SAP S/4HANA is an

enterprise resource planning Enterprise resource planning (ERP) is the integrated management of main business processes, often in real time and mediated by software and technology. ERP is usually referred to as a category of Business management tools, business management ...

software for large enterprises developed by

SAP SE Sap is a fluid transported in xylem cells (vessel elements or tracheids) or phloem sieve tube elements of a plant. These cells transport water and nutrients throughout the plant. Sap is distinct from latex, resin, or cell sap; it is a sepa ...

. It is the successor to

SAP R/3 SAP R/3 is the former name of the enterprise resource planning software produced by the German corporation SAP AG (now SAP SE). It is an enterprise-wide information system designed to coordinate all the resources, information, and activities needed ...

and

SAP ERP SAP ERP is an enterprise resource planning software developed by the German company SAP SE. SAP ERP incorporates the key business functions of an organization. The latest version of SAP ERP (V.6.0) was made available in 2006. The most recent SA ...

and is optimized for SAP's in-memory database

SAP HANA SAP HANA (HochleistungsANalyseAnwendung or High-performance ANalytic Application) is an in-memory, column-oriented, relational database management system developed and marketed by SAP SE. Its primary function as the software running a databas ...

Purpose

SAP S/4HANA is an

Enterprise Resource Planning Enterprise resource planning (ERP) is the integrated management of main business processes, often in real time and mediated by software and technology. ERP is usually referred to as a category of Business management tools, business management ...

(ERP) software package meant to cover all day-to-day processes of an

enterprise Enterprise (or the archaic spelling Enterprize) may refer to: Business and economics Brands and enterprises * Enterprise GP Holdings, an energy holding company * Enterprise plc, a UK civil engineering and maintenance company * Enterprise ...

(for example, order-to-cash,

procure-to-pay Procure-to-pay (also known as Purchase to Pay (P2P)) is a term used in the software industry to designate a specific subdivision of the procurement process. The P2P systems enable the integration of the purchasing department with the accounts pa ...

, plan-to-product, and request-to-service) and core capabilities. It integrates functions from lines of businesses as well as industry solutions, and also re-integrates portions of

SAP Business Suite SAP Business Suite is a bundle of business applications that provide integration of information and processes, collaboration, industry-specific functionality and scalability. SAP Business Suite is based on SAP's technology platform called NetWeaver ...

products such as

SAP SRM SAP Business Suite is a bundle of business applications that provide integration of information and processes, collaboration, industry-specific functionality and scalability. SAP Business Suite is based on SAP's technology platform called NetWeaver ...

SAP CRM The SAP CRM applications have been initially an integrated on-premises customer relationship management ( CRM) software manufactured by SAP SE which targeted business software requirements for marketing, sales and service of midsize and large ...

and

SAP SCM SAP Business Suite is a bundle of business applications that provide integration of information and processes, collaboration, industry-specific functionality and scalability. SAP Business Suite is based on SAP's technology platform called NetWeaver ...

. As SAP Business Suite 4 only runs on the

database it is packaged as one product: SAP S/4HANA.

SAP Sap is a fluid transported in xylem cells (vessel elements or tracheids) or phloem sieve tube elements of a plant. These cells transport water and nutrients throughout the plant. Sap is distinct from latex, resin, or cell sap; it is a separa ...

's classical R3, ERP and ECC based business suite and related products were designed to run on several database platforms, including those from

Oracle An oracle is a person or agency considered to provide wise and insightful counsel or prophetic predictions, most notably including precognition of the future, inspired by deities. As such, it is a form of divination. Description The word '' ...

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washing ...

and IBM.

History

The SAP HANA platform has been available since 2010, and SAP applications like SAP ERP and the SAP Business Suite are able to run on the SAP HANA database and/or other supported database systems. The new suite, SAP S/4HANA, launched on 3 February 2015 at the

New York Stock Exchange The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE, nicknamed "The Big Board") is an American stock exchange in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It is by far the world's largest stock exchange by market capitalization of its listed c ...

