Systems Conversion for SAP S/ S/4HANA 4HANA Your Y our Step-by-Step Step-by-Step Guide
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Table of Contents
Introduction to SAP S/4HANA
3
Your Y our Pathway Pathway to SAP S/4HANA
4
Systems Migration Overview
5
Step 1 – System Requirements
6
Step 2 – Optional SAP Pre-Checks
7
Step 3 – Maintenance Planning
8
Step 4 – Optional Pre-Checks 2
8
Step 5 – Adapting Your Custom Code
9
Step 6 – The Realize Phase
Conclusion
Tips to Make Migration Easier
How Gekkobrain Helps
10 11 12-13 14
Who are Gekkobrain? Gekkobrain Gekkobr ain is a team of coders with 15+ years’ experience. We’re dedicated to creating cloud tools that make life easier for SAP developers.
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Introduction to SAP S/ S/4HANA 4HANA What is S/4HANA?
Traditional business systems have fast become sprawling and unwieldy networks of disparate processes, tools and applications – each offering limited functionality and powered by a separate database.
SAP S/4HANA is the biggest update to SAP’s ERP solution
SAP S/4HANA signals a move away from your business processes
in over 20 years. So it’s hardly
operating individually, towards towards a highly connected network of tools
surprising that it’s been a
that all run on a single database. And it’s it’s this increased interactivity
gamechanger for many
between your business applications that opens up a new world of
organizations at a time when
data-led decision-making.
extracting more, and better, insights from data is a primary
S/4HANA is extremely innovative innovative in the way it enables SAP users to
business aim.
utilize their database. Instead of merely being a transactional system that records data, S/4HANA gives end-users active decision-making support in real time, from insight based on a mixture of external and internal sources.
Why migrate? SAP S/4HANA delivers all the functionality you’d expect from traditional SAP systems but with the added benefits of increased connectivity and communication between your business applications.
Instead of each business function using individual siloes of data, S/4HANA is able to provide a deeper level of insight into your whole organization – with analytic software now drawing from the vast pool of information contained in the shared database. When all your business processes run quickly and reliably on the same database, there’s no need to manually update programs independently.. Instead the shared database is automatically updated independently in real-time, as different applications extract relevant data from it as required. You’ll Y ou’ll also benefit benefit from the use of improved improved new user interfaces, interfaces, reduced data footprint, greater flexibility, higher throughput and a “single version of the truth” across your organization.
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Your Y our Pathway Pathway to SAP S/4HANA Every organization’s path to S/4HANA is unique,
Identifying and adapting your custom ABAP code
because they all begin with different systems in
to make it compatible with S/4HANA is therefore a
place and have different requirements requirements from their
key element of a Systems Conversion and Conversion and probably
new solution. A one-size-fits-all approach to HANA
the most time-consuming. For this reason, many
migration is therefore impossible, and we recommend
organizations choose to begin adapting their custom
you fully understand your own pathway before you
ABAP code in advance of their migration.
begin. Starting your S/4HANA journey this way empowers In this guide / ebook, we will only be focusing on
you to wrap up a time-consuming aspect of the
the migration from existing SAP Business Suite
migration earlier and has no negative effect on
systems to SAP S/4HANA. This is known as a
performance – in fact, it could result in more efficient
Systems Conversion, Conversion, rather than an upgrade, because
code. There are also tools available to help complete
S/4HANA is a new product line for SAP, separate from
the process more swiftly.
the classic SAP Business Suite. One of the biggest changes is S/4HANA only runs on the SAP HANA database, which uses completely new architecture and data models. Unfortunately, Unfortunately, in the process of simplifying and changing some business processes, certain custom ABAP code objects have been made redundant and will no longer function optimally or, in some cases, at all.
Simplification Items
Each change made in SAP S/4HANA that could render render SAP Business Suite code incompatible is known as a Simplification Item. Item. A full list of these, the Simplification List, List, can be found on the SAP website or through the link below. It describes every changed or removed SAP object and refers to a dedicated dedicated SAP SAP Note, Note, which describes the impact of the change and how the related custom code can be adapted. Simplification List PDF
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Systems Migration Overview
Prepare Phase
System Requirements
Maintenance Planner
PreChecks
Realize Phase
Custom Code Migration
Software Update Manager (SUM)
DB Migration
Software Update
Data Conversion
A Systems Conversion has Conversion has two phases:
Prepare Phase
This is a mostly automated task, thanks to the Software Update Manager, Manager, and includes the
During the Prepare Phase you’ll get your current
conversion of your data, the migration of your
systems ready for SAP S/4HANA migration migration by
database and the installation ins tallation of new software.
eliminating any code that isn’t compatible with the
Although you can run the processes in any order, the
new SAP HANA database.
flow we’ve suggested optimizes your time and effort.
