Whether greenfield, brownfield or bluefield, the transition to S/4 HANA can be difficult. This is widely known. There are hundreds of blogs, articles, whitepapers and even books identifying the process and expected challenges.
You can take a look at S/4 HANA Conversion for a more comprehensive guide to achieving transformation goals.
At Rev-Trac, our focus is on SAP change management and release processes. And, as more and more Rev-Trac customers begin to transition to S/4 HANA, we see many challenges that are common to organizations.
These include:
- Successfully managing massive quantities of changes and transports
- Maintaining business as usual while migrating to S/4 HANA
- Ensuring the S/4 HANA project runs on-time and on-budget
‘Phased’ transition to S/4 HANA
Rather than a ‘big bang’ approach, many Rev-Trac customers are shifting to S/4 HANA in phases. So, organizations have to deal with hundreds, and in some cases thousands of transports in each release.
And with SAP’s Simplification List for SAP S/4 HANA growing with each new S/4 HANA version – yes you read that correctly – an increasing quantity of changes are required.
Ask yourself if your custom code is compatible with S/4 HANA. The more code you have to modify and carry forward, the greater the changes you will have to manage.
Rev-Trac helps to efficiently manage this avalanche of changes. Automated release management and open integration with SAP’s ABAP Test Cockpit enables more change, more rapidly with less risk.
Also, Rev-Trac monitors the history and reason for each S/4 HANA change, significantly reducing the audit effort.
Successfully manage dual landscapes
A challenge for SAP IT teams when making the transition to S/4 HANA is the need to maintain the legacy ECC environment for an extended period.
Business doesn’t stop because you are undertaking an S/4 HANA project. So, your SAP teams will need to manage changes in both environments while maintaining production stability.
Identifying changes made to the ECC or S/4 HANA tracks that need to be synced to the other environment can be a nightmare.
Other key challenges include:
- Determining adjustments which need to be made before syncing
- Ensuring everyone is updated on the status of changes in real-time.
Relying on largely manual change management processes or using rigid SAP-provided tools to meet the challenges adds unnecessary cost, risk and delays to the project.
Rev-Trac includes several features which can help customers to automate and simplify SAP change management in increasingly complex environments.
Capabilities such as OOPS (Overtake and Overwrite Protection System), sensitive object checking and release management enables organizations to enhance efficiencies and lower risk.
Keeping the project on-time and on-budget
Time and money are major issues for all our customers. From what we have seen timelines and budgets are (often) severely underestimated – no matter the partner or size of the environment.
The challenge is for S/4 HANA projects is two-fold. Firstly, in most cases, organizations will be in a transition phase longer than anticipated. Secondly, it means your budgets and other resources will be severely stretched.
When shifting to S/4 HANA, it’s critical to have a proven, stable solution for managing SAP changes. It’s one less thing to worry about as you migrate to SAP’s new platform.
For more information on how Rev-Trac can simplify and accelerate your transition to S/4 HANA, visit or request a demo with one of our change management experts.
