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Which SAP S/4HANA version are you thinking about?

I have seen a number of people have some confusion when talking about SAP S/4HANA. There are actually 6 different versions available in the market which increases the confusion as well as working out which is the best solution for you. SAP S/4HANA is a Cloud first product, which means that core development occurs within the Cloud products (4 of the 6). The functionality is released once a quarter for the cloud products. The on premise solutions will have a major release once a year and therefore new functionality is not provided to the on premise edition quarterly.

The diagram below is widely available from SAP and covers the scope of each of the products.

S4HANA versions.jpg

What are the six product – current SAP naming (April 2016)

  1. SAP S/4HANA Finance
  2. SAP S/4HANA On premise edition 1511
  3. SAP S/4HANA Cloud Enterprise Edition Private option
  4. SAP S/4HANA Cloud Enterprise Edition
  5. SAP S/4HANA Cloud Professional Services Edition
  6. SAP S/4HANA Cloud Marketing edition

Options 1 and 2 are the on premise versions and 3, 4, 5 & 6 are the Cloud versions.

SAP S/4HANA Finance

This is the first release of SAP S/4HANA. It is SAP Suite on HANA with the Finance Simplification pack activated. This is compatible with all Industry Solutions, the core component is “SAP_APPL”. The solution has a number of SAP Fiori Apps and makes use of SAP HANA Live. A new release of the product is planned with the scope due to be announced next month.

This solution is aimed at the current SAP Business Suite customers who are after improving their Finance processes without disrupting other processes and modules. This is the most mature SAP S/4HANA solution and the most widely used in a productive state.

SAP S/4HANA On premise edition 1511

This is the most recent version of SAP S/4HANA on premise. The scope is based on SAP ECC, however a number of modules have been blacklisted as well as new functionality being added. The core component is now “S4CORE”  (Enterprise Management) and a number of specific Industry Solution add-ons will not currently work – these mainly relate to IS-Retail and IS-Oil and Gas. There is a wider scope of SAP Fiori Apps, and embedded analytics is the core tool for reporting. The Finance simplification is available, and the core Logistics modules are enhanced.

This solution is aimed at the current SAP Business suite customers who are after the next ERP system. Normally customers would be looking at business transformation and using the tool to provide a digital core.  Certain industry Solutions will not work with this version. This is far from a direct replacement of SAP ECC with many modules being replaced or blacklisted. Customers wishing to implement SAP S/4HANA will have to either perform a system conversion which may become complex or a new install. Customers looking to remove unrequired functionality, code, unwanted data would look towards a new install, whilst customers who want a new UI and want to keep all of their code and data may favour a system conversion. The product was released in November 2015. Feature support packs are released every quarter with the next major release planned to be October 2016 (SAP reserve the rights to amend the go live dates)

When comparing the two on premise products, customers should be able to understand the difference between the scope, functionality and alignment to the core SAP ECC product. Based on how their measure these drivers will determine the solution they aim to move to. It is also worth noting that if a customer moved to SAP S/4HANA Finance, they can migrate to SAP S/4HANA Enterprise Management – this is not an upgrade but a system conversion with the main difference the move of the core component from SAP_APPL to S4CORE leading to a number of data elements to be converted into the new data model within SAP S/4HANA.

Cloud versions

In order to understand the cloud versions I will work back from option 6 to option 3 to explain the differences and how the scope of the solution changes.

SAP S/4HANA Cloud Marketing Edition

Whilst this product has an SAP S/4HANA badge there is no comparison to the core SAP ECC solution. The marketing scope and the solution is the same as SAP Hybris Marketing. The product has an SAP S/4HANA badge as it can be sold with the other cloud versions. In terms of the code line and the core component it is not S4CORE as the other Cloud products are.

SAP S/4HANA Cloud Professional Service Edition.

As per the name this product is aimed at customers within the professional service industry, so legal firms, accountancy firms and consultancy firms. The solution has a scope that is targeted to the core processes performed within the industry area. A potential customer of this product will benefit from a monthly subscription with the benefit of SAP Fiori, best practice configuration and strong integration between processes. The solution is hosted by SAP. Releases are provided 4 times a year and this is a true cloud solution. The solution is a subset of the solution available SAP S/4HANA Enterprise Cloud Edition. The core component is S4CORE.

