“Professionalized Business Case” is the first step of SAP S/4HANA Journey!

SAP provides mainstream maintenance for core applications of SAP Business Suite 7 software including SAP ERP 6.0, SAP Customer Relationship Management 7.0, SAP Supply Chain Management 7.0, and SAP Supplier Relationship Management 7.0 applications and SAP Business Suite powered by SAP HANA on the respective latest three Enhancement Packages (EhPs) until December 31, 2027. From January 1, 2028, all SAP Business Suite 7 core applications and respective SAP Business Suite 7 add-on products will enter the customer-specific maintenance (CSM) phase. SAP offers an optional extended maintenance phase from January 1, 2028, until December 31, 2030. This three-year phase comes at an additional fee on top of the maintenance fee. Details outlined in SAP Note 2881788. 

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SAP ECC Customers no longer need to wonder how SAP S/4HANA can benefit their company. By assessing the configuration, master data, existing business processes, and usage of the current SAP system experienced SAP S4HANA conversion architects will build a professional business case using SAP provided tools, such as SAP Business Scenario Recommendations, SAP Readiness Check tool, etc. Helping customers plan their move to SAP S/4HANA. SAP Business Scenario Recommendations provides tailor-made insights to build a personalized business case for SAP S/4HANA. Typical questions like why move from SAP ERP to SAP S/4HANA? Which new functionalities are most relevant for each line of business? How does SAP S/4HANA support business goals? How can I automate my processes? 

With little effort, we can request our SAP Business Scenario Recommendations on Spotlight. We need to follow the instructions provided and apply the standard SAP notes 2758146 and 2745851 in the productive SAP ERP system to get Recommendations from SAP. 

Firstly, identify and prioritize business issues that you have in the present system. Second, determine what capabilities of SAP S/4HANA addresses your business pain points. There are tools like the SAP S/4HANA Business Scenario Recommendation tool and SAP Transformation Navigator that help existing SAP ERP customers zoom quickly on S/4HANA enhancements relevant to your specific business. 

Your journey to SAP S/4HANA starts with Readiness Assessment. 

Expertise and efficient system analysis is the foundation for planning for a successful and smooth system conversion to SAP S/4HANA. The readiness assessment summarizes the most important functional, technical, and custom-code aspects of the conversion quickly.

SAP Business Scenario Recommendations, SAP Transformation Navigator, and SAP Readiness Check enable our customers to design and develop their initial road map for SAP S/4HANA. Readiness Assessment helps the customers with the readiness of their SAP ERP systems to move to SAP S/4HANA. It explains Software prerequisites, infrastructure requirements, functional implications of SAP S/4HANA, necessary custom code adaptations, application data migration requirements, etc. 

This examination should be executed as early as possible to fully understand the related tasks to support a smooth journey to SAP S/4HANA. Your SAP S/4HANA Conversion partner prepares the existing SAP ECC production system or Copy of the Production system according to SAP Note 2267221. It helps in Identifying relevant simplification items for SAP S/4HANA, Add-ons, business functions, and industry solution analysis, Sizing and Unicode compliance, custom code analysis, and other information for SAP S/4HANA.

Plan for SAP S/4HANA Value Assurance workshop to build Business Case

To know the transition approach, application implications, Operational readiness, benefits out of SAP S/4HANA, sizing, SAP S/4HANA Value assurance workshop helps to draw a business case During the discovery phase of the SAP S/4HANA Project. The outcome of this workshop includes drawing business benefits out of SAP S/4HANA, 

developing the transition road map with high-level milestones to finalize the current scope of the project, clarify the requirements of the project, and finally to get a holistic overview of the Conversion project based on the customer's business and IT requirements.

Comprehensive analysis of your Custom code is a part of your SAP S/4HANA Business Case. 

A comprehensive analysis of existing custom code helps for efficient, customized code management to facilitate the quality and scalability of the business scenarios enabled by the custom code and targets, reducing the overall total cost of ownership. SAP S/4HANA Technical Consultants who have experience in customized code analysis, custom code impact analysis will provide answers about the continuity of business processes after conversion. This helps to optimize the custom code and clean, improve, remediate, and adjust the custom code.

An efficient strategy is needed to identify and to decommission unused custom code. This helps customers reduce maintenance costs. Tools such as custom code lifecycle management (CCLM) and usage procedure and logging (UPL) will be used during this process. 

Custom code impact analysis offers transparency on the existing custom code situation, including customer objects and modifications. It helps to evaluate the impact of change on custom code. With the analysis results, the customized code adjustments can be reviewed and mitigated at an early stage. It helps customers reduce the effort for change adoptions and facilitates a smooth completion of the identified adjustments.

A Professionalized SAP S/4HANA Business Case enables companies to understand, influence, and shape the project's scope and direction early. It assists Key decision-makers in understanding the project and demonstrates the viability of the project. 

Professionalized Business Case for SAP S/4HANA Journey demonstrates how it strategically fit for the organization. It must show the functionalities, capabilities, and simplifications of SAP S/4HANA. 

A robust Business case for SAP S/4HANA Conversion may be needed by clear specifying drivers and objectives of the investment Proposal. Business case must be SMART

  • Specify benefits out of SAP S/4HANA

  • Measure ROI

  • Achievable – How the new system eases out existing pain points

  • Relevancy

  • Time limitations, if any

It should specify existing business and users' issues and the Potentiality of new SAP S/4HANA benefits. Business case must demonstrate a wide range of realistic options to be appraised by showing how well they can be met the spending proposals. Cost-benefit analysis is needed to substantiate the investment in a new product. 

Conclusions:

The professionalized business case will become a driving force for SAP S/4HANA. A potential business case proves investment worthiness and turns into the transformation Road Map for SAP S/4HANA Journey. It speaks about value drivers that match customers' and users' needs. It describes the pain points of users and states potential operational improvements. It quantifies the benefits of moving to SAP S/4HANA and the cost of the deployment and ROI. A strong Business case helps secure the necessary budget and S/4HANA project sponsorship to start the SAP S/4HANA journey. 

The best way to build an SAP S/4HANA business case is, speak with your implementation Partner to provide SAP S/4HANA Value Discovery workshop. Experienced SAP S/4HANA consultants conduct workshops to uncover pain points related to your legacy ERP systems and offer you opportunities for improvement by moving to SAP S/4HANA. They articulate and quantify the value that SAP S/4HANA brings to your firm.

You may prefer to have this workshop virtually to avoid COVID issues. Consultants conduct two hours multi-day virtual workshop for each line of business for a specific time.

Author: Dr. Ravi Surya

Dr. Ravi Surya Subrahmanyam is an expert Fixer for ERPfixers and a technical and Financials writer with a background in SAP Financial Accounting, Funds Management, Financial Supply Chain Management, Cash Management & in-house cash, SAP S/4 HANA Finance. He has been working as Director – SAP Practice for The Hackett group India Ltd, GDC- India. He completed his Master’s degree in Finance from Central University, Master of Commerce from Osmania University, Master of Commerce from Andhra University, and Ph.D.in Finance from one of the best universities in India. His research Papers have been published in National and International magazines. He has been a Visiting Instructor for SAP India Education and SAP Indonesia – Education. He has been working on Conversion and Upgradation projects. He has been a Certified Solution Architect for SAP S/4 HANA and SAP S/4 HANA Certified Professional.