SAP S/4HANA [Features, Advantages & Disadvantages]

SAP HANA is a High-Performance Analytic Appliance and it’s a multi-level database that stores data in memory instead of a hard disk. This column-based memory database allows us to run high-speed performance in the transaction in one system.

Based on the SAP HANA in-memory database, SAP S/4HANA is an Enterprise resource planning (ERP) business software that makes organizations to check the transactions and analyzing about day-to-day company data in real time.

The focal point, or we can say a digital core of SAP’s strategy to help clients go through digital transformation, a broadly defined process where they might change current business processes and models or develop new ones, is S/4HANA.

Because of this, businesses are more able to adapt to shifting business needs, client requirements, or demands. This S/4HANA-based business environment is referred to by SAP as the intelligent enterprise. Below are the topics we can discuss more about S/4 HANA.

• History of SAP HANA
• Overview of SAP HANA
• SAP S/4HANA features
• Difference between S/4HANA and ECC
• Facts about SAP S/4HANA
• Advantages and Disadvantages

History of SAP HANA

SAP released S/4 HANA in February 2015 which the company considers that as an important product in the history of development. Rewriting 400 million lines of code and redesigning the database concept were necessary for SAP S/4HANA. According to SAP, the modifications make the ERP system easier to use and comprehend, as well as more agile for programmers.

Using the internet of things (IoT) and big data to connect people, devices, and business networks, SAP sees S/4HANA as a chance for companies to redefine business models and generate new profits.

In SAP S/4HANA no need of handling a large amount of data, rather than SAP S/4 HANA processing the data in a simple way and execute in real-time. According to SAP, this indicates that business users can access data insight in real time for planning, execution, forecast, and simulation from any location.

Overview of SAP HANA

S/4 HANA Business module is based on the native HANA (own) platform to support data models in a simplified manner with no cluster, no suggestion, etc. It has incorporated with Fiori-based user interface (UI) and role-based access in the software for different purposes.

SAP S/4HANA is based on an advanced inbuilt memory platform and provides a personalized Fiori-based user experience to get solutions. Since SAP S/4HANA has its own memory. It is arranged over a cloud platform or on-premises solution. There are some clients or customers or business users who are moving from SAP Business to S/4 HANA and for 75% of the customers, it takes an average 3-6 months for a migration project.

SAP also offers, an SAP boom deployment project to perform a fast migration to the HANA platform and to SAP Finance solution. Various SAP partners/collaborators provide fixed-price integration for a few clients.

Customers can use the customization technique (changes according to client requirements) or modification even after system migration. In the SAP S/4HANA, SAP is providing a new product and huge business applications for the next generation– simple ERP software for big data and is manufactured thus to help us run simply or effortlessly in the current digital economy.

Check out, How to Install SAP HANA

SAP S/4HANA Features

The ultimate aim of SAP S/4 HANA is to make the ERP (Enterprise resource planning) more customized, faster, and also easier via a simple data model. The architecture and a new user experience are built on the surface-based SAP Fiori UX.

S/4HANA incorporated a large number of advanced technologies, which include Artificial Intelligence (AI) Machine learning, IoT (Internet of Things), and advanced analytics.

The SAP HANA in built-memory database architecture and the integration of advanced technologies thus allow the S/4HANA to help in solving many complex problems in a real-time manner and analyze more information faster or quicker than earlier SAP ERP products.

The localized version of S/4HANA can also be moved into public or private clouds or in a hybrid. There is also a multi-client SaaS version, SAP s/4 HANA Cloud, whose particular modules and scope differ from those of the local version.

Difference Between S/4HANA and ECC

Generally, ECC is an Enterprise central component (ECC) is the earlier version of ERP. S/4HANA shares many of the similar characteristics of previous SAP ERP products, up to and including ECC, but because S/4HANA was a redesign, it differs from ECC in several areas.

Fundamentally, S/4HANA is designed to overtake advantage of capabilities that are not available in ECC, such as advanced analytics and real-time processing.

Several modules of SAP ECC are connected to create a single-level, adaptable system that may be used with whatever type of database the user chooses. When an organization uses SAP ECC, its business processes in the areas of finance, human resources (HR), product planning, and customer support (CS) can all be developed.

