In my previous value blog post, I highlighted one of the self-service tools that can help customers build a business case for their migration from SAP ERP to SAP S/4HANA through a RISE with SAP contract. In this blog post, I will describe the value of using SAP Activate for RISE with SAP S/4HANA Cloud, private edition, and the benefit it can provide during our customers’ implementation journey. If you are new to the RISE with SAP topic, read the SAP Press release  as well as my previous blog Achieve Business Value with SAP S/4HANA and RISE with SAP.

RISE with SAP provides an attractive offering, bundled in one package to help customers achieve true business transformation. In the following, we will answer the question how customers can use SAP Activate on their journey to SAP Cloud ERP and make sure it will be successful.

Value of SAP Activate

Do I still need SAP Activate if I have a RISE contract? Customers are highly advised to use SAP Activate. The methodology provides a set of tasks, steps, and very useful accelerators to help the project team to start with the implementation project. Once customers have signed their contracts and are ready to kick-off the implementation project, SAP Activate provides a set of initial tasks which they can execute to speed up the adoption of the solution. Additionally, it provides an estimate on what is to be expected of the project.

Image 1: SAP Activate tasks to start your RISE with SAP project the right way

One good example is illustrated in the following two tasks highlighted in Image 1. The Review Overview Documentation and Review Onboarding Documentation explain step by step how to progress your transformation journey and help to familiarize with SAP S/4HANA Cloud and SAP Activate. Also, customers and partners should visit the SAP Active Roadmap Viewer. The content is free and regularly updated to reflect the latest changes and improvements as well as our customers’ feedback.

How do I get started? Is SAP Activate recommending any learning materials? When SAP launched RISE with SAP, one of the biggest requests from customers and partners was to embed learning and enablement. Especially for a new offering, it is important to start with understanding and learning. In SAP Activate, we cover these topics under the Customer Team Enablement workstream which includes enablement of the customer project team, standard product orientation to prepare the customer for product requirements and design discussions as well as other important learnings necessary during the lifespan of the project. With SAP Activate for RISE with SAP S/4HANA Cloud, private edition, customers can get started by reviewing Self-Enable Onboarding on SAP S/4HANA, private cloud edition illustrated in Image 2 and gain access to learning materials such as AP Learning Hub, RISE with SAP S/4HANA Cloud and more.

Image 2: Self-enablement is critical for deployment of your RISE with SAP solution

How can I get a pre-configured system? In a new implementation, customers may choose the Enterprise Management Layer for SAP S/4HANA – THE golden standard of pre-activated Best Practices to accelerate and simplify the adoption of SAP S/4HANA for a faster time to value. The Enterprise Management Layer is ideal for new and existing customers operating in multiple countries and looking for a global template offering standardized, preconfigured and pre-activated end-to-end business processes to start their SAP S/4HANA journey. I recently published a blog about this topic in the Value Blog on SAP Best Practices Enterprise Management Layer for SAP S/4HANA . You can access the newly created page for the Enterprise Management Layer for SAP S/4HANA for additional details and exchange with experts.

What is the value of using SAP Activate Fit-to-Standard? One of the key aspects in the implementation of SAP S/4HANA Cloud is to embrace the fit-to-standard mindset, focusing on the re-use of pre-configured content. The Fit-to-Standard approach is detailed in SAP Activate methodology and provides the relevant tasks such as the Fit-to-Standard System Preparation and the Fit-to-Standard Workshop Preparation, as well as accelerators to help customers plan and execute their Fit-to-Standard workshops.

Image 3: Fit-to-standard workshops help drive the cloud mindset in your project

The SAP Activate Fit-to-standard process sounds great, but what if our business is going with a system conversion?

The Fit-to-Standard is still very relevant with this deployment option. It will be used to validate existing processes, review recent innovations, scope simplification changes and new requirements. The customers journey is going to be different, but the simplification items determined during the Readiness check will likely drive the project team to conduct a Fit-to-Standard workshop, because of all the changes that will impact the business.

The simplification item catalog provides customers with a description of all relevant changes that might have an impact when converting from SAP ERP to SAP S/4HANA. Each change might impact our customers’ existing processes and in these scenarios, it is very beneficial for the team to sit through a Fit-to-Standard workshop and review the upcoming changes, set expectations with the business users, understand the business value as well as identify and document all the requirements.

I intuitively understand the concept of “clean core”, but how can we ensure in our project that the system we are implementing is designed with this mindset?

SAP introduced the Solution Standardization Board (SSB) governance body in SAP Activate for SAP S/4HANA Cloud solution in 2020 to help customers oversee and govern the standardization of business processes to achieve higher use of standard SAP functionality and minimize the introduction of custom code and modifications in customer SAP landscape. SAP Activate for SAP S/4HANA Cloud highly recommends customers to establish a SSB in their SAP S/4HANA Cloud, private edition projects, especially when they are starting with Enterprise Management Layer for SAP S/4HANA. The SSB will help customers stay as close as possible to the standard, oversee the adherence to the 5 golden rules and drive the team to adopt a cloud mindset during the implementation. More details can be found in the following blogs:

·       Practical governance to drive fit-to-standard mindset in your SAP S/4HANA implementation

·       The value of a Solution Standardization Board (SSB) as part of implementing SAP S/4HANA Cloud, extended edition

What do you suggest is the best resource for my team to understand how to best use the set of tools and services available within RISE with SAP?

