Welcome to the fourth blog in our series covering the 10 most important things you should know before implementing S/4HANA Cloud Essentials Edition. In this series you will learn about important practical considerations which should be evaluated prior to purchasing or implementing S/4HANA Cloud. If you have not read our first 3 blogs in the series you can find them here: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3.
Also included in our first blog is a description of S/4HANA Cloud (S4HC) Essential Edition and an explanation of the different terms used to describe the S/4 HANA Cloud Multi-Tenant edition. For those of you that do not want to go back to the first blog, I will briefly summarize here. S/4 HANA Cloud Essential Edition is a version of S/4HANA in which customers share both the database and the codebase of an S/4HANA instance. This puts severe restrictions on not only the ability to customize the system, but also the implementation methodology. This blog series will explain some of the more impactful restrictions.
The items in this blog series have been compiled through real work experience and interviews with customer, consultants, and end users of S/4HANA Cloud Essential Edition. If you plan on purchasing or implementing S/4HANA Cloud ES, this is what you need to know.
Item #1 – Say Goodbye To Your Traditional 3 Tier Landscape
We wrote a whole article about the new 2 tier landscape and what you should about how it works. Read more about it here.
Item #2 – Country Scope Items: Don’t Assume Everything Is Available In All Countries
Are you implementing in multiple countries? There will be impacts to your project timeline and project scope. Find out more here.
Item #3 – Where’s My Data? How can I access the Universal Journal?
Don’t assume you can run reports from the Universal Journal and get any data you want. It’s a little more complicated. Click here for more.
Item #4 – Forget SPRO and the IMG. Configuration is done through the Manage My Solution App.
Configuration in S/4HANA Cloud MTE is meant to be a less time consuming task. A large portion of the configuration that may have been required in ECC, for example, should already be mostly complete with the implementation of SAP Best Practices templates. Configuration is still required, however, even if the amount is a bit less. This section will explain some of the main things to be aware of when planning the configuration portion of your S4HC implementation project.
The Implementation Guide (IMG) is a thing of the past. Configuration in S/4HANA Cloud MTE is handled through the Manage Your Solution App. SAP has introduced the term Self Service Configuration User Interface (SSCUI) to differentiate between items that can be configured by the customer, SSCUI items, and items that can only be configured by SAP. Items that can only be configured by SAP are called Expert Configuration Items. Customers must formally request Expert Configuration to be done through service requests. Turn around time on these requests is typically very fast, usually a few days or less.
With each new release, SAP may move more items from Expert Configuration and make them available through SSCUIs. Customers can view the status of individual configuration items and whether they are available through SSCUI using the Expert Configuration and SSCUI Reference document which is available in the SAP Roadmap Viewer.
Change Projects
According to the Activate methodology, configuration is done in the Q system in 1 or 2 week sprints. All configuration within the sprint is collected in a single Change Project. Only one Change Project can be active at any given time. After the sprint completion, the change project moves to the P System so that the Q and the P system are kept in close synchronization. Change Projects can move to the P system at any time, they are not required to keep to the 1 or 2 week sprint timeline. SAP recommends customers keep the same transport schedule after initial go live, as well. Customers will need to plan for how to handle emergency transports and conflicts with in-flight, untested, changes when this occurs.
If you have multiple countries, you may only configure in one country at a time. The Country (called Local Version) is selected with the Manage Your Solution App for all users. Project Teams will need to coordinate when each country will be configured. Although it is technically possible for a single change project to contain configuration for multiple countries, SAP does not recommend this.
Fiori SSCUIs vs. Web GUI SSCUI
Some SSCUIs are available as Web GUI SSCUIs rather than using the Fiori interface. These SSCUIs do not have the same country restriction as Fiori SSCUIs. Web GUI SSCUIs show country dependent records for all countries regardless of the country selected in the Manage Your Solution App. Configuration can be displayed or changed for all countries simultaneously. SAP is phasing out Fiori SSCUIs and will slowly be replacing all of them with Web GUI SSCUIs. A listing of which apps are available via Web GUI SSCUI is included in the Expert Configuration and SSCUI Reference document:
Implementation Considerations
What does this mean for implementations? Your implementation partner will need to guide you through this process. If you are new to SAP, it may actually be easier to adjust to this process because it is so different from the previous SAP methodology. For customers moving from SAP ECC to S4HC, plan ahead and work with your implementation partner to understand your release schedule and strategy and how it will impact your project schedule.
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