SAP S/4HANA Discovery – Transition Paths and Best Practices Webcast Recap

These are my notes from this webcast, meet the expert session today

Source: SAP

Moving to S/4HANA offers different transition paths

Source: SAP

Learning objectives are above

Source: SAP

Tutorial to be available later in 2018

Source: SAP

Machine learning, IoT

Source: SAP

Finance has 30 tables in ECC

S4 has less than 6 tables

Which train take to S/4HANA? Cloud or on-premise

Source: SAP

For each area, there is information available in the SAP Learning Hub

Source: SAP

3 ways to transition

Existing ERP to S/4HANA on premise is system conversion

New implementation – option transition to S/4HANA Cloud or on-premise; load master data, relevant data and migrate to new system

Landscape transformation – special version of new implementation – implement new system, load and migrate data from more than one SAP system or non-SAP system.

Source: SAP

Covered in webcast earlier this week

How much want to re-engineer processes

What does landscape look like

Depending on how answer the 6 questions, tool would give you suggestion for new implementation or conversion.  It is not an exact science, depends on conversion/complexity

Source: SAP

Benefit  – no reimplementation, straightforward, changes in process and business model can be done later

If it is an old version, less than ECC 6, then you have additional efforts for system conversion

Right side see different tools – options available depending on business need; near zero down time approach needed if downtime less than 6 hours – but more effort

Source: SAP

ECC 6.0 EHPx can go direct to 1709 as shown above; one step to S/4HANA

Source: SAP

Upgrade/update options are shown above

Source: SAP

New implementation/greenfield approach

Load master data from legacy

“Back to standard project” to standardize processes, remove custom build applications/coding

Source: SAP

Accelerate new implementation with model company, pre-configured appliance, already installed, sample data, get started fast with adopting standard configuration

Templates are available for different industries

Source: SAP

Use best practices explorer to standardize SAP best practice content

Option 2 is model company; likely the fastest way to do a new implementation

Reduce cost & effort by 50-70% with model company per the slide

Source: SAP

Rules of thumb; consider cloud offerings

Consider SF, Concur, Ariba, Hybris, S/4

Quick wins are Concur…etc

Greenfield implementations – if use cFIN approach (phased go-live) only Finance goes to S/4HANA, then you have to start Central Finance project first

For conversion, a technical project needs to be separated from the business

Source: SAP

Activate is mandatory for the S/4HANA Cloud; recommended for on-premise

Phases, accelerators, deliverables for each phase

Best practices explorer has scripts for adapting system to business requirements

Source: SAP

Compare best practices with business requirements and adjust as necessary

Source: SAP

Take the results from last webcast, copy and paste product transitions to transformation navigator

Source: SAP

More samples from the transformation navigator

Source: SAP

Sample of how to plan conversion, 6 cycles of test runs; a best practice approach – some may want to do more or less cycles

Source: SAP

Excel sheet for conversion plan; available in best practices

Source: SAP

Different aspects for each customer, look at priorities, make decision

Source: SAP

Final step, output, on the journey

Source: SAP

Resources were listed on Tuesday’s webcast too

https://support.sap.com/esacademy and enter the search tag “SAP S/4HANA Discovery” (source: SAP)

Conversion Guide for SAP S/4HANA: https://help.sap.com/viewer/p/SAP_S4HANA_ON-PREMISE > Product Documentation > Conversion Guide

Understand the available transition options: Go to blogs.sap.com and search for: https://blogs.sap.com/2017/07/06/how-to-find-my-path-to-sap-s4hana-understand-the-available-transition-options/

Q&A:

Q: How is archived data impacted after the system conversion?

A: Already archived data should be available after the conversion.

Updates from SAP:

MTE (Meet-The-Expert) live sessions open for registration

SAP S/4HANA The Essentials Thus, Sep 20, 10:00 AM Eastern Time/New York

MTE (Meet-The-Expert) existing recorded sessions

SAP S/4HANA Discovery – Greenfield vs. Conversion Overview  delivered on Aug 21^st

SAP S/4HANA Discovery – Transition Paths and Best Practices   delivered on Aug 23^rd

SAP S/4HANA Discovery – Landscape Scoping  delivered on Aug 31^st

SAP S/4HANA Project and Ongoing Effort   delivered on Aug 28^th

SAP Readiness Check for SAP S/4HANA  delivered on July 24^th

Build Your Product Roadmap – SAP Transformation Navigator delivered on Aug 8^th
Build high-level benefits case with SAP Quick Value Assessment  delivered on Aug 9^th

#1  Please note that for customers, to access the SAP Learning Hub, edition for SAP Enterprise Support, a one-time registration is required. A detailed step-by step guidance can be found here. The MTE links above will not work if the customer has not registered.

#5 Please note that only Enterprise Support customers are eligible to listen MTE recorded sessions

Source: SAP