Implementing SAP S/4HANA is a complex, multilayered experience. To help streamline and simplify this process for organizations, SAP developed SAP Activate, a methodology designed to help guide customers through their implementations of SAP S/4HANA.

ASUG interviewed the authors of "SAP Activate: Project Management for SAP S/4HANA." We spoke with Sven Denecken, SVP of product success and co-innovation at SAP S/4HANA at SAP SE; Jan Musil, chief product owner of the SAP Activate Methodology at SAP; and Srivatsan Santhanam, a senior director and chief product owner at SAP. The three authors discussed the methodology, how it can help customers, and where companies can apply it when managing their SAP S/4HANA implementations.

Jim: What are the key functionalities and technologies in SAP S/4HANA that separate the platform from other ERP software?

Sven: There are three things I would like to mention out of the many values we see in SAP S/4HANA. First is the real-time performance this product provides. You can process transactional analytics without the traditional way of pushing data back and forth and looking at historical data. Data is consistent across all platforms, regardless if you are running the platform in the cloud, any-premise, or in between with a hybrid system. And given the platform that is underneath SAP S/4HANA—SAP HANA—you have no latency or duplication. You see what you get. That simplified data model and database for real-time performance helps optimize the TCO for our clients.