SAP Revolution Journey from ECC to S/4 HANA

[SonalShuklaca]

SAP Revolution Journey from ECC to S/4 HANA

 Introduction: Hey guys, hope you all are doing good. Today, I am here to talk about SAP ERP software. I recently started learning this software with objective to work and build my career in this technology as I came to know that this business ERP is world most popular and highly adoptable by big companies of various industries like- Amazon, Google, big Automobile companies, Steel manufacturing companies, various service company like Banks, IT companies like Accenture, Tech-Mahindra, E&Y, Oil & Gas industries, Production companies etc.

I am a beginner and have a great interest to learn or deep dive into it and thus keep searching for good explanatory blogs on the same by our SAP senior consultant which I got but in a very scatter manner so with thought to provide relevant SAP and its generation revolution information in a very crispy manner which helps many of us like me who wanted to start their career.

Before I start, I heartfully thankful to our mentor Mr. Vikram Fotani who has given me opportunity to learn and grow.

What is SAP- It is called “System Application and Product in Data Processing”. It is an enterprise application software which helps Industries or Companies to run and record their businesses operation end to end on daily basis of any size and types of business operations. It is highly successful ERP software system that includes all the tools and processes which required to run business successfully for any industries or companies which covers Manufacturing Resource, Production Planning, Financial Management & Accounting, CRM, Human Resources, Customer Services, Payments and many more.

It has been a great and successful history, let me give you a small glance of it.

• It has been founded in year of 1972 in Walldorf, Germany by five IBM’s engineers. It has started with R/2 in 1979 and then came up with R/3 in 1992 which used to call three tier architecture consisting of the database, the application server, and the client later then the most popular product launched in 2004 which was called ERP which was populated with name ECC (ECC stands for SAP ERP Central Component, which is an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system that's part of the SAP Business Suite. It's one of SAP legacy applications. It is an integrated software solution and highly successful product.
• Further there was a revolution when SAP launched its 4th generation product in 2015 SAP S/4 HANA which is in-memory database platform, it’s an intelligent enterprise resource planning software which can be deployed On-Premises or On Cloud or Hybrid. It has unique feature of real-time data processing and analytics and that makes it very advance revolutionary upgrade to ERP of SAP. Here, S stands for Simple and 4 stands for fourth generation.
• Year by year SAP have upgraded the S/4 HANA products based on customer feedback and keep on releasing its new updated version which are more uploaded with new feature from its previous version along with fixing of inconsistency in particular product and bugs. Now today we are having SAP S/4 HANA 2023 (108).

SAP S/4 HANA Deployment Options:

SAP S/4 HANA On Premise- In this common model, the customer acquires a license and installs the software in their own data center. It has all industries business solution, extendable, modifiable and yearly innovation get released.

SAP S/4 HANA on Cloud (Public Cloud)- In this model, the customer rents the software for a certain period of time. SAP deploys the software in the SAP-owned data center. Public cloud software typically runs in a multi-tenant server, where multiple tenants, or customers share the resources of the server.

SAP S/4 HANA on Cloud (Private Cloud)- Private cloud software typically runs in a single tenant server, where only a single tenant (customer) uses the resources of the server. Software runs in a private network protected by a firewall, similar to an on-premise system.

The main differences between private cloud and on premise is who has responsibility for maintaining the server, and the license for the software installed on the server.

SAP S/4 HANA Hybrid- In this model, required applications are operated partially by the customer and partially by SAP in the Cloud. Both parts can be linked and integrated with each other.

SAP S/4 HANA Mobile- In this model, mobile devices access On Premise, or Cloud applications.

There is other digital model which can be explained here but that will not much help us being beginner that is why I don’t elaborate them now but in future in my other blog I will cover them as well.

Now, since I have given plenty of information on the ERP software and its history, we all also start thinking how this works in real world for any industry or company. Well, as of now or say till now what I knew is that to implement SAP S/4 HANA ERP for any company SAP has provide a road map and particular methodology to follow step by step and achieve the goal of using this highly useful and adoptable business software. Let’s know about it on high level.

SAP ERP Implementation Methodology-

SAP has provided three methodology and the decision to use or adopt by company as per their need.

What are all those three methodologies-

1. ASAP Methodology- The Accelerated SAP (ASAP) methodology is a project management framework used to implement SAP solutions. It is designed to help companies streamline the implementation process, reduce risks, and ensure that SAP projects are completed efficiently.

The ASAP methodology consists of five phases:

Phase1-Project Preparation- In this phase we discuss the project, identify resources, identify project objective, Build a qualified and capable project team.

Phase2- Business Blueprint- This phase is very important phase as we discuss with business on various business process, Gather the business requirements, prepare the As is and As on.

Phase3-Realization- Prepare the system as per the Blue Print, Test the system, Business User do the testing, Training done for Business users.

Phase4-Final Preparation- We prepare and ready the system for Go- Live, Legacy data load activity.

Phase5-Go-Live and Post Go-live support- In this phase SAP system goes live where business user start doing business transaction live into system and SAP consultant helps in resolving for any issue or error.

1. SAP Activate Methodology- The primary purpose of the SAP Activate Methodology is to provide end-to-end Application Lifecycle Management and to accelerate the initial implementation of SAP S/4HANA. SAP Activate Methodology phases: D-P-E-R-D-R Discover, Prepare, Explore, Realize, Deploy and Run
2. Agile Methodology- Agile methodology is very updated one and many organizations are now a days adapting to it. SAP Agile Methodology is a way to manage SAP projects by applying agile principles and best practices to specific organizational needs. This methodology helps to make SAP solutions more efficient, responsive, and flexible.

I am very new to AGILE and have no experience and therefore I prefer not much speak on this topic but in future I will release blog on this topic as well.

I have tried to present here in very short journey of learning as much as possible and I will keep releasing in future based on my learning and experience new topics in this space. Thanks to all, please like and subscribe and share feedback to improve. Happy Learning to all.

# SAP S/4 HANA FICO @ SAP Community