We from SAP S/4HANA Cloud Expertise Services Team conducted a second session in the form of Community Live on 31st March 2022. This session was intended to provide our partners and internals an opportunity to have an open mic session directly with our experts on SAP Activate for SAP S/4HANA Cloud, Private Edition. This session was targeted for all those technology enthusiasts from our partners and internal ecosystem who are interested and looking forward to help our customers together in their journey of Business Transformation using the RISE with SAP package based on SAP’s implementation methodology – SAP Activate for SAP S/4HANA Cloud, Private Edition. This blog-post serves as a Question-Answer transcript of the session conducted for which the recordings can be found on the Partner Edge portal (needs PartnerEdge login).

As we all know by now that RISE with SAP provides a seamless and easy path for transforming an organization from traditional and legacy ERP systems to a modern, cloud based and an intelligent suite of softwares which caters for next generation business operations for an Intelligent Enterprise. The focus of this session being an open discussion between partners, internals and SAP experts on SAP Activate for SAP S/4HANA Cloud, Private Edition for new implementations, we were able to get insights on variety of questions from our partners. Our speakers were also able to provide clarifications on their doubts and questions during the 60 mins session. We also use this forum to look into the challenges which our partners and internals face and try to feed it back into our product teams in order to further fine tune the gaps if relevant.

To cater questions on SAP Activate for SAP S/4HANA Cloud, Private Edition – we called in experts from various areas like SAP Activate, Solution Management, Project Excellence, Partner Solution Center and Partner Engagement and Experience Center. The below slide shows the speakers of the sessions :

Speakers for the community live 2nd session

Also due to the vastness of the topics in implementing SAP S/4HANA Cloud – Private Edition, we decided to confine this session only on topics which revolve around SAP Activate for new implementation scenarios and not around system conversions, migrations and selective data transitions. To make the 60 mins most relevant on the topic of SAP Activate for our audience we chose the topics around project management, project methodology, fit-to-standard project delivery, phases, deliverables & concepts, cloud mindset, organizational change management, transformation, tools, enablement and adoption. The deep dive topics which require in-depth techno-functional expertise were not in the focus of this session and we might plan to bring such topics in the future for our community live session going forward. Hence the below slide shows the guardrails which we put into our session to provide a precursor to our audience.

Having provided the information about the community live session, now let’s see the actual questions which were asked live during the session to our experts and their answers to them. Before I move into transcribing the answers, please make a note that the answers are just opinions and viewpoints from our experts from their own experience and expertise and hold no official/legal obligation whatsoever on the part of company or individual.

Question 1: Do we have SSCUI’s in SAP S/4HANA Cloud, Private Edition as we have in SAP S/4HANA Cloud (Public) or we get a full-fledged SPRO-IMG access for custom configurations?

Answer -> In SAP S/4HANA Cloud, Private Edition you have full fledged access to SPRO-IMG to decide either to start the configurations from the scratch or leverage the SAP Best Practices already established. We do not have SSCUIs in the SAP S/4HANA Cloud, Private Edition as we know it in the SAP S/4HANA Cloud (Public).

Question 2: We have SAP S/4HANA On-Premise system and SAP S/4HANA Cloud TM (Transportation Management), Private Edition. This needs to connected and we want to know if we would require a middleware to connect these systems or are they integrated directly?

Answer -> First and foremost to understand that when it comes to SAP S/4HANA Cloud, Private Edition, the word private itself suggest that the system is hosted in a private network and not public. This means it extends to the customers internal network. Being a technical question, you will have to establish the tunneling or connection between the networks, probably TLS connections between S/4HANA Cloud, Private Edition and the system which is setup in the customer’s network. This means any other systems within customers own landscape and network can be connected to the SAP S/4HANA Cloud, Private Edition system. Also using SAP Business Technology Platform (BTP) is also a way to look at integrating two systems, but overall within the network topologies you can connect any system from customers own network to the SAP S/4HANA Cloud, Private Edition.

Question 3: Now that the model company is deprecated can customers use Enterprise Management Layer in Private Edition Cloud if they are doing a new implementation?

Answer -> Yes, the EML (Enterprise Management Layer) is available for implementation for SAP S/4HANA Cloud, Private Edition and also w.r.t the new implementation. If you look at the SAP Best Practices, you can find more details towards the EML for SAP S/4HANA here – Enterprise Management Layer for SAP S/4HANA. The enterprise management layer provides a global template for customers operating in multiple countries.