. The event introduced

cloud In meteorology, a cloud is an aerosol consisting of a visible mass of miniature liquid droplets, frozen crystals, or other particles suspended in the atmosphere of a planetary body or similar space. Water or various other chemicals may co ...

and on premise editions, with the on-premises edition becoming available on the same day. The cloud edition went live at SAPPHIRE NOW (SAP’s annual customer conference) on 6 May 2015 in Orlando, Florida. SAP S/4HANA was called SAP's biggest update to its ERP strategy and platform in over two decades. Post-launch,

Gartner Gartner, Inc is a technological research and consulting firm based in Stamford, Connecticut that conducts research on technology and shares this research both through private consulting as well as executive programs and conferences. Its clients ...

analysts noted that SAP S/4HANA represented a "transformational shift," but raised questions about functionality, availability, pricing and migration issues surrounding S/4HANA. By 21 April 2015, 370 customers had purchased S/4HANA. After the first half of 2015, positive growth was confirmed for SAP. During the third quarter earning calls that took place in October 2015, SAP confirmed that S/4HANA had more than 1,300 customers. By the end of Q4 2016, SAP announced that 5,400 customers had implemented SAP S/4HANA, growing to 8,900 customers by 30 June 2018.

Editions and deployment

SAP S/4HANA can be deployed on-premises, in the cloud, or through a hybrid model. The S/4HANA product offering consists of various editions: SAP S/4HANA Cloud: previously called essentials edition (ES) and Multi-Tenant Edition, SAP S/4HANA Cloud extended edition: previously called Single-Tenant Edition, SAP S/4HANA Cloud, private edition, SAP S/4HANA On-Premise. SAP S/4HANA On-Premise is similar in terms of coverage, functionality, industry-specific support, and localization to the current SAP Business Suite (in 39 languages, 64 country versions). SAP also offers SAP S/4HANA Cloud (in 18 languages, 33 country versions). SAP has emphasized the product as pivotal to its cloud shift. Both editions consist of functionality for finance, accounting, controlling, procurement, sales, manufacturing, plant maintenance, project system, and

product lifecycle management In industry, Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) is the process of managing the entire lifecycle of a product from its inception through the engineering, design and manufacture, as well as the service and disposal of manufactured products. PL ...

, plus integration with

SAP SuccessFactors SAP SuccessFactors is an American multinational company headquartered in South San Francisco, California, providing cloud-based software for human capital management using the Software as a service (SaaS) model. Competitors include Workday, ...

SAP Ariba SAP Ariba is an American software and information technology services company located in Palo Alto, California. It was acquired by German software maker SAP SE for $4.3 billion in 2012. Company beginnings Ariba (now SAP Ariba) was founded in ...

SAP Hybris Hybris (stylized as hybris) is a German company that sells enterprise omnichannel and product content management (PCM) software. It is a subsidiary of SAP SE. Hybris was founded in Zug, Switzerland , neighboring_municipalities = Cham, B ...

, SAP Fieldglass and

SAP Concur SAP Concur (formerly Concur Technologies) is an American SaaS company providing travel and expense management services to businesses. It is headquartered in Bellevue, Washington. SAP SE agreed to acquire Concur Technologies in September 2014 for ...

