The first option is called New Implementation. This is where you start from scratch and decide on the level of functionality that you want to implement in your organization. There are up to three different levels-SAP Best Practice, SAP Activate or a Customized Project for example. You will also have the opportunity to activate various S/4HANA modules and applications as well as preconfigured business processes based on Best Practices from SAP. I will go into more detail about this methodology at a later stage of this blog series.

New Implementation

<ol><li>Improvements to the user experience</li><li>Simplified data model</li><li>Integration of data from multiple sources</li><li>Ability to create custom apps</li><li>Increased business agility</li><li>Improved data security</li><li>Reduced hardware costs</li></ol>

Key Advantages of S/4HANA

<ul><li>Start by creating a high-level plan</li><li>Understand your current landscape</li><li>Identify different ways of moving to S/4HANA</li><li>Conduct a feasibility analysis</li><li>Are all the solutions and solutions available on ECC also available on S/4HANA?</li><li>Identify the advantages of moving to S/4HANA</li></ul>

How to get started

<ol><li>What is your current SAP system landscape?</li><li>How many systems do you have?</li><li>How many users do you have?</li><li>Which version of SAP are you currently running?</li><li>Do you have any custom developments in place?</li></ol>

Answer key Questions

<ol><li>What are your key user applications?</li><li>Which parts of your application landscape will be affected by this migration and what will be the impact on business processes in these areas?</li><li>Are there any processes that use non-SAP systems or data sources (e.g., Unix jobs, mainframe files)?</li><li>What are your current resources for supporting the existing systems and how will this change after migration to S/4HANA?</li><li>Are there any upcoming projects that would need to be integrated with the new system (e.g., CRM, BI)?</li></ol>

Identify Potential Challenges & Risks

<ol><li>Reviewing business process flows;</li><li>Identifying pain points;</li><li>Understanding critical success factors;</li><li>Determining key process improvement opportunities;</li><li>Collecting requirements for future capabilities needed;</li><li>Discussing required changes or extensions to standard functionality based on regulatory or other requirements</li></ol>

Focus on Design Thinking Workshops

There are two options: New implementation and System Conversion which are opted by the industries worldwide. While there is also a Bluefield Approach which involves Selective Data Transition. I would like to focus more on the below 2 approaches in this articles

Know different ways of Moving to S/4HANA

<ol><li>First, learn about S/4HANA capabilities.</li><li>Next, identify what aspects of your current system won't work well and need improvement.</li><li>Then, decide which business processes are most important to transition first (i.e., what systems do you need up and running immediately after the move?).</li><li>As part of this third stage, you should also conduct compatibility checks on all your existing solutions to make sure they will still run smoothly when integrated with S/4HANA Cloud and other new tools you want to add to the mix during the transition phase</li></ol>

Conduct Feasibility Analysis

<ol><li>System Discovery : Locate all instances of your SAP landscape and connect them with KTern.AI's Digital Maps</li><li>Process Analysis : Identify high-risk areas where changes will need to be made - such as the finance or supply chain modules - by analyzing your current business processes.</li><li>Functional Mapping : Test how your existing solutions integrate with S/4HANA, and identify gaps so you know which ones to replace.</li></ol>

Steps in Feasibility Study

In order to address challenges in knowing your business impacts and the stakeholders involved, <a href="https://ktern.com/">KTern.AI </a>helps with its <a href="https://ktern.com/digital-maps/business-process-mining">process mining </a>that helps with providing detailed insights of your current landscape.

Process Discovery tools like KTern.AI

Every Business needs to update its technology and adapt to the changing needs and market conditions along with it are the challenges in moving to the new SAP S/4HANA Product Suite. The Idea focuses on how SAP ECC Systems can be transformed and the key steps involved during the transformation.

Introduction

The second option is called System Conversion and involves converting an existing ECC system to S/4HANA (on premise or cloud). You can choose between In-Place conversion or Landscape Transformation which I will explain in further detail later in this blog series.

System Conversion

<ol><li>Transitioning to S/4HANA requires a lot of planning and testing</li><li>The timeline depends on the size of the company and the industry</li><li>Planning should be done in stages</li><li>You need to check for compatibility of your existing solutions with S/4HANA</li></ol>

Recommended Timeline

Every Business needs to update its technology and adapt to the changing needs and market conditions along with it are the challenges in moving to the new SAP S/4HANA Product Suite. The article focuses on how SAP ECC Systems can be transformed and the key steps involved during the transformation. Source Article : https://ktern.com/article/how-sap-ecc-systems-can-be-migrated-to-s-4hana-and-challenges-faced-by-a-cio-during-a-digital-transformation/

Every Business needs to update their technology and adapt to the changing needs and market conditions with it are the key steps in moving to the new SAP S/4HANA Product Suite.