S/4HANA Assessment
Preparation for the S/4 conversion at ECKART
Implementation Highlights
- IT department with exceptional expertise in its own system landscape
- Constructive cooperation between the specialist department, IT and CONSILIO consultants – always at eye level
- Derivation of concrete recommendations for action according to lines of business
- Planning of further preliminary projects such as business partner conversion, bonus processing and use of PP/DS
Initial Situation
In 2013, ECKART introduced SAP worldwide using a global template. As a result, the processes in the various national companies, specialist departments and modules are identical, with the exception of country-specific features.
Based on this relatively new SAP R/3 system, ECKART set up the assessment for the S/4HANA conversion with CONSILIO.
There were many unanswered questions at ECKART before the assessment. What requirements will the company face as part of the S/4HANA transformation? What needs to be cleaned up in the system landscape? Which transformation approach is the right one - is a greenfield approach necessary after all?
Project Goals
- Definition of preliminary projects and open todos
- Discussion of possible transformation paths
- Highlighting innovation opportunities with S/4HANA
- Identifying pain points
- Creating an S/4HANA mindset and involving the business
- Creating a price indication
The S/4HANA assessment with CONSILIO was characterized by very good cooperation and partnership at eye level.
In this way, we also achieved the goals defined in advance.
Requirements for the S/4HANA Assessment
- Analysing the impact of the changeover on ECKART's process landscape
- Determination of the expected financial expenditure associated with the switch to S/4HANA
- Clarification of what will happen to in-house developments and connected systems under S/4HANA
- Defining where process complexity can be further reduced by S/4HANA
- Ensuring and strengthening end-to-end process transparency compared to the existing template
- Optimisation of on-demand information availability and evaluability through S/4HANA
- Clarification of where user-friendliness will be improved by S/4HANA
Guiding Principles of Eckart for the S/4HANA Conversion
- The first step of the conversion will be a technology-orientated changeover under the motto ‘Crossing the Bridge’
- It will lay the foundation for future process and technology improvements
- The impact on the business will be kept as low as possible
- The conversion should have a global impact, hence the ‘big bang’ go-live
- It should lead to future improvements and benefits in follow-up projects
Main Benefits for Eckart
- Derivation of concrete recommendations for action according to lines of business for the S/4 project
- The brownfield approach has proven to be the optimal transformation path for ECKART
- More transparency about the challenges and opportunities as well as the scope of the preliminary projects
- Availability of a price indication and identification of the low hanging fruits in the S/4HANA conversion
- Up-to-date information on the status of the system landscape with regard to S/4 readiness, modifications, custom code, etc.
- Clarity about possible innovation projects after the conversion, such as Extended Warehouse Management (EWM), Transportation Management (TM), advanced ATP, Fiori rollout, etc.
Further information
SAP S/4HANA Transformation
Your customised roadmap for the switch to S/4HANA
S/4HANA Migration Cockpit
With this tool from SAP, data migration to S/4HANA is child's play.
Brownfield approach
A brownfield project is generally understood to be the migration of the SAP ERP system to S/4HANA, similar to a release upgrade.