Transitioning to S/4 HANA
An S/4 HANA transition is no small undertaking. There is replicated functionality, new functionality, and mandatory functionality across a range of modules to be considered, and a mountain of documentation explaining it all.
How do SAP customers decide what to switch off, what to switch on, what to bring across and what to leave behind? Unfortunately, due to a lack of understanding and transparency, many are going in blind.
Options
S/4 HANA comes standard with thousands of transactions and hundreds of Fiori apps so how does an SAP team get the visibility needed to determine an optimal scope of work?
There are several ways forward.
Trust what SAP says and build out the scope of work from there.
However, SAP wants to see its customers switching on as much functionality as possible. As the vendor, they see everything, but the outcome may be more than is optimal for their customer’s needs.
Rely on what a transition partner says and allow them to drive the scope of work.
An SI’s experience provides them with a level of visibility that could be helpful. However, since their revenue comes from hours on the job their recommended scope of work may also exceed the optimal.
Take information from a range of sources, including SAP and SI’s, and piece together a scope of work.
The ‘do-it-yourself’ approach is likely to take longer, and although due diligence, research, and assistance will increase visibility, a lack of functional insight, may result in a scope of work that is less than optimal.
An alternative
Alternatively, an SAP IT team could utilise a mix of specialist tools, internal expertise, and external specialist advice to gain the visibility and clarity needed to arrive at an optimised scope of work. Here are a couple of pointers.
Invictus Partners
Invictus Partners are an advisory specialising in providing independent enterprise software license optimisation advise and S/4 HANA transition advice. Unlike SAP or many SI’s, as an independent advisor, Invictus Partners have nothing to gain from a decision taken in line with their advice.
FusionGraph
FusionGraph from Resulting Ltd maps current in use ECC functionality to available S/4 HANA functionality, making it easier to visualise what new functionality may be of value moving forward. It brings to light what you don’t know.
samQ SAP license optimiser
samQ from VOQUZ Labs will help ensure the transfer of ECC user licenses to the new FUE license model results in an optimised license outcome. What SAP and your SI tells you may not be correct.
setQ SAP role and authorisation optimiser
setQ, also from VOQUZ Labs, will help ensure that your ECC roles and authorisations are cleaned up and optimised before the transition. One way or another this work needs to be done. Do it yourself prior or pay your SI to do it for you.
