SAP S/4 HANA – Building A Compelling Business Case

As organizations emerge from the pandemic, many initiatives that were shelved will come back to life. Coming out of 2019, many of our clients were shaping roadmaps for adopting SAP S/4 HANA, despite SAP’s further extension of ECC support options. The business benefits found in the new platform continue to drive interest and commitment from many companies looking to seize new opportunities in the improved solution. If you are facing a decision of whether and when to make the leap to S/4 HANA, you will want to build a solid business case based on evolving needs arising from our new post-pandemic reality. Our friends over at ASUG recently put out a great article outlining tips to create a successful business case for an SAP S/4 HANA Implementation. We have summarized the key takeaways from that article below:

 SAP S/4 HANA  – Building your case

One of the most effective places to begin building your business case is where you are currently experiencing the most pain. As it relates determining those areas, here are some questions to think about:

• What workflow processes are the most inefficient and require the most attention?
• What are the key technologies/functionalities that present the most organizational upside?
• What is the organizations data management strategy?
• What is the status of the organization’s performance in the digital economy?

Once you have identified the pain points, you can begin to craft a business case that outlines how SAP S/4 HANA provides solutions to each of these identified areas. Effective business cases excel at linking the business-value drivers of improvements to organizational goals and vision.

Building the right team 

In order to construct a compelling SAP S/4 HANA Implementation business case, it is imperative to have the right people involved in the conversation. Involving SAP super-users and key Business Process Owners will help to expedite the identification of pain points, as well as accelerate buy-in and user adoption once the initiative is approved and underway.

Addressing the cost of SAP S/4 HANA

After addressing the benefits of the S/4 HANA implementation, it is then important to calculate the associated costs of the project. Here are some key areas to include in the cost analysis:

• Licensing and software
• Implementation method (greenfield, brownfield, hybrid)
• System integrators
• SAP technical/functional consultants
• Maintenance and support
• Testing and training

While there are always unforeseen circumstances that arise in any project, the more accurate picture you can paint upfront, the more effectively your organization can plan and budget for contingencies. For more details on best practices as it relates to identifying costs and budgeting appropriately, be sure to check out our previous insight “Insert SAP S/4 HANA common pitfalls and how to avoid them article link”.

Managing the adoption 

One of the most critical components of any SAP S/4 HANA implementation is Organizational Change Management (OCM). From the beginning, it is important to understand how everyone in the organization will be affected by this new technology and to develop a strategy to accelerate user adoption that ensures business outcomes are realized. For more information on SAP OCM and its role in the organization, be sure to check out a recent insight put out by our team entitled “Managing Change in SAP Enterprise Transformation”.

Regardless of where you are in your SAP continuous improvement journey, we want you to know that BCTG is here to help. Whether through leveraging our network of technical and functional SAP consultants, or through simply having a human conversation, we welcome the opportunity to get to know you better.

For the full-length article from ASUG, click here.