S/4HANA Resolve.

For today's highly agile business models, SAP S/4HANA can provide speed, flexibility, simplicity, faster analytics, lower costs, and the power of HANA's in-memory database.

SAP customers face some difficult decisions. Options include: remaining on ECC and hoping SAP postpones the support end-of-life date beyond 2027 (or 2030 with increased maintenance costs), preparing to migrate to S/4HANA, or abandoning everything and switching to an entirely different ERP system. 

IT complexity within organizations often delays S/4HANA migration projects. But for many companies, moving to S/4HANA makes sense. SAP reported over 17,500 S/4HANA subscribers in Q3 2021, up from 15,100 in the same period the previous year, according to Statista.

See more at: https://mig-now.com/conteudos/blog/fim-do-sap-enterprise-support/ 

Key Business Benefits

Experts say there are many benefits of SAP S/4HANA for businesses, including flexibility, lower costs, and faster analytics due to the in-memory HANA database. The system can also be easier to use than ECC and provide an easier transition to the cloud. Below are nine of the key business benefits of SAP S/4HANA. 

1. Difficulty updating business models?

SAP ECC was built for business models that weren't forced to change as rapidly as today's models are evolving to keep pace with multiple influences, including advanced technologies, customer expectations, supply chain disruptions, and hybrid workforces. But with expanded opportunities to apply data and shift to new business models, companies can make model changes more easily with SAP S/4HANA, said Anand Nataraj, senior program manager and SAP practice lead at Clarkston Consulting.

SAP S/4HANA was developed from the ground up and accounts for how businesses operate today. "If you want to make changes, acquire companies, or introduce new sales channels," Nataraj added, "this platform makes it easier and faster to enter those new areas." 

2. Need for simplicity in bringing acquisitions into the ERP environment? 

In the consumer goods world, for example, companies expand into new markets and add complementary products to their offerings by acquiring smaller brands. Before SAP S/4HANA, they had to bring these acquisitions into their core ECC systems, which was time-consuming and resource-intensive. With S/4HANA, companies don't necessarily need to integrate acquisitions into their core system but can instead keep them in the SAP public cloud. 

3. High ownership costs?

S/4HANA brings functions like Global Available-to-Promise (Global ATP) and master data governance to the core. Fewer boxes to manage means lower ownership and maintenance costs from an infrastructure perspective, Nataraj said. 

The shared infrastructure enabled by S/4HANA allows companies to move away from bare-metal infrastructures that require upgrades every five years, said Roan Low, an SAP solutions architect at managed cloud provider Syntax. Companies can now use public or private cloud deployments, along with SAP virtualization, to consolidate their infrastructure. 

Companies can achieve an 11% to 17% reduction in IT costs, it is estimated, by migrating from legacy physical infrastructure to the more cloud-native environment supported by S/4HANA. But planning is critical. An upgrade from ECC or any other ERP system, he warned, can lead to cost overruns if companies don't adequately plan the migration.

4. Faster analytical insights?

Running on the in-memory HANA database, S/4HANA exponentially increases performance. Its intelligent data design reduces aggregate tables and data redundancy for greater efficiency. Instead of storing data in a data warehouse and waiting for it to load, the core ERP system now provides faster analytics and insights. 

Business transactions and analytical capabilities existing within the same system also accelerate insights. "This allows companies to make decisions easily and quickly and complete business processes in a single application using a single source of truth, without having to switch between systems and applications," he explained. "It's a huge efficiency and time-saver."

5. Greater forecasting accuracy? 

Embedded AI and machine learning applications continue to evolve slowly but steadily in S/4HANA to improve modeling, predictive outcomes, and forecasting. A retailer, for example, could use the Universal Data Element Framework for demand forecasting based on historical data and incorporate third-party factors like weather. The retailer could then develop a model capable of predicting demand for a specific product in a given region. 

6. Faster period-end closings? 

For finance, a faster database should lead to quicker period-end closings. Companies can reconcile their accounting in real-time and receive reports showing their current financial position, adding that S/4HANA also enables companies to perform predictive accounting by applying AI and machine learning.

7. Proactively maintained assets? 

The in-memory database, machine learning, and AI allow companies to pair industrial IoT sensors with S/4HANA for predictive analytics, particularly on the factory floor, to monitor assets and receive alerts if a machine is malfunctioning. "Sensors operate 24/7 and constantly monitor vibration, temperature, and movement." Depending on baseline measurements, he added, companies can predict when a machine needs maintenance or might malfunction to avoid more expensive repairs or unplanned downtime. 

8. Simpler user interface?

SAP has not abandoned its GUI, the user interface familiar for over 20 years. But SAP redesigned it for S/4HANA to better reflect enhanced business processes. Additionally, companies can use the SAP Fiori user interface -- an HTML5-based platform (SAPUI5) embedded in S/4HANA or available as a standalone module -- for standard business tasks on iOS and Android devices. 

9. Automated tedious tasks? 

S/4HANA provides lightweight process automation so organizations can automate routine tasks, such as running reports that were previously done manually, freeing up employees to focus on more productive activities. Robotic process automation tools can also be added to accelerate and streamline business processes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Evjd-q6n5kU

Flexibility is key! 

Regardless of the conversion model selected, whether planning a completely new S/4HANA implementation or a brownfield migration, companies migrating to S/4HANA can gain the flexibility to add new business acquisitions, proactively monitor assets, and remove tedious tasks from their employees' workday.

Learn more about a fast, secure, and automated conversion:
https://mig-now.com/conteudos/blog/melhor-solucao-atualizar-erp-sap/ 

Sources:  

https://mig-now.com/conteudos/ 
https://www.techtarget.com/ 
https://blogs.sap.com/ 

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