Premium Level of Performance & Support your SAP EPM Product Suite
Companies around the world today are viewing their EPM solution as a mission critical application, expecting the same availability and consistent performance that software that is demanded from ERP solutions. You can’t settle for less than the best.
Column5’s Technical Services ensure that your company achieves a premium level of performance that returns the highest value of your investment in the SAP EPM product suite. Our unmatched experience, expertise and dedication secures success in technical integration, enhances performance, limits your risk and improves user adoption and satisfaction – during your implementation and beyond.
Column5’s Technical Services go well beyond simply installing EPM products in your environment. Put our experience and expertise to work for you with services that can proactively detect conditions that could lead to stability challenges, diagnose performance issues, get your project or systems back on track, empower your employees, improve user adoption and ensure that your organization gets the most return on your EPM investment.
With Column5 support you have access to the entire consulting team, both technical and functional.
Not a Column5 support customer? Email info@column5.com for more information on how to get immediate support!
Performance Tuning & Technical Environment Review
EPM applications evolve and change over time, sometimes causing your experience to change from when the system was first implemented. Ensure your system continues to perform even as usage and data increases: This valuable service serves as a health check to validate that your applications are running smoothly and that they are up-to-date with the latest configuration and optimization improvements.
- Validate your application is operating optimally
- Health checks ensure you are up to date on the latest configuration and optimization improvements
- Document & explain specific recommendations for improving the environment
- Technical review report captures the steps required to improve system performance, scalability and overall reliability
Column5 will help to ensure that your EPM solutions continue running smoothly and are delivering a greater return from your investment by providing technical support services to supplement the standard vendor support.
- We operate as an extension to your team helping increase your confidence, reduce costly downtime, and optimize your performance.
- Leveraging on-line support sessions, vendor support issue-tracking, answering “how to” questions, or investigating deeper problems to promote increased application stability.
- Contacts can initiate support thr various hotline methods; Column5 Support Portal, Email, & Phone.
Application Hosting
The client procurement process (hardware/software) can often impact the application installations and consequently project timelines. This service effectively mitigates the risk and enables application hosting by immediately leveraging the Column5 hosted application Development, Quality Assurance, Production, POC environments. We use Amazon Web Services, a SAP Certified Hosting Partner.
Clients can leverage the Column5 hosting environment for any purpose including POC, short or long term, development, quality assurance, and production.
Service Includes:
- Complete managed end to end solution
- Secure FTP functionality for uploading and downloading
- Secure isolated client specific environment; not SHARED
- Direct Connect (AWS) or any other data integration requirement
For more information regarding hosting contact us at info@column5.com.
In the plan phase, this service reviews detailed technical touch points of the EPM application(s) in the clients infrastructure. We design a high performing system to meet the usage requirements for the software in the EPM suite, whether one or many.
Service Details
- Client Model – Review org structure, support & delegation of duties
- Technology Standards – Corporate governance & system guidelines
- Application Instances – Systems, instances & required architecture
- Hardware/Software guidelines – Technology stack
- Security Systems – Review authentication & authorization
- Source Systems – Identify underlying data/meta communication
- Networking – User distribution, access method & bandwidth
Deliverables
- System Landscape Design –Detailed graphical representation of EPM application environment
- System Landscape Explanation – Document client requirements, analysis of corporate standards in conjunction with best practices
- Support Resource Model – Report detailing required client resources to support the EPM application(s)
The product installations (Development, Test, Production) occur during the develop phase based on the System Landscape Design (SLD) for hardware/software requirements, sizing/scaling, and user volumes. This service will ensure full compliance with best practices deploying a stable and scalable productive environment for the EPM application(s)
Service Includes
- Build and deploy the optimal infrastructure configuration for sizing and scalability based on System Landscape Design
- Strict compliance with client enterprise standards, security & architecture
- Standard in depth testing to ensure application(s) are performing as expected
- Adherence to evolving Column5 and SAP best practices
Deliverables
- Technical Installation Checklist
- Configuring System Monitors
- Knowledge transfer
Technical Training – System Administrator Training
In depth instructor-led, classroom style technical training that enables clients to support SAP EPM platform technology to increase application stability and promote user adoption. These exclusive courses take place once a year at Column5’s global headquarters. For information regarding upcoming trainings, email info@column5.com.
- Course comprised of 30 hours of intensive technical content focusing on relevant platform technologies & EPM application and configuration services
- Course combines lectures & live workshops utilizing the Column5 hosted EPM infrastructure
- Supporting documentation, whitepapers, and support notes from both SAP & Column5 - soft copy distributed to students
- Course intended for IT Professionals
This service reviews the technical requirements for supporting application lifecycle management for the clients EPM landscape.
Service Includes
- Review application instances as well as client corporate standards and competencies
- Develop a detailed landscape process approach to environment synchronization
Deliverables
- Document application lifecycle synchronizing the landscape
- Assist client with configuration (Transports) where applicable
Business Continuity Solutions/Disaster Recovery
Develop, test and deploy an automatic or manual disaster recovery plan based on client service level agreement
- Review client standards for downtime and acceptable data loss
- Customize solution based on client technology core skill set
- Document requirements and build solution for EPM application(s)
- Test solution and transfer knowledge
- Disaster Recovery Technology Plan for EPM Suite Application(s)
Leverage our technical experts during the clients performance testing cycles for specific processes and overall break test. Use our experts to proactively monitor and interpret results of the testing scenarios to effectively improve system performance
Service Includes:
- Review infrastructure footprint ensuring all memory settings, parameters and buffers are sized appropriately
- Build an effective testing methodology to deliver meaningful results
- Execute testing, capture results, and measure performance
- Tune system configuration based on testing results
- Ensure end to end testing from data/meta source system thru to EPM suite
- Test application upper limits to effectively communicate maximum user load
Deliverables:
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–Detailed report of client testing scenarios covering advanced system tuning and configuration improvements
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This service further supports the Product Go-Live event by having expert technical consultants on hand. We will help to mitigate all issues whether server or client, as they arise in real-time ensuring broad user adoption and overall product success.
Service Includes:
- Onsite/remote support starting 2 – 4 days prior to go-live
–Technical environment review of infrastructure to verify best practices and address any regular maintenance (database, application, etc)
- Onsite/remote technical support to address issues as they arise in real-time
- Post go-live, onsite/remote support between 3 - 5 business days based on client request
Deliverables:
- Go-Live Report Package
–Technical Review & Installation Checklist
–Issue Mitigation Triage Report
Product and implementation experience is critical to the success of any EPM or BPC project. Column5’s Technical Services division houses the most experienced team in the SAP EPM space:
- Directed and staffed by leading members of the original OutlookSoft support team
- 80% of our Technical Services team has previously worked at SAP and/or OutlookSoft in expert, technical roles
- Over 700 EPM product implementations around the globe including every business vertical, technology stack, and environment configuration
- Since 2003, Column5’s technical services team has delivered technical and best practices training, often on behalf of SAP, to consultants, trainers and clients
Column5’s superiority in technical delivery stems directly from our extensive, internal investments in research, testing, development and best practice realization:
- Multiple, in-house research and testing environments for SAP Business Analytics products on numerous configuration landscapes
- Advance, ramp-up testing of new SAP products
- Benchmarking of variables such as platform, version, and configuration to isolate specific causes of performance differences
