ASUG Research and smartShift Present Decoding SAP Clean Core

Hi everyone, thank you so much for joining us today. I’m Marissa Gilbert, Research Director here at ASUG. Welcome to today’s webcast, Decoding Clean Core: A Strategic Approach for S/4HANA Migration Barriers. Before we jump in, just a few reminders for you. Today’s webcast is being recorded and all registrants will receive an email with a link to the recording about tomorrow. If you have any questions during this webcast, please feel free to type your questions using the Q&A box on your screen. 

As time permits, we will get to as many of those questions as possible during the session today, or we can answer them while we’re talking if they’re in the moment. If we don’t have enough time today to answer questions, we will follow up with you and make sure you get a response. And of course, please take our survey about your experience at the end of the webcast. In the event you cannot remain on for the duration of our 30 minutes today, the survey will also be included in our post-event email. 

All right, let’s get started. As I said, we only have 30 minutes here today and I am thrilled to be joined today by Chris Hanshew, Vice President of Products at smartShift. Welcome, Chris. How are you?

Introduction by Chris Hanshew

I’m doing great, Marissa. It’s great to be here today. 

So great to see you. Can you share a little bit about you and a little bit about smartShift for our audience today?

Absolutely. First off, I’d like to say thank you for all the work that you and the ASUG research team have put into this, as well as the great collaboration we’ve had over the last couple of months. It’s been great going through this process. A little bit about myself, my name is Chris Hanshew. I’m the VP of Product for smartShift. I have been working in the SAP space since 1998. I started out as an ABAP developer on big implementations back in the day, worked for many different SAP consulting companies as well as SAP customers. This is my 8th year at smartShift. I was also an ASUG volunteer in the past and spent many hours working with the ASUG team putting together content for Sapphire and Tech Ed.

About smartShift

smartShift is a company that focuses on helping customers transform and modernize their SAP systems. Our major area of focus is automated custom code transformation. We’ve been applying automated custom code transformation for many years over various projects like system consolidations, carve-outs, Unicode and HANA conversions. Lately, a lot of our work is focused on helping customers with S/4HANA transformation. We support customers using any of the different methods they choose, whether it’s brownfield, selective greenfield, bluefield, or selective data transition. Our real DNA is providing real automation at a very deep level, supported by patents and software we’ve built over the years. We help customers with conversions, speed, quality, minimizing business disruption, and taking a different point of view on these projects.

Key Insights from the Research Study

We wanted to understand the role custom code plays in SAP migrations, how SAP customers are managing custom code, their level of satisfaction, and where they are in their journey with S/4HANA, as well as the challenges and opportunities with customizations. This research was fielded in January and February with 174 ASUG members participating. Highlights include custom code being a business necessity for almost all SAP customers, with reliance and challenges increasing when migrating to S/4HANA. Balancing clean core ideals with business realities is a top priority. Future movers to S/4HANA plan to use automation but underestimate code migration challenges. The key to optimizing custom code migrations is bridging knowledge gaps, focusing on change management, and working with the right people.

42% of ASUG members are fully or partially migrated to S/4HANA, while 57% are planning their move within the next seven months to more than two years from now. The top challenge experienced is too many customizations within old instances. While custom code imposes a lot of challenges, 95% of organizations surveyed build and run custom ABAP code to extend SAP software applications, indicating its necessity for supporting business functions.

Understanding Clean Core

When asked about the clean core concept, three out of four SAP customers are now aware of it, a 14% increase since last year. Familiarity has also increased by 21%. Clean core is essential for modern software development because it allows for faster consumption of innovation by running cloud software with standard processes, clean data, and minimum customizations. The principles of clean core include no modifications to the core, retirement of unused code, leveraging new extensibility options first, using released APIs from SAP, and having a released API strategy for when SAP APIs are missing.

Transitioning to Clean Core

A typical process for transitioning a legacy system to a clean core architecture involves understanding what’s in your environment, retiring old code, replacing non-release APIs with released APIs, and planning for future development strategies. This process ensures your system remains upgradable and maintains a clean core architecture.

Role of Automation

Automation plays a crucial role in the transition process by helping to move legacy classic objects to clean core architectures efficiently. smartShift builds automation into each step of the process, addressing syntax problems, replacing non-release APIs, moving user exits to key user or developer extensions, and eventually moving whole applications to new architectures.

Conclusion and Q&A

If you are interested in learning more about smartShift’s capabilities, scan the QR code or visit the website provided. smartShift offers rapid code analysis and a clean core X-ray to help customers understand their systems and plan their transition to clean core principles.