SAP approved the reappointment of IBA Group as SAP Gold Service Partner (SAP PE Service Gold Partner) within the SAP PartnerEdge Program. The SAP PE Service Gold Partner status serves as a recognition of IBA Group’s expertise in the implementation, integration, consulting, and maintenance of SAP solutions.

To become an SAP PE Service Gold Partner, IBA Group had to meet strict criteria in terms of customer implementation validation, SAP certifications, and dedicated SAP resources. Company’s clients contributed to the implementation validation process. The availability of a team of more than 300 certified consultants was another important factor that influenced the SAP’s decision.

History of Cooperation with SAP

IBA Group began implementing projects with the use of SAP technologies in 1996. Eventually, SAP became a key component of the company’s service portfolio and in 2005, SAP appointed IBA as an SAP service partner for the first time.

In 2020, SAP qualified IBA Conversion Pack for SAP S/4HANA as an SAP Qualified Partner-Packaged Solution. The solution was built using the experience the IBA team gained from implementing S/4HANA solutions for more than 3,500 end users in five countries.

In 2021, the IBA Group’s SAP S/4HANA solution for Georgian Railways became a winner of the European IT & Software Excellence Awards. The SAP S/4HANA solution unified and standardized business processes at the large-scale railway organization that had no experience of working with an ERP system.

The other IBA Group’s award-winning solutions based on SAP technologies were an ERP/Supply Chain Management Solution (2014) and an SAP Profitability and Performance Management Solution for a Telecommunications Company (2019).

IBA Group’s SAP Service Offerings

IBA Group offers high quality ABAP/4 development and consulting for SAP modules, release changes, and a remote help desk. For US clients, the company focuses on SAP S/4HANA migration and SAP application management services.

SAP-certified consultants support customers through the entire project cycle, solving all types of problems. The IBA team of high-skilled professionals with more than 20 years of experience in diverse SAP projects assists customers in building and adapting mission-critical systems and applications.

Benefits of Working with SAP Gold Partner

The Gold designations make it easier for companies to find experienced partners and choose the best fit for their needs, as SAP PartnerEdge Gold Partners perform at a high level across their entire business and demonstrate a strong commitment to delivering business value to SAP customers. With an SAP Gold Partner like IBA Group, clients gain a reliable provider qualified in every aspect of SAP development, support, and consultancy.

IBA Group achieves SAP certification for IBA Conversion Pack for SAP S/4HANA, the company’s SAP S/4HANA migration solution.

The SAP Certificate of Qualification says, “IBA Conversion Pack for SAP S/4HANA that addresses the specific business needs of companies moving from SAP ERP / SAP Business Suite has been reviewed and qualified as an SAP-qualified partner-packaged solution for Conversion to SAP S/4HANA®.”

SAP recognizes that the solution from IBA Group is “deployed based on a predefined scope, leveraging the use of pre-configuration, accelerators, methodologies, and tailored partner services to help customers run simple and realize a rapid time-to-value with reduced risk and a predictable outcome.”

Author: Natalia Lysenko

A well-established company specializing in advanced information and communications technology solutions approached IBA Group with a kuna-to-euro migration project. After the Croatian government passed the decision about the transition to the euro, the company contacted IBA Group with the request to switch their existing S/4HANA-based ERP system from HRK to EUR in accordance with the legally determined timeframe. The scope of work included key modules, such as Finance (FI), Controlling (CO), Material Management (MM), and Warehouse Management (WM).

Challenges

The client chose the IBA team for the project because we had vast experience in transferring ERP systems from one currency to another. However, the deadline was tight with no possibility of extension—something that only trusted providers and SAP partners are capable of doing. Another significant challenge of the project was keeping the existing functionality and data.

Solution

Before starting the project, the IBA team conducted a thorough due diligence with regard to the regulatory landscape in order to ensure timely delivery and compliance. After that, we ran a high-quality pre-sale and examined the customer’s existing IT infrastructure to provide accurate time, cost, and upload estimates, including the participation of the customer’s team so that no operational gap could occur.

Results

Once the project was implemented, the customer obtained stable ERP systems converted in the euro, preserving all the data, report forms, and productivity, as well as containing additional customizations.

