THIS EVENT WILL TAKE PLACE AT CAVENDISH CONFERENCE CENTRE, LONDON

The S/4HANA SIG is a platform for SAP customers and partners to collaborate, network & share their technical, business experience and expertise on S/4HANA.


Breakout Session Details

Journey to S/4HANA

Rob Ray from SoftwareOne will present The Body Shop’s digital transformation journey to S/4HANA on Azure

In 2019, The Body Shop was undergoing a complex business transformation journey, with a lot of initiatives in flight that needed technology to support it with, and they needed a technology platform and infrastructure that would better support that journey.

The strategy was to transform the core technologies with a cloud-first architecture, as well as a new ERP digital core that better supported the journey into new markets and channels and provided a platform for business transformation. A more resilient, centralised system would lay the foundations to transform the business with future-proof digital innovations whilst the cloud infrastructure would provide a more scalable, stable, and secure infrastructure globally.

In addition to the new technology platform, The Body Shop acknowledged that they needed to reinvigorate their team structure, the operating model and support partnerships to ensure that the systems could be implemented successfully, and the ongoing value leveraged in an efficient and sustainable manner.

In this interactive session, Centiq will dive into The Body Shop’s digital transformation journey, with speed, agility, and flexibility at the core of their move to S/4HANA on Azure.

Johannes Strasser from Westernacher will present The right approach to SAP S/4HANA

SAP S/4HANA is becoming increasingly relevant in the wake of RISE with SAP – not only because of the end of ECC support in five years. The numerous improvements and new functions of SAP S/4HANA have the potential to fundamentally change the entire business. We will illustrate how to unify business processes, data and systems with a clear strategy, putting people at the center of the business transformation. Over the past 25 years as an SAP implementation partner, we have gained the experience and expertise to make the transition to SAP S/4HANA a resounding success. We will inspire the audience regarding their transition to SAP S/4HANA. They will find out about the significant added value they can achieve for their company leveraging the full potential of SAP S/4HANA and embracing business transformation solutions such as SAP Signavio, among others.

Key takeaways:

  • Learn why a purely technical upgrade is the wrong way to go
  • Discover a hybrid approach that can shorten runtimes, save costs and make the SAP system more innovative
  • Chart the path to a successful business transformation

Andrew Borresen from G3G will present Simplify and derisk the route to S/4HANA

An SAP S/4HANA project is unique because it can’t be seen as a purely technical project because SAP is also reducing the content with the simplification checks. It requires the business to look at how they will adapt their processes to the new S/4HANA world, which can involve re-organisation or even re-implementation of organisation structures and configuration to future proof the solution for their business world. S/4HANA implementation will also include a licensing discussion with SAP therefore equally it can't be seen as a purely functional project because the hardware has to change and with the re-platforming that is involved, most organisations are using it as an opportunity to move to the cloud. However, risks abound with many companies not gaining insights quickly enough and commonly overspending on the new HANA platform that underpins S/4.

During the session, EPI-USE Labs and G3G will showcase how they approach de-risking the SAP S/4HANA project with key innovations and quality consultancy. Learn more about:

  • A pre-flight analysis to identify and mitigate project risks early.
  • Working on production-like sandboxes - data minimised appropriately to evaluate innovation easily and to quickly identify issues with existing data and configurations.
  • Leveraging our functional team’s conversion experience coupled with industry and functional knowledge to give you the best route to success - greenfield, hybrid or brownfield.
  • EPI-USE Labs technology supports the project to separate business processes and related data as you redesign your SAP estate.
  • Key project takeaways an international Technology conglomerate had during a successful project go live


Data Security & Tools Compliance

Jonathan Cooper from Onapsis will present SAP S/4HANA Forecast: Cloudy with a Chance of Security and Compliance

Business-critical applications like SAP are increasingly becoming targets for cybercriminals. This means security and compliance of these applications continue to be the top concerns for migrating to SAP S/4HANA in the cloud, even above performance, flexibility and cost. It is also important to consider that your organisation is still responsible to ensure the security of your data and applications—even if they reside in someone else’s data centre. Fortunately, the right tools can take security from a project roadblock to an accelerator, while keeping your data and applications protected along the way.

Join Jonathan Cooper of Onapsis as he discusses best practices for SAP S/4HANA transformations and running SAP in the cloud, based on our extensive experience working through digital transformation projects with customers. Jonathan will summarise key takeaways to help you address security and compliance for a successful SAP S/4HANA transformation in the planning phase, throughout the project, and after deployment. He’ll also compare solutions that are a part of RISE versus other available security solutions, and how to evaluate the right path for your organisation.

Ben McGrail from Xmateria and Nigel Stephenson from West Burton Energy will present How to prepare your data for the move to S/4HANA

The move to S/4HANA gives companies a once in a generation chance to reshape their systems for the future. While data presents huge opportunities for businesses in a increasingly digital world, it can also be a significant barrier to change.

Years or decades of historical data bring weight, complexity and risk. A recent UKISUG survey revealed that 64% of SAP customers face challenges around data accuracy and consistency while 30% say they have so much data they have so much data they don't know where to start.

