RISE beyond - in the fast lane with adesso

RISE bundles different services and technologies, such as S/4HANA (Cloud Edition), best practices and a process redesign, the Business Technology Platform for use as an integration platform. It is about a complete business transformation with "RISE with SAP".

For SAP customers, it is all the more important to have a neutral and independent partner at their side to develop a coherent approach from the multitude of initiatives, technologies and approaches. This way, the indisputable advantages of S/4HANA can be used, the crucial processes can be optimized and the integration of different solutions can be advanced in a secure and cost-optimized way. Business Transformation is provided by adesso as a service, consisting of different portfolio components, which are used depending on the customer's situation and needs. Each customer has different prerequisites and goals, for some a business process may be modernized or established as a matter of priority, for others technical or personnel conditions may require short-term action.

adesso combines technological competence with professional industry know-how. Our work is based on pronounced customer orientation, flexibility and proven methods in implementation as well as on the networking of research, teaching and practice and an open corporate culture. 

With a team of more than 5,600 employees at 44 locations, we work every day to bring our customers' projects to a successful conclusion. We are happy to take on responsibility and have the practical experience that makes us a reliable partner.

The subsidiary, adesso orange AG, bundles the majority of SAP expertise. Thus, the know-how of the group in twelve industries and technologies such as Java, Microsoft, Google and Salesforce can be combined with the agile approach of a subsidiary specialized in SAP with more than 300 employees.

In order to approach the strategic and tactical challenges of the customers systematically and in a target-oriented way, there are different perspectives. adesso therefore has different consulting modules for these topics:

adesso orange has developed a procedure to implement the change to S/4HANA with the customer in a time- and cost-optimized manner. Likewise, there is a consulting portfolio to approach the complex of topics "Cloud" in a systematic and structured way. From SaaS, PaaS, IaaS with Software on Any Premise (SoAP) to integration using BTP and customer-specific Java developments, it is easy to lose focus here. An important factor for many customers is the management of the most important resource, the employees. Here, SAP offers a highly interesting solution with SuccessFactors, which is integrated into the existing IT landscape or the one to be built up in order to avoid media breaks. adesso has well-founded know-how from current projects for the integration of SuccessFactors in S/4HANA Cloud Edition.

The internally comprehensively trained solution architects of adesso orange act as trusted advisors for the customer: They maintain an overview of the different SAP solutions, the strengths of the various implementation options as well as the optimal integration, also with 3rd party applications.

adesso Active Transformation

adesso active Transformation (att) is a process model for the transformation of IT systems and landscapes. This methodology is based on SAP Acti-vate and was extended by adesso orange with a strategic component. Thus, the strategic goals of the customer are recorded, evaluated and implemented in a comprehensive master plan.

The goal of att is to bring the "red thread" to transformation - from strategic planning and organizational enablement, to detailed planning and implementation.

The structure of the process model consists of various phases and the building blocks contained therein, as well as individual services underneath, which are mapped in the form of workshops and preceding analysis phases or classic consulting. The building block principle means that each transformation can be planned and started quickly and effectively. Depending on the customer situation, individual phases can also be shortened.

In general, adesso considers different streams in the transformation:

• Stream Business: When changing to S/4HANA, business reengineering is necessary and makes sense - at least in some areas. Here adesso supports the business with experience and a proven approach.

• Stream People and Project Management: the change to S/4HANA is a significant project, here a structured and experienced project management is a crucial success factor.

• Stream technology: when switching to S/4HANA, there are serious changes in the use of technology, the integration of solutions in the front-end, and the transfer of data.

Depending on the industry and area of application, other streams can also be come in addition, such as 

• Change management: The change in the IT landscape often also leads to a rethinking of processes. Some companies want to have this process professionally accompanied in order to shape the changes proactively and successfully.

• Validation/Regulatory: In certain industries, there are specific requirements that must be met. For example, in the pharma/life sciences industry, validation processes must be implemented when new software is introduced. There are also regulatory requirements in the banking environment. 

The main objectives of Active Transformation are:

• Custom-fit integration into the customer's IT and business strategy.
• Determine the optimal (technical) transformation path of the system.
• Harmonization of business and IT requirements for transformation.
• Implementing the transformation itself in an efficient, orderly and hybrid way of working.

Another elementary component of Active Transformation is, in particular, an early touchpoint with the new system(s) in the so-called user experience journey and fast prototyping.

Cloud strategy

From a strategic perspective, the future of SAP's solution portfolio is clearly defined. The trend in IT investments by companies also clearly shows that the investment volume in native and hybrid cloud landscapes is increasing significantly. For a long time, however, SAP's cloud solutions in particular were viewed with skepticism. Companies will have to face changing market situations in the future, for example, in order to expand their market presence or defend it. As a result, companies are exposed to continuous innovation cycles in order to keep pace with market developments. All these influencing factors have a particular impact on the solution space of IT.

