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Author's profile photo Sven Denecken

SAP S/4HANA Frequently Asked Questions – Part 1 – the fundamentals

After the announcement of SAP S/4HANA, short for SAP Business Suite 4 SAP HANA, we are seeing a lot of positive reactions. Sure, questions still remain, and always will. So we thought starting a FAQ series might be very helpful.


But let us first recap some essentials:

  • already in 2014 we spearheaded simplification of the Business Suite with SAP Simple Finance and SAP Business Suite powered by SAP HANA (in short market lingo: “Suite on HANA”)
  • we have educated the market in Q4 2014 that we are about to launch significant further simplifications based on our good experience with above, then known under the (internal) codename s-innovations
  • With the confidence and the success of the above, e.g. more than 1850 customers on “Suite on HANA”, many live, significant project sizes and distribution …  we decided that it is time to move. And we should make one topic clear again – we started this already early 2014 – it was time for a new product, and the name of this new breed is SAP S/4HANA.

Much has been published on the launch on February 3rd, so lets skip that one. Great interactions with customers, partners and influencers have helped to prioritize, because we are at the start of a significant transformation, I mean the industry as such. Whoever underestimates the impact of Digital Transformation might be caught by surprise. We are convinced a big positive contribution to tackle the tasks at hand is to change the core of companies business backbone – the SAP Business Suite. And this is what we are doing.


Time for a series with further details. And keep the feedback coming, we appreciate it, we need it. Here are my current favorites:


What is SAP S/4HANA?

SAP S/4HANA is a new product fully built on the most advanced in-memory platform – SAP HANA – and modern design principles with SAP Fiori User Experience (UX). SAP S/4HANA delivers massive simplifications (customer adoption, data model, user experience, decision making, business processes and models) and innovations (Internet of Things, Big Data, business networks, and mobile-first) to help businesses run simple in a digital and networked economy.

And if there are doubts that it is new – we did split the codeline of the SAP Business Suite early 2014 (rough and tough 400 million lines of code), and since then we are massively simplifying the solution – keeping what is helpful, leaving away what not longer is needed AND building new parts. The priorities are driven by market input – not by technical desire alone. But it is amazing what the new technology, the platform we are architecting towards can help. And also clear – we are keeping the semantic data model in tact, so migration for existing customers is simple (pun intended).


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Is SAP S/4HANA available today?

The on-premise edition of SAP S/4HANA is already available today for customers in all industries and regions. The first public cloud edition is intended to be made available early in 2015, followed by the managed cloud edition later in 2015.

What is the business scope of the different editions?

  • SAP S/4HANA, on-premise edition, already offers a business scope that is similar in terms of coverage, functionality, industries, and languages as the current SAP Business Suite. Within this scope, SAP S/4HANA also includes the transformational simplifications delivered with SAP Simple Finance (SAP Accounting powered by SAP HANA) as well as a planned integration with SuccessFactors Employee Central and Ariba.

The on-premise edition is intended to offer a yearly innovation cycle through simplification and innovation packages. The next simplification and innovation package is planned for the end of 2015.

  • SAP S/4HANA, public cloud edition, should address specific business scenarios of lines of business and industries. The first delivery in early 2015 is expected to cover key scenarios in customer engagement and commerce and professional services (10 core scenarios, plus planned integration with SuccessFactors Employee Central and Ariba Network, SAP hybris Marketing)
  • SAP S/4HANA, managed cloud edition, should address a similar business scope as the on-premise edition. The first delivery in early 2015 is planned to already cover essential core ERP scenarios (accounting, controlling, materials management, production planning and control, sales and distribution, logistics execution, plant maintenance, project system, and PLM, plus integration with SuccessFactors Employee Central and Ariba Network, SAP hybris Marketing)
  • The cloud editions are intended to offer a quarterly innovation cycle.

Which industry solutions will be available in SAP S/4HANA and by when?

