How to Prepare for an S4/HANA Migration in 2021

Relying on older, legacy SAP systems is no longer cost-efficient or an intelligent business decision to make. Legacy systems are not only slowing down your business, but can completely halt business growth as each year goes by.

If you’ve decided to migrate your legacy system to S4/HANA come the new year, you may be scratching your head and wondering what to brace yourself for during this process and what to prepare for.

In this blog, we’re going to highlight some challenges that you may experience throughout an S4/HANA migration along with how to prepare for the migration itself so you’re set up for success as 2021 rolls around.

Challenges of an S4/HANA Migration

Before we give into ways to prepare for an S4/HANA migration, it’s first important to outline some challenges you may run into throughout a migration journey.

• Potential security breaches: It’s important to focus on the infrastructure of your current SAP system when starting a migration. If data is not secure and compliant with both corporate and regulatory requirements, issues could arise. Pay attention to every detail so no security risks come up.
• Turning “off” SAP during a migration isn’t possible: SAP is the backbone of business processes at many corporations, so it’s not possible to just “turn it off” in the midst of a migration. This could cause major disruption and leave an organization unable to complete routine business operations.
• Supply of experienced SAP experts is low: Possibly one of the biggest challenges of an SAP migration is that the amount of SAP experts to assist you is quite low, while demand is high. This makes SAP experts expensive to hire and depletes your budget.

So, what are some ways you can prepare for an upcoming S4/HANA migration?

Re-examine Business Needs

One way to prepare for an S4/HANA migration is to re-evaluate your business needs. Because your business relies on the SAP ERP system daily, think about the specific business processes that run on SAP. This will help you figure out what you require from a migration as well as what technical debt is currently sitting in your system and should be reduced or eliminated.

Another part of reexamining business needs is focusing on which functionality will be migrated as-is, what will be enhanced or modified as part of the migration and digitization process, and what will be completely left out of the migration entirely. These functionalities are either obsolete or are being completely replaced with an improved version.

The process of migrating should also include users and business experts so testing can be better  achieved, through feedback sessions and regular communication about the migration itself. This allows better transparency throughout the whole process and creates a more successful and efficient migration solution.

Make Performance and Security a Priority

Both a system’s performance and security should always remain a priority before, during, and after a migration. If your system isn’t efficient, agile, and secure, then what is there?

Make sure to improve both performance and security during the migration process by involving software experts on your team. A focus on security and performance requirements should during migration and through the delivery process will diminish the risk of downtime and security vulnerabilities.

Consider the Ecosystem

Another thing to focus on in preparation for an S4/HANA migration is considering the broader ecosystem that your SAP system is a part of. SAP systems commonly integrate to various other systems and should an integration break, your corporation’s ability to accomplish business tasks could be threatened.

To avoid this, make sure that your testing throughout migration includes the whole landscape of systems in your ecosystem--the SAP systems, the system it depends on, and the systems that depend on it.

Execute a Successful S4/HANA Migration with EdgeReady Cloud

Achieving migration success is no longer a distant dream--it’s possible with the #1 modernization platform offered by Pillir. EdgeReady Cloud puts innovation first while offering a low-code solution that makes application building possible for any member of your team.

Start preparing for your S4/HANA migration today. Contact us so we can learn about your use case.