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What is SAP S/4HANA?
SAP S/4HANA is short for SAP Business Suite 4 SAP HANA and is SAP’s next-generation ERP. It brings the next big wave of SAP innovation, similar to the transition from SAP R/2 to SAP R/3.
SAP S/4HANA is built on SAP HANA (database), because only the SAP HANA platform can deliver such level of massive simplifications and innovations.
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Why is SAP taking this move?
- Increasing demand for higher performance by delivering a more effective database with the possibility of processing “Big Data”
- Increasing demand for user friendliness (with SAP Fiori)
- Offer Cloud based solutions, which is a “must have” for any IT vendor at the moment (general trend)
What has changed from a functionality point of view?
This cannot be answered in one sentence, but putting it shortly: Some processes have almost no changes, while other processes are fundamentally reprogrammed.
The following modules, previously interfaced to ECC, are now advantageously included in S/4HANA:
- Advanced Planning (PP/DS)
- Advanced ATP (gATP)
- Extended Warehouse Management (EWM)
The picture below shows, how processes are structured. Everything in blue is included in S/4HANA, whereas the white boxes show what processes are outside S/4HANA and needs to be interfaced.

What is in it for your company?
If you already have SAP ECC, how you can benefit in this early version of S/4HANA is very individual. The arguments of speed and friendliness are usually not enough to perform the migration. But some companies have specific needs that might already be in S/4HANA or at least on the S/4HANA roadmap. Do you have a special request? Please contact us and we can help you in deciding, when it is a good time for you to upgrade.
S/4HANA 1-pagers
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S/4HANA – Advanced Planning