What is SAP S/4HANA?
SAP S/4HANA is SAP's next-generation intelligent ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) business suite. Designed to help businesses run simpler, faster, and more efficiently, S/4HANA leverages the power of in-memory computing, a simplified data model, and a user-friendly interface to deliver real-time insights and enable data-driven decision-making.
Essentially, SAP S/4HANA represents a new software solution that’s a major evolution from traditional SAP ERP systems. It's built on the SAP HANA in-memory database, which allows for lightning-fast data processing and analysis. This enables businesses to perform complex calculations and simulations in real-time, leading to improved operational efficiency and agility.
The Importance of SAP S/4HANA
Businesses need to be agile and responsive to change. SAP S/4HANA plays a crucial role in enabling this transformation. It empowers organizations to:
- Simplify processes: By eliminating redundant data and streamlining workflows, SAP S/4HANA helps businesses operate more efficiently and reduce costs.
- Gain real-time insights: The in-memory computing capabilities of S/4HANA provide instant access to critical business data, facilitating faster and more informed decision-making.
- Embrace innovation: With its advanced analytics and machine learning capabilities, SAP S/4HANA enables businesses to identify new opportunities and stay ahead of the competition.
- Future-proof their IT infrastructure: Built on a modern and scalable platform, SAP S/4HANA ensures that businesses can adapt to evolving technologies and market trends.
Benefits of Using SAP S/4HANA
Implementing SAP S/4HANA brings a wealth of benefits to businesses across various industries – and at times have the potential to completely transform how a business works.
Increased Efficiency
S/4HANA's new solution uses a simplified data model which eliminates redundancies and simplifies processes, leading to faster execution and reduced operational costs.
In-memory computing enables real-time data processing and analysis, allowing businesses to make informed decisions quickly and efficiently. The platform also supports automation of routine tasks, freeing up employees to focus on more strategic activities.
Enhanced Agility
SAP S/4HANA is designed to be adaptable to changing business needs, enabling organizations to respond quickly to market shifts and new opportunities.
The platform can easily scale to accommodate growth, ensuring that businesses can continue to leverage its benefits as they expand. S/4HANA's advanced analytics and machine learning capabilities enable businesses to identify trends and patterns, fostering innovation and competitive advantage.
Better Compliance and Risk Management
S/4HANA includes robust security features to protect sensitive business data from unauthorized access and cyber threats.
SAP helps businesses comply with industry regulations and standards, minimizing the risk of penalties and reputational damage. Real-time insights into business operations enable organizations to identify and address potential risks proactively.
Core Features of SAP S/4HANA
SAP S/4HANA's solution power lies in its core features, which are designed to transform the way businesses operate. These features are built upon a foundation of innovation and technology, and they are designed to help businesses achieve their goals more efficiently, effectively, and profitably.
One of the most important core features of SAP S/4HANA is its simplified data model. This data model eliminates redundancies and aggregates data from multiple sources into a single source of truth. This streamlines data management, improves data quality, and enables faster and more accurate reporting and analysis.
Another key core feature of SAP S/4HANA software is its integrated business functions. The software platform seamlessly integrates various business functions, such as finance, sales, procurement, manufacturing, and supply chain management, into a unified system. This fosters collaboration, eliminates silos, and provides a holistic view of the entire organization.
Finally, SAP S/4HANA features a modern and intuitive user interface based on SAP Fiori, which provides a consistent and personalized user experience across devices. This enhances user productivity, reduces training time, and encourages adoption.
Simplified Data Model
S/4HANA boasts a simplified data storage model that eliminates redundancies and aggregates data from multiple sources into a single source of truth. This streamlines data management, improves data quality, and enables faster and more accurate reporting and analysis.
For example, traditional ERP systems often suffer from data inconsistencies and duplication due to the use of multiple data sources.
S/4HANA's unified data lifecycle management eliminates these issues by consolidating data into a central repository, ensuring that all departments have access to the same, accurate information. This not only improves data quality but also simplifies data management processes and reduces the time and effort required for reporting and analysis.
Integrated Business Functions
The software platform seamlessly integrates various business functions, such as finance, sales, procurement, manufacturing, and supply chain management, into a unified system. This fosters collaboration, eliminates silos, and provides a holistic view of the entire organization.
In traditional ERP systems, these business functions are often siloed, leading to inefficiencies and a lack of visibility across the organization. S/4 HANA breaks down these silos by integrating data and processes from different departments, enabling a more cohesive and efficient way of working.
For instance, sales teams can access real-time information on inventory levels and production schedules to provide accurate delivery estimates to customers, while finance teams can track the financial impact of sales orders and procurement activities.
User-Friendly Interface
S/4HANA features a modern and intuitive user interface based on SAP Fiori, which provides a consistent and personalized user experience across devices. This enhances user productivity, reduces training time, and encourages adoption.
It’s designed to be intuitive and easy to use, even for users who are not technical experts. The SAP Fiori framework provides a consistent look and feel across all applications, making it easier for users to navigate the system and find the information they need.
Additionally, S/4 HANA's user interface can be personalized to meet the specific needs of individual users, allowing them to access the information and functions they use most frequently with just a few clicks. This not only improves user productivity but also reduces the need for extensive training, making it easier for businesses to adopt the platform.
How SAP S/4HANA Works
Understanding the inner workings of SAP S/4HANA is crucial to appreciate its transformational impact on businesses. The core of its operation lies in its architecture and design, in-memory computing technology, and flexible deployment options.
Architecture and Design
SAP S/4HANA's architecture is built on a simplified data model, which reduces data redundancy and complexity. It eliminates the need for aggregate tables and indices, leading to faster data access and processing. This simplified structure allows for real-time analytics and reporting, empowering businesses to make informed decisions quickly.
The design of the S/4HANA solution also focuses on integration. It seamlessly connects various business processes, such as finance, sales, procurement, and manufacturing, providing a holistic view of the enterprise. This integration facilitates collaboration, eliminates silos, and streamlines operations across the organization.
In-Memory Computing Technology
At the heart of S/4HANA's power lies in-memory computing technology. The SAP HANA server database stores data in the main memory (RAM) rather than on traditional disk-based storage. This enables lightning-fast data access and processing, transforming the way businesses analyse and utilize information.
With in-memory computing, complex calculations, simulations, and real-time analytics can be performed at unprecedented speeds. This empowers businesses to make data-driven decisions on the fly, react swiftly to market changes, and gain a competitive edge.
Deployment Options
SAP S/4 HANA comes in different editions to suit. For companies seeking a standardized, out-of-the-box edition, the public edition of S/4HANA Cloud offers pre-configured best practices and regular updates from SAP.
This edition prioritizes ease of use and rapid deployment. However, businesses requiring greater flexibility and control can opt for the private edition of S/4HANA Cloud. It’s an edition that allows for customization and tailoring to specific business processes while still providing the benefits of a cloud-based solution. Ultimately, the choice between these editions depends on a company's individual requirements and priorities.
Businesses can leverage private and hybrid cloud to access S/4HANA, benefiting from scalability, flexibility, and reduced IT overhead. A hybrid deployment combines on-premise deployment and cloud computing environments, allowing businesses to leverage the benefits of both worlds.
This flexibility enables organizations to choose the cloud deployment model that best aligns with their IT strategy, budget, and compliance requirements.
Applications of SAP S/4HANA
SAP S/4HANA's solution versatility extends across various business functions, empowering organizations to optimize processes, improve efficiency, and drive growth.
In Finance
S/4HANA revolutionizes financial and asset management by providing real-time insights into financial data. This empowers finance teams to make informed decisions quickly, improving forecasting accuracy and streamlining financial processes.
With real-time financial management capabilities, finance professionals have access to up-to-the-minute information on cash flow, profitability, and balance sheets. They can actively monitor financial performance, identify trends and potential issues as they arise, and take proactive steps to optimize financial outcomes.
In Supply Chain
S/4 HANA significantly enhances solution supply chain visibility and agility. Businesses can optimize inventory levels, reduce costs, and improve customer satisfaction through the platform's capabilities.
Real-time visibility into inventory levels, demand patterns, and supplier performance enables businesses to fine-tune logistics and inventory management, resulting in reduced carrying costs, improved order fulfilment rates, and a better overall customer service experience.
In Manufacturing
S/4HANA streamlines manufacturing processes from end to end. This leads to improved production efficiency, reduced downtime, and faster product delivery times. It benefits manufacturing operations – but also development, including digital product engineering.
The software platform offers real-time insights into supply chain management, including production schedules, machine utilization, and material availability, empowering manufacturers to optimize production processes.
They can identify bottlenecks proactively through artificial intelligence (AI), address issues as they emerge, and ultimately improve productivity and reduce costs – including through extended warehouse management (EWM).
Sales and marketing
S/4HANA empowers sales and marketing teams to gain a deeper understanding of customer needs and preferences. The cloud software platform provides a 360-degree view of customers, enabling teams to personalize interactions and deliver highly targeted campaigns and improved customer relationship management.
This personalization elevates customer engagement, boosts conversion rates, and fosters long-term customer loyalty.
Overall, SAP S/4HANA's applications span across a multitude of business functions – including human capital management. It delivers tangible benefits in terms of efficiency, agility, and customer satisfaction.
By leveraging the capabilities of S/4HANA, organizations can optimize their processes, make well-informed decisions, and achieve a competitive edge in today's ever-evolving business landscape. Other business areas benefit from a range of other SAP software, e.g. HR with SAP successFactors.
SAP S/4HANA Use Cases
There are plenty of practical use cases for companies to adopt or migrate to SAP HANA, as SAP delivers powerful capabilities across the enterprise, whether it is a green approach or a brownfield approach.
Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)
SAP S/4HANA serves as a comprehensive ERP system, integrating various business processes and providing a centralized software platform for managing operations. This includes functions such as finance, accounting, human resources, procurement, sales, and customer relationship management.
