SAP S/4HANA Cookbook: What is SAP S/4HANA

SAP S/4HANA Cookbook

Getting Started with SAP S/4HANA

SAP S/4HANA,the next generation business suite designed to help you run simple in the digital economy.

This new suite is built on our advanced in-memory platform, SAP HANA, and offers a personalized user experience with SAP Fiori.

Deployable in the cloud or on-premise, SAP S/4HANA is built to drive instant value across lines of business and industries with the ultimate in sophistication: simplicity.

Overview Presentation

Product Roadmap

> Product road maps > Cross Topics > SAP S/4HANA ('S-User' is required)

Frequently Asked Questions

Explore SAP S/4HANA along selected use cases

This series of blogs explains the possibilities of SAP S/4HANA along 'typical' use cases - tackled from both a business and a technical angle.

• Next Generation Logistics (biz / tech)
• Next Generation Inventory Management (biz / tech)
• Marketing to a Segment of One (biz / tech)
• Increase Financial Business Performance (biz / tech)
• Engage Talent Across the Organization (biz / tech)

openSAP course on SAP S/4HANA use cases

SAP S/4HANA, On-Premise Edition 1511

The most recent and comprehensive version of the SAP S/4HANA on-premise edition

With SAP S/4HANA (SAP Business Suite 4 SAP HANA), on-premise edition, SAP is providing a new product and a next generation of business applications. With the delivery in November 2015 ('1511'), enterprises can benefit from innovative use cases in core financial and operational areas e.g. Materials Management & Operations.

Key innovations include:

• Optimized working capital with new accounts payable and receivable cockpits
• Decreased stock buffers with simplified data model in inventory management for real-time, high-volume processing
• Increased visibility with real-time stock and material flow insight
• Reduced manufacturing cycle time with streamlined material flow for internal requirements (MRP)
• Augmented reactivity with real-time monitoring of production orders regarding flow and critical issues
• Improved operational decisions with easy simulation of supply alternatives
• Lower procurement costs with standard integration to the Ariba Business Network
• Better customer service with new sales order fulfillment cockpit for instantly identifying bottlenecks and issues

Flipbook about SAP S/4HANA on-premise edition 1511

Product scope overview for SAP S/4HANA 1511, on-premise edition (presentation / blog)

(Update, Jan 29)

SAP S/4HANA, on-premise edition 1511: Functional scope in details

help.sap.com for SAP S/4HANA on-premise edition 1511

> on premise edition > choose the fitting feature package stack (FPS)

(Update, Feb 3)

SAP Simple Finance, On-Premise Edition 1503

The on-premise edition of SAP S/4HANA solely focusing on financial scenarios

'SAP Simple Finance, on-premise edition' marked the first step in the SAP S/4HANA on-premise roadmap for customers. It solely focuses on financial scenarios such as SAP Accounting, SAP Cash Management, SAP Integrated Business Planning for Finance and SAP Central Finance.

The initial version was released in March 2015 (1503) followed by support package stacks in May (1505), August (1508) and November (1511).

Since this version currently has the highest implementation figures, we offer a separate page with detailed implementation information around it. You will find a substantial list of assets on the 'Read on' page on the right.

‘SAP Simple Finance, on-premise edition 1503’ and 'SAP S/4HANA, on-premise edition 1511' both contain financials scenarios (SAP S/4HANA 1511 additionally contains Materials Management & Operations).

However, they are delivered as two different products. Customers who are interested into financial innovations can either start with SAP Simple Finance 1503 and transition to SAP S/4HANA 1511 at a later point in time, or they can start with SAP S/4HANA 1511 directly.

Note: The terms 'SAP S/4HANA Finance' and ‘SAP Simple Finance’ are often used interchangeably especially in introductory documents. However, in Help Portal, Software Download Center, etc. you will find distinctions between the two.

SAP Simple Finance, On-Premise Edition 1503: Implementation Information

Try it out for yourself:

There is a 30-day trial hosted on Amazon Web Services (AWS) that lets you create a dedicated on-premise instance of SAP Simple Finance 1503 and explore the trial system with administrator rights.

The SAP license is waived for this period, AWS hosting fees apply.

SAP Simple Finance 1503, 30-day trial

SAP S/4HANA, Cloud Edition 1511

The current cloud edition in detail

The current cloud edition of S/4HANA was released in November 2015 and comprises three different sub-editions:

1. SAP S/4HANA, cloud marketing edition
2. SAP S/4HANA, cloud project services edition
3. SAP S/4HANA, cloud enterprise edition

1 & 2 focus on line-of-business scenarios (marketing, professional services), 3 offers a generic ERP scope with enterprise-wide scenarios. All cloud editions are hosted by SAP.

Note: You might also find references to older cloud edition releases (e.g. 1506) on SAP web pages since we’re keeping this information for some time as reference for existing customers.

Product scope overview for SAP S/4HANA, cloud edition 1511

Update (Jan 29)

Scope details (documentation) for SAP S/4HANA, cloud edition 1511

Try it out for yourself:

In the free trial of SAP S/4HANA, cloud edition, you can experience SAP S/4HANA in a guided tour at your own pace. It covers both line-of-business and generic enterprise scenarios.