  • SAP S/4HANA, on-premise edition supports current lines of business and industries.
  • SAP S4/HANA, public cloud edition will be released by business scenario for specific languages, lines of business and industries. The first industry available will be the professional services industry. The scope will always be determined in close cooperation with the SAP user groups based on customer requirements.
  • SAP S/4HANA, managed cloud edition, is planned to ultimately have a similar scope as the on-premise edition. For the first delivery in early 2015, the following core industries are planned: Professional Services, Chemicals, Consumer Products, Industrial Machinery and Components, Life Sciences, as well as Transportation and Logistics.

How does SAP S/4HANA relate to SAP’s existing portfolio of cloud solutions?

SAP S/4HANA shall also be made available with public cloud and managed cloud editions. However, SAP S/4HANA will not replace our existing portfolio of line-of-business cloud solutions; it will integrate with and expand it. Our comprehensive offering is planned to allow SAP S/4HANA customers to build hybrid scenarios between SAP S/4HANA and cloud solutions from SAP, including those from SuccessFactors and Ariba as well as integration with SAP hybris Marketing. This way customers can leverage the cloud at their own pace, based on their needs, while keeping all the integration and business benefits of their existing SAP solutions. In addition, SAP S/4HANA is designed to easily connect with global business networks such as, for example, the Ariba Network and Concur.


How does the SAP HANA Cloud Platform relate to SAP S/4HANA?

In the context of SAP S/4HANA, SAP HANA Cloud Platform serves as an extension platform and agility layer. It is possible to build specific capabilities extending the scope of SAP S/4HANA by either integrating non-SAP functions or building your own capabilities. The cloud platform not only serves as the development platform but also as the runtime foundation for the developed solutions. The extensions built on the cloud platform can run against both cloud and on-premise deployments of SAP S/4HANA.

Will SAP continue to deliver innovations to SAP Business customers on any DB?

Yes. SAP remains committed to protect our customers’ investments. We recently announced that we are extending our maintenance commitment until at least 2025. This is an unprecedented commitment to customers in the IT industry. We will also continue to deliver innovations without disruption (through enhancement packages for example) to SAP Business Suite customers on anyDB and on SAP HANA.


However, transformational business and IT simplifications require a transformational platform and this is why as of today SAP S/4HANA runs only on SAP HANA. It is the logical next step for our installed base customers and the biggest step forward for 10+ years with full compatibility with SAP ERP 6.0

What is really new in SAP S/4HANA compared to SAP Business Suite powered by SAP HANA?

With SAP Business Suite powered by SAP HANA, SAP was the only software vendor in the market to allow SAP Business Suite customers bring together transactions and analysis into a single in-memory platform. This innovation has been extremely successful in the market as 1,850+ customers (existing and new) acquired SAP Business Suite powered by SAP HANA – in less than two years – to run their business in real time, making it one of the fastest-growing product in SAP’s history.


With SAP Business Suite powered by SAP HANA, our product approach has been focused primarily on porting the applications on the SAP HANA platform and optimizing the code to allow customers gain significant performance in their mission-critical business processes and reporting activities. In other words, the applications remained unchanged and primarily optimized to run on SAP HANA in a non-disruptive way for customers – SAP HANA representing a new database alternative for existing customers, with a simple database migration required to drive the entire business in real-time.


SAP S/4HANA is a new product. With SAP S/4HANA, we are building on the success of the SAP Business Suite powered by SAP HANA with a completely new and reimagined suite:

  • SAP S/4HANA is natively built on SAP HANA for massive simplifications (simplified data model: no indices, no aggregates, no redundancies) and innovations (for example, open in-memory platform for advanced applications predicting, recommending, and simulating)
  • SAP S/4HANA is natively designed with the SAP Fiori UX, offering an integrated user experience with modern usability and instant insight on any device (role-based, three steps max to get the job done, mobile-first, consistent experience across lines of business)
  • SAP S/4HANA is natively connected to the Internet of Things and business networks for real-time collaboration (planned: machine-to-machine, Ariba Network, Concur) in the networked economy
  • SAP S/4HANA is natively engineered for providing choice of deployment (on-premise, cloud – public and managed – and hybrid)
  • SAP S/4HANA is natively born for easy adoption (guided, configuration, easy onboarding, from the discovery of the solution via cloud trials to the deployment with preconfigured best practices)

In addition, SAP HANA Cloud Platform serves as open extension, agility layer for SAP S/4HANA. The extensions built on the cloud platform can run against either deployment of SAP S/4HANA: in the cloud and on-premise.

