FAQs - Business Process Monitoring (Miscellaneous)

Can I transport my Business Process Monitoring configuration from my development SAP Solution Manager to my production SAP Solution Manager?

A: Yes and no. As the monitoring configuration is considered as master data, there is no transport mechanism available. But you can transfer a complete solution (including monitoring configuration) from one SAP Solution Manager to another via transaction SOLUTION_TRANSFER. This can be done as an one-time effort but there is no delta mechanism.

Is it also possible to monitor non-productive backend systems?

A: Yes. Although Business Process Monitoring was designed to monitor core business processes which are running on productive backend systems, it is technically also possible to monitor non-productive systems. The preferred way is to create a second solution in your SAP Solution Manager where the "Leading Role" is non-productive (e.g. Test or Development). You can then re-use the same business processes and the same logical components in order to monitor your test or development system. Alternatively you can make it "quick & dirty" and create a new logical component where your test or development system is put into the productive role.

Is it possible to track single documents with Business Process Monitoring?

A: The main BPMon functionality is not tracking single documents as this task is far too performance intensive (esp.for high-volume scenarios) and the added value is little.

The question is why you want to track the single document. In most cases customers are asking for this because at some point of time the support organization gets the single request "Some document was not created, so please tell me where my document is" and then the search for the needle in the haystack begins. With the BPMon approach of providing crucial key figures for important watch points this question is obsolete. You get to see the complete entirety of documents causing problems. So if you work on this problematic documents in a timely manner then you won't get the support calls for missed documents any longer.
The big advantage with our approach is that you can identify systematic errors as you see all problematic documents. Hence you can resolve the root cause of problems (e.g. customizing errors, process design gaps, process deviations from defined template) and avoid similar incidents in the future, instead of just solving a single incident (one document lost).

Some of the application related key figures return several thousand backlog documents. How can Business Process Monitoring help in analyzing this data more thoroughly in order to reduce the backlog?

A: The Business Process Monitoring as an alert monitoring is not designed to analyze such document backlogs in a systematic manner. It is designed to raise exceptions based on meaningful threshold values. As so many customers actually encounter exactly this problem of high document backlogs and as this backlog should be reduced to a meaningful and acceptable level before the Business Process Monitoring is switched-on, that is the reason why the Business Process Analytics application was developed on top of the Business Process Monitoring. With Business Process Analytics you can identify organizational units and document types with the highest backlog and you can also analyze the age structure of the identified documents.

Which SAP BW is used for Business Process Monitoring trend reporting?

A: You can decide which SAP BW should be used. Either you use the SAP BW 7.0 as part of SAP Solution Manager or you use an existing SAP BW solution in your system landscape. The large majority of customers chose option 1 in order to not mix business and IT reporting.

What is the difference between Business Process Monitoring/Analytics and the traditional SAP NetWeaver Business Warehouse?

A: Please refer to the blog Traditional Business KPI approach vs Business Process Monitoring in order to understand how the bottom-up approach with Business Process Monitoring/Analytics can possibly complement your current top-down approach when it comes to Business KPIs.

What is the difference between Business Process Monitoring and SAP NetWeaver BPM?

A: Business Process Monitoring tries to ensure the stable and smooth operation of a company's core business processes with a focus on traditional transaction-based processes  The target groups are 2nd or 3rd level Application Support on IT side, IT Basis Support team and on business department side the business process or functional owners
SAP NetWeaver BPM is focusing on the development of rule-based composite business processes as "own practices" (usually SOA-based and often workflow related). These composite processes target at enhancing existing application core business processes and should provide the fast competitive and innovative edge versus competitors. For this SAP NetWeaver provides a combination of a process modeling and execution environment with a complex rules engine (SAP NetWeaver Business Rules Management), where you can flexibly model your business process first, assign simple or complex business rules in order to automate business decisions and finally generate executable process logic. The monitoring part for these processes is mainly targeting business end-users and business managers.

What is the difference between Business Process Monitoring and SAP Event Management?

A: The difference between Business Process Monitoring and SAP Event Management is explained in Kevin Wilson's blog Explaining the difference between Solution Manager's BPMon (Business Process Monitor) and SAP Event Management (SAP's best kept secret) .