3 Common Pitfalls to Avoid During Your SAP HANA Migration
SAP HANA has been a hot topic since it was released in 2012. The business advantages of the in-memory database include performance enhancement, real-time analytics, and better use of all your data regardless of the source. Your organization is undoubtedly excited about the potential from your digital transformation.
Your entire organization can benefit from the move to SAP HANA. But, there are also several pitfalls that could derail your implementation and reduce your chances for success. In this article, we look at some of these prospective hurdles so you can plan for them in advance.
1. Lack of a Business Case
SAP has been talking about the benefits of HANA for years. It allows you to build a business warehouse where multiple sources of your data come together. That data can be analyzed in real time to allow you to make more informed, quicker business decisions.
SAP HANA is an impressive technology change. But it’s the underlying business improvements that can have the greatest impact. To allow for these improvements, business processes will need to be altered and simplified to take advantage of new insights. Some business processes might be eliminated altogether.
The first step toward a successful HANA implementation is to build a business case for the technology investment. What will your organization use as key performance indicators to gauge success? And how will the organization need to change to maximize the benefits of the technology?
2. Lack of Centralized Project Management
Some of your line of business leaders already realize the potential for SAP HANA. Those leaders might already be talking directly to SAP and are eager to get started. Those lines of business could push forward on their own (taking advantage of cloud solutions) and bypass IT.
This scenario leads to a lack of a global business case by concealing parts of the overall view. Valuable data that is stored in disparate departments or outside vendors could remain segregated.
This is where strong centralized project management comes in. Ideally, the IT team in the above scenario would be involved at the beginning of the process to communicate with all departments and build the business case. If the project management office has a clear understanding of everyone’s goals, there is a much greater chance for success.
3. No Long-Term Infrastructure Plan
There has been a push toward cloud technologies over recent years. SAP is no exception. They tout their cloud offering as a fast way to get started with HANA. You can keep your business applications where they are, either on-premise or in the cloud, and connect to their cloud offering.
The problem with this is in how HANA works at its best. HANA is an in-memory data store that allows you to analyze large amounts of data in real time. If your applications are on-premise and your HANA business warehouse is in the cloud, will the separation allow HANA to still have consistent access to real-time data?
Where you decide to deploy HANA can have an immediate impact on today’s operations. And we all know that data continues to grow minute-by-minute. You need to ensure that your HANA environment can scale in size and performance when needed.
Conclusion
SAP HANA can provide your organization with industry-altering capabilities. It is important to understand that the way to benefit the most from HANA is to take a global approach to the implementation. Understand how each department, user, and line of business plan to take advantage of the technology.
Originally published at convergeone.com on May 22, 2017.