Join this session to hear how to prepare your data in order to reduce the risks and costs and maximise the business case for the move to S/4HANA?

We will take a deep-dive into data discovery using real-life customer examples. Where do you start and when? What comprises a good data assessment? What impact does data have on the migration path you choose and what impact does the migration path have on your data?

Robert Reuben from Proceed and Emma Chambers from NATS will present Why an SAP data management strategy is now essential for any S/4HANA customer

Data management has always been important in SAP systems but rarely prioritised in the days of on-premise systems and earlier versions of SAP ERP. Back then, the consequences of relentless data growth were less of an issue. Clearly, times have changed!

SAP customers now face a “perfect storm” of a migration to S/4HANA and delivery of clear business benefits from this new platform, while achieving the promised benefits of cloud, all at a time when there are new levels of regulation on data and a significantly increased focus on costs.

Together these challenges make having an effective data management strategy for your SAP systems essential, but where to start? At Proceed we have worked closely with SAP for 21 years and run hundreds of projects for clients, and we are always ready to share our experience as SAP customers embark on an S/4HANA migration or just need to take control of their data.

Emma Chambers of NATS will be joining this session to discuss why managing SAP data prior to their S/4HANA migration if important, along with the benefits they are hoping to achieve.

  • Know your context: what are your plans for your SAP systems for the next 3 to 5 years? What is the audit, legal, and regulatory requirements for your data? What are the business requirements?What are your current challenges with your SAP systems and their data?
  • What are the major areas of data management and how to they fit your needs? How do they fit together and how should you prioritise which to do first?
  • What are the various technologies and solutions and how should you select which are right for you? Where do newer options including Optane Memory, and HANA Extension Nodes fit?
  • What are the skills required? What does a project to define and implement an SAP data strategy look like? What lessons can be learned from projects we have worked on?
  • What is the business case? What value does a data management strategy add to your business? What cost savings, compliance benefits, and operational improvements can it deliver?
  • NATS will speak about their experiences and why starting your S/4HANA journey with a data management strategy is essential.


Tools

Vanessa Lacontal from SAP will present Business Transformation with SAP Signavio.

SAP Signavio is positioned as one of the strategic pillars for the Intelligent and Sustainable enterprise.

By providing business process transparency in a timely manner, tailored SAP standard business content, and a digitalized business process referential well connected with its IT ecosystem, it acts as a catalyst to turn your ERP migration project into a successful business transformation.

This Business Process Transformation suite does not only help accelerate and re-risk your transformation; it also provides the Business with a solution to own the transformation. As a result, Business and IT collaboration is improved.

That is what we would like to demonstrate in this session, with an end-to-end demo.

Serrala and Hilti will present Why SAP S/4HANA Migration Fails Finance and The Hilti successful move to HANA.

Explore how Hilti used intelligent automation to take cash application to the next level while also completing the largest, single day, global go-live with the new SAP technology.

Hilti Group, the world leader of construction products and services, wanted to automate its cash application processes to maximize the efficiency of its shared services centre. With a planned transition to SAP S/4HANA, however, the company had to balance its need for immediate process improvements with the company’s move to the new platform.

Find out how the company was able to use an SAP-certified and SAP-integrated solution to take its cash application processing to the next level and accelerated their move to S/4HANA. The company was able to rapidly deploy a solution with advanced cash application capabilities so it could increase inbound cash flow and customer satisfaction before, during and after its transition to HANA.

In this session, Hilti will share insights how it balanced the two initiatives, so it could complete the largest, single day, global go-live with the new SAP technology and ensure its O2C team was ready to take full advantage of all the new technology SAP has to offer.

In this session, Hilti will share insights how it balanced the two initiatives, so it could complete the largest, single day, global go-live with the new SAP technology and ensure its O2C team was ready to take full advantage of all the new technology SAP has to offer.

James Barter from Basis Technologies will present Why SAP Automation is Crucial When Adopting SAP S/4HANA

Many enterprises want to leverage the benefits of S/4HANA but they simply can’t afford business disruption, so embarking on the transition is a daunting prospect. When one of the largest SAP users in the world - a Consumer Packaged Goods company with a highly complex, distributed ECC landscape - decided to embark on the move to S/4HANA they knew it would be a major challenge.

In order to ensure the greatest speed, safety and control, the company selected a variety of automation tools as part of a 'best practice' approach to managing each element of their multi-year migration project. One of the key problems to solve was how to ensure that ECC and S/4HANA systems remained aligned during the period when both were supporting the business.


Your SIG chairs:

Emma Chambers is the Chair of the Change Control Board which governs the development and strategic business roadmap of the ERP at NATS. Her focus is on innovation, modernising user experience and ensuring the ERP is transforming and adapting to the challenges of the future.

Trish Griffiths has worked in financial services and project management before focusing on accounting, where she gained a wide breadth of experience. A natural leader, with instinctive ability to motivate and inspire, led her to NATS where she has been for 13 years; her current post is Head of Finance Systems.

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