Hi all,
SAP just launched SAP S/4HANA Cloud 1608 last week. You will find more details about this update in this blog. Alternatively you can check this highlight post as well.
Just to name a few innovations shipped with the 1608 update: the new delivery app coming with the aATP (advanced Availability to Promise) or the Customer Journey Manager, and more...
If you are interested about the pre-configured content and guided configuration for the 1608 to run the cloud products, check this blog post.
In my post I will focus on the “Extended 4 Quarter Roadmap in the Cloud” mentioned in the release blog. With those key changes, SAP is now able to bring more transparency on its R&D plans for SAP S/4HANA Cloud.
What is new with this updated road map communication for cloud? Let me recap in 3 points.
1. 4-quarter information
For the first time in its history, SAP is sharing detailed information about its cloud software over 4 quarters: the current release, and the following 3 planned releases.
This transparency gives an unprecedented benefit for customers adopting SAP’s cloud ERP, supporting a phased and modular consumption of the software if the customer desires to go this way.
2. Communication around product name
Adding to the 4 quarter horizon, SAP is going away from the classical road map categories “Recent innovations”, “Planned innovations” and “Future direction”. The new categories are the exact names of the software updates, following the naming convention of a quarterly shipment strategy: “1608” for SAP S/4HANA Cloud delivered August 2016, “1611” for the update planned in November 2016, etc…
This brings a clear and precise information about what functionality is coming with what update which quarter. Customers will be able to leverage those product details to better plan their project.
3. Business relevant description of the innovation
Each innovation on this new roadmap speaks the language of the business and the end-users. Customers and partners will be able to understand the advantage and the benefit of an innovation when consulting the new roadmap.
Let me pick just the example below “Enhanced alerting when sales orders are not on track” mentioned for “1705”. The description of this innovation gives the business context, as well as its business relevance for the company, and tells “how” it reaches to the end-user.
In a nutshell…
With this roadmap information, customers will be able to explore the planned innovations for SAP S/4HANA Cloud with an unprecedented transparency and clarity on the road ahead. The plan can of course be changed by SAP at any time.
Here a visual overview of those changes showing the former and the new view of the road map for a line of business:
What are the key resources to start or continue your journey in the cloud?
Check the new roadmap by yourself and get familiar with the new format and the innovations available or planned for each line of business. It has been updated on May 29 together with the 1608 cloud product update.
The complementary asset to the roadmap, giving more details about the current release, is the Feature Scope Description (FSD) document. You’ll find the FSD for 1608 here.
Beside this, you can find all relevant release information on the newly launched landing page for SAP S/4HANA Cloud on www.sap.com/s4-releaseinfo.
As always, we welcome your feedback and comments on those roadmap changes.
I will give you an update for on premise around the shipment of SAP S/4HANA 1610.
Follow us via @SAP and #S4HANA.
Follow me via @ypeterschmitt
- SAP Managed Tags:
