SAP S/4HANA Finance Case Study 2022

Running head: SAP S/4HANA Finance
SAP S/4HANA Finance
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

SAP S/4HANA Finance
Table of Contents
Introduction:...............................................................................................................................2
Discussion:.................................................................................................................................2
Historical overview of SAP S/4HANA Finance:.......................................................................2
Identifying the difference between SAP S/4HANA Finance and current SAP ERP FICO:......2
Identification of the benefits of SAP S/4HANA Finance for businesses:.................................2
Case studies of the companies adopting SAP S/4HANA Finance and the issues faced in
migrating to SAP S/4HANA Finance:.......................................................................................2
Conclusion:................................................................................................................................2

SAP S/4HANA Finance
Introduction:
The paper demonstrates the critical analysis on the accounting software named SAP
S/4HANA Finance by presenting its past performance and overview. SAP S/4HANA Finance
is the component of HANA business suite dealing with financials and the platform of
retention SAP HANA is used for running the financial software of ERP to run the report on
the financial and operational data. This software also incorporates countless technical and
functional upgrades and comprise of enhanced characteristics such as streamlines design,
periodic and real time analytics. The paper also outlines the discussion on the distinction
between SAP ERP FICO and SAP S/4HANA Finance. In addition to this, the benefits of SAP
S/4HANA finance for the business has also been discussed. The later part of the paper depicts
the example of real life example with the trouble created when adopting to SAP S/4HANA
Finance. Such example helps in gaining a better insight of the application of SAP S/4HANA
Finance.
Discussion:
Historical overview of SAP S/4HANA Finance:
SAP has been involved for over forty years assisting customer to solve the IT
challenges and complex business. The perfect example is the success of ERP solution
provided by SAP that over the decade has enabled best running of the business. For the
growth of the company in the digital economy, continuous efforts are being made for
innovation in light if changing economy ad driven by the trends such as cloud computing,
cyber security and artificial intelligence. Digital business framework was developed by SAP
after it recognized such trends for supporting the customers through digital transformation.
The journey started when the AP HANA was launched by SAP in year 2011followed by
busies suite SAP HANA in year 2013 for simplification of running the business and assisting

SAP S/4HANA Finance
the companies in driving the real time business. In year 2014, the data redundancies and
aggregates was removed by SAP from its SAP business suite for driving an insight into
simplification and insight into finance by focusing on the customers and particular line of
business (Graesser 2019).
Architecture of SAP S/4HANA Finance
(Source: Kulkarni 2019)
It was in early 2015 that the release of SAP S/4HANA Finance was announced by
SAP which can be completely run on the database of SAP HANA. Such announcement was
made after the success of SAP HANA in addressing the crucial needs of the business. The
overall flow of data in the financial module has been simplified. Users involved with CO or
FI has to face with several updating of tables for every financial transaction and with the help
of SAP HANA., all such tables have been eliminated (Poschadel 2019). It is essential to have
an understanding of the components of SAP S/4HANA as it is a part of suite of S/4HANA.
SAP S/4 HANA comprised of four components that are listed below:

SAP S/4HANA Finance
 Core or functional components- As a part of the core of functional components,
several enhancements and financing capabilities is provided by SAP. In order to shift
to S/4HANA, it is required by the user to be on at least on Enhancement Package 7 of
SAP ERP Central Component (ECC) 6.0, AP Net Weaver 7.4 and HANA version 1.0
of SAP. Companies migrating from ECC 6.0 to S/ 4 HANA should be involved in the
migration of transactional tables for functional upgrade.
 App components- the component of app is used for crucial financial decision making
in the financial suite by collecting the analytical application.
 Analytics and reporting components- With the help of prepackaged HAMA live
views, this particular component enables systematic skills. The fixing of this
component requires some prerequisites such as SAP HANA and SAP HANA Live
1.0.
 User experience or presentation component- Users can interact using the GUI
component of GYI based on SAP Fiori. However, the interface of user can be used
between the existing business client and SAP GUI. This particular component
requires the version of SAP Gateway version 2.0 and SAP Net Weaver 7.4 (Bardhan
et al. 2017).
Identifying the difference between SAP S/4HANA Finance and current SAP ERP
FICO:
The distinction between SAP S/4HANA Finance and current SAP ERP FICO is
presented in the table below:
SAP S/4HANA Finance Current SAP ERP FICO
SAP S/4HANA Finance is the financial
solicitation ERP platform of SAP
SAP FICO is the oldest version SAP
financial modules that is used for the

