From ECC to ..

When you start thinking about moving from your ECC to S/4HANA, whether in a private or public cloud operating model, I suggest considering the tools SAP provides, exploring the public cloud option, and being honest about your current operating costs.

SAP Has Tools for You

The first thing I ask when engaging with an organization considering a migration to S/4HANA is: Did you do the readiness check?

The readiness check is an analysis of your existing SAP system. It provides insights into your current usage and outlines some scope items for a migration project. Reading the early watch report is also a good exercise.

The readiness check is the starting point for analyzing your system. You can go deeper with SAP Signavio to explore optimization potential, but the readiness check will give you a first idea of your system's state and highlight areas that need attention. SAP S/4HANA includes many changes, so some transactions you use today may be replaced or made redundant by new functionality.

So, do the readiness check. Read it, get feedback from your business users, and discuss the results with your partners and SAP.

Think Public Cloud

SAP is focusing on public cloud solutions, which means innovation arrives first in public cloud offerings. But it's not just about innovation; it's about sustainable architectures too. SAP's north star architecture is designed around the cloud. That's why it makes sense to consider the public cloud when planning your system change. Even if you eventually choose a private cloud, you'll gain valuable insights:

If you systematically ask whether a business process you use is covered by a best practice process, you'll understand the fit with best practices. You can then make an informed decision on whether the best practice meets your business needs. Knowing this, you can decide whether to change the way you execute a process or prefer to modify the best practice. If you want to modify, you can do so in the BTP while keeping the core clean.

Going through this exercise will give you a backlog full of optimization possibilities, even if you don't go with the public cloud.

For reasons of manageability, adherence to standards, security, performance, and sustainability, I recommend going public cloud. However, there are cases where the functionality you need is not yet available in a public cloud architecture. Still, you can use the learnings from the public cloud process to keep the core clean.

Think public cloud. It allows you to make informed decisions and know where you fit best practices and where you don't.

Be Honest

I've done my fair share of business cases and know how to make things look good or bad. When comparing the operating cost of your on-premise system with RISE or GROW, be honest. "The cost exists anyway" is not an argument. Think about the future: If you have a SAP team today, who will still be around in 5, 10, or 15 years? And those who will be around, what are their ambitions?

Be honest about your skills. Can you ensure the security that cloud providers and SAP can provide?

And finally, be honest with yourself. Can you really say "no" to AI, innovation, and Joule?