How to move to S/4 HANA What are the different ways to adopt S/4 HANA?

“Technology has become a new currency of today’s world”

Many entities still have old legacy systems and heterogeneous landscapes and want to reap the benefits of new offerings from technology. To adopt new technology a radical change in thinking and Strategy is required. This not only entails thought process from ascending seniority levels but from all layers of the organisation, thereby making adoption and adaptation smoother. Technology should become part of organisations vision statement.

To adhere to demands of digital economy it is right time to adopt to S/4 HANA. There are different ways to move to S/4 HANA and the decision on “How to move to S/4 HANA” is very crucial and determines the transformation journey. The answer to this question is largely based on current system landscape, Current system versions, risk appetite and willingness to change.

        Pic: Ways to go to S/4 HANA

To resolve the dilemma of how to move to S/4 HANA, I tried to classify the current situations in different cases and I am sure most of the organisations fit in one of the below four cases

Case-I: We have more than one system and the financial data is scattered across different systems. How to move to S/4 HANA?

Answer: Use Central Finance methodology of consolidation of systems.

Central finance is a non-disruptive way of reaping the benefits of HANA. It is also a phased approach of decommissioning your systems which are on old version.

Case-II: We are on Classic GL and want document splitting immediately on S/4 HANA. How to move to S/4 HANA?

Answer: You have to plan for green-field (Re-implementation) methodology as in-place upgrade (Conversion) does not facilitate upfront document splitting. However, subsequent activation of document splitting is possible from 1709 release and this can only be done in new fiscal year. Subsequent activation of document splitting is a separate project in itself.

Case-III: We are on ECC 6 and happy with most of the business processes and don’t want document splitting to be activated immediately. How to move to S/4 HANA?

Case-III A: We are on New GL with document splitting. How to move to S/4 HANA?

Answer: You can go for In-place upgrade (Conversion).  System readiness is very important for in place upgrade and SAP has provided a list of checks which ratifies readiness of your system. Once your system is ready you can plan your conversion. This is one of the easiest methods of moving to S/4 HANA with limited testing and limited disruption.

Points to consider:

• Conversion can be done at any time of the fiscal year and New GL is activated automatically.
• Archiving of very old documents is recommended.
• Selective migration of data is not possible and require SAP SLO services for selective migration.

Steps in Conversion:

• System Checks in Source system (ECC) including new asset accounting checks-Up-time activity
• Business Partner Conversion (ECC)- Up-time activity
• Extract recon reports for comparison of data (eg: Trial Balance report)- Up-time activity
• Installation including SUM import export .During import and export , the data including configuration is moved to HANA, however the data still resides in old tables like BSEG,etc and ACDOCA is still empty- Downtime Activity
• Performing conversion activities in SPRO sequence. New GL is automatically activated during the GL conversion activity. Configure and perform “Migrate to New asset accounting” activities- Some are Up-time and some are down time activities.
• Start the Data Migration Monitor in the sequence provided by SAP. During this ACDOCA is filled and planned depreciation is performed. During this activity if you receive any error you have an option to accept the error and go-ahead with migration- Downtime Activity
• Set the Migration as Complete. This is very important as it enables financial postings.
• Perform reconciliations of ECC and HANA balances.

Note:  Most of errors caused during migration are to be corrected in Source system (ECC) and migration activities are to be redone.

Case-IV: We are on very old version of SAP (eg: 4.6 ) and we are heavily customised and want to change business processes of how we  operate today. How to move to S/4 HANA?

Answer: Green field is the suggested way of moving to HANA.

Request your feedback and suggestions.