Luckily, instead of having to search through your
Identifying and fixing incidents of S/4HANA
systems manually to identify any code that isn’t
incompatible code before moving to the Realize
supported by S/4HANA, there are a number
Phase is far less time- and labour-intensive than
of different pieces of software that can aid this
uploading your system data straight to the Software
process.
Update Manager (SUM) and then dealing with each issue when it occurs.
Realize Phase Once you’ve identified and corrected any migration issues found in the Prepare Phase, you’ll be ready for the Realize Phase.
It also means you are more able to plan your Systems Conversion, forecast the time it will take to complete and ensure you have the resources in place to deal with any issues that arise.
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Step 1 – System Requirements In order to migrate to S/4HANA, your system will have to meet certain requirements to ensure it is “HANA-ready”. The three biggest requirements are:
You Y ou need to already already be running SAP Enterprise Enterprise Resource Resource Planning 6.0 enhancement packages 0-8. If your system is an earlier SAP Business Suite release, you can move to SAP S/4HANA in a two-step approach by first upgrading to SAP Enterprise Resource Planning 6.0.
Your Y our system cannot be a dual-stack system. If you you want to convert convert from a dual-stack system, you first must do a dual-stack split.
Your Y our system must be in Unicode. If it isn’ isn’t, t, it needs to be converted converted before before your migration.
Whilst meeting these requirements can’t can’t be managed with an easy-fix, the most arduous task by far is ensuring your system is written in Unicode. This means any custom code you have written is likely to require changing, and with 100,000s of lines of code, identifying and fixing it can be extremely demanding.
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Step 2 – Optional SAP Pre-Checks The SAP Pre-Checks for S/4HANA are automatically
Where these instances are identified, you will receive
run by the SUM during the Realize Phase. If they
green, yellow or red messages in the Pre-Check report:
detect any Simplification Items that require mandatory preparation, the Systems Conversion procedure stops and the error will need to be solved
and the conversion can go ahead.
before the SUM can restart the process. However, you can execute the Pre-Checks on the
Green messages indicate messages indicate there are no problems
Yellow messages indicate messages indicate S/4HANA incompatible
SAP Business Suite at the beginning of your Systems
code that won’t affect critical systems but could
Conversion project to give you a better understanding
affect performance. The conversion will go ahead
of its scope and help you make decisions while
and adaptions can be made either before or after.
planning your migration.
Red messages ALWAYS messages ALWAYS indicate serious issues,
Running the Pre-Checks on every system in your
and the conversion will not run. These are technical
landscape (sandbox, development, quality assurance,
issues requiring manual correction that can only be
productive etc) that you want to convert to S/4HANA
performed prior to the conversion. conversion.
provides you with the steps that need to be carried out in the source SAP ERP before the conversion process.
Once the Pre-Checks have identified the Simplification Items, you also need to look at the
All the incompatible software changes are
relevant SAP Notes themselves to get all the available
documented in the Simplification List, which is over
information to help you perform required fixes.
700 pages long. Cross-referencing Cross-referencing the Simplification List with your hundreds of thousands of lines of code is obviously a lengthy process to perform manually, which is why it’s it’s necessary to use software. Pre-Checks compare your current system to the
However, currently the Pre-Checks do not cover all the Simplification Items. To get a full and extensive overview of all the required tasks for your conversion project, you may need to review the Simplification List manually.
Simplification Database – a database table in the SAP S/4HANA system which stores a version of the Simplification List – and provide a report indicating where the code of your SAP Business Suite system is incompatible with SAP S/4HANA S/4HANA..
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Step 3 – Maintenance Planning Maintenance Planning is a pre-requisite for a Systems
prevents the conversion because the required stack
Conversion. It checks your components, add-ons, and
file isn’t created.
business functions to ensure compatibility with SAP S/4HANA and creates the stack file necessary for the
You Y ou simply upload your your system data to to the
SUM to complete the conversion process.
Maintenance Planner, and it defines the changes required, eliminates superfluous activities and
Hosted in the SAP Support Portal, the Maintenance
prevents inconsistency of data across your systems.
