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The numbers tell a striking story: Nearly half of the companies around the world running SAP—the most widely used ERP system globally—have already taken the leap to SAP S/4HANA (according to ASUG’s 2024 Pulse Report). But behind that 47% lies a different reality, one where budgets have been broken, timelines stretched, and projects have run into costly and avoidable roadblocks. These companies learned the hard way that SAP S/4HANA migration is far more than just a technical upgrade – it’s a business transformation with real risks and pitfalls.
Source: ASUG 2024 Pulse of the SAP Customer Research
At Panaya, we’ve been at the forefront of SAP transformations. With hundreds of migration projects and millions (and millions) of objects analyzed, we’ve seen firsthand the challenges that can emerge, and we’ve been called in to help rescue projects that went off track. But here’s the key: You don’t have to go down the same costly, risky path. With our deep SAP domain expertise, we’ve identified the five most common mistakes organizations make during their migration, and more importantly, we’ve developed solutions to help you avoid them from the start.
Underestimating the Project’s Complexity, Risks, and Scope
Too many companies dive headfirst into their SAP S/4HANA migration, only to find themselves overwhelmed by the sheer complexity. What starts as a seemingly straightforward project quickly spirals into scope creep, delays, and budget overruns. This isn’t just an IT project; it’s a business transformation with real risks.
Panaya’s AI-powered platform doesn’t just scratch the surface. By running simulations of your migration in advance, Panaya gives you a detailed understanding of the risks you face before they become roadblocks. In under 48 hours you get a tailored pre-migration assessment. The analysis includes a survey of the SAP system, a detailed report which covers code corrections, simplification items and many other categories of tasks including the needed testing activities.
The assessment will serve as the base for understanding the project scope, cost, timelines and expertise needed – your key for building the Business Case. This will come in handy.
Not Planning and/or Executing Sufficient Testing and Not Utilizing Test Automation
Underestimating the importance of testing is a surefire way to encounter disruptions once you go live. Many companies fail to allocate enough time for testing or overlook the advantages of test automation, and the consequences can be severe – unexpected errors, downtime, and unhappy employees and users.
UAT testing is a critical and significant project milestone and imposes unique challenges with multiple users involved in testing of each business process. This is where test coordination is critical to ensure smooth workflows and handover of testing tasks between key users. Panaya’s built-in collaboration tools can eliminate idle time, relieve workload bottlenecks and ensure sequential workflows, with effortless communication and automatic transition of test steps to the next user.
And where GenAI is extremely powerful. You are now able to automate test creation: just describe scenarios in natural language and generate codeless test scripts. Panaya’s AI-powered ScriptBuilder handles actions, assertions, value extraction, and synthetic data generation.
Panaya offers various features to enhance efficiency, including:
- Data-driven testing across multiple datasets
- On-demand test automation triggering
- Automating and scheduling of regression tests
- Parallel execution with automation agents on remote machines
- Intuitive side-by-side comparison of execution results
- Real-time defect reporting and collaboration
- AI-Core Change Analysis for pinpointing impacted areas and recommending intelligent automation tests
- Everything done on one native platform
Managing It as a Pure IT Project
Viewing your SAP S/4HANA migration as an IT initiative is one of the biggest mistakes you can make. The business side often gets left out of critical decisions, which means the end system may not fully meet its needs. Migrating without involving business stakeholders is like building a house without talking to the people who will live in it.
Panaya bridges the gap between IT and business. Our collaborative platform ensures that both sides are involved. From tracking changes to gathering feedback, business stakeholders remain engaged throughout the process.
Panaya’s AI-Powered Test Automation empowers business users to create and execute test schemes, making test automation accessible to those without a coding background – leading to better cooperation between IT and business. Panaya’s platform allows business users to record and document business scenarios, visualize, and validate expected results, and contribute to the automation efforts.
Your migration doesn’t just result in a functioning system – it results in a system that serves real business needs.
Not Using It as an Opportunity for Pure Digital Transformation
For many, migrating to SAP S/4HANA becomes a missed opportunity. Companies see it as just another system upgrade when it could be so much more – a chance to streamline, modernize, and future-proof their business. This isn’t just about technology; it’s about rethinking how your business operates in a digital world.
Panaya goes beyond just migration, helping you leverage the full potential of digital transformation. Our AI-driven Business process Intelligence tools are designed to optimize and modernize your business, turning your migration into a real transformation. The output includes a detailed breakdown of the projected effort, time and resources by activity category and type, precise cost estimates covering all requirements and an informed timeline estimate – with no SI or inhouse expertise needed.
With Panaya, you don’t just move to a new system – you evolve into a more agile, innovative enterprise ready for the challenges ahead.
Not Utilizing Products, Solutions, and Technologies to Accelerate the Project
The do-it-yourself approach might work for some things, but when approaching a complex project like an SAP S/4HANA migration, you need the right tools. Too many companies try to manage these projects manually, which often extends the timeline, inflates the budget, and introduces unnecessary complexity.
Panaya’s cloud-based solutions do the heavy lifting for you. By automating key tasks like code corrections and risk assessments, we eliminate manual effort and accelerate your project timeline. Why waste time reinventing the wheel when you can leverage tools that are proven to work? With Panaya, you’ll move faster and with less risk – delivering a more successful migration.
And to Sum Things Up:
The chart shows a clear trend—SAP S/4HANA adoption is in full swing. But the fact remains: whether you’re in the 47% who have already migrated or part of the 41% inevitably planning to make the move, mistakes are common, unless you approach your migration with the right strategy and tools.
Panaya brings not just technology, but decades of hard-earned SAP experience. We’ve seen the patterns, we know where projects go wrong, and we know how to keep them on track. With Panaya as your partner, you can avoid the mistakes that others have had to learn the hard way – keeping your project on time, on budget, and future-ready.