When SAP released S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition and began promoting it as the ERP of choice for fast-growing small and medium-sized businesses, we sat down. This was a game-changer.
Previously businesses had to choose a small-business offering until they graduated to the stuff used by the largest multinationals, SAP S/4HANA. But with the release of the S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition, now smaller businesses also could use the power of SAP’s flagship offering.
This was accomplished by offering S/4HANA in a hosted, public cloud option, and by making it modular and extensible enough that smaller businesses could use the core ERP without having to adopt all the functionality used by the largest of large organizations. Same core, but smaller businesses could add just the functionality they need.
Adopting such a powerful, complicated ERP solution still can be overwhelming, however, especially given the large universe of options that come with the system. What makes S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition powerful and able to scale with a business also is what makes it hard to adopt initially.
So SAP simplified this process with its GROW with SAP program. Essentially, GROW with SAP is prepackaged S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition which makes it faster to get started. GROW with SAP helps a business start with S4HANA and comes with functionality most commonly used by a business.
In this article, we’ll briefly touch on the GROW with SAP package and its core features.
GROW with SAP Package Features
There are effectively 10 areas where the GROW with SAP package focuses. Businesses can choose the base edition of GROW with SAP or the premium edition, and additionally, there are optional add-ons that businesses can adopt as part of the GROW with SAP program.
There are effectively 10 areas where the GROW with SAP package focuses. Businesses can choose the base edition of GROW with SAP or the premium edition, and additionally, there are optional add-ons that businesses can adopt as part of the GROW with SAP program.
1. Financial Features
The GROW with SAP package comes with robust financial management; no more need for QuickBooks. It includes bookkeeping and financial analytics, tax compliance, end-to-end group reporting, and consolidation in the base package.
With the premium package, there’s also receipt and expense management with Concur Expense, advanced automated financial close, real-time cash management, receivables management, and more advanced financial analytics. Optional add-ons include customer subscription billing functionality, treasury management, digital banking, and compliance automation.
2. Human Resource Features
Smaller organizations don’t need much in the way of HR management, but larger businesses do need sophisticated alignment between HR and finance. So the GROW with SAP package offers a full, cloud-based HR platform as an optional add-on for businesses that require it.
Businesses that need sophisticated HR management functionality have it, but those who don’t can skip the cost and complexity.
3. Procurement Features
S/4HANA comes with best-in-class procurement processes, and the GROW with SAP package includes these powerful procurement processes out of the box. That includes self-service procurement through a consumerized end-user buying experience for procuring indirect materials with SAP Ariba Buying.
The premium edition also comes with more advanced procurement processes and centralized invoice management for automating inbound invoice processing and completely centralizing and integrating invoicing.
4. Sales Features
The GROW with SAP package naturally is strong on sales functionality, since that’s at the heart of every business. All businesses that use GROW with SAP get complete customer order lifecycle management from start to finish, including quotation, order confirmation, delivery, and invoicing.
Businesses that opt for the premium edition also get access to the SAP sales cloud, which helps accelerate revenue growth by streamlining and automating critical selling processes.
5. Services Features
Both the base and premium packages come with a suite of functionality for delivering exceptional services and for managing projects and new business models.
As an optional add-on, the GROW with SAP package also can include advanced resource management for improving resource utilization and reducing staffing time through collaborative resource management features.
6. Supply Chain Features
Business is global, and that’s not going away despite trade wars and political upheaval. So the GROW with SAP package comes with robust functionality for optimizing supply chain operations. This includes real-time inventory management, materials flow analysis, and profitable and sustainable transportation scenario modeling.
7. Manufacturing Features
ERP is built from the ground up for manufacturing, so of course businesses that use any version of S/4HANA get manufacturing operations support. The GROW with SAP package enables real-time visibility of manufacturing operations, helps a business optimize manufacturing processes, and assists with collaborating in global networks for lower total manufacturing costs.
Manufacturers can include manufacturing execution system functionality as an optional add-on, which optimizes resources and execution on the shop floor with cloud-based manufacturing execution system (MES) capabilities for discrete and process manufacturing.
Advanced demand planning functionality also is available as an add-on, combining traditional demand planning techniques, advanced demand sensing techniques, and machine learning tools for generating accurate demand plans.
8. Asset Management Features
The GROW with SAP package comes with asset management by default.
For businesses with complicated asset management needs, there also are optional add-ons for asset performance management and mobile maintenance execution. With mobile maintenance execution, employees can use an app on their smartphones for inspecting, maintaining, and repairing assets in the field.
9. R&D and Engineering Features
GROW with SAP comes with functionality for bringing new products, formulations, and designs to market. For businesses that need product lifecycle management, there’s also an optional add-on for accelerating product development, speeding up time to value, and reducing costs with cloud-based PLM capabilities.
10. System Integration, Automation and Extension Features
The GROW with SAP package naturally is quite robust when it comes to extending the system, being that it is intended as a quick-start way to adopt S/4HANA. It ties into the SAP Business Technology Platform, an online marketplace for add-on functionality and quick integrations, and enables the creation of business apps and branded websites that tie into the ERP solution. As an optional add-on, businesses also can integrate on-premise and cloud-based processes, services, applications, events, and data easily with SAP Integration Suite Starter Edition.
Process automation is fully baked into GROW with SAP. Business processes can be easily automated through workflows, bots, and AI with SAP Build Process Automation that comes with the GROW with SAP package.
Learn more about GROW with SAP
Grow with SAP does a lot more than what can be covered here. So for a deeper dive into what GROW with SAP can offer, contact one of our experienced consultants to get your specific questions answered or to schedule a system demo. You can call us at (801) 642-0123 or by writing us at info@nbs-us.com.