SAP S/4HANA Cloud Enterprise Edition

This is a richer solution compared to SAP S/4HANA Enterprise Cloud Professional Service Edition. The scope will cover the scope available in a light implementation of SAP ECC, including stock, standard billing (and not resource related billing). There will be quarterly releases for the product. The core component is S4CORE. As with the Professional Services edition the ability to customise the solution is limited. The target audience for this product is now much wider than the Professional Service as customer in other Industries could use this tool. However customers who need specific functionality that is currently available via on premise industry solutions will not find that functionality in this tool now or in the near future.

SAP S/4HANA Cloud Enterprise Edition Private Option

This is a product that is aimed at customers that require the full functionality available with a traditional SAP ECC solution but would like to have a hosted solution and use best practice configuration and build principles.  This a product that is currently only available via SAP hosting the solution, however it is assumed over time Partners will have access to this tool and will be able to sell this product and host it. It is worth noting that whilst the SAP S/4HANA Enterprise Cloud Edition is based on SAP ECC, the solution is seen as a light solution and cannot handle more complex processes. The Cloud Private tool is aimed at customers who require the complexity of the functionality from SAP ECC, but the subscription model to pay a monthly cost for the product. The solution is based on SAP S/4HANA Enterprise Management with best practice configuration. As with the cloud limited extension is possible which will be attractive for customers wanting to remove bespoke custom code and keep a clean environment. The solution runs on the core S4CORE component.

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      22 Comments
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      Author's profile photo Sanil Bhandari
      Sanil Bhandari

      Hi Mark Chalfen

      A very useful information. This clears lot of confusion, if i may say so around what exactly is S/4 HANA. Thanks for sharing such useful information.

      Regards

      Sanil Bhandari

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member
      Blog Post Author

      Hi Sanil

      Thank you for your kind words.

      Author's profile photo Joachim Rees
      Joachim Rees

      Yes, there are a lot of versions, thanks for providing that overview!

      Just a small addition:

      "2. SAP S/4HANA Enterprise Management on premise edition 1511"

      can (or must) be  broken down even further into:

      (currently)

      SAP S/4HANA, on-premise edition 1511

      SAP S/4HANA, on-premise edition 1511 Feature Package Stack 01

      I wrote about it here:

      Confused with S/4HANA 1511 on premise versions - SP01 vs. FPS01 ?

      best

      Joachim

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member
      Blog Post Author

      Hi Joachim

      The FPS are not new versions of S/4HANA as stated by Yannick.

      The next new version for SAP S/4HANA Enterprise Management will be 1610.The move from 1511 to 1610 will be an upgrade.

      Author's profile photo kajendran jayaraman
      kajendran jayaraman

      Hi Mark,

      Your answer is always on the point of the problem, I have read many of your thread and answers. Really it was very useful for me on FSCM side, now you are on Simple finance .  Your answers are very accurate and useful.  Thanks for your contribution. 

      Author's profile photo Joachim Rees
      Joachim Rees

      Hi Mark,

      ok, so "version" is not the correct term in this context (what is?), thanks for pointing that out!

      But I think the point that there are further differences (in regards to FPS and SPS) one should be aware of is still valid.

      best

      Joachim

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member
      Blog Post Author

      I think they are unique.

      a FPS is a grouping of fixes with minor non-disruptive changes (with the type of change being minor)

      This is to improve the maturity of the solution.

      When 1610 will be released, it will be the latest release of the Enterprise Management solution (on prem)

      This will include all of the three FPS's for 1511 as well as additional new functionality (more functionality will be released including simplification areas and industry solution content)

      To move from 1511 to 1610 will be an upgrade as you will be moving from Enhancement Pack 7 to Enhancement Pack 8

      Author's profile photo Felix Wente
      Felix Wente

      Hi Mark,

      great overview. One comment from my side (SAP S/4HANA development): In-App Key-User-Extensibility is a method to implement the most important extensibility patterns (new fields, adding business logic, configure UIs/Forms/Reports) directly in the ABAP stack. It is available in ALL editions of S/4HANA -- OnPremise and all of the cloud editions. The same applies for side-by-side extensibility running on HCP -- this can be used enhance all editions of S/4HANA as well.

