How to prepare for S/4HANA Migration

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We know that sooner or later all SAP clients will have to migrate to SAP S/4HANA ®.
SAP S/4HANA is not just a new version of SAP ERP ®, it is a different product, it has a new data model, new processes, a new concept of business intelligence and integration, and a new user experience. Therefore, the move from SAP ERP to SAP S/4HANA is not an update or upgrade process, but a more radical change.

In the Webinar Are you ready for a successful migration to S/4HANA? we answered our clients’ most frequently asked questions, why to migrate or not to migrate to S/4HANA, how to migrate to S/4HANA, how to prepare for this project?

In the article Migrating to S/4Hana, analysis and preparation for 2019, we talked about the steps necessary for a migration to S/4HANA. Since then, the situation has evolved in several aspects: on one hand, there are now various tools, both from SAP and third parties, that facilitate diagnosis and preparation and, on the other hand, there is more experience in preparation and migration projects.

The main tool is the SAP Readiness Check. This is a set of reports that are run on the system to be migrated, providing valuable information about system status, incompatibilities with S/4HANA, infrastructure sizing, custom ABAP code (Z), etc.

Another widely used tool is SNP’s CrystalBridge. This is useful both in the diagnostic stage and during the migration itself, as it allows the migration to be carried out with the Bluefield strategy or selective data migration.

With these and other specialized tools it is possible to make a very precise analysis and diagnosis of the SAP ERP systems that are candidates for migration. From this, it is possible to provide recommendations to improve the preparation, to estimate the efforts and costs of the project and to define the best migration strategy (Greenfield, Bluefield, or Brownfield).

Thanks to our accumulated experience, we can now offer a research, diagnosis and recommendations (RDI) service, with a well-defined project methodology, with activities distributed in the 11 domains that impact migration. In each of these, the activities are supported by tools such as Readiness Check, CrystalBridge and others that apply to specific domains, such as roles and profiles or ABAP code.

The deliverables of this service are as follows:

• Project Strategy recommendation.
• Detail of the necessary simplifications.
• Project efforts estimation.
• Detail of Add-ons and business functions compatibility.
• General Z code status.
• General data status.
• Infrastructure and architecture and sizing.
• Status of business partners.
• Status of interfaces.
• Conclusions, recommendations, and executive summary.

From this service, it is possible to make decisions based on a scientific analysis of the system, to decide a migration strategy and, from there, to budget and plan the migration project.

For more information on this and our other services we invite you to contact us..

Feedback/discussion with the author Glen Canessa, Novis Presales Director.