SAP S/4HANA CLOUD WHITE PAPER

How to support your business growth with SAP S/4HANA?

Standardization: the key to adopting SAP S/4HANA in public cloud mode

Deploying the SAP S/4HANA ERP in public cloud mode offers multiple cost advantages, whether in terms of capital or operating expenditures. To get the most out of a public cloud ERP, however, it is recommended to opt for a so-called Fit-to-Standard approach.

The virtues of Fit-to-Standard

The first ERPs were often synonymous with custom-built solutions. A public cloud ERP attempts to provide a different value proposition: it capitalizes on market best practices to offer companies a standardized business approach. In return, the publisher provides regular updates, which allow for faster access to innovation.
A cloud ERP is therefore not only less expensive to implement; it is also less expensive to evolve.

Faced with the new challenges of the last two years, many companies have had to adapt their offerings, diversify their distribution channels, and adapt to a new work organization. Public cloud ERP allows companies to adapt quickly to these new challenges. The public cloud is the promise of having a solution capable of evolving rapidly to adapt to any new global context.

A custom ERP better meets the specific context of the company, but will often be longer and more expensive to evolve, as specific code risks causing numerous regressions with every major modification applied to the solution. An overly contextualized solution is therefore a falsely attractive approach, as it freezes the ERP by limiting
its capacity to adapt. However, as the company’s context is constantly changing, the specifications adopted at time T are very likely to no longer be adapted to tomorrow’s world.

The objective of fit-to-standard is then to be able to manage the company’s key processes in a standardized way within the ERP to guarantee the scalability of the common core and to manage specific requirements externally.

If you would like to learn more, our full white paper is available for free below.