Are there any functional differences between Suite on HANA and S/4 HANA?

[Former Member]

Hi all,

I checked the FAQ for S/4 HANA and the roadmap but it's still not clear to me.

The customer has SAP ECC  on any DB, wants to migrate to ECC on HANA on premise edition(not interested in cloud),

If I am right, currently there is no two different products to download from the SAP MArket place ; such as S/4 vs SoH.

You just download EP7 for ERP 6, NW and HANA DB, and you are SoH. If you add Simple Finance add on now you're on S/4 HANA. Right?

Two questions here;

1) Are there any other functional differences between SoH and S/4?

2) If customers wants to go with SoH(no sFin add-on yet), what's the functional difference between regular ECC Finance on any DB and the Finance in SoH(w/o simple finance add on)? Just reduced number of tables?

Thanks

Tansu

[former_member93896 · Accepted solution]

Hi Tansu,

first, you need to distinguish different deployment options: S/4HANA on-permise is different from S/4HANA public or manage cloud. Cloud solutions are much more restricted.

Secondly, you need to take the release planning into consideration: currently S/4HANA includes only Simple Finance but time flies and soon more and more "Simple" components become available. All this is described in the roadmap and needs to be mapped to the customer's project timeline.

Third, taking "Simple Finance" as an example, the installation is not a classic add-on but a so called "Exchange Innovation" which changes and/or removed SAP code and database tables! You also get Fiori apps... So functionaly these are not the same. (This is quite apparent if you look at the impact on custom code, see cookbook).

Have a look at the Cookbook,

http://scn.sap.com/docs/DOC-64980

Regards,
Marc Bernard
Product Management SAP EDW (BW/HANA)

[MPS4HANA · Accepted solution]

Thanks for your reply.

Apart from "Implementation" difference - is there any "FUNCTIONAL" difference ?

Any new functionalities ?

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Hi Marc,

Thank you for the information. Let me try to be more specific here and ask the question differently.

Customer has an SAP ECC on anyDB, and wants to move to ECC on HANA on-premise. They have a limited budget and upgrade/migration time before year end.

As of today, either you go to SoH, or go to S/4 HANA (by adding Simple Finance on-top of SOH). Again as of today the difference between these two is the Simple Finance add-on a.k.a. Exchange Innovation.

It makes sense for all IT/consultant people to add the Simple Finance add on, however it requires implementing the New GL and many other major pre-requisites described in the various SAP Notes. This is a disruptive, and very involved effort by FI/CO functional people+business, on top of the IT upgrade/migration.

As you can see there is a two different timeline/effort/budget requirements for SoH and S/4. That's why we're trying to find out if there are other functional differences introduced by Simple Finance add-on as of today that may sway as one way or another. I can see that going forward new code line will be part of an EP not an add-on, but at this point we're just trying to make a decision with what we have.

Thank you

Tansu

[JoergWolf · Accepted solution]

Hi Tansu, Monika,

the release notes (i.e. what’s new / changed) of Simple Finance are here:

http://help.sap.com/saphelp_sfin200/helpdata/en/55/4b6154b6718c4ce10000000a4450e5/frameset.htm

Simple Finance 2.00 / 1503 denote the same release which is the current on-premise release of SAP S/4HANA. The initial SP stack 00 contains the vast majority of new/changed stuff, SP stack 1505 (=May 2015) is the latest SP.

So, yes, there are functional differences in Simple Finance 1503 as compared to the ‘classical’ SAP ECC FI module on any DB. And as Tansu pointed out, besides doing the technical upgrade you might also need to look into business processes if you implement Simple Finance.

If you move to ‘classical’ ECC on HANA (without Simple Finance) first, you can take the ECC on HANA as start release and make the move to S/4HANA on premise later on. In the future, this will technically not happen via add-on installations but via doing a ‘core installation/upgrade’ of S/4HANA. Check out Frank’s blog on this: http://scn.sap.com/docs/DOC-65072.

Hope this helps a bit for finding the right option.

Best,

Joerg

PS: For Simple Logistics (as another important part of S/4HANA) we’re currently compiling an initial functional glance as well. Stay tuned, will be referenced from the cookbook: http://scn.sap.com/docs/DOC-64980

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Thank you Joerg,

I think I can use more help  

Assuming the followings are still correct - please correct me if I am wrong;

1) Moving to ECC on HANA (SoH) does not require new GL ,

2) S/4 HANA is just SoH plus Simple Finance add-on as of today

3) Moving to S/4 requires New GL as a pre-requisite, but moving to SoH doesn't require new GL

..then many customers who are not in new GL already have same challenge. It needs a significant test/reconciliation/business re-transformation/training/re-writing scripts/documents etc  time & effort to move to Simple Finance. Plus some related work/test in BW side.That's the reason some organizations might be thinking about not going to S4 yet, but maybe when they have time/budget in next fiscal year etc.