Innovations, both of a business and technical nature, are preferentially or even exclusively provided in the cloud solutions in short release cycles. This limits in particular the innovation capability of companies that have not yet moved into the fast lane with their cloud transformation. With central SAP applications such as S/4HANA Cloud, C/4HANA, SuccessFactors and Ariba, SAP already offers a significant cloud portfolio. In addition to these, however, there are many other SAP cloud applications available which are not directly included in the solution analysis.

Cash Management, Advanced Variant Configuration, Asset Management, Analytics Cloud and Customer Data Cloud, to name just a few examples. In addition to the application portfolio, topics such as business network, technology and infrastructure are also essential to a company's holistic cloud strategy.

It is therefore all the more important that the topic of SAP cloud is considered holistically and strategically in every company in order to be able to exploit the added value of a cloud transformation from the different perspectives. adesso orange offers companies the possibility with "adesso strategic cloud transformation" (asct) to work out the cloud transformation from different perspectives and to develop an individual SAP cloud roadmap. Derived from the corporate and IT strategy and its requirements, such as digitalization, demands and M&A activities, the development of fields of action and the creation of a capability map takes place. 

The resulting fields of action are elaborated with the help of the building blocks business, application, technology and infrastructure and finally manifested in a cloud capability map and roadmap. Companies thus receive a strategic and holistic view of their cloud transformation, which pursues the goal of direct implementation of the corporate and IT strategy. Within the aforementioned building blocks, the identified fields of action are examined at the "Business", "People" and "Technology" levels. This is because, irrespective of the solutions used, a cloud transformation has an impact on all these levels or is influenced by them. In addition, the task of a cloud transformation also extends to socio-cultural change, which makes a consideration of cloud change management indispensable.

The experiences of adesso orange in cloud transformations have been incorporated into the "adesso strategic cloud transformation" and thus ensure a fast, pragmatic start in the fast lane - taking into account the strategic goals. 

SAP HR transformation strategy: multiple possibilities

The SAP roadmap strategy is also moving toward the cloud in the area of HR management. The cloud solution for HR processes and functionalities from SuccessFactors is dubbed HXM suite (Human Experience Management) by SAP.

In Germany, nearly 10,000 customers currently use SAP's on-premise solution for their payroll. SAP has guaranteed that support for the existing on-premise solution will continue until the end of 2027 and can be extended until 2030 (for a fee). At present, the SAP HR strategy offers the following options for customers who map their core HR processes and payroll via SAP HCM.

• SAP ERP HCM On-Premise (until 2030/ H4S4 until 2040). From Q4 2022, H4S4 is announced as a technical upgrade on a HANA database with the S4/HANA release. 
• SAP S/4HANA Private Cloud Edition (PCE) Migration S/4 PCE to an SAP data center or hyperscaler (Azure, GCP, AWS
• SAP SuccessFactors. Hybrid or full cloud approach. SuccessFactors for the most important resource in the company.

Nowadays, the focus is on employees as a company's most important resource. The increasing shift to an employee market makes a seamless, fast, effective solution with the best possible user experience for potential employees absolutely necessary. SuccessFactors offers various advantages in terms of user experience, modernity and standardization.

SuccessFactors not only offers a smart recruiting solution, but also provides the best possible support for the entire employee lifecycle, from onboarding, support within the company, and skills development to knowledge management and offboarding. 

The possibilities for extending and developing applications offer further scenarios for mapping customer-specific requirements. In this context, the actual advantage of standard software should always be taken into account and, in the first step of the process analysis, possibilities for optimizing and, if necessary, streamlining processes should be elicited.

For many companies, the first strategic option is the gradual introduction of a cloud solution. The target system architecture is often a hybrid system landscape. In this case, it is important to have a competent partner who supports the process analysis and consulting as well as the integration. However, the numerous tools and services as well as the diverse integration scenarios via the BTP also make it difficult to maintain an overview and develop best practices. 

The following figure shows an example of the web service-based data exchange between an S4/HANA OnPrem FI system and EmployeeCentral SuccessFactors via cloud integration as middleware. Preparatory settings in EmployeeCentral, the BTP and in the SAP S/4HANA OnPremises system are required to connect the middleware.

Employee master data and company data are replicated in the S/4HANA system to corresponding Personnel Administration and Organizational Management infotypes. The data is accessed via the Compound Employee API in SuccessFactors. Field mapping or assignments via Business Add-Ins were previously done in the cloud integration as well as in the S4/HANA OnPrem system via the Business Integration Builder. The configuration for the cost center integration is done via the Integration of SAP ERP CO Master Data with SuccessFactors Employee Central using the IMG (SAP Implementation GUIDE).

In summary:

The initiative "RISE with SAP" is comprehensively supported by adesso orange on various levels. By means of its own methodology, the comprehensive view of the transformation to the cloud as well as the exemplary use and integration of SuccessFactors. This consulting and development is carried out neutrally and independently: both in terms of consulting on the technology, the change processes for employees as well as the deep know-how of meanwhile twelve dedicated industries, which have been served by adesso for decades.

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