SAP S4 HANA Finance Deployment Options

SAP S4 HANA Deployment is one of the core processes of SAP implementation in an organization. Deployment is a process that includes the SAP project’s preparation, sizing, functional development of the application, cutover, and finally going live of the whole project.

Deploying SAP S4 HANA Finance

The SAP S4 HANA Finance is natively built on SAP HANA. It offers simple solution architecture with a complete choice of deployment. These are consumables as a managed service from the SAP HANA Enterprise Cloud, On-premise or in a hybrid setup for lower IT costs and easy adoption.

Let us understand each one of them.

Option 1- The Classic On-Premise SAP S4 HANA Deployment

SAP S/4 HANA Finance follows SAP’S promise to support options for on-premise deployment of all the latest innovations. If you want to leverage already existing data center investments then on-premise installation or upgrade might be your best option.

Architecture Overview

SAP S/4 HANA finance is based on the in-memory database technology of SAP HANA. The ABAP application core of SAP S/4 HANA Finance for on-premise deployments. Of course, you are not limited to financials only. S4 HANA Finance is part of a full-blown ERP system. It is integrated with the other SAP ERP applications like logistics processes in the same system. Logistics Process as in- Material Management, Sales & Distribution and Production Planning.

New reports, such as the GL Account Line Item Browser are based on the SAP HANA Live VDM. Here the SAP HANA Views contains the business semantic. These views can provide business data for various generic analytical clients such as Business Objects DashBoard. In addition, we use operational data providers (ODPS) for Web Dynpro Floorplan Manager (FPM) applications.

Landscape Migration for Existing SAP ERP System

Let’s look at a high-level overview of the upgrade paths. It also includes the required installation and migration steps, from a technical point of view. The required steps depend on the starting conditions of your existing system landscape. Further, the Target stack of S/4 HANA Finance consists of EHP 7 for SAP ERP 6.0. Also, new software components replace the classic SAP ERP Financials applications.

In addition, we need to deploy the SAP HANA Live VDM components along with new UI components to access the SAP FIORI user experience. The innovations that are provided in SAP S4 HANA Finance are closely connected to the in-memory database technology of SAP HANA. This implies a database migration as well as if you have not yet been running your SAP ERP system on SAP HANA.

This image shows that the system enables the Software Update Manager to support one-step upgrades to the required SAP S4 HANA Finance target. It stacks from every SAP ERP 6.0 release state. It also includes the migration from any database toward SAP HANA using the database migration option ( DMO) feature if required.

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Handling General Ledger Functionality during Upgrade

SAP S4 HANA Finance leverages the capabilities of the latest feature state delivered via EHP 7 for SAP ERP 6.0. Depending on the system configuration of your start release, you need to do some preparation as part of the upgrade to SAP HANA Finance. This includes new Asset Accounting, General Ledger (G/L) and Controlling in SAP Accounting powered by SAP S/4 HANA.

SAP S4 HANA Finance makes it easy to switch even if you have been using the classic GL so far. The automated migration to the G/L in SAP Accounting for SAP Finance does not imply an immediate full change to your financial business processes.

The migration first converts the distributed data into the data model of the Universal Journal and will allow you to run your accounting and reporting almost as before.

You can access the full capabilities of the New G/L such as parallel Ledgers and document splitting by running the business migration at a later point in time.

Read: What is SAP?- History. Facts. Growth

Option 2- SAP S4 HANA Deployment on Enterprise Cloud

Finance solutions have a long history and are at the heart of your business. Sometimes, companies hesitate to move into the cloud-based offerings, often citing risks associated with cloud deployment in the areas of data privacy and data security. The SAP HANA Enterprise cloud providers answer with an offering certified by external auditors such as TUV and KPMG.

Followings are the features that you see in the Enterprise Cloud deployment option:-

1. Data security – Firewalls from different manufactures protect the data in the data center. Furthermore an intrusion detection system monitors incoming data and identifies suspicious activities. The backup files and the data are exchanged with customers in an encrypted format or transmitted via secure fiber-optic cable.
2. Data Privacy– SAP ensures compliance with data protection provisions. Data from cloud customers fall under the jurisdiction that the customer selects and does not forward to third parties. SAP support services ensure to maintain the data protection during required maintenance operations.
3. Data Center locations- Data centers of the SAP HANA Enterprise Cloud are located around the globe. Data center owned and operated by SAP or associated partner sites .

Transitioning to the SAP HANA Enterprise Cloud

The process of transitioning to SAP HANA Enterprise Cloud must necessarily be tailored to your company’s situation. It starts with an advisory service provided by consulting to compile an individual cloud innovation road map for your company. Then an assessment service details the transformation from on-premise into the SAP HANA Enterprise Cloud. You need to answer questions such as whether your system has already been running EHP 7 for SAP ERP. Is it on HANA DB or any Data Base and so on? SAP works with customers to define a solution that fits their individual needs.

Option 3- Hybrid Scenarios for SAP S4 HANA Finance Deployment

Hybrid deployment scenarios bridge different deployment options. These scenarios can be combinations of on-premise and cloud systems. With a hybrid approach, you can leave existing systems untouched in your on-premise environment. It consists of SAP ERP instances of various levels or legacy systems. Adding SAP Simple Finance instance managed in the SAP HANA Enterprise Cloud enables you to adopt the finance innovations at your own pace.

Conclusion

Each SAP S4 HANA Deployment option for Finance has its own benefits, hence it’s sometimes difficult to decide which one to choose. SAP S4 HANA is a digital core in itself that is a bundle of technologies like, in-memory, user experience, best IT landscape, real-time analytics, cloud technology, etc. With multiple deployment options, one can select the best fit for its industry. For an SAP S4 HANA Finanancre consultant having good knowledge of S/4HANA covers the knowledge of deployment. If you don’t have, then do go for it to learn. Dig in deep with knowing core processes and get this most desirable part of the S4 HANA Finance learning process.