Executive Summary--Activating an SAP S4 HANA Merged Client

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SAP implementations are complex.  Every time SAP comes up with a way to simplify configurations, the world changes.  Pandemics happen.  If Grexit does not happen, Brexit does.  At the same time, customers know that business profitability depends not on the process of implementing SAP but the results of it!

Recognizing this, SAP has come out with various methods to continually speed up the configuration process for complex corporate operations.

Here is a brief timeline:

⭐ First, SAP started with delivered configurations
⭐ Then came Best Practices
⭐ Rapid Development was the next improvement
⭐ Next came Model Company
⭐ Now, with this continuously improving process, we get Merged Client, for the best of SAP-delivered Configurations and Best Practices in one system!

A real-life scenario, however, is more complex: not just complex configurations but also multiple countries, languages and company codes.   As SAP says, if the “scope is large and isn’t covered by Best Practices content, [we should] choose a merged client”.  In this blog post, we walk through a real-life scenario where we implemented Merged Client for a customer with five languages and 11 countries.

This was borne out by our own experience where we have already estimated that the merged client will save us about four months’ worth of time in four scope areas, over using Best Practices alone:  Project Systems, Complex Final Assembly, Grouping, Pegging & Distribution, Government Contracting.

When should the Merged Client be set up?  Now, at the very beginning of your project!

Set up the right languages, the countries, activate the right business functions and do it right from the beginning!  For a step-by-step process on how to implement a real-life scenario please proceed to this blog post.

At the end, you will have the learnt how to create a Merged Client with the best of both worlds:  Best Practices in scope areas where they exist, and client 000 configuration where they don’t.  For questions or clarifications, please proceed to this Q&A area.  Problems with this process?  Let me know!

Acknowledgements to the following, without whom we would not have been successful:

hanumachastry.rupakula, Director of Development, SAP Labs

SAP CCO’s Office for their support, especially Mike Piazza and Ian McCallum

Raymond Langevin, Program Director, delaware North America

Karen Moss, Solution Architect, delaware North America