SAP S/4HANA Finance
S/4HANA. The applications of enterprise
resource planning is provided with the real
time data using the interconnected functions
of financial management (sap.com 2019).
purpose of reporting. The module assist in
the many modules combination and other
SAP modules such plant maintenance and
sales and distribution.
It is after the evolution of SAP FICO that
SAP HANA came into existence. The core
functional component of SAP HANA is the
enhancement package of version available.
In SAP ERP, the core functional component
comprised of SAP ERP FICO that assist in
financial data management.
SAP HANA incorporates the area of S/4
HANA that is involved in dealing
particularly with financial solutions. It can
be inferred from the advantages and the
advancement brought by SAP HANA that
this particular application is comparatively
advance and faster as against SAP FICO
(Nieuwenhuis et al. 2018).
The SAP FICO is known as financial
accounting and controlling and the modules
of controlling and financing are integrated
with each other. Business employing SAP
FICO are able to make effective financial
reporting and decisions with the help of
generation and maintenance of the financial
statements. The foundation of SAP is based
on SAP FICO (Rouda 2016).
The processing speed is comparatively
higher and this helps in minimization of the
consistency efforts. The sources of multiple
basic end data are controlled by the
consolidation of central finance.
Reconciliation is much faster in SAP
HANA as the several functions of the
financial management is combined with the
SAP FICO modules helps in the integration
of all the other modules that helps in the
automatic updating of the transaction and
posting of the same into the modules.

SAP S/4HANA Finance
processing speed.
For the controlling of the financial data,
SAP HANA has a universal journal and the
impact of any financial decisions within am
organization can be interpreted by using the
real time data.
There are several sub modules in SAP FICO
and such modules are used in asset
accounting, bank accounting, general ledger
account, accounts payable and accounts
receivable.
Identification of the benefits of SAP S/4HANA Finance for businesses:
The financial solution offered by SAP S/4HANA Finance has caused reimagination of
finance in the growing digital age. It helps in supporting vast range of financial activities in
the accounting and financial planning. Some other activities related to finance also includes
cash management, financial accounting, financial close and treasury, risk management,
receivable and accounts payable. The benefits offered by SAP S/4HANA Finance from its
capabilities have been identified and listed below:
Engaging in the flexible process of business- SAP S/4HANA Finance helps in then
optimization and redesigning of the process that helps in focusing on the critical and
exceptional tasks. With the evolvement in the business models, the existing process can
easily change and align to this particular software (Fahn et al. 2017).
Accessing single source truth- The system incorporated in the SAP S/4HANA
Finance brings simplification of technology that results in eliminating reconciliations,
replications of data and other redundancies along with driving the massive process.
Gain of knowledge from best practices- SAP S/4HANA Finance helps every
employee in the company as they can take benefits from the cross company data available for

