Product Information
SAP Activate Methodology for Transition to SAP S/4HANA – New Version
The SAP Activate methodology is SAP’s recommended implementation methodology when implementing SAP S/4HANA. Customers get detailed descriptions of all relevant project activities. The descriptions are bundled and structured in “road maps” – The Roadmap Viewer is a tool used by project team members to navigate the phases, deliverables, tasks and accelerators of a certain road map.
The “Transition to SAP S/4HANA” road map is updated quarterly to cover the newest information on SAP S/4HANA itself, the recommended implementation tools, services and project accelerators. A new version of this road map is now available, and I would like to make you familiar with the most important changes we made (however, for those of you, who are new to the road map concept, I strongly recommend to read the Road Map Summary first before continuing).
Here are the most important changes:
1. New functional design process
The functional design processes of SAP cloud and on-premise implementations are described in SAP Activate as you know. In the past, on-premise implementations preferred a “Fit-Gap” approach.
This has been changed to a “Fit-to-Standard Analysis / Design” approach to better align with the implementation methodology for cloud products, and to focus more on staying as close as possible to the SAP standard. The picture below lists the new sequence of steps.
New functional design process for on-premise
Accordingly, all activities and tasks related to “Fit-Gap” have been removed from the road map, and the new sequence of activities:
- Fit-to-Standard Workshop Preparation
- Fit-to-Standard System Preparation
- Fit-to-Standard Workshop Execution & Documentation
- Fit-to-Standard Workshop Validation
- Design Workshops
- Design Documentation
- Review & Customer Sign-off
has been documented in detail. In addition, and to make it more easy for you to follow the “Fit-to-Standard” approach in your implementation project, a new accelerator “How to Approach Fit-to-Standard Analysis / Design – On Premise” has been created.
2. New road map overview picture
The new functional design process is displayed in the updated road map overview picture (box “Fit-to-Standard Analysis / Design”).
Transition to SAP S/4HANA – Version 20Q3
The overview picture is part of the updated project file template file you can download from the entry page of the road map, and use it for structuring your project.
3. Many new / updated accelerators
Many accelerators, tools and information sources linked from the road map have been updated, or newly added. Some important examples are:
In the Discover phase:
- Added the SAP S/4HANA community as a new starting point for you on convenient information access around SAP S/4HANA on premise
- Added the Road Map Explorer tool to conveniently browse current and planned innovations for SAP S/4HANA
- Added the Webinar Series of the SAP S/4HANA Movement which explain the road map concept to you
- Added the great webinar of the “Road Map Game”, for you to become familiar working with road maps
- Added a new entry-level SAP White Paper – The Journey to the Intelligent Enterprise to put your transition to SAP S/4HANA into a broader context
- For convenient access we updated the link to the “Fully-Activated appliance” for SAP S/4HANA in the SAP Cloud Appliance Library, which has been updated to Feature Pack Stack 01 of release 1909
In the Prepare phase:
- Added a new SAP White Paper – Custom Extensions in SAP S/4HANA Implementations
- Added a search help for conveniently getting knowledge assets from the Regional Implementation Group RIG on SAP S/4HANA; Many direct links to blog posts from the RIG team are of course include in the road map.
- Added a central landing page for SAP sizing information – This is a great compilation of best practices, product specific guidelines and the Quick Sizer tool of course.
4. New SAP S/4HANA Cookbook included in the road map
There is a new SAP S/4HANA Cookbook – Employee Business Partner Integration available for you. The cookbook deep-dives into the employee-to-business partner synchronization, and is linked from the road map in activity “Transition Preparation”.
5. New / updated offerings from SAP Value Assurance
All service information of SAP Value Assurance linked from the road map has been updated. Two service offerings are newly added:
- For the activity “Transition Planning”: For customers running for a selective data transition (shell conversion or mix & match), SAP now offers a “Selective Data Transition Planning Workshop” (SPW) which clarifies on functional and technical planning aspects of such a transition
- The activity “Integration Design” is now supported by an “Integration Planning Workshop” to detail the integration between SAP S/4HANA and the solution landscape.
So for all of you who are about to start an implementation project for SAP S/4HANA on premise, I recommend checking out the entire new “Transition to SAP S/4HANA” road map. All of you who are already working with one of the older road map versions I recommend to check the new highlights I listed above.
I would love to hear your feedback on the new version and the new content, if it is helpful for your project work. Also I invite you to post your ideas here on what we should include in one of your next updates.
Good information thanks
Hello Christoph,
a great presentation. A very good summary of SAP Activate!
Many of our customers are in a scoping phase to find out wich transition scenario would be the best: new implementation, system conversion or landscape transformation.
Is there an accelerator with criteria to guide us through the decision making?
With kind regards
Klaus
Hello Klaus,
thank you for your comment!
We currently don't have an accelerator for scenario decision, but I will take your question as a motivation to add one.
We have material as part of our transition services to support the decision making process. I did a summary presentation on our methodology at SAPPhire 2019 - In case you are interested, please send me an email, and I will send you the deck I used. Alternatively you may wait for the next content update which will come in November.
Best regards
Christoph
Good information...not sure how many are implementing this...still most of the consultants are stuck with ASAP
Hi Kalyan,
I totally agree with you!
Yes, it always disappoints me with observations that the old influence or a foreign methodological (partner specific - not SAP alingned) approach is chosen for the S / 4 transformation projects.
I have just come from such a customer - where the implementation process model comes from the 1990s.
After the successor to ASAP has existed for more than 5 years, it should be clear that there are further contents, newer IT processes (to support "project logistics"), improved project best practice, ....
SAP Activate as a complete package, can make it easier, less risky and cheaper. Any other methodology collection (there is a lot of buzzwords) can only bring less SAP content and integration into the SAP software. This is the advantage from the SAP side.
BR Thomas