Mid-Market S/4HANA Migration
It doesn’t matter what size your company is, you are going to have to make the transition to S/4HANA prior to the end of the standard support contract in 2027 (or extended support contract in 2030). If you chose the right approach, you can spread out your cost and resources; if you wait it could cost you more.
S/4HANA for the Mid-Market
Many small businesses and mid-sized enterprises are holding off on getting the required SAP ECC to S/4HANA migration on their calendars. This lag in in mid-market S/4HANA migration planning is understandable, but might be a mistake in the long run.
There are a couple of factors that are causing this hesitation. Part of it is cost and complexity. Part of it is that many of these companies feel as if they “just” deployed ECC and now they have to start over. That brings other issues into play, such as re-training and change management.
SAP ECC 6.0 will be fully supported until 2027 – but your legacy ERP system is already outdated when it comes to leveraging the intelligent technologies needed to be competitive today.
The required upgrade can and should be viewed as a valuable tool to accelerate business transformation. Of particular benefit to the mid-market sector is increased visibility and a more agile response to a volatile economic climate.
The good news is that, for most small to mid-sized companies, the investment in time and money won’t be as extensive as they think it will be. Let’s take a look at some of these concerns individually.
Cost, Complexity, and Change
Cost
There is a cost to moving to S/4HANA, but experts say the benefits make up for it, and the investment can be recouped over time. S/4HANA offers better flexibility, faster analytics, and native integration capabilities that allow for future growth and streamlining of business processes.
Moving from a physical infrastructure to a cloud-based system can also result in lower IT costs. Additionally, with a simplified user interface and the benefit of operating on the HANA database, speed and performance are increased exponentially.
Complexity
For the mid-market company, migrating to S/4HANA is typically MUCH simpler than for a huge conglomerate. I’ve seen teams of 45 people march into a Fortune 500 company and prepare to stay for years.
That’s simply not something small and midmarket companies can support.
At CCP Global, we believe in “right-sizing” your transition. That may mean a single, agile deployment over a fairly short period of time. Or it could meant breaking the entire project into smaller, shorter deployments that are spread out over time, thus spreading out your investment over time.
However, regardless of size, every transition starts with determining the best of the three approaches: Greenfield, Brownfield or Hybrid. We find that for most small- to medium-sized corporations, a hybrid transition is key to keeping complexity to a minimum.
While many companies are viewing the transition to S/4HANA as an opportunity to throw everything out and start from scratch, identifying the processes that work today and migrating those as-is to the new ERP will help you to streamline and simplify your migration. A good implementation partner can help you identify the opportunities for migration and set priorities for transition.
Change
A 2018 McKinsey Global Survey showed that, across all types of transformations, only 37 percent of responders reported successful implementations. Resistance to change was a huge factor in those failures.
CCP Global has practically built its brand on the importance of Change Management. From our very first series on SAP Ariba Pre-Deployment Readiness, we have emphasized the importance of preparing key stakeholders for the changes in processes and procedures that will impact their jobs and routines — moving to S/4 is no exception.
Most project teams focus on the technology, without realizing that even a less-radical hybrid migration to SAP S/4HANA requires changes to the business processes and require some level of retraining.
You may be especially leery if you’ve deployed ECC fairly recently and feel like you’ve finally got all of your stakeholders trained and comfortable with this system.
Now you have to do it all again?
Among other factors, having a partner that has extensive experience in preparing for, executing, and managing organizational change can be invaluable. For CCP Global, change management is not an “extra,” it’s an integral component of our readiness approach.
Ready to get started?
Start your Mid-Market S/4HANA Migration
1. Get the S/4HANA Migration on your radar and your calendar.
As the deadline for moving to S/4HANA gets closer, the best system integrators are going to be fully booked. Even if you’re not ready to deploy immediately or want to put the full costs off a little longer, negotiating a contract with an experienced partner can ease some of the stress of planning for this move.
2. Work with your partner to create a roadmap.
We’ve seen plenty of ambitious projects delayed by the lack of a roadmap that lays out the scope of the project. The complexity of transitioning to S/4 can be simplified with a detailed, clear strategy for operational change.
3. Incorporate change management from the very beginning.
We can never emphasize enough how important it is to prepare people for change from the very earliest planning stages. Getting key stakeholders on board as early as possible saves time, money and frustration and is the secret to long-term success.
We specialize in right-sizing for you.
CCP Global is not an out-of-the-box service partner. Our RIGHT-size approach makes us a perfect fit for a small to mid-market S/4HANA migration.
We focus on small, agile teams that work closely with our clients from the planning stage to the post-production phase for a smooth, successful implementation.
Are we RIGHT for you?
Find out.
