SAP changes its operating system

SAP changes its operating system – You, change your processes

The support for SAP ECC expires in 2025. As a result, many companies are currently migrating their ERP systems to SAP S/4HANA. 85% of the SAP operators still use the ECC release and only 9% have already switched to the new version that has been launched at the end of 2015. This is one of the results of a recent study by the University of Koblenz, in which 184 participants from a wide variety of industries took part. According to it, 80% of the survey participants currently rate the implementation of S/4HANA as one of their top 3 topics. In addition to the imminent end of the ECC support, the main motivators are an investment in the future security, but also a review and, if necessary, a correction of business transactions. 87% of the survey participants state that they utilize the introduction of SAP S/4HANA to examine and critically scrutinize their processes.

It is time to clean up

That’s it! Over the years, processes and rituals have often crept into daily work, which certainly made sense originally, but have long since ceased to correspond to the current state of technology and best-in-class. In addition to customizing enhancements in the current system, this is also shown by customer-specific Z-transactions in a six-digit range. A migration of the ERP system now offers the perfect opportunity to critically scrutinize processes and digital interfaces – internally and externally – in terms of necessity, efficiency and degree of automation. It allows to initiate an optimization, especially against the background of innovative possibilities and opportunities of the new software. In short, it’s time to clean up. More than half of the survey participants, who have evaluated the success and failure factors of previous migration projects, see coordinated change management and increased stakeholder involvement as a key success factor.

Focus on purchasing processes

As the initiator of the purchase-to-pay process, the Procurement department plays a key role in the revision of ERP processes. It is here that the course is set for subsequent processes such as goods receipt and invoice processing. The optimization of business processes and the digitization of manual activities creates scope for value-adding actions and paves the way for tomorrow’s intelligent Procurement that is characterized by transparency, speed and efficiency.

Topics that should be addressed in this context include

  • Purchase requisition and release, including quantity planning
  • eSourcing & ePurchasing
  • Digitization of document exchange
  • Master data maintenance & Reporting
  • Risk management
  • Material group management
  • Supplier management

ADCONIA GmbH offers professional support in the revision of processes. By assessing the current situation and analyzing current processes in comparison with benchmarks and experiences from other projects, we determine the actual maturity level of your organization and define individual fields of action in tandem with you. This allows a proper start with optimized processes for you in the new system. It is important for us to keep the topic of change in mind in everything we do, in order to involve all participants and thus ensure a sustainable anchoring in the organization.

 

Oliver Kreienbrink

Managing Director, ADCONIA GmbH (Oberhausen)

Jessica Murawski

Consultant, ADCONIA GmbH (Oberhausen)