S/4HANA 1909 live in two countries, on schedule through COVID-19.
How one of the world's largest ceramics manufacturers moved a highly customized, tightly integrated SAP ECC landscape to S/4HANA 1909 with a five-day development freeze and a go-live date that did not move.
A leading manufacturer of ceramic and porcelain wall and floor tiles and sanitaryware, running a network of plants across the Middle East and South Asia and selling globally.
Its SAP ECC core was highly customized and tightly integrated: SAP CRM 7.x, MDM, DMS, Enterprise Portal and PI, plus procure-to-pay and a B2B dealer portal, with MDG governance and workflow spanning the landscape.
The business trigger
A fixed go-live date and a landscape with no slack in it.
The company needed its UAE and KSA operations on S/4HANA with a development freeze limited to five days, and the go-live was fixed before the pandemic arrived. The integration surface was the challenge: every connected system had to come across with it.
Deep customization
A large volume of Z-objects, Web Dynpro applications and client-specific enhancements adapted for the business over years.
Tightly integrated
CRM, MDM, DMS, Enterprise Portal, PI, procure-to-pay and a B2B dealer portal all depended on the core.
Governance across two landscapes
MDG and workflow spanned both the S/4HANA target and the ECC systems that would remain for other countries.
A short freeze
Five days of development freeze meant the team had to be certain before it started.
The skie.io approach
Conversion led from the finance core outward.
The team led the conversion and redesigned the finance and business processes that S/4HANA changes, with the target landscape on Microsoft Azure across development, quality and production.
Finance redesign
Material Ledger migration, account-based CO-PA activated across the CO-PA and FI value flow, and new Asset Accounting.
Master data
Overlapping customer, vendor and employee number ranges resolved for Business Partner; the accruals migration tool redesigned to client expectations.
Controls
Credit Management deployed and authorizations redesigned for the new structures.
Custom code
Z-objects, Web Dynpro apps and enhancements adapted to the S/4HANA 1909 structures.
Integration and cutover
CRM, MDM, DMS, P2P, B2B and ancillary systems re-integrated; MDG and workflow stabilized across S/4HANA and ECC; ESS/MSS moved to Fiori.
Results
Delivered under pressure, with a modern finance core.
The go-live date held with a hybrid team working onsite, offsite and from home as the pandemic set in.
Business impact
- Go-live on the committed date for the UAE and KSA operations
- Material Ledger, account-based CO-PA and new Asset Accounting live
- A foundation to consolidate every country into one harmonized S/4HANA instance
Operational impact
- Five-day development freeze held
- All connected systems re-integrated with S/4HANA 1909
- MDG and workflow stable across the two landscapes after migration
Technology impact
- Full S/4HANA landscape running on Microsoft Azure
- Employee and manager self-service on SAP Fiori
- Credit Management and redesigned authorizations in place
Why it matters for your estate
A heavily integrated conversion with the clock running.
Most SAP estates are not one system; they are a cluster. This program shows the cluster moving together, with the integration map and the finance redesign done up front so the cutover window stays short even when the landscape is complex.
The cluster moves as one
CRM, MDM, DMS, portals and P2P re-integrated as part of the conversion, not after it.
Finance changes planned, not discovered
The S/4HANA finance model was redesigned deliberately rather than found in testing.
Remote delivery that holds
A hybrid onsite, offsite and offshore team kept the date through the pandemic.
What comes next
One instance for the enterprise.
The next step is migrating the remaining two country instances to S/4HANA 1909 and consolidating every SAP instance into a single system with uniform processes across the enterprise.
Facing a VMware renewal or the SAP ECC deadline?
Two clocks are running. Make one decision, not two.
See the four S/4HANA paths, the 30-day assessment, and how skie.io moves SAP and everything around it, lands it optimized, and operates it from day one.