Lessons Learned and Best Practices

The cross-currency migration of ERP systems requires extreme caution in the legal area to avoid financial accounting issues in the future. Whether the SAP version you are running is ECC or SAP S/4HANA, the transition of an ERP system to another currency can be performed quickly and cause no harm to your internal business cycles. For the implementation of such a project, one needs to have adequate preparatory measures in place or select a contractor that has a proven record of accomplishment. Another viable recommendation is to combine transition to the euro with conversion to SAP S/4HANA.

Author: Andrew Dvirnyk

Recently, we sat down with Inga Prangishvili, Deputy Director of the Information Technology (WBS) branch of the JSC Georgian Railway, to talk about a challenging innovative SAP/S4 HANA implementation project. JSC Georgian Railway is a major transportation company, and the largest employer in its country. Companies like this have unique demands for SAP/S4 HANA, and a host of challenges in the best of circumstances.

In our candid, three-part conversation, Inga walks us through some of those challenges. In this installment, Inga shares how the GR engaged IBA Group after the initial project had stalled in the Deploy phase failing to transition from legacy systems to S/4HANA.

She offers helpful insight on when to involve project managers and project architects in the supplier selection process and how to create a matrix to select the right supplier for a project when the stakes are high.

Transitioning From Legacy Systems to SAP S/4 HANA Problems

“In the summer of 2017, we faced difficulties completing the Deploy phase and transitioning to S/4 HANA and had to choose a supplier to help us restart the project. We had full support and executive sponsorship for this,” Inga explains. As a result, the GR needed to choose a new supplier when they were crunched for time, and quick turnaround was imperative.

After committing time, money, and trust to the initial SAP S/4HANA project, it was a “difficult decision” to take a step back and restart. However, as Inga explains, the GR needed to find experts who could deliver on time and meet the project’s objectives.

So, the company was strategic about the selection process. They developed a specific set of requirements and a clear idea of needs. Then they evaluated meticulously.

“When Georgian Railway faced the necessity to find a new SAP deployment supplier mid-project, there were concerns that the first of the year deadlines would not be met, says Inga, “but thanks to IBA Group, we were able to meet our deadline and get superior quality.”

Selection Process

The GR looked at five SAP S/4HANA implementation providers. Inga notes that it is important to involve the project manager and the project architect at the selection phase. These are the individuals who understand the scope of the project. They need to be able to have a good workflow with the supplier and to feel confident that project goals are met in a timely manner.

Throughout the selection process, Inga says, the GR was looking for “a strong, well established company in the market who [also] had strong subject matter expertise.” They narrowed down the search to five SAP S/4HANA suppliers. Because the company had no time for error, they not only held personal meetings with each of the suppliers; they “went onsite to look for a good team that knows how to work together.”

SAP S/4HANA Supplier Selection Matrix

Inga and her team looked at what projects the prospective suppliers had completed previously. They looked at the results of those projects. And they reviewed how the suppliers were perceived by customers. After meeting with suppliers who had successful large-scale projects and good customer feedback, the company created a matrix and weighted the answers.

In addition to evaluating projects, they used the matrix to look at the people who needed to be involved in the project. The matrix was built on the initial project’s experience. They evaluated partners, project managers, architects, analysts, organizational leaders, and their respective areas and levels of expertise.

We analyzed the data collected in the partner selection matrix,” says Inga, “and it showed that IBA came out first in virtually every selection criterion.”

Choosing the Right SAP S/4HANA Supplier

Inga admits that, even after the rigorous selection process, she and her team still could not be sure if they made the right choice. After the issues they encountered in the original project, Inga and her team “couldn’t be sure IBA Group wouldn’t fail either.”

But after taking a leap of faith, it was time to get started. The company engaged IBA Group in November 2017, to start on the project with a go-live date of January 1, 2018.

What Happens When the Unexpected Arises and You’re Running Out of Time?

In the second part of our conversation, Inga and IBA Group’s Global Delivery Director for SAP Services, Igor Bordak, talk about what happened with the implementation project.

They speak frankly about some of the surprises they encountered. They talk about the flexibility required by a supplier who inherits a project mid-way through the process. And they explain whether it is possible to simplify implementation solutions for a company – and a project – of this magnitude.