By consolidating these functions, S/4HANA streamlines workflows, improves big data visibility, and facilitates collaboration across departments. Using SAP S/4HANA as an ERP system leads to improved efficiency by streamlining workflows and eliminating redundant processes.
It also enhances visibility by providing a centralized cloud platform for managing all aspects of the business, giving organizations a clear and comprehensive view of their operations. S/4HANA also improves decision-making through its advanced analytics capabilities, enabling businesses to make data-driven decisions and identify opportunities for improvement.
Finally, its flexible architecture and cloud-based deployment options enable businesses to adapt quickly to changing market conditions, increasing their agility.
Business Intelligence (BI)
SAP S/4HANA's in-memory computing capabilities and advanced analytics tools empower organizations to derive actionable insights from their data. It enables real-time reporting, interactive dashboards, and predictive analytics, helping businesses identify trends, patterns, and opportunities.
This empowers them to make informed decisions, optimize operations, and drive growth. Using SAP S/4HANA for BI provides real-time insights due to its in-memory computing capabilities, enabling businesses to access and analyze data in real time.
S/4HANA includes a variety of advanced analytics tools, such as predictive analytics, data mining, and text analytics that can help businesses uncover hidden patterns and trends in their data. Interactive dashboards within S/4HANA make it easy for users to visualize data and explore trends, and the system can be integrated with other systems, such as CRM and supply chain management systems, to provide a more comprehensive view of the business.
Digital Transformation
SAP S/4HANA serves as a catalyst for digital transformation, enabling businesses to modernize their IT infrastructure, embrace emerging technologies, and adapt to the digital age. It supports cloud adoption, mobile access, and integration with other innovative solutions, providing businesses with the agility and flexibility needed to thrive in today's dynamic market.
Using SAP S/4HANA for digital transformation can help businesses modernize their IT infrastructure by providing a single cloud platform for managing all of their business processes. S/4HANA can be deployed in the cloud, providing businesses with the flexibility and scalability they need to grow.
It can also be accessed from mobile devices, allowing employees to work from anywhere. Furthermore, S/4HANA can be integrated with other systems, such as CRM and supply chain management systems, to provide a more comprehensive view of the business.
Why Choose SAP S/4HANA?
SAP S/4HANA stands out as a compelling choice for businesses due to its numerous advantages. It offers a simplified data model, real-time analytics, integrated business functions, and a user-friendly interface.
The platform's in-memory computing capabilities deliver unparalleled speed and efficiency, while its advanced analytics tools enable data-driven decision-making. Additionally, S/4HANA's cloud and hybrid deployment options provide flexibility and scalability, allowing businesses to adapt to evolving needs.
Integrated business functions consolidate various aspects of the business into a single cloud platform. The user-friendly interface makes it easy for users to navigate the system and find the information they need. Finally, the cloud and hybrid deployment options give businesses the flexibility to choose the deployment option that best suits their needs.
How to implement SAP S/4HANA ?
Implementing SAP S/4HANA requires careful planning and execution. It involves several phases, including project preparation, business blueprint creation, realization, final preparation, and go-live support.
Organizations can choose between a greenfield implementation, a brownfield implementation, or a selective data transition approach, depending on their specific requirements and existing IT landscape.
Converting an existing SAP ERP system to S/4HANA is called a system conversion or brownfield conversion, involves conversion of your current SAP ECC system to the S/4HANA platform while retaining your historical data, configurations, and customizations.
It's a technical conversion involving steps like data conversion to the new data model, adapting custom code, and configuring new functionalities. The conversion process itself can be complex, requiring a phased approach with several conversion steps.
It is crucial to partner with experienced SAP consultants and leverage best practices to ensure a successful implementation.
SAP S/4HANA on OVHcloud
OVHcloud offers a robust and secure cloud platform for hosting SAP HANA databases, providing businesses with the scalability, performance, and reliability they need to run their mission-critical applications.
By leveraging OVHcloud's infrastructure and dedicated server expertise, organizations can accelerate their S/4HANA deployment, optimize costs, and focus on their core business objectives. Deploying SAP S/4HANA on OVHcloud dedicated infrastructures offers several key benefits, including scalability to meet the needs of businesses of all sizes.
OVHcloud also offers high-performance servers and storage that can handle the demands of SAP S/4HANA. Additionally, OVHcloud has a proven track record of reliability and uptime. The software platform takes security very seriously and has implemented a number of measures to protect its customers' data.
Finally, OVHcloud offers competitive pricing for its cloud service, making it a cost-effective solution. Our SAP on OVHcloudrelated services include:
Unleash the full potential of SAP HANA with the dedicated resources of OVHcloud's Bare Metal servers. You gain complete control over your hardware, ensuring data confidentiality, and the freedom to customize your environment for optimal performance.
Propel your digital transformation with SAP HANA on OVHcloud's Hosted Private Cloud. This fully managed solution provides a dedicated, secure haven for your SAP applications, guaranteeing peak performance and regulatory compliance.