The SAP S/4 HANA solution was first launched in 2017. The solution revolutionized ERP solutions with advanced technologies such as machine learning, advanced analytics, etc. Before that, SAP customers were using the conventional SAP ERP.
Following the SAP S/4 HANA solution, SAP announced enterprises using the SAP ERP need to migrate to SAP S/4 HANA by 2025. Unfortunately, this deadline has undergone a couple of revisions since the initial announcement. This includes a lack of SAP consultants and slow adoption, deterring the pace of SAP S/4 HANA migration.
But should you wait five years for your SAP S/4 HANA migration? Reasons suggest you should not delay your SAP S/4 HANA migration.
Scope Of The Project
When migrating to SAP S/4 HANA, you need to acknowledge that this is a highly significant undertaking for your business. As a result, many organizations take this opportunity to carry out other additional tasks. Some of these tasks include consolidating business processes and systems and even re-engineering them right from the ground up.
The logic behind this is simple. Your organization attempts to make a fundamental change, such as SAP S/4 HANA migration. Therefore, you might as well take advantage of all disruptions and unavoidable costs to address other concerns simultaneously.
This sounds great, but you must ensure that you do not overcomplicate things. This is important given the understanding that the migration process is already as complicated as possible.
So, it is highly recommended you consider this aspect when deciding on the project’s timeline. Ultimately, if your goal is to migrate to SAP S/4 HANA while accomplishing many other tasks simultaneously, it is understood the project will take longer.
Time
Before diving into the migration process, you should acknowledge that SAP S/4 HANA migrations take time. It is not just about just SAP migrating to any new enterprise resource planning solution takes time.
Your ERP solution is intertwined with almost all your existing business processes. Besides that, ERP solutions are also intertwined with all your business networks and IT services. You need all of these things to run your business successfully.
Different systems have different timelines for migration based on their intricacies. However, on average, you can expect your migration can take about 7 to 12 months based on the current trends in the market. Of course, this timeline is relative to many other factors and can change based on those factors.
For instance, let’s say your organization is much larger in terms of the scale of operations. This means you will automatically need a much larger and customizable ERP solution to suit the requirements of your business. The larger or more complex the system, the longer it takes to go through with the migration.
When it comes to SAP S/4 HANA migration, you need to understand that SAP releases can also play a key role in influencing the migration timeline. If you have not upgraded to the latest SAP release, it will automatically increase the time you need to move to the SAP S/4 HANA solution.
Budgeting
The budget for migration is less of a technical concern and more of a business concern. Nonetheless, this does not change that SAP S/4 HANA migration is a complex and time-intensive process. So automatic migration will be a costly affair for your business.
Everything changes with time and different factors influencing your SAP S/4 HANA migration are no exception. Unfortunately, in most cases, these factors only get more expensive with time, and waiting longer will only increase your cost of migration.
Additionally, the closer you get to the deadline, the more demand for SAP consultants will increase. As per basic economic principles, this will also increase the charges for their services.
Data Analysis
The in-memory database from HANA is one of the finest technologies currently available. As a result, storing your data in this system is not cheap. You can also leverage this opportunity to rationalize your data storage requirements.
In most cases, you will encounter data in the legacy system that can be overlooked when migrating to SAP S/4 HANA. These data sets are generally the ones you only store for regulatory purposes or are seldom used. Therefore, organizations with large volumes of data need to opt for selective data migration to the new system.
Using the selective data migration approach can help you eliminate unwanted data and keep the costs minimal. But then again, selecting data sets requires data analysis, which can increase migration timelines. So, it is always better if you start early with these things.
In Conclusion
For a second, let’s keep these reasons mentioned above aside. Even without these considerations, the fact is that you still have to go through with the migration sooner or later. However, delaying your SAP S/4 HANA migration does more than good because it will not be long before you deal with migration scarcity.
Therefore, even though you have five more years, it is highly recommended you consider those mentioned above and stop delaying your migration. It is always better sooner than later with ERP migrations. So, get in touch with a trusted SAP consulting company and start your SAP S/4 HANA migration.
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Author Bio: Eric Smith is an SAP professional providing consulting services for SAP solutions to his clients. With a knack for technology, he loves to write on the latest SAP developments and share his knowledge with the readers.
