RISE is more than just Business Transformation – but this is okay…

[stevang]

RISE with SAP is Business Transformation journey, but it is (in the essence) move to SaaS and Clean Core – as much as possible, but I will come to this latter…

Why SaaS?

Well, Sales Force did it first (at least this is the advertisement?), Microsoft did it long time ago (not just Azure and cloud native, let’s look on Dynamics 365 and Power Platform), other are doing it (or already did it) – so I guess, this is a logical move for SAP as well....

RISE is a Business Transformation – but not only?

Yes, it is Business Transformation, but it can be very much Technical and Digital Transformation as well. Let’s be honest, moving from ECC to S/4HANA was a big Business Transformation, but moving i.e. from S/4HANA on-Prem to SAP Managed Cloud (i.e. RISE) may (or may not, depends) be very Technical Transformation as well.

Step by step…

When we were migrating ECC to S/4HANA it was very wrongly perceived as a pure technical move. Sometimes it was very difficult to find proper Business Drivers and position the migration projects properly.

Why? Well, I assume, many of the customers choose either S/4HANA on-Prem or Private Cloud (but basically also considered as on-Prem), keeping existing or redeveloping heavy custom developments in the new environment. Due to this, the full power of the standard solutions, coming with S/4HANA (and latter with BTP platform) was never properly exploited.

Just think about all the actions we needed to do in order to achieve Clean Core and move to Public Cloud SaaS at that time? And no Business stakeholders really wanted to give away the capabilities and functionalities they already got with existing heavy ABAP... As long as there was an option to stay with good-old custom developed features, why Change Management?

So, lessons learned, ECC migration to S/4HANA was a great move but too few customers went for real SaaS.

Things have changed

What has changed?

1. Business Technology Platform (BTP) is here, and in full power, and it hosts many components and products already, which can replace previously built custom capabilities and functionalities on our S/4HANA boxes. Make sense?
2. BTP is here and, hey – we can do a lot of great development in BTP… Did I say extensibility?
3. SAP Build with Low-Code/No-Code – not new, but now it can do much more than AppGyver…. 
4. We have tools like SAP LeanIX solutions and SAP Signavio Process Navigator / SAP Signavio Process Governance / SAP Signavio Process Intelligence – to really help us navigate Business Change Management, and more... 
5. And Joule AI, of course – how to forget! Looks like AI is now making world turn around – so why not…
6. Clean Core yes, but definition is now not the same as few years ago. Or at least the perception is not the same… No more fear that our IDOCs and RFCs will not work. Many add-ons are now fully Clean Core certified, which means no change is needed there either.
7. Finally, RISE is coming, and this time it might be that option to stay outside of RISE will slowly fade away…

SAP will probably not say RISE is not only Business Transformation, as simply nobody wants to repeat the past (mistakes?)… To make RISE more Business compelling, overall offering is bundled (directly or indirectly) with many additional BTP services, allowing any Business to start with either existing SAP or 3rd party products, but also to develop its own solutions using Low-Code/No-Code platform. Joule AI is there, and it seems one can really benefit from it, only if moving to RISE?

But it’s not only BTP – SAP is brining other solutions (not formally part of RISE, but there is certain synergy), which can provide on-top value, assuming we are (mostly) on Clean Core. I am talking about Business Data Cloud (BDC) with Data Products and zero-copy approach. Nice, very nice, and it’s now getting more mature – although still some work ahead...

So yes, RISE is significant Business Change Management overall – and could be a game changer, even though SAP’s competition did SaaS long time ago…

While RISE is huge Business Transformation, let’s not neglect also Technical Transformation part:

1. RISE, as well as new BTP services and products will invoke Change Management, and this will most certainly reflect in additional configurations, development or overall technical implementations.
2. During ECC to S/4HANA migration, ABAP code remediation was the biggest Technical Transformation effort. Achieving Clean Core for RISE is not exactly the same, but bringing in new BTP products or doing redevelopment (either with SAP Build or pro-code) is still not a small task.

Clean Core is the biggest Technical Transformation challenge – and it may bring the concern to some?

However, while full Clean Core is formal RISE requirements, there is always one but… Do not assume all your code is lost and you have to do it all from scratch. The definition of Clean Core has matured toward reality nowadays… Cleaning is still a task, but scope might not be so huge, as we might have envisioned at the very beginning?

My 2-cents

The bottom line:

• No matter how heavily customized your current S/4HANA box is (assuming you are already on S/4HANA) – it’s worth considering (seriously) about RISE. Just think about all those upgrades you do yourself, and you won’t have to do it yourself with SaaS…
• And if you are on ECC – what are you waiting?

Of course, this is only my 2-cents.

Finally, Enterprises go SaaS – it’s a fact, no matter one likes it or not. There will be always some pros and cons, but this is a different story…