Benefits Of Migrating To SAP S/4HANA
As one of the most sought after ERP solution providers in the world, SAP strives to offer innovative solutions and strategic upgrades to its product lines on a regular basis. In keeping with today’s trends to provide the best technology available to its customers, SAP has moved beyond its competition with its intelligent ERP platform, SAP S/4HANA.
SAP S/4HANA is a significant upgrade from traditional ERP solutions and empowers organizations to up their game with advanced capabilities like AI and embedded predictive data analytics. Launched in 2015, SAP S/4HANA has quickly become one of the most preferred ERP platforms.
As more and more organizations migrate to SAP S/4HANA, is it time to consider the same move? With its numerous benefits, SAP S/4HANA can add significant value to businesses both big and small.
BENEFITS OF MIGRATING TO SAP S/4HANA
Faster, more efficient data processing
SAP S/4HANA offers increased scalability to better support data storage and data analysis needs. And because of the in-memory design of SAP’s HANA database, scaling up does not adversely impact processing speeds. In fact, SAP S/4HANA enables planning, execution, analytics, and report generation on live data at exponential speeds. This increased speed can help companies make informed data-driven decisions much faster than ever before.
Streamlined business processes
SAP S4/HANA’s standardized platform enables companies to streamline their business workflows. It empowers organizations to go beyond previous IT limitations and adopt newer technologies for improved communication and integration across the organization.
User-friendly design
One of the most significant and visible advantages of SAP S/4HANA is its streamlined, user-friendly design across multiple form factors, including desktop, tablet and mobile devices. The solution is delivered with intuitive interfaces and easily accessible data which is essential for efficient management and IT administration. The SAP S/4HANA architecture consists of a centralized network and hardware resources, making it more effective for digital transformation. This is especially significant if migrating to the cloud as S/4HANA was designed to optimize for the cloud environment automatically.
Optimized Total Cost of Ownership (TCO)
Companies running SAP S/4HANA are seeing benefits through a simplified IT infrastructure. The solution can process larger volumes of data and also includes transactional capabilities. This means companies can do more with less which helps reduce ongoing operational costs, such as hardware, as well as shortening the time-to-value. Deployment options such as cloud, on-premise, or hybrid can further streamline the IT landscape, reduce unnecessary investments in infrastructure, and optimize the total cost of ownership (TCO).
Innovative Technologies
SAP S/4HANA is one of the key drivers behind the accelerated move to the cloud. Many companies have come to realize that embracing the latest technology advancements can help support their growth strategy. SAP S/4HANA is delivered with AI, machine learning, and embedded, real-time predictive data analytics. SAP continues to innovate the solution with new technologies such as conversational UI, predictive accounting, and more. It also enables access to big data and the Internet of Things (IoT).
Forward And Backward Adaptability
SAP’s development team has worked to ensure that SAP S/4HANA can easily integrate with other SAP applications. This includes both SAP solutions available today and SAP solutions that will be launched in the future. This feature is especially helpful for organizations already running SAP products such as Ariba, SAP Analytics Cloud, and FieldGlass; SAP S/4HANA can be easily integrated with their existing SAP landscape.
Greater Resilience And Market Relevance
During times of market volatility, the resilience and relevance of IT assets are put to the test. Businesses need to operate solutions that are future-proof and resilient to market fluctuations. Upgrading legacy ERP platforms to SAP S/4HANA can help companies quickly adapt to changing market dynamics with the goal of building a business that stands the test of time and can more easily adapt to market changes.
By the year 2025, SAP ECC, the legacy ERP platform, will be retired. Organizations relying on ECC should act now to transition to SAP S/4HANA to help ensure seamless business continuity.
Enhanced Performance
Since SAP S/4HANA only runs on SAP’s HANA flagship in-memory database, it provides companies improved performance for complex and time-critical business processes. It is equipped with a range of innovative features and capabilities that account for this superior performance. For instance, SAP S/4HANA includes real-time, powerful supply chain applications that support forecasting, planning, and timely decision making. Every quarter, SAP releases new features and apps in S/4HANA that make its core more competent, efficient and intelligent.
Conclusion
Considering all the potential business implications, transitioning to SAP S/4HANA is a significant decision. But functioning with a legacy ERP solution can potentially pose financial and technical issues as it becomes more and more outdated and maintenance is no longer available. It is important to carefully plan a migration to S/4HANA and ensure the business is ready for the transition. There is much more than just technology to consider with an SAP S/4HANA migration; inadequate planning can lead to confusion and poor user adoption, resulting in unnecessary business challenges.
Companies that start planning their migration now give themselves plenty of time to understand the full capabilities of S/4HANA and design a migration plan that will have minimal impact on business operations. Companies that decide to wait may face a situation similar to the last minute Y2K scramble that occurred right before the turn of the century. Don’t let that happen to your company.
