Introduction

SAP S/4HANA, short for SAP Business Suite 4 SAP HANA, is SAP’s next-generation application suite. SAP S/4HANA is targeted both at existing customers who use SAP ERP or the traditional SAP Business Suite and also at new customers who have never used an SAP solution before.

Regardless of your situation—if you want to use SAP S/4HANA, this book is your guide to migrating to SAP S/4HANA. We’ll familiarize you with all critical areas of the new SAP S/4HANA system and describe how to migrate to SAP S/4HANA using individual migration scenarios to illustrate the process.

In this context, we won’t just introduce the basic options for the tools provided by SAP; we’ll also support you during the migration process by illustrating typical usage scenarios. Our goal is to provide optimal support and find the best way to make SAP S/4HANA work for you—irrespective of whether you want to use SAP S/4HANA in the cloud or on-premise and irrespective of your existing ERP system. This book describes different operating models for SAP S/4HANA and explains the differences in the migration processes of the various models.

You’ll also learn how to convert your existing SAP system to SAP S/4HANA, how to implement a new SAP S/4HANA system and transfer your data to this system, and how to transform an existing landscape into an SAP S/4HANA landscape. SAP has defined three ways to SAP S/4HANA:

Furthermore, in this book, we’ll discuss how to integrate this new system into your existing IT landscape and address the required modifications. The goal of this book is to illustrate and explain the necessary processes in detail. After introducing the basic principles of SAP S/4HANA, we’ll discuss all aspects of the migration scenarios and of the integration with SAP S/4HANA Cloud and SAP S/4HANA, on-premise. You will be provided with step-by-step descriptions of the different migration scenarios, and their differing requirements and implementations are compared using real-life examples. This book will also equip you with decision-making criteria and the necessary knowledge. By the end, you’ll be the person with the know-how to decide which method is ideal for your migration to SAP S/4HANA.

Who This Book Is For

Because this book provides a holistic overview of migrating to SAP S/4HANA, we have targeted various groups of readers. For making decisions and choosing the appropriate migration scenario, this book supports IT managers and administrators who will integrate SAP S/4HANA. However, because we also go into detail, this book also supports SAP consultants who manage SAP S/4HANA migration projects for customers or in their own organization and project leads who want to get an overview of the individual methods and tools. All these groups can use the instructions in this book as a guide to implementing their own migration projects.

Because SAP S/4HANA is a completely new business suite, you do not require any previous SAP ERP knowledge for this book. However, if you want to reproduce the migration scenarios in this book, you should have a basic understanding of SAP NetWeaver. For more information on SAP NetWeaver, SAP HANA, and data migration in SAP systems, or for a detailed business overview of SAP S/4HANA, refer to the other specialized SAP PRESS books.

This book describes all procedures and methods for SAP S/4HANA, on-premise, 1610 and SAP S/4HANA Cloud 1702, the latest releases as this book was going to press. If you use higher versions, the screenshots shown in this book might deviate slightly from your screen views. However, we assume that the basic steps for migrating to SAP S/4HANA will stay the same in higher releases.

[»]  Terminology

The term SAP S/4HANA migration in this book is the generic term for the various scenarios of the migration to SAP S/4HANA. So this term not only refers to data migration and data transfer from legacy IT systems or SAP production systems; it also refers to the conversion of individual systems or the transformation of system landscapes.

Structure of This Book

This book is structured into four parts. The following summarizes the content of these parts and the individual chapters for better orientation.

Part I: SAP S/4HANA—Basic Principles

The first part of the book contains descriptions of the most important basic concepts, which will be necessary for you to make a decision for or against a specific installation and migration scenario. This part is also relevant to IT managers and IT employees in organizations that have not yet decided on a concrete migration plan but want to get more information about the various options. We’ll explain the various deployment options for SAP S/4HANA: in a public cloud, on-premise, and as a hybrid model. Finally, you’ll learn how to prepare the migration to SAP S/4HANA and explore the steps of a new implementation method for SAP S/4HANA.

Chapter 1, “SAP S/4HANA—Requirements and Benefits,” provides a basic overview of SAP S/4HANA and illustrates the benefits of this new solution. In this context, we’ll also cover the transformation of traditional business models—a result of the digital transformation—and we’ll describe digitalization challenges that enterprises face today and will face in future. You’ll get to know SAP S/4HANA’s technological and business features to address these challenges.

Chapter 2, “SAP S/4HANA versus the Traditional SAP Business Suite,” introduces the basis differences between SAP S/4HANA and the SAP Business Suite and positions the new solution into the SAP product portfolio. In this chapter, we’ll also explain the reasons for these differences and discuss the relevant options for your IT department and business processes. We’ll also describe the relevance of these changes for your SAP S/4HANA migration plan.

SAP S/4HANA is available in different deployment models. These options include an implementation in the private cloud or public cloud, on-premise in your data center, and using a hybrid approach. Chapter 3, “Cloud, On-Premise, and Hybrid Scenarios,” conveys a fundamental understanding of these operating models and introduces the deployment options within the SAP S/4HANA product family. This chapter also describes the differences between the individual models in detail.

