As indicated in the last of the FAQ series, here the update en route to SapphireNOW. Based on several pre-briefings with Influencers and key customers and partners, here the delta collection with a little bit of #S4HANA prediction about what questions might be asked. So if you have time to read this – lets answer your other questions in Orlando. Looking forward to connect with you there. Lets get started…
What is SAP S/4HANA?
SAP S/4HANA is the next-generation business suite. It is a new product fully built on the most advanced in-memory platform today – SAP HANA – and modern design principles with the SAP Fiori user experience (UX). SAP S/4HANA delivers massive simplifications (customer adoption, data model, user experience, decision making, business processes, and models) and innovations (Internet of Things, Big Data, business networks, and mobile-first) to help businesses run simple in the digital economy.
What are the deployment options offered?
SAP offers on-premise, cloud, and hybrid deployments to give real choice to customers. SAP S/4HANA also gives customers the option to fully leverage the new HANA multitenancy functionality as provided by the SAP HANA platform (currently support package 9) for the cloud.
Is SAP S/4HANA available today?
The SAP S/4HANA, on-premise edition is available for customers in all industries and regions.
The SAP S/4HANA cloud edition is also available as announced at SAPPHIRE NOW event in Orlando on May 6th 2015 .
What is the current business scope of the two editions?
The business scope for each edition was designed to offer maximum choice to customers in alignment with their business requirements:
- SAP S/4HANA, on-premise edition, already offers a business scope that is similar in terms of coverage, functionality, industries, and languages as the current SAP Business Suite. Within this scope, SAP S/4HANA also includes the transformational simplifications delivered with SAP Simple Finance (SAP Accounting powered by SAP HANA) as well as a planned integration with SuccessFactors Employee Central and Ariba Network.
The on-premise edition is intended to offer a 9 to 12 months innovation cycle through innovation packages. The next innovation package is planned for Q4 of 2015.
- SAP S/4HANA, cloud edition, already covers specific business scenarios for the marketing line of business and for the professional services industry as well as the most essential scenarios to run an entire enterprise in the cloud with a digital core including: finance, accounting, controlling, procurement, sales, manufacturing, plant maintenance, project system, and product lifecycle management, plus integration with SuccessFactors Employee Central, Ariba Network, SAP hybris Marketing, Fieldglass and SAP JAM. Three offerings are currently available as part of the SAP S/4HANA , cloud edition:
- SAP S/4HANA, cloud marketing edition – for the marketing line of business
- SAP S/4HANA, cloud project services edition – for the professional services industry
- SAP S/4HANA, cloud enterprise edition – for a full ERP scope
The cloud edition is intended to offer a quarterly innovation cycle.
Which industry solutions will be available in SAP S/4HANA and by when?
SAP S/4HANA, on-premise edition, supports current lines of business and industries. SAP S/4HANA, cloud edition, is planned to ultimately have a similar industry coverage as the on-premise edition. SAP S/4HANA Cloud edition is open for all industries, Support of specific industry solutions are planend according to market prioritization.
What is the product roadmap for SAP S/4HANA?
SAP customers and partners can access the detailed roadmap on the SAP Service Marketplace: here
Which SAP S/4HANA edition do you recommend for my enterprise?
The SAP S/4HANA, on-premise edition is designed for enterprises across industries that need a deep and broad level of functionality combined with a high degree of flexibility in customization. The SAP S/4HANA, cloud edition is designed for enterprises that need a standardized cloud offering primarily covering the core business scenarios of an enterprise or specific business scenarios of lines of business in industries - combined with a fast innovation cycle (quarterly).
In addition, the SAP S/4HANA editions offer the opportunity for customers to deploy real hybrid scenarios - combining on-premise and cloud solutions - for unprecedented IT flexibility and accelerated business innovation.
How can I try SAP S/4HANA?
A free 14-day cloud edition trial system is available to help you experience the value of simplicity across key business scenarios: project manager scenario, cash manager scenario, general ledger accountant scenario, accounts receivable accountant scenario, accounts payable accountant scenario.
You can access the trial on: www.sap.com/s4hana-trial
How does SAP S/4HANA relate to SAP Simple Finance powered by SAP HANA?
The SAP Simple Finance solution marked the first step in our SAP S/4HANA road map for customers. The solution has demonstrated the value of simplification (for example, no indexes, no aggregates, and no redundancies) and instant insight in Finance. SAP S/4HANA, on-premise edition leverages the full scope of SAP Accounting powered by SAP HANA included in SAP Simple Finance. The SAP S/4HANA, cloud edition is intended to deliver a similar scope.
How does SAP S/4HANA relate to SAP’s existing portfolio of cloud solutions?
SAP S/4HANA is also available with a cloud edition. However, SAP S/4HANA will not replace our existing portfolio of line-of-business cloud solutions; it will integrate with and expand it. Our comprehensive offering is planned to allow SAP S/4HANA customers to build hybrid scenarios between SAP S/4HANA and cloud solutions from SAP, including those from SuccessFactors and Ariba as well as integration with SAP hybris Marketing, Fieldglass and SAP JAM. This way customers can leverage the cloud at their own pace, based on their needs, while keeping all the integration and business benefits of their existing SAP solutions. In addition, SAP S/4HANA is designed to easily connect with global business networks such as, for example, the Ariba Network and Concur.
