Welcome to the latest edition of Your SAP Investment Unleashed, a column from Kristen Scheffler, Vice President of Customer Evolution for North America, SAP. As part of SAP Customer Evolution, Kristen is focused on supporting, guiding, educating, listening to, and enabling customers to get the most out of their existing SAP investments.
In the ever-evolving world of enterprise technology, transitioning to SAP cloud solutions is a strategic move that provides agility, innovation, and long-term value. But how do you ensure your organization is truly ready for the journey?
I remember sitting in a conference room with one of our customers about two years ago. We were staring at a whiteboard filled with system dependencies, legacy customizations, and integration points. The question on the customer’s mind: Are we really ready for SAP S/4HANA? That’s when we discussed the SAP Readiness Check—a powerful, self-service tool designed to help assess your current SAP ERP system and plan a smooth, informed transition.
What Is SAP Readiness Check?
SAP Readiness Check provides a comprehensive analysis of your existing SAP landscape. It evaluates technical and functional aspects of your system to identify potential challenges, required custom code adaptations, and simplification items. Whether you’re moving to SAP S/4HANA, SAP SuccessFactors, or SAP BW/4HANA, this tool gives you a clear picture of your starting point.
When we first ran the check, the customer was amazed at how quickly it highlighted areas they hadn’t considered, like outdated custom code that hadn’t been touched in years but was still affecting performance.
Key Capabilities
- System Compatibility Analysis: Understand which parts of your current system are compatible with SAP S/4HANA.
- Custom Code Impact: Identify custom developments that need to be adapted or retired.
- Simplification Item Checks: Review business process changes and technical adjustments required.
- Add-On Compatibility: Check which third-party or SAP add-ons are supported.
- Data Volume Management: Get insights into data footprint and archiving needs.
- Integration with SAP Cloud ALM: Link findings directly to project and task management tools for streamlined execution.
One of the biggest surprises in my conversations with this customer came from our data volume analysis. We discovered that nearly 40% of the customer’s database was historical data that could be archived. That insight alone helped to reduce their migration time significantly.
Why It Matters
Transitioning to SAP S/4HANA is more than a technical upgrade—it’s a business transformation. SAP Readiness Check helps you:
- Reduce risk by identifying issues early
- Accelerate planning with actionable insights
- Improve collaboration between IT and business teams
- Align with SAP Activate Methodology for structured project execution
During the customer’s transition planning, the Readiness Check became a bridge between their technical and business teams. I recall a meeting where their finance lead said, “This is the first time I actually understand what IT is talking about!” That moment underscored the value of shared visibility.
Best Practices for Using SAP Readiness Check
- Run It Early: Start your readiness check well before your planned migration to allow time for remediation.
- Engage Stakeholders: Involve both technical and business users to interpret findings and prioritize actions.
- Use It Iteratively: Re-run the check as you make changes to track progress and validate improvements.
- Leverage SAP Cloud ALM: Integrate findings into your project management workflow for better visibility and accountability.
The customer ran the Readiness Check three times over the course of 12 months. Each iteration gave them a clearer picture and helped to refine their roadmap. It was like peeling back layers of complexity, and each layer brought them closer to a confident go-live.
Who Should Use It?
- IT Leaders planning a move to SAP S/4HANA
- Project Managers overseeing digital transformation initiatives
- SAP Basis and Functional Consultants preparing system landscapes
- Partners and System Integrators supporting customer migrations
If you’re in any of these roles, trust me—this tool will save you time, headaches, and surprises. It’s like having a GPS for your SAP journey.
Getting Started
You can access SAP Readiness Check through the SAP Help Portal or the SAP Community Readiness Check page.
SAP Readiness Check is available for the following scenarios:
- SAP S/4HANA conversion
- SAP S/4HANA upgrades
- SAP BW/4HANA conversion
- SAP Datasphere, SAP BW Bridge
- SAP Customer Experience solutions
- SAP ERP usage and data profiling
- SAP SuccessFactors solutions
- SAP Cloud ALM
- SAP Supply Chain solutions
Don’t wait for complexity to catch up—run SAP Readiness Check today and get clear, actionable insights to guide your transition.
Start smart. Plan confidently. Transform boldly. Ready when you are.
Kristen Scheffler is Vice President of Customer Evolution for North America, SAP.