In a multi-application environment, it can become complex and time-consuming to keep track of those different interfaces, all with their own toolset and issue resolution. A monitoring team might provide the perfect solution to this “problem”. Such a team is solely focused on monitoring the different interfaces and assessing/resolving the risks and priorities that might arise. The consequence is that you get a good overview of your IT system and how healthy it is.

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Building & sustaining a monitoring
team in a multi-application
landscape

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Agenda
• Introduction
• The monitoring team
• The monitoring tools
• Conclusion

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As an IT software implementor, we are often faced with multi-application environments. The most common we
face is in the design of a decentral SAP EWM to SAP ERP. However, many more applications can be linked
(in)directly to these environments.
In such a multi-application environment, it can become complex and time-consuming to keep track of those
different interfaces, all with their own toolset and issue resolution.
A monitoring team might provide the perfect solution to this “problem”. Such a team is solely focused on
monitoring the different interfaces and assessing/resolving the risks and priorities that might arise.
The consequence is that you get a good overview of your IT system and how healthy it is. This is also important to
prevent a system downtime or business flows being blocked which can cause unnecessary expenses or even
worse, a lower customer SLA. In other words, you will go from a purely reactive approach to a rather proactive
one.
In the next sections, we will highlight some key aspects in forming and sustaining the perfect monitoring team
Introduction

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The monitoring team
• Key responsibilities of a monitoring team
• Create an overview of all the different applications and their environments (dev/qas/prd)
• Extend the overview with a clear mapping of all applications and how they impact one another end-
to-end
• Prioritize interfaces based on input from both business and IT
• E.g. An issue in a production interface is more critical than one in a sandbox environment
• Build a clear schedule when a certain interfaces flows data so it can be monitored closely
• E.g. does the interface receive only a weekly update or rather hourly or even continuous communication
• Build an ‘issue resolution’ list with key stakeholders to maintain proper & timely communication
• Decide on which tools and metrics will be used
• Make sure documentation is received/build on the different interfaces
• Manage expectations in the sense that all involved stakeholders know what to expect and what not
to expect from the team

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The monitoring team
• Roles within the team
• Project leader: This person will define the monitoring team’s role in the different interfaces. The
business usually contacts the project leader when they have an interface which needs to be
monitored.
• Team leader: Has direct contact with the project leader and usually has more contact with the
business. The team leader also provides the other team members with status updates.
• Data stewards: This role can be maintainted in the team or can be maintained by the business. Most
of the time there is a datasteward team available and if not this can be included in the monitoring
team.
• Technical profile: When performing the monitoring tasks you often tumble against some technical
issues. In order to avoid unnecessarry delays it is recommended to have a technical profile aboard
the team.
• Depending on the field you are active in some other profiles might be interesting to have (like SD,
MM, PP, FICO,…)

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The monitoring types
• There are different monitoring types, the most common are the
following
• Application performance monitoring
• Monitors how well the systems perform under peak load.
• IT Infrastructure performance
• A further expansion on the APM, keeps for example an eye on the CPU load of the system.
• Business Activity Monitoring
• Provides an overview on the processes and transactions which are used in the business.

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The monitoring tools
• Depending on the interface, different monitoring tools can be
available
• Standard SAP tools (non-exhaustive list)
• Queue monitoring via SMQ* transactions
• IDOCs monitoring via WE* transactions
• File monitoring via SXI_MONITOR
• CPI as an intermediate layer between your own and 3rd party application
• Solution Manager for job monitoring, system monitoring, etc..
• SM51 to check application servers and load distribution
• SM50 for load processes
• …
Source – supportsages.com

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The monitoring tools
• Next to pure monitoring tools, it might be interesting to have a
closely linked tool that allows issue logging and documentation.
• In the next few screenshots we see the tool used at one of our projects

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Conclusion
We can conclude that a monitoring team can have much
advantages, not only to solve issues but also be a step ahead of
them and prevent them from happening in the first place.
Monitoring tools are a great way to help the monitoring team
achieve their goals. The tools mentioned before are just a few
appointed by Gartner, but there are of course a lot more which
can be used.

11. Contact
Neerlandweg 17, B-2610 Wilrijk
+32 3 386 03 75
info@quinaptis.com
facebook.com/quinaptis
@quinaptis
linkedin.com/company/quinaptis
www.quinaptis.com