Top 10+ SAP Workload Automation Software & Use Cases
According to the SAP Corporate Fact Sheet, 99 of the top 100 organizations worldwide use SAP for enterprise resource planning (ERP). These customers account for 87% of the total global commerce.1 It is common for SAP users to use non-SAP systems in parallel for enterprise resource management. However, the parallel use of these systems can lead to efficiency issues in workload management.
Workload automation tools are great solutions to solve this challenge. The practice of employing software to schedule, initiate, and monitor business workflows and transactions across physical, virtual, and cloud systems is known as workload automation. SAP workload automation is one of the common use cases of workload automation technology.
Top SAP Workload Automation Software
Vendor | Rating | Focus | SAP ECS Support |
|---|---|---|---|
4.6 based on 197 reviews | Orchestrating SAP jobs while keeping a clean SAP core | ✅ | |
4.6 based on 330 reviews | Hybrid cloud / API orchestration | ❌ | |
4.8 based on 79 reviews | Wide range of community-driven pre-packaged integrations delivered as SaaS | ❌ | |
4.5 based on 223 reviews | PowerShell integration and job scheduling management on the .NET framework | ❌ | |
Control-M | 4.2 based on 159 reviews | Data pipeline orchestration and managed file transfers | ❌ |
IBM Workload Automation | 4.0 based on 32 reviews | Orchestrating jobs in the IBM ecosystem | ❌ |
Read our article for a detailed comparison of SAP job scheduling software.
Top 10+ use cases of SAP orchestration with real-life examples
SAP Job Scheduling Software use cases with real-life examples
Process optimization
Workflow automation
Invoice processing
IT operations automation
Compliance
Batch / Enterprise job processing
Service Level Agreement (SLA) management
SAP job processing
System monitoring
Incident response management
Billing
1-Scheduling and Automation
Enterprises can automate the scheduling and planning of night tasks with workload automation to decrease labor costs. For example, hospitals can use workload automation to receive patients at night, make appointments, check empty beds, handle invoices and payments, etc.
Real-Life Example: Columbia Sportswear optimized their SAP job scheduling using Redwood’s solutions. This automation allowed for efficient execution of business-critical processes, reducing manual intervention and increasing operational efficiency.2
2-Central Governance
A workload automation solution enables organizations to ensure centralized, comprehensive governance, planning, and monitoring of the business workloads.
Real-Life Example: TEAG implemented Redwood’s RunMyJobs to centralize the governance of their SAP and non-SAP workloads. This centralization provided comprehensive oversight and improved compliance and operational efficiency.3
3-Control SAP and Non-SAP jobs from a single point
A central control point enhances the scheduling efficiency of both SAP and non-SAP system jobs. It allows businesses to integrate SAP and Non-SAP workloads and provides better end-to-end monitoring and scheduling processes across the enterprise. Transmitting information between SAP and non-SAP systems for efficient day-to-day transactions is a critical part of the process.
- For example, Non-SAP tools may be used in manufacturing planning to improve the company’s production process and shop floor operations. Meanwhile, different departments, such as sales, purchase, and warehouse management, may use SAP jobs. Without workload automation, non-SAP systems would miss critical information about the type and amount of the product to be produced, as it is SAP systems that estimate demand based on the number of orders. SAP systems would also lack critical information about the inventory of the product to finalize their job.
Real-Life Example: Roche leverages workload automation tools to manage both SAP and non-SAP jobs from a single platform. This integration improves their production planning by transferring critical data between systems, ensuring efficient operations across the enterprise.4
4-Facilitates interdepartmental data access and transfer
Workload automation enables SAP professionals to analyze data from across the enterprise without extracting data from different non-SAP systems.
Real-Life Example: French Connection used Redwood’s cloud-native automation tools to enhance workflow management across various departments. This facilitated data access and transfer, improving overall business efficiency 5
5-Incident response automation
Employees no longer need to prepare and execute response templates based on the situation. Workload automation schedules safety responses based on a specific trigger and removes manual labor. Such automation prevents incidents before they become critical.
Real-Life Example: Cisco’s Tidal Enterprise Orchestrator was used to automate incident response for SAP systems. The automation pack for SAP included workflows and knowledge base articles to automate and manage incident response processes, ensuring quick issue resolution and maintaining system integrity. 6
6-Job duration estimation
Based on previous data, some workload automation tools can estimate the job duration through machine learning. Better assessment of job complexity and duration helps with planning and increases efficiency overall.
Real-Life Example: Mergen IT implemented automated incident response workflows using ServiceNow for a technology company. The automation included real-time analytics and reporting, providing actionable insights and enabling better estimation of job durations based on historical data. This allowed the company to plan and allocate resources more effectively, improving overall efficiency. 7
7-Job documentation
SAP and workload automation integration streamline the systematic updating of task documentation and information to guarantee that issues are tracked and resolved quickly.