Now working on part 2. As said above, keep the feedback and your questions coming, we will prioritize accordingly and update our FAQ for you. Also check frequently sap.com/s4hana.


Part2: SAP S/4HANA Frequently Asked Questions – Part 2 – the value

Part3:SAP S/4HANA Frequently Asked Questions – Part 3 – the path to get there

Lets stay connected @SDenecken

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      42 Comments
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      Author's profile photo Abdul Hakim
      Abdul Hakim

      Hi Sven,

      Thanks for publishing this great blog with the SCN community.

      I have few technical questions with respect to SAP S/4 HANA.

      SAP S/4 HANA will be released in 3 editions as per SAP:

      1. On Premise

      2. Managed Cloud

      3. Public Cloud

      While On Premise and Managed Cloud editions provides options to develop / extend applications based on ABAP, the Public Cloud edition does not provide options to develop / extend applications based on ABAP. Extension for Public Cloud edition is based on Java and HANA Native (XSJS) at present.

      The existing Business suite customers who wants to move into Public Cloud cannot leverage the existing skillset for building cloud based applications as ABAP is not the option to develop applications on Public Cloud. Cross training is the easy to say statement/suggestions and as you aware it involves additional cost and other overhead for customes when it comes to reality. I certainly believe customers should be allowed to develop next generation applications in the languages they are comfortable with and SAP should not restrict / dictate them to use only few chosen languages of their choice.

      Are there any plans to add ABAP development options as well to Public Cloud when S/4 HANA becomes ready for Public cloud release. Appreciate your answer.

      Thanks

      Hakim

      Author's profile photo Sven Denecken
      Sven Denecken
      Blog Post Author

      Fair point. So a possibility to develop in ABAP on the HANA Clöoud Platfoprm is what you are suggesting, right?

      Author's profile photo Abdul Hakim
      Abdul Hakim

      Yes it makes sense as all the SAP Customers who runs Business suite develop / developed thousands of applications using ABAP and if ABAP is not an option to develop in HCP then i dont think it is worth a move. SAP should clarify.

      Author's profile photo Sven Denecken
      Sven Denecken
      Blog Post Author

      Most of these applications will still work, as we keep the data semantic in tact.

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      Dear Hakim,

      does managed cloud use ABAP? i thought its still JAVA and only on-premise is ABAP

      anything on cloud would be java !

      Author's profile photo Abdul Hakim
      Abdul Hakim

      Hi Rau,

      ABAP is used in Managed cloud.

      Thanks

      Hakim

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      Dear hakim,

      so managed cloud is still a part of on-premise ?

      so what logical / best options customers will have, if they are currently running ECC6.0 EHP7

      EHP7 --> public cloud

      EHP7 --> managed cloud

      EHP7 --> on-premise

      Author's profile photo Abdul Hakim
      Abdul Hakim

      hi Sai,

      Managed cloud is not part of on premise. It is privately managed. You can do ABAP extensions..Im not sure about Cloud options for EHP7. Feel free to check with SAP.

      Thanks

      Hakim

      Author's profile photo Sven Denecken
      Sven Denecken
      Blog Post Author

      All 3 options possible, depends on use case, functional scope and preferences. the good thing is there is choice.

      Author's profile photo Sven Denecken
      Sven Denecken
      Blog Post Author

      One codeline, 3 delivery editions (public cloud, managed cloud and onPremise). And yes, we use ABAP, and JAVA.

      Author's profile photo Bushair Thayyil
      Bushair Thayyil

      Hi Sven,

      We have Business Suite on ECC6 EHP7.  on DB2 BLU. Can we upgrade to S4 ?

