Moving your business core to a cloud-based platform allows for quick deployment accelerating time to value. Adopting rapid innovation cycles reduces TCO and TCI. Cloud solution enables a fundamental change in the enterprise capabilities redefining ERP. It reimagines business processing by choosing SaaS deployment model as a regular infrastructure.
Cloud bookings are rapidly growing and we reckon that ERP in the cloud will be yet more popular in the coming years. SAP revenue further validates. For the first quarter of 2018, SAP announced €5.26 billion revenue, of which €1.1 billion or 21% of the total – was for cloud subscription and support.
Moreover, “cloud revenue increased by €165m, up 18% on the first-quarter 2017 figure of €905m, and new cloud bookings, which the supplier likes to stress as a metric, were up 25% to €245m. As a proportion of overall revenue, cloud has gained about three percentage points over the same quarter last year” mentioned in the first quarter SAP report of 2018.
Read more: Four Tips for Successful and Speedy SAP S/4HANA Implementation
From this report, we can clearly see that customers trust SAP and its technology. SAP S/4HANA Cloud gives many advantages to the client. Explore the top 5 value areas for SAP S/4HANA Cloud here.
The main benefits of moving to SAP S/4HANA Cloud are:
- Rapid deployment
- Reduction of TCO and TCI
- Increased business agility
- Faster ROI
- Improved governance and regulatory compliance.
Companies considering to move their business core to the cloud should prepare the whole organization for this journey. The deployment methodology includes:
- Discovery of SAP cloud-based solutions to define the business value and benefits for your project.
- Preparing the whole company and IT environment for the journey.
- Exploring and analyzing readiness of the current system, requirements and compatibility and the total pre-checks and testing.
- Deployment of the business operation to a new system.
- Run and optimize your IT environment to achieve results in no time.
A common concern is what kind of specific skill sets you need to successfully complete the SAP S/4HANA implementation.
SAP S/4HANA is the next generation technology and a successful implementation depends on the range of skills of your team and how you choose to leverage SAP solution. You need to have a strong team of experts who can handle various technical tasks and can solve issues with minimum risks.
You may need the following specific executives for your project: system architect/system administrator, solution architect, SAP S/4HANA data modeler, data services/SLT developer, SAP technology consultant, certified OS/DB migration consultant, SAP S/4HANA developer. Depending on the specific scope and the architecture of your project, you may need development experts in the specific application domain and advanced technologies, such as predictive analytics, scripting languages, etc.
Switching to SAP S/4HANA Cloud enables you to improve business performance and get the value from your big data. Effective SAP implementation happens only if the end customer’s IT group is result-oriented and prepared to manage the project. Here is the practical guide to adopting SAP S/4HANA.
Read more: 6 Tips to Choosing the Right SAP Support and Maintenance Provider
Based on our experience, we’ve put together a checklist of 5 items you should consider before starting your project:
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Pre-check your custom code and clean up of data
Use Custom Code Lifecycle Management (CCLM) to analyze your custom code. This procedure helps identify low-quality codes which can’t operate under SAP S/4HANA Cloud processing. Pre-check and remove codes no longer in use, make required adjustments and optimize your codes before switching to SAP S/4HANA Cloud. The same pre-checking is necessary with the production database. Clean up the outdated information reducing costs and system downtime.
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Check the system performance and functionality
Next step is to check whether your IT architecture is ready to switch to SAP S/4HANA Cloud. This preliminary check will show whether your current system, all components, and add-ons are compatible with the new cloud platform.
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Update your forms before moving to cloud
SAP Smart Forms and SAP Script from SAP ERP ECC 6.0 will no longer be further developed by SAP in the medium term. Two most important features of Interactive Forms by Adobe are interactivity and the use of the PDF format. Using Interactive Forms by Adobe enables you to easily and intuitively design the layout for quotations, orders, and invoices.
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Adjust your user interfaces for SAP
Many central functions are simplified in SAP S/4HANA Cloud. You can adjust user interfaces to align with the new technologies in your current IT environment before the project starts. Fiori apps are one of the best benefits you could get from S/4HANA. But to use this, a combination of technical and change management challenges need to be overcome. Create a well-crafted comprehensive change management plan in the pre-conversion phase to avoid any end-user hassles during the UAT phase.
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Train your company staff through the digitization
Foster digitization in your company and all business processes. Train your staff to deal with the expected challenges in digital transformation. Ensure high qualification of business and functional analysts, developers and basis technicians. Make the whole organization ready for your digital journey to SAP S/4HANA Cloud.
Read more: Pre-Conversion Activities to Support a Successful S/4 HANA Implementation
Summary
The specific tips described above will help you create a comprehensive pre-conversion plan for your journey. With the right SAP provider, use case, deployment methodology and best practices, you can enjoy all the benefits of SAP S/4HANA Cloud. Savantis is an experienced SAP-certified partner who can help ease your digital journey and achieve your business goals. We will support you throughout your transition to SAP S/4HANA.
If you still have questions and unsure whether your business is ready to switch to SAP S/4HANA, please reach out to us.
