SAP Business Suite: SAP S/4HANA

Frequently Asked Questions - Part 1 - the

fundamentals
Posted by Sven Denecken Mar 2, 2015
After the announcement of SAP S/4HANA, short for SAP Business Suite 4 SAP HANA, we are seeing
a lot of positive reactions. Sure, questions still remain, and always will. So we thought starting a FAQ
series might be very helpful.
But let us first recap some essentials:
already in 2014 we spearheaded simplification of the Business Suite with SAP Simple Finance and
SAP Business Suite powered by SAP HANA (in short market lingo: "Suite on HANA")
we have educated the market in Q4 2014 that we are about to launch significant further
simplifications based on our good experience with above, then known under the (internal) codename
s-innovations
With the confidence and the success of the above, e.g. more than 1850 customers on "Suite on
HANA", many live, significant project sizes and distribution ... we decided that it is time to move. And
we should make one topic clear again - we started this already early 2014 - it was time for a new
product, and the name of this new breed is SAP S/4HANA.
Much has been published on the launch on February 3rd, so lets skip that one. Great interactions with
customers, partners and influencers have helped to prioritize, because we are at the start of a significant
transformation, I mean the industry as such. Whoever underestimates the impact of Digital Transformation
might be caught by surprise. We are convinced a big positive contribution to tackle the tasks at hand is to
change the core of companies business backbone - the SAP Business Suite. And this is what we are doing.
Time for a series with further details. And keep the feedback coming, we appreciate it, we need it. Here are my
current favorites:

What is SAP S/4HANA?

SAP S/4HANA is a new product fully built on the most advanced in-memory platform - SAP HANA - and
modern design principles with SAP Fiori User Experience (UX). SAP S/4HANA delivers massive simplifications
(customer adoption, data model, user experience, decision making, business processes and models) and
innovations (Internet of Things, Big Data, business networks, and mobile-first) to help businesses run simple in
a digital and networked economy.
And if there are doubts that it is new - we did split the codeline of the SAP Business Suite early 2014 (rough
and tough 400 million lines of code), and since then we are massively simplifying the solution - keeping
what is helpful, leaving away what not longer is needed AND building new parts. The priorities are driven by
market input - not by technical desire alone. But it is amazing what the new technology, the platform we are

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SAP Business Suite: SAP S/4HANA Frequently Asked Questions - Part 1 - the fundamentals

architecting towards can help. And also clear - we are keeping the semantic data model in tact, so migration for
existing customers is simple (pun intended).

Is SAP S/4HANA available today?

The on-premise edition of SAP S/4HANA is already available today for customers in all industries and regions.
The first public cloud edition is intended to be made available early in 2015, followed by the managed cloud
edition later in 2015.

What is the business scope of the different

editions?
SAP S/4HANA, on-premise edition, already offers a business scope that is similar in terms of
coverage, functionality, industries, and languages as the current SAP Business Suite. Within
this scope, SAP S/4HANA also includes the transformational simplifications delivered with SAP
Simple Finance (SAP Accounting powered by SAP HANA) as well as a planned integration with
SuccessFactors Employee Central and Ariba.
The on-premise edition is intended to offer a yearly innovation cycle through simplification and innovation
packages. The next simplification and innovation package is planned for the end of 2015.

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SAP Business Suite: SAP S/4HANA Frequently Asked Questions - Part 1 - the fundamentals
SAP S/4HANA, public cloud edition, should address specific business scenarios of lines of
business and industries. The first delivery in early 2015 is expected to cover key scenarios in
customer engagement and commerce and professional services (10 core scenarios, plus planned
integration with SuccessFactors Employee Central and Ariba Network, SAP hybris Marketing)
SAP S/4HANA, managed cloud edition, should address a similar business scope as the onpremise edition. The first delivery in early 2015 is planned to already cover essential core ERP
scenarios (accounting, controlling, materials management, production planning and control, sales and
distribution, logistics execution, plant maintenance, project system, and PLM, plus integration with
SuccessFactors Employee Central and Ariba Network, SAP hybris Marketing)
The cloud editions are intended to offer a quarterly innovation cycle.

Which industry solutions will be available in

SAP S/4HANA and by when?
SAP S/4HANA, on-premise edition supports current lines of business and industries.
SAP S4/HANA, public cloud edition will be released by business scenario for specific languages,
lines of business and industries. The first industry available will be the professional services industry.
The scope will always be determined in close cooperation with the SAP user groups based on
customer requirements.
SAP S/4HANA, managed cloud edition, is planned to ultimately have a similar scope as the onpremise edition. For the first delivery in early 2015, the following core industries are planned:
Professional Services, Chemicals, Consumer Products, Industrial Machinery and Components, Life
Sciences, as well as Transportation and Logistics.

