S/4 HANA

From A
Developer View
What is SAP S/4HANA?
• After R/3, SAP S/4HANA is the fourth version of SAP Business Suite.
• SAP rebuilt SAP ECC from the ground up to create SAP S/4HANA in 2015 to take
advantage of SAP HANA’s performance and data analytics capabilities. That is a big
benefit and a big drawback. S/4HANA can exclusively run-on SAP HANA while SAP ECC
can run on a third-party database.
• S/4HANA is designed to solve complex problems and manage larger amounts of data
than ECC and R/3. It provides a better user experience with SAP Fiori and makes a shift
from transactional systems that record data to real-time data from internal and external
sources.
• Why are some companies reluctant to move to S/4HANA? Some companies will have to
completely overhaul their existing business processes.
• SAP S/4HANA Finance has become a steppingstone for this transition because S/4HANA
Finance allows users to move accounting and finance processes to S/4HANA while keep
using SAP ECC or other SAP products.
Why SAP S/4 HANA ?
What is the Difference Between SAP ECC vs. SAP HANA?

• SAP ECC is the ERP system and SAP HANA is the in-memory database, designed to handle
transactions and analytics. HANA was originally designed to be a data warehouse, but it has
grown into all-in-one data platform that manages analytical, transactional, and application
development.
• SAP plans on terminating its maintenance support for SAP ECC in 2027 so SAP customers will be
required to move to S/4HANA. For most companies, it’s an expensive and lengthy undertaking,
often spanning years.
 S/4 HANA Evolution
SAP introduced SAP S/4HANA in 2015. Since then, most of us are following the innovations & simplifications
in SAP S/4HANA. We also wonder about the functionalities & business benefits of SAP S/4HANA.
SAP S/4HANA On-Premise releases:
• SAP S/4HANA Finance 1503: March 2015
• SAP S/4HANA 1511: November 2015
• SAP S/4HANA Finance 1605: May 2016
• SAP S/4HANA 1610: October 2016
• SAP S/4HANA 1709: September 2017
• SAP S/4HANA 1809: September 2018
• SAP S/4HANA 1909: September 2019
• SAP S/4HANA 2020: October 2020

SAP S/4HANA Cloud releases:

• SAP S/4HANA Cloud 2011: available October 2020

Both SAP S/4HANA on-premise and the SAP S/4HANA cloud editions have release strategies. The cloud editions are released quarterly. The on-premise
edition has one new release per year and receives additional functionality and corrections in the form of Feature Pack Stacks (FPS) or Service Pack Stacks
(SPS) each quarter.
S/4 HANA
Advantages