SAP Benchmark Report: S/4HANA Adoption on the Rise, Challenges with Integrations Remain

The latest SAP S/4HANA Migration Benchmark Report by SAP Insiders provides valuable insights into the current state of S/4HANA migrations and the challenges organizations are facing during the process. The report is based on a SAP benchmark survey of nearly 200 SAP customers who are in various stages of their S/4HANA migration journey. It found S/4HANA adoption is (finally) on the rise, with 55% of surveyed organizations evaluating or in the process of migration. 

The survey notes the pandemic and supply chain disruptions, along with the significant complexity of the move to S/4HANA as ongoing impacts driving migration timelines. The number of respondents indicating they are now running SAP S/4HANA improved 5% year-over-year to 29% – marking an increase but still indicating the overwhelming majority of organizations have not made plans or are still in the planning/piloting phases.

Another key call out is many organizations are still in the planning and assessment phase of their S/4HANA migration. This suggests that there may be a lack of understanding or knowledge about the migration process among these organizations. Another important finding is that the biggest challenges organizations are facing during their S/4HANA migration are related to data migration and custom code/integration migration.

Make 3rd Party SAP Integrations “Lift and Shift” From ECC to S/4HANA

Another key area highlighted in the report is the integration of third-party applications with S/4HANA. It was the #3 cited challenge in moving to S/4HANA, in fact. With the increased use of cloud-based and other third-party applications, it is crucial for organizations to ensure that these applications can seamlessly integrate with your S/4HANA system. Many organizations face challenges when it comes to these integrations–having legacy, home-grown solutions and limited SAP-skilled IT talent. Potentially needing to update the connected 3rd party adds another layer of complexity and potential cost identified by survey participants.

By leveraging no-code integrations (like enosix), 3rd party integrations like CRMs, asset management systems, and iPaaS solutions can be future-proofed and ready for S/4HANA migration. This means SAP data is virtualized real-time directly inside your mission-critical front end systems. In fact, enosix specializes in pre-built integrations that require nearly no effort to move from ECC-to-S4/HANA (the secret is our deep SAP knowledge). The result? A nimble, prebuilt integration that leverages–but doesn’t duplicate–the complex business logic in SAP, including that of Variant Configuration.

How Do You Compare to the SAP Benchmark?

The latest SAP S/4HANA Migration Benchmark Report highlights progress toward, and challenges faced, in the migration to S/4HANA. Data migration and custom code migration are the major challenges faced–with more than 70% of the surveyed organizations citing it as an issue. Additionally, it also highlights the importance of integrating third-party applications with S/4HANA and the challenges that organizations are facing while trying to integrate them seamlessly.

SAP Insider determined that, regardless of progress toward S/4HANA, organizations need to consider:

• SAP’s continued focus on cloud-based solutions
• Organizational training and education needs
• Ensuring organizational roadmap has contingency plans for the unknown
• Explore solutions that leverage and maximize S/4HANA investment (and capabilities

If you’re looking to integrate SAP data into 3rd party applications, regardless of where you are on the S/4HANA migration path, enosix data virtualization brings the power of SAP to your business-critical systems. Let’s talk about bringing SAP data directly into your critical front-end systems regardless of where you are on your S/4HANA journey–knowing there’s no re-work required by your team once you make the move. We can help you set a new SAP benchmark for your organization! You can also read about four challenges companies face when moving to S/4HANA and how to overcome them!