12 Feb 2024 by Andrew Spicer
Don’t be put off: Deploying SAP S/4HANA can be a quick and smooth process
We have all seen scary stories in the news about complex and costly ERP deployments and the move to the Cloud.
Some of these projects have even reported financial losses for the organisations involved, although one reason is accounting rule changes that require businesses to report some cloud and software costs as operating expenses instead of capital costs.
That’s generally an issue that every company moving to the cloud has had to grapple with as they switch from maintaining their own on-premises or private cloud infrastructure, to paying licence fees to public cloud providers.
But it is a reminder of the profound impact upgrading or deploying a new enterprise resource planning (ERP) system can have on a business. An ERP sits at the heart of a modern enterprise, and while it's based on technology, it is intricately connected to business and people processes, workflows and operations across the organisation.
Beyond the cautionary tales
Moving from a legacy platform to a new ERP implementation can therefore be a complicated process and often the real headaches are encountered because the business isn’t sufficiently prepared for the wholesale non-technical change that’s required.
There have been many stories recounted over the years of problematic ERP implementations gone wrong, resulting in budget overruns, lost sales and upset customers. They serve as cautionary tales.
But there’s a reason why more than 22,000 organisations around the world have deployed or are in the process of migrating to SAP S/4HANA, the cloud version of SAP’s ERP platform. It's faster and easier to deploy than previous SAP ERP products, but still provides the expected capabilities to drive every aspect of complex business operations.
The clean core
At Realtech, we regularly assist medium and large-sized - businesses plan for and deploy SAP S/4HANA Cloud. Typically, we can have the core platform up and running in 3 - 4 months. The process is made easier by SAP’s concept of the ‘clean core’.
The idea is to keep your core ERP system as vanilla as possible, and address your unique business requirements in the accompanying SAP Business Technology Platform. That’s where the apps, features and particular processes that will give you a competitive edge, can be developed and hosted. That’s where a lot of the exciting innovation happens.
SAP S/4HANA is designed to do everything its on-premises predecessor platforms do, but make it easier to maintain and upgrade on an ongoing basis. That forms a key pillar of the business case for making the move to SAP in the public or private cloud. We’ve only come across one rare regulatory requirement specific to a niche use case, that prevented SAP S/4HANA from being suitable for deployment.
Digital discovery
So don't let news reports of complicated and costly SAP implementations scare you away from the opportunity to improve your business.
With Realtech’s digital discovery planning process and leveraging the latest automation tools from SAP your ERP journey to the cloud is easier than you might think.
Get in touch with a Realtech consultant to find out more about our track record in helping Kiwi businesses undertake SAP S4/HANA migrations and deployments.