RISE Promised Simplicity. Basis Teams Got a New Kind of Complexity

The life of an SAP Basis SME has never been easy. There are urgent fixes, project tasks, and system risks to manage. The pressure is always there. One day, it may be a slow system. The next day, it may be a failed background job.

The Promise of RISE

SAP Cloud ERP Private (aka RISE) appeared to offer a way out of this cycle.

Moving SAP to an ECS-managed cloud should shift more platform and technical work to SAP. The aim is to make things simpler and free internal teams to focus on change rather than on running the platform.

Unfortunately, for many SAP Basis SMEs, it hasn’t turned out like this at all.

The New Shared Responsibility Model

SAP customers are trading direct system control for a shared model. In this model, some tasks reside with SAP ECS, while others remain with the customer’s Basis team.

Some things are now simpler. But without access to the base operating system, other things have become harder.

Many tasks that SAP Basis could once fix in 10 minutes may now take several days and several iterations..

This can create a different kind of pressure.

Even when ECS does the work, the customer’s Basis SME still needs to raise the request, share details, agree on timing, test the change, and check the result.

Let’s take a system refresh as an example.

Some pre-refresh tasks are shared. The refresh itself now sits with ECS. After that, the work comes back to the customer’s Basis team. If something goes wrong, the team may need to raise a service ticket, explain the issue, and wait for a reply.

Basis teams now have less access, but they are still accountable for the outcome. A task that was once completed in-house now needs requests, approvals, hand-offs, and lead time.

RISE may simplify some parts of SAP operations. But it does not remove complexity. It moves it, and in many cases, increases it. For the SAP Basis SME, the key is to know what they still own, what SAP owns, and how to simplify the work.

Where Automation Helps

This is where automation presents an opportunity.

For many of the remaining Basis tasks, third-party automation tools can help. Many of these tools have been built and improved over many years. They can reduce pressure on the Basis SME, ensure more consistent tasks, and deliver reliable results.

Here are several areas to consider:

• system refresh,
• job management,
• system control and monitoring,
• transport control management,
• security monitoring,
• patch management,
• Idoc monitoring management, and
• data anonymisation

These tasks still sit with the customer. They still need skilled Basis SMEs. If they go wrong, they can still cause major disruption.

The Bottom Line

In line with the RISE promise, many organisations have reduced or deskilled their Basis capability. Automation can help those teams regain control, standardise repeatable work, reduce reliance on manual effort, and give skilled SMEs more time to focus on higher-value activities.

RISE has changed the role of SAP Basis, but it has not made it obsolete. The most successful teams will be those that understand the new shared responsibility model, maintain the right skills, and use automation to make the remaining work faster, safer, and more predictable.