S/4Hana Cloud: the intelligent ERP in the SAP cloud

What is S/4Hana Cloud?

It is the intelligent ERP in the SAP cloud. Today we are witnessing clear indicators that the market is changing. In fact, most analyst firms predict growth rates of up to 20% in the next 24 months for the ERP Cloud market.

What key features should an intelligent ERP have in the cloud?

Cloud ERP systems must have three key features:

• Be based on industry knowledge: industry experience is key to bringing about the best practices that lead companies to the next level.
• Be intuitive: as software becomes a larger partner in business life, interaction must be more personal.
• Be smart: automatic learning, predictive analytics and digital assistants are innovations that work to overcome the stress of current systems and, thus, must be the core of the software architecture.

What is the difference between other ERPs on the market and even SAP's version?

It is easy to think that a cloud-based ERP solution is simply a diluted version of a conventional ERP system, committed to technology or capacity in some way. With S/4HANA Cloud, this is not the case. With end-to-end processes that support financing, the plan for the product and order to collect and procuring payment, we offer company-ready functionalities.

However, and most importantly, S/4HANA Cloud offers the same benefits as S/4HANA.

Innovations with S/4HANA Cloud are released quarterly, allowing our customers to apply them quickly. Some key innovations that are delivered with S/4HANA Cloud include SAP Co-Pilot, the new Digital Assistant, which allows users to go far beyond simple scenarios.

SAP S/4HANA Cloud has been developed to coexist in a heterogeneous system environment with native integrations to other SAP solutions and open interfaces for future integrations and extensions through the SAP Cloud Platform.

S/4HANA OnAward and S/4HANA Cloud share their data model, offering a two-tier ERP environment, which is a massive advantage in a framework of headquarters and subsidiaries.

What is the value proposal of S/4Hana Cloud?

It is a solution that is bringing ERP into the digital age. With SAP S/4HANA Cloud, you can grow and change at any speed, with a real-time view of the business and the ability to act instantly and intelligently.

Simplicity, speed and lower cost. It also allows users to apply Artificial Intelligence to eliminate repetitive tasks and make suggestions based on employee patterns and behaviour.

What key features would you highlight from S/4Hana Cloud?

I would note three features:

• Decision-making based on data with predictive analytics. SAP has launched more than 100 AI solutions and automation processes in the latest versions of SAP S/4HANA Cloud.
• It simplifies consolidation and integration between central offices and subsidiaries with the implementation of "Two Tier".
• It is easily extended with native integration to other SAP solutions and open interfaces.

Does it have analytical tools?

The analysis is embedded in the product itself, as thanks to HANA technology, it allows users to harness analytical data in real time without the need for aggregation and consolidation windows.

What is the roadmap of this product for the future?

In general, the product will end up delivering all S/4HANA OnPremiere features, although not with the same applications, as it is rewriting most of them to simplify and provide intelligence to all business processes.

If we talk about detail, SAP gives us the ability to see the product's roadmap almost one year into the future, and it also allows us to influence releases by means of a website where users and partners put forward solutions to be added to the product.

Have you implemented this solution in any client? What are the results?

We are implementing this solution in several clients and helping others to make better use of the quarterly innovations offered by the product.

We have spent a lot of time in training and are starting to reap the benefits, since, in a Cloud-based product, the ability to adjust business processes to the standard is one of the main keys to success. The results are tremendous...

What type of companies would you recommend for implementing this solution?

Service-based companies, product distributors, component manufacturers, project managers, etc. Each SAP release brings more and better functionalities to cover, in the very near future, all types of business that the OnPremiere version covers today.