Automated migration

Modern approaches to software development such as Agile Development and DevOps exacerbate the situation: The shortened release cycles no longer allow comprehensive manual testing. For SAP projects to be a success and for users to take full advantage of their systems, test procedures with a high degree of automation are needed. Tricentis offers a comprehensive platform that SAP recommends to its customers as an official solution.

Digital S/4 Hana DNA required

Because SAP pervades a company's processes extensively, the introduction of the latest SAP version can quickly affect the company's entire digital DNA. The stakes are high - because a large proportion of business-critical applications depend on SAP. A hasty implementation without the necessary preparations and planning can actually be a risk.

This is especially true for the implementation of SAP S/4. Ideally, the migration to S/4 helps companies to further develop and scale their business. It also helps them adapt to ongoing digitization and constantly evolving market conditions, as well as proactively drive innovation and create new business opportunities.

In the independent SAP user group DSAG, existing SAP customers confirm that the introduction of S/4 brings with it a number of positive effects. The most frequently mentioned of these is the optimization of business processes - as indicated by 63 percent of respondents.

The second benefit cited by 48 percent is better conditions for faster innovation in their company. 46 percent of the study participants state that the S/4 migration improves the speed and performance of their systems, and 44 percent can name the increased efficiency that has occurred among the main benefits.

Risks in the S/4 migration

As promising as these prospects are - with the benefits, however, comes the risk. That's because S/4 Hana's far-reaching sphere of influence also means that the application carries a large share of business risk. As the expansion through S/4 affects an even larger part of the company, many underlying business processes will be fundamentally changed and restructured for the "new world".

Customizations and integrations need to be re-evaluated. Many are duplicated by S/4's standard features (and should be retired), but all require review and some re-implementation. Users must adopt the new data model - core to S/4's promise of speed and agility - and route data from multiple sources into (or at least toward) SAP Hana.

Most companies are also using this migration as an opportunity to move SAP workloads to the cloud. Not only does this offer unprecedented scalability and flexibility, but it also opens the door to a much faster upgrade cadence. Of course, it also leads to concerns about how cloud-based applications will perform under peak conditions.

Not without risk management

Effective risk management is key to unlocking new opportunities, but with S/4, it's a proven challenge. Fully 70 percent of migrating SAP users recently reported that their traditional testing procedures did not provide sufficient insight into the risks associated with the transition. With this in mind, it's not surprising that only about half of SAP's existing customers have already started or completed the transition to S/4 Hana (59 percent in EMEA).

These plans confirm what is being discussed in many places by CEOs and CIOs in Germany: Fear of the unknown is causing companies to postpone an initiative even though they are 100 percent sure it would drive their digital transformation.
New test approach for S/4

However, this uncertainty is unnecessary if the company takes the necessary planning into account and combines it with a new testing approach. After all, postponing the S/4 migration also means postponing the opportunity to increase agility, speed and innovation - three things that are more in demand today than ever before if the company wants to remain competitive.

Users can eliminate most risks by keeping an eye on known pitfalls during migration and making sure they are alerted immediately when deviations or errors occur.

Therefore, in order for an SAP S/4 migration project to be completed on time and on budget, you need quick feedback on whether the individual changes are producing the desired results - and without creating unclear side effects that can bring companies to a standstill.

Avoid known hurdles

There are some common hidden hurdles to watch out for when embarking on the S/4 migration path.

Data: Resolving data issues is the biggest challenge for S/4 migration - especially given key issues like moving master data from the existing customer master model to the S/4 business partner approach. Before converting to S/4 Hana, you need a clean data set.

Scope: It is important to understand the critical business process requirements and then limit the scope of the S/4 migration to these. At the same time, be clear about the mandatory changes that SAP S/4 Hana imposes.

Functions: The migration should take into account the specific areas in S/4 where functions have either been moved or eliminated or replaced with new functions.

Code: Since many existing SAP customers now have significant custom code (Abap modification in the Z namespace), any migration will need to take into account revisions to coding best practices as well as any limitations on what they can do with their code.

User interface, updating and infrastructure: Despite user enthusiasm for Fiori applications, it is important to avoid overloading the initial migration. Users must also be aware of the challenges of frequent S/4 and Hana updates (quarterly in the cloud including PUTs and PLs), as well as the many aspects of cloud scalability, performance and reduced overall infrastructure size.

Alert in case of crisis

To stop errors before they become problems, it is essential to evolve old manual testing methods, which means canceling business users for tedious, time-consuming testing tasks. With modern (highly automated) testing approaches, the risks of migration are manageable and it is entirely possible to perform a zero-defect migration.

While testing is often perceived as a necessary evil that slows down the migration process. Nevertheless, numerous companies have found that modernizing testing procedures brings tangible benefits: after all, it speeds up S/4 migration by a factor of 10 and enables a risk reduction of more than 90 percent while cutting costs by 50 percent.
Migration with test automation

One example is Vodafone, one of the world's leading telecommunications companies with 625 million customers and a market capitalization of $42 billion. Vodafone decided to implement S/4 Hana back in 2017. The goal was to increase process automation and standardization, accelerate the month-end close process, improve the customer experience, and provide real-time data and analytics capabilities to internal employees.

As part of the migration, a single SAP -ERP/ECC 6.0 instance (Business Suite 7) was transformed in a two-step process across more than 100 legal entities spread across 22 counties. The first step was the conversion of the database from Oracle to SAP Hana.

The second step involved re-implementing the SAP ECC application layer in Fiori. All in all, this became one of the five largest S/4 Hana implementations in the world. After the first eight months of the project were purely about hardware replacement work, Vodafone was able to complete the entire project in eighteen months.

Such success is based on a combination of several factors: from a clear vision to effective leadership and change management to close collaboration with a competent partner. In one respect, however, Vodafone clearly differs from its rather hesitant competitive environment.

The company has tackled the challenge of the project and the associated risk head-on. Vodafone committed to modernizing not only its SAP landscape, but also its testing. To do this, the company used Tricentis' continuous testing platform. By implementing an industry-leading quality process, Vodafone benefits multiple times over:

The company can focus on the highest-risk areas for testing, quickly define and scale test automation, and build a "safety net" for Continuous Testing that introduces risk during deployment. As a result, the telecommunications company has achieved the ultimate balance between innovation, speed and risk.

Vodafone has moved from two massive releases per year to multiple deployments per month, enabling the company to deliver business value decisively faster.

Unlike other automated testing solutions, Tricentis allows the existing SAP customer to automate their SAP testing without having to wait for a stable SAP environment. Tricentis uses model-based test automation that is designed for use in a rapidly changing software
environment. Wherever the existing SAP customer is located, he can already benefit from automation and its advantages.