Skip to Content
Author's profile photo Joerg Wolf

SAP S/4HANA cookbook: Guiding you through your implementation

S4_logo.png


What is this blog about ?


In 2015, SAP launched the first version of SAP Business Suite 4 SAP HANA (SAP S/4HANA), the next generation business suite designed to help customers run simple in the digital economy.

To help customers and partners implement SAP S/4HANA, we released a structured and regularly updated guide, the SAP S/4HANA cookbook, that links to relevant information around the implementation of SAP S/4HANA.


Think of it as an entry point that guides you to all relevant information related to the implementation of SAP S/4HANA – not only the standard SAP documentation but also to SAP Best Practices, how-to guides, whitepapers and other background information.

Typical target audiences are project leads, solution architects, and similar profiles.


What content can you expect to find in the SAP S/4HANA cookbook ?


Since SAP S/4HANA is at an early stage in the software lifecycle, the cookbook will have a living content structure that will be adapted over time.

The cookbook consists of a small set of HTML pages that contain summary information and hyperlinks to more detailed documents that let you dive into the respective subject matter.

Currently, we have the following high-level content structure:

  1. What is SAP S/4HANA ?
    Scope overview, roadmap for upcoming shipments, transition options for on-premise and cloud deployment, service&education offerings, cross-topics within SAP S/4HANA (e.g. extensibility, custom code assessment, analytics, and so on).

    SAP S/4HANA Cookbook: What is SAP S/4HANA
  2. SAP S/4HANA Finance, On-Premise edition 1503: Implementation guidance
    Detailed information on the current on-premise release of SAP S/4HANA, functional and technical recommendations for implementation, and so on.

    SAP S/4HANA Cookbook: SAP S/4HANA Finance, On-Premise Edition 1503

  3. SAP S/4HANA: Know your implementation options in detail
    Converting a complete SAP Business Suite system to SAP S/HANA, transforming an existing system landscape (e.g. re-implementation of existing SAP systems or parts of them), implementing a new SAP S/4HANA system, and so on.

    Not available yet:
    Planned for later in 2016 (see ‘What is SAP S/4HANA > Transition Options’ for currently available overview)

S4_cookbook_glimpse.png

SAP S/4HANA cookbook: First glimpse


Since every implementation project is different, you might not find the exactly measured ingredients for your specific SAP S/4HANA implementation in those contents, but you hopefully will get a good understanding what you need to watch out for when preparing your personal SAP S/4HANA menu.

As said above, the journey has just started, and the itinerary will contain iterative content updates. Therefore, please regularly check back for new content.



Where and when was the cookbook published ?

The first version of the cookbook was released end of July 2015. Since then, we had continuous updates and will further enhance it towards the launch of the next release of SAP S/4HANA in Q4/2015.


The cookbook is part of the SAP S/4HANA community (see above for the links to the respective entry pages of the cookbook). In this community, you can also raise your questions about SAP S/4HANA.

If you have comments about the cookbook itself, please use the commenting function of this blog.

Best and stay tuned,

Joerg

Assigned Tags

      21 Comments
      You must be Logged on to comment or reply to a post.
      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      Great Joerg. Thanks for the information.

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      Dear Joeg,

      Can we also add, SAP Simple Finance for CLOUD (2.0) as it seems to be in GA starting 13.07.2015, Am I correct ?

      Regards,

      Pardeep

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      Hello Pradeep,

      let me jump in for Jörg.

      In the upcoming S/4HANA Cookbook we would like to focus on the SAP S/4HANA On-Premise Edition and the SAP S/4HANA Cloud Edition.


      For example  Yannicks blog: SAP S/4HANA, cloud edition 1506: what is the scope?

      does contain information about the SAP S/4HANA cloud edition 1506 with the three offerings:

      • SAP S/4HANA, cloud marketing edition
      • SAP S/4HANA, cloud project services edition
      • SAP S/4HANA, cloud enterprise edition

      These offerings contain are simple finance application functionalities. If you are interested in the financial details you can address this for example via Yannicks blog.


      I´m not sure if your question goes in the the direction to operate a SAP Simple Finance, on-premise edition in the SAP HANA Enterprise Cloud (HEC). For more details about this offering possibly the SAP SImple Finance SCN is the right place.

      SAP S/4HANA Finance


      However these kind of offerings will not be covered in the SAP S/4HANA Cookbook. Like mentioned here we are focusing on the SAP S/4HANA on-premise and cloud edition.

      Kind Regards,

      Frank

      Author's profile photo Martin English
      Martin English

      Is there a link to the cookbook itself, or will we have to the SAP S/4HANA community for blogs with "SAP S/4HANA cookbook" in the title ? I prefer the former, because otherwise there will be a lot of out of date content and potentially misleading content.

      thx

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      Hello Martin,

      there is an upcoming re-structuring of SAP SCN in Q3 so let see what comes out her, but let me state some general ideas about the SAP S/4HANA cookbook.

      • we want o have a prominent "starting Page" similar what we have/had for the SoH Cookbook (SAP Business Suite powered by SAP HANA Cookbook). From this starting page you will be forwarded to the place where the SAP S/4HANA cookbook
      • The SAP S/4HANA cookbook will be let say "a separate area" within the S/4HANA SCN. A very obvious reason for that is purely the fact that we need to be able to control the information which are distributed under the title "SAP S/4HANA cookbook". Even if we want a more collaborative approach compared to the SoH Cookbook we need to ensure that the information distributed in this space are precise.
      • One of the tasks related to the SAP S/4HANA cookbook is exactly what you are saying that the information are correct. For example with the ongoing developments and the upcoming releases of SAP S/4HANA the start releases and constellations need to be updated. In my blog The road to SAP S/4HANA: the different transition paths I did not mentioned SAP Business Suite start releases based on Enhancement Package 8 because EHP 8 is not available yet. Once EHP 8 is available we need to update this document (this blog / this information will be somehow part of the S/4 cookbook) - by the way: of course it is planned to support the move of a SAP Business Suite System based on EHP 8 to S/4HANA, on-premise edition.  


