Agree or not but as with every complex software system it is quite high effort to keep it running. SAP is not exception thought. To make it at least survivable SAP is offering as a part of their methodologies so called End-to-End Solution Operations. It is available on SAP Service Marketplace/OSS; under shortcut: service.sap.com/e2e. It is separated to 2 main parts:
· Business Process Integration & Automation Management
· End-to-End Change Control Management
For more details refer to following links:
EW2E40 - RunSAP - End-to-End Solution Operations
EW2E50 - End-to-End Solution Scope and Documentation
EW2E60 - RunSAP Customer Center of Expertise - “Implementing SAP Quality Management”
EW2E100 - E2E Root Cause Analysis
EW2E200 - E2E Change Control Management
EW2E220 - Test Management Overview
EW2E300 - E2E Business Process Integration and Automation Management
EW2E400 - E2E Technical Upgrade Management
EW2E500 - Custom Code Management