Then, because a direct changeover to SAP S/4HANA was not possible, the original system had to be upgraded to the SAP ERP 6.0 version with EHP 5. The EHP 7 enhancement package for SAP ERP was also imported in this step.
“Changing over to SAP ERP with an intermediate step was already something special. However, it did not cause us any technical problems, so we were able to perform the readiness check directly afterwards and implement all further preliminary projects that were necessary,” says Dr. Thomas Fischer, project lead and partner at GAMBIT Consulting.
In the readiness check, the experts examined a number of factors, including the required size of the HANA database after the in-place upgrade, which Fiori apps could be used with SAP S/4HANA, and – by using the Simplification List for SAP S/4HANA – which changes and new features there would be with SAP S/4HANA compared to the legacy system.
Several preliminary projects that are mandatory before a system conversion were also implemented: the introduction of the new general ledger (New GL), a customer vendor integration to replace customer and vendor data with the new “Business Partner” master data object, and the introduction of new Asset Accounting.
Once these preliminary projects had been completed, the actual technical migration from SAP ERP 6.0 to SAP S/4HANA finally followed in August 2022. “Together, we managed to complete the project right on schedule and at an even lower cost than originally expected,” says Dr. Thomas Fischer.