SAP S/4HANA: Evaluating Cloud and On-Premise Deployment Options
Every agile, innovative and growth-focused business relies on an ERP to maximize efficiency in the processes of finance, human resources, manufacturing, procurement and any other core business activities. SAP S/4HANA represents the next generation of ERP, helping organizations to embrace new technologies for a competitive advantage such as AI and machine learning.
Whether you’re looking to implement intelligent automation, faster response times, real-time insights or cross-location collaboration on a singular platform, S/4HANA is the ERP to migrate to. Businesses have two options for how they migrate to S/4HANA: cloud-based or on-premises. There are pros and cons to both depending on the priorities, needs and preferences of the company. Read on to discover which version of S/4HANA would work best for your digital transformation.
S/4HANA Cloud
SAP provides a SaaS version of S/4HANA hosted on SAP’s servers enabling companies to deploy S/4HANA fully on the cloud, eliminating the need for specific hardware. A cloud-based ERP has many advantages. Maintenance is much easier because there’s no need for specialists on location. Updates are completed fully online automatically every quarter, ensuring improvements reach users quickly and conveniently. In the same way, the initial setup is quicker. S/4HANA Cloud has a tried and tested ready-made system ready for users. This means it’s great for growing businesses developing their database, processes and best practices.
However, the customization of S/4HANA Cloud is limited. The platform has a standard foundation with some customizable elements and options for different business needs. Businesses have to be content with less control of their ERP setup to gain the benefit of ease of use.
S/4HANA Premise
This is a version of S/4HANA that is situated on the server of the client. Therefore, it is an ERP business suite that is based on SAP S/4HANA in-memory database as a foundation for the client’s custom system built using the S/4HANA applications, data centers, operating systems and more. This leaves the client in the management position, making it perfect for established large enterprises that need exact customization capabilities for their proven business processes.
The company needs the resources and confidence to plan, test and change an internal ERP system as it leaves the client with the responsibility for deployment and maintenance of the ERP platform. As it is custom-made, it can be a lot slower to set up as businesses make decisions about exactly what is included in their system. The annual upgrades SAP releases have to be implemented and tested by the client. With higher customization comes higher client participation.
Implementation Tips for Cloud & Premise
Whether on initial examination cloud-based or on-premise seems like the best fit for your company, we do have advice for the successful implementation of S/4HANA.
Set objectives first
While engaging in digital transformation projects is a given for most ahead-of-the-curve businesses, organizations shouldn’t deploy S/4HANA for the sake of it. It’s important to state the intended outcomes of any digital transformation project, especially a transformation as critical as migrating to a new ERP. It’s much easier to make decisions such as the version of S/4HANA implemented and the stages of your migration strategy if you have agreed on goals and determiners of success.
Be adaptable
Migration to S/4HANA doesn’t necessarily require a choice between cloud and on-premise. Some organizations have been able to create their ideal ERP by implementing both cloud and on-premise solutions. This can improve speed, customization and cost-effectiveness if done correctly. The hybrid model of S/4HANA involves using both cloud-based and on-premise versions of S/4HANA.
Generally, the core data and applications are stored on the on-premise hardware and the system changes and collaboration are managed on the cloud software. Be open to different migration strategies to find the best solution for your own organization.
Leverage SAP Fiori
As part of the newest version of S/4HANA, users get access to SAP Fiori which is a cutting-edge design system for creating custom business apps that meet a consumer-grade user experience. This ensures that the custom applications clients create to meet their business needs will be just as intelligent, consistent and intuitively integrated as the ready-made elements of the system. Come up with a migration plan that makes the most of all the features and functionality of S/4HANA.
Learn from experience
Organizations don’t need internal expertise and experience in SAP migration to be able to implement their new ERP with intelligence. Tap into advanced specialism with the guidance of the professionals in the S/4HANA Expert Centre which is part of the NTT DATA SAP Business Unit. Their highly specialized experience and expertise means that they can ensure each implementation project successfully meets its objectives.
Whether you deploy S/4HANA on-cloud or on-premises or a combination of the two, NTT DATA will provide the support you need to unlock immediate value from S/4HANA across all lines of business. S/4HANA is the ERP solution for companies that prioritize control and customization as well as organizations that prioritize ease of use, implementation and maintenance by providing both cloud-based and on-premise solutions.