It's also important to understand the migration effort from SoH to S/4.2! ( with simple logistic including in the core). Assuming that when the new Simple Logistic is ready (end of Q4 this year), it will be a new EP (not an add-on) that will include both simple finance and simple logistic in the core code. So if the customer makes a decision to go with SoH for the reasons above, would it be a significant effort again? Wouldn't it be better to wait for the new EP because there is no significant functional differences between ECC on any DB and SoH w/o adding Simple Finance.

Regards

Tansu

[XiaohuaWang · Accepted solution]

hi Tansu,

you can directly migrate classical GL into SAP Accounting Powered by HANA (SAP Accounting). Find detailed comparison between migrating from Classicl GL to SAP Accounting and from New GL to SAP Accounnting in the Accounting Learning Map (directly linked in the S/4 cookbook, SFIN page  http://scn.sap.com/docs/DOC-65111).

To comment on your understanding:

1) Moving to ECC on HANA (SoH) does not require new GL ,

Correct

2) S/4 HANA is just SoH plus Simple Finance add-on as of today

Correct

3) Moving to S/4 requires New GL as a pre-requisite, but moving to SoH doesn't require new GL

Wrong. Moving to Simple Finance does NOT put new GL as pre-requisite either.

The DMO tool to be delivered in Q4/15 will handle the one-step upgrade and migrate of database, as well as SLOG application migration. And soon after that release, beginning of 2016, DMO tool will also be able to handle SFIN application migration. Stay tuned with us for more details in the near future.

Indeed there are a lot of good reasons for the option of SAP Simple Finance. Universal Jounal Entry, embedded insight-to-action analytics, faster closing processes, etc, etc... You might be interested in the community

best, Xiaohua

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Hi Xiaohua,

Thanks for the reply.

About #3, here is an excerpt from the migration guide(also see link below),

..."SAP Accounting powered by SAP HANA is based on new General Ledger Accounting (FI-GL (new)). If you want to use SAP Accounting powered by SAP HANA, but were still using classic General Ledger Accounting until now, the application data for General Ledger Accounting is migrated during the migration.""

Migration to SAP Accounting powered by SAP HANA - SAP Library

[XiaohuaWang · Accepted solution]

hi Tansu,

the guide you mentioned is for SFIN1.0.

please refer to the migration guide for SFIN2.0 here (It is also mentioned in the S/4Cookbook SFIN page :-))

some additional info from the Learning Map (mentioned above)

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Hi there,

Here is the excerpt from the SFIN 2.0 doc you provided

Notes About Migration

SAP Accounting powered by SAP HANA is based on new General Ledger Accounting (FI-GL (New)) and uses functions such as ledgers to update a particular valuation, and the document splitting function.....

Regards

Tansu

[XiaohuaWang · Accepted solution]

well, the full text should be read:

SAP Accounting powered by SAP HANA is based on new General Ledger Accounting (FI-GL (New)) and uses functions such as ledgers to update a particular valuation, and the document splitting function. If you want to use SAP Accounting powered by SAP HANA, but were still using classic General Ledger Accounting until now, migrate the application data for General Ledger Accounting and the necessary settings for the new Customizing, for example ledgers and integration for Controlling.

However, none of the functions of new General Ledger Accounting, such as parallel ledgers and document splitting, are implemented..

The SAP Accounting powered by HANA uses Ledger concept, but still customer on classical GL can directly migrate to SAP Accounting by HANA.

[XiaohuaWang · Accepted solution]

hi Tansu

I have confirmed with SAP Simple Finance product owner. The sentence you have quoted below is correct:

.."SAP Accounting powered by SAP HANA is based on new General Ledger Accounting (FI-GL (new)). If you want to use SAP Accounting powered by SAP HANA, but were still using classic General Ledger Accounting until now, the application data for General Ledger Accounting is migrated during the migration.""

Indeed, New GL is not the mandatory prerequisite, it means customer does not have to be on New GL for migrating to SAP Accounting. You can migrate from classicl GL to SAP Accounting and the application data for General Ledger Accounting is migrated during the migration. NewGL's contribution is that New GL provides the technical basis.

Hope this clarifies.

best,

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Thank you Xiaohua

Regards

Tansu

[Former Member]

Apart from the other suggestions, check how ready are you for S4 HANA?

Check this blog: Ready for SAP S/4HANA? | SmartShift

Thanks!