The pressure for SAP organizations to move to the cloud is higher than ever. Offerings like RISE with SAP and SAP S/4HANA show that SAP itself is committed to moving its clients to the cloud and providing cloud-aligned products and services as a top priority.
But for longstanding SAP clients, moving from familiar, on-premise legacy systems to a new cloud environment can be daunting. Further, some that have moved to the cloud feel that they aren’t yielding the benefits they need or expected.
If your organization is dealing with one of these scenarios, this guide is for you. In the sections that follow, we’ll outline five reasons you might not be earning the ROI you expected from your SAP cloud migration, and how hiring a SAP migration consultant can help you level up to where you need to be.
Quick Takeaways
In many cases, when a SAP migration doesn’t yield its expected results, the disconnect lies in the original SAP migration plan. In order for a SAP migration to be most successful, it must be designed and executed with clear goals and objectives in mind.
These goals and objectives give you a framework by which to measure SAP performance after migration is complete.
Take time to revisit your original SAP migration plan and revisit your goal-setting process. Was it completed thoroughly and strategically enough? If not, it’s time to sit down and define the goals you have for your SAP systems on the cloud. Then, you can make adjustments and optimize systems on the cloud accordingly.
Your company may have chosen a quick lift-and-shift migration approach to get to the cloud as quickly and cost effectively as possible. Lift-and-shift can work for a SAP cloud migration, but it’s not the right approach for legacy systems with high complexity and customization needs.
It may be the case that you moved your SAP systems too quickly without fully updating systems and processes so they’re fit for the cloud.
Even the most savvy on-premise SAP IT teams need new skills and types of expertise to manage a new SAP cloud environment effectively. For most companies, this isn’t happening fast enough.
At the same time, competition for new cloud talent is high, with cloud hyperscalers and large enterprises winning most of it. It’s leaving organizations with many cloud skills gap challenges to deal with, such as finding qualified candidates, paying to retain top employees, and gaining buy-in from employees for upskilling and retraining.
If your IT teams are struggling to successfully implement and manage new cloud environments, you likely need to invest in training, new talent hires, or third-party support.
The cloud offers unparalleled data analytics capabilities and other innovative features that your employees can leverage to enhance workflows, profitability, and overall performance. But in order to take advantage of it all, they need onboarding for new cloud systems, processes, and features, as well as skills training to know how to use them.
To see better and more wide-reaching results from your cloud migration, consider expanding cloud training beyond your IT teams to include employees and teams across your organization.
Your official go-live after SAP cloud migration is only the first step toward new levels of IT performance for your organization. Cloud features and capabilities are changing all the time, as are new SAP product releases and updates.
If you’re not yielding the benefits you want or expected from your migration, it may be because you need a more active continuous improvement plan. Put data-driven performance assessment and reporting processes in place so you can see what’s working and what needs improvement.
At an increasing rate, organizations are turning to SAP migration partners that have the expertise and experience needed to maximize migration value. For organizations recognizing that their migration didn’t exactly go as planned, outsourcing can be the best and most cost-effective way to recalibrate and quickly get your SAP cloud environments where they need to be.
At Protera, we provide end-to-end migration, modernization, and managed services so clients shorten time to value and maximize ROI at every turn. From defining and exploring your migration strategy, to building an execution plan and stakeholder alignment, to migrating and going live on the cloud, Protera provides deep sap knowledge and guidance.
Specific services we provide include:
At Protera, it’s our goal and priority to help you execute a cloud migration that’s rooted in industry best practices and customized to meet the goals of your business.
Contact a Protera expert today to learn more about how we can help you transform.