SAP S/4HANA Cloud: Pre read before starting S/4HANA Cloud Essentials Project

“Experience is what you get when you didn’t get what you wanted” holds true for my Journey. Since while searching solution for one topic, I will generally land into another topic and then undiscover that as well.

For me this blog would be evolving blog as my Journey has just started and I am sure there is lot more to explore and unfold yet. Let me share some key aspects of my Overall Journey so far and how you should plan your Journey to avoid any surprises:

• Well SAP keeps improving the Product with every Quarterly release so what’s my issue with current release might get solved with the upcoming release. So, we need to always check SAP Roadmap. With every Quarterly Release, you should check the changes and improvements introduced by SAP.
• SAP is also helping Partners and Customers in their SAP S/4HANA Cloud Implementation Journey where we have dedicated SAP S/4HANA Cloud Community . You can also post your cloud related Queries in this community and experts would answer the same.
• Do learning hub courses on SAP Activate and Extensibility(S4C80) to start with ; get yourself certified since for Cloud Implementation project you need to have SAP Cloud certified consultants as well.
• Get yourself familiar with all SAP tools and Portals that are available and their purpose – SAP Roadmap Viewer , SAP Best Practices Explorer, SAP Extensibility Explorer , SAP Learning Hub, SAP Fiori Library, RASD Tool .
• Understand the Cloud Landscape and Transport Management.

Once you are familiar with tools and overall architecture, then you are good to start with exploring solutions on Cloud:

1. Scope: Clearly define the scope before starting the Realize phase since any change in requirement can impact your solution design. You should have the Guidelines on In-app vs Side by Side Extensibility and for every requirement clearly state its category. Example if any change in Form Layout is required and if you assume that adding fields can be done by In-app then your efforts will go for toss. Since if fields are not available in Data Source and you cannot extend it; it will fall into Side by Side Extensibility.
2. Enabling Team: You need to have the right mix of the team for Cloud Implementation and the team should be enabled before you start the Explore Phase.
3. Localization: S/4HANA Cloud Essentials is not available for all Countries yet , you should validate if the Countries in Scope are supported by Cloud /Not. In case Country is not supported then check the Roadmap viewer if it is planned for the release in upcoming quarters and plan it accordingly.
4. Maintain Exchange Rates automatically: Automatic upload of Exchange rates is not available on Cloud although you have Fiori app available to upload rates manually. So in case of automatic rates upload you need to use MRM Service available in SCP.
5. SCP License and Services :Based on your fit-gap analysis you would have understood the scope of Side by Side Extensibility ; so as first step you should initiate SCP license based on services that you would be using for your developments. Deciding right services based on the development scope is important. During Explore phase try to explore on Business Application Studio(BAS) since most of us have used WebIDE so far. So if you are starting implementation journey now; definitely you should use BAS over WebIDE.
6. Middleware: In case Customer is already using any third party Middleware than you need to weigh its usage for Cloud against SAP recommended CPI.
7. Error Handling: Decide on your Error handling strategy for interfaces.
8. Upgrade Impact: On Cloud as we have Upgrade every Quarter , we need to run RASD tool since Upgrade can impact our developments. Example: In case you have used any field in Custom CDS view – the field changed/deprecated will impact your Custom CDS view.
9. Impact on Catalogs: With quarterly upgrades on Cloud; there can be impact on Business Catalogs. Same can be identified using Fiori app “Display Business Role Changes after Upgrade” ( In Q system). For more details refer OSS Note 2902340.
10. API Hub: Both Technical and Functional consultants should be aware of on how to find APIs and how to test the APIs to validate if the requirement can be met by the whitelisted APIs. Currently we don’t have feature in API Hub to find API based on fields which makes finding APIs slightly difficult for Consultants if they need to validate API for specific field.
11. Reporting Fiori Apps: Validate if you can make use of  Reporting tools in Cloud for any reporting requirements.
12. Banking Integration: Check with SAP if MBC (Multi Bank Connectivity) is supported for all your Banking Integrations. MBC Integration is taken care by SAP for the customers.
13. Changed Logs: Currently we don’t have released CDS Views for Changed pointers on Cloud; so you can use Business Events/Enterprise messaging  to monitor changed data/trigger any functionality on changed event.
14. Sprint Planning: Plan your sprints judiciously; and in case of complex requirements ensure to split the same and plan sub developments in every sprint rather than waiting for complete development to finish and then plan for sprint.
15. Data Migration: Don’t underestimate Data Migration and ensure that you test all the required objects during Realize Phase. And after every Quarterly Upgrade, you should validate your data.

Summary:  In this blog I have listed what all you need to consider while starting your Cloud Implementation Journey. I will keep updating this blogpost in coming days based on my learnings as it’s just the beginning – still miles to go !  Please do share your learnings and experience as well.

For understanding Cloud Landscape please refer my blog  SAP S/4HANA Cloud: Landscape Set Up and Transport Management – Part 1

Regards,

Taranam