question, or any other issue that falls outside the scope of support?

SAP offers a wide range of free resources to assist you, including SAP Support Portal, SAP Help Portal, and SAP Community network. These are gateways to thousands of SAP Knowledge Base Articles and connect you with SAP software experts, including SAP engineers, consultants, and experienced users from our extensive ecosystem. This is often the fastest and easiest way to solve most user experience-related problems.

To access these resources, visit:

• SAP Support Portal - https://support.sap.com/
• SAP Help Portal - https://help.sap.com
• SAP Community - https://community.sap.com
• SAP WIKI - https://wiki.scn.sap.com/

• SAP Knowledge Base Article 83020 – What is Support – What is Consulting: On-Premise Solutions
• SAP Knowledge Base Article 2706322 – What is Support – What is Consulting: Cloud Solution