Solution Manager

Hi,

Our company is planning an upgrade from R/3 4.7 to ECC 6.0.

Do we have to implement SAP Solution Manager ? What is the added value of SAP Solution Manager besides the acquisition of support packages and OSS notes ? Monitoring is also a feature but I'm doing this from the RZ20 (CCMS) and it works fine (for our small system landscape with only two systems, DEV and PRD).

If the SAP Solution Manager is a 'must do', do we have to install it on a separate host (meaning additional hardware and maintenance costs) or are there other solutions ?

Thanks in advance,

Erik