While some business areas experience major changes on S/4HANA, not much changes in Sales after S/4HANA migration at first glance. When the business user logs on to the system, everything looks almost the same to him as it did before S/4HANA. But it was precisely to make everything look like before that many changes were necessary.
What it takes to stay the same
Many users still use the SAP GUI as a frontend after switching to S/4HANA, while Fiori tends to appeal to users who are just getting to know the system - so this mostly concerns a greenfield implementation.
Changes in the system that are not or hardly visible to the GUI user can still involve considerable effort under certain circumstances, e.g., if there is extensive custom development in the system. The reason for this is that omitted tables, changed document flow, field length changes, etc. must be taken into account in the customer's own program code. If the sales processes are largely mapped in the standard, on the other hand, the changeover works more or less automatically and without much effort.
While the changes with S/4HANA in the normal sales process are hardly apparent at first glance, a lot changes in foreign trade: Not only are the functions of classic Foreign Trade (SD-FT) replaced in S/4HANA by the similarly positioned, but newly implemented International Trade. Data model changes are also evident in the form that information relevant to foreign trade is less likely to be kept in sales and distribution documents, but rather only read in as needed. And thus can no longer be adapted so easily on a case-by-case basis.
In addition, some functions, such as the maintenance of customs tariff numbers, are no longer available within the classic master data objects such as the material master, but are only possible via special Fiori apps.
Relocated functionalities
Relocated functionalities such as SAP Credit Management (FI-AR-CR) or Revenue Recognition (SD-BIL-RR) can cause considerable project and training effort, as the previous solutions are no longer supported in S/4HANA and alternative solutions have taken their place there. In some cases, such as credit management, migration tools exist to support the changeover. In other cases, such as the relocation of preference calculation to the external SAP GTS system, it is a complete reimplementation.
If no functionalities affected by relocation are in use, no additional work is required.
One change that is cross-divisional concerns customers and suppliers: These become mandatory business partners in S/4HANA. The conversion can take place before or during the migration, but in most cases it is advisable to convert to the business partner model in advance.
What is actually new?
The biggest change in S/4HANA is the availability of SAP Fiori apps - even though it is not necessary to switch to the new technology immediately - with a few exceptions that make the use of Fiori mandatory. Fiori has clear advantages over the GUI: for example, the list width of the reports is adapted to the screen, which is much more reader-friendly than the display in the GUI. The new Fiori design is also very user-friendly, as the display has been partially reduced and contains less information compared to the GUI, but presents it more clearly supported with graphical elements.
In Fiori, transactions are no longer used, but apps that are assigned to the user based on authorization. Overview apps such as "Sales Overview" provide a comprehensive overview of the most important key figures in sales directly when the application is started and allow drill-down to the detailed level if necessary. This is much clearer and more intuitive than in the transactional model of the SAP GUI.
Advanced ATP in Sales process
Advanced ATP provides additional solutions that are not available in the classic ATP check and partly also in SAP APO. The solution covers areas from quota allocation and product availability checks to delivery release. Particularly noteworthy is availability protection, which was released for the first time with Release 2020 On-Premise and makes reservation logics for specific customer groups and/or organizational structures mappable in a flexible manner.
The innovations in the area of the availability check also include the new availability control screen in the sales order, which shows its full range of functions in combination with Advanced ATP, but can also be combined with the classic availability check:
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- It summarizes all items on one screen
- allows a top-down analysis of the test result and shows how the result was obtained
- offers alternatives
Compared to the previous display, which had to be run through manually item by item, the new availability control screen provides a much better overview of all items in a common graphical display.
What else has changed?
Another long-awaited innovation in S/4HANA is the workflow-supported approval of sales documents. After entering a sales document - be it a quotation, a sales order or a credit memo request - it is blocked and forwarded to the responsible person via workflow. From the Fiori app My Inbox, the reviewer approves the document and it is processed further.
The integration of SAP EWM (Extended Warehouse Management) in S/4HANA also has a significant impact on the sales process. In contrast to classic WM, many processes such as partial document printing, HU management and others are shifting to EWM. On the one hand, this limits the user's ability to influence in the delivery document even during picking and packing. On the other hand, the far more extensive functional scope of EWM is now available for shipping activities.
Not everything is new - but now it is visible
BRFplus was developed at the same time as SAP ERP, but was not used very often. Now it is increasingly used for message determination and in customer-specific projects:
- BRFplus is part of the new output control, which is proposed in S/4HANA for billing documents as the standard procedure for output and is also expected to replace the previous output control (NAST) in other sales and distribution documents in the future.
- A growing number of customers are also using BRFplus in their customer-specific development projects in order to be able to store comprehensible, change-friendly decision rules in the system.
One advantage of the solution is that here, without additional coding, the desired decision-making logics can be mapped in the system just by compiling rules. This is often more readable and can even have a positive effect on system performance, as table accesses are no longer necessary here at runtime.
Demand and inventory segmentation comes from the fashion industry and has been available in SAP ERP as a business function for some time. Now it is visible to a wider range of users in S/4HANA. If required, demand segments (customers, customer groups) and inventory segments (receipts, stocks) can be defined and assigned to each other. The ATP check takes the requirement/stock segments into account as a new level in the availability check.
In this way, it is possible to store reservation logics for certain customers or customer groups in the system and to withhold certain stocks/receipts for these customers.
Changes in the IT area
Many changes in S/4HANA affect the IT area, even if the changeover to S/4HANA is a pure migration and hardly apparent to the user. First and foremost, the changes are due to the new technologies that are integrated into S/4HANA. For example, in Fiori, the IT department has to deal with new authorization concepts and the role concept of the Fiori launchpad, and the increased importance of network performance in communication between the SAP system and the browser. Debugging also becomes more complex, as the browser with its Fiori interfaces must be taken into account in addition to the backend system.
Data provision via hierarchical view structures and the creation and operation of service-based interfaces are further topics that were not part of typical IT activities in the classic ERP environment.
In addition, in some areas in S/4HANA, for example in the Advanced ATP environment, the transport of changes is no longer required. Instead, flexible options are provided for configuring and uploading and downloading data directly in each system. On the one hand, this may entail organizational changes, because in such cases the IT employee may no longer be needed at all. On the other hand, this can lead to functions looking different in each system in the system landscape (development, test, production), which does not necessarily make system support and error analysis easier.
Innovations for users in S/4HANA Sales include, for example, the use of Fiori, the availability of aATP, and the approval of sales documents. The biggest changes will be for IT, as S/4HANA is based on new technologies and requires different skills than in classic IT operations.
Summary
After the S/4HANA migration, not much changes for the business user at first glance, which will probably please most users. The new and in many cases very useful Fiori interface is not a must in most cases. New and long-awaited functionalities, such as the approval of sales documents, are available at no additional cost and make day-to-day business much easier; others, such as the Advanced ATP, can be additionally licensed if required. However, there are major changes for the IT area, as S/4HANA is based on new technologies and requires different skills than in classic IT operations.
