From migra­tion and deploy­ment options to indus­try and busi­ness process sup­port, find answers to some of the most com­mon­ly asked ques­tions about SAP S/4HANA.

What is SAP S/4HANA, and how does it dif­fer from SAP ECC?

SAP S/4HANA is the Enter­prise Resource Plan­ning (ERP) solu­tion at the core of SAP’s Intel­li­gent suite. It offers real-time ana­lyt­ics, sim­pli­fied process­es, and a mod­ern user expe­ri­ence com­pared to SAP ECC (enter­prise resource plan­ning cen­tral com­po­nent). Unlike SAP ECC, which was built on tra­di­tion­al rela­tion­al data­bas­es, SAP S/4HANA uti­lizes in-mem­o­ry com­put­ing for faster data pro­cess­ing and advanced ana­lyt­ics. SAP S/4HANA Cloud plays a crit­i­cal role in sup­port­ing end-to-end enter­prise process­es and in sup­port­ing SAP’s Clean Core phi­los­o­phy. It is designed to dri­ve busi­ness trans­for­ma­tion and inno­va­tion as well as enable real-time decision-making.

What are the ben­e­fits of migrat­ing to SAP S/4HANA?

Migrat­ing to SAP S/4HANA offers sev­er­al ben­e­fits, includ­ing real-time insights, sim­pli­fied process­es, enhanced user expe­ri­ence, inte­gra­tion with intel­li­gent tech­nolo­gies, and low­er total cost of own­er­ship (TCO) over time. ASUG Research found that the top 5 busi­ness ben­e­fits expe­ri­enced by mem­ber orga­ni­za­tions live on SAP S/4HANA include improved per­for­mance, opti­mized busi­ness process­es, faster access to ana­lyt­ics, improved orga­ni­za­tion­al effi­cien­cy, and eas­i­er data delivery.

What are the deploy­ment options for SAP S/4HANA?

SAP S/4HANA is avail­able for deploy­ment in the cloud, on-premis­es, or in a hybrid envi­ron­ment. Cloud deploy­ment options include SAP S/4HANA Pub­lic Cloud edi­tion and SAP S/4HANA Pri­vate Cloud edi­tion. SAP S/4HANA Pub­lic Cloud is the pure soft­ware-as-a-ser­vice (SaaS) ver­sion of SAP S/4HANA that is designed to sup­port a pure, Clean Core sys­tem based on indus­try best prac­tices with no exten­sions out­side the SaaS core. SAP S/4HANA Pri­vate Cloud edi­tion is run as a man­aged ser­vice by SAP or a part­ner and allows for indus­try-spe­cif­ic func­tion­al­i­ty beyond what is avail­able in the Pub­lic Cloud edi­tion. Each deploy­ment option has spe­cif­ic busi­ness ben­e­fits, and orga­ni­za­tions can choose the deploy­ment option that best suits their needs, pref­er­ences, and IT infrastructure.

What are the dif­fer­ent imple­men­ta­tion strate­gies for SAP S/4HANA, and how do they differ?

The main migra­tion approach­es to SAP S/4HANA are green­field, brown­field, and hybrid. Green­field is a new imple­men­ta­tion that involves reengi­neer­ing your process­es, set­ting you up for trans­for­ma­tion. Brown­field is a sys­tem con­ver­sion of an exist­ing SAP ERP sys­tem that aims to pre­serve as much as pos­si­ble from your pre­vi­ous sys­tem. A hybrid migra­tion com­bines ele­ments of both approach­es so that you can redesign some process­es for more effi­cien­cy while main­tain­ing crit­i­cal customizations.

What fac­tors should we con­sid­er when plan­ning a migra­tion to SAP S/4HANA?

Fac­tors to con­sid­er when plan­ning a migra­tion to SAP S/4HANA include busi­ness objec­tives, exist­ing IT land­scape, data migra­tion strat­e­gy, deploy­ment options, cus­tomiza­tion require­ments, change man­age­ment, and resource allocation.

How long does it take to imple­ment SAP S/4HANA?

