Data volumes are growing, and the pace of this growth is unprecedented. The volume, variety, velocity, and veracity of these data coming from the sensor, social media, and other sources are far outstripping traditional business suite systems. We are living in the digital world and the exponential growth in digital information cannot be handled by just upscaling our infrastructure or revamping existing processes, as this will complicate the solution.

The paces of underlying hardware architecture advancement and computing power are way faster, and to take advantage, we need to adapt them and redesign the business suite for the digital world.

So, SAP has rewritten the complete suite, which is named SAP S/4HANA. SAP S/4HANA promises that customers can completely reimagine their business models, processes, and decision making with an enriched end user experience. Run simple in the digital economy and drive instant value across the organization.

SAP S/4HANA is a real-time enterprise resource management suite for digital businesses. It is built on the advanced in-memory platform, SAP HANA, and offers a personalized, consumer-grade user experience with SAP Fiori. Deployable on the cloud or on-premise, SAP S/4HANA can drive instant value across all lines of business, irrespective of the industry or business size:

SAP S/4HANA is built on SAP HANA, so it has all the capabilities of this powerful data management and application platform, including predictive analysis, real-time decision supports, and advanced text mining. Let's take a quick look at a few of the salient features of SAP S/4HANA, listed as follows:

• Can be deployed on-premise or on a cloud or hybrid model
• Contains simplified data models, reduced tables, and footprints
• Is fully integrated with the SAP HANA cloud platform, allowing organizations to build faster and more cost effective business applications
• SAP S/4HANA increases the efficiency of enterprise processes by embedding analytics in the transactional context and by removing visibility blackouts caused by batch processing
• Overlaps and redundancy, including earlier multiple add-on applications surrounding a core (for example, SAP ERP, SAP CRM, and SAP SRM), have been completely removed in SAP S/4HANA
• A brandnew user experience is delivered to improve the productivity and satisfaction of business users, bringing the interface up to a consumer-grade experience on any device
• A database that supports S/4HANA (SAP HANA) can handle both OLTP and OLAP processing from a single model, and therefore, we do not need to move transactional data to a separate system

So, how can SAP Activate help us to get a quick jumpstart with SAP S/4HANA?

One of the first questions that should come to our mind is, "How does SAP Activate as a methodology help make the SAP S/4HANA implementation faster?"

The answer to the preceding question lies in the following capabilities provided by SAP Activate:

• Provides you with tools needed for an assisted implementation
• Facilitates sample reference solutions containing organizational and master data
• Clears confusion over methodologies by providing one methodology
• Suitable for any type of deployment (in terms of size, cloud/premise)
• Offers continuous support in adaptation of latest innovations

SAP already had multiple methodologies prior to SAP Activate, for example, Accelerated SAP (ASAP) for on-premise and SAP Launch for the cloud. Before we go ahead with the SAP Activate methodology, let's quickly review and summarize the SAP ASAP methodology and the SAP Launch methodology. This will help us to quickly find the differences between the three and help us to better understand SAP Activate offerings.

ASAP provides a proven, comprehensive, repeatable, and rich implementation methodology to streamline projects. It is a phased, delivery-oriented methodology that minimizes risk and reduces the total cost of implementation. It supports project teams with templates, tools, questionnaires, and checklists, including guidebooks and accelerators.

There was a lot of enhancement with each version of ASAP; here we will consider the latest version, ASAP 8.0.

The salient key features of SAP ASAP are:

• It brings a shift in focus from project to program value
• It has industry standard aligned project management processes and guidelines (PMI); ASAP 8.0 has also adapted to agile, irises, and design thinking built-in guidance
• Transparency of value delivery through consistent business case reflection
• It delivers content rich implementation accelerators, templates, and guides that help reduce the total cost of implementation
• It enables efficient project governance and quality management
• It covers the entire project life cycle from evaluation through delivery to post-solution management and operations
• ASAP WBS is streamlined into three levels with prescriptive delivery attributes (accountability, delivery mode, and so on)

Let's take an example of an implementation project and see how the ASAP methodology can be used for it. An implementation project typically has the following ASAP phases and workstreams:

The implementation roadmap has six phases:

• Project preparation: The project is formally initiated and planning is well under way. In this phase, it is expected to achieve the following tasks:
  • Identify project objective
  • Build a capable project team
  • Get buy-in from stakeholders and senior management
• Business blueprint: The conceptual design of solution happens in this phase, after collecting all the requirements. It results in (varies if we are using agile ASAP 8.0 or standard ASAP):
  • Baseline build (in case of agile ASAP)
  • Project backlog (in case of agile ASAP)
  • Detailed documentation of results gathered during requirement workshops (in case of standard ASAP)
• Realization: The solution is built and the integration testing is done. We also plan the performance test in this phase. It results in:
  • Baseline configuration
  • Fine-tuned systems
  • Completed testing and integration
  • Emphasized knowledge transfer
• Final preparation: End user training is conducted. A final check is performed before cutover to the new system solution. It is expected that the following outcomes are delivered:
  • End user training
  • Mock rehearsals are successful
  • Workload testing is complete
• Go-live support: The solution receives confirmation, ongoing support is in place, and the project is closing.
• Run: The operability of the solution is ensured.

The ASAP methodology is structured in workstreams. Each workstream has a number of deliverables that are to be produced in each phase. Some of the key project workstreams are as follows:

The SAP Launch methodology was launched as a replacement (rebranded) for the BizX methodology for cloud implementation in August 2014. It was launched as the methodology to be applied universally across all SAP SAAS implementation. It describes the various implementation activities that need to be performed and the resulting deliverables.

The salient key features of SAP Launch are:

• The core concept of SAP Launch is the "Let us guide you" approach, which is a complete contrast to the traditional approach of, "Can I take your order?"
• A Jam () group, "SAP Launch implementation methodology for cloud solution", was created to help partners.
• Sample project management templates were introduced to help customers and partners jumpstart their projects. The templates also include (checklist for go-live, project closure templates, project preparation Quality Gates (Q-Gate) acceptance document for each phase and others).
• Quality Gates are also included in SAP Launch for the four phases of methodology (Prepare phase | Project Verification; Realize Phase | Solution Acceptance; Verify Phase | Readiness Acceptance and Launch Phase | Go-live).
• The solution-specific delivery toolkits complement the SAP Launch methodology by providing content such as workshop presentations and project accelerators. The contents of the delivery toolkits guide consultants and customers on how tasks are executed for a specific SAP solution. More specific examples of what you might find in a delivery toolkit are the project kickoff workshop presentation and the project schedule template.
• SAP Launch implementation methodologies are harmonized across the success factors, Ariba, cloud for the customer, business bydesign, cloud for travel, and expense solutions.

SAP Launch is a very prescriptive and predictable methodology that is lean and fast, while at the same time it incorporates the iterative and agile approach where it makes sense, like with configuration and testing. This allows us to lead with best practices, yet involve the customer in the configuration and testing cycles to ensure that the solution fits their business.

As we dive into the SAP Launch methodology, we'll notice that there are four phases of the implementation project lifecycle, including prepare, realize, verify, and launch:

The following are the phases in the SAP Launch methodology:

• Streams: The main components of the methodology are streams. Streams are collections of tasks required to achieve one or many deliverables. Streams can span many phases (as can be seen in the preceding diagram, for example, the project management stream spanning across all the four phases and solution adoption spanning across realize, verify, and launch).
• Q-Gates: The streams are grouped into milestones called Quality Gates. The examples are the solution acceptance Q-Gates and go-live Q-Gates. Quality Gates are executed to confirm that all stakeholders of the implementation project agree that specific deliverables meet the requirements and consequently that the project can continue. They also help maintain the expectation and make sure that the project is heading in the right direction. Points undertaken as a part of Q-Gates also act as an agreement between both the project team and the steady state/release management team. They help in taking objective decisions.
• Ellipsis: The streams that show an ellipsis (...), for example, which can be seen after cutover planning in the preceding diagram, indicate that other services/streams can be connected, depending on the customer's business requirements. For example, if a cloud for customer implementation has custom content in scope, then the extensibility stream would be plugged into the methodology.

The phases, streams, and Q-Gates establish the sequence of the activities. Let's dive deeper and take a closer look at the deliverable of each stream.

All the deliverables for project verification Q-Gate are completed in the prepare phase:

Let's see what is done or expected to be done in streams that are part of this Q-Gate. The project management stream is the deliverables for this stream that start with the handover from the sales team to the services delivery team. The two teams together review the statement of work (SOW) scope, business drivers, goals, objectives, and relevant success metrics.