Real-Life Example: Arla Foods, a major dairy company, used SAP Extended Warehouse Management to streamline their cold-store processes and intralogistics. The integration ensured that automated tasks were systematically documented, improving traceability and compliance. 8
ActiveBatch allows businesses to enhance their SAP scheduling capabilities through event-driven job processing and a seamless low-code interface. The automation tool can optimize job scheduling in SAP by using job documentation and integrating SAP and non-SAP tasks with a cloud-native workload automation platform.
Epson, a multinational electronics company, used Redwood services to integrate their SAP and non-SAP job scheduling, control, and monitoring. As a result, they could reduce the time spent on processing jobs from 14 hours to 8 hours and save 10.5 days every quarter that was otherwise spent on daily administration.
What is SAP workload automation?
Workload automation integration into SAP allows business managers to:
- Schedule non-SAP jobs without a problem,
- have centralized control over all the tasks within the SAP environment,
- create error-free business processes.
Built-in tools in SAP Solution Manager and SAP Business Warehouse software hinder centralized control over all workloads’ scheduling, as they do not support Non-SAP system jobs. Employees need to switch between their scheduling tool and SAP to streamline the workload. Manual work increases the time spent on the task and hampers audit trail documentation as the employees complete the jobs in different interfaces.
RunMyJobs by Redwood allows SAP users to maintain a clean core thanks to direct integrations to SAP ECC, SAP S/4HANA and BTP, numerous out-of-the-box SAP wizards and templates for swift automation development. RunMyJobs enables end-to-end process automation, control and visibility with real-time monitoring, predictive SLA notification and management.
For more, see the RunMyJobs by Redwood and SAP partnership.
Choose RunMyJobs for industry-leading SAP integrations delivered as SaaS.
SAP Process Automation vs SAP Workload Automation?
While similar in their goal of automating tasks and processes, SAP Process Automation and SAP Workload Automation differ significantly in their focus and application areas.
SAP Process Automation is more aligned with automating and optimizing business processes involving user interactions and decision-making workflows. On the other hand, SAP Workload Automation is more focused on automating IT and system-level tasks, ensuring efficient and reliable IT operations. Both play critical roles in digital transformation but target different aspects of an organization’s operations.
Top 7 Benefits of SAP Workload Automation
1-Increased efficiency through business agility
Integrating workload automation into your SAP systems will improve overall workload management. Administrators will have access to monitor and schedule across the enterprise regardless of the type of job.
Stonebranch users have access to the Stonebranch Integration Hub, where they can find integration templates shared by the community. Additionally, they can utilize dashboards and detailed reports for real-time insights and monitoring of service level agreements. Stonebranch is compatible with SAP S/4HANA.
Fortra’s JAMS is another workload automation tool suitable for SAP. It is built specifically on .NET framework which provides Powershell integration and management.
2-Customer satisfaction
Increased efficiency in enterprise resource planning shortens the time it takes the company to respond to customer needs.
3-Comprehensive audit trails under a single interface
As workload automation schedules all the tasks from a single point of control, such an arrangement such an arrangement makes it possible to monitor and gain better insights through audit trails.
4-Optimized Resource Usage
By managing and scheduling workload automatically, SAP Workload Automation ensures optimal use of resources, preventing the system from being overloaded at peak times and underutilized at off-peak times.
5-24/7 Operation
SAP Workload Automation can keep processes running 24/7, even when no human operators are available, ensuring continuous business operation and service availability.
6-Enhanced Reliability
It ensures business processes run as expected, increasing visibility and the overall reliability of your operations. It can also detect and resolve issues before they become critical, thereby preventing disruptions and maintaining the smooth functioning of the system.
7-Compliance
Automation reduces the cost of manual errors and creates a more accurate record-keeping system. This can support the company’s compliance efforts, especially those that are regulated or audited.
Automation reduces the cost of manual errors and creates a more accurate record-keeping system. This can support the company’s compliance efforts, especially those that are regulated or audited.
Learn all workload automation use cases and case studies to start benefiting from SAP WLA in your business. Some of the specific use cases include:
If you believe your business can benefit from a workload automation solution, check out our data-driven list of workload automation software or a comparison of the top Enterprise Job Scheduling Software.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) SAP Workload Automation
FAQ
Reference Links
Cem's work has been cited by leading global publications including Business Insider, Forbes, Washington Post, global firms like Deloitte, HPE and NGOs like World Economic Forum and supranational organizations like European Commission. You can see more reputable companies and resources that referenced AIMultiple.
Throughout his career, Cem served as a tech consultant, tech buyer and tech entrepreneur. He advised enterprises on their technology decisions at McKinsey & Company and Altman Solon for more than a decade. He also published a McKinsey report on digitalization.
He led technology strategy and procurement of a telco while reporting to the CEO. He has also led commercial growth of deep tech company Hypatos that reached a 7 digit annual recurring revenue and a 9 digit valuation from 0 within 2 years. Cem's work in Hypatos was covered by leading technology publications like TechCrunch and Business Insider.
Cem regularly speaks at international technology conferences. He graduated from Bogazici University as a computer engineer and holds an MBA from Columbia Business School.
Comments 0
Share Your Thoughts
Your email address will not be published. All fields are required.