The SAP Customer Journey – Part 2: Preparing to Move
Planning your move to S/4HANA? Make sure you're transforming your organisation, not just your technology.
Deciding to move to SAP S/4HANA is one thing. Working out how to make that move successful is quite another.
For many organisations, the biggest challenges arise long before implementation begins.
Where do you start? Which deployment approach is right for your organisation? How much will it really cost? And how do you ensure the investment delivers improvements beyond simply replacing your existing ERP system?
These questions are familiar to many members of the UKISUG community.
With SAP introducing new AI-enabled migration tools and encouraging customers to accelerate transformation, there are potentially valuable opportunities to simplify the journey.
But technology alone doesn't guarantee success.
The decisions you make before your transformation begins could be among the most important you make throughout the entire programme.
Start with the organisation, not the software
A move to S/4HANA should be about more than meeting a maintenance deadline.
What problems are you trying to solve?
Perhaps your organisation needs better financial reporting, more reliable data, simpler processes or improved visibility across its supply chain.
Maybe you want to reduce operating costs, improve customer service or create a foundation for future innovation.
These should be the starting points for your business case.
If you simply reproduce everything you've built over the past 20 years in a new system, you risk carrying forward the very complexity you're trying to overcome.
It's also worth challenging assumptions about your future architecture.
Public cloud, private cloud and on-premise options come with different considerations. Understanding the implications for flexibility, security, innovation and cost is essential.
And don't overlook the commercial arrangements.
Many UKISUG members have raised concerns about the increasing complexity of SAP licensing, cloud consumption and the costs associated with new technologies.
Understanding your future commercial commitments is just as important as choosing the right technology.
Get your foundations right
Data quality is another area where early action can make a significant difference.
Many organisations discover too late that inconsistent master data, unnecessary historical records and complicated interfaces create avoidable problems during migration.
The same applies to customisations and business processes.
Which genuinely differentiate your organisation? Which could be replaced by standard functionality? And which should be retired altogether?
SAP is increasingly promoting AI-assisted tools to reduce the effort involved in activities such as code analysis and migration planning.
These tools are worth exploring, but ask for evidence of the benefits within an environment similar to your own.
Above all, involve the people who will ultimately use the new system.
A successful transformation needs business ownership, clear objectives and a realistic plan for helping employees work differently.
Learn from those who have already made the journey
One of the greatest advantages of UKISUG Connect is the opportunity to learn from customers who have already faced these decisions.
S/4HANA data discovery: day one priority or mid-project panic? Examines why understanding your data early can prevent expensive surprises later.
In De-Risking SAP S/4HANA: A Data-Driven Approach to Custom Code and Clean Core, you'll discover how P&G tackled the challenge of modernising a substantial custom code estate.
Pitney Bowes Journey to SAP Public Cloud provides practical insights into choosing a deployment approach, staying close to standard functionality and managing subsequent rollouts.
And Drive Your Transformation Through Process Intelligence: A Hands-On SAP Signavio Experience offers an opportunity to explore practical techniques for understanding and improving business processes.
Just as importantly, Connect provides direct access to a remarkable concentration of SAP transformation expertise.
Our exhibiting partners include organisations specialising in implementation, data migration, process improvement, architecture, cloud hosting, security and change management.
You can speak to the people who deliver transformation projects every day, explore different implementation approaches and understand the technologies and services that might help your organisation.
It's also an opportunity to compare partner capabilities, challenge proposed solutions and ask questions before committing significant resources.
Alongside this, SAP specialists can help explain the latest migration tools, deployment options and product direction.
Combined with the experiences of fellow customers, these conversations can help you develop a more realistic picture of what lies ahead.
Ask the questions before you commit
What would another customer do differently?
How closely did their implementation follow the original budget? Where did unexpected costs arise? What did they learn about their implementation partner?
And perhaps most importantly, are they achieving the benefits they originally expected?
These are exactly the sorts of questions that become easier to answer when you're part of a trusted community.
You can learn from customers, explore solutions with partners and engage directly with SAP, all without having to arrange dozens of separate meetings.
UKISUG also gives members an independent voice in discussions with SAP about the challenges, costs and complexity customers face.
Your next step
If you're preparing to move, Connect can help you challenge your assumptions, strengthen your business case and avoid mistakes that others have already experienced.
You don't have to discover every lesson the hard way.
Make better decisions before your transformation begins. Learn from those who've already taken the journey and the experts who can help you succeed.
Join us at UKISUG Connect 2026, 29 November–1 December at The ICC, Birmingham.
Built to Grow. Together.
Explore what's waiting for you at Connect:
📅 Explore the conference programme Discover sessions, customer experiences and practical workshops relevant to your journey.
🤝 Meet our exhibiting partners Explore the expertise and solutions available from our exhibiting partners and identify specialists you'd like to meet.
🎟️ Register for UKISUG Connect 2026 Join us from 29 November to 1 December at The ICC, Birmingham.
