SAP S/4HANA Cloud, Public Edition: our experience

In the rapidly evolving landscape of enterprise technology, SAP S/4HANA Cloud, Public edition has emerged as a powerful solution to streamline business operations, enhance efficiency, and facilitate growth. This Software as a Service (SaaS) offering, managed by SAP on a public cloud infrastructure, has revolutionized the way businesses approach their ERP systems. In this article, we'll delve into the key aspects of SAP S/4HANA Cloud, Public edition, its Key features, Implementation strategies, Best practices, and our experiences around this solution, gained mainly by supporting our customers earlier this Year.

One of the distinguishing features of SAP S/4HANA Cloud, Public edition is a ready-to-run cloud ERP and includes standard out-of-the-box functionality. It supports the standard Industry best practices and aids in continuous Innovation. This ready to use approach ensures quicker implementations, making it ideal for businesses with standardized processes. This solution supports a wide range of industries and lines of business, making it a versatile choice for various business environments. Notably, it has a strong focus on manufacturing and professional services, with plans to expand its coverage to other industries in the roadmap.

Quick summary of key differences between the Public edition, Private edition and the on-Premise SAP S/4HANA ERPs:

Understanding SAP S/4HANA Cloud:

SAP S/4HANA Cloud, Public edition is a Public and Multi-tenant edition of the S/4HANA ERP suite, hosted on a public cloud infrastructure managed by SAP. This SaaS solution relieves customers of server and software maintenance concerns, as SAP takes care of updates and maintenance. The system offers standard out-of-the-box functionalities for various business processes, making it particularly suitable for businesses seeking rapid cloud migration without extensive customization needs. The solution caters to a wide range of Line of Business (LOB) and industries, with in-depth coverage for professional services and component manufacturing, and a roadmap for more industries to be added.

Choosing the Right Edition: SAP S/4HANA Cloud, Public edition(offered as part of RISE or GROW offering) , OR Private edition (offered as part of RISE offering)?- Decision between SAP S/4HANA Cloud's public and private editions depends on various parameters - ?key drivers, pain areas to address, business being supported, faster time to value, future goals etc. Some deciding parameters are shown in below :

Private Edition: This edition is tailored for New customers who are looking out for stable ERP system like SAP S/4 HANA to support their Business transformation journey OR for existing SAP ERP customers who are keen on migrating to the cloud while retaining their current processes and investments. It allows for customization, including structural changes and modifications to SAP source code. Businesses can enjoy full visibility and control, and expert configuration is possible. Key Features include :

1.?Suitability :

• Existing SAP ERP customers who has the desire to move to the cloud , does not want a complete process redesign and who wants to retain their current investment made to their existing SAP ERP system.
• New customers who wants a full, extensive, ERP functionality including partner add-ons with the ability to extend and enhance as required can opt for private edition

This is designed to provide innovation and cloud value while allowing the customers to retain their investments by converting their existing systems

2.Type of implementation: Brown field, Selective Data transition?and Green field

3.?Flexibility:

• Complete ability to customize(including structural changes) and also modify the SAP source code. However , our strong recommendation is to "Keep the Core Clean" , hence ensure / secure adherence to core model first and then support any extra requirements via extensions (as per 3rd point below)
• full visibility and control with access to the backend of the system through the SAP GUI
• have full access to the extensibility framework, supporting in-app and side-by-side extensions in addition to code enhancement and modifications. Expert configuration is possible with full IMG access, and the operating expense model is subscription-based.

Public Edition: Geared towards both existing and new customers, the Public Edition is for those who are ready for a fresh start with a clean system and are open to process redesign. While customization options are very limited compared to the Private Edition, businesses can leverage SAP Fiori apps for specific changes. For more complex customizations, the SAP Business Technology Platform extension suites come into play.

1. Suitability : Existing or new customers who has the desire to move to the cloud , who is ready to start fresh with a clean system by giving up on any existing investment made on any ERP solution and is open for a process redesign

2. Type of implementation: Green field only.

3. Flexibility:

• very less ,Customization made through SAP Fiori apps designed to facilitate the changes like Custom Fields and Logic, Custom Business Objects.
• For complex customizations that cannot be done through the existing Fiori apps, the SAP Business Technology Platform extension suites can be used and easily integrated to SAP S/4HANA Cloud.

4. Others Restrictions : No access to backend GUI, cannot modify SAP source code

Tools and Best Practices:

To ensure successful implementation of SAP S/4 HANA Cloud, Public edition, we would need to align with Tools and Best practices offered by SAP first. On top of this, Capgemini proposes a sustainable integration architecture using the BTP Integration Suite – Cloud Integration. This allows for seamless information exchange between systems and applications.

