Creating a Business Case for Move to S4 HANA

SAP S4HANA is the next-generation business suite created to make it easier for businesses to operate in a connected and digital environment. It is built on the advanced in-memory platform, SAP HANA, and offers a personalized user experience with SAP Fiori. SAP S4HANA also provides new opportunities for innovation and business model simplification, such as the Internet of Things, digital core and big data. As a result, it is getting more and more appealing for businesses to think about switching to SAP S4HANA in order to acquire a competitive edge in today's digital business climate.

Moving to S4 HANA offers significant benefits to customers like;

• Lower Total Cost of Ownership: Compared to conventional ERP systems, S4HANA has a lower total cost of ownership since it uses less hardware and has an easier maintenance and update procedure.
• Improved User Experience: S4HANA has a modern, simple and an intuitive user interface that makes it easier for users to access and use data
• Real-time data processing: S4HANA allows for faster processing of large amounts of data, providing real-time insights for better decision making
• Simplified data model: S4HANA has a simplified data model, which reduces complexity and increases the speed of data processing
• Improved analytics: S4HANA includes advanced analytics capabilities, enabling organizations to gain insights into their data in real-time
• Increased agility: S4HANA provides a flexible platform for organizations to quickly adapt to changes in the business environment

However, along with the significant benefits offered by S4 HANA, organizations may also be compelled to move to S4 HANA because of the upcoming end-of-support for SAP ECC. As of 2027, SAP will no longer provide maintenance and support for ECC, which means that organizations that are still using ECC will need to find an alternative solution. Hence for many organizations, moving to S4HANA is the most logical choice, as it provides a modern platform with enhanced capabilities, while also ensuring that they are not at risk of being left without support in the future.

The move to S4 HANA is a significant investment, both in terms of time and money and hence organizations need to create business case. A business case helps organizations evaluate the potential benefits and costs of the move, and to make a well-informed decision about whether to proceed.

Creating a business case for moving to SAP S4HANA involves several key steps:

• Identify KPIs: Organizations need to identify the KPIs that are relevant to their business. It may include Operational and Financial KPI’s, such as the time taken to process an invoice, the accuracy of financial reporting, or time taken to close quarterly books.

• Establish Baseline for the identified KPI’s: Organizations need to establish the current performance of their KPIs, which serves as a baseline for comparison after the move to S4HANA.

• Benchmarking existing KPI’s: By benchmarking your current KPI’s against Industry Peers, organizations can identify areas of improvements and make more informed decisions about what to prioritize in your migration to SAP S4HANA

• Understand the organization's current systems, processes, and data: Identify any pain points, inefficiencies, or areas where the organization is falling behind its competitors. It will also help to identify which areas of the business will benefit most from a move to SAP S4HANA.

• Identify the benefits of moving to SAP S4HANA: This includes identifying the specific features and capabilities of SAP S4HANA that will help to improve business processes, increase efficiency, better manage data, and provide a personalized user experience. This also includes quantifying these benefits in monetary terms. This is the most challenging part of business case creation, and it requires experience to establish the value drivers from each business area of transformation and be able to forecast improvement benefits of moving to S4 HANA

• Assess the costs of migration: This includes evaluating the costs of hardware, software, infrastructure, Internal and External resource costs as well as the costs of training and support. It's also important to consider the costs of any necessary data migration, customizations, or integrations.

• Compare the costs and benefits of migration and understand the project economics: Compare the costs of migration to the benefits that will be achieved. This will help to determine whether or not the migration is a viable and cost-effective option for the organization. This also includes identifying financial metrics like NPV, IRR , Payback period, forecasted cashflow etc. to help determine the feasibility of moving to S4 HANA

• Communicate the business case: Once the business case has been developed, it's important to communicate it effectively to the relevant stakeholders. This includes clearly outlining the benefits of migration, the costs, and the migration plan.

It's also important to note that migrating to a new system can be a big decision and it's important to make a compelling argument for the investment in the project. A well-prepared business case helps decision makers to understand the potential impact of such a project on the organization

Capgemini has worked with a number of significant clients to develop business cases and assist them in determining the benefits of their migration to S4 HANA. The business cases created for customers by Capgemini's business case analysts are robust, objective, and of the highest quality to be able to evaluate feasibility and help secure funding as it provides a clear path forward.?

The business case analysts at Capgemini have a wealth of experience, and with the help of the company's in-house tools and best practices, pointed questionnaires for assessments of existing KPI’s, the business cases they produce for customers are rigorous, objective, and of the highest quality. Customers use this to assess feasibility and it helps them in securing funding for the project, as it provides a clear understanding of the investment required and the expected return on investment.