ERP IMPLEMENTATION
A new journey to the cloud With the maintenance deadline for SAP ECC 6 on the horizon, companies are looking to migrate, but which is the right way forward? Don Valentine, commercial director at Absoft, explains more.
ERP implementation has changed. And for those companies facing the 2027 maintenance deadline for SAP ECC 6, that is good news. In today’s cloud-first, ‘adopt not adapt’ model, there are no more white boards. No more consultants offering to customise software to meet any business need. And no more long-drawn implementations followed by expensive and disruptive upgrades and a complete loss of commitment to using technology to accelerate change. Instead, SAP is leading a push to ‘protect the core’, advising companies to avoid customisation, use Best Practice Scenarios to define processes and embrace the six- monthly product enhancements. But this is a significant cultural change for everyone involved; companies need to look hard at their SAP consultants, ensure they are on board with standardised implementations and have the skills to support a different approach to innovation and competitive differentiation. Ready to move Companies are gearing up for the move to SAP S/4HANA, with research from the UK & Ireland SAP User Group (UKISUG), revealing that 70% of companies planning to move to S/4HANA will do so in the next 36 months. While the 2027 maintenance deadline for SAP ECC 6 is, of course, a key driver in migration plans, new functionality (49%) and wider business transformation (47%) were also cited as key considerations.
But while companies are getting ready to migrate, how many are comfortable about the right way forward? SAP’s cloud-first model has fundamentally changed the approach to software implementation. Wherever possible, SAP is advocating a ‘no customisation’ strategy, pushing an ‘adopt not adapt’ model. With this approach, companies can not only fast track implementation but also avoid the costs and complexities associated with upgrading customised solutions. And yet, the UKISUG survey revealed that 72% of organisations say existing customisations present a challenge when moving to SAP S/4HANA. This is down on last year’s results (92%) and 24% of organisations plan to remove customisations entirely – replacing them with standard functionality – compared to 12% in 2021. While this suggests the standard model is gaining traction, more clearly must be done to provide SAP ECC users with understanding of what a move to S/4HANA in the cloud offers and entails. Three options S4/HANA is only available to companies in the cloud – but that doesn’t mean there is no choice. Businesses have a range of options to explore. The first option is Software as a Service (SaaS) S/4 HANA, where companies use the standard product in a public cloud. There is no need to think about customisation or choice of hosting location and product enhancements are automatically available with every new release, providing a route to continuous improvement. The second is the Private Cloud Edition (RISE) of S/4HANA, where companies can choose a hyperscale – Google, AWS or Azure – to provide the hosting service. This approach can appeal to companies with concerns about the security of a multi- tenanted cloud model – as well as those wanting to control when upgrades and enhancements are deployed. A third option is to replicate an on-premise
Don Valentine commercial director
absoft.co.uk
Wherever possible, SAP is advocating a ‘no customisation’ strategy, pushing “
an ‘adopt not adapt’ model.
”
12
Powered by FlippingBook