The dura­tion of SAP S/4HANA imple­men­ta­tion varies depend­ing on fac­tors such as the pro­jec­t’s com­plex­i­ty, deploy­ment option, migra­tion approach, orga­ni­za­tion­al readi­ness, and scope of cus­tomiza­tion. It can range from sev­er­al months to a cou­ple of years for larg­er orga­ni­za­tions. Recent ASUG Research found that, on aver­age, it took respon­dents 1.7 years to go live. Some imple­men­ta­tions took up to four years, while oth­ers took as lit­tle as six months.

What are the main chal­lenges orga­ni­za­tions face when migrat­ing to SAP S/4HANA?

Com­mon chal­lenges orga­ni­za­tions face when migrat­ing to SAP S/4HANA include:

• Data migra­tion complexities.
• Cus­tomiza­tion and inte­gra­tion issues.
• Change man­age­ment resistance.
• Skill gaps.
• Bud­get constraints.
• Ensur­ing busi­ness con­ti­nu­ity dur­ing the transition.

How does SAP S/4HANA sup­port spe­cif­ic indus­tries and busi­ness processes?

SAP S/4HANA offers indus­try-spe­cif­ic solu­tions and best prac­tices tai­lored to var­i­ous sec­tors such as man­u­fac­tur­ing, retail, health­care, util­i­ties, and more. It sup­ports core busi­ness process­es across func­tions such as finance, sales, pro­cure­ment, man­u­fac­tur­ing, and sup­ply chain man­age­ment. SAP Sig­navio and the SAP Busi­ness Tech­nol­o­gy Plat­form sup­port orga­ni­za­tions with busi­ness process man­age­ment, exten­sions, and inte­gra­tions so that you can opti­mize SAP S/4HANA to fit your needs best.

What should orga­ni­za­tions do with cus­tomiza­tions made in SAP ECC when migrat­ing to SAP S/4HANA?

Depend­ing on the indus­try and ver­sion, some cus­tomiza­tions may not be nec­es­sary in SAP S/4HANA. Orga­ni­za­tions should explore options for migrat­ing cus­tomiza­tions to the SAP Busi­ness Tech­nol­o­gy Plat­form (BTP).

How does SAP S/4HANA inte­grate with oth­er tech­nolo­gies, appli­ca­tions, and infra­struc­ture with­in an enterprise?

Orga­ni­za­tions should assess how SAP S/4HANA will inter­act with addi­tion­al tech­nolo­gies, includ­ing oth­er SAP cloud prod­ucts and non-SAP soft­ware, to ensure seam­less inte­gra­tion across the entire enter­prise. SAP BTP is the pre­mier plat­form and toolset to help sup­port the inte­gra­tion of SAP and non-SAP appli­ca­tions in one uni­fied environment.

What is RISE with SAP, and how does it impact the con­tract­ing process for SAP S/4HANA?

The goal of RISE with SAP is to sim­pli­fy migra­tion to the cloud by com­bin­ing SAP solu­tions, ser­vices, and tech­nolo­gies into a uni­fied pack­age. This is a bun­dled con­tract offer­ing that includes SAP S/4HANA Cloud and oth­er SAP SaaS prod­ucts, as well as licens­ing for SAP cloud ser­vices that are intend­ed to help stream­line imple­men­ta­tion and mit­i­gate the risk to your data and busi­ness processes.

What sup­port and resources are avail­able for orga­ni­za­tions migrat­ing to SAP S/4HANA?

SAP pro­vides a range of resources and sup­port ser­vices for orga­ni­za­tions migrat­ing to SAP S/4HANA, includ­ing migra­tion tools, best prac­tices guides, train­ing pro­grams, con­sult­ing ser­vices, and a com­mu­ni­ty of experts and users for knowl­edge shar­ing and col­lab­o­ra­tion. Your ASUG com­mu­ni­ty offers resources that con­nect you with oth­er cus­tomers on their SAP S/4HANA jour­ney through our upcom­ing events, edi­to­r­i­al insights, on-demand web­casts, and dis­cus­sion forums with­in the ASUG SAP S/4HANA Com­mu­ni­ty Alliance.