RISE with SAP offering component contains tools and services such as the SAP S/4HANA Readiness Check, Custom Code Analyzer and SAP Business Process Intelligence (BPI). The Activate Roadmap contains content to help customers understand when, how, and where to use these embedded components. For example, the following task: the SAP Readiness Check task in Image 4, with relevant accelerators such as the SAP Readiness Check on the SAP Help Portal or relevant SAP Blog from our own SAP expert such as the SAP S/4HANA Conversion – Readiness Check 2.0 step-by-step.

Image 4: SAP Readiness Check is embedded into the SAP Activate guidance

The SAP Business Process Intelligence is another tool that customers with a RISE with SAP contract can make use of. The tool helps them to build a business case for their migration from SAP ERP to SAP S/4HANA. Read more about it here.

I have access to the SAP Business Technology Platform (SAP BTP), what will my team gain by using SAP Activate during my project specifically for BTP?

The SAP Business Technology Platform (SAP BTP) is the platform for Intelligent Enterprise, where customers can achieve agility, business value, and continual innovation. This is done through integration, data-to-value, and extensibility of all SAP and third-party applications and data assets. When it comes to using SAP Activate, the project team can refer to the SAP Activate workstream to help drive the innovation within the project. The workstream splits the SAP Activate Methodology into logical groupings of knowledge areas which are used to easily identify the different work areas that the project team covers. Most of the tasks completed using SAP Business Technology platform are described in the Integration and Extensibility workstreams.

Image 5: Application development and integration capabilities power SAP Business Technology Platform

The Extensibility workstream covers the design, development, and deployment of system functionality. During the Fit-to-Standard, the business requirements that might be resolved with extensions of the solution are handed over to experts for extensions. The same experts, after reviewing the SAP Activate content, will follow the guidance provided by the tasks and accelerators and can start building and enhancing the S/4HANA Cloud, private edition solution.

The Integration workstream, on the other hand, covers the identification of integration requirements, approach, design, and setup. Tasks such as Self-Enable on the Open Connectors on SAP Integration Suite will guide the integration expert to become familiar with open connectors available on the SAP Integration Suite (see Image 5), the integration layer that powers SAP Business Technology Platform.

In Summary, the new RISE with SAP and SAP Activate Methodology for S/4HANA Cloud, private edition will walk the project team through a detailed view of their deployment journey, from discovering the solution to planning and executing their journey. Customers will find value in utilizing the content that was designed to help drive a successful implementation and help them embrace the transformation journey.

For additional information on RISE with SAP, please read the following blogs

• Introducing RISE with SAP – Business Transformation as a Service
• Accelerating Innovation, Speed, and Agility with Agility with RISE with SAP
• RISE with SAP: “Game Changer” for Customers Becoming Intelligent Enterprise
• A Robust Platform for RISE with SAP
• Rise with SAP: Get your projects started right with SAP Activate and Ready-to-Run Business Process Content

Inside SAP S/4HANA Podcast

As always, I would like to encourage you to subscribe to our podcast “Inside SAP S/4HANA”. This podcast leverages the unique knowledge and expertise of SAP S/4HANA product experts, partners and customers to address your needs by sharing product insights and project best practice. There is no customer success without product success and project success; we help you get to the next level and make your SAP S/4HANA projects a success. Subscribe now and benefit from the shared knowledge.

openSAP microlearnings for SAP S/4HANA

Just a couple of months ago, we launched openSAP microlearnings for SAP S/4HANA as an exciting new learning opportunity. What began with a small batch of 20 videos, has now become a channel with more than 50 microlearnings that have generated over 20,000 views since then. Today we cover multiple lines of business, like Finance and Manufacturing & Supply Chain, and key technology topics like Master Data Management, Extensibility, User Experience, and Upgrade Management. We are continuously adding new microlearnings to the SAP S/4HANA channel, so make sure you check them out.

Your Voice Matters!

If you want to learn more and actively engage with SAP subject matter experts on SAP S/4HANA Cloud, join our SAP S/4HANA Cloud Community – now fully integrated with SAP Community. The community brings together SAP S/4HANA Cloud customers, partners and SAP experts and has a clear mission: deliver an interactive community to engage with one another about best practices and product solutions. We invite you to explore the new SAP S/4HANA Cloud Community ‘one-stop shop’ as the central place for all resources, tools, content questions, answers and connect with experts to guide you through your SAP S/4HANA Cloud journey.

For more information on SAP S/4HANA Cloud, check out the following links: 

• The power of best-in-class and Next Practices business content for a modern ERP Blog Post
• SAP S/4HANA Cloud: The Intelligent ERP Link Collection Blog Post

• Latest SAP S/4HANA Cloud Release Blogs here

• SAP Intelligent Robotic Process Automation Content here

• SAP S/4HANA Cloud release info: http://www.sap.com/s4-cloudrelease
• SAP S/4HANA PSCC Digital Enablement Wheel here
• Inside SAP S/4HANA Podcast here
• SAP S/4HANA Cloud Community here
• SAP Activate Community here 
• Best practices for SAP S/4HANA Cloud here
• Help Portal ProductPage here

Follow us via @SAP and #S4HANA, or myself via @SDenecken