Migration to SAP HANA in the Managed Cloud – Enablement (Part 3 of 3)
This is the third in a three-part NTT DATA Business Solutions blog series designed to provide SAP customers with a better understanding of the available options for migrating to SAP HANA in the Managed Cloud. The first blog focused on the reasons why SAP HANA in the NTT DATA Business Solutions Managed Cloud provides a superior choice, while the second blog focused on the most common scenarios by which we help businesses choose the right migration path from SAP ECC to SAP HANA. This third part focuses on how businesses are then enabled to take advantage of the various new innovations from SAP HANA to run with maximum impact and an optimal user experience.
Your business has made / is in the process of making a successful migration to SAP HANA in the NTT DATA Business Solutions Managed Cloud. While this achievement is critical to creating unique opportunities to reinvent business models and drive new revenues and profits, the work doesn’t stop there; it is just the beginning.
UX Enablement
When a customer moves to SAP HANA, it should be a requirement to also add, if not already in the landscape, an SAP Gateway environment. Best practices call for this environment to be standalone, but it can be installed as an add-on to the ECC landscape (most customers choose a standalone PRD/non-PRD approach). The SAP Gateway is required to support the new approach to the user experience, Fiori. This new approach to the UX is changing the way that the end-user community accesses information and makes business decisions. Of course, change management and training become important parts to enabling this new way to access information.
SAP Analytics
SAP HANA Live provides an open environment with operational analytic and reporting on real-time Business Suite Data, merging an analytical environment with transactional data. Understanding the Smart Business Apps and access to the SAP HANA Live virtual data models provides companies with the ability to consume information through real-time dashboards and analytics. Fast access to information is a power/benefit of SAP HANA.
SAP S/4HANA
By now, you should have heard the messaging around the future of SAP and S/4HANA. S/4HANA Finance (aka SAP Simple Finance) is the first of these redesigned components. S/4HANA Logistics and others are soon to follow with the SAP HANA database being the cornerstone to everything. This means SAP HANA is a prerequisite to being able to take advantage of these forward-thinking developments/innovations. The benefits of the Universal Journal and Guided Configuration are easy to comprehend, but the real value will be seen through the ability to find strategic value with instant insight to information.
Not to sound too corny, but the future is upon us…for the customers that are ready to grasp it. SAP HANA is no longer a new technology. The database is now a cornerstone for all new developments and innovation coming out of SAP and partners. In order to stay current, companies must build their roadmap and make plans to migrate to SAP HANA and plan for how to empower their organizations to make the decisions necessary to be a leader in their respective industries.