Enhancing Support with SAP Partner-Relevant Resources

Customers rely on partners’ transformation excellence and effective resolution of consultative inquiries. The following section details what that means.

TRANSFORM

Embed SAP Best Practices: Enable customer value at scale by embedding SAP’s implementations, operations, and support best practices in operating procedures

Examples

• SAP Activate
• Perfect Support Case
• Service partner user management application

Leverage SAP Application Lifecycle Management Tools: Leverage SAP Cloud ALM and further transformation solutions for delivering projects with quality / efficiency and safeguarding business continuity

Examples

• SAP Cloud ALM for implementation and operations
• SAP Business Transformation Center

PREVENT & SOLVE

Maintain Current Qualifications: Maintain current product and support qualifications to expand overall workforce excellence

Examples

• Support Accreditation
• Go live experience sessions

Address Consultative Inquiries: Effectively assist customers in implementations, and later, operations by addressing consultative (‘how-to’) inquiries

Examples

• SAP Community
• SAP Help
• SAP Notes

The following slide summarizes SAP Partner expectations

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 simply 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. The following steps provide a detailed overview of the process.

1. The customer creates the S-user invite​.

   The customer accesses the service partner user management application and invites an existing S-user from an SAP partner to be a delegate for their company.

2. The partner accepts the customer's invitation​.

   Upon receiving the e-mail invite, the partner's S-user can accept it in the Service Partner User Cockpit, granting SAP permission to share their contact details with the customer.

3. The customer assigns the authorization to the partner​.

   The customer uses the service partner user management application to grant case management authorization for their installations. They set a validity period and specify the specific installations or systems.

4. The partner creates a case on the customer’s behalf​.

   Partner consultants can now create cases on customers' systems with their S-user ID.​

The service partner user management application process allows cloud customers to send invitations to partner S-user IDs and, if they accept, grant case handling authorization to them. As a result, partners gain the ability to perform case management in SAP for Me on behalf of customers with which they are actively engaged.

• More targeted and closer collaboration between SAP and partner
• Higher transparency about partner users’ own cases
• Increased efficiency in case handling across customers
• Only one S-user ID needed for all customer engagement
• Visibility into all the cases related to a specific installation/tenant

• Accelerated troubleshooting by partner on behalf of customer (closer collaboration between SAP and partner)
• Higher transparency about partner users that perform support tasks on customer behalf at installation/tenant level
• Increased efficiency in managing partner authorizations
• Fewer S-user IDs for partner users
• Ease of authorization and deauthorization
• Centralized administration via SAP for Me

Please refer to the following links for instructions on how to set up this function:

• Partner step-by-step doc | KBA 2518736 ​ ​
• Customer step-by-step doc | KBA 2518600

To enable a more effective support collaboration between SAP and partner, SAP has introduced the Support Manager and Support Consultant contact functions (maintained by your security manager in Manage My Users). This will help indicate the role the person has in relation to your partnership with SAP.

We recommend that partners assign at least one Support Manager and three Support Consultant contact functions as counterparts for potential interaction. This will ensure that the right contacts at your company receive the relevant invitations, communications, and feedback opportunities. It is recommended that those assigned to these functions are qualified support personnel. For more details on how to set up the contact function, please refer to the Manage My Users support document.

The SAP partner ecosystem plays a strategic role for the success of SAP customers. Partners are directly or indirectly involved in support delivery, which is essential for customers’ success and experience. Aiming for joint customer success, SAP has introduced two new partner functions to strengthen the collaboration on support.

The general role of the Support Manager is to manage the relationship between the SAP partner and SAP support (one per partner).

That includes, for example:

• Service delivery and quality management
• Certification, resource management, and enablement
• Support process integration with SAP
• Commercial management

The general role of the Support Consultants is to deliver support or interact with SAP on behalf of the joint customer, or both. The following is expected of the consultants:

• Maintain relevant product and support qualifications and certifications.
• Be knowledgeable in the SAP support standards and best practices for support.

To ensure that the right contacts at your company receive relevant invitations, communications, and feedback opportunities from SAP, please maintain the new functions and keep them up to date.

Your security manager can select these functions when creating new contacts or can assign them as additional functions or permissions to existing users as per user management processes in the Manage My Users (MMU) app. Only the security manager has access to this app. Further information on how to manage contacts: GPS for Contact & User Management.

These new functions for support employees have been made available and are mandatory for the support authorization program. This ensures that the right contacts at your company receive the relevant support information, invitations, communications, and feedback opportunities.

Liaise with your security manager to get a function assigned based on your actual focus and area and responsibilities.

User creation and maintenance processes have been adapted in the Manage My Users (MMU) app. (Link only works for partner S-users.) Information related to Partner Type, Function Title, and Department have been removed from the UI. An optional Function field has been added to the UI.

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 as well as support metrics for more efficient case handling

Opportunity for partners: Optimizing case-handling processes, proactively mitigating project risks and expanding customer satisfaction.

Prerequisites: Partners create support cases on behalf of customer with own S-user IDs that are authorized by the respective customers via the service partner user management application

SAP assists customers and partners in their user administration responsibilities by assigning an expiry date to all S-users. The S-user lifetime process helps protect your sensitive company information and ensures compliance with the relevant data protection regulations that may apply to you under GDPR. You can find the S-user lifetime expiration date in your User Profile. Administrators can find more in-depth information relevant to the user account management activities in the User Management Application.

1. With S-user lifetime, all S-user IDs have an "expiry date." A default validity period of 24 months is assigned to all new users (Super, cloud, user administrators, security managers, technical communication users, and P-users do not have expiry dates).
2. Closer to the expiry date, you and your admin will be notified of the 90 day expiring process.
3. If no action is taken during the expiring process, the S-user ID expires.
4. After expiration, and if no re-activation is performed within 90 days by your admin, the S-user ID is deleted.

For more information, visit the Support portal page. For Partner-specific information, see the SAP Partner Portal.

SAP Universal ID is a unified account across SAP sites that puts you  in control by linking all your existing company associations (S/P-user IDs), enabling you to switch between them as needed.​

As more and more SAP sites enhance their integration with SAP Universal ID, direct access via S-user ID is no longer supported. Therefore, to ensure you can continue to access SAP sites, you must adopt SAP Universal ID.

SAP Universal ID benefits:

• Personal SAP identity ownership
• Centralized account management, linking existing accounts
• Universal access across workplaces
• Use the SAP Universal ID Account Manager for easy viewing, updates, and personal information management, as well as account security settings and company associations
• Facilitated information management with the SAP Universal ID Account Manager:
  • Viewing, updates, personal information management
  • Account security settings
  • Company associations

For more information, visit the SAP Universal ID support page.

This table lists both prerequisites and limitations for using Schedule an Expert and Expert Chat on behalf of the SAP end customer (using the service partner user function).

Schedule an Expert and Expert Chat are not consulting channels.

For new Schedule an Expert and Expert Chat cases, booking on behalf of the partner’s end customer is done through the Get Support access card in SAP for Me.​

For existing cases, Schedule an Expert bookings are only possible in the following circumstances:​

• The case is with SAP support.
• The support engineer assigned to the case is available for Schedule an Expert sessions.

For more information, visit Schedule an Expert | Expert Chat.