Moving to SAP S/4HANA requires business leaders to be aligned to their goals and the migration/implementation team to establish a strong clean-core foundation from which to launch the project. Planning up-front for SAP S/4HANA migration/implementation, or the work at Phase Zero reduces risks and sets the stage for a smoother, more successful project. The goal of this work is to set context for the SAP Project Kick-Off and Preparation Phase. It ensures the project scope is well-defined, the deployment strategy is evaluated, stakeholders are aligned, the budget is approved, and the right implementation partners are in place. These activities are especially critical for businesses moving from ECC 6.0 to S/4HANAhere the projects (implementation and migration) involve technical changes, processes that need to be redesigned, data migrations, and organizational change. Applying a Phase Zero methodology, or pre-planning before the project kickoff, can help an organization validate that it is ready to move forward with the SAP project in a clean-core mindset. Keith Johnson, a Practice Manager at Titan Consulting, notes that Phase Zero work is about “laying a foundation” and acts as a pre-kickoff checklist. Here are five steps to ensure the business is ready before Phase One:

• Step 1 - Evaluate the Business Environment: Define business goals, secure executive sponsorship, build a project team and confirm the project budget.
• Step 2 - Define the SAP ECC Technology Environment: Assess the current ECC 6.0 environment as it fits into a long-term plan of SAP’s “clean core” model.
• Step 3 - Choose a Migration Approach and Solution Scope: Will this be a new implementation (Greenfield) or system migration/conversion (Brownfield)? What modules will be implemented across business units and locations?
• Step 4 - Engage Implementation Partners: Select partners based on their experience in your industry. Ask for clear examples of similar use-case success and ensure they include strong recognition from clients of the partner’s ability to meet deadlines. This selection process will ensure minimal impact on the day-to-day operations of the business.
• Step 5 - Develop a Roadmap and Timeline: Although this timeline will not be final, start with a preliminary roadmap for the project. Use the timelines to test and gain alignment on the project path with broad sets of stakeholders within the business.

Critical to Success is Defining the ECC to SAP S/4HANA Path Together – Business & IT

For Step 1, project leaders can often validate the business environment with the resources and knowledge they already have available. However, Step 2 requires additional time and collaboration between business and IT stakeholders. The process of evaluating the technology moving forward is crucial to ensuring success. This structured analysis is often pushed back until project phases after the project kick-off and can significantly slow, or even halt, the ability of teams to meet pre-defined project deadlines and milestones. The goal of Step 2 is to take a structured approach to analyzing the current state of the ECC 6.0 system, with an eye toward the project goals. Through this structure, business leaders can establish where there are opportunities for simplification and standardization that can be formalized as part of the project kick-off and plan. Titan Consulting, a trusted consultant firm with 25+ years of SAP experience and is a Silver Partner, suggests that business leaders analyze the following things when going through Phase Zero:

• Business Scope: Define what business units and processes are within the scope for the project. If the project is global, be sure to document time-zone and language differences. Create a list of key functional subject matter experts for the project.
• Functionality GAPs and What’s to be Adopted: Identify how S/4HANA changes or eliminates legacy functionality. What new functionality will teams need or want to take advantage of in SAP S/4HANA?
• System Requirements: Estimate database and system requirements to support the new SAP S/4HANA-based landscape (e.g., automation, AI).
• Custom Code that Needs Documentation: Analyze and inventory custom code. What will move to SAP S/4HANA and what will be retired?
• Application Migrations: What applications will move to SAP S/4HANA and what will be retired?
• Integrations: Check SAP systems, solutions, and third-party ECC 6.0 integrations for readiness or necessary updates.
• Master Data Management: Perform a vendor and customer master data evaluation to determine its completeness, accuracy, and any existing duplication issues. If issues exist, develop a plan for improving data quality and integrity.
• Financial Data Quality: Validate the structure and quality of key financial data to ensure it is project ready.

This approach creates a strong partnership between the functional leaders within the business, IT, and project management. Many of the critical decisions about what to keep, what to simplify, and how to position systems for long-term agility are made in Step 2 of Phase Zero. You will also want to hypothesize the implementation approach. With this hypothesis in hand the team can test whether the analysis performed in Phase Zero validates the approach or if it will need to be modified. Titan Consulting knows the challenges that come with SAP S/4HANA migrations and implementations as businesses take on these large-scale projects. Establishing clear priorities across the business early and taking time to perform a detailed analysis of the ECC and technology environment are critical to success. Applying Titan’s Phase Zero approach can ensure plans are executed following a clean-core approach and that teams can quickly mitigate common risks associated with SAP S/4HANA migrations and implementations. Titan Consulting helps finance leaders solve some of their biggest challenges by using their expertise in SAP BTP. Through driving process automation, data integration, analytics, and AI innovation, Titan helps business professionals with automating GL account clearing, vendor invoice processing, order-to-case, and procurement processes, and more.

What This Means for SAP Insiders

• Step 2 in Phase Zero offers a systematic way to evaluate what should move forward with a clean core in preparation for an SAP S/4HANA project and what to leave behind with the ECC 6.0 environment.
• Pre-planning, or Phase-Zero work, is key to ensuring that the SAP S/4HANA implementation or ECC 6.0 migration projects stay on track to meet deadlines and milestones.
• Phase Zero requires a strong partnership between an organization’s functional leaders and IT professionals to ensure proper identification of business processes that are customized or supported through SAP applications or third-party integrations.