      Regards,

      Felix

      Author's profile photo Thomas Schneider
      Thomas Schneider

      see also the following SCN document: The Key User Extensibility Tools of S/4 HANA

      Regards, Thomas

      .

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member
      Blog Post Author

      Hi Thomas - on the Query builder - is this coming to the On Prem edition?

      Would be good to have a simple tool to create Fiori based reports

      Author's profile photo Thomas Schneider
      Thomas Schneider

      Hi Mark,

      I am trying to provide updates about the availablility of the key user tools as early as possible in the document listed above - as you know it is always difficult to talk about future deliveries. So if you register to the document, you will be up to date.

      Best regards, Thomas

      .

      Author's profile photo Monika Patel
      Monika Patel

      Thanks for update on Cloud versions. --

      I had tried to share the various differences between the two versions - S/4HANA Finance (1503) and S/4HANA Enterprise Management.OP (1511)

      SAP S/4HANA -- Choosing the RIGHT "END Release" ---> 1503/1605 vs 1511/1610

      I am still studying the MAJOR innovations (as well as reduction of restrictions that comes with FPS1).

      SAP S/4HANA 1511 Initial Release, Feature Pack 01&02 : What's NEW & What's NOT !! Advantage S4HANA 1610

      Regards,

      MP

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member
      Blog Post Author

      Best way to find out - is to stay active in the community and work on a S/4 system if you can

      Author's profile photo Shubham Srivastava
      Shubham Srivastava

      Excellent reference document

      Author's profile photo Daniel Klein
      Daniel Klein

      Yet another SAP naming for the S4/HANA product family...the confusion is at maximum.

      However, what is the current and official name for the innovation packages sFin and sLog?

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member
      Blog Post Author

      Do you mean FPS - feature package stacks

      or the name of simple finance and simple logistics

      SAP S/4HANA Finance - and SAP S/4HANA Enterprise Management

      Author's profile photo Daniel Klein
      Daniel Klein

      Not the FPS, but the innovation packages (a.k.a. simplification packages). This is a term out of the S4/HANA white paper of Frank Wagner page 7:

      https://websmp103.sap-ag.de/~sapidp/012002523100011787552015E.pdf

      You say SAP S/4HANA Finance (contains sFin) and SAP S/4HANA Enterprise Management (contains sFin and sLog) are the new product names which refer to the whole product, but the innovation package names I mean only refer to the simplification parts.

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member
      Blog Post Author

      seems to align to a release for the Cloud solutions.

      Best for Frank to confirm - as they may have been re-branded

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      Hello Daniel,

      I´m aware that within SAP we have a tradition to invent, change and re-invent terms in a high frequency. And yes here I used a term, which is currently no longer in use. I would need to update my document. Honestly I did not find the time to re-work the document you are referencing to.

      Regarding the S/4HANA version with application simplifications in financials and logistics/supply chain: The official terms for example used in release note SAP Note 2189824 is "SAP S/4HANA, on-premise edition 1511". Currently (as of today) we have Feature pack stack 1 --> SAP S/4HANA ON-PREMISE 1511 FP stack 01

      The term "enterprise management" (the digital core) is used to describe the functionality what is included in the S4CORE component.

      Yes I understand that might be a bit confusing. I just can hope that these terms now remain stable. 

      Kind Regards,

      Frank

      Author's profile photo Daniel Klein
      Daniel Klein

      Hi Frank,

      that's funny because Mark Chalfen said in this blog that the new product name is

      2. SAP S/4HANA Enterprise Management on premise edition 1511

      @Mark: are you sure that the product name has changed since April 2016? Can you link to a document that confirms the product name change?

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member
      Blog Post Author

      Hi Daniel

      Frank has contacted me and corrected me.

      The solution is S/4HANA On Premise Edition 1511

      The application S4CORE is seen as Enterprise Management.

      I have updated the blog, thanks for pointing this out.

      Author's profile photo Waldemar Zerr
      Waldemar Zerr

      Hi together,

      do you know if this pic of 2016 of the possible SAP cloud scenarios is still valid or are the any changes includes?

      Is there an overview about possible cloud scenarios available?

      Thanks.