Is SAP S/4HANA, cloud edition a public cloud offering?
Yes. The SAP S/4HANA, cloud edition has all the qualities of a public cloud offering.
Please note that the SAP S/4HANA, cloud enterprise edition provides additional services for customers that require broader extensions and configuration capabilities.
How does the SAP HANA Enterprise Cloud service relate to the SAP S/4HANA, cloud edition?
We are leveraging the same infrastructure as a service (IaaS), data centers, and security qualities, though the lifecycle management is different. Innovation updates for the cloud edition are planned on a quarterly basis, to be consumed by the customer, and managed by SAP.
Is SAP S/4HANA, cloud edition multitenant?
Yes. SAP S/4HANA gives customers the option to leverage the HANA multitenancy functionality as provided by the SAP HANA platform (currently support package 9). And I absolutely know that there are some purists out there who would say otherwise, get over it. And for the records, i agree to disagree with them, as the reality is hybrid, and different levels of multitennacy do absolutely make sense.
How does SAP HANA Cloud Platform relate to SAP S/4HANA?
In the context of SAP S/4HANA, SAP HANA Cloud Platform serves as an extension platform and agility layer. It is possible to build specific capabilities extending the scope of SAP S/4HANA by either integrating non-SAP functions or building your own capabilities. The cloud platform not only serves as the development platform but also as the runtime foundation for the developed solutions. The extensions built on the cloud platform can run with both cloud and on-premise editions of SAP S/4HANA.
What is really new in SAP S/4HANA compared to SAP Business Suite powered by SAP HANA?
With SAP Business Suite powered by SAP HANA, SAP was the only software vendor in the market at that time to allow SAP Business Suite customers to bring together transactions and analysis into a single in-memory platform. This innovation has been extremely successful in the market as 2,000+ customers (existing and new) acquired SAP Business Suite powered by SAP HANA – in less than two years – to run their business in real time, making it one of the fastest-growing product in SAP’s history.
With SAP Business Suite powered by SAP HANA, our product approach has been to port the applications on the SAP HANA platform and optimize the code to allow customers the ability to gain significant performance in their mission-critical business processes and reporting activities, and by that, in turn, also improve performance on relational databases. SAP HANA represented a new database alternative for existing customers, with a simple database migration required to drive the entire business in real time.
SAP S/4HANA is a new product. With SAP S/4HANA, we are building on the success of the SAP Business Suite powered by SAP HANA with a completely new and reimagined suite:
- SAP S/4HANA is running on SAP HANA for massive simplifications (simplified data model: no indexes, no aggregates, no redundancies) and innovations (for example, open in-memory platform for advanced applications predicting, recommending, and simulating)
- SAP S/4HANA is natively designed with SAP Fiori UX, offering an integrated user experience with modern usability and instant insight on any device (role-based, three steps max to get the job done, mobile-first, consistent experience across lines of business)
- SAP S/4HANA is natively connected to the Internet of Things and business networks for real-time collaboration (planned: machine-to-machine, Ariba Network, Concur) in the networked economy
- SAP S/4HANA is natively engineered for providing choice of deployment (on premise, cloud and hybrid)
- SAP S/4HANA is natively born for easy adoption (guided, configuration, and easy onboarding, from the discovery of the solution through cloud trials to deployment with preconfigured best practices)
In addition, SAP HANA Cloud Platform serves as open extension, agility layer for SAP S/4HANA. The extensions built on the cloud platform can run against either deployment of SAP S/4HANA: in the cloud and on premise
What is the typical journey for a net-new customer?
The journey is defined by a net-new implementation of an SAP S/4HANA system with simpler adoption – example: guided configuration, easy onboarding from the discovery of the solution through cloud trials to the deployment with preconfigured best practices. We defined three major scenarios supported by tools and pre-configuration delivered through our SAP Rapid Deployment solutions:
You can explore the full journey-map for getting a comprehensive overview: s4hana.sapjourneymap.com/
How can SAP partners support the move of a customer to SAP S/4HANA?
SAP has an established partner ecosystem (value-added retailers and systems integrators) that is ready to resell and service SAP S/4HANA for our joint existing and new customers to implement future innovations. More than 50% of the SAP Business Suite powered by SAP HANA projects were managed by partners.
Partners and SAP will support customers in their journey with predefined migration, system conversion in the cloud, and deployment packages for quicker time to value. Companies of all sizes will benefit from the high-quality service and reseller capabilities our partners provide.
What happens to existing legacy interfaces if a customer moves to SAP S/4HANA?
SAP S/4HANA, on-premise edition, currently supports the existing published legacy interfaces.
Where can I learn more?
Visit us on sap.com/s4hana and scn.sap.com/community/s4hana for more information and details on the next generation business suite.
Thanks for checking in, more you find in the collection blog here: SAP S/4HANA - Frequently Asked Questions - The Collection
Working now on the next one, specific tot he SAP S/4HANA cloud edition, lets stay connected @SDenecken
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