Overview of releases

SAP S/4HANA (on-premise) releases are once per year, SAP S/4HANA Cloud releases are 2 per year. Version coding for cloud edition: YYMM example 1709 - September 2017. Version coding for on-premise edition (since 2020): YYYY example 2020 - Release 2020. SAP S/4HANA On-Premise releases: * SAP S/4HANA Finance 1503: March 2015 * SAP S/4HANA 1511: November 2015 * SAP S/4HANA Finance 1605: May 2016 * SAP S/4HANA 1610: October 2016 * SAP S/4HANA 1709: September 2017 * SAP S/4HANA 1809: September 2018 * SAP S/4HANA 1909: September 2019 * SAP S/4HANA 2020: October 2020 (new nomenclature: switch to YYYY from YYMM) * SAP S/4HANA 2021: October 2021 SAP S/4HANA Cloud releases: * SAP S/4HANA Cloud 1603: March 2016 * SAP S/4HANA Cloud 1605: May 2016 * SAP S/4HANA Cloud 1608: August 2016 * SAP S/4HANA Cloud 1611: November 2016 * SAP S/4HANA Cloud 1702: February 2017 * SAP S/4HANA Cloud 1705: May 2017 * SAP S/4HANA Cloud 1708: August 2017 * SAP S/4HANA Cloud 1711: November 2017 * SAP S/4HANA Cloud 1802: February 2018 * SAP S/4HANA Cloud 1805: May 2018 * SAP S/4HANA Cloud 1808: August 2018 * SAP S/4HANA Cloud 1811: November 2018 * SAP S/4HANA Cloud 1902: February 2019 * SAP S/4HANA Cloud 1908: August 2019 * SAP S/4HANA Cloud 1911: November 2019 * SAP S/4HANA Cloud 2002: January 2020 * SAP S/4HANA Cloud 2005: April 2020 * SAP S/4HANA Cloud 2008: July 2020 * SAP S/4HANA Cloud 2011: November 2020 *SAP S/4HANA Cloud 2102: February 2021 *SAP S/4HANA Cloud 2105: May 2021 *SAP S/4HANA Cloud 2108: August 2021 *SAP S/4HANA Cloud 2111: November 2021 *SAP S/4HANA Cloud 2202: available February 2022

Implementation

There are various ways to get to S/4HANA. This depends on a customer’s starting point. For example, new implementation, system conversion, and selective data transition. * New implementation - This is a new implementation of SAP S/4HANA ("

greenfield Greenfield or Greenfields may refer to: Engineering and Business * Greenfield agreement, an employment agreement for a new organisation * Greenfield investment, the investment in a structure in an area where no previous facilities exist * Greenf ...

"): Customers who are migrating from a non-SAP legacy system or from an SAP ERP system and implementing a fresh system that requires an initial data load. In this scenario, the SAP S/4HANA system is implemented, and master and transactional data are migrated from the legacy system, thus standard data migration tools and content has to be used. * System conversion - This is a complete conversion of an existing SAP Business Suite system to SAP S/4HANA ("

brownfield In urban planning, brownfield land is any previously developed land that is not currently in use. It may be potentially contaminated, but this is not required for the area to be considered brownfield. The term is also used to describe land prev ...

"): Customers who want to change their current SAP ERP system to SAP S/4HANA. This scenario is technically based on Software Update Manager (SUM) with Database Migration Option (DMO) in case the customer is not yet on SAP HANA as the underlying database. * Selective Data Transition (formerly: Landscape Transformation) - This is a consolidation of current regional SAP systems into one global SAP S/4HANA system or a split out of different parts of a system: Customers who want to consolidate their landscape or carve out selected entities (such as a company code) or processes into a single SAP S/4HANA system.

Product lifecycle

Both SAP S/4HANA on-premises and the SAP S/4HANA cloud editions have release strategies. The cloud editions are released biannually. The on-premises edition has one new release per year and receives additional functionality and corrections in the form of Feature Pack Stacks (FPS) or Service Pack Stacks (SPS) each quarter. On-premises: Each year, SAP is shipping a new product version of its on-premises SAP S/4HANA product (e.g. SAP S/4HANA 1610) this will always be followed by three successive FPS on a quarterly basis, after this SAP releases the next product version and the previous product version is receiving SPS on a quarterly basis until the end of mainstream maintenance. Technically, a FPS is like a SPS, but it may include non-disruptive, non-mandatory features. The numbering of FPS/SPS will be consecutive, i.e. the first SPS after a FPS3 would be consequently SPS4.