Stay tuned for Part 2 of our conversation!

Author: Andrew Dvirnyk

This week, we are so excited to be celebrating Thanksgiving with our US clients and friends. Even though this year has been full of challenges and circumstances no one could anticipate, we feel honored to be able to take a moment to come together to acknowledge the gratitude we have for all of our partners and clients. And for all we have been able to do together this year.

Here at IBA Group, everything we do is about more than simply providing the best solutions and strategies for our customers. Every member of our teams, from developers and engineers, to sales and marketing professionals, all the way up to our executive team, considers it our mission to provide SMART solutions for our clients and partners.

What does that mean? Well, it means that in the office and out of the office, we commit to sustainability, multi-faceted problem solving, automation that makes a real difference, reliability, and trust.

And so, this week, as we all pause for a moment of gratitude, we look at some of the ways our SMART ethos helps to make things easier, more efficient, and more beneficial for you.

Personal

From outsourcing to SAP migration, and everything in between, we see our client engagements as real, personal interactions. So, even though we have been working on mainframe and problem solving for businesses of all sizes and leading in automation for three decades, we approach every client interaction as the unique and important relationship it is.

That means that YOU, your needs, your challenges, and your goals are at the center of everything we do. We are grateful for every opportunity to get to know more about your business, to listen to your insights and objectives, and to show we care enough to deliver the best for you. Every time.

Collaborative

Our success is your success. That is an important part of why we partner with you to make your business work better. In fact, creativity and success are born from expertise and collaboration. And we consider it part of our mission to deliver both.

We are grateful to collaborate with businesses that provide essential services like banking, energy delivery, and transportation. In our own way, and as a team, we have much to be proud of, and we are grateful to continue making businesses run more smoothly no matter the challenges they face.

Reliable

Our IBA Group experienced engineers are driven by excellence to work tirelessly for you. We go above and beyond because the work matters. The people behind the work matter. And every person you serve matters. Your customers are your greatest asset, and we protect and preserve that asset on a daily basis.

We are grateful for the trust you give us – and the trust you have given us – for over three decades. And it is in that spirit of gratitude and thanksgiving that we continue to honor our commitment to working for you tirelessly and proudly.

Happy Thanksgiving! Thank you for putting your trust in us.

Photo by Priscilla Du Preez on Unsplash

Author: Andrew Dvirnyk

For more than a quarter of a century, IBA Group engineers and developers have been providing application management support to businesses that span the industries that make the world run – and run well. Our clients include transportation groups, utility companies, banks, and other essential businesses who answer to customers with high needs, who demand efficiency and reliability.

And SAP support is one of the key ways that we help our clients meet their demands and help them sustain their success. In fact, IBA Group provides SAP support for the entire SAP landscape around the globe, including North America, Europe, India and Asia Pacific. Here in the US, we provide SAP support at all levels, working directly with in-house developers to ensure that SAP investments are well-spent and solutions are designed to fit every business according to its specific needs.

SAP Partnerships

IBA Group offers a variety of services for SAP, all of which make your operation run more smoothly and help you get the most out of your SAP investment. PartnerEdge empowers us to deliver more to your business. With efficiency and speed in mind, SAP PartnerEdge empowers us to design and develop solutions. And to integrate and operationalize applications for your business seamlessly.

Further, as an SAP Development Partner, our experienced team members develop the core of SAP on JAVA language. This means that you get sustainable support that keeps your applications working harder for you.

SAP Service Partnerships mean that our team is poised to develop SAP code to provide additional, important solutions and application management specifically for the needs of our clients and the customers they serve.

When we talk about partnership, we mean more than just SAP certification. We make a total commitment to the quality and reliability of the services we provide. Together, in partnership with you, we deploy our SAP Partner expertise to build, innovate, and sustain.

IBA Group is SAP Gold Service Partner

Around our offices, we like to say that IBA Group is an SAP Pure Gold Service Partner. Why pure gold? Because we earn our SAP Gold certification based entirely on the number of SAP implementations we complete each year.

