Real-Time SAP Automation, Happy Teams: A Public Sector Organization’s
Path to Operational Modernization

A forward-thinking public sector IT service provider in Europe supports multiple municipal and regional government entities with a lean SAP Basis team. With a growing number of SAP ECC and S/4HANA systems, their team of eight was under immense operational pressure. Manual system management, security updates, and weekend work had become the norm - and a barrier to both efficiency and recruitment.

To modernize their operations, improve employee experience, and remain competitive in the public sector IT landscape, the organization turned to Avantra, the intelligent observability and automation platform for SAP.

The Challenge: Running SAP Shouldn’t Mean Running Weekends

Before Avantra, the SAP Basis team faced mounting operational challenges:

• Manual effort across daily checks, updates, and monitoring
• Time-consuming system onboarding requiring deep SAP expertise
• Difficulty attracting talent due to after-hours workloads
• Limited capacity for innovation and process improvement

This approach was increasingly unsustainable. The organization needed automation, observability, and a platform that empowered the team to scale without burnout.

The Solution: Fast Onboarding, Smart Automation, Real Results

After evaluating SAP-native tools such as Solution Manager and Cloud ALM, the team found they lacked the mature automation needed for their complex landscape. Avantra stood out for its robust automation, real-time monitoring, and flexible customization capabilities.

Within weeks, the team had onboarded new systems with a plug-and-play experience. Avantra’s JavaScript-based automation enabled custom use case development without external support. What once took weeks could now be done in days - or even hours.

The Impact: An Effective Team, A Stronger Operation

Avantra delivered meaningful improvements across operations, recruitment, and innovation:

Operational Efficiency

• Responded to a major security vulnerability by updating the entire SAP landscape in one weekend - previously required multiple weekends
• Dramatically reduced time and effort for system onboarding
• Automated routine tasks like inactive user logouts

Cost Savings

• Estimated high five-figure annual savings
• Over €30,000 saved yearly on user monitoring alone
• Reduced overtime and weekend staffing requirements

Recruitment and Employer Branding

• Positions now appeal to a wider range of IT professionals, not just SAP specialists
• Less after-hours work enhances work-life balance
• Easier onboarding of new hires without deep SAP knowledge

Innovation and Team Morale

• Custom self-healing and monitoring use cases developed internally
• Team members began conceptualizing new automation features during training
• Positive sentiment and strong adoption from the outset

The Takeaway: Public Sector Agility, Private Sector Speed

What began as a solution to reduce operational load evolved into a broader transformation of SAP operations strategy. The organization is now scaling Avantra across its entire environment, planning to retire legacy monitoring tools in favor of a unified, future-proof platform.

Avantra has enabled this public sector organization to run SAP operations with greater agility, visibility, and confidence, while also building a workplace culture that attracts and retains top IT talent.

At a Glance

Challenges

• Manual system checks across SAP landscape
• Long system onboarding time requiring deep SAP expertise
• Weekend workloads creating hiring challenges
• Limited time for innovation and improvements

Benefits with Avantra

• Fast, automated onboarding of SAP systems
• Plug-and-play monitoring across ECC, S/4HANA, and project systems
• Security response readiness during critical incidents
• Estimated €30K+ annual savings in user monitoring
• Strong employer branding with reduced after-hours work
• In-house innovation through custom automation