In this article, one of our SAP Basis Associates, Abhishek Nagesh, takes you through a typical day in his role and breaks down his duties and responsibilities as part of Absoft’s Basis team. As he discusses, Basis is an essential and integral part of any trustworthy SAP partner and, as such, has unique shift patterns to guarantee 12-hour support Monday through Friday, with an additional 24/7 on-call functionality.
A Bit About Abhishek
I’ve worked with SAP Business Application Software Integrated Solution (Basis) for over five years and have a background in system administration. This experience is built on a BE in Computer Science from the Sri Siddhartha Institute of Technology (SSIT) in Tumkur, India and an MSc in Advanced Computer Science from the University of Sheffield. All this, I feel, has given me extensive knowledge of user management and Basis support.
Currently, I work here at Absoft, where I’ve been part of the team for the past two years, where I contribute to supporting a broad range of SAP systems. Before that, I worked at Tata Consultancy Services, where I coordinated with cross-functional teams of SAP consultants to ensure seamless integration of SAP solutions.
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Table of Contents
What is SAP BASIS?
It’s often nicknamed the ‘backbone of SAP operations‘ as it is responsible for the technical foundation that supports all SAP applications. We handle SAP systems’ installation, configuration, and maintenance, ensuring they run smoothly and efficiently. Our role differs from that of functional consultants or development teams; functional focuses on business processes while developers handle application coding. The Basis team ensures the entire SAP landscape is healthy and responsive.
Some of our key tasks include system installation, configuring system parameters, security management, system upgrades, and troubleshooting. Basis also manages user administration, creating accounts, roles, and permissions to ensure security. Additionally, we are responsible for database administration, optimising performance, and ensuring that SAP systems are always available through proactive monitoring and maintenance.
Our team at Absoft comprises nine SAP consultants. Four of us focus on support, while the rest work on projects. This division ensures we can meet our clients’ daily operational needs and work on the broader strategic initiatives needed to keep their systems up-to-date.
12-Hour, Monday to Friday Support
Absoft provides 07:00 to 19:00 support, with a 24/7 on-call function, for our managed service customers. The goal here is to monitor and maintain the availability of our clients’ systems through an alert-based system. To do this, we use tools like Avantra, which triggers alerts in Opsgenie should any issues arise. These come in various priorities, with a P1 indicating that a system is down and must be restored as soon as possible.
To prevent anyone from working strenuous hours, we utilise staggered shifts; we run early shifts from 07:00 to 15:30 and late shifts from 10:30 to 19:00. On one-off occasions, we cover weekend shifts for planned outages. During this downtime, we run activities like patching and long-outage maintenance to minimise disruptions during regular business hours. Team members rostered on these weekend shifts can choose between extra pay or more time off to compensate for the additional hours worked.
A Typical Day
There is never a dull day in Basis, and like any job, every day has its tranche of tasks! However, my work generally revolves around support and maintenance activities. Each morning, I conduct a system health check to assess the performance and stability of SAP environments. I monitor for any alerts or system performance issues and initiate performance tuning or troubleshooting when needed. These could range from handling database management tasks to optimising memory usage, depending on the system’s current state.
One of my key responsibilities, in particular, is to manage support tickets raised by clients. These tickets could be on any number of issues, from user administration to more complex system malfunctions. I may be assigned multiple tickets at any one time, so I will work through them systematically to ensure they are resolved efficiently. It is important to stay in communication with the client so I can update them on the status of the ticket and any steps we’re taking to resolve it.
Another crucial aspect of my role involves working on larger projects, such as system upgrades or migrations. These projects are a significant part of the job, requiring a blend of technical expertise and project management.
Key Challenges and Insights
The more complex the environment, the more complex potential issues and their fixes will be. For instance, when working with older or out-of-support systems, resolving issues can be anything but straightforward. In these cases, a rich understanding of SAP’s technical layers and how these issues impact broader business operations is required. Overall, the ability to think critically and outside the box to find solutions and collaborate across teams is essential.
Deep technical knowledge is, of course, vital in this role, and as SAP systems evolve, continuous learning is also essential. Staying up to speed with new technologies like cloud migration, RISE with S/4HANA, and AI requires structured learning and hands-on experience. While staying abreast of these innovations can be tricky, it is still one of the job’s most rewarding aspects; there’s always something new to learn or a new challenge to tackle!
Conclusion
Being an SAP Basis Associate is filled with challenges, learning opportunities, and a great deal of responsibility. It’s a role that requires technical expertise, problem-solving skills, and a deep understanding of SAP systems. Whether it’s resolving a complex system issue, managing a system upgrade, or ensuring the smooth daily operation of SAP systems, the Basis team plays an integral role in ensuring the business runs efficiently.
To learn more about how the Absoft team can make your system safer and more secure, please reach out now!
