Will Consulting Firms Tell You the Truth About S/4HANA?

ByPrimary Researcher

Introduction

The vast majority of the information published around S/4HANA comes from SAP, and the second is SAP consulting firms. This information has one primary purpose, to sell S/4HANA licenses and consulting projects. Once a customer moves to S/4HANA, they are locked into an expensive and time-consuming process that is difficult to exit once begun. SAP and its consulting ecosystem were proposing that SAP’s ECC support would stop in 2025. While the ecosystem was unified in their use of the 2025 deadline to create a burning platform to motivate S/4HANA sales and migrations, in the article What is the Reality of SAP’s 2025 ECC Support Deadline? We predicted this would be extended. And on Feb 4, 2020, it was. We reviewed the published articles in the space and found that not a single IT media entity, IT analyst, or SAP consulting firm predicted in a published form that the deadline would be moved. Meanwhile, SAP customers have been debating this topic with advisors and at user conferences with the deadline forcing them to analyze their options — all of which turned out to have not mattered.

Don’t Get A Rigged Presentation of the S/4HANA Story From Consulting Firms

The worst entities to listen to regarding S/4HANA are either SAP or an SAP consulting partner. All they care about is selling S/4HANA or S/4HANA engagements. Notice the following statement from the SAP consulting firm iTelligence right after the 2025 deadline was changed.

On the cost side, SI/consultants are urging customers to weigh the risks of resource constraints. iTelligence is typical of advice offered saying:

The longer you wait the higher the risk and cost to your organisation will be as the best resources become scarcer as the deadline approaches.

Even if your company decides not to adopt S/4HANA immediately, you still need to consider the changes imminent with S/4HANA and create your plan. – Diginomica

This entire statement from iTelligence can be roughly translated into “hire us so we can implement S/4HANA for you.” It is not advice. It is a sales copy. We have a better quote for iTelligence.

All of the information they provide is backward engineered to obtain this outcome. Outside of Brightwork, there are no entities that cover S/4HANA that are not in some way influenced by SAP.

Getting the Real Story

This is why the information quality is so inaccurate and the implementation complexities so underemphasized by consulting firms. To address this, we created the most comprehensive research into S/4HANA and its implementation history that can be found anywhere.

Our study into S/4HANA includes the following:

  • The background on S/4HANA implementation history.
  • Evaluation of 240 S/4HANA implementation case studies classified by customer size and fit to industry. The studies can be filtered and searched to help you identify cases most relevant to your interests.
  • Explanation around how S/4HANA and HANA work, both the official and the real story.
  • Actionable insights into what customer characteristics say about the S/4HANA implementations. These insights are available nowhere else.
  • Errors and falsehoods in S/4HANA case studies both from SAP and media.

Says Who?

Brightwork is the most accurate research firm that covers SAP. We are small but far more accurate than any of the big names, and unlike the big names, we have long term SAP implementation experience. We also have no financial entanglements or other types of relationships with SAP or SAP consulting firms, increasing accuracy.

That is why this research offers you the real story. This is research that IT and business decision-makers should not do without. 

References

https://diginomica.com/fresh-color-sap-r3-ecc-transition-s4hana-post-2025