SAP S/4HANA in a Nutshell

SAP HANA is an in-memory; column-oriented, Relational Database Management System(RDBMS) which has been developed and is marketed by SAP SE. SAP HANA was first known as SAP High-Performance Analytic Appliance. After SAP first announced HANA in 2010, it was instantly forecasted that SAP HANA would be the foundation for everything at SAP. SAP HANA has columnar storage, advanced in-memory compressions, and unparalleled processing power, SAP on HANA is fast, empowering businesses to run in real-time. This is made possible by crunching Big Data ranging from transactional, operational to structured and unstructured data types. HANA is used to transact, analyze and predict instantly on a single platform at the moment that it is needed.

SAP S/4HANA has broken away from previous limitations to help discover how to connect an enterprise to the Internet of Things (IoT) and Business networks, forecast and simulate outcomes on the fly, and concentrate on critical decisions and tasks from any device, all being done in real-time.

An in-memory database is a Database Management System that primarily relies on main memory for computer data storage. SAP S/4HANA is pitted against Database Management Systems that use a disk storage mechanism. Main memory databases are speedier than disk-optimized databases since the internal optimization algorithms are simpler and execute lesser CPU instructions. Accessing data in memory completely removes seek time when querying the data, which gives faster and more predictable performance than disk.

This application has its unique selling proposition in being able to render the maximum amount of information to an individual user’s fingertips through analytical insight, master data and transactional processing simultaneously.

SAP S4HANA is SAP’s next generation business suite designed to help you run simply in a digital and networked world.
This new suite is built on our advanced in-memory platform, SAP HANA, and offers a personalized user experience with SAP Fiori.

This is a suite that is deployable both on-premise or in the cloud and SAP S/4HANA has been designed to inject instant value across lines of business and industries with a huge upgrade in simplicity. This degree of simplification leads to high levels of software sophistication.

Digital businesses use SAP S/4HANA as a real-time enterprise resource management software suite. While being built on an in-memory platform, SAP S/4HANA offers highly personalized user experiences with SAP Fiori.

Why is SAP S/4HANA a Game Changer?

SAP S/4HANA is touted to be the next-generation business suite architected to run simple in a digital economy. It has been built for the revolutionary SAP S/4HANA in-memory computing platform. It fundamentally redefines how enterprise software creates value across industries with instant insight. SAP S/4HANA also customizes the user experience on any device and natively connects to the Internet of Things, Big Data, social and business networks in real time. Given below are some of the salient features of SAP S/4HANA

Business Models

SAP S/4HANA helps enterprises connect to people, Big Data, devices and business networks, all in real time, enables businesses to achieve outstanding business goals and objectives

Business Processes

SAP S/4HANA helps run every business processes at speeds that were previously unheard of, and this is achieved by eliminating batch processing.

Data Models

Enterprises will be able to eliminate redundancies, indices and aggregates, to efficiently minimize data footprint and the total cost of ownership by the business.

Business Decisions

Businesses will be able to execute cutting edge predictive analytics and simulations using real-time data, and such data being live during strategy meetings for critical business decisions.

User Experience

Companies can accelerate user adoption and business value with a highly intuitive, customized and personalized user experience for every device that is available on the market. User experience enhancement is one of the core features of SAP S/4 HANA

Solution Deployment

Enterprises can fast-track deployment of solutions within business processes and outside on the client side using on-premise and cloud editions which enable instant updating of versions along with bug fixes and so on.

S/4 HANA is SAP’s new Business Suite which is centered on ERP and leverages HANA as underlying Database engine. SAP’s ERP and rest of its Business Suite solutions have formed the core of Information Systems used by most large enterprises across the globe. It provides business and corporations with the unique ability to gather information at each step of business activities, and provide streamlined information flow especially for large organizations where there are several layers of reporting structure.

Since the inception of SAP HANA, more customers have ended up using it, leading to more and more business activity being recorded and managed by it. As a result, the SAP business suite solutions are getting proportionately bigger.

Enter SAP HANA, which aims to bring data processing close to data again. And its capability of mass-parallel processing of in-memory data near raw HW speed makes it a reality to conduct most of the analysis on-the-fly. Conventionally such massive aggregation used to be pre-built in the systems due to lack of speed of processing by traditional technology.

A simple analogy to compare speed and capabilities of SAP HANA as compared to conventional database management would be internal combustion engine cars. A traditional DBMS or database management system is like an automobile that runs entirely on fossil fuel, whereas as SAP on HANA is like a hybrid car which has higher efficiency. Whereas SAP S4HANA is like a fully electric Tesla car which is completely energy efficient, self-sustainable and lightning fast!

