SAP S/4HANA Conversion Services

Accelerating your journey to S/4HANA, the new digital core for enterprise transformation

Why Convert?

Why companies need to convert from SAP ERP to SAP S/4HANA?

Business benefits of SAP S/4HANA conversion:

Optimizes enterprise applications to make the best use of the SAP HANA database capabilities
Removes redundancy by unifying functionality (one functionality for one objective)
Offers responsive user experience design and lowers data footprint.
Enables enterprises to process real-time data efficiently
Tremendous advantages over older SAP ERP software, including simplified architecture and increased performance
Allows organizations to keep up with the latest technologies SAP offers and experience intelligence through their systems

Hiring the services of a certified SAP partner will allow you to define the best course of action for your specific business.

How do they differ?

Differences between SAP S/4HANA conversion and migration

Migration

Takes into account both the sender and receiver systems
Migration is performed table by table using a central system
Central system reads the data in the sender system without changing it in the sender system
Original data is changed in the central system before migration to the receiver system

Conversion

Pros & Cons of S/4 HANA Conversion

Benefits and challenges of SAP S/4HANA conversion

Benefits

Ownership and maintenance cost controls
Accelerates digital transformation initiatives, including digital core
Speed, scale, agility, flexibility, and innovation
Line-of-business process improvements
Faster development lead times with restructured data models
Accurate forecasting with real-time analytical insights
Plenty of opportunities to apply data and pivot to new business models

Challenges

Inconsistent and unreliable data at the time of SAP S/4HANA conversion
Complexities in migrating custom codes to S/4HANA
Choosing between a big bang migration or a phased approach
Negotiating partner terms and agreements
Identifying technical issues during the planning stage itself
Assessing functional issues for the conversion roadmap
Complexity of data transfer in the source system

Factors to Count

Key aspects to consider during SAP S/4HANA conversion

Landscape assessment and preparation

Database conversion & migration as well as technical conversion & migration
SAP S/4HANA implementation without disrupting existing processes
Modifying current business processes to unlock better value
Evaluating the technical and functional aspects and the number of systems to be converted

Planning S/4HANA conversion journey

Pre-conversion processes to detect any issues in the early phase of the project
Actual system conversion including adaptation to new business processes, validation, and testing
Post-conversion support and follow-up activities to ensure users get maximum value from SAP S/4HANA
Enabling users to align with these phases throughout the SAP S/4HANA journey

Choosing the best conversion method

Determining if current databases should move to a new version
Greenfield migration to move data from old SAP system into new S/4HANA environment
Brownfield conversion to upgrade live systems and reuse existing elements selectively
Smart brownfield conversion for selective migration and process retention

Identifying the right deployment option

It’s important to plan your transition to the digital core with a trusted SAP partner. An experienced SAP consultant provides your enterprise both business and IT value from SAP S/4HANA conversion.

S/4HANA Conversion Stages

Important phases of SAP S/4HANA conversion journey

S/4HANA conversion journey divides into pre-conversion, conversion and post-conversion phases.

Pre-conversion phase

The first phase includes analyzing the current usage of your system and its degree of customization, focusing on the system’s critical areas. An impact analysis is done to determine the relevance of conversion for your system and identify the functional efforts and the business process redesign needed for the conversion. It’s also important to assess the compatibility of custom objects with SAP S/4HANA and evaluate the insights on existing master data and transactions.

Pre-conversion stage involves:

Conversion phase

After ensuring that your system is well-suited to SAP S/4HANA, it’s important to run the SUM (Software Update Manager). All your database migration (optional), software update, and data conversion happen during this phase. Perform SAP Readiness Check and Simplification Item-Check to review data inconsistency, compatibility issues, or missing mandatory preparation activities.

Relevant checks during the conversion phase helps in:

Post-conversion phase

It’s important to perform all the mandatory checks during the post-conversion phase, including Custom Code Adaptation, Functional Adaptation, Performance Tuning, obsolete data cleansing post-conversion, cross-application follow-on activities, and application-specific follow-on activities. Leveraging the data archiving and data aging functionalities in SAP S/4HANA will allow your platform to always remain usable and presentable.

Benefits of post-conversion services offered by an SAP partner:

Reduction in conversion efforts, costs, and risks
Standardized processes combining all conversion activities
End-to-end support through designing, sizing, planning, procuring, deploying, and testing processes
Knowledge, experience, assets, tools, capabilities, and methodologies to accelerate the conversion process

Timely guidance from a certified and experienced SAP consulting services provider will make your transition to S/4HANA seamless and hassle-free.

Getting Your System Ready

Preparing for SAP S/4HANA conversion

SAP S/4HANA conversion preparation process includes the following steps:

Review the system requirements and examine its compatibility related to OS, DB, and Stack.
Maintenance Planner (MP) verifies if the installed components, add-ons, and business functions are compatible with S/4HANA. If no valid path for conversion is available, the MP prevents the conversion.
SI-CHECKS (Simplification Item check) will identify simplification items relevant to conversion. It means that it checks data inconsistency or missing mandatory preparation activities.
The Custom Code Migration process describes the tools and necessary activities that help you to migrate custom code. The process consists of preparatory analysis (Custom Code Analysis) and Custom Code Adaptation after the technical conversion.
Once these preparations are done, the conversion phase begins.

The Winning Formula

Best practices for successful conversion to SAP S/4HANA

Identify the right deployment option and conversion method that will address your business challenges, requirements, budgets, and timelines.
Make informed decisions by finding answers to the questions and concerns about SAP S/4HANA conversion.
A preparatory activity of cleansing data is crucial to avoid risks such as unwanted licensing and subscription costs and downtimes.
Engage a certified SAP partner to accomplish a successful transition to SAP S/4HANA. Being a Silver Partner of SAP, Fingent is adept at this.
Prepare a detailed roadmap for your business and ensure end-to-end technical support services from your SAP partner during implementation.
Critical and systematic conversion planning that follows high industry standards and recommended SAP regulations.
Create SAP Sandbox environment initially as a proof of concept (POC) to test the workarounds, learn how the solutions deliver results in real-time settings, and finalize decisions before making any changes or enhancements to your original system.

There is no one-size-fits-all strategy when it comes to S/4HANA conversion. Discover how you can unlock value from SAP by connecting with an SAP strategist.

Case Studies

SAP S/4HANA conversion: Fingent’s success stories

1. SAP S/4HANA system conversion for a high-tech manufacturer

Fingent enhanced the operational efficiencies and capabilities of a leading high-tech manufacturer by helping them convert from SAP ECC 6.0 to SAP S/4HANA. Conversion to SAP S/4HANA 1709 was performed by following the Lift and Shift Methodology along with comprehensive Fit-Gap Analysis.

2. SAP S/4HANA implementation for improved business automation

By implementing SAP S/4HANA, a leading business in the Exploration and Production Industry achieved a process driven solution to handle day-to-day operations with less personnel intervention, reduced paperwork and enhanced preventive maintenance.

Optimized resource utilization and improved user experience
Better analysis of costs and profitability with enhanced payroll and costing systems
Real-time actionable insights with accelerated financial processes
Single integrated system across legal entities to achieve short term revenue goals

With SAP S/4HANA at their core, Intelligent Enterprises are changing how work gets done, reacting in real time to critical insights and driving improved customer experiences.