How does SAP S/4HANA relate to SAPs

existing portfolio of cloud solutions?

SAP S/4HANA shall also be made available with public cloud and managed cloud editions. However, SAP
S/4HANA will not replace our existing portfolio of line-of-business cloud solutions; it will integrate with and
expand it. Our comprehensive offering is planned to allow SAP S/4HANA customers to build hybrid scenarios
between SAP S/4HANA and cloud solutions from SAP, including those from SuccessFactors and Ariba as
well as integration with SAP hybris Marketing. This way customers can leverage the cloud at their own pace,
based on their needs, while keeping all the integration and business benefits of their existing SAP solutions. In
addition, SAP S/4HANA is designed to easily connect with global business networks such as, for example, the
Ariba Network and Concur.
How does the SAP HANA Cloud Platform relate to SAP S/4HANA?
In the context of SAP S/4HANA, SAP HANA Cloud Platform serves as an extension platform and agility layer.
It is possible to build specific capabilities extending the scope of SAP S/4HANA by either integrating non-SAP
functions or building your own capabilities. The cloud platform not only serves as the development platform but

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SAP Business Suite: SAP S/4HANA Frequently Asked Questions - Part 1 - the fundamentals

also as the runtime foundation for the developed solutions. The extensions built on the cloud platform can run
against both cloud and on-premise deployments of SAP S/4HANA.

Will SAP continue to deliver innovations to

SAP Business customers on any DB?
Yes. SAP remains committed to protect our customers investments. We recently announced that
we are extending our maintenance commitment until at least 2025. This is an unprecedented
commitment to customers in the IT industry. We will also continue to deliver innovations without
disruption (through enhancement packages for example) to SAP Business Suite customers on
anyDB and on SAP HANA.
However, transformational business and IT simplifications require a transformational platform and this is why
as of today SAP S/4HANA runs only on SAP HANA. It is the logical next step for our installed base customers
and the biggest step forward for 10+ years with full compatibility with SAP ERP 6.0

What is really new in SAP S/4HANA compared

to SAP Business Suite powered by SAP
HANA?
With SAP Business Suite powered by SAP HANA, SAP was the only software vendor in the market
to allow SAP Business Suite customers bring together transactions and analysis into a single
in-memory platform. This innovation has been extremely successful in the market as 1,850+
customers (existing and new) acquired SAP Business Suite powered by SAP HANA - in less than
two years - to run their business in real time, making it one of the fastest-growing product in
SAPs history.
With SAP Business Suite powered by SAP HANA, our product approach has been focused primarily
on porting the applications on the SAP HANA platform and optimizing the code to allow customers
gain significant performance in their mission-critical business processes and reporting activities.
In other words, the applications remained unchanged and primarily optimized to run on SAP
HANA in a non-disruptive way for customers SAP HANA representing a new database alternative
for existing customers, with a simple database migration required to drive the entire business in
real-time.
SAP S/4HANA is a new product. With SAP S/4HANA, we are building on the success of the SAP Business
Suite powered by SAP HANA with a completely new and reimagined suite:

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SAP Business Suite: SAP S/4HANA Frequently Asked Questions - Part 1 - the fundamentals
SAP S/4HANA is natively built on SAP HANA for massive simplifications (simplified data model: no
indices, no aggregates, no redundancies) and innovations (for example, open in-memory platform for
advanced applications predicting, recommending, and simulating)
SAP S/4HANA is natively designed with the SAP Fiori UX, offering an integrated user experience with
modern usability and instant insight on any device (role-based, three steps max to get the job done,
mobile-first, consistent experience across lines of business)
SAP S/4HANA is natively connected to the Internet of Things and business networks for real-time
collaboration (planned: machine-to-machine, Ariba Network, Concur) in the networked economy
SAP S/4HANA is natively engineered for providing choice of deployment (on-premise, cloud - public
and managed - and hybrid)
SAP S/4HANA is natively born for easy adoption (guided, configuration, easy onboarding, from the
discovery of the solution via cloud trials to the deployment with preconfigured best practices)
In addition, SAP HANA Cloud Platform serves as open extension, agility layer for SAP S/4HANA. The
extensions built on the cloud platform can run against either deployment of SAP S/4HANA: in the cloud and onpremise.

