SAP Demo System: Experience S/4HANA live immediately
With the help of live demo systems, companies can experience SAP S/4HANA immediately - and thus, among other things, test and evaluate whether the SAP best practice standard is sufficient for their processes.
How do you get a real insight into SAP S/4HANA - even during project preparation? What concrete difference does SAP S/4HANA make compared to the existing SAP ERP system? And how and to what extent can the company's own processes be covered with the best practices?
Companies can get answers to these and other questions with a so-called SAP S/4HANA Fully Activated Appliance - a demo system with activated Best Practices, with the help of which companies can experience SAP S/4HANA live and test various scenarios.
What is a Fully Activated Appliance?
A Fully Activated Appliance is a pre-built system template, a test and demo system. This system contains pre-configured and activated best practices as well as various demo scenarios with exemplary master and transaction data.
"Fully Activated" means that all functions of the system and the Fiori Apps can be used immediately and in full.
Even at a very early stage of a project (for example in the prepare phase), companies can use the appliance to run through various processes live in the system, carry out fit-gap analyses or a proof of concept and upload their own data to the system.
This leads - for example, by measuring and evaluating coverage levels of best practices - to informed decisions when it comes to the appropriate implementation path or a suitable target architecture for a company.In addition, such a demo system has the advantage that users can experience SAP S/4HANA at an early stage and, for example, familiarise themselves with the new SAP Fiori user interface.
Further information:
What is the SAP Cloud Appliance Library?
With the SAP Cloud Appliance Library (SAP CAL), SAP provides the infrastructure in the network with which companies can select an appliance and create a corresponding instance. This "online library" thus offers a simple and quick way to get to know SAP's solutions in the cloud.
Currently, 49 solutions are available in the SAP Cloud Appliance Library, pre-configured and ready for immediate use - from the "SAP S/4HANA 2021, Fully-Activated Appliance" to the "SAP ABAP Platform 1909, Developer Edition" (as of early 2022).
Further information:
How do I use an SAP S/4HANA Fully Activated Appliance?
The appliance can be installed - as a personal instance - on the company's own hardware (on-premise). Today, however, the preferred way is to provide it in the cloud.
All that is required is an account with a hyperscaler such as Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure or Google Cloud Platform and various licences.
For example, a licence for a solution instance of the SAP Cloud Appliance Library for a fully activated appliance can be purchased for three months. In addition, further SAP usage rights (such as named user licences) and an IaaS cloud contract are required.
Alternatively, companies can use the appliance with a 30-day trial licence.
The setup of the test and demo system can be implemented within a few hours, so that companies can experience SAP S/4HANA much faster than would be possible via the setup of a project development system.
User access to the appliance is usually via SAP Fiori. However, access is also possible via SAP GUI, SAP HANA Studio, Windows Remote Desktop or the backend operating system.
SAP does not recommend using it as a development system in implementation projects. The reason is that some of the components and configuration settings (some with a separate licence) may conflict with later use in a production system.
What does the SAP S/4HANA Fully Activated Appliance contain?
The "SAP S/4HANA 2021 (SP00), Fully-Activated Appliance" contains pre-configured best practices for all SAP S/4HANA core functions.
In addition, various demo and walk-through scenarios are available, for example Service, Master Data Governance, Group Reporting, Analytics, Transportation Management, SAP Fiori Rapid Activation or the Migration Cockpit.
In addition to SAP S/4HANA 2021, SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform 4.3, SAP NetWeaver 7.5 and SAP HANA Platform Edition 2.0 are already installed.
Fully Activated Appliance vs. Model Company
In contrast to the Fully Activated Appliance, the Model Company is an industry-specific solution that includes a pre-selection of best practices and further processes and solutions and is subject to a fee.
SAP has adapted the concept of the SAP Model Company as part of the Cloud Strategy 2021. According to this, the industry-specific content that goes beyond the best practices is still available. All content relating to cloud solutions, on the other hand, is now available as SAP Best Practices.
Further information:
What are the benefits of the SAP S/4HANA Fully Activated Appliance?
- Extremely fast provision of the demo system
- Complete and up-to-date SAP S/4HANA version including best practices
- Wide range of application options (sandbox, proof-of-concept, scoping, fit-gap analysis)
- Hosting in the cloud (e.g. AWS) or on-premise installation
- Trial licences available
- Early experience of the system (e.g. for user training)
Thomas Pasquale, Managing Partner
Are you interested in SAP S/4HANA? We would be happy to show you what is possible with it.+49 2241 8845-637