The most important topic in the SAP ERP ecosystem continues to be the move from SAP ECC to SAP S/4HANA. According to SAPinsider’s 2024 Benchmark Report on SAP S/4HANA Migration, 54% of the companies surveyed said that the approaching end of maintenance is now the biggest factor impacting their plans around the solution. However, there are more reasons to consider moving to SAP S/4HANA. A significant factor is that it comes with advantages such as AI integration, real-time analytics, and increased scalability and performance. A successful implementation can help streamline workflows and operations within a company, leading to a more agile and efficient business.
That said, there are some roadblocks and challenges that companies may face when considering their move to SAP S/4HANA. Research by Resulting IT, a leading SAP consultancy firm, suggests that 63% of SAP customers were not aware of the differences and advancements that SAP S/4HANA brings when compared to their legacy ERP systems. This can make building a business case for the offering very hard.
Another major issue, especially for mid-size companies, is the lack of clarity of their existing business processes and the inter-relationships between them. Indeed, around 70% of customers surveyed by Resulting IT don’t have an up-to-date inventory of business process scope. This leads to ambiguity, making the move to a more sophisticated ERP system complicated and risky.
There are always pressing business needs that demand priority over long-term tasks like making the move to a better ERP system. Identifying key stakeholders who will own the change management process is the first big step towards allocating the right amount of time, resources, and expertise to this process. This team will then have to make a solid plan with measurable checkpoints to ensure a smoot transition.
Taking an agile approach makes any technological or business process transformation feasible and effective. Resulting IT recently published a free SAP S/4HANA roadmapping guide, which uses an 18-step approach. Companies considering SAP S/4HANA can make use of this guide to accelerate their move from SAP ECC to SAP S/4HANA. This Phase Zero guide is based on the roadmapping approach that Resulting IT has used to build S/4HANA business cases for major European companies on their S/4HANA adoption journey.
Through tech roadmaps, business process framework, documentation and strategic solutions map, Resulting IT provides SAP consultancy and delivery management services that can help organizations to implement SAP S/4HANA. This is a leap towards becoming a future-proof enterprise by leveraging the power of cloud, and the most advanced SAP ERP system.