Now working on part 2. As said above, keep the feedback and your questions coming, we will prioritize
accordingly and update our FAQ for you. Also check frequently sap.com/s4hana.
Part2: SAP S/4HANA Frequently Asked Questions - Part 2 - the value
Part3:SAP S/4HANA Frequently Asked Questions - Part 3 - the path to get there
Lets stay connected @SDenecken
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Mahendra Paruchuri
May 18, 2015 2:41 PM
Hello Sven,
We are going to migrate our ERP production server to S/4 HANA and install SFIN 2.0.
Do we need to buy any additional license to use SFIN 2.0?
I know we need to buy HANA license and ECC license.
Please suggest.
Erich Schneider in response to Subash Krishna on page 6
Apr 28, 2015 10:43 PM
Subash,
not to steal Sven's thunder here

...

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When I understand correctly you have 7 different ERP systems? If that is correct, you might want to conside
Central Finance, which is sFin 2.0 in a sidecar, in your case one sidecar to all 7 systems.
The embedded BW in sFin is pre-requisite for the Planning and Consolidation, BPC and BCS and unififed
planning.
There is the classic GL and the NewGL, the NewGL is prerequisite for sFin. The central or universal journal is
part of sFin 2.0, Central Finance is the sidecar scenario for sFin 2.0
More details are in the guides and links in here: http://scn.sap.com/docs/DOC-59882
thank you
erich
Subash Krishna
Apr 28, 2015 12:36 PM
Hi Sven,
Please could you help us here?
I would like to know if we can migrate from ECC 606 to S4HANA and sFIN and then do BPC? Is it mandatory
that we have to have BW HANA for BPC to work? Or can we connect to SAP Business suite or S4HANA with
Simple Finance environment can be used to deploy BPC? I also want to understand how Central GL could be
leveraged to get the multiple ledger and actual data consolidation of Finance data that are currently available
on 7 different ERP back end systems, including SAP ECC 606.
So, the question is (in other words) how do we get the best of Central GL, sFIN and S4HANA and ultimately
BPC? What should be the sequence in which we move to S4HANA, Central GL and BPC with sFIN?
Every Blog I read does not mention anything about Central GL; but there are some details on sLT. And whether
BW HANA is a BPC pre-requisite or not.
I would appreciate if you could throw some light onto this scenario.
Thanks,
Subash Krishna
Chris Vinson
Apr 27, 2015 3:11 PM
Great post, utilizing SAP Managed Services with a private cloud is definitely the way to go. Check out this
whitepaper if you want to see an accurate break down of the costs and benefits of adopting a private cloud
environment vs. a public one: [The Business Case For Private Cloud Services | Whitepaper].
Narasimha Prasad Bhat
Apr 13, 2015 6:35 AM

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For new customers, we know simple finance is there on S4HANA. If I understood you correctly, we also can
say MM,SD , PM are also there in S4HANA.
1)If yes, there must have been table aggregations for these modules too . In traditional ERP , we used to put
some effort for data migration based on complexity of the object (LSMW or custom ) . How should we do effort
estimation for S4HANA for data migration? .
2)If I understood you correctly, traditional screens for these modules will work even in S4HANA . I hope we will
also be able to do screen enhancements in ABAP . If this is not true, do we have to consider effort estimation
for Fiori-UI screens for these modules ?
Sven Denecken in response to Chip Fowler on page 7
Apr 3, 2015 9:44 PM
No, managed cloud uses same IaaS than HEC, but managed by SAp only and dedicated SLAs for innovation
oush every quarter.
Dont know for license, you will need to check with your sales rep.
Chip Fowler
Mar 24, 2015 7:40 PM
Hi Sven Thanks for the article - succinct and easy to understand. Would you mind clarifying a couple of things?
- Is the managed cloud the same thing as HEC?
- Will smaller user counts ever be allowed for simple finance? Right now, on HEC, its a minimum of 125 users
- which makes it difficult to sell simple finance to mid-market
Thanks for your opinion
Chip
Sven Denecken in response to saee sai on page 8
Mar 14, 2015 5:04 PM
All 3 options possible, depends on use case, functional scope and preferences. the good thing is there is
choice.
Sven Denecken in response to saee sai on page 9
Mar 14, 2015 5:03 PM
One codeline, 3 delivery editions (public cloud, managed cloud and onPremise). And yes, we use ABAP, and
JAVA.
Erich Schneider in response to Massimo Barberio on page 7
Mar 11, 2015 4:35 PM
Massimo,
you may find this link useful Simple Finance aka sFIN and the discussion there.
thank you
erich

