The route network of the Schweizerische Bundesbahnen (SBB; Swiss Federal Railways) transports around 997,000 people and 150,000 tons of goods across Switzerland and into neighboring countries every day. The IT infrastructure required for this is similarly large and has grown steadily in recent years: currently, more than 120 SAP systems are needed to cope with the enormous capacities.
As a result of such developments, companies – like SBB – are suddenly faced with completely new challenges. Ensuring error-free IT operations and secure SAP Change Management quickly becomes a mammoth task.
Like others, SBB found itself at a dead end with the Change Management tool it had been using until then. “We urgently needed to do something about it, because the previous change and transport management solution was reaching the end of its lifecycle on the one hand and could no longer meet the constantly growing requirements on the other,” explains Fredy Bur, Director Technical Operation at SBB. “For this reason, we decided to replace the old software with a future-oriented state-of-the-art solution.”
In order to avoid risks such as the uncontrolled import of modifications or inadequate synchronization of imports in various SAP applications, SBB decided to revolutionize its entire SAP change management and align it with the evolved IT structures using modern software.
“Managing the enormous volume of transport orders was becoming an ever greater challenge for veryone involved in the process,” says REALTECH’s project manager Rudolf Kubica. “Together with its long-standing partner itelligence and with the support of REALTECH’s SmartChange software, SBB therefore adapted the SAP change and transport management processes to its needs.”
“The company needed a forward-looking standard solution that would cover modern SAP change management requirements,” said project manager Antonio Caruso, Senior Expert / Project Manager at itelligence. “The REALTECH solution came at the right time: SmartChange integrates all SAP systems into the central workflow and controls all transport requests and processes across the entire application landscape. No additional hardware is required.”
The project was successfully completed within four months under the management of itelligence. In parallel to the installation of the software, more than 150 users and administrators were prepared for working with the new tool through special training courses.
SBB’s IT staff now use the REALTECH solution to regulate all SAP change management. A central workflow controls and monitors all ABAP and Java changes, program and data modifications are automatically distributed and checked for hazards. Today, every SAP transport is assigned to the correct requirement. As a result, every change can be tracked from departure to arrival. “The entire development process is now more transparent than ever,” Bur enthuses. “The system now documents modifications gaplessly – and SBB thus meets all legal requirements.”
The company has also standardized and improved the approval workflow: today, everyone knows who is responsible for what. All project participants are involved in the process and are informed about current developments. This motivates and speeds up the processes.
Data transmitted in the wrong order or accidentally overwritten, so-called “overtakers,” no longer exist. All changes to the IT system are automatically checked. “We save a lot of time in quality assurance,” says Bur. “The checks that were so time-consuming before are now taken over by the system.”
Before a transport request is sent off, SmartChange checks it automatically: Is the request safe and complete? Is the developer allowed to make this change? How does the modification affect other solutions? Are there processes that influence each other? Is the sequence correct? If all requirements are met, the change is transferred to the quality system and then to the production system. Soon, users in the specialist departments can start working with the updated and improved software.
By using SmartChange, SBB benefits from even greater efficiency in SAP change management and relies on a future-oriented software solution that can cope with complex system landscapes.
With theGuard!, we can now implement changes to our SAP applications even faster and more reliably. With this innovative software, we are now well prepared to meet the growing challenges of SAP change management long-term.
Fredy Bur, Director Technical Operation, SBB
