Top 7 SAP Workload Automation Software & Use Cases in 2024

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 7 SAP Workload Automation Software

Read our article for a detailed comparison of SAP job scheduling software.

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.

Sponsored

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.

Top 7 use cases of workload automation in SAP

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. 
2. Central Governance: Workload automation enables organizations to ensure centralized, comprehensive governance, planning, and monitoring of the business workloads.
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. 
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. 
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. 
6. Job duration estimation: Some workload automation tools can estimate the job duration through machine learning based on previous data. Better assessment of job duration helps with planning and increases efficiency overall.
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. 

Sponsored

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 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 from 14 hours to 8 hours and save 10.5 days every quarter that was otherwise spent on daily administration.

What is the difference between SAP Process Automation and 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. 
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 makes it possible to 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 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: With the use of automation, there’s a reduction in manual errors and a more accurate record-keeping system in place. This can support the company’s compliance efforts, especially those that are regulated or audited.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) SAP Workload Automation

For more on Workload Automation:

• Top 14 Workload Automation Use Cases in IT, HR, & Accounting
• Workload Automation: Comprehensive Guide for Tech Buyers
• Guide Into IT Orchestration: Benefits, Use Cases & Tools
• Top 7 Enterprise Job Scheduling Software

If you believe your business can benefit from a workload automation solution, check out our data-driven list of workload automation software. 

For guidance on how to choose the right solution:

External Links

• 1. “SAP Corporate Fact Sheet” SAP. 2018