SAP is rolling out the new SAP NetWeaver Information Lifecycle Management 7.02. With it comes improvements in usability, automation, and predelivered content. To understand how these improvements can help your company more easily implement an information lifecycle management (ILM) strategy, this article takes a step-by-step look at the role the improvements will play in two key ILM scenarios: retention management and legacy system decommissioning.
Companies can no longer ignore the fact that their complex system landscapes cost them time and money. But even while businesses realize that the time has come to move their data into a slimmer, more efficient storage center and shut down their legacy systems, there is still some hesitancy to take on what many see as a rather scary transition.
For help in this endeavor, and to make the process less daunting, many companies turn to information lifecycle management (ILM) tools. In previous columns,1 we’ve explored this ILM concept and discussed some of the features of SAP’s own ILM solution, SAP NetWeaver Information Lifecycle Management, the first release of which was shipped with SAP ERP 6.0 enhancement package 4. Now, based on our experience with the first release, SAP is rolling out a new release with enhanced features and functionalities. This new release is currently planned to become available by the end of May 2011 as part of SAP ERP 6.0, enhancement package 5.
With the new SAP NetWeaver Information Lifecycle Management 7.02, customers will get af more sophisticated ILM solution with substantially improved usability, enhanced automation abilities, and even more predelivered content. Of course, the new tools we explore here will only be helpful if the company has agreed on what data it wants to work on and how it wants to manage it.
To better understand how these improvements can help you more easily implement an ILM strategy, let’s look at the role these improvements will play in two key ILM scenarios: retention management and legacy system decommissioning.