What is SAP S/4HANA?
S/4HANA is the latest enterprise resource management suite to come from SAP and has the power to make your systems run faster, smarter, more accurately, and all with a smaller data footprint.
S/4HANA is the digital core that enables your business to take complete advantage of Internet of Things (IoT), Big Data, real-time analytics, mobile, business networks, third-party systems, and more.
SAP S/4HANA gives you:
✔ complete choice of deployment – cloud and on-premise
✔ instant value across lines of business and industries
✔ insight on any data from anywhere in real time – to drive faster business
✔ a personalized, simple user experience on any device
✔ the ultimate sophistication: simplicity
SAP S/4HANA and the supply chain
Gain state-of-the-art warehousing and unlock greater productivity throughout your warehouse. Your warehouse operators will have access to real-time data, while IT enjoy a simplified technical landscape. You’ll benefit from reduced data duplication to increase accuracy and decrease cost.
So what does all this mean for warehousing?
✔ ERP-style Warehouse Management (WM) is available to use in a limited, compatibility-mode within S/4. Check carefully with SAP or view Note 2269324 for limitations and restrictions before continuing down this route.
✔ You won’t be able use ERP WM beyond 2025.
✔ SAP Extended Warehouse Management (EWM) is supported by S/4 Logistics and will be available as a slightly reduced functionality, embedded version. This is available now.
✔ SAP EWM is supported by S/4 Logistics and can be operated in an interfaced (side-car) fashion as the fully-functional version we all know and love. This is available now.
In an ideal world, what should you do?
✔ If you have an important warehouse operation, then you need to migrate to EWM. You can do this before S/4 implementation if that makes your project plan easier.
You can do this now!
✔ If you have a simple warehouse operation, then you should migrate to EWM, albeit in a simple form.
You can do this now!
✔ If you have a simple warehouse operation, then you can use the compatibility-mode WM in S/4. You can do this now but this selection is likely to have a limited lifespan and you must move to one of the other options in the future.
✔ You can implement full-fat side-car EWM on your existing database and subsequently migrate to HANA.
You can do this now!