Planner is a strategic tool developed developed by SAP to help you plan the necessary changes to complete your
Once all incompatibility issues have been fixed, the
Systems Conversion and prepare your organization for
Maintenance Planner results should read “Passed”
SAP S/4HANA migration.
status – this will be reflected in the stack.xml file generated. This output tells the SUM that the source
If it discovers there is no valid path for the conversion
SAP ERP system can be converted to SAP S/4HANA
– for example, one of your current add-ons is not
with no hurdles.
released for S/4HANA yet – the Maintenance Planner
Step 4 – Optional Pre-Checks 2 Much like before, the Pre-Checks identify the steps
Pre-Checks must be executed in every system
your Systems Conversion project needs to take before
in the landscape of the source s ource SAP ERP system
your system can technically be converted to SAP
(Development, (Develop ment, Quality and Production Production)) separately s eparately,,
S/4HANA,, but after converting your system data to a S/4HANA
just to be sure the results are are the same.
stack.xml file you’ll receive a much more precise result. Once you have identified the Simplification Items, As mentioned previously, performing the Pre-Checks
you also need to look at the relevant SAP Notes
earlier means you can better plan your migration,
themselves to get all the available information for
forecast the time needed and ensure you have the
the required fix. The SAP Notes may contain more
resources available. It also optimizes the time and
information that the Simplification List, because they
effort required for your Systems Conversion.
may have attachments and may reference other SAP Notes.
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Step 5 – Adapting Your Custom Code As noted earlier, business processes in SAP S/4HANA
An experienced programmer will need to then go
have been changed and simplified, so in some cases
into your system and rewrite the code to make it
your custom code will need to be adapted to run
compatible with SAP S/4HANA, in line with the
on the SAP HANA database. This step is the most
information provided on the SAP Note. Every
important and time-consuming on the way to the
individual issue will be different, with varying time and
Systems Conversion to SAP S/4HANA.
effort required to make the changes.
Once you’ve completed the previous steps and
For some types of usages, the SAP software will
identified the instances of your code that aren’t
only find indications that custom code may need to
compatible with S/4HANA, it’s time to process them
be adapted, but whether or not it actually requires
one by one – unfortunately, this can only be done
adaptation depends on the functional context of the
manually.
code – a decision will need to be made by a developer familiar with the specific custom code.
Each identified instance of incompatible code corresponds with a Simplification Item, which in turn will point you towards a dedicated SAP Note - each one describing the impact of the change and how the related custom code can be adapted.
1010
0110
SAP Note
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Step 6 – The Realize Phase When you have completed the steps above and the
It’s important to note it isn’t possible to run the SUM
Maintenance Planner results are in a “Passed” state
unless you’ve previously run your source SAP system
and a new stack.xml file has been generated to reflect
through the Maintenance Planner, and have a
this, it’s time to move to the Realize Phase.
stack.xml file confirming it’s HANA-ready. It’s also essential to ensure that the latest version of the SUM
This is the stage of the Systems Conversion Conversion in which
is downloaded.
your software is updated, your database is migrated and your data is converted into SAP HANA format –
During this phase, the SUM will trigger the Pre-Checks
only possible once all incompatible custom code is
to run twice more during the actual conversion
adapted.
process and stop the Systems Conversion if an item is not solved and an error persists.
This is done by running the SUM, the technical tool used to perform the following three processes:
If no errors are found, the SUM will complete all processes automatically, automatically, requiring no prompting or
Update your system with the S/4HANA software
Migrate the database to SAP HANA database
Convert your data from the old data structure to
user input. For this reason, we advise you to identify and fix any incompatibility issues before attempting to use the SUM – allowing you to automate this entire step.
new S/4HANA data structure
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Conclusion Making sense of conversion
SAP S/4HANA’s new architecture and data models mean you need to fix all incompatibility issues in your systems before you’re you’re ready to migrate. With potentially potentially hundreds of thousands, or even millions, of issues to resolve, your Systems Conversion has the potential to spiral
S/4HANA’s reliance on new data
out of control.
models ensures migration is a lengthy process. By reading this
By following the steps laid out in this ebook, your organization can
ebook and getting to grips with
identify issues early in the project, avoiding a situation in which you
the systems conversion process
think you’re HANA-ready only to discover a number of issues.
early you’ve already taken the first step on that journey.
This gives you more time to adapt your code and ensures that when you enter the Realize Phase, your Systems Conversion will essentially automate and complete all processes with no user input needed.
In conclusion, a successful S/4HANA Systems Systems Conversion is often all about preparation – for example, performing the optional Pre-Checks to ensure you understand the scope of the project and have a list of required fixes as early as possible. On the following pages, you’ll find some tips to help you run a smoother migration and be better prepared throughout your Systems Conversion.
