SAP S/4HANA is an ERP business suite built on the SAP HANA in-memory database that enables businesses to process transactions and analyze data with immediate efficiency. It helps customers undergo digital transformation by assisting companies in improving existing business processes or developing new ones to meet modern business demands.
S/4HANA is the digital core of SAP’s strategy, and SAP refers to this approach as the “intelligent enterprise” because it allows organizations to be more flexible, responsive, and resilient to changing business needs, customer demands, and environmental conditions through a simplified data model.
S/4HANA integrates various advanced technologies, including AI, machine learning, IoT, and advanced analytics, enabling intricate problem-solving and data analysis in real-time, unlike the previous SAP ERP solutions. Business users can access data insights from anywhere instantly. S/4HANA is the digital core of SAP’s strategy, and SAP refers to this approach as the “intelligent enterprise” because it enables organizations to be more flexible, responsive, and resilient to changing business needs, customer demands, and environmental conditions through a simplified data model, without the requirement of batch processing, thereby simplifying business processes. According to SAP, these updates improve usability and develop agility. Moreover, S/4HANA offers an opportunity to transform business models and generate new revenue streams by utilizing the Internet of Things and big data.
SAP S/4HANA is considered a modern ERP system that elevates business processes through intelligent automation, with built-in technologies, including AI. While it shares some features with older SAP ERP products, S/4HANA differs considerably due to its redesign—including advanced analytics and real-time processing—unlike ECC. Basically, S/4HANA is designed to possess capabilities that are absent in ECC. Some of the features where S/4HANA differs from ECC involve user experience and advanced functions. Read on to gain a deeper understanding of SAP S/4HANA.
Advantages of SAP HANA over ECC
1. In-Memory Computing
Unlike ECC, SAP HANA stores and operates data in RAM, rather than using traditional disk-based storage. This allows for direct reading of data from memory. Consequently, data always remains in the main memory, RAM, although the operations occur on the hard disk. As a result, SAP HANA reads data faster than traditional ERPs, allowing complex problems to be solved rapidly due to the advanced technologies integrated into S/4HANA.
2. Simplified Data Model
SAP HANA can access column-based tables faster since it uses a columnar data-storage approach. This facilitates better data compression, where there are only limited distinct values relative to rows. Parallel processing is available since various columns can be managed in parallel. Additionally, it enables higher efficiency for column operations and the eradication of additional indexes.
3. Better User Experience (UX)
S/4HANA features a quick, user-friendly, and simplified data model to transform the current ERP. Besides, it is designed to deliver a new user interface, built on the tile-based SAP Fiori UX, replacing the previous SAP GUI in ECC. Fiori is a collection of frequently used S/4HANA functions that can be accessed across various devices, such as desktops and smartphones.
4. Integration with New Technologies
HANA integrates advanced technologies like AI, IoT, machine, learning, and automation to enhance business efficiency and rapidity, while ECC is more limited.
5. Improved Analytics
S/4HANA simplifies business operations by eliminating the need for batch processing and supports advanced analytics, such as predictive analytics and spatial data processing, directly in the database. This allows operational users to obtain data insights from anywhere immediately, whereas ECC requires external tools.
6. Scalability
Scalability in SAP S/4HANA offers both vertical and horizontal industry expansion that extends beyond mere growth, ideal for small- and large-sized organizations. In contrast to ECC, which struggles with large data volumes, HANA delivers flexibility to adapt to increased workloads and changing business requirements, whether expanding into a new product line or another country. Moreover, it ensures a seamless experience for end-users, offering maximum efficiency irrespective of the rise in data volumes.
7. Data Virtualization
HANA does not require physical replication to access and analyze data from various sources. It is possible to handle virtually, resulting in reduced operational delays, while ECC requires data consolidation.
8. Integration with Cloud and Hybrid Environments
HANA delivers more comprehensive application options and is built to effortlessly integrate with on-premises, public cloud, private cloud, hosted cloud, and hybrid environments. In contrast, ECC is primarily focused on on-premises setups, but a specific edition for the public cloud is not available. S/4HANA supports hybrid environments, where some parts operate on cloud infrastructure and on-premises.
S/4 HANA Features:
Additional Features in S/4 HANA:
| ECC | S/4 HANA |
|---|---|
| Database is Oracle, Sybase etc… | Database is HANA |
| User interface in ECC uses SAP GUI | User interface in s/4 uses FIORI. |
| It uses ABAP Workbench. | It uses ABAP Development Tools (ADT). |
| Fetches the data from multiple tables | With simplified data model data is retrieved more quickly |
| AIF functionality is unavailable in ECC. | Enables AIF monitoring to manage, monitor, and handle errors for all application interfaces |
| Fetches the data from Application server. | Uses CDS views and AMDP methods to optimize the performance. |
| Arthematic operations on select queries will take time in ECC. | Performs arthematic operations using CDS and AMDP which can improve the performance. |
Conclusion
In conclusion, SAP S/4HANA delivers efficiency, flexibility, and agility over ECC, which can be considered a significant improvement. Swift transaction processing, improved data handling, and a user-friendly interface are made possible with its simplified data model, better user experience, and in-memory computing. The utilization of advanced technologies supports both small and large industries in adapting to changing business requirements. SAP S/4HANA simplifies the processes from SAP ECC to reduce costs and improve business efficiency, resulting in some features being changed, replaced, or combined into new features.
Overall, SAP S/4HANA is designed to help enterprises function efficiently, allowing them to operate volumes of data quickly and effectively, which ultimately prepares organizations for a data-driven world.
