IT leaders shoulder more and more responsibilities. Today’s most adept leaders need to be able to easily handle not just technical challenges, but operational issues as well, all while maintaining flexibility and agility to anticipate and meet business demands head-on.
If you’re a CIO that’s looking to make a smooth transition to S/4HANA, here are some of the most common challenges you’re likely to face, as well as how to handle them strategically and professionally.
Aligning S/4HANA With the Organization’s Goals
How should the new ERP system support the company’s growth? If you ask this question to business and IT teams, you’ll get a dozen different answers, not to mention scattered objectives and visions. To help make sure the S/4HANA implementation goes smoothly, keep key stakeholders involved early in the process. Define objectives and continually clarify and revisit them with ongoing workshops and feedback loops.
These types of meetings not only bridge communication gaps between business and IT, but they also help make sure that S/4HANA is used to the fullest to help the company achieve its goals, whether that means more detailed reporting or improved customer experiences.
Migrating Data from Legacy Systems to S/4HANA
Migrating data from legacy systems to S/4HANA is a massive undertaking. Data formats may be outdated or incompatible, data quality may be missing or low quality, or the information that’s available may be redundant. Such is the nature of working with legacy systems.
For this reason, CIOs should make it their priority to create and launch a detailed data strategy. This strategy should involve cleaning and mapping data well before the actual integration begins. Have a selection of data management tools and a data governance team available to make sure that only relevant, high-quality data gets moved to S/4HANA, helping you sidestep any potential issues after the implementation is complete.
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Dealing with Customization and Scope Creep
Customizing S/4HANA to fit specific business needs can create a host of issues. Even the most well-prepared organization can face “scope creep” where new requirements get added to the already extensive list of priorities. This in turn has a ripple effect on the project’s complexity, cost and implementation.
To help keep things on track, you should focus on S/4HANA’s base capabilities out of the box, using SAP best practices wherever possible. Keeping customizations limited to critical functions helps reduce the potential for scope creep to occur. It also makes future updates much easier to handle.
Be sure to regularly review the project as it progresses to continue to keep implementation on track and aligned with the overall goals and vision.
Integrating S/4HANA with Existing Systems
For a successful implementation to happen, S/4HANA must be able to communicate and integrate with a variety of systems. This includes those within the organization, as well as outside of it. Everything from the CRM to the analytics platform to supply chain management can be affected.
To make the integration as easy as possible, it’s important to start by doing a thorough system inventory. Assess the compatibility of existing systems and work with SAP-certified integration partners to minimize integration headaches and ensure that all of the systems involved can communicate and work together with each other and with the system as a whole.
Management and User Training
Making sure all of the networked parts communicate and integrate seamlessly is only the beginning. Integrating S/4HANA will also change how employees do their jobs. To help make the transition easier on everyone, it’s important to be clear about the benefits of S/4HANA as well as what it will entail.
It may be necessary to host various workshops or training sessions and tailor these workshops to various groups so that each group becomes more acclimated to the system and the change. Enlist the help of top performing employees to help champion the shift and create a more supportive and conducive atmosphere.
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Minimizing Downtime and Maintaining Operations
Transitioning to S/4HANA means downtime, and downtime can have a ripple effect on business operations, particularly if the switch isn’t well-planned. To help minimize disruptions, CIOs should plan for a phase-based migration or use a hybrid approach where S/4HANA works alongside existing legacy systems.
Having a detailed plan that incorporates backup, recovery and other failsafe operations with real-time monitoring can help minimize impact and downtime while making sure that operations are flowing smoothly as the transition takes place.
Maximizing Compliance and Security
With data privacy concerns at the forefront of any major business transition, it’s no surprise that S/4HANA implementation needs to be done in such a way as to adhere to compliance while protecting sensitive information. As CIO, it’s up to you to weave in proper role-based access controls and data encryption while conducting regular security audits. SAP also offers a number of security solutions that can be used to meet various regulatory requirements.
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How D4M Can Help
At D4M, we pride ourselves on superior S/4HANA and SAP digital supply chain solutions. As a U.S. based consultancy with a worldwide reach, our expertise in automotive, pharmaceutical, industrial, aerospace and food and beverage industries is second to none. From SAP implementations to large-scale migrations and digital manufacturing, we’re proud to drive some of today’s leading companies toward ongoing excellence.
The secret to our success lies in our collaborative approach, combined with our deep process knowledge and our expert team. We bring together a number of distinctive skill sets and our work is backed by best practices as well as cutting-edge technology. With over 25 years of business experience and hundreds of successful implementations, our unparalleled track record of excellence speaks for itself.
On average, our S/4HANA implementations take approximately five months. This speed and thoroughness, together with country-specific localized solutions, enable us to deliver precise support where and when it’s needed most throughout the process. Contact us today to learn more.
