Picture this: Your organization has decided to move to SAP S/4HANA before ERP Central Component (ECC) systems are retired in 2027. First, you want an idea of what the process will entail so you can be prepared. We’re here to help you understand the challenges of migrating to SAP S/4HANA without an integration platform.
The great migration puzzle
Imagine your IT ecosystem as a puzzle. You’ve been carefully piecing this puzzle together on the floor for years. Why on the floor? Because it was the only space available when you began, and it served your purposes well enough just as it’s served your ERP needs over the years.
You’ve spent countless hours connecting your puzzle pieces to create the big picture, which is growing and changing daily. It’s a complex and highly detailed image, with hundreds or thousands of connections creating the larger whole.
One day, someone brings a table into the room. This table has many helpful tools and resources to make maintaining and building your puzzle simpler and faster. It will also make viewing and enjoying your puzzle easier for others. Not to mention your back will feel much better once you’re no longer working on the floor.
The table is amazing, and you want to move as soon as possible to take advantage of all its benefits. But how are you supposed to move your puzzle without it falling apart in your hands? Are you willing to risk all your progress, possibly setting yourself back by days, months, or even years?
With this visual in mind, how can you migrate your SAP without losing all the integrations you’ve spent so much time carefully creating over the years?
Benefits and risks of SAP S/4HANA migration
This puzzle metaphor is a simple way of explaining the difficulty of migrating your SAP ecosystem to SAP S/4HANA, but the risk comparison is accurate. SAP S/4HANA – like the table with all its bells and whistles – offers many benefits that aren’t available with ECC, so the drive to migrate is solid and well-justified.
Benefits of SAP S/4HANA migration
- Enhanced performance and scalability provided by SAP S/4HANA’s in-memory computing capabilities.
- Reduced complexity and streamlined business processes enabled by SAP S/4HANA’s simplified data model help increase organizational agility.
- Improved integration and collaboration, allowing seamless data exchange between systems and applications.
- Embedded AI enables more effective decision-making and actionable insights from large volumes of diverse data.
While these benefits are undeniably desirable, migration poses risks that must be addressed before you attempt to make the move.
Risks and challenges of SAP S/4HANA migration
- Complexity of migration. Migrating from SAP to SAP S/4HANA involves a complex process that requires meticulous planning, execution, and testing. Any misstep can lead to downtime, data loss, or operational disruptions.
- Data migration challenges. If not appropriately managed, transferring large volumes of data from legacy systems to SAP S/4HANA may result in data inconsistencies, inaccuracies, or loss. Data cleansing, mapping, and validation are crucial but resource-intensive tasks.
- Business disruptions. The migration process can disrupt critical business processes, impacting operations, customer service, and revenue generation. Organizations must carefully plan for downtime, fallback procedures, and user training to mitigate disruptions during the transition period.
- Brittle point-to-point integrations. Within a typical IT ecosystem, relying on point-to-point integrations between different systems creates a brittle infrastructure – just like a puzzle that will fall apart if you try to move it. In fact, any change or update to one system can potentially disrupt the entire integration chain, leading to cascading failures and system outages.
Replace a brittle IT ecosystem with API-led connectivity
Rather than attempting to migrate to an ecosystem connected by hundreds or even thousands of integrations, you can take steps to make your landscape more flexible and robust.
MuleSoft’s integration platform lets you take an API-led connectivity approach to integration, replacing those brittle point-to-point integrations and making your system more resilient for a successful migration. API-led connectivity is a strategic way to connect data and apps using reusable and purposeful APIs within an organization’s setup. It’s all about boosting business flexibility by making it easy to get data from different systems, mix it up for various tasks, or create great user experiences.
The value of MuleSoft is in its concept of composability, which grants capabilities that aren’t possible with point-to-point integrations:
- Design APIs as intelligent building blocks: Each API is designed to be a self-contained business functionality that can be used in multiple contexts.
- Reuse APIs: Organizations can reduce redundancy and accelerate development by treating APIs as reusable components.
- Make changes: Composable APIs make it easier to modify or replace parts of the system without affecting the whole.
MuleSoft’s API management capabilities also help you effectively govern, secure, and monitor integrations, providing visibility and control to manage risks and ensure the reliability and scalability of your integration solutions.
Modern composability helps you streamline migration projects, reduce complexity, and successfully transition to SAP S/4HANA without worrying that all your hard work will fall apart before you get there.
Enable flexible connections with Anypoint Platform
MuleSoft’s Anypoint Platform is built to simplify tough integration tasks, like moving over to SAP S/4HANA. It can allow you to use APIs to connect different parts of your business, like your ERP, data, and other systems, creating a more flexible framework that won’t fail whenever you try to modernize or make changes.
MuleSoft makes it simple to blend SAP apps with other software you use. With pre-built APIs, templates, and connectors to connect all systems inside and outside your organization, you can customize, configure, or extend connectors to meet your needs. Plus, it works whether you’re using cloud or on-premises setups, so you can stick with your current SAP setup while moving to S/4HANA.
Get the most out of your ERP data. MuleSoft’s cloud and on-premises options are great for making the switch to SAP S/4HANA go smoothly. It allows you to keep using your old systems alongside the new ones, cutting down on downtime and disruptions, making tasks like handling quotes and cash transactions easier. It also helps you move data quickly and accurately for better reporting and analytics.
MuleSoft and Deloitte Digital
Migrating to SAP S/4HANA is a big undertaking, but organizations that work with an experienced systems integration partner are more successful in making the move.
Deloitte Digital collaborates with MuleSoft to offer organizations an end-to-end solution for successful migration. Deloitte Digital brings deep industry knowledge and experience in SAP S/4HANA transformations to complement MuleSoft’s platform.
Their practitioners work closely with clients to understand their unique requirements, develop tailored migration strategies, and implement solutions that align with their long-term objectives and goals. Deloitte also offers over 300 APIs in its Cloud API Vault, providing a significant head start on building flexible connections between apps, data, and systems.
The collaboration between Deloitte Digital and MuleSoft offers organizations a comprehensive solution for successful SAP S/4HANA migration, combining Deloitte Digital’s industry insights and change management capabilities with MuleSoft’s integration platform to streamline migration projects, drive digital transformation, and unlock the full potential of SAP S/4HANA for organizations.
Prepare for migration
Establishing an API-led ecosystem is a smart way to ensure smooth digital transformations. Browse the Anypoint Platform features and benefits for integration and API management.
