Beyond Brownfield

The digital transformation, combined with the increasing complexity of processes and value chains, or new technologies such as IoT, automation as well as Artificial Intelligence, quickly reveal the limits of the legacy system. Against this background, companies are encouraged to switch to SAP S/4 and the SAP Hana database.

However, the changeover is considered to be complex and demanding, as it affects almost every business area. In addition, there are several migration strategies to choose from. Companies should therefore give some fundamental thought to strategic, tactical and operational aspects before deciding on one of the migration strategies on offer.

The greenfield approach describes a full-scale re-implementation of SAP S/4, where all processes, organization, master data and systems are reconfigured and installed. For many companies, this is a very costly and not absolutely necessary scenario.

The reason: The decisive scope of functions in S/4 and Hana for sales order processing, purchase orders and production orders has changed only insignificantly. If there is hope of returning valuable, individual system adaptations, which in the past allowed the company to optimize workflows or even achieve competitive advantages, to the standard, users are often disappointed.

Suitable functionalities are also missing in S/4. So if the business processes in use predominantly fit the current requirements, no great benefit can be expected from a greenfield approach. On the contrary. Established applications and processes may have to be recreated and tested on a 1:1 basis. It is therefore highly questionable whether the budget spent on this justifies the added value achieved. 

ERP maintainability

A greenfield is therefore only recommended for companies whose SAP systems are very difficult to maintain after many years, frequently struggle with failures or if the business processes no longer meet current requirements. Typical reasons can be changed products or sales channels. Often, this situation also applies to carve-outs. For example, because the SAP system provided by the parent company no longer fits the subsidiary's current business model.

But the reality is different. In most companies, the current SAP ERP solution covers the central business processes very well. A new implementation of S/4 would therefore overshoot the target, as it would not bring any significant benefits in terms of process improvements. Against this background, the brownfield approach is recommended, which costs the fraction of a greenfield. 

A brownfield project is generally understood to be the transfer of the SAP ERP system similar to a release upgrade to S/4. The quality of the result depends on the foresight of the strategic considerations made. Is the focus on a quick changeover or on the leanest possible result? Many things can be better calculated if you think about the "beyond" before the conversion.

Simplifications specified by SAP must be implemented as part of the brownfield conversion. In addition, it is strongly recommended to clean up superfluous legacy systems. Analyses are used to identify enhancements and modifications to the SAP standard that are no longer necessary.

This ballast, which has accumulated over years or even decades - this includes developments, data or customizing that have become obsolete - is consistently eliminated. The remaining company-specific developments are transferred to S/4 during the conversion. With the help of archiving, obsolete and no longer necessary master and transaction data can also be removed.

Clean Digital Core

After the transformation, the existing process flows, functions and their customizing are put to the test. In Consilio's Beyond Brownfield approach, specialists perform process and system optimization in the post-transformation phase. This makes the system even leaner and prepares it for future innovations in S/4 - clean Digital Core!

The crossfield approach is a mix of both worlds. The main advantage over a brownfield approach is the ability to comprehensively adapt business processes, organizational structures, and systems. Special transformation tools take over the historical data and, if no changes are necessary for individual processes, also selective customizing and enhancements.

Such a scenario is particularly interesting for global system landscapes with company codes in the two- to three-digit range, where brownfield is not feasible due to scope and risk. In practice, different scenarios in a sensible and ideally business process-independent sequence and bundling have proven themselves with this variant.

Thus, the brownfield approach is the right way for most companies. With Consilio's Beyond Brownfield approach, all the potential of the other transformation approaches can be tapped, only faster and more cost-effectively.

With the Brownfield approach in combination with Consilio's Beyond thinking, companies therefore not only secure the investments they have made, but also invest their budget in a results-oriented manner in cleaning up the system and the actual innovations of S/4.

With predictive accounting, the effects on financial accounting can already be analyzed when the sales order is entered. Previously, this was only possible after delivery and invoicing. 

Advanced Available to Promise, for example, increases customer satisfaction and planning reliability both internally and externally by determining realistic delivery dates for products on the basis of an availability check across companies. With S/4 embedded PP/DS, SAP delivers an integrated solution for production and detailed planning for the first time. Embedded PP/DS creates transparency in all process steps, giving companies a high level of planning reliability.

Thanks to dynamic alerts, they detect problems quickly. Simulations help find optimization opportunities before disruptions occur. Accurate scheduling enables better customer service. All planning steps take place in just one system. Embedded PP/DS replaces the connection of external production planning and optimization solutions.

Analytics and KPIs

Embedded Analytics provides companies with powerful, real-time operational reporting. Even when users have neither data consolidation nor a data warehouse. Smart business KPIs enable end users to work in a role-based manner and help make faster and better decisions. The preconfigured apps allow immediate, transparent access to information in the form of KPI cockpits and can be flexibly modified and extended.

For the majority of SAP users, Brownfield is the best choice, because on the one hand they keep their competitive advantage, and on the other hand - in the sense of Beyond-.
Brownfield thinking of Consilio - eliminate almost all deficits of a conversion. The Beyond Brownfield approach guarantees a clean digital S/4 Core, which forms the basis for further innovations. The budget can thus be used in a targeted manner for process improvements and innovations.