      Bushair

      Author's profile photo Sven Denecken
      Sven Denecken
      Blog Post Author

      sure, please reach out to your account representative.

      Author's profile photo Axel POTTIER
      Axel POTTIER

      Hi Sven,

      Will S4 Cloud version have similarities with SAP ByD ?

      Regards,

      Axel.

      Author's profile photo Sven Denecken
      Sven Denecken
      Blog Post Author

      We did learn a lot from ByD (which is a viable product and doing fine).

      So similarities yes - but also some key differences. 2 different products, different traget markets.

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      Hi Sven,

      thanks for this nice and comprehensible overview!

      Patrick

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      Hi Sven,

      With Simple Finance ( SAP Accounting powered by SAP HANA) in new customer, do I need installing SAP ERP EHP7 on HANA as Back-End server?

      Thanks,

      Minh

      Author's profile photo Sven Denecken
      Sven Denecken
      Blog Post Author

      Yes, EhP7 is a pre-requisite

      Author's profile photo Shanaka Chandrasekera
      Shanaka Chandrasekera

      Dear Sven,

      Thanks for the nice article.

      Does SAP recommends any business size when choosing SAP S/4HANA public/managed cloud or hybrid solutions ?

      Thanks,

      Shanaka.

      Author's profile photo Sven Denecken
      Sven Denecken
      Blog Post Author

      Large Eneterprise or upper mid market is what we see as sweet spot, though no technical limitations.

      Author's profile photo Axel POTTIER
      Axel POTTIER

      Hi Sven,

      Thanks for the insight and comprehensive article.

      Do you know if there is any existing learning map intended for customer (users and administrators), consultants and partners?

      Regards,

      Axel.

      Author's profile photo Sven Denecken
      Sven Denecken
      Blog Post Author

      Yes, i have seen this in the works. Stay tuned.

      Author's profile photo Massimo Barberio
      Massimo Barberio

      Hi Sven,

      compared to the ERP financial modules (FI, CO) what exactly covers SFIN ?

      Thanks

      Massimo

      Author's profile photo Erich Schneider
      Erich Schneider

      Massimo,

      you may find this link useful S/4HANA Finance aka Simple Finance aka sFIN and the discussion there.

      thank you

      erich

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      Hi Sven -

      Thanks for the article - succinct and easy to understand.   Would you mind clarifying a couple of things?

      - Is the managed cloud the same thing as HEC?

      - Will smaller user counts ever be allowed for simple finance?   Right now, on HEC, its a minimum of 125 users - which makes it difficult to sell simple finance to mid-market

      Thanks for your opinion

      Chip

      Author's profile photo Sven Denecken
      Sven Denecken
      Blog Post Author

      No, managed cloud uses same IaaS than HEC, but managed by SAp only and dedicated SLA´s for innovation oush every quarter.

      Don´t know for license, you will need to check with your sales rep.

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      For new customers, we know simple finance is there on S4HANA. If I understood you correctly, we also can say MM,SD , PM are also there in S4HANA.

      1)If yes, there must have been table aggregations for these modules too .  In traditional ERP , we used to put some effort for data migration based on complexity of the object (LSMW or custom ) . How should we do effort estimation for S4HANA for data migration? .

      2)If I understood you correctly, traditional screens for these modules will work even in S4HANA . I hope we will also be able to do screen enhancements in ABAP . If this is not true,  do we have to consider effort estimation for Fiori-UI screens for these modules ?

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      Great post, utilizing SAP Managed Services with a private cloud is definitely the way to go. Check out this whitepaper if you want to see an accurate break down of the costs and benefits of adopting a private cloud environment vs. a public one: [The Business Case For Private Cloud Services | Whitepaper].

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      Hi Sven,

      Please could you help us here?

      I would like to know if we can migrate from ECC 606 to S4HANA and sFIN and then do BPC? Is it mandatory that we have to have BW HANA for BPC to work? Or can we connect to SAP Business suite or S4HANA with Simple Finance environment can be used to deploy BPC? I also want to understand how Central GL could be leveraged to get the multiple ledger and actual data consolidation of Finance data that are currently available on 7 different ERP back end systems, including SAP ECC 606.

