Foreword My name is Uma Vanka. I am the Chief Innovation & Strategy Officer for Weltall Technologies. I come with 18+ years of industry experience, most of it in SAP. Started my career as a Java developer in the SAP world and grew my way up to senior leadership position. I have seen SAP evolve during my journey. Witnessed various modules & systems get enhanced and some systems simply come and go. I speak with IT leaders from several organizations on a day to day basis in various forums. While every organizations IT / SAP maturity level is different, almost every discussion these days involves one of these key words: HANA, S4 HANA, Business Suite on HANA, Digital Transformation, IOT, RPA, Block Chain, SAP Leonardo. These terms are all different, although some of them are very tightly related. I am writing this article with an intention to sum them all up together. This article is specifically focused on organizations running SAP, although parts of this article can be applied to non-sap organizations as wel. I want to warn those highly experienced folks out there, especially ones coming from organizations with high level of IT maturity I may not be telling anything new or you might have a different opinion. My intention here is 3-fold: - Try to explain these in simple terms for those who are new to some of these - Sum them all up together, detailing any dependencies and provide my perspective on what to consider when in your IT journey - Share my experiences from all my numerous experiences and provide an independent perspective Btw this article is only intended for those organizations where IT wants to be an innovator, not just a service provider. If you are a part of the IT organization and don t have this mind set you can safely skip this article for now and revisit it, perhaps in a few years when IT is forced into taking the direction discussed in this article. The force could come from software vendor (SAP) or business needs. In other words, I just want to say that most of what I am going to discuss in this article are not mandatory now if your objective is just to keep the lights on. But also, keep in mind- some of them, if not all are a matter of WHEN, not a matter of IF. So it s best to get up to speed and be ready for this journey now. OK, then keep reading if you believe you could benefit from this.
Table of Contents Topic Page # 1) HANA 3 2) BW on HANA 3 3) Suite on HANA 3 4) S4 HANA 4 5) A bit about SAP s history and evolution 4 6) Migration to S4 5 7) Digital UI Transformation 6 8) RPA / Process Mining 7 9) IOT 9 10) SAP Leonardo 10 11) Blockchain 10 12) Conclusion 11
1) HANA: Let s first start with HANA. I am 99% sure all of you heard this term by now and know what this means. Otherwise I am sure you wouldn t even be reading this article. And for those 1% of individuals, here is SAP s definition of HANA: Deployable on premise or in the cloud, SAP HANA is an in-memory data platform that lets you accelerate business processes, deliver more business intelligence, and simplify your IT environment. By providing the foundation for all your data needs, SAP HANA removes the burden of maintaining separate legacy systems and siloed data, so you can run live and make better business decisions in the new digital economy In other (much simpler) words, HANA is an in-memory database where data is stored on the RAM instead of the hard drive and it is way faster than traditional database. 2) BW on HANA: OK, now we that got the definition of HANA out of the way let s talk about BW on HANA. BW on HANA was SAP s first attempt to move their applications on to a HANA database. Keep in mind that replacing a traditional database with HANA is not as simple as migrating from Oracle database to DB2 for example. The underlying database access layer needs to be changed a bit to now work with the in memory computing data base HANA. SAP first made these changes on BW and released BW on HANA with a goal to make the extractions as real time as possible and key reporting as fast as possible. HANA brings a phenomenal difference in the performance of the system due to the nature of the data storage and computing. Several customers were eager to take advantage of HANA s power. Customers took different approaches to adapt HANA. Some (a few) went with BW on HANA for faster and near real time reporting Some installed HANA as a standalone system (also called as HANA side car), connected it with ECC running traditional database and used it for specific processes / purposes. Some other (a handful) early adapters of HANA (with a clear business case for in memory computing) in fact partnered with SAP to completely do a custom upgrade of their non ECC systems to replace traditional database with HANA. (I know one customer who did CRM on HANA) And a large portion of them: just decided to wait 3) Suite on HANA / Business Suite on HANA: Now what is Suite on HANA? Suite on HANA also known as Business Suite on HANA is basically SAP ECC running on HANA, just like BW on HANA. So, what is the advantage? That s straight forward too. Business suite on HANA lets customers take advantage of the faster database power of HANA on core business processes around supply chain and finance without having to change the application layer or the user interface. Pretty much all transaction codes in traditional ECC are available on Suite on HANA.
