With the end of the main maintenance of SAP ECC planned for 2025 or 2027 (according to the EHP version), there are many ERP users of the German manufacturer who show concern to discontinuation and the consequent need to migrate their systems to SAP S/4HANA. To provide user information from the manufacturer to users in order to help them at this time of decision -making, Ausape and SAP celebrated on March 17 at the SAP offices in Madrid an informative day aimed exclusively for Auspe’s full associates, which registered a great success of participation.
Ana Encinas, general director of Auspe, welcomed the attendees to this informative day that was characterized by their interactive nature, since the participants were able to interact directly with the SAP experts, raising their doubts, while they informed them of the latest novelties of SAP in relation to maintenance and migration to S/4hana.
His vice president and coordinator of the Financial Working Group, Sara Antuñano, also responsible for accounting of expenses and investments and projects in the Eroski Department of Eroski, also intervened by Auspe. Antuñano moved the experience of Eroski, who has just formed a migration contract to SAP S/4hana with Grow With Sap, starting with the financial part. In this way, Eroski will replace the Zs expressly developed for SII, Ticketbai, interactions with the TPV of the stores …, while repitating certain processes and retains the historical data.
On the part of SAP, the different periods and maintenance phases of SAP ECC and SAP S/4 Hana were reviewed. Juan Azcárate pointed out that the main maintenance or mainstream of ECCs with EHP 0-5 ended at the end of 2025; While EHPS 6.7 or 8 will end at the end of 2027 as planned, then passing to Customer Specific Maintenance. The Optional Maintenance Extended, on the other hand, will extend until the end of 2030 and only for EHPS 6.7 and 8, covering almost all maintenance functions. As for Customer Specific Maintenance, it has certain limitations, since it does not offer SLAS, legal changes in the software, security notes or support for problems not yet known in the Sotfware. To help customers who are at Rise with SAP to update new versions, SAP puts at your disposal SAP Safekeeper, a subscription that includes notes and corrections of the current version of SAP S/4, a sandbox infrastructure and Enterprise Cloud services for, or do technical upgrade or be part of the testing. SAP also offers a free service for ECC customers that focuses on analyzing at a very high level, the degree of preparation or complexity that an ECC system can have in its migration to S/4 Hana.
For the migration of the ERP of SAP to S/4 and the Public Cloud from on premise systems, the comprehensive transformation solution Rise with SAP remains the center of the manufacturer’s proposal, according to Eduardo Gambra. When it comes to value Rise, Gambra defined it as “a new era in business management”, with three major components: methodology, cloud innovation and migration incentive programs. He also highlighted the importance of the framework and safety roadmap, with which new security services are constantly incorporated into SAP cloud services.
However, the renewal of the Business Suite and the appearance of the new Business Data Cloud of SAP brings novelties to the ecosystem, which also had space in the day of SAP and Ausape. Business Suite combines transactional systems, transformational insights and artificial intelligence agents for various areas of companies, which are based on the data available to SAP. These AI agents rely on the co -pilot Joule de SAP, which will orchestrate processes from beginning to end and execute complex analytical scenarios.
The place where AI agents will work with the data is the new SAP Business Data Cloud (BDC), a solution of SAAS managed to which all other SAP solutions will be connected and that unifies and governs all SAP data while connecting with third -party data fluid. Victoria del Barco explained that the Business Data Cloud consists of four components or layers: Data Products, a data set with all the information and semantics of the data that give meaning to it; Data Platform, the platform that includes Business Semantic, a modernized BW and Data Bricks; The Insight Apps application, which provides the analytical part, ready to use, and the abilities of AI and Machine Learning that feed on the data and improve them. “SAP Business Data Cloud is the space that allows data, analytics and artificial intelligence to converge,” summarized the ship.
Guides for transformation
At the time of undertaking a transformation project such as migration to S/4hana, SAP experts recommended resorting to the multiple services for the transformation that the manufacturer facilitates. The transition roads to SAP S/4hana are basically three, according to Nuño Mayoral: Systems conversion (Brownfield) for on premise or public cloud systems; The new implementation (Greenfield) for on premise systems, public or private cloud, and the selective data transition (SDT), which in turn are divided into Mix & Match and Shell Conversion. Mayoral reviewed the transition tools provided by SAP for transformation projects: Rise with Sap Methodology, SAP Signavio, SAP Lean IX, SAP Test Automation by Tricentis, Walk Me, Sap Enable Now and Sap Cloud Alm. As well as SAP services for the transition: SAP Premium engagement, SAP Preferred Success, SAP Cloud Development Services, SAP Cloud Application Services and Customer Center of Excellence.
Abundant in this vision, the business line of Business Transformion Management of SAP, which has to do with all transformation processes -s/4 included-, aspires to change the focus of the transformation processes, providing companies with a methodology and a safe path. Natalia Pando and Oscar Herrera explained that Sap Business Transformion Management includes three solutions to manage the transformation: SAP Signavio (to identify and analyze processes), SAP Lean IX (to map the Landscape of Applications of the Company) and Walk Me (to accompany the user in the adoption process). Pando detailed the use of these three solutions in the specific case of the transformation to SAP S/4Hana.
The migration to S/4hana is closely linked to the ERP Clean Core de SAP strategy, which allows companies to modernize their ERP and adapt quickly to technological updates, preventing extensions from having an impact on the system. Clean Core is a set of guides that emphasizes the adoption of standard processes and the creation of extensions for real business processes. Javier Martín commented on the five fields in which this strategy develops: extensibility, data, integration, processes and operations. For each of these dimensions, Clean Core has a complete package, in addition to enabling the entire Sap Business Suite ecosystem and the abilities of the agents and Joule.
For users who are valuing what Hyperscaler are going to choose in their passage to Rise with SAP and their migration to the cloud when they leave the ECC on Premise, the day included an AWS presentation, in which Odilon Goulard presented the reasons why customers can choose AWS: optimization of the supply chain, innovation with ia, safety and sustainability. On the availability of RISE in AWS, Goulard highlighted the benefits in terms of connectivity between RISE, SAP BTP and Private Network, Resilience, Performance and Security. And commented on the qualities of the AWS region of Spain for Rise’s clients. As for security, Fran Villegas, from SAP, defined it as “a priority for Rise and Aws.” Villegas explained that SAP has an encryption protocol, backups and cybersecurity; He summarized AWS’s security scheme and talked about the operation of the AWS Nitro System server system, which isolates the physical server machines. In the innovation part, it showed a case of use of an application in SAP BTP to translate messages into various languages between employees of a car manufacturer, using AWS’s Bedrock generative AI.
Finally, Mauro Morettin presented the model that SAP has developed for the calculation of incremental costs due to software obsolescence. The “Incremental TCO Calculator” framework has a calculation tool, which allows the additional cost and risks that customers can face if they remain operating obsolete software.
The closing of the day corresponded to Auspe, whose coordinator of the work group of S/4hana and delegate in the Balearic Islands, Gerard Pasán, Cio Office Director in Iberostar, commented on the case of migration to SAP S/4hana in the hotel chain.