Once done, the project manager, along with the customer, finalizes the project schedule, identifies project resources, procures tenant(s), creates the project document repository, and initiates the project status calls/reports. The project is formally kicked off onsite or remotely with the entire team via a workshop:

• Solution design stream: The best practices for the to-be business processes are reviewed with the customer, and configuration values are acquired. The project scope is finalized and confirmed in this stream. If the project scope varies from the statement of work, then a change order is executed.
• Integration preparation: The prerequisites for integration, security, and infrastructure are prepared by the team. If there is data replication required, the necessary mapping is done.

The project verification Q-Gate confirms that all stakeholders agree on the implementation scope before proceeding with the project.

The deliverables for the solution acceptance Q-Gate are spread over the prepare and realize phases:

Here, the deliverables are focused on the realization of the agreed upon scope within the SAP solution. Let's see what is done or expected to be done in streams that are part of this Q-Gate:

• Project management stream: The project execution deliverable continues as the project manager continues with project status meetings, status reports, and risk management.
• Project team enablement stream: As soon as the project initiation happens, the enablement begins, as project team members receive numerous details to prepare for the project and work with the solution. Some of the enablement is delivered via workshops.
• Solution configuration stream: In this stream, the system is configured and tested using sample customer data. This includes the configuration of any relevant mobile devices and connections to external service providers.
• Solution walkthrough stream: It is used to demonstrate to the customer how his end-to-end process will look within his system. Many times, due to unavailability of all the components, a conceptual walkthrough can also be presented to the customer.

An agile approach allows for several iterations of solution configuration, testing, and walkthrough prior to executing the solution acceptance Q-Gate.

The deliverables for the readiness acceptance Q-Gate are completed throughout the realize and verify phases. Some data migration activities begin as early as the prepare road:

The readiness acceptance Q- Gate is done once the project team decides that the system, resources or people, and data are ready to proceed with the cutover into the production tenant:

• Project management stream: The project execution deliverable is repeated as the project manager continues with project status meetings, status reports, and risk management.
• Data migration stream: The data is first extracted from the legacy system and cleansed, then Loaded for testing.
• Integration setup stream: It's started in the test tenant. Once the solution testing deliverables are successfully completed, then the setup is repeated in the production tenant.
• Solution testing stream: This begins with the customer preparing all the testing documentation. Then, the customer fully tests all end-to-end scenarios using migrated data. This should include analytics, forms, user access, integration, and custom solution extensions.
• Cutover planning stream: The project team begins to prepare for the cutover by identifying and scheduling the necessary tasks and resources.

An example of a plugin for the readiness acceptance Q-Gate is when a partner builds a custom solution extension for SAP cloud for travel and expense.

Here again, an agile approach allows for several iterations of data migration, integration set-up, and solution testing prior to executing the readiness acceptance Q-Gate. All testing issues must be resolved or an alternative solution identified before completing the Q-Gate.

Deliverables for Go-live Q-Gate are primarily completed during the verify and launch phases. Some solution adoption activities are executed in the realize phase:

It is the last Q-Gate of the launch phase and occurs at the end:

• Project management stream: In addition to the daily project execution, toward the end of the project, the service delivery hands the customer over to SAP support and closes out the project.
• Solution adoption stream: In this stream, the customer prepares the transition plan that will be used to roll out the new solution within the organization and with other impacted parties. This includes activities to train users, initiate the productive use of the new solution, and push adoption within the organization.
• Cutover execution stream: This delivers a production system that is ready for real transactions. Once go-live Q-Gate is executed, operational transactions are entered and processed in the production environment. Additional purchases by customers (such as go-live support and training) can be also plugged into the methodology as a stream.

The workstreams in SAP Launch are structured into following Quality Gates (as shown in the following image):

• Project verification: This Q-Gate ensures that all stakeholders agree on the implementation project scope
• Solution acceptance Q- Gate: At the end of the realize phase, the solution acceptance Q-Gate confirms that all stakeholders agree that the demonstrated business processes meet the implementation project requirements and that all configuration questions are addressed
• Readiness acceptance Q-Gate: This is when all stakeholders agree that the systems, data, and people are ready to execute cutover

Go-live Q-Gate confirms with all stakeholders that the cutover is complete and the organization is ready to use and support the new solution productively:

SAP Launch is an agile methodology with a little of the waterfall method sprinkled throughout. It uses a very prescriptive and predictable methodology that is lean and fast, while at the same time it incorporates the iterative and agile approaches where it makes sense, like with configuration and testing. This allows us to lead with best practices yet involve the customer in the configuration and testing cycles to ensure that the solution fits their business.

