TU Darmstadt: Claranet supports operation and optimisation of the SAP system landscape

For two decades, the Technical University (TU) of Darmstadt has been successfully using SAP solutions to support its business processes and services. By continuously developing and integrating SAP solutions, the university, which has been certified as an SAP Customer Center of Expertise (SAP CCOE) for the third time, has created an efficient basis for overcoming its administrative and organisational challenges and consolidating its position as a leading institution in research and teaching. The TU is supported in this by Claranet.

Our task is to actively support the design of new working environments at TU Darmstadt with efficient SAP solutions."

Silke Kubelka
stv. SAP Overall Manager and Head of SAP Applications
TU Darmstadt

The challenge

With 120 degree programmes, five locations and 174 buildings, a third-party funding volume of over 249 million euros, around 24,000 students and 5,100 employees.000 students and 5,100 employees, the Technical University of Darmstadt is one of the leading educational institutions of its kind in Germany.

In addition to excellent research and teaching, the university also owes its success to the smooth management of its core business processes. SAP plays a central role in this context. The use of the technology extends not only to the central university administration, but also to the departments, institutes and decentralised facilities such as the University Computing Centre (HRZ).

SAP solutions are used to control a wide range of processes - from budget and personnel management to construction and real estate management as well as third-party funding administration and controlling.

The SAP system environment comprises several ERP, BW, HCM and SAP Fiori systems. Among other things, an SAP Data Warehouse and SAP Identity Management for managing users and SAP authorisations are connected.

The SAP competence team at TU Darmstadt is responsible for operation and further development. Close cooperation with the HRZ, the CCHH (Competence Centre for Hessian Universities) as well as the departments and central institutions is of central importance. The team also provides advice to the more than 3,000 SAP users at the TU.

"Originally, our team took care of everything from hardware procurement to SAP applications," reports Silke Kubelka, Deputy Head of SAP and Head of SAP Applications. "The volume of work in the operations and project business has increased so much over time that we decided to prioritise and change the operating process." Ten years ago, the company switched to a new operating concept based on a highly available VMware virtualisation environment with distributed responsibilities.

For the design and implementation of the new operating concept, the university was looking for an external partner to advise on the transition of SAP software from the then "parallel world" to the virtual world of the data centre - both in terms of technological issues and with regard to a sensible division of tasks.

The solution

As is usual for state institutions, the SAP consulting project was put out to public tender. Potential contractors were expected to deploy suitably permanent and qualified employees with proven practical experience in heterogeneous landscapes, i.e. in the setup, operation, consulting and optimisation of SAP landscapes under Microsoft Windows, MSSQL, SUSE Linux (cluster), SAP HANA, SAP hardware as well as in the SAP security environment and across all topics in VMware and Linux. Employees should also have training experience in the SAP environment in order to ensure a project-immanent transfer of expertise.

In addition to general certification as an SAP Technical Associate, other requirements included current SAP certifications such as TADM70 (heterogeneous migration certification) and HANATEC (SAP HANA certification).