S/4 Hana - a big step

Since the demanding processes surrounding discrete production in the capital goods industry did not exactly come naturally to SAP, system houses have established themselves in the overall fascinating ecosystem of SAP that have shaped the specific requirements of the users.

In addition, many of the companies have developed individual solutions themselves in order to be able to carry out their daily business efficiently and appropriately. The special feature of SAP ECC of expressing its functionality in around 100,000 tables, which are supplemented with Y and Z tables when adjustments are made, creates a not inconsiderable adjustment problem when switching to SAP S/4 Hana.

Now that SAP will only run on Hana in the future and will be functionally further developed for S/4 Hana, users and system houses are in a dilemma. Although SAP still has its tables, they are operated completely differently on Hana, so that an adaptation of specific functionality will go far beyond a "re-mapping". Nevertheless, it is certainly positive that SAP's data model is becoming simpler overall.

The reactions of the users concerned currently range between composure and slight irritation. Of course, they understand that a solution has to be put back on a modern footing after around a quarter of a century. So the question is not whether, but when to move from ECC to S/4.

SAP is therefore expected to show a non-disruptive path to migration. At least SAP's official announcement that it will continue to develop and maintain SAP Business Suite until at least 2025 is in line with these expectations.

The system houses that have developed special solutions for the industry have an inkling of the scope of the task ahead of them, which they can only master together with their users.

At the same time, they are aware that their customers' willingness to pay for these solutions a second time is quite limited. In this respect, they must be able to demonstrate significantly improved benefits on the one hand and need sufficient time to be able to cope with the changes in terms of organization, personnel and finances on the other.

It will therefore be important to demonstrate the clear potential benefits of S/4. In this respect, the solution developed on modern database technology, based on main memory and finally equipped with a modern front end, definitely shows the potentials that the VDMA has highlighted in its ERP 2020 campaign.

In addition, S/4 Hana opens up possibilities with regard to the digitization of value creation processes that were inconceivable with SAP ECC.

From the user's point of view, it is important that realistic migration scenarios can be shown. In view of the hundreds of existing interfaces, the installation of an enhancement pack already involves a great deal of effort.

In view of the extensive changes, this effort must certainly not be multiplied. In this context, it will be exciting to see what the Hana Cloud Platform (HCP) will be able to achieve.

On the way to S/4, the medium-sized system houses that have specialized in industry-specific solutions must not be lost. They are the knowledge carriers with regard to special requirements that cannot be developed with the necessary granularity in a standard software that is designed so broadly for many industries.

Development tools are needed here that quickly enable solutions to be ported to S/4 Hana and adequately protect the unique selling points of these solution providers.

It is therefore clear that those involved must seek communication with each other and find ways and solutions together. It is certainly not a sensible approach to sit out further developments.

On the other hand, it is foreseeable that users in a buyer's market will not allow themselves to be forced into a system change. In view of strong competition in the ERP market, the decision regarding a future product strategy would definitely be open.