SAP S/4HANA adds a huge range of new functionality, but the biggest change is that it can only run on the SAP HANA database – how can you prepare yourself for the hefty task of database migration?
Moving your entire database to a new platform is no small feat itself, but SAP HANA migration is further complicated because it uses new architecture and data models – meaning some custom code is no longer compatible.
Getting your ABAP code HANA-ready is an odyssey that requires you to identify and adapt every instance of incompatible custom code among potentially millions of lines of code in your systems. So, it’s not surprising many organizations are intimidated by HANA migration and delay it.
The good news is there are processes you can start long before your migration project begins to help make it easier. And here are 5 we think are most helpful:
1. Understand your pathway to SAP S/4HANA
Your journey to S/4HANA will be unique, because you’re starting with different systems and have a different destination to other organizations, so a one-size-fits-all approach to migration makes little sense.
SAP have some brilliant resources explaining the different pathways to S/4HANA, and taking time to fully develop and understand your journey before you get started will prepare you for the momentous project ahead.
2. Download the latest software
It might sound obvious, but simply ensuring you’ve downloaded the latest versions of any SAP tools and software you need, for example the SAP Solution Manager, will help you avoid any unnecessary delays when it’s time to get your migration underway.
3. Run optional SAP Pre-Checks
The SAP Pre-Checks for HANA are automatically run by SAP Solution Manager before the final stage of migration, halting the process if they find instances of incompatible code.
You can also execute the Pre-Checks in SAP Business Suite any time before your migration starts, to scan any systems you need to get HANA-ready, providing you with a list of custom code objects requiring a fix before the migration process begins.
Doing this provides some insight into the size of the project and gives you more time to adapt your code.
4. Purge unrequired custom code
Unsurprisingly, when you cross-reference 700+ pages of S/4HANA incompatibility issues against every line of code in your database, you end up with a long list of code needing fixing.
But not every line of code in your database needs to be included in this process, because a significant portion is never used and unused code doesn’t need to be adapted for HANA. It doesn’t need to exist at all.
Instead of blindly migrating your entire database to HANA, you can save time and money by only taking code you need. Turn on the Usage Procedure Logging (UPL) feature and you’ll track the usage of all development objects in productive system and discover which code is spurious.
Eliminate it in advance of your migration and you can significantly decrease the time and effort needed for the project, without any negative effects. In fact, cleaning up your code will actually increase its efficiency!
5. Get a better understanding of your migration project with Gekkobrain
SAP have developed great tools to identify the SAP HANA incompatibility issues in your current database. Unfortunately, it can’t answer other questions that are vital to planning your migration – chiefly, how long the fixes will take.
At Gekkobrain, we needed this information to effectively plan and manage our own S/4HANA migration, so we developed our own solution to quickly and accurately estimate the amount of time needed for each fix.
With a truer idea of the resources required to prepare our code for SAP HANA, we were able to build a better business case for the migration and better plan the project.
As we continued to add improved functionality to enable more control, like the ability to assign tasks inside the tool and perform system scans to check on progress, we realized that other people would hugely benefit from this tool, so we took it public.
We know that some things have to be seen to be fully understood, which is why we’re offering a free Gekkobrain assessment to help you see how much you could benefit from our tool.
Book an assessment of your SAP HANA readiness today and we’ll scan your SAP system to identify and document every issue that stands between you and HANA-readiness. We will even provide you with a fixed price for migrating your code to Suite on HANA.