What is In-Memory Computing?

In-memory computing is a groundbreaking technology that enhances business processes by integrating rapid database transactions with real-time data analytics. This is a database system that depends upon main memory for purposes of data storage as compared to a disk storage mechanism. This leads to highly accelerated speeds for instant access to the database and all related information.

The SAP S/4HANA platform leverages in-memory computing to accelerate the data-intensive process, reduce complexity and increase the value delivered from IT.

Real-Time Analytics

Enterprises can run highly effective and potent in-database analytics to leverage largely parallel processing coupled with innovative in-memory columnar storage architecture.

Real-Time Applications

SAP S/4HANA has been designed to serve as an application foundation for the new wave of enterprise applications that are taking over the current market. This makes it an extra powerful tool aside from being based on an in-memory platform.

Real-Time Platform

SAP S/4HANA supplies libraries for a broad spectrum of analytics ranging from predictive, planning, and text processing to spatial and business analytics. This makes it an ideal platform for building and deploying next-generation, real-time applications and analytics.

S/4 HANA leads the pack in Data Analysis

In today’s information age scenario where massive amounts of data are being generated at exponentially increasing rates by enterprises across the world, making the right set of business decisions has become a highly complex challenge. Understanding, translating and finally applying the data gathered by these organizations can mean the difference between transforming into a globally recognized business presence or remaining an average run of the mill company with a local reach and presence.

SAP S/4HANA has been designed to address recent business scenarios and accelerate business processes at every level. SAP is world-renowned for its ERP solutions which drive the business processes of large corporations throughout the world. S/4 HANA has been launched by SAP to be the new face of ERP business applications to stay on top of the brand new trend in Big Data processing which has become an integral part of enterprises the world over. Whether it is the capability of HANA’s in-memory database to empower users with real-time abilities in the extraction of value from data instantly, or helping management makes the right business decision at the right time, HANA is the global leader in database management.

Traditional database concepts have been remodeled and reinvented through the introduction of the SAP HANA database. With the Internet of Things being the next big name in business connectivity, all industries across domains are looking at physical goods and inventory being optimized and monitored to transmit data to computing systems to be analyzed. The data received from devices such as RFIDs and other tagging tech needs to be processed in real time to benefit the most from the same. And the SAP S/4HANA platform makes such value extraction from data a reality with its in-memory platform supported application.This is a highly intuitive application and is designed for next generation business trends and processes.

While maintaining focus on Big Data processing, SAP S/4HANA is capable of providing the flexibility of user experience design to the user interface developers. This is made possible with SAP Fiori which enables developers to build user apps, dashboard, analytic interfaces and a whole lot more. This means cross-device compatibility empowers users with personalization and the choice to use various devices to access this tool  

Business Benefits of SAP S/4HANA

Business benefits for companies who adopt SAP’s S/4 HANA as an enterprise resource planning (ERP) foundational solution for their business operations:

• Less redundant data meaning more time spent on analyzing relevant datasets
• Highly enhanced user experience with Fiori meaning cross-device compatibility
• Less reconciliation effort meaning faster processing
• Simplified master data boosts data querying and storage along with data access when required

• Cutting edge real-time analytics- SAP S/4HANA enables extraction and refinement of highly valuable and actionable information from large quanta of data.
• Integration of transaction processing and analytics- Accelerate business processes with speedy analysis and reporting
• Highly enhanced system performance- With SAP In-Memory Computing clients and end users get revolutionary innovations in hardware and software

• Enables creation of new business models and processes which were previously unimaginable.
• Minimize the Total cost of ownership (TCO) with less hardware and maintenance across the enterprise

Go through our SAP S/4HANA SIMPLE FINANCE EXAM C_TS4FI_1610 Certification Made Easy  to crack the Interviews.

Conclusion

SAP HANA is the next step in the long-term evolution of data analysis and reporting in industries across various domains. SAP being the leader in all things data has taken the first step as a pioneer and set clear trends in how data will be handled for the years to come. SAP is bound to revolutionize how enterprises do business and interact with customers, and with SAP S/4HANA it has outmatched its competitors by leaps and bounds, setting the tone for future data analysis and management in the current IT market scenario.

I hope that by now you have had an overview of SAP S/4 HANA Finance. Before you enroll in ZaranTech’s certification course on SAP S/4 HANA Finance, do check out the S4 HANA Finance demo:

You May also like to read: Differences between SAP HANA & SAP S/4HANA