SAP S/4HANA System Conversion

Excerpt from Practical Guide to Data Migration with SAP S/4HANA Migration Cockpit by Uche Nnene.

A system conversion scenario for transitioning to SAP S/4HANA can be viewed from a concept perspective at least as similar to an upgrade but it is NOT an upgrade (see Figure 2.3). A system conversion can be viewed as a complete technical conversion of an existing SAP Business Suite ERP system to SAP S/4HANA. With this approach, you convert your current ECC system to the new SAP S/4HANA system. This approach can be adopted only on-premise and could be done either in an organization’s own data center or as part of an Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) model.

An S/4HANA system conversion requires no (real) data migration (i. e., no physical extraction or transformation is required). Instead, a technical data migration that migrates elements such as the material ledger and transaction data to the universal journal as part of the post-S/4HANA conversion step is performed, as shown in Figure 2.2. For those not conversant with the terminology, the universal journal is a ledger of all accounting entries of business transactions in Finance (FI) and Controlling (CO) and it represents the single source of truth in SAP S/4HANA.

Figure 2.2: Migration as part of an S/4HANA conversion

Figure 2.3 provides a diagrammatic representation of the process for converting an existing SAP ECC system, with the steps typically involving:

• Database migration from a non-HANA database (AnyDB) platform from SAP ERP 6.0 and above, and from an SAP HANA database to an SAP S/4HANA database
• Conversion of the data model from ERP core (SAP Business Suite ERP 6.0) to SAP S/4HANA core, or from SAP S/4HANA Finance (formerly known as Simple Finance) to SAP S/4HANA
• Conversion of old application code and tables to new applications and structures; this also includes adapting the customer’s custom code so that it is compliant with the new data structures
• Creation of compatibility views (known as Core Data Services (CDS) views) to make the old reports and interfaces still function as normal
• Configuration adaptation in the areas of master data, the Financials, Logistics, Human Resources, Portfolio and Project Management, Procurement, Sales and Distribution modules, as well as industryspecific functions (for example, in New Asset Accounting, additional currencies, parallel valuation, material ledgers, etc.) based on the SAP simplification list (see Section 2.3 for further information on the simplification list)
• No forced migration from Classic GUI to Fiori except where transactions are no longer supported in GUI (refer to the simplification list)

Figure 2.3: System conversion

Why choose this option? Choose this option if your organization’s strategic goal is to:

• Bring existing processes to the new platform
• Perform a complete technical conversion of the existing SAP ERP system to SAP S/4HANA
• Keep investment in custom code and technical debt
• Mitigate the risk and investment involved in a big-bang conversion project
• Retain recent investment in SAP Business Suite, with no business need to transform existing processes
• Adopt innovation at the organization’s own pace
• Adopt SAP Fiori for SAP S/4HANA to enhance user experience, mobility, and flexibility at the organization’s own pace

You should also choose this option if your organization has no strategic vision for migrating its SAP system to the cloud.

Start reading now!

If you work in a company that uses SAP or other non-SAP ERP systems and are looking at migrating to the latest digital core from SAP, whether the cloud or on-premise edition, then this book is for you! Explore your options for transitioning to SAP S/4HANA. Walk in detail through the phases of a data migration project using SAP Activate methodology. Identify SAP rapid data migration best practices for SAP S/4HANA with SAP Data Services. Learn about methods for migrating data to a new SAP implementation scenario, as well as the SAP Data Services architecture that deals with the process of extraction, transformation, and load (ETL) of data. Examine the steps required to execute the migration within the ETL stages and how SAP Data Services can be extended to meet additional migration needs. Take a deep dive into SAP S/4HANA migration cockpit and SAP S/4HANA migration object modeler. Walk through the steps required for migrating data from source systems to SAP S/4HANA (on-premise or cloud edition) using the preconfigured data migration objects delivered by SAP. Delve into the process of creating a migration project and generating the upload template, as well as the steps for uploading and validating the data, including error handling. Review the various migration options and tools available for migrating your legacy data to SAP S/4HANA (on-premise or cloud edition).

Uche Nnene is an experienced SAP finance solution architect and Director UK & Ireland Advisory Services at EY AgilityWorks.

Uche has spent over 15 years working on and implementing SAP ERP solutions across different sectors, including oil and gas, retail, utilities, manufacturing, and public sector organizations (both central and local government).