SAP Solution Manager Assists Transition to SAP S/4HANA . . . and Other Home Office Lessons Learned

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My recent days spent working from home already resulted in a multitude of lessons learned. SAP Solution Manager lessons, for example, were seemingly everywhere I looked. I found them when learning about businesses transitioning to SAP S/4HANA. Since lessons learned are best shared, allow me to pass on my recent favorites.



Home office lesson #1: I found it easy to grasp benefits of businesses transitioning to SAP S/4HANA when considering a sales order for a product that requires physical delivery to a customer. Overextended ERP systems can trigger false fulfillment promises due to outdated data, production delays due to uncertain material shortages or supplier delivery times, higher inventory costs to compensate for possible delays, and unclear delivery statuses. By contrast, SAP S/4HANA as a next-generation core solution for future business growth, offers the following for the same sales order:

Home office lesson #2: If you are an SAP customer considering a strategic transition from overextended ERP systems to SAP S/4HANA, note that SAP Solution Manager 7.2 itself is the lesson learned by customers who have made the move.



Applying SAP Solution Manager to prepare the transition process eases common transition challenges by enabling you to:

• Reduce time and effort for data migration


• Avoid excessive unnecessary costs for additional hardware/memory


• Lower the number of process variants and get back to standard processes


• Identify master and configuration data that is no longer needed in the new environment


• Reduce manual interventions via increased business process automation

 Home office lesson #3: This graphic shows how SAP Solution Manager assists SAP S/4HANA projects from kick-off to go-live and beyond . . .



And once the project begins, here are some highlighted bus stops along the way:

• Process Management: SAP Solution Manager empowers you to explore and download SAP Best Practices content for your SAP S/4HANA project. This content includes templates, a process model library, and opportunities to adjust the configuration in your project.


• Test Suite: Launch a comprehensive test solution and save time and resources. Here, a high-level of test automation is possible and SAP Solution Manager stores all relevant information as the single source of truth.


• Release Management: Sync your SAP S/4HANA projects. This reduces risks for co-dependent projects, decreases test efforts through a joint integration test phase, and simplifies the go-live process to deploy multiple projects at once.

There are multiple ways to master the graphic above:

• View the presentation slides: SAP S/4HANA Implementation with SAP Solution Manager.


• Watch the video segment: SAP Solution Manager and SAP S/4HANA (10:29).


• Register for an openSAP account and take the free online course: Agile Project Delivery with Focused Build for SAP Solution Manager.

Home office lesson #4: If you are missing sports, your little kids at home have too much energy, and you have purchased extra packs of water bottles and toilet paper to ensure the survival of your species, you can have a stuck-at-home sports hour. I’ve personally tested and approve of these makeshift sports:

• Handball (Olympics style) penalty shots (2 players)
  
  
  
  • What you need: 1 large corner couch, 1 unused roll of toilet paper, 1 piece of tape
  
  
  • What you do: Apply tape to the end of the roll so that the toilet paper doesn’t unravel when thrown. Player 1 stands (if a small child) or kneels on the couch. Player 2 stands approximately 7 meters away and attempts to throw the toilet paper roll so that it hits the back of the couch. Player 1 as goalie attempts to block the toilet paper roll.
  
  
  
  


• Volleyball (2-4 players)
  
  
  
  • What you need: 1 balloon, 2 flat rectangular toilet paper packs
  
  
  • What you do: Stand the toilet paper packs side-by-side on the floor to form the net. From a kneeling position, players hit the inflated balloon over the net. (Caution: Little kids don’t appreciate spikes and may accuse you of being totally unfair.) If the balloon hits the floor on player 1’s side, it’s a point for player 2, and vice-versa.
  
  
  
  


• Bowling (2-4 players)
  
  
  
  • What you need: 1 hallway, 6-10 empty soft plastic drink bottles, 1 unused roll of toilet paper, 1 piece of tape
  
  
  • What you do: Apply tape to the end of the roll so that the toilet paper doesn’t unravel when thrown. Arrange 6 or 10 empty plastic bottles widely spaced in the shape of a triangle (in the manner of bowling pins) at the end of the hall. Players take turns rolling the toilet paper roll at the bottles and keep score of how many bottles are knocked down.
  
  
  
  


• Table tennis friendly (2 players)
  
  
  
  • What you need: 1 table tennis ball or 1 small rubber bouncy ball, 1 dining table, 2 frying pans, 2 flat rectangular toilet paper packs
  
  
  • What you do: Stand the toilet paper packs side-by-side on the empty table to form the net. Players stand at either end of the table and use the backs of the pans as paddles. Players 1 and 2 work together as a team to hit the ball over the net as many times as possible. Players keep track of the total number of hits per round.
  
  
  
  

After your stuck-at-home sports hour, you may learn that those little kids may allow you to go back to work. You can learn more about SAP Solution Manager’s role as a lessoned learned for SAP S/4HANA customers in the transition article, Ensure a Seamless Migration Process with SAP Solution Manager 7.2 Functionality. As a bonus, check out the details and how Focused Build for SAP Solution Manager can enhance an agile development approach within requirements-to-deploy process.