S/4 and the midmarket
However, whether S/4 Hana will successfully establish itself will be decided primarily by mid-sized companies that rely on their ERP but do not have the latest release in use.
In particular, companies from the midmarket cite the end of the maintenance window specified by SAP (2025) for SAP ERP as the greatest motivation for even considering the topic of S/4 Hana.
Significant advantages of S/4 Hana in terms of a simplified data structure as well as an elimination of locks for massive material movements have no groundbreaking added value for companies in the midmarket, be they gas haulers or public administrations.
Middle class reality
It is essential for medium-sized companies to use an ERP system in a functionally efficient way and to be able to cover the majority of business processes.
Arguments of this nature were missing from SAP's major roadshows, which have so far focused only on large companies in the sample scenarios. It seems as if the processing of medium-sized companies is left to SAP's partner companies.
Slowly, however, SAP is also accommodating this customer clientele. The application of the Fiori design concept and the creation of a modern user interface through the Fiori Launchpad, as well as the structured but not new use of best practices, are being very well received, especially by the midmarket.
The very fact that S/4 Hana is developing a hybrid front-end world through the Fiori Launchpad on the one hand and the classic SAP GUI on the other is meeting with approval in customer systems with very many Z transactions.
With the proposal of a two-step transformation - first S/4 Hana with classic GUI and then use of the Fiori Launchpad - historically grown screen extensions and Z-transactions can continue to be used even after a successful S/4 Hana migration until standard or custom Fioris can replace them.
Acquisitions and confusing cloud offerings
The design of the peripheral system landscape around S/4 Hana Enterprise Management also remains interesting. Through acquisitions and integration of cloud software such as Ariba, Hybris or SuccessFactors, the general direction back to the core is partially relativized.
SAP SRM is a good example of this. While buy-side activities (e.g. shopping cart scenarios) are mapped in S/4 Hana, the Ariba network is positioned for sell-side activities and supplier cooperations.
This means that midmarket companies in the SRM environment in particular are faced with the question of whether Ariba should be used as a strategic solution or whether a connection scenario between SRM and S/4 Hana is preferred for the next five years.
Ariba itself has so far been marketed by SAP primarily for large companies. Here, too, the company is only slowly opening up to small and medium-sized enterprises and offers corresponding programs for partner companies that can perform onboarding for existing SAP customers.
The next five years will be decisive S/4 Hana Enterprise Management replaces SAP ERP ECC after eleven years and brings the Business Suite technically up to date. That is absolutely logical.
Significantly improved functionalities, however, do not yet reach the main interests of medium-sized businesses, which want to use a functionally efficient ERP and live lean and integrated processes.
In particular, through the integrated use of cloud solutions from its own portfolio, SAP is allowing license costs to rise in total. The work of convincing existing SAP customers from the midmarket of S/4 Hana is predominantly handed over to partner companies.
Service providers, such as Gisa, take on this professionally and provide customers with comprehensive advice on a possible switch to S/4 Hana, including individual roadmap projects.
But it remains exciting to see how many transformations - whether greenfield or brownfield - will be undertaken by existing midmarket SAP customers over the next few years.