It comes pre-configured and localized for up to 43 countries with a corporate financial template allowing for parallel accounting according to group and local requirements, based on 3 accounting principles (Group/Local/Tax) and a total of five ledgers. It offers preconfigured business processes across all application areas, including sample master data and print forms as well as detailed documentation for the users. The enterprise management layer is a service similar to its predecessor, the Model Company for Multinational Corporations, and addresses the following deployment types:

• On-premise deployment (including Hyperscalers)
• SAP S/4HANA, private cloud edition

Question 4: We understand one of the reasons why full IMG isn’t available in public cloud is so SAP can control various areas that may otherwise complicate/prevent easily upgrading of the system. Private Cloud still requires regular upgrades right? So how is the upgrade-risk avoided in private edition given all-IMG is made available?

Answer: Normally what prevents or makes the upgrades difficult is not just the configurations but also the extensibility (what we knew as the workbench in the On Prem world). When it comes to configurations alone, it is not the biggest issues for upgrades as you can always adjust the configurations after an upgrade if required. As compared to public cloud where adjustments and configurations are more towards the standards and the best practices, in private editions customers can freely decide to choose the upgrade cycles and adjust their configurations accordingly. Also in addition to this, form a governance point of view you can minimize the impact of custom developments by leveraging the Solution Standardization Board backed by the 5 golden rules for SAP S/4HANA implementation practices. Due to more standardization and lesser custom codes in-system, we literally are able to complete the upgrades within 2 weeks in SAP S/4HANA Cloud (Public) systems whereas when it comes to Private Edition, it might range from months due to the overall stack and involvement of custom codes + customizations overall in the systems adding to the complexity of the upgrades. Also we see that when it comes to SAP S/4HANA Cloud, Private Edition customers can choose to upgrade the system as per their own choice within the upstream maintenance period, whereas in SAP S/4HANA Cloud (Public) customers have to mandatorily undergo the bi-yearly upgrades which imparts the latest innovations to the customers system with minimal impact and preparation.

Also if you see one of the deliverables in the SAP Activate Roadmap provides clear guidance around the How, Why and Best Practices of upgrading the S/4HANA system. Please find more relevant details here – Periodically Update your SAP System 

Question 5: Does Activate support DevOps? If so, what are the tools and accelerators available?

Answer -> Yes, SAP Activate the devops lifecycle and executions. We have seen SAP S/4HANA Cloud (Public) and even SAP S/4HANA on premise customers and partners using the JIRA, GitHub for source controlling, Jenkins for continuous build etc. However, SAP Activate is more than all this. SAP Activate encapsulates many more streams including project governance, OCM etc.

From SAP Activate side, you can also leverage the Customer COE who are responsible for the tasks associated with the changes in the landscapes and you can filter the relevant tasks in the roadmap by filtering the COE checkbox in the SAP Activate Roadmap viewer.

Question 6: Currently I am working in a Greenfield implementation project in On-Premise version. What is the major differences we have in Activate methodology for the On cloud and on-premise versions”

Answer -> This is huge topic, but to start with in Private Cloud Edition you have higher flexibility and control on the overall implementations and the operations. During the fit-to-standard workshops, when you find gaps or deltas you can your own flexibility and control to create the custom developments from scratch whereas in public cloud you will have to leverage the available the extensibility methodologies and stick to the standards. Topics like the OCM, value realization are more or less same in the Public and Private Edition but once again the implementation aspects might differ. For instance in Private Cloud you might have access to the development workbench whereas in public cloud you will have the possibility to only work on the released artifacts for custom requirements and extensions. However, these also imply the major differences around keeping the core clean so that it does not hamper your operations and innovation cycles in future. From SAP Activate side, one major difference between public and private is in the workstream – Technical Architecture and Infrastructure as compared to on premise. Also with the SAP S/4HANA Cloud deployments option you get the ‘ RISE with SAP‘ package which provides you a lot more to implement along with your SAP S/4HANA Cloud system (Public or Private). One good blog from our experts which provides good differentiations can be found here – SAP S/4HANA Cloud and On-Premise Deployment Options

Question 7: Do we have anything specific w.r.t migration from ECC to S/4HANA Cloud ?

Answer-> Yes we do have migration guidance in SAP Activate methodology from ECC to SAP S/4HANA Cloud, Private Edition. You can find all the guidance as per SAP Activate here under the workstream System Conversion.

This is also available in the SAP Cloud ALM on selecting the template while creating a project in SAP Cloud ALM which will populate all the relevant tasks required to be done. Under the RISE with SAP, you are also provided with tools like Readiness Check and Custom Code Analyzer which will help with the overall conversion from ECC to SAP S/4HANA Cloud, Private Edition.

Question 8: Is Document Management System already included in SAP S/4HANA Cloud, Private Edition?

