Paving Your Way Through SAP Digital Transformation
Digital transformation, a term we hear everywhere these days, is a way to integrate digital technology into all areas of a business. The definition varies depending on whom you talk to and what role they play in an organization, but the end goals remain the same:
- Determine new ways to deliver value to customers
- Improve business process efficacy
- Generate more revenue year over year
Just like most companies, SAP is positioning its answer to digital transformation for its clients with S/4HANA, a suite of applications that, “enables enterprises to set a clear course toward the digital economy.”1 Although SAP S/4HANA is designed for ease of use, the journey to get there is not an easy one.
As an organization, if you have legacy SAP systems and are undecided if you want move to S/4HANA, SAP has made this decision for you. By 2025 SAP will stop support for all legacy SAP applications. The clock is ticking and you need to start planning now for the road to S/4HANA.
What does the 2025 SAP end date mean for organizations?
In 2025 SAP will focus mainly on S/4HANA and may also bring an end to its current maintenance program on legacy systems. SAP customers will no longer receive any updates, security or otherwise.2 Time will tell if SAP moves the goal post and extends the deadline for discontinuing support for legacy systems, but the migration to S/4HANA is inevitable. Any business still unsure about their next steps shouldn’t panic, but they should consider what they need to do to remain supported after the deadline.
How does security and compliance play a role in this migration?
Many organizations are just beginning to understand the importance of securing their SAP systems at the application level and some even have dedicated SAP security teams, but how have they been involved in migration plans? At Onapsis we’ve discovered that organizations that include security at the start of a migration can save up to 5x the resources and may be more likely to remain in compliance during and after.
So, what are your options for migration that include remaining secure and compliant? We’ll continue to discuss this in our next digital transformation blog post and in the series over the coming weeks.
1. https://news.sap.com/2016/08/sap-s4hana-chart-the-route-for-digital-transformation/
2. https://support.sap.com/en/offerings-programs/strategy.html