SAP S4 HANA-The future is
here?
The future of SAP is here!
Most of us have heard about HANA at some point in
time and here’s an attempt to make some sense out of it and what
it means for Consultants, Project Managers, Decision Makers &
Clients.
In this age of digitization, it was a necessary
step to bring the next generation business suite of ERP and SAP has an answer
for that: SAP S4 HANA as a successor of ECC.
History:
HANA (High performance ANalytics Appliance)
was introduced as in-memory computing database in 2011.
SAP BW was powered on HANA Database making
analytical reporting real-time and no need for running the extractors
overnight, no more latency in 2012
SAP Business suite powered by SAP HANA and cloud
services introduced in 2013
Simple Finance as a frontrunner was released with
simplified database structures, much faster reporting, single source of
truth & no aggregates in 2014
In late 2015, S4 HANA 1511 was released with
simplified data models across the landscape, extremely friendly Ux,
advanced processing and choice of deployment: Public Cloud, On-Premise or
Hybrid Cloud
What has changed:
Database tables:
Most of the CODD’s rules on relational
databases are re-defined and re-structured.
Most database tables are columnar store, very few
remain row-store.
Most of the tables that contained indices,
statuses, totals etc have been removed and duplication has been removed.
What this essentially means is SAP has “simplified” their data structures and re-written most of the standard SAP programs.
In the demo sessions I have seen: Thanks for the
new database innovation in HANA, I can visibly see a faster performance, much
faster results from running a report.
Simpler Landscape/Architecture:
SAP has aggressively invested and acquired few
organizations who were leaders in their respective fields.
Most of the functionalities offered by different
landscapes: BI, CRM, SCM, SRM, etc.. are clubbed in one server* making it much
easier, faster to interact and provides seamless integration.
Enterprise Management:
Ux( User Experience):
SAP Fiori UX is the new face of SAP to business
users for ALL lines of business across devices and deployment options
Provides only the relevant tasks and activities
for an end user though the SAP Fiori launchpad
SAP Fiori’s design is based on 5 Principles: Role-Based,
Responsive, Simple, Coherent, Delightful
I’ve personally installed Fiori
Client App on my phone( the demo version) and used it and I must admit that’s definitely much simpler, smarter, faster &
interactive.
IoT, real-time collaboration:
SAP claims that it’s solution for the Internet
of Things(IoT) provide all the data-driven intelligence business would
need by connection to devices/ machines/ assets/ vehicles by sensors
Imagine being able to track your assets all along
it’s way till it reaches an end
destination or being able to track, trace, communicate, plan or re-plan
routes based on the traffic situation and optimizing the route or meeting
a promised delivery timeline to a customer
An example below of how data from IoT could be put
to use.
Choice of deployment:
For the uninitiated:
On-premise is the same situation as it
was before the the SaaS/PaaS/IaaS world i.e. the platform/software is run
on the premises managed by the business themselves.
Cloud is deploying the software
on a server provided by Vendor and the upgrades, maintenance managed by
the Vendor who provides the services
Hybrid, as the name suggests is a
hybrid of the above options: for ex. A company may choose to have their
Human Resources functionality, T&E on the cloud the rest on-premise
SAP offers all 3 deployment options depending on
their current/initial state:
Easy Adoption :
SAP claims that the new HANA is quiet easy to
adopt with quicker implementation cycles and there are the following paths that
they see:
Existing client on SAP ECC or further: Adopt a
system “Conversion” methodology
Existing client on version 47 or below: SAP
recommends a new implementation
For Existing clients with different installations
or multi landscape, SLT- System Landscape Transformation
I’m not going into the details in
this blog, however, the summary is SAP claims the adoption journey is easier
without switching your lights “off”.
So what’s the use to a Business:
Business Value:
Some examples of value to the Businesses:
Financial soft close ( simulation) on the fly,
reduced FTE for reconciliation and reporting
Planning and predictive finance: allows companies
to predict inbound and outbound cash flows and risk management
S&OP will enable sales and marketing
department to collaborate with operations and finance in order to evaluate
the impact of their strategies and make accurate predictions
With Live MRP, planners are able to plan to the
lot size of 1 making it very customizable resulting in higher customer
satisfaction and retention
Real-time & advanced ATP, interactive back
order processing
Users:
With the agility, simplicity S4H offers Users
& businesses can re-imagine, re-engineer their business processes
Role-based screens rather than having to go all
the screens relevant or irrelevant
Can focus on strategic tasks than admin tasks
Faster reports, analytics will help users in
decision making process
IT Value:
With reduced data footprint, IT can save a lot on
servers, maintenance
Reduced TCO in terms of deployment, maintenance,
number of servers
Finally, this list is by no means an
exhaustive list, but just an illustration of how the new technology can be put
to use.
Let's look at some facts and figures:
In my next blogs, I’ll delve deeper into each LoBs: Sales, Invetory etc. and other areas as I
explore and learn.
Happy learning!
References:
The points here are based on my knowledge gained
from various Open SAP courses and SAP might change direction/strategy as they
deem necessary.
http://s4hana.sapjourneymap.com/
http://go.sap.com/product/enterprise-management/s4hana-erp.html
Your feedback is much appreciated.
My blog in
SCN: http://scn.sap.com/community/s4hana/blog/2016/04/07/s4-hana-the-future-is-here