The SAP Activate methodology is a modular and agile framework, which can be used for the following purposes:

• Implementation or migration of SAP systems (with additional focus on SAP S/4HANA)
• A unique combination of SAP best practices, methodology, and guided configuration
• System conversion or a transformation of a larger landscape
• It is the fastest way to simplify your operations with or without SAP S/4HANA

The salient features of SAP Activate are as follows:

• It delivers ready-to-run business processes optimized for SAP S/4HANA with a reference solution
• It has a set of tools for an assisted implementation, covering everything from the initial implementation of a project to running in a production environment and beyond
• It accelerates the initial implementation of SAP S/4HANA and is designed for continuous innovation
• It is the combination of SAP best practices, tools for an assisted implementation, and an agile methodology to simplify the adaptation of SAP S/4HANA
• It facilitates different starting points for customers to move to S/4HANA—new implementation, system conversion, and landscape transformation
• It uses a single methodology for all deployment modes—cloud, premise, and hybrid

SAP best practices, guided configuration, and SAP Activate methodology form the three pillars for SAP Activate, with each bringing special capabilities along with it. In the following diagram, we have jotted down some of the key capabilities that each of these provides to SAP Activate:

Let's go a step further and see how these three pillars (SAP Activate overall) support customers' adoption scenarios (details of scenarios are discussed separately):

There are three scenarios for the transition to SAP S/4HANA. Let's see the three scenarios and find out the innovation that SAP Activate brings with it for these scenarios.

For a new implementation, where the customer is implementing a new SAP S/4HANA system with initial data load, SAP Activate brings in innovations, and the mentioned innovations can be discovered in the discover phase of SAP Activate:

Let's see phase by phase how SAP Activate supports a customer's implementation of a new SAP S/4HANA system.

SAP Activate's discover phase lets you try and experience the digital business processes offerings:

Innovations delivered with SAP Activate for a new implementation to SAP S/4HANA:

• Preconfigured trial role-based self-led evaluation of SAP S/4HANA based on model company
• Utilizing SAP Fiori user experience
• Integrated help functionality embedded into the product
• Free, click-through license for customers and prospects
• For cloud and on-premise

For the prepare and explore phase of SAP Activate, SAP has delivered the following innovation (for new implementation); this allows customers to start with a model company:

• Prepare setup of projects, install—SAP HANA DB (with applications core), SAP S/4HANA, and Fiori UIs
• Explore ready-to-run business and integration processes optimized for SAP S/4HANA leveraging preconfigured enterprise structure and predefined master data
• Enterprise template to support multiple countries in one client
• Includes International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS)
• Embedded into the standard product shipment of SAP S/4HANA

For the realize phase of SAP Activate, SAP has delivered the following innovation (for new implementation); this simplifies customers, scoping and configuration activities:

• Helps realize solution scoping and scope activation
• Guided configuration allows customers to work with SAP best practices
• User adaptation is a self-service configuration enabling customers to view and change basic settings, such as organization structure
• Expert configuration option available to help customer adapts to SAP model companies and add additional processes as needed
• Predefined mappings to target business objects; this makes the task of landscape transformation easier
• Support for initial data migration (for new implementation scenarios)
• Best practices for integration, for example, integration between SAP ERP HCM and success factors employee central

For the deploy phase of SAP Activate, SAP has delivered the following innovation; this simplifies customers, onboarding and deployment activities:

• Embedded learning and documentation for simple onboarding of end users
• Role-based learning content
• Guided tour to jumpstart the onboarding process for new users
• Context-sensitive screen help

For the run phase of SAP Activate, SAP has delivered the following innovation, which is integrated with solution manager 7.2, to ease the operate, monitor, and support phases:

• SAP solution manager integration for operations, monitoring, and support
• Continuous innovation with content lifecycle management
• With SAP solution manager 7.2, SAP best practices provide reference content for process models, project implementation guidance, and configuration documentation through WBS for each deployment scenario

