The best time for the S/4 best time

Originally, SAP became the successful world market leader in ERP software with the R/3 solution, on the one hand with the fully integrated standard software and on the other hand with the possibility of supplementing missing functions with modifications or in-house developments.

Over the years, however, the cost of the modifications and industry solutions granted has exploded in software development and SAP support. Furthermore, SAP failed to offer the latest IT technologies in a timely manner. Finally, the incredible innovative spirit of SAP founder Hasso Plattner led to a comprehensive change in strategy with the development of the new "in-memory" database technology.

Based on this innovation, the S/4 strategy was developed with a focus on a change in technology, simplification and a return to standard software. At the same time, extensive acquisitions of complementary software solutions with new development technologies were made for the first time for organic growth.

However, the original unique selling point of integrating the entire solution portfolio has fallen by the wayside. The new SAP CEO Christian Klein and his team have also recognized this after intervention by DSAG and have initiated necessary measures under the title "the intelligent company".

The "cloud only" strategy was also changed to "cloud first" in response to pressure from customers, which brought hybrid system landscapes into focus. In summary, these changes have major implications for companies in terms of S/4 Hana project strategy from a product maturity perspective.

The new S/4 developments are currently focused on the core system (cloud and on prem), but some business functions are still missing. Furthermore, there is still a lack of the usual stability in ongoing operations. The developments of the new industry solutions under S/4 are prioritized and mainly offered as cloud solutions.

The still missing integration under the new business technology platform is a major problem for many customers. This is the central hub of the end-to-end processes to the purchased applications and new industry solutions as well as the connection of the hybrid system architecture to the cloud and to the central master data management (SAP Master Data Governance).

The consolidation of the content of the sub-projects into an overall schedule has shown that for many customers the availability of these functions and solutions is absolutely essential, which is also reflected in the current S/4 implementation statistics.

The product maturity of S/4 solutions depends on the companies' planned implementation period. However, other criteria with positive or negative effects play an important role in determining this introduction time. For example, the following disadvantages must be taken into account in the case of an all-too-early conversion:

• The necessary consultants are more readily available, but have little experience.
• Comparable reference projects for the project are not yet available.
• Functions that are still missing must be replaced by in-house developments.
• Immature or faulty solutions burden the operation and the expectations of the users.
• The advantages in the case of a later changeover again allow the reverse conclusion of the examples given above.

Personal experience in various S/4 roadmap projects has shown that during project planning in many companies, product maturity played only a subordinate role for the right time of introduction, but this subsequently led to major challenges.