Change management - S/4 and the psychology of the company

The changes involved in an S/4 transition are not only of a technical nature, but also affect the psychology of the company. Accompanying the changeover with change management geared towards this is one of the most important factors in the successful introduction of S/4, alongside proper project planning and implementation.

Changes through S/4

In addition to the technical change level, the functional and organizational levels are usually also affected. The extent to which the change affects the respective level depends on the degree or focus of the change. In the case of a transition from an ECC to an S/4 system or a new implementation of an S/4 system, it can be assumed that all three levels will be affected. Regardless of how the transition takes place - whether as brownfield or greenfield - a separate change management project must be set up to accompany the conversion project.

Levels of change

Let's consider the case of an S/4 transition in the brownfield approach, with the sole aim of carrying out the technical product change and maintaining maintenance and support (with a view to 2027/30). Even in this „simple“ case, all three levels of change are affected.

Professional: Due to the product change from ECC to S/4, functional checks must be carried out on a mandatory basis, without which it is not even possible to start the S/4 transition. Examples include processing the Simplification Item List and carrying out the Customer Vendor Integration. On the other hand, the existing custom code must also be checked for S/4 compatibility and adapted if necessary. If not already done, a Unicode conversion must also be carried out in advance. Business processes must be checked and adapted if necessary, and new business processes must be introduced if required.

Technical: The S/4 transition is a complex conversion project that will take several months and tie up a lot of resources. If not already done in advance, the database must be switched to Hana 2.0 in addition to the product change to S/4. The database change may be accompanied by a change of operating system, as only Linux (RedHat/Suse) is approved for the Hana database. Similarly, only certain servers are approved for the Hana database, which is why a hardware change may also need to be planned. The change must also ensure that the technical operating procedures such as back-up/restore, monitoring and high availability continue to run without interruption.

Organizational: Even with a brownfield approach, the specialist departments need to be heavily involved. This applies to the analysis and adaptation phase as well as to the testing and acceptance of S/4. As a result, employees from the specialist departments are much more involved in the project work or are even released from their duties in some cases. In addition, it is also necessary to consider whether processes and responsibilities need to be restructured in the company organization. Due to changes in technologies and processes, know-how development and training must be planned so that employees can work with the new platform. If the CC system was previously operated on-premises and in-house and cloud services are now being used with the transition, this also has an impact on the organization.

Why change management?

As I said, changes are being made in three key areas of a company and this is taking place over a longer period of time. A project of this magnitude always raises questions among employees and decision-makers as to whether and what impact the change will have on my daily work or key figures. These aspects need to be taken into account with targeted change management.

A key aspect of change management is transparency in order to achieve a high level of acceptance of the change. The project should therefore be present for everyone in the company and involve not only the stakeholders who are directly involved in the project, but also those who are indirectly involved. Examples here include line managers/team leads who are to assign employees to the project who are not usually involved in the project work. In order to achieve transparency, interim goals should be planned in the project, on the basis of which the progress of the project can be made clear to the outside world. As with a marathon, where the aid stations keep the runners fit, the updates keep those involved up to date and thus motivated to continue supporting the change.

With its resources, the project has some opportunities to make the changes transparent and communicate them. However, depending on the size of the company, only a few employees are reached and the information about the change is based on „hearsay“ for most other employees. However, if the scope of the change is so great that it has an impact on the company itself, all employees should be brought on board.

In order to ensure communication and the necessary transparency, all existing and, if necessary, new options for distributing information must be used. This can be done via an existing intranet, newsletter, information events, etc. This is where the project's options usually end and change management takes over. At this point, the project provides the information on the S/4 transition, which is then distributed in a coordinated manner within the company, coordinated by change management.

The prerequisite for this is the clear commitment of the management and senior management. Successful implementation is only guaranteed if change is demanded and actively supported from there. (Source: Isacon)