Exploring System Landscapes

The system landscape for implementation of SAP S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition includes the following systems:

The SAP Cloud Appliance Library (CAL) enables you to deploy a fully-configured SAP S/4HANA (on premise) system that can be used for exploration as a Trial System, or as a Scoping/Sandbox System. There are also systems available to help implementation teams prepare for system conversion. These systems can be deployed in 2-3 hours through the CAL website. While the systems in CAL are technically on premise systems, we've already learned what differentiates SAP S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition is the software being hosted in SAP's private managed cloud, SAP HANA Enterprise Cloud. The experience in these SAP S/4HANA systems is the same or very similar to what a customer would see in their own Private Edition system. For a 30-day free trial, choose the SAP S/4HANA [latest release], Fully-Activated Appliance system in CAL. Access to the SAP S/4HANA software is free for 30 days, however there is a cost to host the system on one of the third party infrastructure providers (Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud, Amazon Web Services). Start your free trial here.

For a new implementation, a fully configured system is deployed via SAP Cloud Appliance Library to use as a demonstration system by partner consultants. Consultants use the sandbox system to deliver Fit-to-Standard workshops to customer business experts in each line of business during the Explore phase of the SAP Activate Methodology. The purpose is to teach the customer experts how to navigate the new system and to gather configuration data and extension requirements. Customization requirements are documented in SAP Cloud ALM to ensure there is a record of each requirement the partners must implement in the customer's actual system during the Realize phase of the SAP Activate Methodology. You can let the sandbox system expire after the customer's own systems are implemented, as it would no longer be needed.

For a system conversion, the customer's existing sandbox system is converted to SAP S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition with the Software Update Manager (SUM) tool. The focus of a conversion is on existing processes, SAP S/4HANA Simplification Items, reviewing new functionality and whether the customer's current Workflow, Report, Interface, Conversion, Enhancement, and Forms (WRICEF) can be eliminated by adopting SAP standard business processes. It's common to also deploy a system from CAL to review business processes from the compatibility scope (specific line of business capabilities from SAP ECC where the usage rights have been extended so the customer can use the processes in SAP S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition for a period of time), and new functionality the customer may also want enabled in their new SAP S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition system.

Within a system, there can be one or more client tenants with different purposes. A client is an organizational unit in the system with specific user master records and authorizations. The Development system typically has two client tenants:

• Development tenant / client 080 is for developer extensibility in the ABAP environment, where developers have full ABAP development tool access and can even modify the SAP source code, although modification is NOT recommended. The development tenant is client-independent, meaning development objects built here can be accessed from the customizing tenant if permission is granted. This is because development objects are stored in database tables without a client column. Changes are recorded on development workbench requests and are released for transport with the Transport Organizer view in ABAP Development Tools.
• Customizing tenant / client 100 is the main project, used for business process configuration and key user extensibility with the SAP Fiori extensibility apps. The customizing tenant is client-dependent, meaning configurations or extensions made here can only be accessed within the customizing tenant. This is because master and transactional data is stored in database tables within a client column. To transport extensions, create a software package with the Configure Software Packages Fiori app, and assign the package to a transport request with the Register Extensions for Transport app.

For a new implementation, a fresh development system is deployed with SAP standard business process content, or as a blank system where customizing is done via the IMG (Implementation Guide).

For a system conversion, the customer's existing development system is converted to SAP S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition based on the migration approach validated with the sandbox.

The quality system is used for thorough testing before any changes or extensions are transported to production. To make transports available for testing in the quality system, an administrator releases transport requests from the development system with the Transport Organizer (SE09) transaction in the backend.

For a new implementation, the configuration from the development system is transported to the quality system.

For a system conversion, the customer's existing quality system is converted to SAP S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition, based on the migration approach validated in the sandbox and development systems.

The production system is used for daily business-related operations and tasks. To make transports available for use in the production system, an administrator releases transport requests with the Transport Organizer (SE09) transaction in the backend.

For a new implementation, the configuration from the quality system is transported to the production system.

For a system conversion, the customer's existing production system is converted to SAP S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition, based on the migration approach validated in the sandbox, development, and quality systems.

SAP for Me is the one-stop digital platform for customers and partners to use a variety of self-service tools to manage their systems, solutions, support cases, and more. SAP for Me is an essential resource at the beginning of an implementation because the customer system admin granted the IT Contact permission will use the Systems & Provisioning dashboard to provision some of the systems required for the implementation. You can customize the home page by choosing from many different predelivered SAP cards, and the calendar shows upcoming product-related events, license key expiry dates, and support sessions. The SAP for Me mobile app for iPhone and Android enables customers and partners to easily interact with SAP and have full transparency into their SAP product portfolio in one place.

