Most companies experience their journey toward digital maturity by moving from one technology to another and embracing changes that energize creative innovations and new ways of getting work done.
Today, success is achieved by closely tying customer data to operations in a closed loop that rapidly refines and redefines the processes you use to engage and deliver value to your customers. Moving quickly, leveraging existing data intelligently, and operational scale can all be seen as the key factors to succeed in the current market.
However, this is only possible when running on a foundation that enables real-time business and immediate insight-to-action. By utilizing an intelligent enterprise resource planning (ERP) system powered by SAP S/4HANA, companies are able to address today’s challenges and tomorrow’s opportunities with flexibility, speed, and insight.
Back in October 2018, SAP announced the initial rollout of SAP S/4HANA Adoption Starter Engagement, starting first with our German customers. Now, as a part of the SAP S/4HANA Movement program, we are happy to announce the worldwide launch of the SAP S/4HANA Adoption Starter Engagement program. Every customer with a valid SAP Support contract is welcome to join for free.
What Is SAP S/4HANA Adoption Starter Engagement?
The goal of SAP S/4HANA Adoption Starter Engagement is to provide customers with clear guidance and support as they begin designing their moves to SAP S/4HANA. This is a methodology that combines a virtual classroom with self-guided steps to help customers structure and assess their transformation, allowing them to manage the planning of their move to SAP S/4HANA in less than 90 days.
Through SAP S/4HANA Adoption Starter Engagement, we are helping businesses worldwide to set the foundation necessary to create end-to-end intelligent processes across all lines of business and industries, take the next leap in automation of key functions, and move first with machine learning investments by SAP
Like most foundational implementations, SAP S/4HANA calls for a level of focus, flexibility, and familiarity that enables businesses to take a step back and holistically apply their digital investments.
With SAP S/4HANA Adoption Starter Engagement, customers are finding the right balance for their implementation plans regarding scope and expectations. They are accessing resources, content, and self-service tools under the guidance of an SAP expert in a virtual classroom setting. Additionally, they can share experiences and best practices with their peers. With the combination of these opportunities, our customers can deliver an executive-ready transformation plan consisting of business, technical, and transformation views.
Planning a Move to the ERP of the Future
Every adoption starter engagement contains a fixed timeline with clear milestones and Q&A checkpoints built in along the way. This approach helps ensure all participants experience a guided, sequenced, and easy-to-follow collaboration model.
By the end of the engagement, customers receive clear steps, prescriptive guidance, and expert enablement necessary to clear up any ambiguity that is typically present in most digital strategies, allowing them to:
- Know how to start their journey to SAP S/4HANA, as well as the order in which lines of business should be tied to the next-generation ERP system
- Define the ROI while managing interdependent software architectures with finesse and keeping costs and efforts as low as possible
- Acquire the knowledge to choose the right deployment options and simplify their digital operations
- Interpret the value of their data in ways that unleash tremendous opportunity for the business’ future
Semperit AG Holding company, an internationally oriented group based in Austria, develops, produces, and sells highly specialized rubber products for the medical and industrial sectors.
“We joined SAP S/4HANA Adoption Starter Engagement in January 2019, and by March our team had managed to go through the nine tools and methods, created documentation, and had clarity to support us in the next steps to move to an SAP S/4HANA-centric landscape,” said Karin Pezel, head of Global IT Applications at Semperit .
Jan Karasek, SAP specialist at Semperit, adds: “The joint collaboration with customer teams, SAP experts, and adoption starter leads gave us access to experience and guidance; it helped us to save time and efforts. We are happy we joined. It was additional work as with all trainings, but we gained know-how and insights that support us taking the next steps on the path for SAP S/4HANA.”
ALTIM Group, based in Madrid, Spain, is an SAP partner adding its experience with the program.
“ALTIM is partnering successfully with SAP since 2001 and SAP S/4HANA Adoption Starter Engagement is one of the most interesting and well organized initiatives we have seen so far,” said David Pradanos, manager at ALTIM. “By participating in the program, we have discovered and analyzed all the variables that would affect our conversion to SAP S/4HANA, using the new tools and methods. We are now ready to answer questions about our system status, business requirements, and technical strategy that we would most likely have ignored if we had worked on our own. The SAP team behind this challenge is highly professional and it’s perfectly coordinated.”
SAP S/4HANA Adoption Starter Engagement has helped ALTIM to develop a digital transformation plan for the short and long term, in order to become a more efficient and competitive company.
Get started today by contacting S4HANA.Adoption.Starter@sap.com. It is free for every customer with a valid SAP Support contract.
Join the SAP S/4HANA Movement
Some customers have waited to deploy SAP S/4HANA for a variety of reasons. No matter their reasons, it is no longer feasible for companies to sit back and see how things are going to play out. Change is inevitable, and it will not wait for anyone. The impact of emerging technology on model-driven businesses has the potential to deliver a new age of intelligence, and SAP is at the forefront of this evolution.
Already, more than 2,600 SAP customers are live with SAP S/4HANA. SAP customers such as The Hershey Company, Honda Australia , Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power (KHNP), Sports Basement, Telia Lietuva, and VINCI Energies have joined SAP S/4HANA Movement.
After taking advantage of the SAP S/4HANA Adoption Starter Engagement, SAP Digital Business Services can help make the transition a smooth one. Support and services from SAP Digital Business Services include:
- SAP S/4HANA Value Discovery Engagement service, delivered by SAP Digital Business Services and partners, and which includes a fixed planning with select opt-out options and on-site support from SAP experts done in 25 to 30 business day average engagement, including preparation. The outcome is an enhanced business case and roadmap with an implementation plan recommendation.
- SAP Value Assurance, which helps ensure efficiency and risk reduction for all project phases via service packages that support SAP S/4HANA deployment when a customer or system integration partner leads the project — from planning and design to implementation or migration and innovation.
- SAP Advanced Deployment, which enables the fast and safe adoption of the next-generation digital core by providing customers with access to a turnkey, SAP-led implementation option to simply and systematically deploy SAP S/4HANA.
- SAP Model Company, which provides a preconfigured, ready-to-run reference solution with business content and engineered services for multiple industries and lines of business, allowing customers to secure the critical foundation for the success of their transformational program.
You can learn more or join the SAP S/4HANA Movement today at www.sap.com/jointhemovement.
Interested customers attending SAPPHIRE NOW in 2019 can join the guided tour of S/4HANA Movement tour by registering here.
Michael Kleinemeier is a member of the Executive Board of SAP SE.
