Software-Accelerated S/4HANA Migration

Striking the right balance and maximizing ROI

When the idea for this paper came up, it was against the backdrop of many in the SAP user base being faced with a set of migration-related decisions associated with the prospective move to S/4HANA. Given the amount of advice and guidance that already exists on this topic, however, an obvious consideration was how we could usefully add to the conversation.

With this in mind, we therefore elected to focus on a question that seems to be on many people’s minds at the moment – how to approach a migration to S/4HANA when your existing SAP environment isn’t perfect, but also doesn’t need a complete redesign.

In situations like this, we were hearing that the so-called ‘Brownfield’ approach – essentially an in-place technical conversation – is often too constraining. Meanwhile, a total reimplementation – the ‘Greenfield’ approach – is frequently regarded as overkill. As a result, the response of many SAP customers has been to put their S/4HANA decisions off until they have time to figure out a way forward that doesn’t involve an excessive amount of compromise, time and cost.

Against this background, we’re therefore pleased to present an overview of a migration approach that’s helping SAP customers to tread that middle ground. The basic principle is to transform only what you need to, then use smart software to automate migration of the rest.

When you say it like this, it can sound a bit like magic, so one of our aims with this paper is to walk you through some of the principles and practicalities involved so you can form a view of whether this ‘Software-Accelerated’ approach is right for you.

Our sponsor for this exercise is Fujitsu, and we’ll be using one of its service offerings in this space to illustrate what a real world solution looks like. That said, this paper has been authored as an independent and objective guide, and discusses the ‘Software-Accelerated’ approach as just one of a number of legitimate migration options.

Download the Business Fit paper to read more…

Dale Vile

Dale is a co-founder of Freeform Dynamics, and today runs the company. As part of this, he oversees the organisation’s industry coverage and research agenda, which tracks technology trends and developments, along with IT-related buying behaviour among mainstream enterprises, SMBs and public sector organisations.

Tony Lock

Tony is an IT operations guru. As an ex-IT manager with an insatiable thirst for knowledge, his extensive vendor briefing agenda makes him one of the most well informed analysts in the industry, particularly on the diversity of solutions and approaches available to tackle key operational requirements. If you are a vendor talking about a new offering, be very careful about describing it to Tony as ‘unique’, because if it isn’t, he’ll probably know.