How to Begin Modernizing SAP and Incrementally Migrate to the Cloud

With the current state of the world amidst a pandemic, corporations have had to readjust the way they conduct their business. Re-thinking their products and services, upgrading customer experiences, exploring new markets, and reinventing business models are just some of the ways organizations have had to adapt.

In the SAP world especially, this need to adapt has brought up challenges on the IT side of things, specifically with complexity. SAP ERP customers are no stranger to having tons of applications, even if SAP might be at the core. There often exists various integrations, customizations, processes, and different technologies. So how can corporations go about adapting this data through transformation, but apply it at scale across a whole organization while staying within the budget and lowering TCO?

To ease the level of complexity that comes with modernizing SAP ERP systems, a sustainable solution is incremental migration to EdgeReady Cloud, for example. In a valuable joint webinar, Pillir and CenturyLink discuss why to consider modernizing an SAP environment, how to begin a modernization journey and how incremental modernization to the cloud helps to support digital transformation. Watch the webinar video below to learn how modernizing SAP and incrementally migrating to the cloud is possible and how Pillir’s solutions such as NANCI and EdgeReady Cloud support the ability to migrate to the cloud.

Why to Consider Modernizing SAP Environment

So why should any corporation consider modernizing an SAP environment? There’s a few benefits that come along with modernization for SAP:

• Identify and reduce technical debt: In the last 10-15 years, technical debt was inevitable. The best way to upgrade an SAP environment was through ABAP customizations, which further increased the amount of technical debt. Now that technology has advanced in the modern world, the best way to begin modernizing is by identifying technical debt through tools such as ABAP analysis Dashboard, by accessing the SAP ERP system and seeing what data can be eliminated. This reduces the amount of customizations needed during an incremental assessment, leading to incremental modernization to the cloud.
• Cost Reduction: By identifying technical debt, you save time, effort, and money. Especially now, companies are on a stringent budget, so saving money by not having to hire technical consultants or require employees to spend time managing upgrades can positively impact your corporation’s productivity.
• Improve Visibility, Speed and Automation: Modernizing SAP and migrating to the cloud can ensure the happenings within a company are well monitored and accounted for while improving the speed at which these operations are performed. Additionally, migrating to the cloud can greatly improve the analytics and cognitive intelligence of your legacy applications. Insights into opportunities can be harnessed and potential risks can be spotted.

So, what are the steps to actually begin modernization and incremental migration to the cloud?

How to Begin Modernization & Outline Incremental Migration to the Cloud

Digital transformation in an SAP environment can seem daunting, but breaking it up into different phases will allow you to see the big picture and successfully accomplish modernization and migration to the cloud. That’s exactly what incremental SAP modernization refers to--taking bits and pieces of an SAP ERP system and modernizing each part gradually.

Assessment & Planning

In the first phase, it’s important to sync up with the key members of your team who will be involved in the project to digitally transform your SAP environment. Communication is key in order to have a successful modernization and migration solution. Once team members congregate, it’s important to access the current SAP ERP system you have and plan for future steps in the modernization journey. With a powerful assessment tool such as NANCI, ABAP customizations are revealed in minutes, along with TCO and rate of change calculations.

Migration to Cloud

EdgeReady Cloud is a low-code rapid application development platform. Powered by and hosted on AWS, it provides pre-built, native adapters to many business systems and databases, as well as offline capabilities that enable data accuracy in any connectivity landscape. With EdgeReady Cloud, users can more efficiently migrate, build, and extend applications, enabling the process of migrating to the Cloud more swift and cost-effective.

Incremental Modernization

In the third phase, users will want to start taking bits and pieces of an SAP ERP system and transforming them. At Pillir, this means targeting a complex, mission critical core system with small projects that not only have a quick business impact but also an immediate and measurable ROI. This is an alternative approach to moving everything at once, and is valuable because it emphasizes the challenges and opportunities based on your use case.

Upgrade to S/4

In the last and final phase, corporations will be able to take their modernized system and upgrade to S/4HANA. 

ABAP Analysts Dashabord and EdgeReady Cloud Support SAP Modernization and Incremental Migration to the Cloud

As previously mentioned, Pillir’s solutions can support your corporation in its SAP modernization journey. 

EdgeReady Cloud provides a low code, rapid application development tool that allows for legacy applications to be modernized and migrated with little-to-no programming, as well as accessible and fully functional within an online or offline environment. EdgeReady Cloud uses cloud scalability, resiliency, and security to further support the modernization of legacy applications. 

Through the power of EdgeReady Cloud, Pillir's ABAP Analysis Dashboard provides the #1 ABAP cost analysis application for SAP ERP customers. Through it, users can easily identify technical debt, which is crucial in the process of modernizing.

Discover more about how EdgeReady Cloud and the ABAP analysis dashboard support SAP modernization and incremental migration to the cloud today - contact our team to learn more.