Explore how SAP S/4HANA can streamline business operations and drive digital transformation, enabling organisations to boost efficiency, gain real-time insights, and make faster, smarter decisions across the entire enterprise.
SAP is a global leader in developing enterprise software to help businesses run their operations as efficiently as possible. One of their flagship products is SAP S/4 HANA, which is one of the main SAP solutions we introduce to our clients to help drive efficiency across all their business processes.
From the outside, SAP S/4 HANA may be a little difficult to understand, so we have put together this guide which will explain what SAP S/4 HANA is, what it does and who it's for, all in plain, non-technical language that everybody should understand. We separate SAP HANA and S/4 HANA into two distinct entities, explaining how they work together to help businesses.
We hope this guide will help all business leaders understand exactly why partnering with Rocket Consulting to implement SAP S/4 HANA into their supply chain management can optimise performance and drive growth.
SAP HANA stands for SAP High-Performance Analytic Appliance, which is an in-memory database and application development platform that enables real-time processing of large volumes of data and supports advanced analytics and transactional processing in a single system. The SAP HANA software stores and processes business data in real time, providing advanced analytics for everything from financial accounting and operational purchasing to production planning and quality management.
But what makes SAP HANA stand out from a regular database? Well, most traditional databases store data on disks, which means every time you want to access or analyse information, it takes a bit of time to fetch it. SAP HANA, on the other hand, uses something called in-memory computing, which means it stores data in a computer’s RAM (like your computer's memory). An in-memory database like this is able to process massive amounts of data in real time, which is a game changer for big businesses that rely on fast, accurate data processing to make decisions.
Having SAP HANA deployed on premises means you don't have to search through all your data in endless spreadsheets and databases to find the information you need, it will be presented to you in an easy-to-digest format, saving time and effort. This time-saving, along with analytical processing benefits like advanced analytics, predictive analytics and real time reporting, makes SAP HANA a vital piece of software for modern businesses.
Now you understand what SAP HANA is, let's discuss SAP S/4 HANA. Put simply, SAP S/4 HANA is SAP's next generation business suite built onto the SAP HANA platform, designed to replace old SAP ERP systems. The S/4 in the name stands for SAP Business Suite 4, demonstrating that it is the next gen version of SAP's popular business suite.
SAP S/4 HANA is a modern, all-in-one software platform that helps businesses everywhere manage all aspects of their business, including financial reporting, sales and forecasting, manufacturing processes, customer services and supply chain management. Compared to older SAP ERP systems, SAP S/4 HANA provides a more user-friendly interface, faster processing power and smarter automation and AI processes. The software can be run on premises (on your own servers), in the SAP cloud or on a hybrid model that combines the two.
To explain how this works in practice, let's consider a real-world example. Let’s say a company wants to track customer orders, manage inventory, pay suppliers and analyse sales performance. Instead of using separate tools or software for each of these tasks, SAP S/4HANA does it all in one system, with live updates and the single HANA database. This ability to go from various different systems to bringing everything into one single suite provides significant efficiency benefits to companies in many sectors.
There are many benefits and advantages to SAP S/4 HANA which businesses across the globe are currently benefitting from. Speed and efficiency are truly at the heart of the SAP HANA database and SAP S/4 systems, helping bring companies fully into the 21st century. Let's delve into the four key advantages of SAP S/4 HANA - speed, simplicity, real time analytics and flexibility.
SAP HANA's in-memory database helps dramatically accelerate business processes, compared to older systems. This means faster reporting, quicker planning cycles and real-time inventory updates which drive efficiency across all parts of a business.
The SAP S/4 HANA system provides a clean user interface that belongs in the modern world. Often using the user-friendly SAP Fiori interface, SAP S/4 HANA streamlines the underlying data structures, bringing all essential data together. This simplifies the system overall, making it quick and easy to find the information you need.
Thanks to embedded advanced analytics, SAP S/4 HANA gives business leaders immediate visibility on key business data, meaning they can make faster data-driven decisions in real-time. Being able to make decisions based on live data improves decision making overall and means executives don't have to wait for separate reports on all areas of the business before coming to the right conclusion.
In the ever-changing modern world, the ability to be flexible is essential for businesses and the software they run on. That's why the flexible deployment options for SAP S/4 HANA can be really helpful, whether you choose to run S/4 HANA on your own servers, on the SAP HANA enterprise cloud or as a hybrid mixture of the two. We at Rocket can work with you to determine the best deployment option based on your IT infrastructure and specific business needs.
Hopefully by reading our guide, you will have a good understanding of what SAP HANA and SAP S/4 HANA are, and how they help businesses become more agile and intelligent in the digital world of today. In layman's terms, SAP HANA is the engine, and S/4 HANA is the smart car that's built on top with all the mod cons and smart features that make life easier for everyone.
While the implementation of SAP S/4 HANA is a significant upfront investment, the cost and time savings in the long run more than outweigh the initial investment. Partnering with Rocket Consulting to integrate SAP S/4 HANA into your business is a vital step towards modernisation and staying ahead of the curve in our rapidly developing world.
Contact us today to discuss SAP S/4 HANA or any of our other SAP solutions and services.