The future is now!

Ladies and gentlemen, the future is now!
The future of Customer Engagement is bright! SAP has a very sturdy portfolio with the Hybris products for different customer engagement goals.
On top of that, S/4HANA release 1709 release is now available with the S/4HANA Customer Management component. This is exciting news for those of you who work with an SAP CRM on premise system. It’s time to start thinking about a transformation.
You should do so now because now you have the time to properly define a strategy and roadmap towards 2025.
As most of you probably know, general maintenance of SAP CRM 7 on premise will stop in 2025. This means that by then you should have transitioned your SAP landscape.

Given the huge change in the core, a simple upgrade of your SAP landscape just won’t do it. Therefore it is highly recommended to have a well thought through plan for this.
But don’t do it from only an IT point of view; involve your user organisation. Plot your IT strategy on the business strategy. We strongly believe that without the involvement of stakeholders from different levels and divisions within your company, an IT project like this is designated to fail. So get everyone lined up and start planning!

Here are some topics to think of when you start your company’s transformation.

What’s the strategy?

This question applies to both IT and business as both breeds should have a long term vision of where to evolve to.
With IT being the engine of the car which business drives to establish success after success, the IT strategy should fit the business strategy. Translate the strategy to an IT architectural plan to determine where SAP S/4HANA Customer Management fits in. Or would perhaps one of the Hybris products fit better?

Good vs open for improvement

Have a proper look at what is going just fine in the IT process and current situation and what is open for improvement. What can be improved? Does it require an alteration in the new system or would it work to change the business process a bit? How happy are the people who are working with the system? Challenge them to come forward with improvement proposals.

Custom made vs system standard

What custom made programming is up for replacement or improvement? Is it really required or would the system standard of the new system be sufficient?
Always challenge the request for custom made coding a second or perhaps even a third time. SAP has such a broad variety of functionality, based on best practises that only a real hard case should be accepted to implement custom made coding.

These are just a few topics to think of when starting your transformation and I can only imagine these are no-brainers but then again, being the coach of a junior football team, I have quickly learned the repetition of the basics can never be done often enough!

Have fun and good luck. And remember: we are here to help!