5 Reasons Businesses Are Moving to SAP S/4HANA

Still using SAP ECC? Here’s why your business should start its transition from ECC to S/4HANA today.

Key Takeaways:

• SAP will stop supporting ECC at the end of 2027.
• Research indicates many businesses are planning to migrate or currently transitioning from ECC to S/4HANA, and some companies have already done so.
• S/4HANA is an upgrade over ECC that drives business agility, offers flexible deployment options, and enables a wide range of new features that drive digital transformation.
• By partnering with an S/4HANA migration expert, your company can develop and execute a successful S/4HANA migration strategy.

SAP ECC will reach its end of life at the end of 2027, and businesses must plan accordingly. And many already are. If your business doesn’t join the movement soon, it could be left behind.

An S/4HANA migration strategy survey revealed that nearly 86% of respondents were in the process of migrating to S/4HANA or building the business case for it as of February 2020, and 17% had already completed migration. The survey also showed two key reasons why businesses are transitioning to S/4HANA: The impending end of mainstream maintenance for core SAP ERP releases (43%) and the opportunity to re-engineer processes to better fit operational needs (41%).

Why should your business migrate from ECC to S/4HANA?

In addition to the top reasons cited in the aforementioned survey, there are many reasons why businesses are making the move from ECC to S/4HANA — and why your company should do the same. These include:

1. Business agility

If your business has massive data volumes, it needs an ERP that can quickly transform information into actionable insights. With S/4HANA, you can use data to generate real-time, relevant insights that will help your business keep pace with a rapidly evolving global marketplace.

S/4HANA lets you connect your business networks, devices, and teams to one another. It also allows you to collect data over an extended period of time and generate insights to find ways to continuously improve your everyday operations. The result: Your business can use S/4HANA to make more informed decisions than ever before — and gain a competitive edge on industry rivals.

2. Speed

Collecting and analyzing data is insufficient for your business. Now, your company needs real-time insights so it can make fast decisions that help it stay ahead of its competition.

S/4HANA accelerates data collection and analysis, and it can help streamline business processes. The platform lets you run processes in real-time and eliminates the need for batch processing. You can use S/4HANA to quickly retrieve and assess data, use this information to learn about your company’s strengths and weaknesses, and uncover ways to push your business to the next level.

3. Flexibility

Getting your business systems to work in combination with each other can be difficult. With S/4HANA’s flexible deployment options, you can seamlessly incorporate the platform into your operations.

S/4HANA can be deployed on-premises or via public or managed cloud. Also, S/4HANA is easy to deploy, particularly for businesses that develop and execute a migration strategy. The bottom line: You can use S/4HANA to get the most value out of your data, regardless of whether you prefer to keep that data on your premises or in the cloud.

4. Consolidation

You want your data to remain in a central location so it can be immediately accessed by the right employees, at the right time, every time. Thanks to S/4HANA, you can provide secure and instant access to data from a single location.

S/4HANA lets you consolidate multiple systems and dashboards into a centralized location and combine capabilities across departments. This simultaneously makes business more efficient and helps lower your operating costs. It can also lead to better resource management.

5. User experience

Of course, you want your employees to use your ERP, but some companies are concerned that transitioning to S/4HANA too soon may cause problems and discourage business-wide adoption. If your employees are forced to learn a new ERP user interface, they may struggle to use the platform, which can hamper your company’s productivity and bottom line.

S/4HANA offers a simple user experience powered by SAP Fiori, which is adaptable to employees of all skill and experience levels. This ensures employees won’t have to worry about a steep learning curve to use S/4HANA and can start using the platform’s intuitive interface on day one.

Start your migration from ECC to SAP S/4HANA today

S/4HANA is a clear upgrade over ECC, and the time is right for many businesses to migrate from ECC to S/4HANA. To successfully make the transition, however, you need to plan ahead. With a comprehensive migration strategy, you’ll be well-equipped to transition to S/4HANA without delay.

A migration strategy lets you map out every stage of your transition to S/4HANA. It can also help identify and mitigate potential problems that could hinder your move to S/4HANA before the platform’s end-of-life arrives. A well-planned migration strategy will put you in great position to transition to S/4HANA and maximize the value of your new platform.

Of course, developing and executing an S/4HANA migration strategy can be challenging. But, if you partner with enosix, we’ll take the guesswork out of planning and completing your S/4HANA migration.

We offer a platform that runs in both ECC and S/4HANA and uses the same interface for your front-end applications. If you want to transition to S/4HANA, we can upgrade your apps without having to rework them as part of the move. As such, you can use the years before your move to get a head start on ECC integration work rather than trying to do everything at once. To learn more about our platform and how we can power your S/4HANA migration, schedule a demo today.