To understand what this means, we need to review at what it takes to become a certified SAP Gold Service Partner. In order be certified as an SAP Gold Service Partner, a firm like IBA Group is required to have expertise in the field, and to complete a certain number of SAP implementations and/or sell licenses. In our case, we are so committed to the development work we do, that we earn our Gold Partner status every year based on implementation, not license sales.

And that is why we are pure gold. Because we bring you high level expertise in building the solutions you need, not pitching what we think you should want.

Photos by Johnny Mcclung Unsplash

Author: Andrew Dvirnyk

As a partner to the businesses who choose IBA Group for SAP development and applications management, we take it upon ourselves to make your goals our goals. For that reason, in addition to developing SAP solutions that improve efficiencies, we also commit to helping you get the most of your SAP investment. And that includes, importantly, using applications management support to reduce costs across your enterprise.

After three decades in business and expertise in design, development, deployment, and maintenance, IBA Group is uniquely suited to provide support across all levels. For our US clients, we focus on Level 2 and Level 3 support because it allows you to get the most out of our expertise, and to save money on hiring, training, development, and consulting costs.

Technical Knowledge Meets Business Knowledge

For our clients, we bring our experience to life as a trusted partner. That means that, in addition to high level technical knowledge, we also bring our understanding of business needs and requirements, regulations and constraints.

When we develop solutions and deliver application management support, we take all these factors into account. Then, we develop solutions that are the right fit for your environment and your customers. This approach not only connects you to what you need cost effectively, it also saves you time and the consequences of failed attempts to build what you require, or use what you have productively.

How we Reduce Customer Cost on Level 2 and Level 3 SAP Support

Because we are SAP developers – elite, trusted SAP solutions and application management support providers – we save businesses money in multiple ways. Let’s start with how we help you get the most out of your internal resources.

By bringing in IBA Group as SAP developers, we save you the investment of lengthy, expensive training for your in-house IT Team. Your in-house team can comfortably provide Level 1 SAP Support for your organization, along with performing the other functions you need them to perform.

On the other hand, if you wanted to get Level 2 support in-house, you are suddenly looking at a significantly larger burden on your organizational structure, your budgets, and your timelines.

The Expense of Building In-House IT Teams for SAP Support

Simply put, most in-house IT Teams are not built to handle Level 2 and Level 3 SAP Support. So, if you were to try to assign this task to them, you would encounter any (or all) of the following scenarios. In the first scenario, you hire full-time SAP developers who bring the same level of experience and skill that we provide. That means investing in multiple high-level professionals, including their salaries, training, and benefits.

In the second scenario, you attempt to increase the skillset of your existing IT staff. In order to do that, you must make equally significant investments of both money and time in training these professionals to build the skills necessary to provide Level 2 and Level 3 SAP support. Of course, the first problem with this scenario is that even after that considerable investment in training, and the time spent waiting for your in-house team to require the baseline necessary skills, you still end up with a team that has no experience. After all that time and money, you are ultimately paying for your employees to learn on the job.

Furthermore, and we have encountered this many times in companies in the US and around the world, once you make that sizable investment in training, after you have committed time and money you cannot get back, there is no guarantee that the staff you trained will stay. In fact, turnover happens frequently, especially when your employees have been handed marketable skills that they can take somewhere else.

By partnering with us, you avoid cost and risk. And you benefit from our expertise, along with our proven efficiency and quality.

Architecture: Seeing the Whole Picture

That said, we respect in-house IT Teams. In fact, we see ourselves as partners with the developers and engineers you have on staff. The way we look at it, we each bring out the best in the other, which, ultimately, leads to the best outcomes for your organization.

Our SAP Gold Partner Certified developers work with the staff you have to create seamless delivery and seamless communication to you about what solutions we are deploying and how those solutions improve the overall ecosystem of your operation. Here, solutions architects are crucial to cost savings. In many situations, business users are unable to determine exactly what they need. You may understand the problems you face. Your IT Team may have a list of common complaints or errors. But you lack a clear path forward, or an understanding of what is possible from an SAP applications management point of view, to create improvements.

From our vantage point, we see the entire architecture, the whole picture. And we develop and deploy solutions appropriately to improve that picture.