SAP ECC has extreme modularity. Companies can include the components that they require and arrange them in particular ways that their environment needs. In a personal technology stack, SAP ECC can also work with third-party applications or user-customized applications.

It also has complications. A change in one element will alter how other portions work since each and every component of the landscape interconnect with one another. Thus, it’s critical to thoroughly check our landscape before implementing any changes, including updates, adding extra functionalities, user customization, and enhancements.

SAP HANA operates or runs only on the HANA platform whereas ECC runs on multiple platforms like oracle, database, etc. SAP FIORI application is available in the s/4 HANA platform to perform or make real-time reports.

It’s also very tough to be aware that SAP ECC has operates its course. SAP has the intention to cease providing support for SAP ECC in the year 2027. ECC is already being slowed down, and SAP ECC users are moving to change to SAP S/4HANA.

The goal of SAP S/4HANA is to make business operations easier, quicker, and more efficient. Moreover, SAP S/4HANA resolves issues with batch delay, manually operated procedures, and data sprawl that have existed in conventional ERP systems.

One of SAP’s majority products, SAP S/4HANA is aggressively termed or called as SAP ECC’s replacement. As previously explained, in 2027 they are trying to convert the more than 40000 SAP ECC users to SAP S/4HANA and are promoting SAP S/4HANA as the best option for previous SAP ERP clients.

Read What is SAP HANA Cloud & How it Works

Advantages and Disadvantages of SAP S/4HANA

Let us check out a few advantages and disadvantages of SAP S/4HANA.

Advantages of SAP S/4HANA

Let’s get started by listing the various benefits of using the new technology, SAP HANA.

• Real-time analysis and decision-making capacities are provided by SAP HANA. Many large amounts of data can be processed when the business is running. It gives a quick result as a solution to the end user.
• Transactions and Data processing in SAP are literally a lifesaver in the inbuilt-memory database technology due to the data is stored in RAM. Hence, from there, data may be processed swiftly and directly.
• Data can be stored and processed in the database’s columns as well as rows using SAP HANA. Moreover, a lot of operations can be handled concurrently in SAP HANA as compared to just one action being processed for each query in a traditional database. Consequently, parallel processing greatly accelerates operation.
• Users can only use one transactional process in traditional databases and the technologies that interface with them.
• Organization’s business analyst person can easily notice all the issues by using a stable business processes. The SAP S/4 HANA Public deployment takes minimum work to take care of post-production support. To minimize the labor involved in importing data into the new system, SAP delivers data migration scripts and templates.
• In contrast to an on-premises ERP environment, SAP manages the majority of updates and problems. The amount of time needed by the IT team is decreased. Hence, SAP S/4 HANA Cloud reduces the number of your IT workforce by roughly 50%. This gives companies the chance to reduce expenses and reallocate their workers to high-value projects.

Disadvantages of SAP S/4HANA

Every technology has some drawbacks. Let’s see what this SAP technology going through.

• Only hardware that has been certified by Linux or SAP can operate SAP HANA. Due to the high cost of licensing, it presents a problem for all users who want to operate it on any other type of hardware.
• Wanting to adopt SAP HANA requires a significant investment due to limited hardware compatibility.
• Because different ERP packages have different types of architecture, SAP HANA does not support all of them. ERP users that want to adopt SAP HANA must alter their architecture to make it HANA adaptable.
• The older version quickly becomes obsolete due to the regular SPS releases and updates in the SAP HANA versions. Also, the user may occasionally experience problems because updating takes time and requires a new payment.
• Sometimes users are worried about SAP HANA server shutdown when it deals with a large amount of data processing.
• Typically, developers who continue to use database technology in the same old manner are unable to fully utilize SAP HANA. Although SAP HANA has many other capabilities and functionalities, they use it as a quick in-memory database.

Summing Up

I hope this tutorial gave you an idea about SAP S/4HANA. We discussed various features of SAP S/4HANA. And also discussed various differences between S/4HANA and ECC. I have also explained a few pros and cons of SAP S/4HANA.