The great migration from ECC to S/4HANA has begun. In the never-ending quest to gain a competitive advantage over the competition, organizations are continuing to seek ways to optimize their ERP output. So, in a time where to stand still is to fall behind, it’s those who learn how to embrace the difficulties of change; that thrive. For an organization willing to take advantage of this opportunity, the question is, “How do we continue to maintain our existing legacy system whilst also shifting our focus to migrating to S/4HANA.” The short answer is “digital synchronization”.

Automated digital synchronization

While undergoing the challenges of supporting an ECC system and building the new digital environment, anything that can be automated should be automated. That’s where Rev-Trac comes in. The quick win is the synchronization of compatible code. After consideration for application in the new environment, it can easily be migrated across systems using Rev-Trac’s automated transport migration functionality. Things start to get tricky in instances where the code is incompatible or there is a conflict with the upgrade track. This is where Rev-Trac really adds value.

Managing work orders across systems and parallel development

Where code compatibility is an issue, Rev-Trac will queue worker orders generated from the legacy system for consideration in the new environment as an outstanding item. This prevents unexpected behaviours and processes which have not been accommodated post cutover. Whilst this approach introduces an array of new challenges, Rev-Trac significantly assists teams in the following ways:

• Error detection becomes especially important when working with a parallel development strategy. Rev-Trac’s extended, cross-landscape object locking enforces communication between development teams and ensures decision-making can focus on manually merging changes to avoid downgrades post go-live.
• DevOps orchestration becomes business as usual as Rev-Trac’s workflow automation ensures that business units interested in the progress and control of changes between environments are informed and capable of making decisions about synchronization.
• Workflow configurations set up in Rev-Trac automatically inform teams when change is ready to be applied to their respective environment, including changes originating from legacy technologies that need to be applied to S/4HANA systems.
• Automatically retrofit suitable changes into the S/4 environment with Rev-Trac, allowing development teams to focus on higher-order tasks.

How does this apply to your digital transformation?

Whatever your approach to shifting to S/4HANA (Greenfield, Bluefield or Brownfield), Rev-Trac provides an option to keep the environments in synch as the transformation progresses. If you adopt a Brownfield approach, your legacy SAP environment must continue to support the business while your S/4HANA system is built. As a result, any changes need to be reflected in the S/4HANA system when testing and adjusting occur. In this instance, Rev-Trac creates a suitable work order to ensure its implementation and synchronizes code where possible. It provides warnings of any conflict during the synchronization to appropriate developers or teams. Are you ready for a digital transformation, or have you made the shift and need to synchronize changes between legacy systems and your new S/4 environment? Please contact one of our SAP change management experts for more information.