Axians Enhances SAP Change Management to Mitigate Production Risks

IT service provider Axians has introduced enhancements to its SAP Change Request Management (ChaRM) solution. These updates aim to minimize risks during the management of changes and updates in SAP systems, specifically preventing scenarios where newer changes overwrite older ones or vice versa.

Companies have historically faced challenges during SAP ERP rollouts. For instance, making urgent fixes in a production system during integration testing could lead to those fixes being lost or overwritten by earlier or concurrent updates once moved to production post-testing. This has caused significant disruption and delays.

Axians' ChaRM solution utilizes SAP Solution Manager and offers ITIL-compliant tools for managing changes. Key features include automated checks like Cross System Object Lock (CSOL) and Downgrade Protection. CSOL centrally locks an SAP object in SAP Solution Manager as soon as it's included in a transport request, maintaining the lock until the object is successfully deployed to production.

Downgrade Protection warns developers and administrators of potential conflicts before they cause issues. It can even prevent imports to the production system if they would result in an older version overwriting a newer one. For situations requiring urgent fixes, ChaRM provides solutions such as project imports on the Go-Live day to ensure changes are transferred in the correct sequence.

Furthermore, ChaRM offers additional transport-related checks, including dependencies on other objects, critical object management, and code reviews via Code Inspector and ABAP Test Cockpit. Companies can also implement their own checks through a BAdI interface to prevent unwanted modifications.