Legacy and experience

The question of the value of SAP Business Suite 7, subsequently referred to as S/7 for short, is not trivial. SAP wants to establish a new ERP era by 2025. It will be called S/4 and will be based on the in-memory computing database Hana.

This immediately raises the question of what to do with the legacy R/3, R/3 Enterprise, ERP/ECC 6.0 and the "old" SAP Business Suite 7 on AnyDB?

Naturally, many components and concepts of R/3 and ECC 6.0 are outdated, old-fashioned and antiquated. But does that mean you have to march in the opposite direction?

There is a lot of knowledge and love in the so-called old systems of existing SAP customers. The existing Abap modifications were perhaps not always necessary. So SAP is right to call for a fresh start and a clean-out. Many users in the SAP community are asking themselves whether it could not work with less revolution.

At the moment, there is an urge at SAP to leave no stone unturned: What do the Walldorfers care about the chatter of the past few years when new, even fatter revenues are on the horizon with an S/4 and Hana. Money is no solution! Existing SAP customers have always been willing to pay high fees for good performance.

But now the situation is different: SAP wants to start a new era with all its might. The sins of youth are to be quickly forgotten and the new introduced without opposition. SAP sees its successful past as a legacy. SAP's existing customers, on the other hand, are trying to save what can be saved, because there is a lot of experience in the legacy systems.

But even SAP will not achieve the ERP revolution overnight. SAP systems are too large and too complex to be eliminated or renewed in a single stroke. SAP users need not fear for their S/7, and SAP will not be able to replace S/7 with S/4 by 2025.

S/4 needs S/7. From the brave new S/4 world there are the Finance and Logistics modules. These are extensions to an S/7 system based on the Hana database. The expert calls it Suite on Hana (SoH).

Accordingly, the satisfied existing SAP customer must first migrate his S/7 to Hana, then he can devote himself to S/4 Finance and Logistics - all other functions and modules remain with him: The old knowledge is saved.

And also many Abap modifications and add-ons should continue to work. Nothing is as hot as it is cooked.