Change Management

Part of how we improve that picture and continue to create savings and efficiencies for our clients, is through the change management process. Change management occurs when the business requires changes, following the first level of support. As developers who see the whole picture of needs and solutions, we understand where and when change needs to happen. We outline those changes in the Solutions Design Document and assign tasks appropriately for in-house and outsourced support.

Here, recommendations become key to keeping application management support consistent and reliable. Once we define the recommendations and create the Solutions Design Document, application management support is no longer dependent on your outsourcing partner or your existing internal staff.

As an organization, that gives you autonomy and reliability, in addition to your savings of cost and time.

Recommendations and Risk Reduction

So now, we are seeing the scope of savings and improvements that you get when you partner with SAP certified developers like IBA Group. In the spirit of trusted partnership, we caution all businesses, whether they choose to work with us or not, to include building recommendations into their engagements.

If there are no recommendations, you have no autonomy to choose another outsourcing partner down the line. You will find yourself needing to start all over again. You will waste time and money after making decisions to save both.

In our case, we never close out a project without providing recommendations. Since we promise to save you time and money and getting you the most out of your SAP investment, it would be out of sync with our commitments to you and our values as a business to walk away without giving you a sustainable path to follow.

We aim to reduce your risk now and in the future. With us and on your own. And to save you money and improve your operations along the way.

To learn more about SAP application management support from IBA Group and how to start getting more from your technology investments and in-house teams, contact us.

Photos by Jason Dent and Marcin Jozwiak on Unsplash

Author: Andrew Dvirnyk

In our previous article, we talked about overcoming the stigma of outsourcing and understanding how outsourcing is a smart collaboration solution for businesses of all kinds. We also looked at the important difference between outsourcing (an expert-level business practice) and outstaffing (a functional-level business practice).

This time, we are taking a closer look at the value of outsourcing for businesses looking to make the most of their technology investments.

Outsourcing Maximizes Technology Investments

Of all technology investments designed to improve the efficiency and capability of your organization, SAP is among the most significant. We work with large numbers of SAP users across industries, from logistics and transportation, to finance, banking, and utilities.

Despite the differences in those industries, we see commonalities in SAP support needs, particularly, the need to access expert-level SAP support from a third party. And, even more importantly, to get that support from a team that has more experience and more depth than the resources available in-house.

What Does Outsourcing SAP Support Mean?

Many of our SAP support customers do not know exactly what they need when it comes to SAP Support or SAP S/4HANA Migration. This is true for a variety of reasons. For starters, SAP is complex and rich in terms of the number of things it touches across the enterprise. In many ways, it is precisely because SAP offers so much that it can be so difficult to identify how to maximize value, and, quite simply, where to start. It is also why it is difficult to support, particularly for in-house staff tasked with a variety of responsibilities, who are not SAP experts.

Beyond that, even when customers have a sense of what they need, they often struggle to identify how to get it done. Specifically, customers tend to struggle with designing the right plan for how to support SAP efficiently and affordably in-house. At the end of the day, one of the best ways to avoid these struggles, and to get the most out of your SAP investment, is to outsource SAP support to a team of experts like IBA Group.

Make Complications Someone Else’s Problem

Even for seasoned professionals, SAP Support is complicated. For in-house IT staff, maintaining and supporting SAP is especially challenging. In many cases, when clients attempt to give it a go entirely on their own, we see an exhausted in-house team, and less than optimal results. This is understandable, especially if your team is not staffed exclusively with SAP experts.

By choosing to outsource SAP support to IBA Group, or a company like ours, you are securing a team of SAP support experts, not just IT experts who happen to know a little bit about working with SAP. We are familiar with SAP complexities. We have run the scenarios. And we have lived and breathed – and resolved – the challenges that come with maintaining enterprises like yours.

Sometimes we joke that, by choosing our Team, you are taking all your SAP problems and giving them to us. The thing is, we enjoy it. Our engineers have dedicated years to studying, working in the field, building, and applying knowledge that make them SAP support masters. And they are eager to share their hard work – and hard-won lessons – with you.

