SAP S/4HANA adoption rebounds as enterprises look to minimize business disruption
U.S. adoption of SAP S/4HANA has rebounded after slowing for most of 2020 as the COVID-19 pandemic stalled digital transformations, according to a report published by Information Services Group (ISG).
The report for the U.S. finds S/4HANA, the enterprise resource planning (ERP) system running on SAP HANA, is evolving to better meet enterprise business needs with artificial intelligence (AI), analytics and an interactive interface.
“U.S. companies are looking to the cloud to cut costs and increase agility, especially since the pandemic sharpened their focus on these areas, but many want to ease into transformation,” said Jan Erik Aase, partner and global leader, ISG Provider Lens Research.
“SAP and its ecosystem partners allow organizations to carry out staggered implementations of S/4HANA that minimize business disruption.”
Helping enterprises adopt SAP S/4HANA
To help enterprises roll out S/4HANA, SAP service providers have continued to develop AI-powered tools and accelerators in areas such as assessment, code reconciliation, data management and testing, the report says. These offerings allow for safer and faster transformations.
In addition to using proprietary tools, providers are focused on integrating Agile and DevOps methodologies within their frameworks to increase efficiency and deliver results more quickly.
These include hybrid Agile and DevOps approaches, such as Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe), for rapid development, prototyping, deployment and release, and Agile sprints. Some providers now have dedicated centers of excellence for these approaches.
Providers of S/4HANA managed services in the U.S. are introducing more automation to reduce costs and speed up delivery, according to the report. This includes AI-based conversational bots and robotic process automation (RPA), which can improve efficiency, streamline incident management and deliver other benefits.
Through partnerships with the major hyperscale cloud providers, these providers are also offering platform application services including archiving, backup, disaster recovery, security, compliance and monitoring.
Enterprises can experience SAP offerings before deploying them
U.S. enterprises are also taking advantage of a growing number of SAP partner offerings designed for rapid implementation, the report says. These include ready-to-run templates, preconfigured offerings and industry-specific solutions for S/4HANA, SAP Cloud Platform (SCP) and SAP Business Technology Platform (formerly Leonardo). In many cases, U.S. companies can now experience these offerings in labs and innovation centers before deploying them.
Providers are also building ready-to-use solutions based on emerging technologies such as blockchain and IoT to address processes such as supply chain and the specialized needs of such industries as retail, utilities and manufacturing.