How Can Your Business Gain Value from SAP S/4HANA Implementation?
Companies need a digital core to overcome complications and drive digital transformation. SAP S4 HANA is a digital core ERP that can help companies overcome complexity and thrive in today’s disruptive market. Businesses are growing by the minute and are moving faster than ever before. Thanks to the innovative developments and progress of the digital world! However, today’s unmatched disruption calls for more.
Businesses need different ways to grow stronger from intense challenges that they might never have encountered before. C-level leaders and business owners are looking for ways to become more flexible. They understand that to keep up with ever-changing customer needs, they must invest in automation, analytics, and cloud technologies. The key priority has consequently been the move to SAP S/4HANA. S/4 HANA is an intelligent ERP software that helps you reinvent your business model by providing easy access to real-time data. Read more: SAP S/4HANA: Redefining End-To-End Solution.
C-level pioneers and leaders need to comprehend that the excursion to SAP S/4HANA isn’t only an IT work out. It is a basic piece of their more extensive computerized change. Entrepreneurs need to audit their business processes, start to finish information, and framework reconciliations. Such an audit would help them in advance a general business worth to direct their approach.
What makes your SAP S4 HANA journey complicated?
Before we get into how to get your business blasting with SAP S/4HANA, we should take a look at why some C-level pioneers and chiefs observe this excursion testing. Arranging and conveying your SAP S/4HANA excursion is a once-in-a-age open door for change and produces huge venture returns. Today, C-level leaders and executives struggle to answer these three hows:
How to articulate the business value case to generate substantial returns on investment?
How to ensure that the program remains business-led?
How to leverage the power of the cloud?
Pioneers and leaders should consider imaginative ways of saddling the force of SAP S/4HANA. It incorporates the planning stage, building stage, and running stage. Business worth can rise when new sources are fostered that empower the business to respond rapidly to recuperate from disturbance.
8 practical steps to gain business value from the SAP S4 HANA journey
Here are eight practical steps that answer the “how’s” and more:
- Articulate the business value case:
You may have already set aside a significant number of resources, both in terms of finances and staffing, to embrace the journey to SAP S/4HANA. Beginning this journey with a holistic, business-led value case will help you realize its full potential and make the best of these resources. Thankfully, there is a distinct and compelling business case for every digital function. What does this mean for C-level leaders and executives? It would mean that they must take the time to create a fact-based business value case that can be used as an anchor throughout the SAP S/4HANA journey. Why? Because a well-defined business value case will help you fund all digital transformation efforts, including SAP S/4HANA.
- Avoid a ‘technically configured’ approach A technology-led approach might not deliver the expected results. Why? In most cases, C-level leaders may find it daunting to understand their role in the digital transformation journey. So, they prefer to delegate the responsibility to others. Such delegation instantly turns the digital journey into a secondary priority. Since others may not understand the business as you do, it will become challenging to configure the transformation to be truly business-led. C-level leaders and executives must realize the potential and take an active role in the transformation. You can then think strategically to create a clear path to a more agile and insight-driven business.
- Unleash the power of cloud solutions to make quick and informed decisions, and combine your internal and external data sources. Cloud-based applications and infrastructure will help you create a data strategy to deliver real-time insights. A well-defined cloud strategy will enable you to align the data, identify the best data sources, understand how to measure and maintain quality data, and manage your data. Read more: Why It’s Time to Embrace Cloud and Mobility Trends to Recession-Proof Your Business?
- Integrate suppliers before it is too late for specific industries such as automation, supply ecosystems are strategically important. Though it may seem expensive, ensure to integrate your suppliers before SAP S/4HANA is well advanced. Such integration can be less expensive where custom developments are not warranted.
- Leverage AI to boost your current and future business models Businesses worldwide face extraordinary challenges and disruption today. Automation-driven growth will be the only constant during this period of uncertainty. Though SAP may not provide everything you currently need to build your business, it allows you to integrate non-SAP automation for various goods and services. Marrying historically siloed data with AI techniques can thus contribute to demonstrable ROI. Read more: How SAP Supports Effective Business Continuity Planning
- Integrate third-party content into SAP S/4HANA SAP S/4HANA has been the backbone of most IT strategies. It provides critical infrastructure to support a variety of use cases. Most organizations know that connecting to third-party content is crucial for their ongoing success and competency. Such integration can help you create unique sector-specific use cases, so do not hesitate to integrate third-party content. Read more: Deploying SAP S/4HANA: Methodologies and Tools to Adopt
- Use available data to speed up innovation lead time Intelligent data management can help you break down information silos and provide you with the insight and control necessary to make tactical business decisions. When organizations collaborate to share and manage data, both parties can create tremendous potential value for their businesses. However, tapping into the value of data ecosystems can be a challenge. You can overcome this challenge by starting small and scaling later and involving partners early on. SAP S/4HANA allows you to effortlessly harness their data by breaking down your corporate strategy into different streams. Thus, businesses can dramatically lower risk and accelerate implementation.