Ok, great. Then what is the confusion? It sounds like straight forward right? Well, NO. Now comes S4 HANA. 4) S4 HANA: So, what is S4 HANA exactly? While Suite on HANA is SAP s great step in the right direction towards next generation software, S4 HANA is several steps forward. For those who knew R2 and R3, I would describe the difference between Suite on HANA and S4 HANA the same. - S4 HANA is a revamp of the application layer to make maximum use of HANA s in memory computing power. In other words, it s not just a database swap and make the access layer work with the new HANA database its optimizing the access layer to take full advantage of in memory computing - And most importantly, a completely re done User Interface using Fiori called SAP Fiori UX. Fiori UX replaces SAP GUI with innovative, persona based, design focused UI. This is drastically different from how SAP worked historically. S4 comes with a wide range of Fiori apps. And of course, you will have the option of using the old GUI during transition. 5) A bit about SAP s history and evolution: I am eager to talk about Digital Transformation our other topic of this article now and how it s tightly coupled with S4 HANA, but I don t want to side track our topic here, so I will park it for the moment. But please keep in mind that Digital and S4 are very tightly coupled which I will talk in detail shortly. And, before we talk transition, I do want to summarize how SAP evolved from R1 - R2 R3 ECC Suite on HANA S4 HANA for the purposes of providing the full picture. SAP R1: Very first version of SAP based on a 1 tier architecture where presentation layer, application layer and database are on the same serve. R1 was mainly focused on Materials Management SAP R2: Evolution from one tier architecture to a mainframe based 2 tier architecture. SAP R3: Evolution from 2 tier architecture to client / server based 3 tier architecture SAP ECC: Evolution from client / server based 3 tier architecture to Netweaver based N tier architecture We already discussed the evolution from ECC to SAP systems on HANA (BW on HANA & suite on HANA) and S4 HANA.
6) Migration to S4 HANA: Migration to S4HANA is a matter of WHEN, not a matter of IF as SAP will eventually end support for ECC, which is currently scheduled to end in 2025. Although my intention of this article is not to discuss migration in detail (which I will discuss seperately), now let s briefly touch upon this topic. SAP will eventually end support for ECC, which is currently scheduled to end in 2025, which means every organization has to go through this journey sooner or later. First question my customers ask me: Is S4 HANA ready for prime-time deployment? Should I consider a migration now? Here is my perspective. A typical consultant answer It really depends Fun aside. Note that S4HANA is really an evolving product. SAP has completed the finance module rework and logistics to a certain extent. So, let me try and simply the answer based upon a few factors as outlined below: My perspective on migration to S4 HANA 1) Your organization is highly focused on Finance Serious consideration should be given to migrate to S4 in the near future 2) New to SAP Start your journey on S4 3) Your organization is focused on logistics A very careful consideration should be given as there may be a business case 4) Others Best to wait and consider migration to Business Suite on HANA Note: I have been making my living mostly on SAP for the last 18 years and I love it. My objective here is not to undermine S4 HANA capabilities, rather provide my honest perspective and guidance to customers as they are looking at their S4 journey. Second questions customers ask me: Should I migrate to Business Suite on HANA or wait and do a S4 migration? My answer again, it depends Here is my attempt to simplify the answer based upon various factors. Please note that this can be taken as a general guidance, but each case should be looked at separately.
My perspective on migration to Business Suite on HANA (vs S4) 1) Have a strong business case for S4 (1,2 and part 3 from above) Go direct to S4 2) Organization has less appetite to take on big IT initiatives Wait and do it in one shot 3) IT landscape is complex Take a multi-phase approach, i.e consider migration to Business Suite on HANA in the near future and save S4 migration to a later date 4) Others Best to consider Business Suite on HANA migration in the near future I also want to share my personal experience(s) that migration to Business Suite on HANA can be very successful and it can provide several benefits of HANA. Most importantly it will be cheaper, less complex, less disruptive to the business and lays good foundation for future S4 migration. I have seen a few very successful migrations. Third question: Is either Business suite or S4 an upgrade? Answer is NO. It s NOT. It s a migration. 7) Digital UI Transformation (Digital Customer Experience): Now, let s talk about the other topic of this article: Digital Transformation. What is it? There are several definitions out there. Here is one straight off the internet: Digital transformation is the profound transformation of business and organizational activities, processes, competencies and models to fully leverage the changes and opportunities of a mix of digital technologies and their accelerating impact across society in a strategic and prioritized way, with present and future While digital transformation is a broad topic and pretty much covers everything, we are discussing in this article, I want to focus on the user interface aspect of it. So, in simple terms, Digital Transformation from a user stand point is all about providing a user centric, persona based, efficient data to users. Its also widely knows as Digital Customer Experience or some people simply call it DCX. This requires the ability to collect data effectively, process it more efficiently and display in a more user-friendly manner. If you look at SAP s user interface, you have several T Codes to execute several business functions. They are not very user friendly and there is a lot of redundancy in the data entry. In other words, SAP UI traditionally has been very task specific and not business process specific. This is our problem statement. With changing era, users are now demanding a more intuitive user interface. SAP has attempted this with Portal with HTMLB & Webdynpro as underlying technologies. SAP s new answer to this is Fiori. Now, Fiori is just a framework to develop user centric web and mobile applications. But the key is you still need to develop the front end. So how does it work? Do you have to develop it all custom? What are your options? Are you tied to Fiori as your framework? Luckily the answer is No to all of the above. This is where the tight integration between Digital Transformation and S4HANA comes into picture. As I discussed in the earlier section, S4HANA has a completely redone UI using Fiori which provides organizations a major leap in their digital journey.
