The VMS DataCollector
The recording of all relevant systems parameters by directly measuring their use.
VMS’s software tool, the VMS DataCollector, measures how the SAP system is used. As part of that, multiple technical and application-related parameters are analyzed, which provide the basis for cost optimization, as well as for performance optimization.
The obvious advantages of automated measurements are the drastically reduced claim on personnel on the customer’s side, as well as the precision of the data collected.
Measurement and collection is oriented around two essential factors – do users derive benefit from the system, and what is relevant for the IT operating expenses ?
- Set-up of the landscape, production, feeder systems, etc.
- Set-up of the landscape in systems, hardware, software
- Actual use of systems by the users in a tight time-framework (hourly or even minutes and seconds) and over a representative period – as a rule, four weeks.
- The type of use: time-based contexts, processes, relationships of time, processes, transaction-oriented, with the creation of documents, versus information-oriented using reports, BW building blocks, etc.
- The technical costs of use – CPU, memory, disk, database, etc.
- Costs within the system and at interfaces: batch input, RFCs, ALE, IDOCs, mail, fax, etc.
- The degree of customizing and use of the SAP standard and of extensions by the client
- Qualitative factors such as response times, system failures, availability times
- Security aspects such as authorizations
- The expenses related to changes, through continuous maintenance of customizing and company-own applications.
To sum up: measuring records all relevant factors in order to obtain a precise and comprehensive picture of the use and expenses involved in SAP operations.