A successful SAP S/4HANA digital transformation requires an enterprise-wide assessment of the current and future business needs, the existing and forthcoming technology ecosystem, and the organizational readiness to adapt to change – starting from the top. Stated differently, a holistic approach that analyses different value levers across your organization’s people, processes, and technologies is time well spent to bolster what good can look like. A well-defined strategy driven by insights from a strategy and assessment phase can reinforce the success of an SAP S/4HANA transformation and bolster the intended results.
Ineffective strategic planning with incomplete or a lack of a strategy and assessment often leads to delays in implementation, suboptimized operational processes, poor user adoption, and ultimately does not give the intended benefits. Such implementations can lead to heavy losses in costs incurred, adaptability and can lead to failure. Optimizing the S/4HANA implementation is only possible when you have the right strategy and assessment up front.
SAP S/4HANA Strategy and Assessment is not limited to a single technology shift to S/4HANA or a migration from SAP ECC but is also essential for optimizing when an organization is faced with a merger, acquisition, or divestiture. If your organization is moving to an SAP S/4HANA adoption, there are a few things you should consider to make the Strategy and Assessment phase more aligned with your enterprise business goals.
What Makes a Successful SAP S/4HANA Strategy and Assessment?
Your Existing Data and Operational Processes
The fundamental aspect you need to consider is what you will do with your existing data and operational processes from the options below, which will provide the direction to the right S/4HANA deployment model. SAP S/4HANA can be deployed on-prem, in the cloud, or as a hybrid deployment model. This stage is crucial to SAP S/4HANA strategic planning and must be well-aligned with your organization’s requirements across the various functions that serve your enterprise.
- A Greenfield deployment model may suit your requirements if you start afresh by discarding all your legacy data and operational processes. The Greenfield deployment model also fits cases where you wish to have SAP-standardized data and processes.
- If existing transactional data and operational processes need retention, a Brownfield approach could suit the purpose.
- If you wish to use some of your existing data and processes and start fresh for others, a Bluefield model (Selective Transition) might be ideal. Optimizing the S/4HANA deployment strategy paves the way for a successful SAP S/4HANA implementation.
- In the case of multiple SAP and non-SAP landscapes, such as with Mergers and Acquisitions, a Landscape Transformation may be the suitable model. Such scenarios require the ERP landscape to be harmonized and consolidated with a selective approach. Other cases include merging multiple SAP deployments across various business units and geographies.
- If you are in the process of a divestiture, you need to have a carve-out approach to create different SAP landscapes from your existing deployment.
- For scenarios with numerous vital interfaces to SAP and third-party applications, a Brownfield or Bluefield approach may suit the requirements best for retaining existing interfaces and their linked processes.
Choosing from the above models is an integral part of the S/4HANA assessment services and paves the way for a successful implementation.
The Role of Change Management within Your Organization
Many SAP S/4HANA implementations fail to get from the old to the new by making Change Management an end-phase exercise and often keep this capability at arm’s length in the initial phases of the program. The role of Change Management plays is integral to every phase of a deployment model. The inclusion of Change Management is vital in the SAP S/4HANA Strategy and Assessment phase to understand and gauge the necessary levers to pull when moving from old processes and procedures to new ones.
Training
Effective employee training also needs to be well-defined and implemented. Conventional training systems often don’t efficiently deliver the intended results when you have a remote working or hybrid working model for your employees. The S/4HANA Strategy and Assessment phase considers the best training approach that suits your organization’s requirements and needs.
Digital training assistants such as OnScreen can accentuate employee learning and adaptability by guiding employees, step-by-step, through various transactions that will be used to support their functions. Such solutions come with the flexibility of being accessed anytime and anywhere without any usage limitations.
Support
Flexible post-implementation support must be well-defined in your SAP S/4HANA Strategy and Assessment phase. It needs to factor in your in-house technical capabilities and the required internal resources to effectively maintain the application, enhance existing processes, and innovate existing operations by developing new methods. All this is a necessary part of the S/4HANA assessment services and needs a well-defined strategy.
In addition, an ideal SAP S/4HANA Strategy and Assessment must include the strategy for providing required analytics and reports. It also needs to define how to deal with system integrations and extensibility.
The Choice of a Technology Partner
A successful SAP S/4HANA Strategy and Assessment needs a reliable and experienced technology partner for well-defined SAP S/4HANA strategic planning based on S/4HANA assessment services. You need to factor in costs, resource engagement, post-implementation support, and, most importantly, their strategy for Change Management. Such requirements are vital to optimizing the S/4HANA deployment strategy to align with your organizational requirements.
These considerations are crucial to a successful SAP S/4HANA implementation. New Era Technology, an SAP Solution Partner, provides comprehensive SAP S/4HANA Strategy and Assessment services, combined with a wealth of implementation experience. Our proprietary RAPID S/4 solution accelerates the entire implementation process, giving you the much-needed savings in time. To know more about our SAP S/4HANA Strategy and Assessment services, contact us, and we will be glad to help.
