Making the Most of the More: How Application Managed Services Makes a Business Intelligence Platform More Effective

In today’s technology world, it’s all about the “more” – technology needs are getting more complex and more expensive, which in turn is driving organizations to look for more effective solutions. Ultimately, more and more companies are turning to Application Managed Services (AMS) to manage their business intelligence platforms.

In this complex environment, AMS is a relatively simple solution: a service provided by an external vendor to manage the support of an organization’s applications portfolio. The vendor, like Protiviti, would typically be specialized in the application, handling similar work for many other clients. This greater volume of support allows the AMS provider to staff a large, well-skilled team that serves as subject matter experts on the application. This skilled talent pool gives organizations the ability to prioritize resources more appropriately, focusing on other initiatives within the company or innovating existing processes. AMS also gives organizations the flexibility to plan resource staffing to meet seasonal peaks and valleys or to adapt to unexpected bumps in the road, like a global pandemic. The benefits of a managed service model like AMS include:

• Protection of mission critical operations
• Operations integrated quality management and continuous process improvement
• Single view and management of applications and infrastructures
• Predictable costs for services
• Support staff with appropriate skills

Ultimately, these benefits allow the business to work more effectively, while also giving tech leaders the ability to quickly identify and resolve challenges that might appear across the portfolio.

Moving to the Cloud

It’s not a surprise that many organizations are moving to cloud-based analytics like SAP Analytics Cloud, Power BI and other cloud BI platforms like Azure or AWS to more effectively manage their business intelligence. These companies want to focus less on maintaining an on-prem landscape on their own, and instead focus more on their core processes or innovating their business. This includes moving their on-prem infrastructure to Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) or seeking the services of managed service providers to maintain the infrastructure in the cloud, or even the application.

A number of our clients find benefits in using various Software as a Service (SaaS) products, such as SAP Analytics Cloud or Power BI or their BI visualization tools. These SaaS offerings provide a cost-effective way to provide the rich analytical capabilities within the cloud subscription model, allowing companies to focus more on their core business and less on maintaining their BI environment.

We are also seeing that, as our clients move towards a cloud solution — either IaaS or SaaS — they often need help navigating the unknowns of these new products and how they might affect existing processes/workflows. Or they may need help managing their old environment while they innovate a new solution in the cloud. A common solution is SAP BusinessObjects (BOBJ), when customers seek our Application Managed Services to help maintain the system for day-to-day reports while they turn their attention to new cloud dashboard applications. We manage the platform, integrate them together, and even help provide best practices on dashboards, data management and visualizations.

How Protiviti AMS Can Help

Protiviti helps companies focus support for their larger SAP environments, including S/4HANA, HANA Enterprise and BW/BI, which can be delivered with our strategic cloud partners or on-premise. Many of our clients request more pointed AMS solutions such as SAP GRC or BOBJ because they are looking to shift their focus to other initiatives or spend less money on maintaining their isolated environment, which requires a unique skill set. Our BOBJ and GRC managed services include managing the underlying database, operating system or application (patching, security promotion, scheduled job maintenance, issue resolution).

All of our managed services offerings provide training, security, hosting, proactive monitoring and support. Our AMS solutions will enable higher business efficiency and cost management and provide a pathway to subject matter experts. We have been an SAP Gold Partner for 18 years and use our extensive knowledge and relationship with SAP to guide our customers through the SAP landscape.

Application Managed Services is not just a cost-effective solution to maintain an environment, but provides an organization the freedom needed to focus on growing its core business or introducing new cloud solutions. Trying to go it alone can be daunting, but partnering with an experienced AMS provider like Protiviti maximizes any company’s valuable technology investments.

To learn more about our SAP Application Managed Services, contact us or visit Protiviti’s SAP consulting services.