HP Announces Mission Critical Services Enhancement

HP announces two services, offered in collaboration with SAP, to help businesses maximize uptime in IT environments

Hewlett-Packard, the world's largest technology company, announced the introduction of Mission Critical Services Enhancement, developed in partnership with software development corporation SAP AG. The offering is a call management service that aligns HP and SAP remote support management capabilities for mission-critical SAP solution-based environments. The HP Mission Critical Services Enhancement and the HP SAPS Meter Service are available worldwide for HP Mission Critical Partnership, HP Critical Service and HP Proactive 24 Service support solutions, and HP noted pricing varies based on specific requirements.

With HP Mission Critical support, HP experts collaborate with the SAP support team using integrated support processes that help customers proactively and reactively address issues in their business landscapes. The service provides customers with a single point of reference for all incidents in the SAP application environment. Customers can log their issues through either the HP or SAP call center and both support centers are immediately able to view the incidents and take action. HP argues this leads to reduced occurrences of errors and quicker diagnosis and resolution, resulting in decreased downtime and improved performance.

"HP Mission Critical support aligns with SAP Enterprise Support commitments for mission-critical business operations, helping customers protect their IT investments and lower total costs of operations," said Uwe Hommel, executive vice president of Active Global Support for SAP. "Furthermore, for highly critical situations, joint HP and SAP customers can choose maximum service level agreements that will provide corrective action within four hours, 24/7."

Another addition to HP's support for SAP environments is the HP Application Performance Standard (SAPS) Meter Service, a web-based service that measures and analyzes the resource consumption of consolidated systems running SAP solutions in virtualized infrastructures. Companies using this service can bill specific SAP solutions to the appropriate departments according to actual utilization, similar to a utility bill. HP is a strong worldwide presence in operations involving SAP solutions, supporting approximately 1.7 million users in more than 50 countries. HP said it runs nearly 45 percent of all installations of SAP solutions, with approximately 67,000 installations across 25,000 customers.

"Customers require not only application and infrastructure expertise, but also an end-to-end view, extensive monitoring and close collaboration between their technology supplier and SAP to quickly resolve problems," said Gary Budzinski, senior vice president of technology services for HP. "Our mission-critical services customers will benefit from an integrated support environment that simplifies how they get support and speeds resolution time, enabling them to focus on their business."

Mike Meinz, senior director of strategic planning and governance for General Mills, said there have been many instances when the HP Mission Critical support staff has taken the initiative and resolved complex multivendor IT issues. "Mission Critical support services with SAP-specific enhancements have contributed to our outstanding application availability - which stays at around 99.87 percent," he said. "That's an important statistic in a business where there's no tolerance for downtime."