Keeping S/4 Hana Clean Is Easier Said Than Done
As of now, SAP only offers customers a somewhat adequate solution for the S/4 Hana dilemmaāthe SAP Cloud Platform. As impractical as it may sound, it could workāif SAP itself became a little more flexible and met its customers halfway.
Hoping it will keep the S/4 Hana core clean, the ERP company advertises the platformās in-app development capabilities. However, itās no secret that these are not up to par yet; otherwise, customers wouldnāt need to develop their own customized solutions for S/4 Hana.
Hoping it will keep the S/4 Hana core clean, the ERP company advertises the platformās in-app development capabilities. However, itās no secret that these are not up to par yet; otherwise, customers wouldnāt need to develop their own customized solutions for S/4 Hana.
Customization can bring decisive competitive advantages ā no wonder no SAP customer would willingly give that up.
Itās clear whatās happening: more S/4 functionalities mean more difficult integrations mean many more customized products. The solution? Collaborating with SAP!
Itās clear whatās happening: more S/4 functionalities mean more difficult integrations mean many more customized products. The solution? Collaborating with SAP!
As counterintuitive as this might seem at first, collaborating with the ERP giant is a viable long-term strategy for customers.
Users can actively demand the creation or development of new features, for example through user groups. If three or more customers demand similar innovations, thereās a good chance that SAP will listen.
Many customized solutions are only created to avoid having to buy expensive add-ons. Customers donāt use add-ons like the treasury module, the commodity pricing engine or the master data management module and just develop their own solutions instead.
No additional licenses for S/4 Hana functionalities
This shows that most customers donāt need the full functional scopes of these add-ons and instead develop their own easier solutions to match their requirements. Maybe SAP should sell less and listen more.
Customers want to use some processes and functionalities without immediately having to pay for additional licenses. Subsequent licensing fees impede collaboration between SAP and customer. Discounts discredit SAPās pricing and product policy.
Theoretically, SAP knows all of this ā but practically, it hasnāt done nearly enough to combat these developments.
For example, SAP support has gotten significantly better over the past few years. In the long term, itās more viable to work with SAP directly to fix problems.
However, thereās still a lot of effort involved on the customerās part, which is why many users try to fix the problem themselves. This approach might seem quicker and less cumbersome, but it will actually lead to more problems down the road.
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