By outsourcing SAP support, you are removing all the trial and error from your process. Because we have already gone through all of it. That means we get to the heart of the solutions faster for you. The result of all that work is that we empower your enterprise to operate optimally faster, and with greater frequency. With SAP touching so much of your operation, this means you benefit, and so do your customers, now and in the future.

What Does Outsourcing SAP Support to IBA Group Look Like?

Choosing IBA Group for your outsourcing needs, particularly for SAP support, gives you the freedom to customize a team of professionals that is best suited for your needs and goals. We bring decades of experience to every project – and by extension, to every client.  This means that you get access to a level of knowledge and expertise that is hard to find and expensive to build. This is especially true if you need the help now. It takes years to build teams that have the amount of experience and the number of successes that our Team has.

By outsourcing SAP Support to IBA Group, you get all of that right away. No growing pains, no learning curves. And no time or money wasted. We are able to jump right to the heart of your problem. And we are able to provide time-tested solutions that fit every client’s specific set of requirements.

Our IBA Group Team truly embraces collaboration in all our projects. That means that, while we do provide turnkey solutions that make it easy for you when we are not around, we also work with you closely throughout the process.

We listen to your needs. We help you identify your pain points. And we apply our skills and experience to resolve any issues that you have been facing. Then we take the next step and design and deploy solutions that prevent issues from arising in the future.

Turnkey Solutions Plus Collaboration

One of the best things about outsourcing SAP support, from a client perspective, is that it is the ultimate turnkey solution. It makes everything associated with support, maintenance, or migration our problem, not yours. And we are more equipped to deal with it.

In fact, it is one of our specialties. In subsequent articles, we will be talking about the ins and outs of SAP support. We are also taking a look at best practices – and what to avoid – for SAP S/4HANA Migration. In the meantime, if you have any questions about how to make the right SAP choices for your organization, or how to outsource any of your IT needs, get in touch with us. We love connecting with you and working together for smart, sustainable, reliable solutions that help keep your business focused on what you do best.

Do Not Be Afraid of Outsourcing Support

As a business leader, you should never be afraid to outsource to experts in their fields. Just make sure you are making the right decision when it comes time to choose who to outsource SAP Support to. Reach out to our IBA Group Team for more help navigating your SAP outsourcing needs.

Protect – and maximize your IT investments by securing support from a trusted, reliable source like us. It really is our pleasure to share our expertise with you, and to help support and maintain the systems that support your business and your goals.

Author: Andrew Dvirnyk

At the end of 2027, SAP will no longer support SAP Business Suite 7. That includes the popular SAP flagship product SAP ERP 6.0.

At that time, some companies will have the option to prolong SAP support until the end of 2030. Of course, that extension comes with a hefty price tag. And it only prolongs the inevitable. By the end of 2040, at the latest, SAP S/4HANA will be the only option. Will you be ready?

SAP ERP 6.0 Is Support-Ready for the Next Seven Years – Do We Need to Convert Now?

Given these deadlines, you might feel like this is tomorrow’s problem, and you already have too much to worry about today. That is the wrong call.

Many companies who launched ERP systems in the early 2000s find those systems continue to work well.  More to the point, they are familiar. Everything is configured and comfortable. There is no learning curve, and there are few surprises.

However, if you use ERP for years without updating it, as is the case with most enterprises that fit this profile, a ‘frozen’ system begins to grow. That causes problems to build over time (even if you do not notice them immediately). On top of that, every year, those systems (with their mounting problems) become more outdated. And every year, the cost to support those outdated systems, increases.

If you choose to put off the decision to migrate to SAP S/4HANA, when you finally do initiate migration in time for the support deadline, you face a significant list of problems. And ever-increasing costs. Putting off SAP/S4HANA migration only exacerbates the time and cost burdens that come with version discrepancies, the inability to launch check-ups, and module failures.

Further, these factors, taken together, make transition to SAP S/4HANA difficult and expensive, if not impossible. The worst-case scenario (and we have encountered this) is that a system is so outdated that it becomes impossible to convert it. In cases like this, a new ‘green field’ implementation is your only option. And it is an option you want to avoid.

