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Complete Guide to SAP S/4HANA Migration

Last updated : April 16, 2024
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Complete Guide to SAP S/4HANA Migration

How to migrate to SAP S4HANA? We gathered all our experience to guide you on what you need to know to make a successful migration, because SAP S/4HANA is not just a technology upgrade, it is a vehicle for business transformation./p>

The decision to migrate to SAP S/4HANA must contemplate a well-planned strategy that considers the long-term benefits over the initial investments.

At Novis, we seek to be an expert partner for our clients on the path to optimized, future-proof business management. We can guide you every step of the way, so that your migration to SAP S/4HANA is a solid foundation for your company’s growth. If you’d like to dive deeper into how to address these challenges, and how Novis can help, check out our SAP S/4HANA Migration Service.

Table of Contents
  1. What is SAP S/4HANA?
  2. Why migrate to SAP S/4HANA?
  3. SAP S4HANA Migration Alternatives
  4. SAP S4HANA Migration Assessment and Preparation
  5. Assesment camino s S/4HANA (PTS)
  6. S4HANA Migration Process Step by Step
  7. What to consider for S4HANA post-migration and support?
  8. Novis SAP S4HANA Success Stories
  9. Additional SAP S4HANA Resources
  10. S4HANA Migration FAQs
  11. Overview

1. What is SAP S/4HANA?

SAP S/4HANA® is not just a new version of SAP ERP®, but a different product, with a new data model, new processes, a new business intelligence and integration concept, and a new user experience. SAP S/4HANA is an integrated enterprise resource planning (ERP) system designed to run on SAP HANA, a high-performance in-memory database. It offers a revamped set of tools that harness the power of real-time data analytics, ensuring that businesses operate more efficiently and effectively. By converging transactions and analytics on a single platform, it facilitates faster decision making and streamlines business processes, delivering a simplified user experience across all lines of business.

As the digital core, SAP S/4HANA is designed to offer flexibility, scalability, and the ability to drive innovation, laying the foundation for companies to adopt new business models and manage the complexities of today’s digital economy. Therefore, it is essential to stay up to date with the latest versions of SAP S/4HANA and take advantage of its continuous innovations.
Novis has SAP-certified processes and team with the expertise to help you maximize your SAP S/4HANA investment and ensure your business takes advantage of these powerful tools.

Differences between SAP R/3, SAP HANA, and SAP S/4HANA.

SAP R/3, launched in 1992, was SAP’s first ERP system. It uses a client-server architecture and is based on a relational database. SAP HANA, on the other hand, launched in 2010, is an in-memory platform that enables fast processing and analysis of large volumes of data in real time. On the other hand, SAP S/4HANA, the successor to SAP R/3 and SAP ERP, benefits from all the power and features of SAP HANA. This version has not only been optimized to work on SAP HANA offering unprecedented speed but has also been redesigned to offer an exceptional user experience with SAP Fiori and simplify business processes.

In addition, SAP S/4HANA is a cloud platform that enables greater flexibility and scalability to adapt to changing business needs. It provides a single, real-time view of all business operations, facilitating decision making based on accurate and up-to-date data.

In short, SAP S/4HANA, or S4HANA, is SAP’s most advanced and comprehensive business management solution to date, designed to drive digital transformation and help companies create better services for their clients.

2. Why migrate to SAP S/4HANA?

This is a question facing many companies, as support for SAP Business Suite will end in 2027, which means that after that date clients will no longer receive upgrades and support.

Migrating to SAP S/4HANA is more than a technology upgrade; it can be a strategic investment that prepares your company to meet future challenges and take advantage of emerging opportunities. It allows you to reimagine business processes and leverage cutting-edge technologies such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, and the Internet of Things (IoT) to drive innovation and improve efficiency.

We know that it is very important to define from the outset the reasons for considering a migration to S/4HANA, as there are several possible ones and from them derive different strategies to tackle the process and present it to the business or senior management of the company. As a result of discussions with our clients, we have seen that the main reasons are:

  • End of maintenance and support for major versions of SAP ERP SAP has announced that it will stop upgrading and supporting SAP Business Suite 7, SAP R/3 (or SAP Business All-in-One) and SAP ECC. This means no support or upgrades after 2027 or 2030, depending on the version.
  • In addition, many companies have years of paying SAP for maintenance that they are not taking advantage of (42% of companies in 2023).
  • Pressure to digitally transform existing SAP solutions to create a centralized and harmonized structure and model (32% of companies in 2023).
  • Opportunity to redesign processes to better adapt to business needs, or to correct deficient processes and configurations of the current implementation (31% of companies by 2023).