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Tips to Make Migration Easier Migrating to SAP S/4HANA is almost always a long-
Working through through the list of incompatibility issues is
term project because of the amount of work required
another thing altogether. There will potentially be
for a Systems Conversion. Cross-referencing Cross-referencing the 700+
hundreds of thousands, or even millions, of issues for
pages of the Simplification List against every line of
your development team to manually fix, one by one –
code in your current SAP systems is a huge job, even
but there are ways you can make migration easier.
when automated.
Ensure UPL is active in your productive environment
The Usage Procedure Logging (UPL) feature tracks the exact usage of all development objects in your productive system – both custom code and SAP standard code. And it doesn doesn’t ’t put any strain on your system, so there is no reason not to enable it. Approximately Approxima tely 60% of all custom code is never used in the productive environment,, so using the UPL feature to gain a clear picture of environment your unused custom code means you’ll likely be able to eliminate a significant portion of it with no effect to performance. This has the potential to hugely reduce the amount of custom code in your systems, resulting in less time spent searching for and adapting custom code that’s incompatible with HANA. It could mean around a 60% saving on the time and money your systems conversion requires. Remember, Remembe r, the earlier you activate the UPL in production, the better the sample size you’re using to determine unused code to decommission.
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Tips to Make Migration Easier (con’t) Ensure all new code is HANAready
Whether you’re migrating to S/4HANA next week, next month or even next year, it’s unlikely that your developers are going to sit idle in the meantime. Instead of creating more work for themselves when it is time to migrate, ensure all new code they write follows the HANA Readiness guidelines from SAP. Creating new incompatibility incompatibility issues to clean up in the future only increases the cost, effort and time your S/4HANA migration migration will take. It makes much more sense to adopt new best-practices for developers that take into consideration the Simplification Items.
Make use of the tools that are available
Although SAP’s tools do a great job of identifying the Simplification Items that are holding up your Systems Conversion, Conversion, they offer very little to help you effectively manage your migration project. Although a list of issues you need to work through is a great start, to properly plan your migration you’ll need more insight into the effort and resources required. It’s also likely you’ll require tools to help you assign tasks, track your progress and detect any new iss ues. Thankfully, there is a whole host of great software available to help you with your migration, including Gekkobrain – the benefits of which are outlined on the next page. Taking the first step on S/4HANA journey now and upgrading upgrading your database to to HANA is easily done with with the help of the tools supplied by Gekkobrain.
To-do list
Turn on Usage Procedure Logging Delete any obsolete code Ensure all new code is HANA-ready Identify tools that can help
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How Gekkobrain Helps We can help get you ready
Migrating to SAP S/4HANA is a must for many organizations, but solely relying on SAP’s tools to get your custom code HANA-ready is extremely extremel y challenging. Gekkobrain scans the SAP systems you want to migrate, documenting every S/4HANA incompatibility incompatibility issue, estimating how long they will take to fix and providing a platform for you to better manage your migration.
Greater insight into your upcoming SAP
Effectively manage your SAP S/4HANA
S/4HANA migration project
migration project
Gekkobrain not only predicts the time required to
Managing your migration with Gekkobrain lets
fix the SAP S/HANA compatibility issues in your
you assign tasks, communicate with your team
systems, but also assigns each issue with a level
and perform daily SAP Code Inspections without
of importance to help prioritize your workflows.
flicking between different tools.
Accurately forecast the resources needed for
Keep track of your ongoing SAP S/4HANA
your SAP S/4HANA migration project
migration project
Gekkobrain’s insights empower you to forecast
Gekkobrain performs daily scans to keep you
the time, cost and manpower needed to prepare
up-to-date with your progress and notify you of
your systems for migration.
incompatibility issues that arise from new code.
Reduce the time and cost of getting your code HANA-ready By effectively filtering and decommissioning unused custom code in your current SAP systems, Gekkobrain enables you to reduce the time and money needed for your migration.
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Get HANA-Ready the Intelligent Way with a Free Gekkobrain Assessment We first developed Gekkobrain during our own migration, to help us better tackle the real-world problems we faced, including:
Estimating the time needed to fix the issues
Accurately forecasting the resources needed to fix the issues
Reducing the size of the project to prepare current systems for S/4HANA
Effectively managing the migration process in a single tool
With tens of thousands of incompatibility issues to fix, Gekkobrain provided us deeper insight and a hugely improved level of control over our migration project – and it will do the same for you too.
Book your free assessment today today to find out how much time and effort you could save by using Gekkobrain to tackle the issues standing between you and S/4HANA-readiness.
Book your free assessment
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