To Cloud or Not to Cloud. A Digital Discovery Assessment Journey
Why Digital Discovery Assessment?
As companies migrate to SAP S/4HANA, they are faced with the daunting task of deciding on the right operating model. Should they stick with on-premise, move to Private Cloud Edition, or switch to the highly standardized Public Cloud Edition? It's a difficult decision that requires careful consideration.
Among the available options, customers often struggle to choose between the public and private cloud editions, as the decision criteria are diverse and highly interconnected. Factors such as extensibility, cost, infrastructure, and, most importantly, the range of functions must be taken into account.
To help companies analyze the functional scope, especially when comparing the public and private cloud editions, SAP has introduced the Digital Discovery Assessment Tool (DDA). By utilizing this tool, companies can collaborate with a partner like KloudData to conduct an in-depth analysis of scope, application integration, and scope item localization.
The DDA simplifies the analysis process by following four straightforward steps. This helps companies to make informed decisions regarding their operating model for SAP S/4HANA, thus ensuring a smooth transition to the new system.
The 4 steps of the Digital Discovery Assessment
The "Supply Chain of Selling" commences by entering customer-specific information such as industry, which serves as the foundation for the assessment. This initial overview establishes and showcases the subsequent steps of the assessment, consolidating all aspects into one centralized location for easy access and navigation.
STEP 1: IT Solutions Selection
Once the company's essential data is stored in the DDA tool, the participants can proceed with the assessment. In the first step, they choose the required solutions to be evaluated. Standard products are readily included in the scoping process. However, the assessment can also consider additional IT products, particularly those from third-party providers. This step provides a comprehensive view of the company's potential target architecture from the outset.
STEP 2: Preselection packages
To help companies navigate through the extensive range of over 650 scope items available for the Public Cloud Edition, SAP provides preselection packages that streamline the process of selecting scope items. These packages are grouped into four different areas:
- The Baseline package is designed to cater to critical end-to-end processes, primarily in the finance, sales, and procurement domains. With this package, SAP provides a set of standard end-to-end processes such as "Invoice to Cash," "Order to Fulfill," "Record to Report," and "Procure to Receipt."
- The Finance Led ERP package is designed to offer the most important standard processes for enterprise financial management, providing preconfigured best practices that enable companies to run an administrative SAP S/4HANA system. It also includes some procurement and sales functions.
- The third Preselection Package focuses on service-related ERP functions. It includes central SAP best practices for financial management and administrative ERP system operations, along with project-, service-, and some industry-related functions.
- The Product Centric ERP package, also known as Produce and Sell Standard Products (PSSP), provides a product-oriented selection of SAP Best Practices. This solution encompasses all the key functions necessary for manufacturing companies and the sale of goods produced from stock.
By activating the relevant package(s) based on their specific needs and requirements, companies can select a large number of scope items. It's worth noting that companies can also choose multiple packages if needed. In case none of the packages align with the company's specific needs, they can skip this step altogether.
STEP 3: Localization and Availability of Best Practices
SAP offers more than 650 scope items for the SAP S/4HANA Public Cloud Edition, which are available in 43 country versions. However, it is important to note that not all Best Practices are available in all countries. To address this, companies can link their entities to the corresponding countries in the DDA to obtain a list of available scope items per country.
STEP 4: Scope Definition
To define the actual scope items of the SAP S/4HANA Line of Business (LoB), companies can choose from 16 different LoBs and select the relevant scope items for each. Each scope item comes with short information, a direct jump to the Best Practice Explorer, and the ability to select priority and phase for planning the implementation project. Specific notes can also be added to the scope items.
Additional Requirements
After selecting and assigning the required scope items, it's essential to identify and note prioritized gaps at this early stage of the decision-making process. Any gaps identified can have a significant impact on the deployment model selected. For example, each additional requirement can be a reason for ultimately opting for the SAP S/4HANA Private Cloud Edition instead of the standardized public cloud.
Detailed Qualification Processes
The final step of the Digital Discovery Assessment involves a detailed qualification process, where various questions are asked about the marked scope items. Each question contains dedicated information indicating why it's relevant to the decision-making process. After answering all the questions, companies can submit the DDA to SAP for review. Based on the findings of the Digital Discovery Assessment, SAP will make a recommendation regarding the deployment model.
Final Report
After receiving SAP's recommendation, the company and KloudData have the opportunity to thoroughly review the Final Report in the DDA, which contains all relevant solutions, scope items, packages, and associated questions and answers. This provides a comprehensive overview of the options available and facilitates an informed decision regarding the optimal deployment model based on the central criterion of "scope of services." Ultimately, the company has the final say in selecting the most suitable option, whether it be the Private Cloud Edition or the Public Cloud Edition.
That's a wrap for today! But hold onto your hats, because we're just getting started on our blogging about the best options to move to the cloud. So make sure you come back for more insights because this is a blog you don't want to miss!
