the 3 layers of BIA Support

The BIA is sold as a standalone appliance to most customers.
15 days after installation we all realize it is more that that.

BIA Has three distinct layers that require support.

layer 1: BIA SW
layer 2: BIA APpliance
layer 3: BIA Application Layer

layer 1 is supportd by SAP America and includes the software installed on the blades in the BIA

layer 2 is supportd by your HW vendor and it includes the full support of the appliance other than layer 1 support, i.e. the BIA Software. This includes the HW and SW in the storage, the blades, the BIA Manager and other applications and HW that constitute the BIA

layer 3 is something we find out after go-live. The application layer consists of tasks that the customer support team has to undertake.
Selecting InfoCubes that need to go into the BIA; Creating Infocubes for reporting DSO's that are currently used for reporting (DSO/ODS creats a reporting drag on BIA performance and must be currently converted to an infoCube to enhance ROI); Indexing Infocubes for BIA, Data reconciliation between BIA and BI, Planning and forecasting of the BIA, Viweing the space utilization in BIA, projecting BIA Blade order status, Providing a monthly snapshot of BIA status, etc.
All tis needs a RACI, ownership and accountability.

Plan for it and especially paln for deploying the support for the application layer in the BIA.
Look at www.erada.com and the tool called BIA Workbench