A very different road
The door you haven't opened with the biggest difference in steps from this one.
9. Keep AI outside SAP for now
Open door 9
Door 1Draft
Get SAP's AI after moving to S/4HANA
What this road promises
“SAP's AI assistants and agents are built for its cloud ERP.”Source: CIO.com
Ask yourself:
- What do I tell the business about AI until then?
- Is my team big enough to run a migration and anything else at the same time?
1Choose the migration approachAsk yourself:Which approach can my team survive?
Greenfield, brownfield or a mix.
2Build the business caseAsk yourself:The CFO will ask what the business gets out of this, beyond staying supported.
Estimate cost and benefit, get budget.
3Pick an SI and sign RISE or GROWAsk yourself:Every SI says they have capacity. Who do we actually get?Years of commitment. What's our way out?
Choose a partner, sign the subscription.
4Clean up custom codeAsk yourself:How much of our Z-code does anyone still understand?
Review custom code, drop or adapt it.
5Move the database to SAP HANAAsk yourself:A database move on top of everything else.
S/4HANA runs only on HANA.
6Clean and migrate dataAsk yourself:Our master data was never clean. The timeline slips here.
Clean master data, move it over.
7Rework integrationsAsk yourself:Every interface we touch is a risk to daily operations.
Update every interface to other systems.
8TestingAsk yourself:Who in the business has time to test on top of their job?
Business users test before go-live.
9Go-live and stabilizationAsk yourself:The first months after go-live are firefighting. AI won't be anyone's priority.
Switch over, then fix what breaks.
10Activate Joule and AI scenariosAsk yourself:Which AI scenarios cover our processes?What does it cost once people use it?
Turn on SAP's AI and pick scenarios.
11AdoptionAsk yourself:Will people use Joule, or keep exporting to Excel like today?
Adoption depends on whether it beats the workaround people use today.
Where this road lands
- AI you get
- SAP's AI, built into the new ERP.
- Time to production
- After go-live. Usually 12–24 months.
- Source: IBsolution (Vendor and partner content)
- Cost
- Subscription plus the migration project. No public price.
- Team load
- Very high. The whole SAP team.
- New systems
- S/4HANA, BTP, an SI contract.
- Survives migration
- This road is the migration.
- Security and licensing
- Inside your SAP contract.
- Adoption risk
- New system and new habits at once.
Add this road to my plan
Open another door
Another road you haven't opened
One of the doors you haven't opened, picked at random.
2. Commit to RISE now, get Joule on ECC while moving
Open door 2