Redundant dyads and SAP S/4HANA
Blog: Capgemini CTO Blog
I’ve stressed on the need for speed in the move to SAP S/4HANA multiple times. I synthesized my various CxO discussions into 2 elements that although appear separate in fact unites and returns to the ultimate objective of business.
- Long programs are difficult to sustain in these changing times.
- The need to accelerate the delivery of benefits.
Several SAP ECC clients are still struggling to get a business case for the move to SAP S/4HANA, and those who have are wary of the long-drawn costs and timelines set. Would it be easier if the cost was a fraction of a greenfield build and the benefits started to arrive in months rather than years?
I usually ask the CxOs, “Why not use selective data transition?” If your ECC is in alignment with your business vision, why not a straight forward upgrade? Often the thought process behind a greenfield approach goes something like this (there are a lot more):
- Chart of account changes
- Cost Controlling area merge
- Introductions of new currency
- Merge vendor business partners
- Merge customer–business partners
- New GL
- Closing inactive/obsolete CCs
- Closing “corrupt” processes
- New sales organizations
- Moving average to standard cost.
And these are not highly complex tasks during an upgrade to SAP S/4HANA using selective data transition (SDT). You must have read Capgemini’s new partnership with CBS to provide an intelligent answer on our “rightfield” approach. It’s not a magic solution; it requires thought, planning, and hard work, but we have successfully used it as part of a programmatic move to SAP S/4HANA.
I do not expect any SDT project to take more than 15 months, and in most cases a lot less – six to nine months with a migrated sandbox available to explore the new S4 solution available after only four weeks or so. This is clearly a less expensive than a long greenfield roll out (expect proportionally so, with a heavily leveraged offshore team with a lot of industrialization in a factory based approach). My main point is that any long program will be challenged sooner or later, and a six- to 15-month program is far less likely to be paused or stopped after six to nine months than a three- to five-year greenfield. It’s all about momentum.
The Renewable Enterprise might sound paradoxical, quite like the observed paradox about the dyad in network effects theory. A dyad innate to its nature appears to divide, but a dyad redundancy remembers the source and attracts to merge and return to the state of unity. Let’s talk about the migration approaches and our new strategy for faster, cost-effective, and value-based moves to SAP S/4HANA. Contact me directly to find out more.
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