E-3 Rubrik: Coverstory 17-04

The title says it all, because the latest ERP system from Walldorf has a different architecture than its predecessors. One reason for this is, of course, Hana. SAP has tried to preserve what is good and enable innovations - but this does not make the "release change" any easier. Andreas Emhart and Hinrich Mielke from Alegri E-3 give an overview of the master plan for S/4....

The digital enterprise of the future will revolutionize business models and processes and provide the workplace of the future for information workers. It is an imperative to modernize future business processes, optimize user productivity in the workplace and realize all this on a consolidated, agile technical basis.

Cloud computing has become indispensable in the SAP environment. As the level of service increases, the flexibility to freely design the application decreases and, in turn, the degree of automation increases.

With the paradigm shift to Hana and S/4 Hana, many SAP managers are faced with the question: When do I migrate to Hana and what do I need to plan for in terms of time, resources and budget? The Alegri Hana Readiness Audit was developed precisely for this purpose.

Hana is widely accepted in the market as a productive stable database. Customers are already using Hana as a DB for their business-critical systems. Others are still waiting because the business case is not yet clear enough for them. This is changing with S/4 Hana.

With S/4 Hana, SAP provides the digital core of a future-proof ERP system. With the centralized orientation, modules and services that were previously outsourced to separate systems are brought home. As a result, S/4 promises to simplify existing IT landscapes and improve integration.