Now you might be wondering - just a major leap? Yes. Because keep in mind user interface requirements are always specific to an organization and in fact they differ from person to person. That s where organizations considering their digital journey need to decide whether to go with the standard UI provided by S4 or customize it using design thinking workshops. In any case, S4 is a MAJOR upgrade to the UI towards the digital world. Now next question: Do you have to wait until migration to S4 HANA to start on digital journey? No. You don t have to. In fact, I have seen several customers on ECC started their digital journey already for specific customer critical business processes (quoting and order management are pretty popular). This is a decision each organization must carefully make after considering the business case and timing for S4 HANA migration. Other question: Am I mandated to use Fiori for my digital journey? Absolutely NOT, although if you are on S4, Fiori becomes the logical choice for any customizations. If you are not on S4, you are free to use any technology or package you want and connect it with SAP. However, you need to consider your future plans / roadmap around S4 journey and it makes sense in a majority of cases simply to use Fiori. However, it really depends upon the business process in scope. For example, I have a customer who is using Eloqua for digital marketing, but Fiori for quotation management. My Perspective on Digital UI Transformation 1) Now or later Depends upon the use case and S4 HANA plans. a. Scope is Supply Chain and / or Finance? If S4 HANA journey is around the corner, wait. b. If not, get started ASAP if you see business case (most organizations do on customer facing processes at least) 2) Fiori or other? Consider your S4 journey plans and use case. Generally if use case is not in supply chain or finance, free to use any technology or framework. Else, Fiori makes most sense. I also want to emphasize that every organization needs to go through a digital UI transformation journey to keep up with the market trend. I see a lot of activity in this area now and if you haven t started your digital journey yet, give it a serious thought. 8) RPA / Process Mining Now let s move on to the next set buzz words we wanted to cover RPA and Process Mining. What is RPA? Stands for Robotic Process Automation. Here is the definition: Robotic process automation (RPA) is the use of software with artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning capabilities to handle high-volume, repeatable tasks that previously required a human to perform.
In simple terms, as the word robotics indicate, it s really replacing humans with machines / bots. I personally see a lot of activity in this area these days. I see a lot of use cases, some on the IT side and a lot on the business. One example is I work with an organization where based upon stock levels, orders are placed every month by a person. A logical choice to hand it over to a robot. I feel bad writing this to replace humans with robots, but that s the direction we are headed, isn t it? Lot of organizations see a clear business case for RPA due to direct cost savings due to FTE reduction and cost savings. There are a lot of RPA players in the market such as Redwood, Blueprism, Automation Anywhere etc. My objective here is not to compare them. Perhaps I will do so at a different time based upon my experience. I want to say though is: If your organization hasn t looked at RPA, it s time to do so Then what is Process Mining? Here is the wiki definition: Process mining is a process management technique that allows for the analysis of business processes based on event logs Process mining is the process by which we evaluate current business processes to ensure they are being operated per design and identify redundancies, manual operations etc. Lot of organizations go through a process mining exercise first before jumping into automating any processes. In RPA terms, process mining is the process you use to identify good RPA use cases. There are a lot of tools in the market for process mining. Celonis is a tool I was exposed to. There are others like My Invenio etc. Again, I don t intend to compare these tools. I just want to make you aware that there are a lot of tools in the market. Now the next question: Do I have to go through process mining before automating my processes? My answer is its highly recommended, although there could be processes that we know are not working per design and could be obvious candidates for RPA. However trust me the results this process mining exercise produces is phenomenal. It identifies several good use cases for RPA which we normally wouldn t have thought would be good candidates The billion-dollar question: Should I embark on the RPA journey now or wait until I migrate to S4 HANA? My opinion is regardless of your S4 migration plans, get started on this RPA journey. At least complete process mining and identify abnormalities and breaks in processes. This will definitely make S4 journey easier. And if you automate any processes, software vendors claim that they are easily upgradable during S4 migration. So, my theory is RPA makes S4 migration either easier or it won t have any impact. And now, the reason why I say it s a theory is because I personally haven t been through a S4 migration where
