SAP S4 HANA ?
What is SAP S4 HANA?
With organisations managing their workflow system centrally which runs large data of customer, inventory or their production. Maintaining such huge database required complex systems. It's been 24 years since SAP launched the first R/3 system and today we are standing on a more robust technology SAP S4 HANA. SAP has come a long way regarding bringing the complex structure of SAP into a very handy business suite.
SAP S4 runs exclusively on HANA rather than running on R/3. SAP itself define S4 as "SAP S/4HANA is a real-time ERP suite for digital business. S4 HANA is built on our advanced in-memory platform, SAP HANA, and offers a personalised, consumer-grade user experience with SAP Fiori. Deployable in the cloud or on-premise, SAP S/4HANA can drive immediate value across all lines of business – no matter your industry or business size" SAP website.
So what does that mean to the Enterprises using SAP R/3?
SAP S4 HANA is very new for everyone using SAP R/3 system at present. Even though there have been talks in the industry that SAP S4 HANA is the future, it still is unable to satisfy many with advantages of moving to SAP S4 HANA. One thing is clear that SAP s4 HANA exclusively runs on HANA and every enterprise at present running on R/3 system needs to migrate to HANA to implement S4 HANA successfully. For many moving onto SAP S4HANA is a costly endeavour whereas businesses who have migrated to HANA can still consider SAP S4 HANA. SAP still needs to go a long way to making the transition easy for the people who are already using its SAP R/3. The majority of the SAP users are also not on the latest versions which will add to the complexity involved.
What should you consider before moving to SAP S4 HANA?
Moving to SAP S4 HANA has a major consideration which is the cost involved. The cost is not about licenses and fee or the migration. The cost also includes the maintenance cost. There are not many experts in SAP S4 HANA at present, and you need to make sure that you have the right support & maintenance staff, and they have the latest skill required to do the job. You also need to consider what sort of hardware is needed to support the new SAP S4 HANA system.We need to keep in mind the SAP is a labour intensive process. The majority of around 60% of the cost is for the work involved in setting up the system for you and then supporting it continuously, but this should not supersede the fact that organising your database can bring a high return on your investments. You will be more focused on creating strategic approach towards your business goals.
What's the future like?
As the launch of the new SAP business suit. It has captured the interest of its existing and new customers. SAP S4 HANA has promised speed with Hana as its database. There is a vast improvement at the front end using FIORI interphase and a cloud deployment option. Kumar, CEO of London-based Indus Ltd. said that their clients usually spend around 70% of allocations towards the maintenance of their system, with SAP S4 HANA in place, your customers are now able to reduce this to 50% and are expecting to bring it down to 20% shortly.
Who is SAP S4 HANA for?
Enterprises of all sizes are grabbing the technology whether its IT, Big Data or cloud. Everyone is trying to remain ahead of the game. In such a competitive & complex business scenarios SAP business suite is an excellent addition to the SAP products. SAP S4 HANA is the centre of the firm; it consolidates the internal and external element into a single structure.