Our SAP S/4HANA pre-project – SAP implementation made easy

Introducing SAP S/4HANA presents many companies with challenges. A pre-project can make the switch considerably easier.
 

„Every success story is a tale of constant adaptation, revision & change.”

Very much in the spirit of this tweet by Richard Branson, the software maker SAP completely rebuilt and further developed its core product SAP ECC.

Since 2015, companies have been able to migrate to the new SAP S/4HANA system as a cloud or on-premise solution. A step that often sounds easier in theory, and is often felt to be less complex in preparation, than it ultimately turns out to be in practice.

However, the study „SAP S/4HANA – Ziele, Einführungsstrategien und Bedenken deutscher SAP-Anwender“ by PAC and BearingPoint showed that, only a short time after the market launch of SAP S/4HANA, many organizations were rather hesitant toward the migration. Reasons for this included the dreaded large effort of such a switch as well as the uncertainty about its benefits.

Today, a few years later, many companies still stand before or in the middle of the transformation process to SAP S/4HANA. Not least because, with the upcoming end of standard support in 2027 for previous SAP ECC models, a switch to the current Business Suite is unavoidable.

In this article, we'll reveal the trick with which you can make the introduction of SAP S/4HANA in your organization smoother and more successful. We'll say this much up front: a pre-project can work wonders.

What does introducing SAP S/4HANA mean for companies?

When (larger) companies want to steer their processes with the help of software, there's almost no way around SAP. The multinational group headquartered in Walldorf, Baden-Württemberg, sets the tone worldwide when it comes to software solutions for enterprise resource planning (ERP).

With the various applications from SAP, you can steer individual areas like controlling, procurement, production, HR or accounting, among others. In addition to the core „ERP“ (S/4HANA), organizations also have numerous solutions available for digital logistics, customer experience, intelligent spend management and human experience management (HXM). Modern technologies like machine learning, AI, blockchain, the Internet of Things and analytics functions are used as integral parts of SAP software products to link O-data with X-data in an event-driven way and with real-time processes.

The current product from SAP is S/4HANA. The Business Suite is the fourth generation of the ERP software applications and replaces the previous SAP ERP core products.

Introducing SAP S/4HANA ushers in a new era for companies. From 2027 – or 2030 with an extension – SAP will no longer provide maintenance for the previous SAP ERP. At the same time, the S/4HANA-based product portfolio offers users contemporary interfaces (SAP Fiori), mobilized business processes and innovative functions that go well beyond those of SAP ECC.

That's why many organizations are switching to the new S/4HANA model. But even though SAP software is a popular choice for the digitalization of business processes, switching from an established version to a newer and more powerful software product brings not only advantages. The decision also carries risks. Because the switch doesn't just mean effort, but also challenges companies in terms of their organization, IT architecture and change management. Not infrequently, SAP transformations lead to new „operating models“ and thus to profound (intended and unintended) cultural changes.

In our previous article “Digitalisierung mit SAP kann Spaß machen – kein Witz!” we already addressed the challenges that migrating to the new ERP suite can bring.

The complex requirements and highly individual starting points are a decisive factor why the majority of companies draw on external expertise during the migration or transformation.

We support you in switching to SAP S/4HANA! In doing so, we follow an approach that makes the transformation process not only more efficient, but above all easier – together with our clients, we run an SAP pre-project – we call it the Transformation Compass.

Our SAP S/4HANA pre-project

Our pre-project lays the foundation for your successful transformation to SAP S/4HANA. It allows you to start the main project, the implementation of the Business Suite, in a more structured way and with the best possible conditions.

The added value of such a pre-project is manifold:

• It ensures that, out of a heterogeneous level of knowledge, a shared understanding of the transformation approach emerges among everyone involved. Expectations and goals are aligned.
• Possible risks are recognized early, so there's enough time to develop appropriate measures.
• Through the collaboration in the pre-project, the project team members get to know each other before the actual transformation. The core team can thus define standards for collaboration early and build trust with one another.
• Through detailed, hands-on planning, migration processes can be implemented faster and more smoothly. In addition, the resources needed can be identified early and allocated more sensibly.
• The switch to SAP S/4HANA is thereby not only made easier, but also laid out sustainably.
• The pre-project also offers the chance to structure the tender process for the main project calmly, define a sourcing strategy and create important documents for a legally sound award.
   

This way, we can together meet the challenges associated with the transformation and create an innovative, dynamic ERP landscape that does justice to your wishes and needs.

Besides content-related considerations and the early derivation of strategies and measures, this above all includes the human component. Responsibilities have to be distributed and employees guided through the transformation process. Since people (customer + employee) are an essential success factor, they are the focus of all considerations.

Often, system integrators focus on purely technical questions of the transformation and are bound by tight, consultancy-internal requirements regarding contract design, as well as possibly to their own products or those of their partners. All of this can stand in the way of independent advice.

grandega doesn't act as a system integrator and advises in its projects – as well as in the design of its pre-projects – product-independently and vendor-neutrally.
 

The components of an SAP S/4HANA pre-project

In our experience, a pre-project for the SAP S/4HANA transformation can be summarized in five fundamental categories, with whose help you'll optimally benefit from the potential of the transformation. Depending on the development stage and conditions of the organization and your IT landscape, the weighting of the individual components can vary and/or further aspects can be added:

The grandega Transformation Compass is a building-block-based and individually adaptable model that orients itself to your needs. Together we choose the right building blocks of the pre-project to lay the cornerstone for an effective and efficient SAP S/4HANA implementation.

Would you like to seize the chance to take your digital transformation to the next level with the switch to SAP S/4HANA? Then contact us and start your SAP pre-project with us.