RPA is implemented to a decent extent (I am not talking month end close, basis support etc). I would like to know if anyone has any experiences with this. And of course, if your business case for S4 determines migration around the corner, then it may make sense to combine RPA and S4 or do RPA after S4 depending upon business case for RPA, organizations appetite to absorb the complexity of IT initiatives among other things. RPA now or Later? - Embark on RPA journey regardless of S4 plans, unless S4 migration is around the corner - At least get started with process mining. It will either help with S4 migration or will at least not have any impact Now let s move to the last set of buzz words. I will describe each one of these and try to place these in the bigger picture. 9) IOT: OK, here comes the big guy. I am pretty sure all of you know what it is. Let me define it for the sake of completeness. Stands for Internet of Things Of Things, its defined by wiki as below: The Internet of things (IoT) is the inter-networking of physical devices, vehicles (also referred to as "connected devices" and "smart devices"), buildings, and other items embedded with electronics, software, sensors, actuators, and network connectivity which enable these objects to collect and exchange data. Ok, so simply it is machines talking to machines, machines talking to people and machines trying to become more intelligent. This is a vast topic and I don t want to get side tracked by talking about IOT here, although I do want to introduce at least 3 other key words here as we will be using them shortly. Machine Learning: This is part of machines becoming more intelligent by the data they collect (with the help of sensors) and acting proactively. Simple example printer self-ordering cartridges if low on ink. Big Data: Simply an engine / database where large amounts of data from various machines gets collected and analyzed to make these machines smart Predictive Analysis: The act of analyzing the data collected from these sensors connected to machines Why are we talking about this?
10) SAP Leonardo This is where SAP Leonardo comes into picture. Leonardo is SAP s technology to enable this. It s a gateway for lack of better words that runs on the cloud, uses HANA as the big data engine and analyses the data it receives from all these sensors (/does predictive analysis). If you were at Sapphire this year, it was all about Mr Leonardo. So, IOT and SAP Leonardo are tightly coupled, at least in the world of SAP. Keep in mind, you don t need SAP Leonardo to embark on your IOT journey. But it may make sense for SAP customers. 11) Blockchain: The last buzz word I wanted to cover is blockchain. What is it? And how does it fit in the big picture? Here is wiki definition of blockchain A blockchain originally block chain is a distributed database that is used to maintain a continuously growing list of records, called blocks. Each block contains a timestamp and a link to a previous block. A blockchain is typically managed by a peer-to-peer network collectively adhering to a protocol for validating new blocks. By design, blockchains are inherently resistant to modification of the data. Once recorded, the data in any given block cannot be altered retroactively without the alteration of all subsequent blocks and a collusion of the network majority. Functionally, a blockchain can serve as "an open, distributed ledger that can record transactions between two parties efficiently and in a verifiable and permanent way. The ledger itself can also be programmed to trigger transactions automatically Ok, in simple terms, imagine your car has a GPS tracker which cannot be touched and it keeps syncing its location along with time stamp to a secure database every minute. You cannot alter these time stamps and locations because if you alter one, all other time stamps will be out of sync. This is the technology used in bit coin for example. Ok, the car example sounds good. How does it apply to a product I manufactured? It helps in a lot of ways. It provides transparency to your supply chain. You can track your product through its entire supply chain. I will perhaps talk about blockchain in detail separately. Now let s see how this is tied to other topics we are talking about here? SAP s solution to implementing blockchain is again SAP Leonardo. That s how these 2 topics are tightly coupled. It s time to provide my perspective on IOT, Blockchain and SAP Leonardo again. First question: Should you start your IOT journey? I would say consider your IOT journey. Start thinking about it. Identify use cases. I certainly see this getting implemented in the foreseeable future. I have seen several organizations identifying IOT use cases Second Question: Is SAP Leonardo prime time ready? I would love to say yes, but unfortunately not.
Third Question: What about blockchain journey? I would say you can start thinking about it and see if it makes sense. I am yet to see a strong technology platform to enable blockchain in the world of SAP (I didn t see doesn t mean it doesn t exist it s just my experience). It may make sense to embark on this journey along with SAP Leonardo at a later date. Embark on IOT and Blockchain journeys? - Consider your IOT journey now. Identify use cases at the least - Start thinking about blockchain 12) Conclusion: I know I tried to cover a lot of topics. Although its long, I thought it s important to put them all together in one place to help paint the big picture and help organizations come up with their IT road map. I am almost tempted to draw a most common scenario roadmap, but there is none. It varies from organization to organization drastically. All the various criteria discussed in this article can be used as guidelines. I have developed an engine that helps organizations make these decisions based upon various criteria and help come up with their roadmap. Contact me for more details or if you need assistance.