February 24, 2010
Verizon launches cloud-based SAP service
Verizon today launched a new cloud-based service helping enterprise users to more easily and affordably manage their mission-critical SAP apps.
The new SAP Application Management Service targets organizations with annual revenues between $500 million and $2 billion, the sweet spot of companies that might opt for outsourced cloud-based help with their SAP installations rather than do it all for themselves in-house.
The service aims to minimize the information technology resources that enterprise customers need to support applications that rely on SAP platforms, such as financial analysis and logistics.
SAP Application Management Services was developed in conjunction with consulting firm Accenture and will be sold by both companies. The offering has been certified by SAP, the provider of the SAP business software platform that claims 92,000 customers in more than 120 countries.
"Managing SAP can distract customers from their core business," said Anthony Kessel, Verizon senior product manager, who used the term "end-to-end" to describe several different aspects of the new offering. With the new service Verizon helps manage the entire life cycle of an SAP implementation, he said –f rom assessment, design and planning to monitoring and upgrades, as well as the hardware, software and connectivity underlying the offering.
"By end-to-end, we mean the technology stack, from the network to the data center, including storage and hardware to end user applications, GUIs [graphical user interfaces], other interfaces and passwords," Kessel explained.
Customers signing on for the service will have a server located in a Verizon-operated data center dedicated to supporting that individual customer's applications. Although the cost of some resources, such as power, will be shared with other Verizon customers, Kessel said servers are not shared.
Verizon also will provide each SAP Application Management Service customer with dedicated support staff at the customer's location. Some of the largest customers might have several Verizon client engineers working at their location to support the new service, as well as previously launched Verizon cloud-based applications such as PeopleSoft, Oracle and Microsoft Exchange, said Kessel. Verizon client executives also will be posted at customer locations to help ensure that any problems are escalated, according to pre-established parameters.
With that structure in place, Kessel said, "You don't have a guy trying to be heroic work on something too long." Instead, he said, the client executive will direct problems requiring specialized expertise within Accenture or SAP to staff at those organizations in a timely fashion.
Verizon also will have technicians to support the SAP service at three operations centers—one in San Francisco, one in the United Kingdom and one in India. That approach, he said, will help Verizon minimize the cost of the service by enabling non-critical tasks, such as requests for standard changes, to be handled by lower-cost staff members based offshore.
Everyone supporting the service, including customer personnel as well as Verizon and Accenture staff, will have access to a Verizon-designed software portal that will provide them all with a common view of service status. Kessel pointed to the portal, which displays the status of specific SAS transactions, as an example of how Verizon's new offering differs from cloud-based SAS applications already on the market.
Verizon will work with enterprise customers to determine the best type of connectivity—such as private lines or MPLS--to support the new SAP service, Kessel said. Some customers currently view the need to manage multiple network providers as a "pain point," he said, and will welcome the opportunity to work with a single network service provider.
Although some other network operators, as well as some other hosting providers offer SAP services, Verizon's relationship with Accenture could be a key differentiator, said Amy DeCarlo, principal analyst for Current Analysis. "Accenture is one of the top SAP integrators out there," she said. And rather than Verizon being subordinate to Accenture, she said the two companies seem to have truly operated as a team in creating the new offering.
The new SAP Application Management Service targets organizations with annual revenues between $500 million and $2 billion, the sweet spot of companies that might opt for outsourced cloud-based help with their SAP installations rather than do it all for themselves in-house.
The service aims to minimize the information technology resources that enterprise customers need to support applications that rely on SAP platforms, such as financial analysis and logistics.
SAP Application Management Services was developed in conjunction with consulting firm Accenture and will be sold by both companies. The offering has been certified by SAP, the provider of the SAP business software platform that claims 92,000 customers in more than 120 countries.
"Managing SAP can distract customers from their core business," said Anthony Kessel, Verizon senior product manager, who used the term "end-to-end" to describe several different aspects of the new offering. With the new service Verizon helps manage the entire life cycle of an SAP implementation, he said –f rom assessment, design and planning to monitoring and upgrades, as well as the hardware, software and connectivity underlying the offering.
"By end-to-end, we mean the technology stack, from the network to the data center, including storage and hardware to end user applications, GUIs [graphical user interfaces], other interfaces and passwords," Kessel explained.
Customers signing on for the service will have a server located in a Verizon-operated data center dedicated to supporting that individual customer's applications. Although the cost of some resources, such as power, will be shared with other Verizon customers, Kessel said servers are not shared.
Verizon also will provide each SAP Application Management Service customer with dedicated support staff at the customer's location. Some of the largest customers might have several Verizon client engineers working at their location to support the new service, as well as previously launched Verizon cloud-based applications such as PeopleSoft, Oracle and Microsoft Exchange, said Kessel. Verizon client executives also will be posted at customer locations to help ensure that any problems are escalated, according to pre-established parameters.
With that structure in place, Kessel said, "You don't have a guy trying to be heroic work on something too long." Instead, he said, the client executive will direct problems requiring specialized expertise within Accenture or SAP to staff at those organizations in a timely fashion.
Verizon also will have technicians to support the SAP service at three operations centers—one in San Francisco, one in the United Kingdom and one in India. That approach, he said, will help Verizon minimize the cost of the service by enabling non-critical tasks, such as requests for standard changes, to be handled by lower-cost staff members based offshore.
Everyone supporting the service, including customer personnel as well as Verizon and Accenture staff, will have access to a Verizon-designed software portal that will provide them all with a common view of service status. Kessel pointed to the portal, which displays the status of specific SAS transactions, as an example of how Verizon's new offering differs from cloud-based SAS applications already on the market.
Verizon will work with enterprise customers to determine the best type of connectivity—such as private lines or MPLS--to support the new SAP service, Kessel said. Some customers currently view the need to manage multiple network providers as a "pain point," he said, and will welcome the opportunity to work with a single network service provider.
Although some other network operators, as well as some other hosting providers offer SAP services, Verizon's relationship with Accenture could be a key differentiator, said Amy DeCarlo, principal analyst for Current Analysis. "Accenture is one of the top SAP integrators out there," she said. And rather than Verizon being subordinate to Accenture, she said the two companies seem to have truly operated as a team in creating the new offering.