Understanding the End-to-End Journey is Key
Boston, MA – September 5, 2019 — It’s been over four years since the introduction of S/4HANA, according to UpperEdge, an independent third-party advisory company that empowers organizations to get the most from their IT supplier relationships.
In its most recent earnings, SAP announced that Q2 was one of the best quarters ever for adding SAP S/4HANA customers — 600 for the quarter and more than 11,500 customers in total. But only approximately 3,000 are live, according to SAP.
“With maintenance support for SAP ECC expiring in 2025, more customers than ever are starting to assess how they’ll make the move to S/4 and realize they’ve underestimated what the journey will entail,” said Len Riley, UpperEdge’s SAP Advisory Practice Leader.
Assessing and understanding the various S/4 migration options, pros/cons, benefits, risks, costs, and timing requires a lot of diligence, given the breadth of current SAP customer landscapes.
“Moving to S/4HANA is often more than just a migration; it can be a catalyst for a full-fledged digital transformation that organizations must start planning for now, because establishing a truly integrated strategy takes time and the clock is ticking,“ Len continued.
UpperEdge found that SAP customers were in various stages of the migration journey as far as assessing and making the move to S/4. The four stages are:
- Contemplating — Enterprises starting to think about and evaluate why and how to make the move to S/4
- Preparing — Enterprises preparing to engage SAP and/or a consulting firm to evaluate options and build a business case
- Mobilizing — Enterprises currently engaged with SAP and/or a consulting firm and preparing to present a business case
- Executing — Enterprises soliciting an SAP S/4 software proposal and/or preparing to evaluate system implementation firms.
The criticality of having a well-thought-out approach for making the move to S/4 and the importance of knowing how the market is evolving are keys to success. Given the degree of diligence required to effectively make the transition to S/4 and the complexity of the associated license conversion, UpperEdge has established a team of SAP S/4 migration advisory subject matter experts solely dedicated to advising and preparing SAP customers on how best to tackle the journey to S/4. As part of announcing this dedicated team of S/4 commercial advisory experts, UpperEdge is offering an exclusive complimentary advisory consultation designed for SAP customers embarking or about to embark on their ECC to S/4 journey.
ABOUT UPPEREDGE
UpperEdge maximizes the value its clients receive from their key IT supplier relationships by helping them develop and execute fact-based sourcing, negotiation, and program execution strategies. Visit www.upperedge.com for more information.
