Jump into S/4HANA #2 — Tran­si­tion options

In our pre­vi­ous blog post, we high­light­ed some of the most impor­tant points in the tran­si­tion to SAP S/4HANA. In this post, we explore the three dif­fer­ent tran­si­tion sce­nar­ios in greater detail and describe, in which sit­u­a­tions they fit the best.

The three dif­fer­ent tran­si­tion sce­nar­ios to S/4HANA are New Imple­men­ta­tion, Sys­tem Con­ver­sion and Land­scape Transformation.

For those orga­ni­za­tions who are not cur­rent­ly run­ning SAP sys­tems, the only tran­si­tion sce­nario to S/4HANA is the New Imple­men­ta­tion. How­ev­er, all three sce­nar­ios are pos­si­ble for orga­ni­za­tions cur­rent­ly using SAP. Over­all, the future busi­ness needs and the state of the exist­ing SAP sys­tem are the main dri­vers for the suit­able tran­si­tion scenario.

Below, I elab­o­rate the dif­fer­ent stand­points in choos­ing the tran­si­tion scenario.

New Imple­men­ta­tion

In this sce­nario, a new S/4HANA sys­tem will be installed and exist­ing data from pre­vi­ous sys­tem will be moved into the new S/4HANA sys­tem. The pre­vi­ous sys­tem can be a SAP sys­tem or anoth­er lega­cy ERP system.

In the New Imple­men­ta­tion sce­nario, orga­ni­za­tion will attain the new and sim­pli­fied busi­ness process­es embed­ded in S/4HANA. The imple­men­ta­tion can be done by using S/4HANA best prac­tices and by uti­liz­ing pre­con­fig­ured and guid­ed process­es. By using these tools, the new S/4HANA imple­men­ta­tion can be sig­nif­i­cant­ly accel­er­at­ed and rapid inno­va­tion of new busi­ness process­es are enabled in the future.

In the New Imple­men­ta­tion sce­nario, the solu­tion can be run as a cloud ser­vice (pri­vate or pub­lic cloud) or local­ly (on – premise). More­over, a hybrid solu­tion between cloud and on-premise is also possible.

Sys­tem Conversion

This sce­nario is suit­able for orga­ni­za­tions that look to trans­fer and con­vert their exist­ing SAP ERP sys­tem to the S/4HANA.

In the Sys­tem Con­ver­sion, the exist­ing SAP ERP sys­tem and its data is trans­ferred to S/4HANA. In the begin­ning of this project, a cus­tom code check and data cleans­ing will be per­formed to remove unnec­es­sary cus­tom code and obso­lete data. The Sys­tem Con­ver­sion sce­nario will not, how­ev­er, allow to com­bine sev­er­al sep­a­rate ERP sys­tems (SAP or non-SAP) into a sin­gle S/4HANA system.

After the tran­si­tion, the orga­ni­za­tion can re-eval­u­ate their busi­ness process­es and adapt them into the S/4HANA sys­tem in the way they see most fit. Typ­i­cal­ly, this tran­si­tion sce­nario is favoured by orga­ni­za­tions that seek to trans­fer an exist­ing SAP sys­tem into the S/4HANA main­ly as it is.

The Sys­tem Con­ver­sion can be done in on-premise world as well as in pri­vate cloud but not in pub­lic cloud.

Land­scape Transformation

This sce­nario is suit­able for those orga­ni­za­tions who wish to con­sol­i­date their exist­ing sep­a­rate or scat­tered sys­tems into a sin­gle S/4HANA sys­tem. This sce­nario allows the tran­si­tion­ing orga­ni­za­tion to focus on its most vital busi­ness process­es by enabling the migra­tion of spe­cif­ic data and appli­ca­tions into the new system.

The tran­si­tion can be also phased so that the orga­ni­za­tion is first able to focus on the strate­gic and the most impor­tant busi­ness process­es. The Land­scape Trans­for­ma­tion sce­nario is less often used sce­nario since it is usu­al­ly very com­plex and hence SAP usu­al­ly exe­cutes the projects themselves.

Land­scape Trans­for­ma­tion sce­nario can be imple­ment­ed in pri­vate cloud, pub­lic cloud, local­ly (on-premise) or the mix of them.

In addi­tion to the tran­si­tion method, the plat­form must be select­ed as well: do you want to run the new S/4HANA in a pri­vate cloud, pub­lic cloud, on-premise or as a com­bi­na­tion of cloud and on-premise.

Con­tact Information:
Tom­mi Luoto
Chief Tech­nol­o­gy Officer
tommi.​luoto@​isletgroup.​fi
+358 40 574 1261

#SAP #S4HANA #con­ver­sion #cloud­ser­vice #Islet­Group