Optimise, not Compromise: Your S/4HANA Journey

Have you ever been offered two differing options and none hit the spot, where they just feel like too much of a compromise? Traditionally, organisations looking at S/4HANA have been offered two options - Greenfield or Brownfield. A brownfield (a system conversion) can be quicker and cheaper which is appealing, however there is limited value and you can be forced to reimplement features that don’t exist in S/4HANA that were once there in SAP ECC. Whereas a Greenfield can be seen as too expensive and timely, however business value can be generated through optimising previously complex processes and the level of customisation significantly reduced.

Is there a best of both worlds option?

The hybrid method known as SAP SDT can enable you to get the benefits from both options without the limitations. This new approach will let you optimise your move to S/4HANA, rather than compromise.?

How does Hybrid work?

The hybrid approach is based on the brownfield concept, starting with the current SAP ECC. A system conversion is required to create a shell copy. The difference is that you create the shell without any data.?

This allows you to move only the data that you want into the new S/4HANA system, at which point you can look to transform or optimise that data. With a brownfield approach, all data is migrated (even if it is 10+ years old!). , but in a hybrid approach you can select the age of data that you actually want. You don't need to take the data you no longer need, such as legal entities that are no longer productive or other master data that you don't use anymore such as products you no longer sell, customers that don't exist anymore or profit centres that are no longer needed.

This means that you no longer need to have a big bang go live, which reduces the impact on your business users. You also start with a cleaner and smaller system reducing cost and more being aligned to your future direction. This level of flexibility enables you to optimise the approach.

A big difference between a system conversion and an historic upgrade is that within the system conversion some processes that worked in SAP ECC wont work in S/4HANA and therefore you have to redesign those processes within S/4HANA as part of your system conversion.

Processes around Rebates, Customer Service and the usage of Customers and Vendors all need to be redesigned so the level of business impact and change is higher than you may assume. With hybrid this is possible, you can modernise, simplify or reimplement new functionality - but not all functionality (as is the case for Greenfield programmes)

Some ageing SAP ECC systems are heavily bespoke. By following the Brownfield approach, you are left with all code, by following Greenfield you have no code and start from scratch aligning to fit to standard. With hybrid you can get the best of both approaches, keeping the code that adds value and removing code that does not.

You also have the ability to repurpose some code to align to the clean core principles

Does this sound too good to be true?

Moving to S/4HANA is never easy. It can be challenging getting a programme approved internally if you can’t prove the value. People will remember long ERP implementations and be put off by Greenfield as see risks in the approach. Brownfield is now a bit more complex than a traditional upgrade as there are significant differences between ECC and S/4HANA and therefore the impact on the business grows.? Serious consideration of the hybrid approach is recommended to ensure the programme does provide value, pace and a reduction of deployment risk. It is now time to optimise and not compromise.

If you think this could be an option for your business, drop me a note and we can chat some more.?