Overcoming SAP S/4HANA implementation challenges with Avantra

SAP S/4HANA is one of the most innovative ERP solutions in the software industry due to its real time insight delivery and high efficiency. As an in memory data platform, SAP S/4HANA simplifies administration and management in the IT space. It allows users to centralize the network resources and hardware to have easier accessibility.

SAP S/4HANA facilitates bringing multiple systems' transactional and analytical abilities into one place, leading to better decision making, which can be cost effective in the long run. Users can also generate reports and execute decisions based on real time data.

Moving to SAP S/4HANA might be a choice now, but it will soon become a necessity. In a few years, SAP will no longer provide support for its ECC systems, so businesses should start planning their SAP S/4HANA migration. 
 

Common SAP S/4HANA implementation challenges

Unfortunately, users tend to face several challenges when implementing SAP S/4HANA. These include, but are not limited to:

Data migration issues

Data migration is the primary concern when moving to SAP S/4HANA. SAP specialists have to decide between brownfield or greenfield migration. 

The latter is more disruptive and costly, as it requires the organization to redefine its processes. With brownfield migration, organizations don't have to make any changes in their legacy systems. Instead, they can simply upgrade the existing software and hardware minus any rearchitecting. 

If the SAP teams are not sufficiently prepared for a SAP S/4HANA implementation, there's a risk of data being lost. It is common for this missing data to be overlooked until it's later needed by an application or user. Losing important data can result in downtime and poor performance.

Technical issues

The SAP S/4HANA implementation process is quite complicated. Technical problems, like system compatibility, hardware limitations, and configuration challenges, can cause disruption in the process.

Companies must conduct a clean up before they implement SAP S/4HANA, as well as retire the old code to facilitate migration. 

Training issues

The migration to SAP S/4HANA is only successful if everyone is on the same page. Organizations must train their staff on the new system, requiring them to invest in training courses and sessions that involve detailed explanations of the new functionalities. 

It's also imperative to have a plan for users with limited technical skills. They must undergo sufficient training to ensure that they are not overwhelmed by the new features of the SAP S/4HANA, causing lower productivity and poor efficiency.

How Avantra can help

Avantra can help businesses overcome many of these challenges with SAP S/4HANA monitoring. With the Avantra platform's native system monitoring, you can check your system's performance with daily reports. Furthermore, Avantra can ensure all of your audit control policies are in place and automatically effective upon migration, a costly task that is often missed. Avantra saves you 25% of the hours your SAP team would otherwise have to spend on these checks.

In addition, training environments become critical during a massive shift, such as migrating to S/4 HANA. Being able to start up/shut down training systems when needed helps keep cloud spend manageable. Avantra can also be integrated with Red Hat, allowing net new testing and training systems to be closed at the click of a button, leading to consistent training environments. The same can be used for one off testing environments where large scale changes can be tested in unique environments without disruption to the QA systems.

Since the SAP S/4HANA is a dynamic landscape, constant change has to be monitored to catch any discrepancies early. With the Avantra platform, you can also keep an eye out for software and audit based changes, giving you the ability to pre-empt performance problems and ensure audit controls are properly in place.

As a result, you can quickly troubleshoot issues and reduce downtimes due to technical problems. You also get high visibility into your SAP system for better efficiency and security. 

How Avantra assisted a polymer and chemical company with SAP monitoring

A leading chemical company required real time alerts and SAP monitoring for its ERP systems. Although the company used Sybase as the backend database for its systems, BW was HANA based. The company used the Avantra platform’s server monitoring to keep track of its SAP systems.

Using the Avantra platform’s dashboard, the company's SAP team could get a minute by minute analysis of the system's health 24/7. It helped them get notifications about thresholds or conditions exceeding the set standards, as well as analyze the performance statistics to make informed decisions for future projects or mission critical operations.

Organizations that need to implement SAP S/4HANA can use similar on premise monitoring to plan their resources efficiently and anticipate challenges before they become too chaotic. Early detection prevents downtime and ensures consistent system performance.  

Implementing SAP S/4HANA with the Avantra platform’s constant monitoring 

As beneficial as SAP S/4HANA is, it also comes with a fair share of challenges. These range from poor data migration practices to system incompatibility and lack of training.

Automatic change detection is a must have in SAP S/4HANA implementation to ensure proper tracking of changes occurring in the environments. These can help spot any problems during data migration or system operations. The Avantra platform’s SAP monitoring can help you track and analyze all changes in real time so that you can make informed decisions quickly.

Download the SAP S4 HANA migration whitepaper by Tyler Constable, Global Head of Solution Engineering at Avantra, to learn the importance of an AIOps solution. Or request a demo to see Avantra in action.