SAP S/4HANA transition may look overwhelming at first glance but by adopting a best-practices-driven approach, you can successfully carry it out. Gemini with its vast experience and strong expertise in SAP products can be an ideal partner in your tech transformation journey.
SAP S/4HANA is an intelligent Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) platform helping companies in their digital transformation journey. With SAP announcing to shutdown support for ECC in 2027 and businesses compelled to accelerate their digital transformation due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many organizations are planning their S/4HANA transition.
SAP HANA is an in-memory database that helps enterprises to process large volumes of data in real-time. It provides various benefits to businesses, including minimizing IT workloads, improving data modeling, and streamlining administration. Overall, SAP HANA drives business outcomes and makes them easier to measure, thereby, providing a better return on investment (RoI).
However, SAP S/4HANA helps mitigate business risks, the transition is complex and requires significant investments of time, money and efforts. For the successful transition to SAP, a value-driven approach complemented with best practices is a must. This approach is required to manage various challenges and business risks, but also optimizes your business targets and improves benefits.
But before we move into discussing the SAP S/4HANA transition, let’s quickly understand what is S/4HANA and how it differs from SAP’s previous ERPs.
S/4HANA is not similar to the SAP Business Suite ERP system. In fact, S/4HANA is a new product line and is a lot different than Business Suite ERP. SAP S/4HANA system is:
- based SAP’s in-memory database SAP HANA
- has a new application architecture and a new data model
- has SAP Fiori, a new UI/UX technology
Besides, you have the flexibility to choose between on-premises and cloud deployment models.
As we have learnt earlier, S/4HANA is unlike SAP’s previous ERP versions. Also, there are three different approaches to SAP transition. Each approach has its own advantages and disadvantages and needs to be picked based on its own merits.
- System Conversion: This option brings an enterprise’s current business processes to the SAP S/4HANA platform and keeps the scope of the project limited to technical conversion. It allows companies to innovate at their own speed and mitigates the risks by keeping investments in custom code.
- New Implementation /Re-implementation: This option involves re-engineering and simplifying the processes based on the latest innovation. While it allows the client to adopt innovations at a rapid pace, the duration of the project can be longer. It depends on the number of the data migration objects and their volume and complexity.
- Landscape Transformation: In this option, customers can pick and choose the data that they want to migrate to the SAP S/4HANA platform. Instead of migrating the whole system at once, enterprises can complete the migration process in phases. It is a value-driven approach.
At Gemini Consulting & Services, our SAP experts will help you decide on the right approach based on your present technological infrastructure, business needs and future goals. This is important to realize maximum RoI from your SAP S/4HANA investments. Our experts will guide you at every step.
When moving to new technology and systems, enterprises have two options. They can find a technology partner or rely on internal resources to lead the project. Our experiences suggest that many companies lack people with the right skill set to plan and execute the S/4HANA transition. The COVID-19 pandemic has further elevated the shortage. With S/4HANA requiring specialized skills and experience to lead the transition, there’s a solid business case to find and hire the right technology partner. Failure to properly transition to the S/4HANA can cause you loss of money, downtime and brand reputation. Organizations often prefer hiring a technology partner with proven expertise because of cost-effectiveness and ease of doing business.
SAP S/4HANA transition is a serious project venture. Beginning with strategy and value-discovery workshops, Gemini can assist you in identifying the perfect approach to help you gain the most from your S/4HANA investments. To know more about our services, please click here.
Gemini Consulting & Services is a leading SAP solutions provider. Gemini is a global SAP partner and over the years we have built strong authority across SAP implementation, migration and maintenance projects. We have experience in working with both private and public organizations across the globe on several mission-critical projects.
Our SAP S/4HANA services are designed to assist you with our extensive experience and proven methodologies. Our S/4HANA services include:
- Strategy & Plan: Our team will conduct a comprehensive requirement analysis and assessment of your existing IT environment and identify clear goals, to build a robust strategy specific to your organization.
- Rapid Execution: We understand the value of timelines and can work on tight deadlines. We have our own trusted methodologies and frameworks to accelerate your project execution.
- Testing: We will thoroughly test your new SAP environment to identify all defects and fix them at the earliest.
- Training & Post-Deployment Support: Our team will offer you post-deployment to ensure that SAP S/4HANA works at its peak performance. We will also train your staff to drive adoption and help them optimally benefit from the new ERP.
