A Quick Guide to SAP S/4HANA Transition Approaches

SAP’s migration to S/4HANA is a strategic priority. To that aim, SAP has already made major investments in tools and content and will continue to do so to make the transition as seamless as possible. SAP and its partners can help you make the transition. Alternatively, as a client, you can perform much of the analysis on your own using SAP’s free products.

There are three technical paths to SAP S/4HANA from ERP ECC 6.0:

1. System Conversion: A “system conversion” is the route chosen by half of our customers. S/4HANA is being used to replace an old ERP system. You can deploy on-premises, in the SAP S/4HANA Cloud, in your own data center, or with a hyperscaler to the cloud
2. New implementation: You can opt to deploy on-premise or in the cloud if you wish to start over and undertake a “new implementation.”
3. Selective Data Transition: To selectively transfer configuration and data from your existing ERP system(s) to a new SAP S/4HANA instance, you can use cbs ET Enterprise Transformer tools and services. Multiple ERP solutions can be combined

Defining your company goals

The technological path you choose is determined by your company goals. A new installation may be necessary if you wish to optimize innovation, alter business processes, and integrate cloud technologies like Ariba. On the other hand, you might choose to use a System Conversion to minimize change at first. Following that, you may want to roll out innovation in stages. A System Conversion may be the ideal option if you’re on a single instance and want to maintain your present data while going live with a big bang approach.

If you have numerous ECC instances and other SAP solutions connected, you may wish to adopt a staged strategy that combines the techniques. Do a System Conversion on one lead ECC development system, Selective Data Transition on another ECC system, and re-implementation on a third ECC system, for example. Hybrid techniques are frequently used.

As a result, SAP recommends: Define your approach: Plan your S/4HANA analysis and gain executive support. Make a case for yourself: where and how will you see a return on your investment? Make your case using SAP’s self-service tools. Think about your options: how will you deploy? Choose your deployment method (cloud or on-premise) and technical path (new implementation, system conversion, selective data transition or a combination approach). Build your future by using SAP’s content and tools to design your project.

The first step toward your S/4HANA journey

Running the SAP Process Discovery for SAP S/4HANA should be your first step (previously called the Business Scenarios Recommendation). The results are provided as a PDF report or as an online interactive portal. This will assist you in determining why SAP S/4HANA is necessary. After that, perform the SAP Readiness Check. This tool explains how to migrate to SAP S/4HANA. All Enterprise Support subscribers can operate these for free. They’re run on your SAP ECC production system, and the findings of the analysis are sent to a cloud dashboard. They present an overview of SAP S/4HANA’s most essential features and prospective requirements.

The SAP Readiness Check is performed during the Discovery phase. It detects potential roadblocks such as unsupported add-ons. It looks for interoperability with your existing landscape, such as SCM and CRM. It determines which simplifications are applicable. It examines the work that goes into migrating custom code. It will indicate the steps that must be completed in your current system to prepare for the migration, such as data archiving and converting from leading with customer and vendor master data to business partners. SAP ECC 6.0 EHP xx, AnyDB or HANA, Unicode, and ABAP Single Stack are the minimum requirements for system conversion.

You can use SAP Best Practices to speed up the project if it’s a new implementation. Essential Data must be migrated from the old system to S/4HANA. The S/4HANA Migration Cockpit can be used. The term “direct transfer” APIs are used to transmit up to a hundred objects at once. You can opt to lift and reuse extensions from the existing ECC solution, such as advancements and interfaces.

Within Selective Data Transition, there are two typical ways for creating the target system: Shell Conversion and Mix and Match. Shell Conversion creates a shell copy of a production system that is converted to SAP S/4HANA without the master and transaction data. Without the master and transaction data, the conversion procedure is simpler and faster, and some Simplification Items can be altered more simply. Mix and Match creates a new S/4HANA installation and then transports or manually transfers configuration and ABAP repository elements. Data migration is required in both circumstances, including master data, balances, and open items.

S/4HANA Cloud Transition

Many customers are also thinking about switching from on-premise Data Centers to SAP S/4HANA Cloud solutions or Hyperscalers. There are numerous synergies between migrating to the cloud and implementing SAP S/4HANA. The cloud, for example, allows you to “grow on-demand,” which can be extremely handy for performing system conversions. SAP offers SAP S/4HANA Cloud private edition, a cloud subscription service that runs on hyperscaler infrastructure. This is a feature of the RISE with SAP package. SAP also revealed a collaboration in the last year with Microsoft which is very promising for the future.

Working with cbs Corporate Business Solutions, we have project experience in all possible S/4 transformation scenarios. cbs remain impartial, understand our client project needs, and provide both Processes & & Technical Expertise to “Must-Do’s”, Process Reengineering, and further S/4HANA Innovations.

Discover the ideal transition approach for your organisation with our 10-minute assessment quiz! Let us direct you towards the S/4HANA transition path that best suits your needs. Take the quiz now to find out more.