Written By: Dr. Ravi Surya Subrahmanyam
Introduction
The Starter System is used to gather customer configuration requirements and finalize the scope during Fit-to-Standard Workshops. The SAP S/4HANA Cloud Starter System is a preconfigured system with the enterprise scope (all lines of business enabled) and business data that aligns with the SAP Best Practices test scripts. Consultants use the Starter system to deliver Fit-to-Standard workshops to customer business experts in each line of business during the Explore phase of the SAP Activate Methodology. This Starter system should be ready before you conduct Fit-to-Standard Workshops. It may be (preferably) onsite activity.
Inculcate Cloud Mindset
Prior to discussing a business process, the consultant should lead a "mini" kick-off for the customer experts participating in the workshop. This is an opportunity to introduce customers to the Cloud Mindset concept and help them understand why their organization has chosen to purchase and implement SAP S/4HANA Cloud.
It is also beneficial to highlight how the customers participating in the workshop are in a special position, where the feedback they provide will ultimately influence the configuration of the solution for the entire organization. This can help provide a sense of ownership for the customers and encourage them to be more engaged. Ideally, two consultants would run a Fit-to-Standard workshop. One consultant focuses on demonstrating the process steps in the system, and the other consultant documents feedback from the customer experts that may require follow-up actions and documents the configuration values gathered. Documenting requirements should be done in the SAP Cloud ALM Requirements app.
This is the Time for Mindset Shift to Cloud
One of the benefits of a public cloud solution is Lowest TCO, as it eliminates rigorous & Time-consuming manual configuration for different business processes. Consultants working on the Public Cloud project helps customers to understand how Standard Business Processes provided by SAP fit for Company.
They make the company fit the software. They also explain how it brings value to their business processes. If there is a “gap”, They work closely with business users to understand, is it really a gap? If that is to be filled by extensions or enhancements they understand, what is the business value? What if you did not fill it? Etc. They also verify if there are any workarounds or light extensions, that would not disturb during upgrades. I would discourage heavy customization and modifications, as I prefer to do Public Cloud implementations with a high degree of Cloud Mindset. Cloud Mindset is building the solution in the way it is stable for upcoming Release upgrades and in a way that makes it easy to evolve over a period of time.
I would prefer discussing the change impact after each business process is demonstrated/discussed during the Fit-to-Standard workshops with customer business process experts, as this is when the new way versus old way differences will be fresh in everyone's minds. It is the responsibility of business process experts to confirm if standard business process meets their need and captures all required data throughout the process flow, when consultants demonstrate business processes in SAP S/4HANA Cloud. Consultants also need to help customer experts in understanding the new cloud system. We must also encourage customer experts to validate the business processes if they are meeting their needs.
Process Steps
For each business process, the following steps should take place:
Consultant navigates to SAP Process Navigator to show the process flow.
Consultant demonstrates the process flow from Process Navigator, this helps the customer experts understand where they can go in the future to find important resources, like the task tutorials for a business process.
Consultant navigates to the SAP S/4HANA Cloud Starter System and demonstrates all procedures in the test script.
During the demonstration, the following information should be gathered:
L3 responses on the Business-Driven Configuration Questionnaire
Authorization customizations/requirements
Gaps/delta requirements where the consultants will need to define extensions or come up with workaround solutions to ensure the customer's business needs are met
Form or email template customizations
Analytic customizations/requirements
Change impact analysis for the process to help consultants understand the amount of training/communication required to ensure the solution is effectively rolled-out to all employees in the organization
Finally, after completing the business process discussion, the consultants provide the test user login information to the customer experts participating in the workshop so they can work through the business process on their own time in the SAP S/4HANA Cloud Starter system.
How do we handle Potential Gaps / Delta Requirements in Public Cloud Implementation? A gap or delta requirement is any functional issue raised by the customer that is not covered by the standard SAP Best Practices business process. The prioritization, detailed analysis, and design for closing the gaps must be documented and monitored in the Requirements app of SAP Cloud ALM. We must also try to tell the user “what you see is what you get” in Public Cloud rather than building or customizing or designing as per his convenient way. After the Fit-to-Standard workshops, consultants should have all the information necessary to begin the Realize phase and configure the customer's own SAP S/4HANA Cloud systems. The solution should be configured with an Agile & Cloud mindset.
Conclusion
SAP S/4HANA Public Cloud Consultants are responsible for following the cloud mindset and golden rules. It would be ideal developed prototypes exclusively in SAP Business Technology Platform, not directly in the SAP S/ 4HANA backend system as a part of Cloud Mindset. All the team members in the project must understand the predefined processes and packaged content in a SaaS solution simplifies and standardizes the landscape and helps for innovation. It needs Mindset Shift to Cloud!