      Hope that answer your question.

      Kind Regards,

      Frank

      Author's profile photo Joerg Wolf
      Joerg Wolf
      Blog Post Author

      Hi Martin,

      the screenshot above actually shows the start page of the cookbook (it's still a draft and might change a bit).

      It's a regular SCN document i.e. you will be able to reach the cookbook start page via a URL like scn.sap.com/docs/DOC-XXXXX. Further 'stable' and hopefully always up-to-date URLs will go out from this page to other sub-pages and assets (blogs, documents, white papers, ...) so you don't need to search the whole community.

      As Frank said, there are some upcoming changes to the SCN infrastructure so we might need to adapt some of the page structures in the future.

      And finally, as said in my blog above, the contents of the cookbook will follow an iterative approach - so please don't expect that we cover 'everything you ever wanted to know about S/4HANA' in the very first versions 😉 .

      Best,

      Joerg

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      Thanks for the clarification. 🙂

      Author's profile photo Lawrence Liang
      Lawrence Liang

      Looking forward to this cookbook. Thank you.

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      Echo! Thanks for the post in advance

      Author's profile photo Axel POTTIER
      Axel POTTIER

      Is there a cookbook or a configuration guide for S/4 Hana Cloud edition? the prupose would be to feel what the configuration options and possibilities are.

      Many thanks on advance,

      Regards,

      Axel.

      Author's profile photo Joerg Wolf
      Joerg Wolf
      Blog Post Author

      Hi Axel,

      this feature description (SAP S/4HANA, cloud edition – SAP Help Portal Page) covers scope and configuration possibilities to a certain extent.

      Customer specific configuration in the cloud is done via Guided Configuration (early summary e.g. here).

      Hope this helps a bit.

      Side note: On-premise implementations have of course much more freedom for configuration.

      Best,

      Joerg

      Author's profile photo Axel POTTIER
      Axel POTTIER

      Thank you very much Joerg,

      I have checked but would expect deeper content on the standard options of S/4 Hana Cloud (material supply requirements calculation, approvals for procure-to-pay for instance).

      Do you have any idea why there are so many more options for configuration in the on-premise version, provided the options are standard?

      Regards,

      Axel.

      Author's profile photo Joerg Wolf
      Joerg Wolf
      Blog Post Author

      Hi Axel,

      I'm no SRM / logistics expert, but in the upcoming 1511 release of S/4HANA, there are some features that go in the direction you ask (see SAP S/4HANA Cookbook: What is SAP S/4HANA > Functional Capabilities > Simple Logistics).

      Wrt, configuration flexibility on-premise & cloud, see e.g. the S/4HANA FAQs (e.g.#9).

      Best,

      Joerg

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      Hello Joerg

      Can you provide us with a date of when the SAP S/4HANA: Know your implementation options in detail will be added to the cookbook in Q4 of 2015.

      I would also like to check if the cookbook is going to make use of the SAP Activate methodology and incorporate this into it for ease of use?

      Many thanks

      Rogan

      Author's profile photo Joerg Wolf
      Joerg Wolf
      Blog Post Author

      Hi Rogan,

      can't tell you an exact date in Q4 for the 'implementations options in detail' yet, sorry. 

      And yes, we plan to align the cookbook and SAP Activate (www.sap.com/activate).

      Best,

      Joerg

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      Hi Joerg,

      Could you please let us know about SAP SIMPLE LOGISTICS(SLOG).

      when will be the release and material availability on this?

      Also can you brief up how can normal SAP functional consultants can grow up with this new release on career point of view.

      Regards,

      Shreenidhi Math

      Author's profile photo Joerg Wolf
      Joerg Wolf
      Blog Post Author

      Hi Shreenidhi,

      the initial wave of 'sLOG functionality'  was delivered with SAP S/4HANA 1511 in November 2015. sLOG was a project name which has been replaced by 'Materials Management & Operations' by now (see e.g. here or in other blogs in the S/4HANA space in SCN)

      For consultants, there are also some mentions in the S/4HANA space e.g. here.

      Best,

      Joerg

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      HI Joerg,

      Thanks for quick reply.

      I am SAP SD consultant could you please suggest me how can i upgrade my skill with S/4 HANA, through any open course or certification etc.

      What exactly we need to learn to get into this path.

      Regards,

      Shreenidhi Math

      Author's profile photo Ronald Vincent Navarro
      Ronald Vincent Navarro

      Very informative post. Thanks Joerg!

      Author's profile photo Juan Janse
      Juan Janse

      Hi Joerg

      Thanks for the info, question from my side is

      • Could you please point me in the right direction for information regarding the SAP Activate related to the client copy. As i understand the client 000 is used as the basis for the copy for the Activate client.
        • There is a table that must be maintained so that certain SAP client 000 customizing is not copied to the activate client copy.
      • I have see that there is also a mixed client copy option where the activate client can be copied together with the activate content.

      I have been unable locate any documentation to support this.

       

      please help

      Regards

      Juan

       

      Author's profile photo Joerg Wolf
      Joerg Wolf
      Blog Post Author

      Hi Juan,

      please see the admin guide of S/4HANA 1610 (on-premise):

      http://service.sap.com/~sapidp/012002523100012419282015E/

      Best,

      Joerg