After explaining the basic principles of SAP S/4HANA, Chapter 4, “Preparing the Migration to SAP S/4HANA,” introduces the procedures for migrating to SAP S/4HANA and describes the concrete steps that you need to consider in the project planning process. The last part of the book then looks back at these descriptions and summarizes the advantages and disadvantages of the various scenarios under different conditions.

Introduced with SAP S/4HANA, SAP Activate is a new method for implementing SAP software and is designed to support customers migrating to SAP S/4HANA. Chapter 5, “SAP Activate,” introduces this successor to the ASAP and SAP Launch implementation models.

Chapter 6, “Trial Systems and Model Company,” concludes the first part of the book. In this chapter, we’ll cover the available trial systems and introduce the model company provided by SAP S/4HANA. The model company is comprised of a preconfigured system including customizing (such as predefined company codes and organizational structures) and sample data. The model company helps you identify the requirements and prerequisites for your migration.

Part II: Migrating to SAP S/4HANA Cloud

The second part of the book provides a step-by-step description of the different migration scenarios for SAP S/4HANA Cloud. In this part, we’ll discuss the tools and procedures for the data migration and for integration with other systems.

A cloud solution offers new opportunities of organizing and financing the IT in your enterprise. Chapter 7, “Migrating to the Public Cloud,” shows how you can deploy SAP S/4HANA in a public cloud. In this chapter, we’ll discuss the things you should consider when implementing a cloud solution, which tools are available for the data migration in SAP S/4HANA Cloud, and the individual steps of the migration.

Chapter 8, “Integrating SAP S/4HANA Cloud into the System Landscape,” describes how to integrate an SAP S/4HANA Cloud system with other SAP cloud solutions such as SAP Ariba or SAP SuccessFactors and how to embed SAP Hybris Marketing Cloud into your existing SAP system landscape. In this chapter, we’ll illustrate how to connect your systems and which interfaces you should use for this purpose.

Part III: Migrating to SAP S/4HANA, On-Premise

After focusing on the standalone SAP S/4HANA Cloud solution in the second part, the third part of the book concentrates on SAP S/4HANA, on-premise, which can also be hosted in a private cloud. This version features additional migration scenarios, which are introduced in this chapter in detail with relevant usage scenarios. This part also illustrates the differences of operating in a public cloud and discusses the various integration options for SAP S/4HANA, on-premise.

When migrating to SAP S/4HANA, on-premise, you’ll either install a new SAP S/4HANA system or transform an existing SAP system. Chapter 9, “Installing and Configuring SAP S/4HANA On-Premise or in the Private Cloud,” describes the necessary steps for installing backend and frontend servers and for installing the system.

Chapter 10, “System Conversion,” introduces the first scenario for migrating to SAP S/4HANA, on-premise: a system conversion. Converting an existing SAP Business Suite system enables you to migrate to SAP S/4HANA without having to install a new system. This chapter describes the general process (from the planning phase to the actual conversion), the individual steps required, and the necessary technical tools.

Chapter 11, “New Implementation of Single Systems,” then details the various migration tools for new implementations (greenfield approach) of a new SAP S/4HANA, on-premise system. In this chapter, we’ll introduce SAP S/4HANA migration cockpit, SAP S/4HANA migration object modeler, and SAP Data Services including SAP Best Practices Content (Rapid Data Migration) on the basis of real-life examples. In addition, we’ll discuss the general procedure of a data migration project to SAP S/4HANA.

Chapter 12, “System Landscape Transformation,” addresses the third migration scenario, landscape transformation, and its corresponding procedure. Furthermore, we’ll provides detailed information on a critical use case for SAP S/4HANA: Central Finance.

Finally, Chapter 13, “Integrating SAP S/4HANA, On-Premise, into the System Landscape,” details various integration options for SAP S/4HANA, on-premise, especially integration with SAP Ariba, SAP SuccessFactors, and existing SAP systems.

Part IV: Assessing the Migration Scenarios

The last part of the book analyzes which scenario is ideal for your enterprise. The appropriate strategy for migrating to SAP S/4HANA depends on your initial situation. This part provides you with decision-making criteria and examples for each individual migration scenario.

Chapter 14, “Selecting Your Migration Scenario,” summarizes the advantages and disadvantages of the individual migration scenarios and compares them. This chapter discusses core decision criteria between choosing a new implementation or a system conversion. Landscape transformation is a special case because it can be combined with both scenarios. Ultimately, however, your choice among these scenarios will be based on business requirements.

The highlighted boxes in this book contain information that is good to know and useful but outside the context. To help you immediately identify the type of information contained in the boxes, we have assigned symbols to each box:

We hope that this book proves to be a good reference and guide for your migration to SAP S/4HANA. We wish you an enjoyable read and hope you can use the insights gained from reading this book in real life.

Frank Densborn, Frank Finkbohner, Jochen Freudenberg, Kim Mathäß, Frank Wagner
and our integration experts Andreas Muno and Markus Trapp