Value added

On a meta-level beyond Hana and S/4? On-prem users of ERP/ECC 6.0 and Business Suite 7 know the answer:

Abap modifications and add-ons in the Z namespace have turned SAP software into a powerful business tool. The added value for SAP's existing customers came from customizing the Abap tables.

Where does the value of a standardized S/4 system in the SAP public cloud come from? SAP is trying hard to get suitable end-to-end processes into the S/4 public cloud - but it remains difficult to please every existing customer.

SAP has recognized the "problem" of customizing and also offers Abap on the SAP Cloud Platform (SCP). In purely theoretical terms, "new" customizing could also be done on the Hana platform.

Open SQL Schema is available here and very innovative users could also use the graph engine from Hana for "customizing". However, if the customization of an SAP system takes place beyond the modifications of Abap tables, then the customization would again hardly differ from another database system with an attached script language.

So where does the individual value creation for the future S/4 existing customer take place? A question that will probably have to wait some time for an answer.