Elevate Your SAP Support Model: Introducing Birchman’s SAP Support Assessment Service

In the ever-evolving landscape of SAP support, Birchman emerges as a trailblazer with its recently launched SAP Support Assessment Service. As demand for high-quality SAP support services continues to grow, this offering sets a new benchmark for what organisations should expect from their support partner.

We sat down with Stuart Diamond, Support Sales Director at Birchman to discuss how this transformative offering has been meticulously designed to provide organisations with a comprehensive evaluation of their existing support models and requirements.

With a laser focus on enhancing end user satisfaction, optimising service efficiency and streamlining operating costs, Birchman’s service lays the foundation for future scalability, ensuring your business stays aligned with evolving needs.

Why Review Your Current SAP Support Model?

Many organisations continue to operate SAP environments using support arrangements that were established years ago, often without reassessing whether those services still align with current business needs. 

Business needs change. Systems grow more complex. And the expectations placed on SAP support services evolve alongside them.

A structured SAP Support Assessment provides an objective evaluation of your current SAP support services, helping you determine whether they are delivering the outcomes your business needs today and identifying opportunities for improvement.

Reviewing your support model can help you identify:

• Gaps between your existing SAP support services and the needs of your business and users
• Opportunities to optimise, consolidate or enhance SAP support service delivery
• Areas where end user satisfaction with SAP support services is declining and the factors contributing to it
• Cost inefficiencies that could be redirected towards higher value initiatives
• Risks associated with current support processes, resource models, knowledge coverage or escalation procedures

Working with an experienced SAP support partner like Birchman ensures your SAP Support Assessment is grounded in practical SAP expertise and tailored to your organisation’s specific requirements. The result is a clearer understanding of your current support landscape and a roadmap for delivering more effective, efficient and business aligned SAP support services. 

Is Your SAP Support Operating Effectively?

Before committing to any changes, it is worth asking some straightforward questions about how your SAP support services are performing right now.

Use the checklist below as a quick indicator of where your current model may need attention:

If you answered no to any of these questions, Birchman’s SAP support consulting team can help you understand what a better model looks like.

What Is Included in Birchman’s SAP Support Assessment Service?

The Three-Stage Journey to Elevated Support

Birchman’s SAP support assessment Service, as Stuart explains “can help identify where alternative models could greatly improve end-user satisfaction, service optimisation and operating costs and ensure future scalability as the needs of your business evolve”. This is done through a three-stage process.

Stage One: Understanding Your Landscape

In the initial phase, Birchman provides you with a concise questionnaire aimed at capturing some initial insights into your business and SAP utilisation

This step sets the stage for a collaborative workshop, where Birchman aims to “understand your current challenges, complexities, future business and SAP plans.”

This stage doesn’t just stop at understanding your immediate requirements; it extends to exploring global support needs, spanning different time zones, language preferences and your aspirations for in-house skill development.

Stage Two: Crafting Tailored Solutions

In this stage, we perform an intensive review. Here, Stuart says “we might meet with you a second time or we do it remotely and we talk about your requirements and understand what would work well and benefit your organisation”.

Through insightful conversations, your organisation’s unique needs are dissected, ensuring a crystal-clear understanding of what solutions would best serve your enterprise.

This phase might entail further discussions and questions to leave no stone unturned in crafting a support model that aligns perfectly with your objectives.

Stage Three: Empowering Your Path Forward

The final stage is where Birchman’s expertise shines even brighter. Armed with a deep understanding of your requirements, “we provide a very comprehensive written guide with recommendations for ongoing support needs”.

This invaluable resource encompasses a spectrum of aspects, including model sizing, scalability strategies, optimal delivery approaches and even indicative pricing options.

We can do this for any industry sector, including consumer packaged goods, energy, high tech manufacturing, mining, pharmaceuticals, professional services and retail; you can all benefit from Birchman’s tailor made guidance.

How Does the SAP Support Assessment Identify Cost and Service Improvements?

A well executed SAP support assessment goes beyond a simple health check. It uncovers the real drivers of cost and service quality in your current model.

Birchman's SAP support consulting specialists conduct a detailed review of your support operations, analysing service data, support processes, ticket trends, SLA performance and resource utilisation to build an evidence based view of how your current SAP support services are performing. 

An SAP Support Assessment typically identifies cost and service improvement opportunities across several key areas: 

• Ticket analysis and resolution performance: Reviewing support volumes, recurring incidents and resolution times to identify underlying issues that could be addressed through process improvements, user enablement or system optimisation.
• SAP support services benchmarking: Comparing your support model against industry standards and peer organisations to assess whether service levels and support costs remain appropriate.
• Resource utilisation and workload assessment: Identifying activities that fall outside formal support arrangements and are placing additional pressure on internal teams.
• Support coverage and service effectiveness: Evaluating whether your current SAP support partner provides the right level of coverage for business hours, locations, languages and escalation requirements.
• Skills and capability assessment: Highlighting gaps in internal expertise that may be increasing reliance on costly external consultancy or slowing issue resolution.

The outcome of the SAP Support Assessment is a set of prioritised, actionable recommendations designed to improve the quality, efficiency and value of your SAP support services. With the guidance of an experienced SAP support partner such as Birchman, organisations gain a clear roadmap for delivering greater support outcomes at the right cost.

Conclusion

In the realm of SAP support, Birchman’s SAP Support Assessment Service transcends the conventional. The transformative journey will elevate your support model, unlocking unparalleled end user satisfaction, operational efficiency and scalability.

With a robust three stage process that delves deep into your organisation’s DNA, Birchman crafts solutions that empower your future trajectory.

Whether you’re navigating complex industry dynamics or charting new territories, Birchman’s SAP Support Assessment Service equips you with the strategic insights needed to thrive.

Step into a new era of support excellence with Birchman today.

FAQs

Find quick answers to common questions about Birchman’s SAP support assessment service below.

Question #1: What types of recommendations are included in an SAP support assessment?
Ans: Recommendations typically cover support model design, resource sizing, SLA structure, delivery approach, in-house skill development and indicative pricing options.

Each recommendation is tailored to your organisation’s specific landscape, industry and business objectives.

Question #2: Can an SAP support assessment help reduce application support costs?
Ans: Yes. The assessment identifies where spend is misaligned with actual business need, where activities could be consolidated and where automation or process improvements could reduce ticket volumes.

Many organisations find meaningful cost savings following a structured SAP support consulting review.

Question #3: How does an SAP support assessment improve service quality and user satisfaction?
Ans: By mapping your current support model against the actual needs of your end users, the assessment surfaces gaps in coverage, response times and capability.

The resulting recommendations give you a clear path to resolving those gaps and improving the day-to-day experience for your teams.

Question #4: What information is needed to complete an SAP support assessment?
Ans: Birchman starts with a concise questionnaire covering your current SAP landscape, support arrangements, ticket volumes and business priorities.

Additional detail is gathered through collaborative workshops and follow up conversations, so the initial information requirement is light.

Question #5: How long does a typical SAP support assessment take?
Ans: The full three stage assessment is typically completed within two to four weeks, depending on the complexity of your landscape and the availability of key stakeholders.

Birchman works at a pace that suits your organisation without compromising the depth of the review.

Question #6: Is the SAP support assessment suitable for both SAP ECC and SAP S/4HANA environments?
Ans: Yes. Birchman’s SAP support services cover both SAP ECC and SAP S/4HANA environments, as well as hybrid landscapes where organisations are mid migration.

The assessment approach is adapted to reflect the specific characteristics and support requirements of each environment.