In the era of automation, the digital transformation of the value chain (right from procurement to delivery and after-sales support) is gradually moving businesses towards new business models.These models are more solution-oriented and gradually becoming hardware independent as they move towards the Cloud. This begs the question – can such a solution keep your business competitive amid intensifying competition?The answer is, if it is an intelligent and integrated solution like SAP S/4HANA, then yes, it has specifically been designed to keep your business resilient amidst intensifying competition.SAP S/4HANA is an intelligent and integrated solution that acts as the digital core of your business operations management. In fact, it allows your company to quickly and easily manage software changes big and small — from routine software updates, to adoption of new technologies, to the evolution of a fully cognitive artificial-intelligence-driven enterprise.However, IT leaders often find themselves stuck when considering the implementation of SAP S/4HANA solution. Complex, custom SAP installations may require retooling, which increases costs and timelines.But, when you have an experienced SAP Implementation Partner like VC ERP Consulting, SAP S/4HANA implementations are value-driven at all stages of implementation.In this article, SAP S/4HANA expert consultants at VC ERP Consulting share tips on SAP supported best practices we utilize to deliver value at each stage of your SAP S/4HANA implementation.
As an award winning SAP Gold Partner, we can also recommend best scenarios in your specific case, and suggest alternatives, in case, Grow with SAP offering meant for SAP S/4HANA Public Cloud implementations is better suited for your needs.
What is SAP Activate Methodology for SAP S/4HANA?
The SAP Activate methodology is a combination of Best Practices, Guided Configuration and Agile Methods to simplify an SAP project implementation.This implementation methodology is designed to revolutionize the initial S/4HANA project implementation, on-going business innovations, and deployments with a simple, flexible and modular methodology.It supports different types of deployments, such as- New Implementation
- System Conversion
- taking an existing SAP ERP system and converting it into SAP S/4HANA and
- landscape transformation
- an SAP S/4HANA migration scenario wherein various SAP ERP systems are integrated into a shared SAP S/4HANA system
- The Discover Phase
- The Prepare Phase
- The Explore Phase
- The Realize Phase
- The Deploy Phase
- The Run Phase
What is SAP Activate?
SAP Activate is a framework that consists of 3 important pillars:- SAP Best Practices
- Guided Configurations
- SAP Activate Methodology.
Pillar-1 SAP Best Practices
- Deliver ready-to-run business processes optimized for SAP S/4HANA
- Offer best practices for integration, migration and extensibility to expand the existing processes with your own processes
- Provide best practices across LoBs in the form of business process flows, roles and responsibilities and standard test scripts that also work as a user manual
Pillar-2 Guided Configuration
Deliver tools that support execution of implementation steps like solution configuration, testing, key user enablement and change management- Work to globalize and standardize best practices across industries with standard configurations that can be used to run a business process
- Offer capabilities of content lifecycle management that essentially involves looking at the configuration settings and ensuring that the configuration settings that are set in that solution are not impacted by a new version of best practices
- Provide a self-service configuration user experience
Pillar-3 SAP Activate Methodology
- Follow a modular and agile framework for implementation or migration to SAP S/4HANA
- Provide project teams with detailed, prescriptive steps charting path through entire transition project
- Offer technology specific guides, links, templates and accelerators for all phases of your project
SAP Activate Methodology Phases
Discover Phase
- Get accustomed with SAP S/4HANA before starting the project
- Determine the SAP implementation strategy to check the features and functionalities of the solution which helps to understand the business value and benefit of SAP S/4HANA
- Business users prepare the business case for implementing SAP S/4HANA as well as preparing the deployment roadmap of the digital transformation journey
Prepare Phase
- Project charter by mutual consent from customer and VC ERP Consulting that consists of-
- Team Assignments
- Project Goals
- Scope and Budget
- Roles and Responsibilities
- Project Timelines
- Business User Trainings
- Sandbox system with SAP Best Practices
Explore Phase
- Provide sample data to customers to run the end-to-end processes to evaluate how closely a standard SAP S/4HANA solution meets your unique business needs
- The configurable objects required and the same details captured in KDS(Key Data Structure/Key Design Structure) and BPD(Business process document)
- Fit & Gap Analysis to identify the gaps that the standard S/4HANA is unable to offer (WRICEF objects)
- Master data load preparation, SAP testing planning and Trainings
Realize Phase
- The business scenarios and processes identified in the previous phase along with end users
- End-users’ training so that relevant end users can be engaged at the right time and be trained only in their specific areas of working
- Multiple levels of testing such as Unit Testing, String Testing, Integration Testing and User Acceptance Testing to ensure the SAP system is configured according to your unique business needs
- Data migration testing to ensure the data filled in by the business users are in the correct format and ready to import to the brand-new SAP system
- To move the configurations, WRICEF objects and master and transactional data to the Production system which will be the system used by the business in real-time
Deploy Phase
- New SAP system for usage to the business users
- Production system Cutover activities involved in uploading master and transaction data, validating roles and authorizations of end users
Run Phase
- Implements SAP S/4HANA solution signifying the end of your lifecycle from identifying a solution for your business need to finally implementing the solution
- Go-live with new implementation and any issues, errors or incorrect entries that may have occurred during the first few days of S/4HANA going live are quickly corrected and hyper care support is provided
- Makes sure you’re running your new digital core and can build additional digital capabilities on solid foundation of SAP S/4HANA
Get started with RISE with SAP S/4HANA
RISE with SAP is SAP’s specific bundling of solutions offering, for implementation of SAP S/4HANA Cloud, SaaS, specifically for the SAP S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition as in 2023. At VC ERP, we are well-versed in tailoring RISE with SAP for SAP S/4HANA Cloud implementations based on your specific objectives.As an award winning SAP Gold Partner, we can also recommend best scenarios in your specific case, and suggest alternatives, in case, Grow with SAP offering meant for SAP S/4HANA Public Cloud implementations is better suited for your needs.