Make a Smarter Investment to Migrate to SAP S/4HANA

To make the smartest decisions about SAP S/4HANA migration, think about how and when you are spending your money. And be mindful of the old adage not to “throw good money after bad.” Imagine you do not invest in migration now. Then, seven years from now, you will not have access to SAP support for your system. But that system will need more support than ever. So, what is the result? The system you have been investing in for the last two decades is so outdated and riddled with issues you are forced to invest even more money (and time) into building a new one.

Instead, it is smarter to allocate resources to migration now. Choosing to migrate now saves time and resources on pricy support for outdated ERP. It also enables you to leverage the new opportunities and features that SAP S/4HANA brings to your business sooner. Those features and opportunities include high performance, real-time analytics, and seamless integration with IoT and Big Data platforms. And it gives you access to cloud solutions and a simple, convenient user interface.

That means you are investing now in saving money, saving time, and improving ease of use. Looked at this way, migration now is not simply the smartest choice. It is the only sensible choice.

When to Start Migration to SAP S/4HANA

Starting migration to SAP S/4HANA now means that you will be ready for the 2027 SAP support cutoff. With 2027 around the corner, if you hold off the transition to SAP S/4HANA much longer, you are not likely to complete the transition in time.

On the other hand, choosing to begin SAP migration before SAP ERP 6.0 support ends in less than seven years, means that you get to spend a full year on preparation. This helps to set a solid path for migration, avoiding the loss of time and money.

Further, starting the migration process now gives you the next year to update all modules and system elements. That positions you to migrate to SAP S/4HANA successfully and seamlessly in time for the deadline, and with significantly lower risk.

Migrate to SAP S/4HANA with IBA Group

Over 3,500 business users trust IBA Group’s SAP S/4HANA systems experts. In fact, our experts help SAP users around the world, empowering them with smart, innovative, trusted solutions that help them get the most out of their SAP investments.

As an SAP Gold Service Partner, we work with a variety of automatic SAP ERP 6.0 conversion tools to make the transition seamless and successful. That includes tools like QuickFix that are created by SAP. It also includes IBA Group’s proprietary solutions, like our extensions for QuickFix.

However, as good as these tools produced by SAP and by IBA Group are, tools alone are not enough to rely on for successful SAP S/4HANA migration projects. Rather, it is the human power that makes the ultimate difference. Our seasoned SAP S/4HANA experts are poised to implement new system features and applications, and to solve for the challenges business face and the demands they have on their systems.

In addition to our SAP Gold Service Partner status, IBA Group has the distinction of SAP S/4HANA Recognized Expertise. Both SAP and our clients around the world trust us to get the most out of their systems now and in the future, and we invite you to do the same.

Keep Business Moving through the SAP S/4HANA Migration Process

Given the savings of time, money, and risk (and the inevitability of the transformation), now is likely the ideal time to start your SAP S/4HANA migration process. As important as it is to recognize that it is time to take this step, you also must acknowledge the challenges that the migration process presents.

In our next article, we are looking at how your business needs to keep moving as you prepare to initiate the migration process, guided by experts like us. We walk you through how historic data plays a role in determining the timeline for migration, along with why you cannot simply stop the system as you transition from the old to the new.

We also take some time to outline the technical assessment process. The technical assessment process is an important phase of the SAP S/4HANA migration journey. It allows you to identify and isolate current and future risks. It also gives you the opportunity to take advantage of the new innovations that come with migration. Because remember, by migrating now, you are not only making it in time for the 2027 support deadline. You are also getting earlier access to better technologies designed to make your business run more smoothly.

Author: Andrew Dvirnyk

Times are changing for SAP users. By 2027, SAP will no longer be providing support for its flagship product, SAP ERP 6.0 and SAP Business Suite 7. That means that you need to have a migration plan in place for your business now.

Starting migration before it is too late, saves you time and money, protects your historic data, and connects you to new features faster. However, while there is a sense of urgency, it is not possible to rush the migration process. In fact, as we noted in our last article, successful SAP S/4HANA migration processes must begin well in advance of the target date for full migration.

Business Cannot Stop During SAP Migration

One of the reasons the migration process has a long lifecycle, and a key reason why migration needs to start sooner rather than later, is that you cannot stop your business in order to address your SAP migration needs. In fact, it is critical to remember – and plan for the fact – that your business must continue to run during the SAP migration process.

