Accelerating SAP S/4HANA Transformation Using SAP Signavio

Transforming an organization to SAP S/4HANA is about much more than just upgrading the organization’s technology; it involves transforming how the organization operates. Moving to S/4HANA means changing the way that an organization does business, including how it will be run, including using standardized processes, aligning business objectives with the capabilities of today’s digital world.

Transformations can be delayed, cost overruns happen, and/or the transformation’s potential value can be lost due to a lack of proper transparency into processes. To aid organizations with overcoming these challenges, SAP Signavio puts business processes first. With SAP Signavio, organizations more easily understand what they have (current processes), what they will have (optimized future state processes), and how to track performance across all phases of their S/4HANA transformations.

SAP Signavio combines process modeling, process mining, and process analysis/information-gathering so that organizations can expect a data-driven, systematic, outcome-oriented transformation to S/4HANA, thereby reducing risks associated with an S/4HANA, accelerating a customer’s time-to-value his new S/4HANA system.

Understanding the Role of Business Processes in S/4HANA

The business processes are essential to the success of any S/4HANA transformation. The migration of only the existing processes to the new S/4HANA system without first reviewing and establishing business best practices will allow inefficiencies to continue existing in the new system. Therefore, adopting a process-first methodology will allow the organization to identify its core end-to-end processes, eliminate redundant and obsolete activities, standardize processes across geographic locations and align those processes with SAP’s best practices.

SAP Signavio allows businesses to visually represent processes and assess their effectiveness and efficiency prior to making system changes, which allows for improved decision-making and avoids reliance on assumptions about how well processes are functioning within an organization. SAP Signavio also reduces the complexity of the implementation process, supports the adoption of standard processes, and ultimately, provides an improved foundation for S/4HANA.

Assessing the Current-State Process Ecosystem

Before adopting S/4HANA, a comprehensive awareness of your company’s processes is essential. Most companies rely upon undocumented, non-standard, manual methods for doing business and lack knowledge of hidden process problems. The tools offered by SAP Signavio are meant to help expose those issues.

Here are some benefits of conducting a current-state assessment:

• real visibility into actual process execution
• identify bottlenecks and the need for rework
• spot non-standard process variants
• create a baseline for transformation

Utilizing process mining to better understand how processes operate across various systems provides the organization with the capability to prioritize transformational activities based upon data. A clear baseline allows for a more accurate planning effort, estimation of resources needed for change, and measurement of the value of the change. Knowing the current state provides for more focused, realistic, and impactful transformational efforts.

Designing Fit-to-Standard Future-State Processes

Fit-to-standard processes are a major principle of the transformation to S/4HANA; the more customisation added, the higher the complexity, costs, and effort of maintaining the processes. SAP Signavio helps support the design of future state processes based on the standard SAP processes and reference models.

By focusing on the future state design, businesses will:

• Utilise SAP reference content to create fit-to-standard templates.
• Simplify and harmonise their processes.
• Minimise custom development requirements.
• Gain the ability to scale and be agile.

SAP Signavio allows teams to design collaboratively for their future state and assess their impact prior to implementing them, guaranteeing that they remain in line with their overall corporate strategies while taking full advantage of S/4HANA’s capabilities. The design of fit-to-standard processes will reduce the time needed to implement projects and create greater system stability. Organisations will be able to achieve a sustainable and scalable transformation through the alignment of their business processes with SAP’s standard capabilities.

Supporting Transformation with Process Mining Insights

Process mining is crucial for helping businesses make better decisions during their S/4HANA migration. SAP Signavio Process Intelligence provides empirical evidence of how well a company’s processes perform and how variable they are.

Process Mining will assist in the Transformation effort by:

• Identifying processes that can be standardized
• Identifying the areas with the most potential impact for improvement.
• Verifying your design assumptions.
• Providing an understanding of the process after the migration.

Insights driven by data help lessen uncertainty and provide organizations with the ability to more effectively make decisions. SAP Signavio can help organizations validate that their redesigned processes will deliver the desired benefits after they go live. The on-going monitoring of process performance will confirm that the intended outcomes of the transformation have been achieved and continued post-migration support is provided. Process Mining is the method to change from traditional S/4HANA programs (static implementations) to Adaptive Insight-based Programs.

Enabling Change Management and Adoption

Successful implementation of S/4HANA requires effective management of change, as the introduction of new systems and business processes necessitates rapid adaptation by users. Through the use of SAP Signavio, organizations can provide comprehensive and easily comprehensible documentation of new processes for all employees involved with the project.

Change enablement provides many advantages:

• Greater comprehension of new processes
• Decreased resistance due to more information
• Faster onboard and training times
• Uniformity of communication between teams

The use of visual models allows for easier and clearer representation of complex subject matter and aids in explaining concepts. Furthermore, SAP Signavio promotes collaboration among stakeholders to ensure that everyone involved has an opportunity to provide input and review process design. As users gain an understanding of why a change was made, they are more likely to embrace the change. Successful change management allows organizations to realize the true value of their transformation efforts through improved operation and greater user trust.

Integrating Governance and Compliance into Transformation

For businesses to effectively manage their risk on an operational and regulatory level via S/4HANA transformation, both Governance and Compliance must be integral components embedded within the overall transformation strategy. SAP Signavio allows for embedding Governance throughout Process Management.

Embedding Governance enables:

• Ownership and Accountability of processes as clearly defined
• Identification and Mitigation of Risks.
• Ability to demonstrate Compliance with all Internal Controls.
• Ongoing Audit readiness throughout Transformation.

By associating Controls and Risks with Process Steps, organizations achieve end-to-end transparency within their Operations and provide assurance for continued compliance while undergoing Change. SAP Signavio provides the ability for organizations to maintain their compliance during the evolution of their processes by combining these two functions. This creates an environment that minimizes Rework creation and also provides the foundation for building Trust through Process-driven changes for organizations as they Scale S/4HANA with Confidence while Maintaining Compliance.

Measuring Transformation Success and Value Realization

The use of SAP Signavio to plan, monitor or measure KPIs during the S4HANA implementation gives organisations visibility into how successful or valuable their transformation is. The following key metrics may be tracked/monitored as part of SAP Signavio or supported by these;

• Process efficiency and cycle time
• Amount of process standardisation/automation used
• Reduction in compliance risks
• User/developer satisfaction and adoption rate of the solution.

The continuous measurement of KPIs allows organisations to review the effectiveness of their implementation and where necessary adjust. SAP Signavio combines performance data with process information to provide advisory/supporting measures; thus enabling accountability, measurement of value realisation and helping to provide opportunities for process improvements due to the nature of ‘what is’, ‘what wasn’t’ and ‘what will be’.

Also, organisations must ensure they achieve the desired objectives during their implementation of their project and continue to achieve those objectives long after the project is completed.