Personal Insights
SAP Activate from the Partner POV
Good morning SAP Community… Health and happiness 2021. Get After It!
In this blog post I will briefly summarize and point you to two new value blogs written directly from the SAP Partner PoV. Anyone on a SAP implementation or SAP S/4HANA Cloud project, it’s worth the read.
Check out a new blog post called, The value of a Solution Standardization Board (SSB) as part of implementing SAP S/4HANA Cloud, extended edition by Andre Malan. Andre writes about how implementing an ERP system can be stressful, and much of this stress is related to the management of new information. An example of this, is finalizing client scope or evaluating options in order to future-proof a solution. Prudent management of new information turns questions into answers and reduces stress levels by providing a level of secure knowledge, from which to lead the project team. This process of turning questions into answers is driven by the Systems Integration (SI) Project Manager (PM) and is contained within the delivery methodology and its related artefacts and accelerators.
(Image 1: Slide 22 of SAP Activate and Solution Standardization Board)
In the case of the SAP S/4HANA Cloud, extended edition, the SAP Activate Methodology makes use of a specific accelerator that was specifically introduced for this cloud solution, namely the Solution Standardization Board (SSB). This artifact helps to reduce project stress, by assisting in the management of information related to the future-proofing of the client solution, which it does, by ensuring transparency of deviations from the standard (the fifth golden rule for implementing SAP S/4HANA with a cloud mindset.)
And
a new Blog post called, Proven Practices for fit-to-standard for your SAP Activate Project by Norbert Brumbergs , SVP Delivery, Applexus Technologies
(Image 2: Level 2: Deploying SAP S/4HANA Cloud with SAP Activate.pptx)
The objective of this blog post is to introduce you to the fit-to-standard approach for use in implementation of SAP S/4HANA in the cloud or in on-premises. The concept of fit-to-standard is detailed out in the SAP Activate methodology and while we will provide a brief intro, we will not be going into a lot of detail as this topic has been previously covered by other blog posts which we will reference. Instead, we will focus on the key challenges and misconceptions we have observed in implementation projects. We will also provide recommendations on how to tackle these challenges in your own projects. These recommendations are based on hands on experience from large scale projects which use SAP Activate efficiently to drive their SAP S/4HANA implementation in their organization.
The authors of this blog post are the people listed below with a short outline of their current role and organization:
- Norbert Brumbergs – SVP Delivery, Applexus Technologies
- Jan Musil – CPO SAP Activate methodology, SAP
- Lisa Kouch – PO SAP Activate methodology for SAP S/4HANA Cloud, extended edition, SAP
This is a convenient list of key links and references we have used in the blog above, in case you wanted to save them for future reference:
- SAP Best Practices Explorer with ready-to-run business processes
- SAP Activate Roadmap Viewer
- SAP Activate – Explore Phase: Use Fit-to-Standard to confirm business process fit and identify gaps in your SAP S/4HANA Cloud Implementation
- Playbook for Remote Fit-to-standard Workshops
- Solution Standardization Board
- SAP Activate JAM (request access)
Inside SAP S/4HANA Podcast
As always, I would like to encourage you to subscribe to our new podcast “Inside SAP S/4HANA”. This podcast leverages the unique knowledge and expertise of SAP S/4HANA product experts, partners and customers to address your needs by sharing product insights and project best practice. There is no customer success without product success and project success; we help you get to the next level and make your SAP S/4HANA projects a success. Subscribe now and benefit from the shared knowledge.
openSAP microlearnings for SAP S/4HANA
Just a couple of months ago, we launched openSAP microlearnings for SAP S/4HANA as an exciting new learning opportunity. What began with a small batch of 20 videos, has now become a channel with more than 50 microlearnings that have generated over 20,000 views since then. Today we cover multiple lines of business, like Finance and Manufacturing & Supply Chain, and key technology topics like Master Data Management, Extensibility, User Experience, and Upgrade Management. We are continuously adding new microlearnings to the SAP S/4HANA channel, so make sure you check them out.
Your voice matters!
If you want to learn more and actively engage with SAP subject matter experts on SAP S/4HANA Cloud, join our SAP S/4HANA Cloud Customer Community. This platform which is available to SAP S/4HANA Cloud customers and partners has a clear mission: deliver an interactive community to engage with one another about best practices and product solutions.
For more information on SAP S/4HANA Cloud, check out the following links:
- SAP S/4HANA Cloud release info: http://www.sap.com/s4-cloudrelease
- SAP S/4HANA Cloud Release Blogs here
- SAP S/4HANA PSCC Digital Enablement Wheel here
- Inside SAP S/4HANA Podcast here
- Product videos on our SAP S/4HANA Cloud and SAP S/4HANA YouTube playlist
- Best practices for SAP S/4HANA Cloud here
- SAP S/4HANA Cloud Customer Community: register here
- SAP Activate Community here
- Feature Scope Description here
- What’s New here
- Help Portal Product Page here
- Implementation Portal here
- SAP Activate Community Tag here
Follow us via @SAP and #SAPS4HANAValueSeries , or myself Bob Byrne