Spring has sprung! And at the same time, SAP customers are springing into action. Over 2,500 SAP customers travelled to the Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas for the SAPinsider event on March 20–23, all wanting answers to the same question – what is the best, quickest, and most cost-effective way to migrate to S/4HANA? SAPinsider is an unmissable event on DMI’s calendar, and we welcomed visitors as both a sponsor and an exhibitor. We’ve summarized our overall impressions for you in this short blog.
Embarking on the Journey to S/4HANA
At last year’s event, the mood was quite different. Customers were just starting to think about S/4HANA and when and whether they should look at making the move. Within the space of 12 months, there has been a tremendous shift in perspective and a sense of urgency has set in, as companies realize the clock is ticking until maintenance ends for ECC. At SAPinsider 2023, it was clear that companies are now eager to take the next step so they can take full advantage of the functionality offered by S/4HANA, but they also want to find the best approach for their migration.
Although migrating as quickly as possible is a priority, time and speed are not the only factors on people’s minds. As a result of disrupted supply chains, geopolitical events, and the current financial situation, budgets are stretched, which makes finding a cost-effective solution all the more important. On top of this, the more companies embark on their journey to S/4HANA, the scarcer the SAP consulting resources are becoming, so there is greater interest in how automation can reduce the level of human input that is required, thereby speeding up the migration process overall.
Data Migration International team from left: Tom Pfister, CMO; Ken Dedato, Senior Account Executive; Thomas Iseler, Advisor Partnerships; Jean Marc Pestoni, Senior Account Executive; Tom Belleman, Project Manager.
Huge Interest in Game-changing JiVS One Click Transformation Approach
Over the four days, more than 700 customers visited the DMI booth, including existing customers General Electric, Hewlett Packard, and Holcim, and the feedback received for the JiVS One Click Transformation approach was outstanding. SAP customers are actively looking for an approach that is cost-effective, efficient, will reduce how long it takes to go live with S/4HANA, support multiple legacy system environments, and enable them to clean up their data. They didn’t need to look much further after talking with DMI and learning more about the JiVS One Click Transformation, as they soon found out that this approach ticks all these boxes and more. DMI spoke with SAP customers from the US, Canada, and Latin America, representing all kinds of industries – some of them from large companies that operate hundreds of SAP and non-SAP legacy systems and are looking to consolidate and clean up their data before migrating to the new S/4HANA environment.
At the DMI booth, visitors were pleasantly surprised to discover that one of the reasons why the JiVS Information Management Platform is unique is because only a small portion of a company’s data is actually transferred to S/4HANA. By separating the “required” operational data from the rest of the data (including historical information that needs to be stored for legal retention periods), the customer starts out with a lean and clean S/4HANA environment from the moment it goes live. The rest of the data is archived centrally on the JiVS platform, so all the legacy systems can be decommissioned, saving them even more time and operating costs. Described by Gartner as a game-changer in 2022, JiVS certainly lives up to its reputation, and visitors to the DMI stand were astounded at how one company had migrated to S/4HANA in just three months thanks to the One Click Transformation approach.
From left: Tom Pfister, CMO, DMI; Paul Kurchina, SAP Community Builder, Evangelist and Advisor; Jean Marc Pestoni, Senior Account Executive, DMI
Busy exhibition halls, packed keynote sessions, and a hive of activity at the various booths: SAPinsider resembled its former pre-pandemic self, although interestingly more than half of the SAP customers who attended had never visited another SAPinsider event before. This remarkable increase in new attendees undoubtedly reflects the urgency and attention that is now being directed towards the move to S/4HANA. This year’s event was centered around networking and interacting with others, and DMI also had the chance to meet with SAP senior executives and catch up with key partners including Infosys, Deloitte, and KPMG. Further adding to the upbeat and positive mood, the visitors and exhibitors were invited to the cocktail receptions that were organized on the exhibition floor each evening, where everyone was talking business, and more specifically S/4!
Throughout 2023, DMI will be attending, exhibiting, and sponsoring further SAP events in North America and Europe. If you spoke with the DMI team at SAPinsider in Las Vegas and would like to continue the conversation on the move to S/4HANA, get in touch with us today. Or, if we didn’t see you at the event but you are interested in seeing how your business can benefit from the JiVS One Click Transformation approach, we would be delighted to hear from you too.
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