Welcome to Part 2 of a 4 part series on SAP S/4HANA, we will cover Getting to Know: SAP S/4HANA AnyPremise.
SAP S/4HANA – AnyPremise Explained
SAP S/4HANA AnyPremise is a newly coined term by SAP for their “on-premise” solution however due to the ability to deploy this solution on your “own infrastructure” or in a “hosted cloud” environment they’ve landed on “AnyPremise” or “AnyPrem”.
Why Organizations choose SAP S/4HANA AnyPremise
SAP Customers typically opt for SAP S/4HANA AnyPremise for a host of reasons. However here are a few that encountered more often than not:
- Firstly, “On-Premise” Preference or Requirement
- Further, legacy SAP Continuity & Familiarity
- SAP Talent Well Established
- Configuration & Customization
- Flexible & Robust ERP Solution
- Reporting, Analytics, and Data Visualization
- Simpler User Experience – They desire persona/role based user experience
- Maintain or Enhance Functionality – desire to NOT lose or roll-back customized/standard ERP functionality
- Limited Enterprise-wide Cloud Strategy
- CapEx vs OpEx investment scenarios
- Finally, digital Transformation & Intelligent Enterprise Enablement
Infrastructure
As alluded to above, the SAP AnyPremise solution is designed to allow organizations the most flexibility in how they deploy the SAP S/4HANA solution. Also, if organizations desire to deploy on newly acquired, or even repurposed (not recommended) infrastructure within their own four walls, fine. Additionally, if organizations desire to install on newly acquired, or even repurposed (again, not recommended) infrastructure within their own data center, fine. Further, if organizations desire to install in a hyperscaler cloud solution such as Microsoft Azure, Amazon AWS, Google GCP, Alibaba Cloud, or IBM Cloud (or any other cloud provider), fine. SAP’s S/4HANA AnyPremise solution aims to be easily accessible regardless of the deployment decision.
Release Cycle: Annual
The SAP S/4HANA AnyPremise release cycle is probably the most straightforward of the entire S/4HANA product lineup. Additionally, it operates on an annual release cycle, meaning a single release each year. Obviously, there are advantages and disadvantages of this, here are a few:
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SAP S/4HANA AnyPremise…Offers Greatest Flexibility
Of all the SAP S/4HANA products available the AnyPremise product offers the greatest flexibility. The product has full functionality as compared to its cloud siblings. The AnyPremise solution is localized in 64 countries and in 38 languages, available in both SAPGUI and Fiori, it has native and non-native capabilities for integrating to disparate systems and cloud solutions, it is built to enable extensibility and innovation around the SAP S/4HANA digital core (both in-app and side by side extensibility), and lastly, it is intended to be a simple and seamless user experience.
SAP S/4HANA AnyPremise…Industry Solution Coverage
At present, SAP offers over 25 industry solutions spanning areas in Energy & Natural Resources, Service Industries, Consumer Industries, Discrete Industries, Financial Services, and the Public Sector. It is also noteworthy that SAP has been encouraging SAP Partners to develop Industry Cloud solutions that can extend SAP functionality beyond what is presently available in SAP S/4HANA solutions.
SAP S/4HANA AnyPremise…Total Cost of Ownership
To keep this section simple and brief…this is the highest total cost of ownership of all the SAP S/4HANA solutions. Additionally, due to the infrastructure, resources, support, maintenance, hosting (where applicable), security, disaster recovery, and data security costs which are squarely in the SAP customer’s court this clearly has the highest TCO.
SAP S/4HANA AnyPremise…Implementations
The topic of SAP S/4HANA AnyPremise – Implementations probably deserves its own blog post (which will likely be forthcoming) however we can’t not address it here. Generally speaking, SAP S/4HANA AnyPremise implementations are generally long and complex, and typically more costly than other SAP S/4HANA Cloud implementations.
There are two implementation options with SAP S/4HANA AnyPremise, namely Brownfield conversion, or Greenfield implementation. Additionally, Brownfield takes your legacy system, processes, enhancements, and customizations and attempts to convert/migrate it into the new SAP S/4HANA solution. However, THIS IS NOT FOR THE FAINT OF HEART!!! Also, my organizations have undergone assessments, or even began a project to convert/migrate their solution only to pull the plug due to the complexity. Greenfield is a new implementation where organizations typically adopt a “fit-to-standard” processes and evaluate the new technology, functionality, and business processes then assess where solution extensions are required.
SAP S/4HANA AnyPremise…Wrap Up
The SAP S/4HANA AnyPremise solution has full ERP functionality that customers are accustomed to from SAP. Finally, this 4th generation technology has taken a substantial leap forward in digital enablement with artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), and intelligent robotics process automation (iRPA) thus enabling real-time operations, reporting, analytics, and data visualization which allow organizations to be nimble, flexible, and scalable.
In conclusion, subsequent blogs in the coming weeks, will look at SAP S/4HANA deployment options, namely:
SAP S/4HANA Cloud – Essentials & Extended Editions
SAP S/4HANA on Hyperscalers
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