3 steps to fail SAP S/4HANA Migration when it comes to integration

So how do you… fail SAP S/4HANA Migration?

While there’s a lot of advice regarding how to perform a successful SAP S/4HANA migration, during one of the episodes of “Navigating SAP API Testing”, we’ve decided to ask Petra Kloess a simple question – what is your best anti-advice for SAP S/4HANA Migration from the integration standpoint?

You can watch the full episode here:

So – how do you fail the integration part of your SAP S/4HANA Migration? Here are three simple steps mentioned by Petra. And full disclosure – this is a humorous article and is not supposed to be taken seriously. Having that said, let’s dive in:

Step #1 – Ignore Innovation

The world is changing rapidly. And the speed of innovation is faster than ever before. In the 1900s, it took companies decades to grow from small to big. Now cases like Warby Parker show that this can be achieved in just a couple of years. That’s the world we live in today. This means you need to stay agile. And Business AI is just a part of this trend.

So with this plethora of possibilities to automate and innovate… Why would you want to have a process designed in the 1990s, running in the system in 2024? During the last couple of years, the world has changed significantly. It’s completely different from the standpoint of technology, security and privacy. And your business needs to innovate to take full advantage of these changes.

To FAIL the integration part of your migration, simply migrate your integrations without making any changes to them. Keep using your legacy-application landscape and outdated integration styles. In this way you’ll miss out on all of the benefits of innovation such as the capability to handle more customers and revenue at the same time, increasing productivity of your warehouse management, detect fraud easier and so on.

And remember… There’s no AI without API.

Step #2 – Underestimate value of planning

Planning takes time. It costs money. It requires patience from management. And for some, it may even seem boring. And probably for this reason, “planner” is one of the most frequently overlooked roles in the SAP S/4HANA Migration.

Planning and investigating how your landscape looks and where the value of your integration is, is what helps you to ensure the Migration is safe and drives real business value. So what you SHOULD do is invest time and money into investigating and assessing which pieces of the system you should keep and which parts need to be changed. Because not everything needs to be migrated.

To find out more about the discovery, planning and preparation, read Petra’s “Migrating to SAP S/4HANA” book. Or, if you want to fail the SAP S/4HANA Migration, simply rely on your instincts and quick decisions. Alternatively you can also  simply migrate everything as-is and not put too much thought into it. That’s also a great way to fail this project.

Step #3 – Ignore the end-user

Working integration is not a goal in itself. It’s simply a way to deliver more business value and support the end-users in their business processes. As soon as you make the technical part of the integration your goal, you’re going to focus on the wrong thing.

If you want to succeed, make the end user your goal – says Petra.

The anti-advice is to ignore the end-users. If you don’t make sure that they have everything they need (e.g. documentation, good UI, help, procedures), even the best technical integration might be useless from the business point of view.

The powerpoint with the list of integrations is not the goal of your Migration. The value to the end-user is. 

Easily test your Integrations with Int4 Suite

Conversely, even the most valuable, time-saving and convenient integration will be useless if it doesn’t work from the technical point of view. And testing integrations isn’t easy if you have to rely on the help from third party resources.

The External Dependencies tend to generate tons of testing challenges, that result in significant project delays.

What is Int4 Suite?

If you’re looking for an easier way to test your SAP Integrations, we’d like to introduce you to Int4 Suite. A SAP-native platform that allows you to independently test your integrations.

Here’s a 5-minute video explaining why Fortune 1000 companies use Int4 Suite in their most important programs:

If you’d like to learn more about how your SAP program or project could benefit from using Int4 Suite, simply schedule a free demo session: