As excellently written down in Mark Chalfen’s blog, we got invited to a three day session on all what’s new in the 1511 release of S/4HANA. With the risk of sounding to over dramatic, it is safe to say that something magical is in the air, and it isn’t Santa.
Walldorf is buzzing, ofcourse that might have something to do with the Feuerzangenbowle from the Heidelberg Christmast Market, but I’m guessing it’s not. I’m guessing it has something to do with S/4.
It’s hard not to feel the energy in the air in Walldorf. Product managers and Developers are extremely proud of what they have achieved in little less then two years on S/4 (and having said that, they seem to be extremely proud of the long material number ???? , a change required due to the inclusion of the industry solutions of S/4).
In all honesty, looking at what has been done so far on S/4, they should be proud.
Is S/4 a finished product? No it is not. Just read up on Mark’s blog and you will get a pretty good feeling on where S/4 is today. On the other hand, it is a new product and it does have enormous potential and has great value to customers already today.
If you look at the embedded analytics (first time in history), the improvements in Finance and Logistics (aka MMO) and the potential to clean house (Activate and back to semi standard), is already more then a great value proposition for a lot of customers.
In effect, the concepts are well thought true, they make sense:
Use Activate, best practices and you can use content life cycle management and automated testing (which is included in S/4 by the way!).
Use the embedded analytics, and you just might be able to remove a large chunk of BW (and for some even more then that)
Use best practices, central accounting and you might have a great transition path towards a huge TCO reduction, by removing redundant ECC systems.
Well, you see where I’m getting at.
Documentation!
You can imagine that such a huge release also releases a ton of documentation. This is where this blog might be handy. During my stay in Walldorf, I searched for the best material I could find on S/4. Read through the following links and you’re up to speed in now time. What better way to digest that Christmas turkey ????
Have a great christmas and New Year!
Ronald
How to transition (aka migrate) to S/4HANA
Some might call it a transition, some a migration. Truth of the matter is that moving to S/4 requires some special attention. Read all about it here:
The road to SAP S/4HANA: the different transition paths
The System Conversion to SAP S/4HANA, on-premise edition 1511 – Technical procedure and semantic adaption tasks
Content of MMO and Finance in S/4HANA 1511
MMO (the name S/4 Logistics didn’t seem to correctly cover the scope) and Finance have gotten a great overhaul. Especially in MMO you will find lots of improvements in material valuation, real time inventory and the MRP cockpit (oh yes that simulation functionality is cool!)
On premise edition:
S/4HANA on Premise Edition Scope Guide 12/2015
Cloud Edition:
S/4HANA Cloud Edition Scope Guide 12/2015
The rational for having 3 cloud editions in S/4HANA
What better way then to have Sven explain the rational of having three versions:
#S4HANA – a scope guide for the cloud editions
Analytics in S/4HANA
Close to my heart. Analytics. This makes all the difference in the world. Being able to act and adjust based on real time insights is a game changer (for lack of a better word). 1511 will bring CDS views to S/4 (instead of HANA Live), read all about the possibilities here:
SAP S/4HANA Analytics & SAP BW Data Integration Overview and How To Guide
Fiori in S/4HANA
After winning the Red dot award, Fiori is getting more and more improvements. Read all about the LOB support here:
Fiori Roadmap including LOB support
And look at the Fiori apps library here:
Fiori apps
Filter on backend product: S/4 on premise or cloud
Activate!
Guided configuration and best practices (aka RDS) in S/4. Read up on the vision and the advantages here:
Guided Configuration in S/4HANA
SAP Activate Library
Demos
Demo’s can be found on a number of places:
SAP Demo Store
The demo store might not give you access to one of the demo boxes itself (depends on your partner status), but you could still use the presentation material and videos.
If you really like to get your hands into S/4, I suggest you spin up the trial on-premise system:
SAP S/4HANA, on-premise edition trial page
It would be good to wait till the beginning of January as the 1511 content still needs to be added.
Ofcourse you can also look at the Cloud edition:
Cloud Edition Trial
Not as rich as the on-premise version, but totally free to try out as opposed to the on-premise version where you will pay the Amazon (not SAP!) fees.
New NetWeaver Information at SAP.com
Very Helpfull