SAP Best Practices are the foundation for SAP S/4HANA Cloud - provides preconfigured content for all the core business processes. Covers all LOBs. Recommendation is to Stick to best practices as much as possible, they are out of the box, they are efficient, and they have been proven over the years.

SAP Central Business Configuration (CBC)?is the main tool using which most of the configuration work is done. There is no img/nspro transactions to perform config (like in on-premise version of S/4)

SAP Cloud ALM (SAP's cloud-based tool for application lifecycle management) helps manage the S/4 HANA Cloud implementation very similar to Solman.

Project Phases and Implementation:

For The SAP S/4HANA Cloud implementation project, recommendation is following the SAP Activate methodology. Different phases of the same are as illustrated in the picture below.

Discover phase , the initial phase that includes a Discovery Assessment, a detailed study conducted by SAP in collaboration with the customer, to assesses the fitment of the customer's processes with standard S/4HANA Cloud processes. This phase is typically carried out much before the start of the actual Implementation project.

The Digital Discovery Assessment (DDA) report identifies scope items, integrations, and potential gaps, serving as a foundation for detailed estimations. The DDA report can be used for the Pre-Sales cycle for Scope binding and Solution shaping exercises. ?

In case of 3 system landscape, a Starter (playground) for Customizing, Test (Q-system), and Production (P-system) is available as shown below.

Prepare phase corresponds to the Initiation and Planning phase of a traditional Project Management. The key activities in this phase are the project Kick-off, SAP Central Business Configuration setup, and the Starter system provisioning, Cloud ALM, and the starter project setup.

Explore phase is when the actual Fit-to-standard workshops happen. It is in this phase that the mapping of features / functionality of S/4HANA Cloud, Public edition (based on the versions – ex: 2208) to the processes required by the customer happens. Any gaps identified in this phase will have a detailed backlog with all the requirements prioritized. These gaps are either addressed via SAP incorporating them in their next Product release cycle (as per feasibility) OR covered by the partner like Capgemini via Extensibility options (in-app or Side by side extensions in BTP). We have also observed that sometimes all the requirements for the customer match (with those available in S/4 HANA cloud, public edition ) and that there may not be any gaps at all.

Realize phase involves configuration, development, and testing. This happens in an Iterative manner, where in, the detailed Product backlog created in Explore phase is divided into different sprints with the packages and we will incrementally configure, develop and test . All this happens in Q-system (test). Data required for test is brought in via data migrations into this system. Recommendation here is to get formal sign off from the key stake holders for the scope completed, so that any scope crepe later can be managed via Change management route.

In the Deploy phase, we must finish all the minor items we could have left and complete all the training and deploy all config / developments to Production (P) System. It is required to load the data again in Production system via Final Load.

The Run phase includes the initial Hypercare support and later includes any ongoing improvements and any innovations (as applicable).

Some Key Learnings:

• Best Practices from SAP will be used to Show-Tell in the Fit-to standard workshops.
• For Multi country deployment requirements, Core Template + Rollout to entities / countries model can be included. Initial Explore phase of Template can support Core Template covering all the commonalities across all entities/countries, for the rest of the deployments, the Adopt phase can help (instead of explore phase) adopt the template to that local entities to cover only Legal statutory requirements.
• For some large customers, 2 Tier-ERP architecture with On-Premise S/4 in tier-1 and S/4HANA cloud, Public edition in tier-2 can be part of the overall solution. SAP S/4HANA Public edition is now offered under RISE OR GROW with SAP construct to the customers.
• SAP S/4HANA Cloud deployment comes with its challenges, Suitability of the solution itself to customer requirements, SAP CBC maturity(org. structure setup, template rollout management, CLT/localization, transport management, etc.). SAP is already actively working on addressing these issues.
• A certified team, including a certified project manager, certified functional consultants are essential for successful implementation. Change management strategies(slightly different here ) must align with the cloud mindset.

Data Migration (can be done via DMC), sometimes data translation requirement may be needed, it must be supported by the customer / partner as it is a crucial aspect for multi-country deployments.

Conclusion:

SAP S/4HANA Cloud represents a transformative shift in the way businesses approach their ERP systems. By harnessing the power of the cloud and standardized processes, organizations can streamline operations, drive innovation, and position themselves for future growth. With the right use of best practices, tools, activate methodology and careful planning, it is indeed possible to convince Customers for opting for S/4HANA Cloud, Public edition and to deliver successful implementations of them to aid Customers in the seamless transition to this Cloud ERP.

At Capgemini, we take pride in our clients who have seamlessly embraced S/4HANA Cloud, Public edition for their ERP solutions, or in a 2-Tier ERP scenario. If you also want to?unlock the full potential of S/4HANA Public Cloud using Capgemini tools, best practices and methodologies, please feel free to contact us .

I would like to thank my colleague and co-author Michael Pavlik for his support.