Accounting and ERP: Differences, Issues, and Benefits of SAP S/4HANA

Running head: ACCOUNTING AND ERP
Accounting and ERP
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ACCOUNTING AND ERP
Table of Contents
1. Introduction........................................................................................................................3
1.1. Historical Overview.....................................................................................................3
2. Discussion..........................................................................................................................5
2.1. Differences amidst SAP S/4HANA and Current SAP ERP FICO.................................5
2.2. Issues Related To Use Of Fiori (Apps) In Contrast To the Traditional T-Codes...........6
2.2.1. Technology Issues of Fiori.......................................................................................6
2.3. Benefits of SAP S/4HANA for Businesses.....................................................................8
2.4. Case Study of Companies...............................................................................................9
2.4.1. Hexaware Company...............................................................................................10
2.4.2. Revlon Company....................................................................................................11
3. Conclusion........................................................................................................................12
References................................................................................................................................14
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ACCOUNTING AND ERP
1. Introduction
1.1. Historical Overview
SAP S/4HANA is signified to be a business suite that has been solely developed for the next-
generation. This has been done with the purpose of shattering the limitations that existed in
the past days. Specifically, SAP had announced the introduction of the latest business suite on
3rd February 2015, i.e., SAP S/4HANA. It is a product that is originated recently and has been
developed “on the most advanced in-memory platform today – SAP HANA – and modern
design principles with the SAP Fiori user experience (UX)” (SAP 2015 p. 4). However, it
needs to be remembered that SAP S/4HANA functions in a way so as to encourage
innovation (such as, Big Data, mobile-first, Internet of Things and business networks) and
massive simplifications including customer adoption, decision-making, business processes,
data model, user experience, and other models so that varied business can operate in a simple
procedure. In other words, SAP S/4HANA is found to provide aid to varied businesses so that
they can prosper and attain success in the digital world with the help of attaining an advanced
accounting and reporting system (SAP 2015).
On this basis, it is important to point out that in case of financial planning and analysis (FP &
A) the opportunities that are availed by businesses with regards to the utilization of SAP
S/4HANA are immense. Precisely, it needs to be mentioned that in the case of implementing
the SAP S/4HANA, there are some benefits, which can be enjoyed by an entity that involves
the reduction of forecasting costs and budgeting. Furthermore, it also ensures that the time
required to generate a report is also reduced to an extent with reasons accounting to the usage
of SAP S/4HANA reporting system. Even the afore-mentioned financial suite aims to use
central master-data in order to ensure proper planning (Deloitte the Netherlands 2018). In this
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ACCOUNTING AND ERP
concern, there is a definite procedure through which SAP is converted to SAP S/4HANA and
it is illustrated below:
Figure 1: Mapping of the Procedure through which a Business System can Convert
SAP to SAP S/4HANA
Source: (SAP SE, 2018)
There are three distinct ways through which a business can easily move towards SAP
S/4HANA. They are system conversion, landscape transformation, and new implementation.
The above-illustrated figure explains the procedures through which a company can convert its
Business Suite system right from SAP to the advanced process, which is SAP S/4HANA.
With regards to the system conversion, it needs to be mentioned that this kind of
transformation is only available for those companies if they are the customer of SAP
Business Suite and have the willingness to change it into SAP S/4HANA. Following this
aspect, the landscape transformation is the option available to only those customers who have
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