Complete conversion of an existing SAP business suite system to SAP S/4HANA is basically the use case where the customer does not want to go for a new implementation but rather just convert the existing system to SAP S/4HANA:

For system conversion, SAP Activate brings in the following innovation, which runs through various phases that enable customer to experience trial (in discover), technical preparation steps, test conversion (prepare and explore), functional conversion and cutover (realize), reference content (realize), onboard and deploy (deploy), and operate, monitor, and support (run):

• Role-based self-led evaluation of SAP S/4HANA based on preconfigured business scenarios in trial systems
• Step-by-step guided system conversion with technical preparation and test conversion, with migration best practices based on optimized migration tools for SAP S/4HANA
• Best practices for integration, for example, integration between SAP ERP HCM and success factors employee central
• SAP solution manager integration for operations, monitor, and support
• Context-sensitive screen help
• With SAP solution manager 7.2, SAP best practices provide reference content for process models, project implementation guidance, and configuration documentation through WBS for each deployment scenario

This is the use case when a customer wants to consolidate their existing regional SAP business suite landscape into one global SAP S/4HANA system. Selective innovation from the preceding two scenarios (new implementation and system conversion) can serve the purpose of this scenario as well, depending on the requirements, such as integration content:

As discussed earlier, the following are the three scenarios for the transition to SAP S/4HANA. Let's see how the SAP Activate methodology provides support for all deployment approaches and what the major improvements from ASAP 8.0 and SAP Launch are.

A quick reminder: The SAP Activate methodology is designed to succeed all variants of ASAP and SAP Launch. The following table depicts this:

The major improvements can be summarized as follows:

• 10 or less key deliverables per phase, thus easier access to key guides and accelerators
• Leverage guided configuration
• Reduced project lifecycle; only four phases
• Enhanced planning and strategy workshop for SAP S/4HANA to guide the customer through the decision and planning process:

What is design thinking?

• A human-centric approach for solving complex problems by generating new ideas, design thinking is for everyone who wants to solve complex problems or create innovative products.
• Design thinking brings an outside-in perspective that helps us understand the goals and needs of our end users and customers, by which we can draw inspiration and insights that help us see new opportunities and drive solutions.
• One of the characteristics of design thinking is to rapidly come up with non-coded prototypes that illustrate ideas and drive conversations. These prototypes are used to validate solution concepts with end users as well as with technical experts.

So, the solution iteratively gets to this optimum that balances the three aspects equally.

The ingredients for design thinking are as follows:

• Combining diverse people
• In a creative space
• With an iterative approach

Design thinking is a technique that (also like many other areas) SAP Activate leverages for user-centric results in multiple contexts. Therefore, design thinking nicely complements SAP Activate:

• Design thinking in SAP Activate lets us focus on a few of the areas where it can be used. We will take a look at a few of the areas; it is not restricted to only these areas, and readers can explore other areas in other phases as well.
• Some of the needs during requirement analysis can be easily tackled by design thinking. For example, collecting requirements from stakeholders and end users and understanding and defining functional requirements.
• In order for project scoping to have better alignment with your stakeholders and scope project in the right way, you can again use design thinking (full or design thinking inspired workshop for project scoping). It will help with benefits such as creating a mission statement for the project; establishing collaboration across the different lines of businesses and stakeholders for the project; identifying the stakeholders and sponsors of the project.
• For business process design when we are challenged with designing a new, or redesigning an existing, business process, design thinking can always be of help. The design thinking workshop can help us to quickly gather knowledge about the "as-is" of the process and help to develop the "to-be". It also helps to build momentum with the customer to raise the acceptance of the new process and get the buy-in from different stockholders.
• For IT architecture design similar to business process design, one needs to quickly gather knowledge about the "as-is" situation of the IT landscape before working on the "to-be" IT landscape. Similarly, it also helps to build momentum with the customer to raise the acceptance of the new IT landscape and get the buy-in from different stockholders.

You can conduct the design thinking session and then transfer the outcomes for all the preceding activities to the SAP Activate templates.

Content for SAP Activate is available in SAP Jam and SAP solution manager. Methodology content can be navigated inside the roadmap viewer tool. In the next section, let's see how we can do so.

