Cisco Cisco Process Orchestrator 3.0 Information Guide
To clearly define those processes,
CSR developed a matrix that lists
each alert, assigns it a priority, indi-
cates where the alert should be sent
and if it should be escalated, and
provides details on how to handle
the incident. For example, today, if
transaction response time in the SAP
system falls below a certain thresh-
old, a “2 level” priority alert will be
sent to the service desk and then
escalated to the SAP Basis team as
an incident if necessary. The matrix
will also indicate that this particu-
lar alert is most pressing if it occurs
between 6am and 6pm because this
is when users are making the most
transactions.
In fact, by using SAP IT Process
CSR developed a matrix that lists
each alert, assigns it a priority, indi-
cates where the alert should be sent
and if it should be escalated, and
provides details on how to handle
the incident. For example, today, if
transaction response time in the SAP
system falls below a certain thresh-
old, a “2 level” priority alert will be
sent to the service desk and then
escalated to the SAP Basis team as
an incident if necessary. The matrix
will also indicate that this particu-
lar alert is most pressing if it occurs
between 6am and 6pm because this
is when users are making the most
transactions.
In fact, by using SAP IT Process
Automation, CSR learned that trans-
action response times were often an
early indicator of system stability is-
sues and could even be a precursor to
an outage. The IT team began moni-
toring the average transaction times
in the SAP environment to determine
what caused them to vary. Some of
the issues that investigation revealed
include the following:
action response times were often an
early indicator of system stability is-
sues and could even be a precursor to
an outage. The IT team began moni-
toring the average transaction times
in the SAP environment to determine
what caused them to vary. Some of
the issues that investigation revealed
include the following:
• CPU-hogging work processes
• High input/output workload on the
• High input/output workload on the
storage subsystem
• Database locking
• Poorly coded custom programs
• Poorly coded custom programs
“We realized that long-running
transaction response times can be
a good indicator of more serious
problems with the infrastructure, so
we pushed that alert up in terms of
importance,” Bunn says.
transaction response times can be
a good indicator of more serious
problems with the infrastructure, so
we pushed that alert up in terms of
importance,” Bunn says.
The Right Combination
According to Bunn, the combination
of IT automation and human decision-
making is what drives business value.
“While software tools might help
you monitor your systems, it can’t all
be automated,” he says. “The human
decisions are the most important part.
That includes having an initial assess-
ment to determine what to moni-
tor and what not to, what is viewed
as critical and what isn’t, and what
process kicks off when those critical
issues or alerts come up. If you can’t
get the people side right, then no soft-
ware in the world can help you.”
CSR’s IT team continually tries to
refine its alerts to match the level with
the importance of the incident, ensur-
ing significant issues are identified
early and not lost in a sea of less-than-
important notifications. Bunn says
the SAP IT Process Automation ap-
plication provides flexibility through
customization of alerts that generate
incidents.
The immediate effect of the project
is that CSR has a more stable IT land-
scape because it can identify and act
on incidents sooner, which increases
the value of the business’s IT invest-
ments. And the indirect effect has
been a substantial improvement in
how CSR’s business users rate “system
stability” in its annual survey. That rat-
ing is closely tied to the business users’
perception of the IT organization and
overall operational excellence.
It’s proven to Bunn that the more
reliable a company’s IT infrastructure
is, the more reliable — and confident
— the business is as a whole.
of IT automation and human decision-
making is what drives business value.
“While software tools might help
you monitor your systems, it can’t all
be automated,” he says. “The human
decisions are the most important part.
That includes having an initial assess-
ment to determine what to moni-
tor and what not to, what is viewed
as critical and what isn’t, and what
process kicks off when those critical
issues or alerts come up. If you can’t
get the people side right, then no soft-
ware in the world can help you.”
CSR’s IT team continually tries to
refine its alerts to match the level with
the importance of the incident, ensur-
ing significant issues are identified
early and not lost in a sea of less-than-
important notifications. Bunn says
the SAP IT Process Automation ap-
plication provides flexibility through
customization of alerts that generate
incidents.
The immediate effect of the project
is that CSR has a more stable IT land-
scape because it can identify and act
on incidents sooner, which increases
the value of the business’s IT invest-
ments. And the indirect effect has
been a substantial improvement in
how CSR’s business users rate “system
stability” in its annual survey. That rat-
ing is closely tied to the business users’
perception of the IT organization and
overall operational excellence.
It’s proven to Bunn that the more
reliable a company’s IT infrastructure
is, the more reliable — and confident
— the business is as a whole.
Business Benefits of SAP IT
Process Automation by Cisco
CSR was looking to ensure the stability of
its SAP system on its new database platform
— and did so by implementing SAP IT
Process Automation by Cisco, a robust and
flexible monitoring solution. This solution
provides the platform and functionality for
automating IT processes with confidence. It
saves IT departments time and effort, which
frees them to focus on strategic initiatives
and advanced deployments. The product sim-
plifies the creation of IT process automation
workflows by offering:
• A drag-and-drop interface to easily build
its SAP system on its new database platform
— and did so by implementing SAP IT
Process Automation by Cisco, a robust and
flexible monitoring solution. This solution
provides the platform and functionality for
automating IT processes with confidence. It
saves IT departments time and effort, which
frees them to focus on strategic initiatives
and advanced deployments. The product sim-
plifies the creation of IT process automation
workflows by offering:
• A drag-and-drop interface to easily build
logical workflow sequences
• Workspaces with built-in views of opera-
tions, administration, or experts to easily
manage activities, processes, and tasks
manage activities, processes, and tasks
• Full support for email notification and
assignment or integration into existing ven-
dor service desk or management platforms
dor service desk or management platforms
SAP IT Process Automation supports
best practices in automating IT processes
because it:
• Integrates event and alert management
best practices in automating IT processes
because it:
• Integrates event and alert management
data with best practices for quickly identi-
fying and resolving incidents
fying and resolving incidents
• Provides logic connectors for parallel,
sequential processing to capture domain-
specific triage and diagnostic steps and
procedures
specific triage and diagnostic steps and
procedures
• Supports event-led processes that can be
either scheduled or triggered by events
• Includes a reporting engine with built-in
ROI and auditing models
• Supports multi-tenancy, high availability,
and advance workflow process restarts
For more information about SAP IT Pro-
cess Automation, contact your SAP repre-
sentative or or visit www.sap.com/solutions/
solutionextensions/it-process-automation.
cess Automation, contact your SAP repre-
sentative or or visit www.sap.com/solutions/
solutionextensions/it-process-automation.
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