Significance of SAP S/4HANA in the Digital World
At present, a business’s ability to be agile, scalable, and highly responsive to customer demands are no longer considered exceptions. They are strategic necessities to survive and thrive. While ERP systems have been around for decades, binding multiple business functions around a single transactional database, the contemporary expectations from the products are evolving.
ERP: No longer a transaction recording tool
Amidst economic landscapes shifting at warp speed, ERP systems need to deliver active decision support for process owners in real-time and automate high-toil workloads. Here, SAP S/4HANA is a postmodern ERP designed to meet the priorities of the Digital-first World and drive business value amidst disruptions. SAP S/4HANA is designed to help you operate seamlessly in the New Economy and keep you ahead of the curve using a suite of cutting-edge technologies, high computational capacity, and greater situational awareness.
SAP S/4HANA: A future-ready ERP
SAP S/4HANA is a successor to SAP R/3 and SAP ERP systems, launched in 2015. The product runs on SAP’s next-gen in-memory database technology, High-performance Analytic Appliance (HANA). The architecture allows SAP S/4HANA to process massive transactional and operational data at a speed that suits the expectations of the digital world. SAP S/4HANA uses an SAP Fiori-based UI, delivering a rich and enabling user experience across devices and includes a long list of modules, from SAP Finance, Plant Maintenance (PM), Product Life Cycle Management (PLM), Human Capital Management (HCM) to industry-specific solutions, running on the underlying HANA database.
However, besides standard ERP functionalities, SAP S/4HANA also packs a complete array of intelligent technologies, including Process Automation, Machine Learning, AI, and Advanced Analytics. They are targeted to help you monetize revolutionary business models, intuitively orchestrate resources, preempt risks and drive enterprise transformation at velocity.
SAP S/4HANA is available as an on-premise version and through a SaaS model, SAP S/4HANA Cloud. They are slated to replace SAP’s current ERP product line by 2025. Whether you are considering a Greenfield or a Brownfield migration to ERP S/4HANA, it helps to understand the following factors that make it significant in the backdrop of a digital world:
Simplification: In the closely-contested markets, simplification of business functions is vital to let your managers focus on more strategically important areas like planning and customer relationship development. SAP S/4HANA simplifies the administration of your business enterprise IT landscape by centralizing your hardware and networking resources around a digital core, running on the in-memory database. Further, while legacy ERP systems were often hamstrung by multiple batch-run dependencies, in SAP S/4HANA, aggregate tables have been avoided to reduce processing time and enable faster response to queries.
Performance: SAP S/4HANA is synonymous with uncompromised performance. It is equipped to let you generate reports and analytics based on live data, putting you at an information advantage. You can use this leverage to improve a range of outcomes, from faster period-end closures to more intuitive inventory level management. Further, the predictive analytical capabilities of SAP S/4HANA deliver better insights into demand cycles and customer behaviors, allowing you to contextualize offerings and improve your business value proposition.
Innovation: Businesses have an uncomplicated option to innovate or perish in the digital world. With a complete range of intelligent technologies, from AI, ML, IoT to RPA, and a proven information advantage over its competitors, SAP S/4HANA is designed to keep you effortlessly ahead of the Digital Curve. Notwithstanding your position on the digital maturity journey, SAP S/4HANA offers a simplified yet futuristic platform that can accelerate your current enterprise workloads and help you innovate at the speed of business, exploring new revenue possibilities.
Affordability: Gone are the days when owning and maintaining ERP systems were the reserved turf for corporations with deep pockets. The leveling of the playing field characterizes the Digital World, and SAP S/4HANA is designed to be a great equalizer for businesses. SAP S/4HANA Cloud Solutions consolidates your multiple business systems into a Single Source of Truth, topped by an analytical layer and driven by a powerful cognitive engine. However, the futuristic landscape is available for you with the convenience of a simple pay-per-use model. With SAP S/4HANA Cloud Solutions, you can easily trim your Total Cost of Ownership and scale service consumption as per your business requirements.
UX: Powered by SAP-Fiori, the User Interface (UI) of SAP S/4HANA allows you to access various elements like Overview Pages, Work Lists, and List Reports seamlessly. It can be customized as per the user persona, allowing your consumers to access information smoothly regardless of the device or the mode of service deployment. It improves user experience and reduces time to insights on business-critical KPI, allowing your decision-makers to respond at an accelerated pace.
Final notes
The Digital World is replete with incredible revenue opportunities that can foster unforeseen business growth. Yet it can also be unforgiving for organizations that are not ready to embrace change and evolve at scale. Investing in the unmatched capabilities of SAP S/4HANA is undoubtedly one way of futureproofing your enterprise. However, in the process, it helps to have an experienced ERP implementation partner like Percipere alongside. It can conduct the readiness assessment, deliver consultancy, steer solution architecting and implement SAP S/4HANA in the best possible way for you to unlock its optimum benefits.