Roadmap viewer can be partially accessed without any special credentials; to see all the content, one would require an s-user id for it. Roadmap viewer is accessible via https://go.support.sap.com/roadmapviewer/:

SAP Activate offers general methodologies that can be used as a generic methodology irrespective of product/solution, and also product specific guidance for implementing specific solutions:

• General methodologies: Provide framework and approach for running a project across a range of solutions.
• Product specific: SAP S/4HANA, SAP HANA technology platform, and SAP solution manager provide guidance for implementation of specific products.
  The search option facilitates the search for content within the roadmap viewer.
  The terminologies used at the roadmap viewer are as follows:
  • Phases: Stage of the project, at the end of which a Quality Gate exists to verify the completion of the deliverables.
  • Deliverable: A tangible or intangible product or service produced as a result of the project that is intended to be delivered to a customer. Several deliverables are included within a workstream.
  • Task: Work to be performed; a deliverable has one or more tasks.
  • Accelerators: A document, template, pre-built content, or a web link that helps reduce the implementation time.
  • Workstreams: The progressive completion of tasks completed by different groups within a company that is required to finish a single project. It is a collection of related deliverables.
  • Services: Grouping of deliverables in transition to S/4HANA on the premise roadmap that belong to the same services:

Let's travel through some of the options in the roadmap. You can choose any of the roadmaps, depending on your need; here I chose SAP S/4HANA just to show you the details:

1. Choose the roadmap type (here I chose SAP S/4HANA):

2. Then, choose the delivery method, On Cloud or On Premise (I chose On Cloud). It shows the Available Roadmaps. You can select the roadmap you want to see (I chose SAP Activate: Implement and Configure SAP S/4 HANA Finance Cloud):

3. It takes you to the main page of the chosen roadmap:

4. We can traverse through various tabs on the roadmap main page (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6) to find out more about the various options. With Download Project Plan, we can download a template project plan and use it.

5. Clicking on Accelerators shows all the relevant accelerators for the roadmap. By default, the accelerators are grouped by phase; by clicking on it, the view can be changed, and the view will be in the group by workstream:

6. The view can be toggled by clicking on Group by Phase and we can get the view of Group by Workstream:

We can explore various tabs and options available on the roadmap and use it as per requirement.

The home page of the roadmap viewer, https://go.support.sap.com/roadmapviewer/#, has the following options to Learn More. You can explore more from the following two tabs:

SAP Jam allows you to collaborate with members of your team and with people inside SAP. You can share documents, create discussions, and communicate with the whole team.

SAP methodologies space has been created to help users access SAP delivery methodology content. Space provides access to the SAP Activate methodology, as well as selected SAP internal methodologies for the delivery of premium engagements:

One can choose different tabs on this Jam page to learn and explore more about the methodologies.

This chapter introduced SAP S/4HANA and its features. We took a detailed look at existing SAP methodologies, along with a comparison with SAP Activate. We also talked about the three pillars of SAP Activate and how it supports the different scenarios. We concluded the chapter with concepts of design thinking being used in SAP Activate and how we can get access to the SAP Activate content.

In Chapter 2, SAP Activate Methodology, we will talk about SAP Activate methodology in more detail, understanding its characteristics and structure (on cloud, on-premise, and hybrid). We will also take a look at how to handle governance, roles, and various implementation approaches.

1. What are the deployment options for SAP S/4HANA?
   • On-premise
   • Cloud:public and managed
   • Hybrid deployment
   • All of the above
2. What are the key facts about SAP S/4HANA?
   • Supports all data: social, text, and graph
   • New SAP Fiori UX for any device
   • No locking and parallelism
   • All of the above
3. What are the three pillars for SAP Activate?
   • SAP Activate - Best practices
   • SAP Activate - Methodology
   • SAP Activate - Guided configuration
   • SAP Activate - Roadmaps
   • None of the above

4. With what does SAP Activate help you?
   • Sample reference solution containing organizational data
   • Model company
   • Solves operation issues
   • One methodology for all
   • None of the above
5. What is true about SAP Activate methodology phases?
   • In prepare phase, the project is initiated and planned
   • In prepare phase, the customer team explores SAP solution functionalities
   • In explore phase, the customer team explores SAP solution functionalities
   • Structured testing and data migration is done in realize phase
   • Explore phase comes before prepare phase