According to surveys at the beginning of 2023, only 14% of companies had no plans yet to migrate, the remaining 86%: were already using SAP S/4HANA, or are implementing, or are doing a pilot, or were evaluating the business case. More details in the note: SAP S/4HANA – to migrate or not to migrate? when and how?

We also suggest considering the following in your evaluation.

Benefits of migrating to SAP S/4HANA

Adopting SAP S/4HANA can lead to significant improvements, such as:

  • Speed and Efficiency: Faster transaction processing and analysis.
  • SimplificationA simplified data model with fewer tables and data duplication.
  • Flexibility: Increased options in managing and analyzing large volumes of data.
  • Adaptability: Ability to integrate and adapt to evolving digital technologies.
  • Continuous Innovation:: Access to the latest updates and enhancements to keep up with advances in digital business.
  • Enhanced User Experience:: SAP Fiori interface that improves accessibility and simplifies the user experience, enabling intuitive navigation and increased productivity.
  • Advanced Analytics: Integrated analytics tools that provide valuable information for real-time strategic decision making.
  • Compliance and Security: Strict security and compliance measures are built in to protect sensitive data and business operations.

Our goal is to ensure that the transition to SAP S/4HANA is as smooth and beneficial as possible for your company, allowing you to fully capitalize on the competitive advantages that this solution can offer.

If your company is not yet in the cloud, we suggest you review SAP Cloud Advantages in eight minutes.

3. SAP S4HANA Migration Alternatives

There are four alternatives to migrate or convert to SAP S4HANA, so you must determine which one is the best for your company:

  1. Brownfield, corresponds to the conversion of the complete system, including configuration and complete data. It is the most complex alternative, but it is also the one that preserves most of the current configuration and historical data.
  2. Shell Conversion , is an alternative like the previous one, but which excludes all data, and requires an initial data load, like an implementation from scratch.
  3. Greenfield, is a re-implementation, in the SAP S/4HANA system, of existing business processes in SAP ERP, or new business processes, or enhanced processes, digital transformation, etc.
  4. Bluefield, is an intermediate path between the above. In this case, the entire system is converted, but only part of the data is migrated selectively, for which special SAP or third-party tools are required.

To define the most suitable strategy, the current system situation and the customer’s objectives must be considered. In good preparation for the process, questions such as these should be answered:

  • What is the size of the database, is the current size a problem?
  • Is it necessary to keep all the data in the new system, or is it possible to maintain a historical system?
  • What is the quality of the data, are there inconsistencies, how much reconciliation work is required before migrating?
  • Do we want to improve business processes or just migrate everything as is? Is our goal digital transformation?
  • Do we want to leverage the project for other purposes, such as consolidating systems, eliminating custom (“Z”) code, merging companies, etc.? What does it mean in terms of effort and cost?

Some of the answers require a lot of analysis. The important thing is to identify which ones we need to answer and what is required to answer the. With that, we will be able to focus the assessment and its analysis, minimizing costs.

More details about the options and selection criteria in the article:

4. Evaluation and Preparation for SAP S4HANA Migration

As mentioned in the previous point, the decision to go to SAP S/4HANA is not trivial and has many variables to be analyzed, there are different motivations why companies want to migrate, so we provide some relevant points to keep in mind when preparing for this challenge.

