We Prepare Organizations for S/4HANA Success

As a Trusted SAP Education Partner, Abreon Ensures the Comprehensive Adoption of New S/4HANA Tools and Processes

We Prepare Organizations for S/4HANA Success

As a Trusted SAP Education Partner, Abreon Ensures the Comprehensive Adoption of New S/4HANA Tools and Processes

Five Change Management Pillars That Are Essential To S/4HANA Success

S/4HANA is SAP’s next-generation Business Suite designed to help organizations “run simple” in a digital and networked world. S/4HANA is the biggest update to SAP’s ERP strategy in over 20 years and is designed to reduce cost and increase efficiency across an organization.

Organizations migrating to S/4HANA face the usual challenges of learning a new user interface and expanded capabilities. However, SAP also stresses the importance of using S/4HANA out-of-the-box, with little to no customization, to benefit from the best practices built into the system. That means large-scale process and procedural changes come with the implementation, increasing the amount of preparation and training needed for acceptable end-user adoption.

Abreon’s sole focus is on this “people side of change,” encompassing everything employees need to know to do their jobs using S/4HANA tools and processes. We accomplish this through our five Change Management Pillars: Alignment, Engagement, Training, Communications Strategy, and Metrics. Our practices have evolved from hundreds of successful SAP implementations, and our pillars deliver a proven Change Management approach that ensures successful S/4HANA implementations.

S/4HANA Change Management Challenges

In stark contrast to the wave of SAP customization that was common over the past two decades, S/4HANA introduces standardized out-of-the-box implementations that are based on industry best practices.

Though upgrading to S/4HANA is faster and easier than prior SAP upgrades, it is inaccurate to assume that S/4HANA requires a scaled-down Change Management program as well. The fact is, S/4HANA requires a greater emphasis on Change Management than any prior upgrade.

Employees who have mastered custom SAP processes in the past are often hesitant to adopt new ways of doing their jobs. Some may resist the change and fail to learn the new processes, putting the migration at risk of failure.

Consider:

“Poor end-user adoption is the #1 reason for failed implementations.” – AMR Research
“Untrained users often ignore, misuse, or under-utilize new technology.” – Gartner Group
“Untrained users require 3 to 6 times more support than trained users.” – Gartner Group

The fact is, successful SAP S/4HANA migrations demand much more than just a technology implementation and technical shift. They demand proven Change Management programs that prepare people across all facets of an organization to embrace new, standardized processes and entirely new ways of doing their jobs.

Abreon Ensures S/4HANA Migration Success

Abreon ensures that your S/4HANA migration or implementation takes place in tandem with a preparation and transformation of the organization’s people and culture.

We offer extensive SAP Change Management expertise across multiple SAP versions (3.1, 4.6, 4.7 & ECC 6.0, 7.0) and multiple SAP modules (HR, CRM, BI, FICO, SD, PLM, APO, MM, WM, IM, QM, PS, CS, Logistics, SCM, BW, SRM, TR, PP, FSCM, T&E, AM, BPC, and others).

Our five-pillar process delivers successful S/4HANA migrations by ensuring that the entire team:

Aligns — We organize people around the change initiative and expected outcomes.
Engages — We identify every needed change, its impact, and “who needs to know what when.”
Communicates — We create and flawlessly execute an organizational change strategy that ensures maximum employee buy-in, one that prepares stakeholders for “day one” and beyond.
Trains — We design blended learning solutions that empower users and ensure long-term adoption and sustainability.
Measures — We are well versed in Knoa, SAP Productivity Pak, uPerform, and SAP Workforce Performance Builder (WPB) to continuously measure and optimize the S/4HANA implementation.

Learn more about the five Change Management Pillars essential to S/4HANA success below.

Alignment

Align business processes and organizational structures.

Align

Engagement

Manage employees, sponsors, and leaders during S/4HANA migration.

Engage

Training

Build the S/4HANA skills necessary for long-term success.

Train

Communications

Create awareness and understanding to build commitment.

Communicate

Metrics

Track S/4HANA efficacy and progress toward business goals.

Measure

S/4HANA Blog Entries

Abreon offers many additional insights into the preparation and planning that are needed to ensure a successful transition to S/4HANA and the coaching and training that are required for successful adoption of the platform.

S/4HANA – 10 Things To Do in Phase Zero – The time between deciding to transition to S/4HANA and the Phase One kickoff-known as Phase Zero-is when organizations need to plan, prepare, and prioritize.

SAP S/4HANA is Growing: Why are Companies Still Waiting? – S/4HANA licenses continue to increase, but adoption rates lag well behind. Find out why companies are hesitating and how to overcome concerns.

How to Prepare Key Teams For SAP S/4HANA Implementations – Executives, end users, stakeholders, and the project implementation team all play key roles in a successful transition to S/4HANA.