Answer -> The DMS is embedded into the S/4HANA system which connects it to a repository where the documents are stored. For SAP S/4HANA Cloud, Private Edition this repository is based on SAP BTP where the documents are stored via the Document Management Services in the SAP S/4HANA Cloud system and this is the standard solution to be opted for.

Question 9: Can we have external Archive links connected to these repositories?

Answer -> Yes you can connect external archive links to the repositories to our standard solutions for DMS based on SAP BTP. You can also opt for external CMIS repositories. Our standard solutions provides default connections to the SAP BTP repositories, but if you would like to extend it you can check it with your SAP account executives for further information.

Question 10: We are looking for a sample Training Strategy Document for SAP S/4HANA Cloud, Private Edition. Is it available anywhere in the roadmap viewer or community?

Answer -> Yes, there is a enablement strategy in SAP Activate which you can find it here – Customer Team Enablement

Question 11: Is there any difference between On Prem and Private cloud in terms of configuration (IMG) ?

Answer -> No, there are no differences between the configurations (IMG) between SAP S/4HANA On Premise and Private Edition for Cloud. However, when it comes to SAP S/4HANA Cloud (Public) you would have to perform configuration from the SAP Central Business Configuration tool which is different from that of SPRO-IMG.

Question 12:  Can you please provide some insight on Sustainability, Climate Action, Zero emission, Business Continuity etc. w.r.t SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public and Private edition?

Answer -> You can find information around sustainability in SAP S/4HANA Cloud in the below links:

As all these products are standalone products having numerous functions and features, sustainability is derived in these solutions via the lines of business and will needed to be explored individually while scoping and designing the solutions as per the best practices from SAP.

Question 13: Can you help understand what aspects of Cloud ALM are applicable to EX, PCE editions and any exciting features on roadmap ?

Answer -> SAP Cloud ALM is a Cloud native environment which manages the implementations and operations of our SAP S/4HANA Cloud solutions. In implementations side we have everything including creating projects, tracking, assigning tasks and activities and many many more for implementations tasks. In the recent releases there have been tremendously useful features and improvements being done in the SAP Cloud ALM to help our customers and partners for their day-to-day tasks. One recent call out is about the tracking the tasks and having a dashboard visualizations for the complete project team to view. You can find the latest release highlights in the SAP Cloud ALM roadmap

Also find details related to SAP Cloud ALM in the support portal for Cloud ALM.

Question 14: Is Cloud ALM included in the license cost?

Answer ->  Yes SAP Cloud ALM is included in the base support version i.e the Enterprise Support.

Question 15: In terms of Volume and system landscape scaling are there any limitations or recommendations for the implementation on Private Cloud?

Answer -> Before you move with the new implementations, the SAP Quick Sizer Tool will help you with the sizing aspects – number of users mapped with the FUEs, Memory, throughput etc. This would give you the sizing details according to the inputs you provide for your optimal business & user requirements. Customers can choose to also choose their own and extra systems depending on the use case and time limit etc. which can be found with your SAP account executives. You can find more details about the sizing here

Question 16: Is it possible to use SOLMAN on prem with S/4HANA PCE?

Answer -> Yes you can use SAP SolMan On Prem with SAP S/4HANA Cloud, Private Edition. However, you should have the valid licenses under the contracts and then these systems can be connected technically.

Question 17: Do we have any documentation around transformation of the IT department?

Answer ->  We do not differentiate between IT, end users etc. whereas we focus on overall transformation of the organization including the IT departments. SAP Activate Roadmap provides onboarding guides as well as roles which are required to be transformed. Including Technical skill sets for developments to functional consultants, SAP Activate will provide clear guidance on overall transformations. Solution Adoption + Cloud Mindset Adoption and related workstreams will help you towards getting the desired transformation from SAP Activate towards your IT department. You can find the link here for SAP S/4HANA Cloud (Public) towards Solution Adoption

Question 18: EXCEPT for Activate and Cloud Mindset – what’s the biggest difference between On-Prem and Private Cloud? What would I as a functional consultant need to be most wary of?

Answer -> The biggest difference apart from SAP Activate and Cloud Mindset, the upgrades and innovations cycles play a very important role, but overall from a functional point of view there is not a major difference in both On Premise and SAP S/4HANA Cloud, Private edition.

In conclusion, above questions and answers provides you with the Q&A transcript from our partners on SAP Activate for SAP S/4HANA Cloud, Private Edition. These also serves as the frequently asked questions around the area of S/4HANA Cloud, Private Edition and SAP Activate.

In order to further reach out to us and ask your doubts, queries and share insights on SAP Activate or SAP S/4HANA Cloud, Private Edition – we highly encourage you to use the below communities and post your questions with the relevant tags.

Thanks,
Saumi