The secure role conversion in S/4 Hana migration

SAP expert Bodo Kahl from Sast Solutions (Akquinet) warns against neglecting these issues during migration. "Due to the growing complexity, I advise incorporating a secure authorization concept into the migration processes right from the start. With the right tool support, those responsible also save time as well as money by significantly reducing manual work."

At the beginning of a project, many of those responsible are not even aware of how many decisions lie ahead of them: Which transactions need to be replaced or are now obsolete? How do you identify suitable Fiori apps for the roles? How do you keep to your authorization concept? These are all questions that should be answered at the planning stage. Ideally, this should be done together with a specialized partner and the right tool that improves analysis results and directly provides suggested values for the roles to be migrated.

Which migration approach is being pursued? Setting up the systems completely from scratch as part of a greenfield approach, or keeping the effort as low as possible with a brownfield approach, or transferring the "good" processes and rebuilding obsolete ones with the selective data approach.

However, the changes at the transaction and authorization object level also entail far-reaching revisions in the user roles. However, many companies often lack the necessary resources for a successful and complete migration.

Role conversion to S/4

The first step is a detailed analysis of the existing ERP roles. This involves identifying obsolete transactions, exchanged S/4 transactions, and "Fiori-only" transactions. In the next phase, the conversion of the ERP roles takes place: the update of the roles based on the analysis results as well as the update of the authorization objects based on SU24. Once this is implemented, the insertion of the Fiori apps begins according to the adopted strategy.

Sast Suite, for example, offers relief from the decisions and manual processes on the way to perfect role management. The tool analyzes the existing roles and makes a recommendation as to whether it makes more sense to migrate or redesign the roles. In addition, obsolete, replaced or suitable Fiori apps can be identified. In addition to the Simplification List and the Fiori Apps Reference Library, the Sast check is also based on other sources from the S/4 system.

Tip from Bodo Kahl: "See the migration project also as an opportunity to help clean up legacy issues in the role concept. Sast Suite helps you identify unused transactions and effectively streamline roles with the help of SoD analysis and usage statistics - even before the migration. This ensures that avoidable risks don't appear in the new S/4 Hana system in the first place."