SAP S/4HANA Finance
self-learning. There is easier access to several roles in the company such as reporting,
embedded statistics, benchmarking and reporting.
No duplication of data and aggregation- Deeper insight has been provided with the
help of SAP S/4HANA Finance as assist in dealing with the work at all business levels.
Smart application- New intelligent services have been employed in SAP S/4HANA
Finance as it assist in creating an alignment between the machine learning with the invoices
along with matching the payments automatically. Such intelligent services involves machine
learning, loT and modern analytics that is being integrated into the prices of core finance and
thereby delivering predictive insights and automation (Islam 2019).
Consolidated finance- The liquidity and the cash group is centralized as SAP
S/4HANA Finance can run and function on the models of shared services. Such capability of
the software causes all the transactions to be centralized and makes it consolidated. In
addition t this, the data present in the plethora of system can be replicated instantly.
Replacement that is non-disruptive- Adoption or the implementation of SAP
S/4HANA Finance does not interfere with the current operations of the business and
therefore transitioning to the software does not cause any disruption. For the applications of
custom, it is ensured by the software that the transition to such application is seamless
(sap.com 2019).
Global coverage- All the major financial scenario s are covered by SAP S/4HANA
Finance as it has sixty two country versions, twenty six industries and an experience of more
than forty five years in industries. They also take into account and ensure an updated
regulatory and statutory compliance.
Consistent and complete choice- The characteristics of code line, model leading to
data simplification and involvement of modern user SAP S/4HANA Finance is consistent the

SAP S/4HANA Finance
cloud and thereby enhance making complete and consistent choice by users. Innovation can
be adopted by the business depending upon their activities sand operations that it, adoption
can be done on their own pace.
Effectiveness of costs- Another benefit of implementing SAP S/4HANA Finance is
the benefits in terms of cost saving or becoming cost effective. The ability of the system to
combine systematic capabilities of several system into one system into one location helps in
making better decisions and thereby saving cost.
Transactional and systematic data combination- SAP S/4HANA Finance assist
business in moving to vibrant planning from the fixed annual planning by delivering an
insight into the actual, historic and predictive data at the same time.
Ease of use- In order to provide users with completely modern experience, a platform
of modern design is provided that enable them to access various features and functions. Fiori
2.0 has been designed to be highly active, customize and specifically intuitive that causes the
users to access required details and addressing prompt queries irrespective of deployment or
service (Alexander et al. 2018).
Better performance- Business can experience improved performed as the system assist
in executing, planning, performing analytics, generating reports and improving prediction
based on live data.
Case studies of the companies adopting SAP S/4HANA Finance and the issues faced in
migrating to SAP S/4HANA Finance:
This section demonstrates the example of the companies that adopted SAP S/4HANA
Finance and identifies the issues or challenges faced by them when migrating to SAP
S/4HANA Finance. The adoption of the application has been encourage due to its advantages

SAP S/4HANA Finance
and innovative functionalities. With the benefits there also comes some challenges and issues
faced by the companies or the stakeholder when adopting new and advanced application. The
migration of the business or the companies to this particular application comes with the
prerequisite of not only technical enhancement but also requires several business practices to
be modified along with their functionalities. Any migration project has to deal with then
criticality of HANA appliance sizing and the expected performance by the organization
required optimized sizing. Cloud technologies onslaught also faced the challenge of deciding
on cloud, on premise and hybrid strategy (Missbach et al. 2016). Some of the factors that are
substantially more prominent are errands complication in the functional areas as against
advancements. These can be explained by using two real life case studies.
Historically, the core financing processing of Accenture used to run on the single
global SAP instance. With the diversification of the business, the operation across several
business operations and units require more agility, insight, efficiency and compliance. It was
essential that this faster pace of change should be contended by capabilities of information
technology as well as business and thereby called for the technical architecture
transformation. The finance and HR system of Accenture migrated to SAP HANA from SAP
business suite. It took six long months for the implementation of the application and
upgrading to SAP S/4HANA Finance by setting up the foundation. Accenture was able to
transform its IT capabilities and technology architecture with the implementation of SAP
S/4HANA Finance. However, upgrading or migrating to SAP S/4HANA Finance requires the
business to undergo major steps which comprised of prototype, scope, methodology, testing
and cutover. All these steps requires the company to fulfill various criteria’s and prerequisites
and this caused the company to make huge investment in cost and time as well. Some of the
challenges were also coming from the customers as they lacked the knowhow for the
integration of such system or application into their business (Sun et al. 2016).