All your demands remain the same. You need to manage your books, pay invoices, procure materials and equipment, hire new employees, pay salaries, and sign contracts. No matter the state of your enterprise solutions, delivering on your business obligations is your top priority.

Now, let’s return to that “when to migrate to SAP S/4HANA” question. Since your healthy business never stops, new data are entered into your system daily. So, if you put off migration to the last minute, you are adding seven to ten years’ worth of data to your systems. That means more historic data in an already outmoded system. In fact, when it comes to system modernization, historic data migration to the new version of SAP S/4HANA is one of the key tasks. Therefore, the less data you have in your current system, the faster (and cheaper) your transition project will be.

Also, bear in mind the costs of keeping your equipment up to date and the need to archive your existing, ever increasing amounts of data required to keep your current ERP system performance at an acceptable level. Looked at this way, holding on to your current ERP system is costing you time and money at every turn. Investing in migration just makes sense.

Plan Before You Migrate to SAP S/4HANA

Even though migration now is the best answer in most cases, that does not mean you should jump into the migration process without a clear plan of attack. Having worked with thousands of SAP users, our IBA Group Team knows better than anyone that these systems are as complex as they are essential.

When dealing with something that is as integral to your business operations as your systems are, it is imperative to develop a well thought out plan of action that takes into account your needs, budgets, timelines, and human capital. In many cases it makes the most sense to bring in a team like ours to guide the SAP S/4HANA conversion process. This ensures that you are not losing time, money, or essential functionality along the course of the transformation process.

To get started on the transformation path the right way, we recommend a thorough technical assessment.

Start with Technical Assessment

The technical assessment is the prudent first step in the transition to SAP S/4HANA. It helps you determine the amount of resources and time you need to allocate to the transition. Further, it enables you to develop a detailed plan for your migration by assessing all relevant current and potential risks. And it enables you to access innovative new SAP S/4HANA features faster.

After you have successfully completed a technical assessment, you are able to make an informed decision about when to implement a new ERP. Whether the implementation phase starts now, or five years from now, you will still be ahead of the migration deadline. At the end of the day, technical assessment costs you significantly less than the migration itself. As a result, by including the technical assessment in the overall migration process, you save money and time now and over the next ten years.

How to Complete a Technical Assessment for SAP S/4HANA Migration

The technical assessment depends on the size of your system and takes between two weeks to three months. Keep in mind, the migration itself typically takes three to four months for small and medium enterprises, and up to seven months or more for large enterprises.

In terms of budget and planning, the technical assessment often reveals issues that end up pushing the SAP S/4HANA migration up a few months. Keep in mind, the sooner you complete an accurate technical assessment, the sooner you are able to complete the migration. And the sooner you are able to leverage the advantages of the new platform and its innovations. Looked at this way, the technical assessment makes the migration smoother, and connects you to your system ROI sooner.

Bring in SAP S/4HANA Migration Experts

We are confident in our recommendations about the path to SAP S/4HANA migration because our trusted experts have helped more than three thousand SAP users and counting. We are an SAP Gold Service Partner, recognized officially by SAP for our Expertise in S/4HANA. We work with both our own IBA Group proprietary solutions and SAP’s conversion tools to make migration painless and profitable for you.

Our experience also teaches us that tools alone are not enough to guarantee a seamless conversion to SAP S/4HANA. As a trusted partner, we work directly with you to understand where you are, what your needs are, and where you want your system to take you next.

Migrate from Business Suite 7 to SAP S/4HANA

In our next article, we talk more about how to migrate to SAP S/4HANA from Business Suite 7. We look at the how to of conversion from ERP to SAP S/4HANA, as well as Greenfield Implementation (a good option for those who have not previously used an ERP system). Then we walk you through hybrid migration (including hybrid and selective data transformation). And finally, we examine landscape transformation. Migration to SAP S/4HANA is a complex undertaking. So, we are going step by step to help you understand the why, when, and how, while you still have the time to make the smart choices for your business.

Proper planning and allocation of time and resources create successful migrations that enable your business to do more, and to meet new challenges in a fully prepared state. It is time to start your migration for success now, in 2027, and beyond.