Author: Christopher Bicknell, SAP Archiving and ILM Consultant at TJC Group
Having worked somewhere previously that was about to embark on a journey to S/4 HANA (upgrade from ECC) I’ve followed RISE with SAP now and then so when the opportunity presented to hear a SAP talk about RISE at the latest edition of UKISUG Connect, I jumped at the chance. It’s not often you get to hear from the head of RISE with SAP in the UK.
It was certainly interesting to hear the presenter at the start tell the audience one of the first things they need to address is to put their data in order, ready for the move to S/4HANA. As a data management consultancy, this is something we strongly recommend too. In fact, here’s another article about HANA Database and how to keep data growth under control
It’s worth mentioning that with S/4 HANA, you will need to size up your in-memory database, so you buy the right size. In S/HANA, memory is synonymous with money which means if you can manage your data by slimming down what you no longer need live in the database, there are long-term monetary savings to be made when you get to S/4, as well as keeping your system lean and fast.
It was good to see a slide showing the services SAP offers as part of RISE, and at least a clear definition of what RISE is – a managed SaaS cloud service that helps organisations using on-premise ERP software, including SAP ECC and SAP S/4HANA, to migrate to the cloud securely and smoothly with complete cloud infrastructure and migration services.
This is clearly SAP’s attempt to get people onto the cloud in a way they can manage and get themselves a slice of the cloud action. It also means they can encourage customers who are on SAP ECC to move S/4, trying to take away some of the nervousness that such a big software move will bring.
Some of my key takeaways from the RISE with SAP talk:
- The biggest one is that SAP is pushing Artificial Intelligence. I think I lost count of how many times AI was mentioned. I’ve no doubt we’ll hear more of this over time as is the technology trend. While AI is included in some cloud applications, SAP now has some ‘Premium AI’ which will be available as part of ‘Rise Premium Plus’ or as a paid Add-On.
- For the first time, I also learnt about the SAP RISE tied offerings:
RISE with SAP S/4HANA Cloud, private edition, base
RISE with SAP S/4HANA Cloud, private edition, premium
RISE with SAP S/4HANA Cloud, private edition, premium plus
Naturally, as you choose a more premium plan you get more included features, such as more AI, SAP Signavio, BTP CPEA, Procurement Network and Sustainability. It’s worth noting that if you want some but not all of the features of a higher tier, you can pay for these services separately. - Something that didn’t come as a surprise was SAP saying that some new strategic features including AI, Sustainability and Industry Innovations will be delivered only for cloud ERP via RISE with SAP. This isn’t too surprising given the computing power needed for AI and the interconnectivity needed between SAP products to give real-time AI results.
These are a few examples of generative AI scenarios:
Supply Chain: SAP Transportation Management – Goods receipt processing.
IT & Cross Function: SAP Digital Assistant – Product Documentation Search.
HR: Success Factors – Job description and interview questions generation.
It’ll certainly be worth following where SAP innovates and takes AI in the future. I think we’ll see more of this included only in the RISE family.
References:
- RISE with SAP, SAP Products. Link: https://www.sap.com/uk/products/erp/rise.html
- SAP Diversifies Cloud Offerings to Accelerate Customer Innovation, SAP News. Link: https://news.sap.com/2023/10/cloud-offerings-accelerate-customer-innovation-rise-with-sap/
- SAP Data Management for S/4HANA migration, TJC Group. Link: https://www.tjc-group.com/data-management-s4hana-migration/
