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tries to give an overview regarding some IT challenges in using EHS classic. E.g. thread How many types of SDS we have with standard SAP? shows that there might be still some uncertainty "how to use SAP standard" in some circumstances. What kind of software is delivered by SAP? What should I buy on the top to use the software?
Many new challenges are coming to be handled by chemical industries (or other industries which can use SAP EHS classic for many purposes). From time to time you should ask your self some questions regarding e.g. "how to avoid costs" in your company.
Future
If you check the many publications, documents etc. from SAP you will may be realize: SAP assumes that you (as a potential customer of SAP) will look for cost reduction options. One important cost reduction option is e.g. "Cloud services" of many kind. Many other services (SERC/SERD) exists as well. But what are the key questions to decide how to go on with your SAP landscape? Here only some examples:
if you use the many services from SAP you need not to look for "experts" in your company; a big part of data management, data handling, and document handling, is "outsourced"
Because of the many legislation trends and because of the fact that you would use "SAP best practise standard" you can ask therefore your self: what kind of costs need I to invest to check my SAP ERP landscape to be able to move to a "service" delivered by SAP?
Roughly once a year some legislation changes are coming up; if you use your own SAP EHS "road" you will never be able to move to SAP standard; but using the SAP services: this can simplify your "IT" part (and you will hopefully be able to reduce costs).
Therefore: one big driver for IT projects in the next years might be: simplify your SAP landscape; make it "less" complex; more user friendly (so that the people using the software need may be less training and can focus on "legal" etc. part and not on IT part) etc. More and more demands will come from outside and you should be able to provide/exchange data, documents with your suppliers and customers. Many other IT initiative need to be checked as well (to make sure that you still deliver your products and services using "state of the art" processes).
SAP HANA and any solution around will support you in the future. The potential key word is still "sustainable". Not only you would like to know key numbers from financial point of view but from e.g. product saftey point of view as well (how long does a process need? Are there any bottlenecks? And what are the reasons of them? People? Software? Organisation?).
Any body ouside clearly expects from you, that you deliver a SDS/MSDS/Label (or other documents); so this kind of "service" is a core one. The same is true for any kind of "dangerous goods handling" etc. So if you provide consulting services: you need to be able to help your customers to get these standard documents "out of the box" in a "short" time. Now other data/documents are of "higher" interest. At least: data management and data analysis is still an important factor; especially for chemical industry.