  • Clarify the motivations: See point 2 of this guide.
  • Evaluation of the current infrastructure: Determine if the current system configuration is compatible or if hardware or software upgrades are necessary.
  • Evaluate data quality and volume: Clean existing data to improve the efficiency of the migration process, data accuracy, and future system performance.
    • Data health: We recommend questioning how the records of the accounting assistants are, it will be difficult to execute a migration if there are inconsistencies, it is essential to analyze the quality of the database; this is one of the most important variables that define the PTS (Path to S4) decision.
    • Database size:The main problem with data in SAP clients is the growth of its volume, which comes from the lack of implementation of a correct data lifecycle. Data is created, updated, and maintained, but once it has fulfilled its mission, it does not disappear from the system, it remains in the system, occupying space and slowing down accesses. SAP’s solution for this situation is SAP Archiving, which allows you to extract the less relevant -contingent- information from the database and store it in a secondary repository.
      Then it is necessary to evaluate if there is the cost capacity to support a change to the new database?
      Will it be possible to run an archiving process to reduce the database before jumping to S/4HANA?
    • One of the most relevant changes of S/4HANA is the master of clients,, suppliers, and partners of the operation; S/4HANA centralizes all the partners in Business Partners and, therefore, there is a very important work in this point. Our experience with migration projects tells us that this has been a big headache.
  • Project team: You must establish one that includes SAP experts, IT manager and representatives from key areas of the company to make decisions. This is because there are functionalities that will cease to operate, others that are maintained and, therefore, there will be applications that need to be corrected, while in others it will be necessary to adjust to the standard proposed by S/4HANA. Finally, other functionalities may not be relevant for the migration, but they must be in the implementation pipeline ex post this project.
  • Customization: With respect to the developments, it is necessary to define whether they will take the entire universe of “zetas”, whether a “fit to standard” can be made, whether the integrations are aligned with the current standard and protocolization,
    In short, we must look at the “custom code” and stress the variables for which they exist.
  • Training and Change Management: Prepare the team to ensure that they understand the new processes and technologies involved in SAP S/4HANA. It is suggested to organize workshops and briefings to educate members of the organization on the benefits and changes associated with SAP S/4HANA and prepare them for it.

Companies that migrate to SAP S/4HANA generally execute a survey of current processes and question which ones can be redesigned, how to improve thinking about reducing the administrative burden, align with the strategic objectives of the digital transformation and promote the use of tools that at the end of the day, improve management, operation and, above all, the quality of life of employees.

The change or challenge of having SAP S4HANA, and the promise of a tool that allows “real time” management, also makes it essential to rethink processes.

In summary, there are many variables that define the polynomial that delivers the best way to go to S/4HANA; of the above, it is important to have a consultancy and execute an Assessment with a technology partner, because it requires multifunctional and technical analysis to make the decision.
Each step is critical to minimize risks and downtime during migration, and to maximize the benefits of SAP S/4HANA after completing the transition.

More details in the article:

5. Assesment camino a S/4HANA (PTS)

As we have indicated in the previous points, there are several ways and alternatives to migrate to S/4HANA, to guide you on this path in Novis we have developed the Assessment Service to make the path to S/4HANA
We recommend this assessment because it offers great advantages:

  • To have a detailed diagnosis of the current situation regarding the migration, to select possible strategies to evaluate in greater detail. The “how to”.
  • Define a roadmap of projects to prepare for migration and adapt the roadmap of other projects to make them compatible with this change.
  • To have a very good estimation of project costs and deadlines. The “how much”.
  • Plan the migration in the medium or long term, according to the company’s objectives, to provide the necessary budget. The “when”.
  • Have a comprehensive analysis and a detailed plan to present to the company’s top management.

If you would like to learn more about how to address these challenges, and how Novis can help, please review our SAP S/4HANA Migration Service.

We also suggest you review the article:

6. S4HANA Migration Process Step by Step

To effectively manage the migration to SAP S/4HANA, it is recommended to follow a structured and methodical approach.
The step-by-step migration process ensures that every critical aspect is considered to avoid setbacks:

  • • Definition of Objectives and Scope: Clarify the business goals to be achieved with the migration and define the scope of the project.
  • Business Impact Analysis: Identify how the migration will affect day-to-day operations and create a plan to mitigate potential disruptions.
  • Detailed Technical Planning: Design a technical roadmap that considers all stages from preparation to execution and post-migration verification.
  • Migration Execution: Perform the migration following the planned steps, with a focus on accuracy and care to protect data integrity.
  • Rigorous Testing: Thoroughly verify that all systems are functioning correctly and that business requirements are met.

If you want to dive deeper into how to address these challenges, and how Novis can help, check out our SAP S/4HANA Migration Service.

7. What to consider for post-migration to S4HANA and support?

Many times, in companies there is not a complete understanding of what is required to operate in a public cloud, and it is thought that its management is part of the infrastructure contracting, in the style of traditional service providers. However, this is not correct, as the cloud is not a managed platform, but one whose management is shared between the provider (hyperscaler) and the client. The hyperscaler is only responsible for the management of the datacenters and the basic physical infrastructure, but everything else must be handled by the client or its specialized partner. More details in Why do you need a managed cloud for SAP?

You can review more information on SAP certified partners in each country in th SAP Outsourcing Partner Guide.