SAP S/4HANA Finance
The focus of the company was to create a migration path that is non-disruptive and
accounted for the risks and impact created by such migration by conducting the assessment of
then comprehensive impact. The existing of multiple system of SAP also creates challenge in
terms of harmonization of data and this involves integration of customer vendor, replication
of master data, segments and profit center, data services and material master. Some other
common constraints were identified by Accenture in terms of resource constraints, existing
infrastructure, and high risk of disruption in business. Some challenges was faced in the
methodology which is complex and has considerable scope of remediation. The transition
phase was hectic and time consuming as the team of the company went into multiple
production and technical like mock conversions.
Another case is about the largest food company named Nestle that has implemented
the success factors of SAP for adopting the functionality of continuous performance
management for facilitating the performance coaching and ongoing feedback to its
employees. With the objective of empowering the modern digital workforce, it was ensured
by the company that the flexible HR platform which is could enabled is accessed by its global
employees. The roll out of the solutions of success factors for workforce planning and
workforce analytics was planned by Nestle. The work of Nestle to move and the adoption of
the complex system architecture of SAP was witnessed by some challenge as discussed by
custom chief of SAP of Nestle in the annual conference. The entire system of SAP could not
be put on its own and it was required to create a split architecture for running the single
system into SAP. It was identified by the company that in each region there was three
instances of ERP that created difficulty in bring data harmonization and standardization
across entire company. For the unification of landscape of ERP, the shifting procedure to S/4
HANA and SAP suite on HANA was started long time back. Furthermore, there were
requirements of some mandatory competencies such as the organization should have some

SAP S/4HANA Finance
capabilities that requires construction at SLT server and the fascination of the same should be
done in the BASIS provider. At the same time, there should be development of the capability
in the governance of master data from the business as well as technical view point.
The application portfolio of SAP in the existing ERP system such as Concur and
Ariba could not be easily integrated and it was ascertained that such products were integrated
poorly because of several divisions within SAP. Other challenges that was witnessed when
moving to SAP S/4HANA Finance was difficulty in getting approval from the members of
ASUG on the cost as the adoption of SAP software was unnerving. It was because large
organization such as Nestle should be provide information technology leaders with the fuel
for enabling them to plunge into the running suite on S/4HANA and HANA. Lastly, Nestle
also faced the challenge of architectural anxiety where the information should be drawn into
the source system and the source framework should be used for drawing the financial
articulations. In addition to this, the source system should also incorporate the outcome of
any reconciliations that has been carried out in the central framework. It is certainly possible
that the records of the system is altered and this makes it indispensable to change any
integration to the combination framework. It was also mentioned that the completion of
project was to be done with zero downtime and it also required working with engineer system
to deal with such tasks (Chuprunov 2018). All these pushed up the cost which was difficult to
be approved and increased the complexity of the system implementation.
Conclusion:
The report presenting the overview and historical analysis of SAP S/4HANA Finance
presented the fact about the advancement and development of the previous SAP system. In
addition to this, the distinction between these applications that is Current SAP ERP FICO and
SAP S/4HANA Finance have found that compared to former, the latter provides various

SAP S/4HANA Finance
advantages because of its various characteristics. It can be said that SAP S/4HANA Finance
offers several benefits to business in terms of cost effectiveness, disruptiveness and
centralization. The report outlining the two cases of Accenture and Nestle have demonstrated
the issues which the companies face when adopting S/4HANA Finance. However, the
objective of employing S/4HANA Finance was different and the factors that created
challenges was attributable mostly to the infrastructure and organizational structure. At the
various phases of migration, challenges was witnessed in the independent activities.
Nevertheless, the universe of SAP has influx of innovation and this ranged from the
functionality simplification and improved performance to experience of new users.

SAP S/4HANA Finance
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SAP S/4HANA Finance