How your SAP S/4HANA migration succeeds

The framework conditions under which the introduction of S/4HANA can take place vary from company to company. Changed business models and processes, integrations down to store floor level, connection of the installed base, internationalization, cross-company scenarios or the use of artificial intelligence for recurring activities are just some of the challenges our customers often face.

In addition to factors such as these, however, the holistic view also brings up entirely different questions: "How can such a project be designed safely?", "What costs will be incurred?", "How can you work out the optimum benefit?" After all, for many companies it is also an operation on the nervous system of the company. A stable ERP system is of course indispensable today, a prerequisite and basis for the design of many processes in the company.

SAP, on the other hand, has significantly expanded its solution portfolio in recent years and is also strongly oriented toward the cloud. At its core is S/4HANA, the new ERP platform that can provide answers to the above questions with numerous innovative approaches. In addition to S/4HANA, a number of solutions, such as IBP, SAC, SuccessFactors, DMC, Ariba, etc., have established themselves, which in combination make it possible to design a variety of solution variants.

How to convert

We at scc see our role exactly "in the middle". Designing the right implementation for your individual requirements is our expertise. 

Of course, this also applies in particular to the transformation to the S/4HANA world. We have developed appropriate formats and offerings for this purpose. The focus of our considerations is always to use standardized and proven concepts on the one hand, but on the other hand to design them in such a way that they are adapted to your individual situation. We are convinced that every transformation will have a clear customer-specific characteristic.

By means of a roadmap to the detailed migration plan

If you are at the beginning of your considerations, we can support you with our "roadmap" approach in finding the appropriate conversion method. Together with your team, we take a look at the state of your current system landscape, highlight the new possibilities in S/4HANA, and discuss with you the effects that this will have on you.

The result of the jointly created roadmap is a recommendation on the type of conversion, the definition of the most important work packages on the way to conversion, a schedule that allows you to plan for the next few months, and a consideration of the expected costs and internal effort. 

If you have already made a decision about the method of conversion, we can support you accordingly in all common approaches.

Brownfield factory approach 

For the "Brownfield Conversion", by means of which an existing ECC system is converted 1:1 into an S/4HANA system, we have adapted a factory approach for the Austrian market together with our partner NTT DATA Business Solutions AG. In doing so, we were able to draw on the experience of over 80 S/4HANA brownfield migrations carried out worldwide.

scc is thus able to combine the local expertise of scc's application specialists with the international resources of NTT DATA Business Solutions. The entire coordination of the project, from the proposal phase to implementation and final acceptance, is carried out by the local scc team. This team consists of an experienced project manager, the technical consultants for the content-related topics as well as the corresponding representation in the Steering Committee by the scc management.

NTT DATA Business Solutions provides the expertise for the technical implementation. This approach was most recently successfully applied at Wolfram Bergbau und Hütten AG: the existing ECC system was successfully converted in a turnaround time of just six months.

Greenfield using Activate method

Should you decide on a new implementation, the so-called "greenfield approach", we recommend an approach according to the Activate method. This essentially draws on the existing SAP best practice processes. At scc, we have extended these in several places with our own tools and ready-made solutions.

Based on this, fit-gap analyses are carried out for the individual areas and an overall solution design is created. This approach has the advantage of being able to work on the system very quickly together with your key users and thus design the appropriate processes. In contrast to classic pure waterfall project approaches, this ensures that the look and feel as well as the processes of the new solution are already tangible for all project members involved at a very early stage in the project.

As a rule, this leads not only to shorter project lead times and thus optimized expenses, but also to significantly higher acceptance among users. Several S/4HANA Greenfield projects that have already been implemented productively, such as at Mayr-Melnhof Holz Leoben, Wiener Wohnen Hausbetreuung GmbH, Plasser & Theurer or MRB Guss GmbH, already guarantee a great deal of experience in dealing with the new solutions.

Combined solution approach

Time and again, a situation arises in which a combination of the brownfield and greenfield methods proves to be a sensible approach. This is particularly the case if only parts of the business processes have changed or if certain (legacy) data is not to be transferred to the new system, but on the other hand large parts of the existing system are still suitable. In this case, a detailed analysis and planning of the new solution are indispensable.

In the areas of system separation, selective transfer of data and, in particular, archiving of system parts that are no longer required, we at scc can draw on decades of experience, so that we can provide you with optimum support in the design of such solutions.