On the other hand, SAP solutions, as we all know, are complex, not only in their implementation or migration, but also in their operation and maintenance. If we were to compare it to a physical machine, it would not be a Mercedes Benz, as is often said, but rather a large truck or heavy machinery. Such equipment requires sophisticated and mandatory maintenance disciplines and programs to preserve the value of the large investment it represents. That’s what we talked about in the article Five practices to improve the maintenance of your SAP solution.

 

8. Novis Success Stories on SAP S4HANA

We have been working with SAP S/4HANA since 2015. In that period, we have tackled very diverse projects advising our clients in the initial stages of adoption of this technology, and we have a sufficiently broad and solid experience, to offer any organization to approach this transition with full confidence.

We list below some examples of our experience with SAP S/4HANA that are developed in our Success Stories section:

  • Colbún performs S/4HANA Upgrade project on Rise
    The innovation that Colbún needs to meet its 2030 Strategy makes a flexible and powerful platform necessary. That is why they carried out the SAP S/4HANA and BW/4HANA Upgrade project on RISE with SAP in Azure, with Novis, their SAP partner since 2020.
  • Farmacia San Pablo performs corporate merger project and migration to S/4 HANA
    Since 2016, Novis has been a key partner in SAP solutions, providing the technical infrastructure and operations services for Farmacia San Pablo’s SAP environment. And during this crucial initiative, it played an integral role, addressing all technical aspects and providing the necessary infrastructure.
  • Adelco migrated SAP S/4HANA to AWSThe client says that Novis’ expertise in SAP AWS migrations, in addition to its knowledge of the company’s platform, contributed to the success of the project.
  • Universidad Católica del Maule starts using SAP S/4HANANovis oversaw the hosting and technical operation services for the SAP solution while it was implemented. Subsequently, it has overseen the operation and hosting of S/4 HANA and SAP Process Orchestration® (SAP PO). It also includes technical support, a disaster recovery solution, and everything necessary for the correct operation of UCM’s critical system. It is an integrated service, with a single responsible party and contract, managed globally by Novis.

These are just a few experiences; we can put you in touch with clients who have a similar configuration to what your company requires. . Contact us and let’s discuss your challenges..

9. Additional SAP S4HANA Resources

To ensure you get the most out of your SAP S/4HANA investment, we offer some additional resources..

In addition, our consulting, On-the-Job-Training and technical documentation are designed to empower your team with the skills and knowledge needed to maximize efficiency and productivity.Contact us today to schedule an assessment. Our team can assist you with everything you need to make your migration project a success.

10. Frequently Asked Questions about S4HANA Migration

The following are answers to frequently asked questions about SAP S/4HANA migration.

We look forward to answering your questions so you can embark on this journey with confidence.

  • ¿What is SAP S4HANA? SAP S/4HANA is the latest generation of enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems from SAP, providing a real-time digital platform to simplify and accelerate business processes.
  • Why should you consider migrating to SAP S/4HANA: Migrating to SAP S/4HANA can provide greater efficiency, better analytics and decision making, as well as a more intuitive user experience. In addition, given the end of support for previous versions of SAP in 2027, upgrading to S/4HANA becomes essential to stay current and competitive in the marketplace.
  • What are the benefits of migrating to SAP S/4HANA with Novis: At Novis, we have extensive experience migrating to S/4HANA and can provide customized solutions that are tailored to your company’s specific needs. In addition, our team of experts can ensure a smooth transition and ongoing support to maximize the value of your S/4HANA investment.
  • How long will it take to migrate to SAP S/4HANA: The duration of the migration can vary depending on the size and complexity of your company, but on average it can take between 6 to 12 months. However, at Novis we strive to minimize any disruption to your business operations during the migration process.
  • How can I get started with SAP S/4HANA migration: Please contact us, our team will be happy to discuss your needs and help you develop a customized plan for successful migration to SAP S/4HANA.

Along with a successful migration, we also offer consulting and ongoing support to ensure that your business takes full advantage of the benefits of SAP S/4HANA, with a smooth transition Contact us.

11. S4HANA Migration Summary

SAP S/4HANA is not just a technology upgrade, it is a vehicle for business transformation. The decision to migrate to SAP S/4HANA must contemplate a well-planned strategy that considers the long-term benefits over the initial investments. At Novis we seek to be a reliable and expert partner for our clients on this path to optimized and future-proof business management.

Our commitment to excellence is reflected in our track record of successful migrations. Our team of professionals is ready to guide you every step of the way, ensuring that your SAP S/4HANA migration is a solid foundation for your company’s growth. Contact us.

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