Historically, SAP implementations required countless hours by the project team, digging into as-is processes with an effort to mimic them in a new SAP system. Therefore, in order to make the implementation more efficient and to maximize the benefits of SAP S/4 HANA Cloud, the Fit-to-standard concept was introduced as part of SAP Activate methodology.
The power of SAP's Fit-to-Standard approach
This approach requires a change in the mindset of the company, to be able to accept the proposed SAP best practise, which often can be a difficult decision.
What and why?
The goal of the Fit-to-Standard approach is to provide industry best practices in business processes to SAP customers. By using a pre-configured system and industry best practices, companies can accelerate their migration to SAP while minimizing complexity and risk.
This "top-down" approach means that instead of "reinventing the wheel," during Fit-to-Standard workshops the company identifies areas where and how to align with SAP best practices. This ensures that SAP customers get all the benefits an SAP system can provide.
Advantages
By using SAP's best practices, a company can:
- Accelerate implementation and reap all the benefits of the SAP S/4HANA Cloud solution.
- Minimize operational risks and improve security as part of Enterprise Risk Management.
- Establish a strong foundation for further expansion and process automation through Robotic Process Automation (RPA).
- Keep operating costs low because little to no system maintenance is required.
- Increase transparency and facilitate the integration of other activities in the value chain, e.g. Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) criteria.
- Achieve higher synergy benefits and accelerate post-acquisition integration.
Adopt or modify?
Although business processes are often complex because of their innovative nature, the question is whether all processes are unique. A useful way to assess this is through Paul Harmon's Process & Strategy matrix, which rates processes for strategic importance and complexity.
Discussions about SAP's best practices are especially relevant in the upper right quadrant, as far as we are concerned. Steve Jobs once said, "Start with the customer experience work your way back to the technology." This principle also applies to business processes that affect the customer experience; they deserve special attention.
If it turns out that SAP's standard processes do not fit the business, they can be added with low-code/no-code capabilities, among other things. However, modifications to the system should only be made if they are strictly necessary. This is because every change adds technical debt and requires regular maintenance.
Continued
The transition to standardized processes from SAP is seamless and efficient. In the traditional ERP landscape, companies relied on specialized ERP experts for system maintenance, which often resulted in significant costs. With SAP S/4HANA Cloud, system maintenance and updates are performed regularly and automatically by SAP, reducing the impact on existing business processes.
And the journey to digital transformation continues. As organizations move to the S/4HANA Cloud environment, the next step is to explore opportunities with RPA to achieve even greater efficiencies.