      So, the question is (in other words) how do we get the best of Central GL, sFIN and S4HANA and ultimately BPC? What should be the sequence in which we move to S4HANA, Central GL and BPC with sFIN?

      Every Blog I read does not mention anything about Central GL; but there are some details on sLT. And whether BW HANA is a BPC pre-requisite or not.

      I would appreciate if you could throw some light onto this scenario.

      Thanks,

      Subash Krishna

      Author's profile photo Erich Schneider
      Erich Schneider

      Subash,

      not to steal Sven's thunder here 🙂 ...

      When I understand correctly you have 7 different ERP systems? If that is correct, you might want to conside Central Finance, which is sFin 2.0 in a sidecar, in your case one sidecar to all 7 systems.

      The embedded BW in sFin is pre-requisite for the Planning and Consolidation, BPC and BCS and unififed planning.

      There is the classic GL and the NewGL, the NewGL is prerequisite for sFin. The central or universal journal is part of sFin 2.0, Central Finance is the sidecar scenario for sFin 2.0

      More details are in the guides and links in here: http://scn.sap.com/docs/DOC-59882

      thank you

      erich

      Author's profile photo Ram Batulla
      Ram Batulla

      Erich,

      For the Central Finance as Sidecar Scenario, do we need ECC with EHP7?

      Regards,
      Ram

      Author's profile photo Erich Schneider
      Erich Schneider

      yes, from a technical perspective, same requirements as for S/4HANA:

      Business Suite and S/4HANA Roadmap and Release Information

      please see also more details and OSS notes in: S/4HANA Finance aka Simple Finance aka sFIN

      thank you

      erich

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      Hello Sven,

      We are going to migrate our ERP production server to S/4 HANA and install SFIN 2.0.

      Do we need to buy any additional license to use SFIN 2.0?

      I know we need to buy HANA license and ECC license.

      Please suggest.

      Author's profile photo Sven Denecken
      Sven Denecken
      Blog Post Author

      Don't know your license situation, pls connect with your AE. There is currently a promotion till end Q3...

      Author's profile photo Ram Batulla
      Ram Batulla

      Sven, What is the difference between "Suite on HANA + Simple Finance Addon" and S4HANA on premise edition (in its current state)?

      Author's profile photo Sven Denecken
      Sven Denecken
      Blog Post Author

      SoH is a different codeline than S/4 HANA, see FAQ document. Simple Finance add-on 1.0 is available since a while, and Simple Finance 2.0 is already from the new codeline (the S/4 codeline)

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      Hi Sven,

      Thanks for this blog and the comprehensive course in Open SAP. Two short questions:

      1. Is it planned a Simple Finance Course?

      2. Is there some way to get access to a sandbox environment of S/4 HANA beyond the cloud free-trial? Something like what was offered some months ago for the "BW powered by HANA" course.

      Best

      Juan C.

      Author's profile photo Sven Denecken
      Sven Denecken
      Blog Post Author

      I am not aware of a Simple Finance course.

      Sandbox environments you need to check with the account team, but should be possible.

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      Hi Sven

      Thanks for the article. What is the impact of S/4 Hana managed /public cloud on BYD?

      regards

      Ravi

      Author's profile photo Sven Denecken
      Sven Denecken
      Blog Post Author

      There will be customers for both.

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      How is SAP S/4HANA going to impact SAP SRM Business Suite Implementation scenarios such as Extended Classic Vs. Classic?    Please throw some light on this.

      Author's profile photo John Pawlikowski
      John Pawlikowski

      Hello, is it possible to integrate with S/4 HANA with a 3rd party SAP JCO based adapter like IBM's SAP Adapter that was used for ECC?

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      Hi Sven,

      I like to know will S/4 HANA will behave the same way the SAP ECC when connecting to way bridges, and automated systems.

      Regards,

      G.V.Shivakkumar