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Massimo Barberio
Mar 11, 2015 2:31 PM
Hi Sven,
compared to the ERP financial modules (FI, CO) what exactly covers SFIN ?
Thanks
Massimo
Sven Denecken in response to Kim Minh Diep on page 9
Mar 11, 2015 11:51 AM
Yes, EhP7 is a pre-requisite
Sven Denecken in response to Axel POTTIER on page 8
Mar 11, 2015 11:25 AM
Yes, i have seen this in the works. Stay tuned.
Sven Denecken in response to Shanaka Chandrasekera on page 9
Mar 11, 2015 11:24 AM
Large Eneterprise or upper mid market is what we see as sweet spot, though no technical limitations.
Abdul Hakim in response to saee sai on page 8
Mar 10, 2015 3:54 PM
hi Sai,
Managed cloud is not part of on premise. It is privately managed. You can do ABAP extensions..Im not sure
about Cloud options for EHP7. Feel free to check with SAP.
Thanks
Hakim
saee sai in response to Abdul Hakim on page 9
Mar 10, 2015 8:30 AM
Dear hakim,
so managed cloud is still a part of on-premise ?
so what logical / best options customers will have, if they are currently running ECC6.0 EHP7
EHP7 --> public cloud
EHP7 --> managed cloud
EHP7 --> on-premise
Axel POTTIER
Mar 9, 2015 11:36 AM
Hi Sven,
Thanks for the insight and comprehensive article.
Do you know if there is any existing learning map intended for customer (users and administrators), consultants
and partners?

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Regards,
Axel.
Abdul Hakim in response to saee sai on page 9
Mar 8, 2015 6:58 AM
Hi Rau,
ABAP is used in Managed cloud.
Thanks
Hakim
Shanaka Chandrasekera
Mar 8, 2015 6:56 AM
Dear Sven,
Thanks for the nice article.
Does SAP recommends any business size when choosing SAP S/4HANA public/managed cloud or hybrid
solutions ?
Thanks,
Shanaka.
saee sai in response to Abdul Hakim on page 10
Mar 8, 2015 4:02 AM
Dear Hakim,
does managed cloud use ABAP? i thought its still JAVA and only on-premise is ABAP
anything on cloud would be java !
Sven Denecken in response to Abdul Hakim on page 10
Mar 7, 2015 5:50 PM
Most of these applications will still work, as we keep the data semantic in tact.
Kim Minh Diep
Mar 7, 2015 2:33 PM
Hi Sven,
With Simple Finance ( SAP Accounting powered by SAP HANA) in new customer, do I need installing SAP
ERP EHP7 on HANA as Back-End server?

Thanks,

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Minh
Patrick Dittes
Mar 6, 2015 10:38 AM
Hi Sven,
thanks for this nice and comprehensible overview!
Patrick
Sven Denecken in response to Bushair Thayyil on page 10
Mar 4, 2015 9:27 PM
sure, please reach out to your account representative.
Sven Denecken in response to Axel POTTIER on page 10
Mar 4, 2015 9:26 PM
We did learn a lot from ByD (which is a viable product and doing fine).
So similarities yes - but also some key differences. 2 different products, different traget markets.
Axel POTTIER
Mar 4, 2015 6:14 PM
Hi Sven,
Will S4 Cloud version have similarities with SAP ByD ?
Regards,
Axel.
Bushair Thayyil
Mar 4, 2015 8:32 AM
Hi Sven,
We have Business Suite on ECC6 EHP7. on DB2 BLU. Can we upgrade to S4 ?
Bushair
Abdul Hakim in response to Sven Denecken on page 10
Mar 4, 2015 12:20 AM
Yes it makes sense as all the SAP Customers who runs Business suite develop / developed thousands of
applications using ABAP and if ABAP is not an option to develop in HCP then i dont think it is worth a move.
SAP should clarify.
Sven Denecken in response to Abdul Hakim on page 10
Mar 3, 2015 10:45 PM
Fair point. So a possibility to develop in ABAP on the HANA Cloud Platfoprm is what you are suggesting,
right?
Abdul Hakim
Mar 2, 2015 9:27 PM

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Hi Sven,
Thanks for publishing this great blog with the SCN community.
I have few technical questions with respect to SAP S/4 HANA.
SAP S/4 HANA will be released in 3 editions as per SAP:
1. On Premise
2. Managed Cloud
3. Public Cloud
While On Premise and Managed Cloud editions provides options to develop / extend applications based on
ABAP, the Public Cloud edition does not provide options to develop / extend applications based on ABAP.
Extension for Public Cloud edition is based on Java and HANA Native (XSJS) at present.
The existing Business suite customers who wants to move into Public Cloud cannot leverage the existing
skillset for building cloud based applications as ABAP is not the option to develop applications on Public Cloud.
Cross training is the easy to say statement/suggestions and as you aware it involves additional cost and other
overhead for customes when it comes to reality. I certainly believe customers should be allowed to develop
next generation applications in the languages they are comfortable with and SAP should not restrict / dictate
them to use only few chosen languages of their choice.
Are there any plans to add ABAP development options as well to Public Cloud when S/4 HANA becomes ready
for Public cloud release. Appreciate your answer.
Thanks
Hakim

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