SAP has been developing enterprise software to help businesses manage their operations and customer relations from the last two decades. Being a key player in the industry has allowed them to gain and maintain the market leader position. As the industry and market needs evolve, so do their offerings. Industry 4.0 has finally come and SAP has heavily invested in a new generation of ERP solutions under the S/4HANA brand. SAP has started to focus on innovation and speed as these are the critical aspects of success for any business in today's economic environment caused by the pandemic. The new generation of ERP suites offer enhancements such as simplified business processes and flexible data architecture for real-time data. On top of that, new capabilities such as artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, along with advanced analytics, are changing the game. However, impressive this all may sound; it also represents a huge challenge for enterprises to undertake as it implies business disruption and turbulent change management implications.
SAP’s new venture has brought its existing client base to a crossroads: should they carry on as they are or take a new path, and if so when? SAP is keen on nudging their clients to migrate to S/4HANA before 2025 as it will allow their clients to run exclusively on their own database. As the SAP ECC era comes to a close, so does their support for clients not running on S/4HANA, their new flagship ERP Software. The deadline for support and disruption caused by the pandemic has made this upgrade somewhat necessary to succeed. Lockdown, remote work, travel and work restrictions are all the more reasons for more simplified and flexible business processes and data accessibility. The pressure is felt more now than ever due to budget challenges, lack of resources, and risk. How can industry leaders navigate this challenging decision? Let’s look at some of the reasons behind this dilemma and how it can be solved.
Moving to S/4HANA suddenly becomes a matter of when and how. As of now, the industry has two mainstream options: a technical upgrade, otherwise known as Brownfield, or a complete re-implementation, known as Greenfield. Why are these two approaches not good enough, and what about them is crippling organizations in making a move?
Let’s first explore the Brownfield approach. As mentioned earlier, the Brownfield approach is essentially a technical upgrade. What makes this approach different from Greenfield is that you do not need to let go of all your previous data and processes. This approach allows you to keep your previous historical data but, the main issues are that there is much re-work involved and the migration has to be done in one go, causing a major downtime in business. For enterprises that have a very low tolerance for downtime, this can be very difficult.
On the other hand, we have the Greenfield approach. This approach seems like a fresh new start, and it’s very attractive for organizations that know they have long, complex, and messy processes that aren’t efficient anymore. But, this approach also has a difficult pill to swallow. It requires the organization to let go of all its previous valuable data and systems even if they were efficient. It’s not easy for organizations to throw away years of investment in customized systems and valuable data. So, you must be wondering, other than this is there truly no other choice? Well, there is a new and optimal path to S/4HANA.
SNP has developed a S/4HANA migration path that combines the strength of both approaches known as BLUEFIELD™. When migrating with BLUEFIELD™, there is no need to throw away valuable systems and data or cause major downtime to business operations. Migrating with BLUEFIELD™ allows you to benefit in terms of quality, cost, and time, giving you an accelerated ERP transformation. Their automated analysis and scope process that uses their CrystalBridge® platform enables you to get a 360-degree view of your existing SAP landscape. Easily select your current landscape components and migrate them to your new environment faster than ever. With all this preparation, your SAP transformation only requires one test cycle and then a single go-live migration project. BLUEFIELD™ gives you a clear roadmap of your migration path and eliminates any doubt or risk.
CrystalBridge® provides you with the perfect solution to devise and plan a successful SAP migration project so that you can start your journey without any doubts. Special modules enable you to perform detailed analyses of your SAP landscape and other systems and software. This overview is the perfect solution to plan your journey, migrate your data precisely, and archive historical data. Drastically reducing your project duration, saving disk space, downtime, test phases and overall costs.
SNP’s BLUEFIELD™ approach powered by CrystalBridge® simplifies and accelerates your move to SAP S/4 HANA with near-zero downtime and with no business disruption.
Headquartered in the UK, Abacus Cambridge Partners is a technology, consulting, and outsourcing firm offering future-ready solutions to its clients worldwide. With a presence in 30 countries and over 1200 SAP projects under our belt, we are a preferred SAP Gold partner in the EMEA region providing unmatched services and smart and scalable business solutions to our clients to transform into truly dynamic, agile and adaptable enterprises. Abacus has been a recipient of several awards and accolades by SAP. Learn more about abacus at www.abacuscambridge.com