- Leverage SAP Cloud Platform SAP S/4HANA cloud database allows you to make faster decisions. Since you can integrate data from across your enterprise, you can develop applications and tools required to store volatile data. SAP Cloud Platform allows you to avoid repeating failures and minimize cost. Manage the change impact The SAP S/4HANA journey brings in a significant change. Treating this journey as a minor upgrade can lead to missed opportunities to leverage its full potential. This makes it extremely important to partner with the right service provider to guide you.
Value of SAP S/4 HANA Blog Series
With the digital economy accelerating exponentially, and digitization disrupting business operations, staying competitive in the digital age requires speed, agility, and innovations. Many CEOs see the next 2-3 years as more critical, by keeping pace with technology change and not losing their competitive edge by changing their underlying IT platform to meet digital economy challenges.
According to SAP User Groups (SUG), Companies should start transitioning to SAP S/4HANA from SAP ERP Central Component, popularly known as SAP ECC by building a professional business case for a value-driven SAP S/4HANA adoption strategy.
Also, SAP ECC is soon reaching end-of-support in the coming 2-3 years and SAP is encouraging all its ECC customers to move to their fourth generation ERP – S4 HANA.
S/4 HANA will become the flagship offering for enterprise resource planning. This has generated many conversations regarding new features, the business benefits of migrating from SAP ECC to S4 HANA, and the technical roadmap that can ensure a smooth transition.
Let us try to understand the advantages of S4 HANA
S/4 HANA has the flexibility to add quickly extensions in its Cloud Platform. of all ECC (Enterprise Central Component) functions which include APO, CRM, SRM, EWM, and TM
The HANA database can provide real-time reporting and predictive analysis as Online Transactional Processing (OLTP) and Online Analytical Processing (OLAP)
S/4 HANA has simplified table and data structures by removing outdated or non-essential functionalities and thus has reduced complexity in its cloud edition to keep core development at a minimum and provide non-core customizations via external applications and thus making adoption of new functionality non-disruptive
Standard integrations are available for plugging in other cloud solutions like SAP Success Factors, SAP Ariba, etc. by effectively reducing the complexity of the IT landscape. Also has the ability to enhance its functionality with extensions or to build new applications to provide integration, UI/UX, IoT, Analytics, and Database-level services.
S/4 HANA harnesses SAP Fiori at its front end. This provides powerful personalization options for front-end users and delivers a superior user experience
For a vast and comprehensive S4 HANA aspects, the changes brought by S4 HANA can be read on the SAP portal.
Considering the above advantages and our past experiences with various clients, EDCS would advise the following approach to build a strong business case for a value-driven SAP S4 HANA adoption strategy.
The first step would be to have strategic discussions with different LOB owners to assess existing business pain points and identify areas for improvement. The next step would be to identify SAP S/4HANA benefit areas & compile industry benchmarks for assessment
The next phase is all about defining potential improvement areas, identifying cost elements and quantifying benefit and cost areas. Finally, we put together a cost-benefit analysis and connect all dots of qualitative and quantitative assessment to build a professional business case.
By building a strong business case, the below benefits can be realized in the organization.
Business Processes can be reinvented in real-time with speed and agility for the business operations
The entire IT landscape can be simplified and reductions are achieved in the overall data footprint of the organization, making business processes and operations leaner, agile, and more efficient.
S/4 HANA saves significant hardware costs, operational costs, and reduced the total cost of ownership, and also provides all stakeholders with live business data and real-time embedded analytics, thus improving business planning, execution, and reporting generation.
Real-time insights from the digital core of S/4 HANA enable faster decision-making. This can help speed up the way businesses react to dynamic market conditions and respond to competition. Ultimately, this helps in improving revenue and profits.
Are you ready to make the move from ECC to S/4 HANA?
EDCS can help your smooth transition to S/4 HANA with our innovative approach and in-depth understanding of S/4 HANA and thus helping you in your system consolidation and reducing your production downtime
Why wait?? Mitigate your ECC-to-S/4HANA CHALLENGES by choosing EDCS as your partner.
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