Cloud Edition: SAP S/4HANA Free Trial

SAP PLM, SAP HR, SAP CRM

Finance and logistics are the first major areas that are addressed within SAP S/4HANA.
Other products areas of the SAP portfolio will move into SAP S/4HANA going forward or can be closely integrated with it.The linked blog gives an overview and further information on roadmap and strategy for the products mentioned in the headline at the current point in time (this might be changed in the future without prior notice).

SAP S/4HANA and solutions of the SAP Suite: strategy and roadmap

Hybrid scenarios and SaaS integration capabilities

Both the on-premise and cloud editions of SAP S/4HANA offer integration capabilities with other cloud-based SaaS products. This can be SAP solutions such as Ariba, SuccessFactors, Fieldglass, Concur, Hybris, SAP Cloud for Costumer, SAP Financial Services Network, or other third-party solutions depending on the detailed interfaces to those.

The read-on documents list the cloud integration capabilities by line-of-business (integration into SAP S/4HANA for Ariba, FSN, SuccessFactors (latter on-premise) are available, other products to follow) and provide some generic information on integration scenarios.

Cloud integration capabilities by line-of-business

Technical information on cloud integration (Blog / White Paper)

Update (Mar 1)

Your transition options in a nutshell

SAP S/4HANA can be deployed on-premise or in the cloud, offering customers a choice what fits best for them.

Besides the decision what target infrastructure fits best, also the starting point of a project may vary.

There are basically three different implementation scenarios how a customer can move to SAP S/4HANA (you might even find combinations of those within the same customer):

1. System Conversion : Existing SAP customers who want to move a complete SAP Business Suite system to SAP S/4HANA
2. Landscape Transformation: Existing SAP customers who want to optimize their system landscape and move to SAP S/4HANA
3. New Implementation: Customers who want to move from non-SAP legacy systems to SAP S/4HANA (new and existing SAP customers)

The linked documents explain the possible roads to SAP S/4HANA along typical customer scenarios, and give an overview how to technically deploy SAP S/4HANA and move data into the new infrastructure.

The blog focuses on the on-premise edition of SAP S/4HANA for existing customers (i.e. 1. in the list above).

The white paper takes a more comprehensive look on all three scenarios above for both on-premise and cloud deployments.

The simplification list describes in detail on a functional level what happens on individual transactions and solution capabilities when transitioning from SAP ERP 6.x to SAP S/4HANA, on-premise edition 1511.

White Paper:
The Road to SAP S/4HANA

Blog:
The road to SAP S/4HANA on-premise edition for existing customers

System Conversion to SAP S/4HANA on-premise edition 1511:

• Technical procedure and semantic adaption tasks
• Simplification list (both textual PDF and tabular XLS)
  New (Mar 1)

Extending SAP S/4HANA (side-by-side or in-app)

Extensibility covers a broad spectrum of topics that allows customers and partners to adapt standard business software to their business needs. It ranges from business configuration; layout adaptation of user interface (UI), forms, and reports; custom fields and logic; integration; and custom terminology and translation to customer-specific applications.

Extensibility in the SAP® S/4HANA suite can be categorized into two main parts: side-by-side extensibility through SAP HANA® Cloud Platform, and in-app extensibility through built-in capabilities.

Overview blog about extending SAP S/4HANA

White Paper: Extensibility for Customers and Partners

Custom Code Assessment & Adaptation

As an existing SAP customer, you may have developed ABAP custom code in your source system.

When converting your system to SAP S/4HANA, you need to assess and possibly adapt this custom code. This activity is mainly valid for on-premise transitions, since custom code can not be carried over that way into a cloud infrastructure.

Many of the steps for custom code assessment and adaptation are similar compared to moving to SAP HANA in general. Specific steps for SAP S/4HANA will be detailed out as SAP S/4HANA evolves.

Converting an existing SAP system to SAP S/4HANA: What you need to consider for your custom code

SAP Activate

SAP Activate expedites SAP S/4HANA implementations throughout the customer lifecycle. It offers ready-to-run best practice content, guided configuration, and an implementation methodology.

SAP Best Practices packages provide ready-to-run digitized business and technical processes optimized for SAP S/4HANA. They allow you to leverage SAP’s expertise and experience for standard processes and spend more time focused on innovation.

Guided configuration allows to choose and activate SAP Best Practices that are delivered with the SAP S/4HANA product. In cloud deployments, guided configuration additionally serves as content lifecycle management tool to support the adoption of future innovations.

SAP Activate methodology offers a consistent approach for any SAP S/4HANA deployment type – cloud, on-premise, hybrid, or mobile.

SAP Activate overview

Best Practices for SAP S/4HANA in a nutshell

SAP Education Offerings

openSAP is SAP’s learning platform for Enterprise MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses). Register for free and get access to learning materials about SAP S/4HANA and other SAP software.

openSAP course: SAP S/4HANA in a Nutshell

openSAP course: SAP S/4HANA - Deep Dive

openSAP course: SAP S/4HANA use cases

openSAP course: Implementation of SAP S/4HANA

(New, Mar 7)

SAP Learning Hub provides immediate, cloud-based access to a vast selection of SAP learning content – and to our interactive learning rooms (subscription fee applies).

SAP Learning Hub

Search for S/4HANA

Classroom trainings for SAP S/4HANA from SAP Education (training fee applies)

SAP S/4HANA Training & Certification Curriculum