SAP for Me dashboards include:

• Customer Success enables partners to manage their cloud and on premise customers with information about customer products, licenses, and orders.
• Finance & Legal enables customers to manage their SAP orders, payments, licensed products, and license consumption.
• Partner Solutions enables partners to manage, upgrade, and build partner solutions and certifications.
• Partnership enables partners to access the latest SAP PartnerEdge news, partnership details, agreements, contracts, and partnership tracks.
• Products & Portfolio enables customers to manage all cloud and on premise products in their portfolio, in addition to a view of upcoming road map innovations.
• Sales & Marketing supports partners in tracking their pipeline of sales deals and open quotes with customers.
• Services & Support helps customers and partners request support, manage support cases, search for relevant SAP Knowledge Base Articles (KBAs) and SAP Notes, and directly access tools to manage the lifecycle of products (SAP Roadmap Viewer, current SAP Cloud ALM projects, etc.).
  Note

  The SAP ONE Support Launchpad has been completely decommissioned, and SAP for Me is the area where you submit and keep track of support cases. Check out our mapping table to find which tiles from the ONE Support Launchpad match to the dashboards and tiles within SAP for Me here.
• Systems & Provisioning is where the customer system admin can provision their purchased SAP cloud solutions, keep track of all SAP cloud and on premise systems, view and manage remote connections, and see information on license and migration keys.
• Users & Contacts is where customers and partners can access information about important contacts within SAP and their own organization. For example, if you don't have permission to access a system or area you think you should be able to access, use this dashboard to look up the SAP system administrator within your organization. Only the SAP system admin within your own company can assign additional permissions to your SAP user ID.

SAP Cloud Identity Services run on the SAP Business Technology Platform and include both the Identity Authentication Service (IAS) and Identity Provisioning Service (IPS). Collectively, these services provide a single sign-on (SSO) experience across a customer's SAP systems and ensure that system and data access are secure. If a customer doesn't already have SAP Cloud Identity, these systems are automatically provisioned when a customer system admin triggers the provisioning of any SAP Cloud solution they have purchased through SAP for Me. This generates an email notification sent to the system admin where they can activate their Cloud Identity account, and proceed with provisioning their other SAP cloud systems required for implementing SAP S/4HANA Cloud.

The customer system admin uses the IAS in the beginning of the implementation to create user accounts and assign permissions for other members of the implementation team who need access to SAP Cloud ALM, SAP Business Technology Platform, and other system landscapes connected to Cloud Identity Services. The IPS is used during this time to run jobs that trigger the creation of user accounts and assignment of permissions in the new systems.

SAP Cloud ALM runs on the SAP Business Technology Platform, and is included in the Enterprise Support for cloud editions for all customers purchasing SAP cloud solutions. The customer's SAP Cloud ALM systems needs to be provisioned through SAP for Me, and users need to be created and assigned permission for each implementation project team member (partners and customers) via SAP Cloud Identity. The apps in Cloud ALM are divided into four primary sections:

SAP Business Transformation Center apps are designed to support customers in their selective data transition projects from SAP ECC to SAP S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition or SAP S/4HANA on premise. For example, the Digital Blueprint app helps customers and partners define the migration and transformation scope by providing data-driven guidance and recommendations for decision-making roles, architects, and subject matter experts. It also offers actionable insights into business data and supports data scope workshops with solution architects or data lead roles at consulting partners. The result is a data specification document ("blueprint") that can serve as a basis for migration.

Learn more about the SAP Business Transformation Center apps here.

SAP Cloud ALM for Implementation apps are designed to manage the entire implementation following the SAP Activate Methodology. SAP Cloud ALM turns the tasks and deliverables that are documented in the methodology into actionable items that can be assigned to the team member(s) responsible for completing each task. A team member can document additional information about the task and mark it complete when finished, which the project manager can see through the visual dashboard tiles in the Overview app and generate reports that can be used for progress update meetings with the Analytics app. The partner project manager is responsible for setting up the implementation project with the SAP Activate Roadmap of RISE with SAP Methodology - clean core success plan, defining the project timeboxes for delivery milestones, setting up the team, roles, and assigning tasks to relevant roles, creating the system group and deployment plan, and setting up the correct scope based on the business processes selected on the customer's Digital Discovery Assessment. After go-live, the customer project manager can use SAP Cloud ALM for Implementation to manage the tasks that need to be completed during and after each release upgrade by creating a project with the SAP Activate Roadmap for SAP S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition - Upgrade. The tasks generated for this project are based on the SAP Activate Methodology Run phase and ensure a customer completes all necessary activities in their SAP S/4HANA Cloud system during and after each upgrade.

Learn how to use the SAP Cloud ALM for Implementation apps in the Expert Portal.

SAP Cloud ALM for Operations apps are targeted to the customer's IT support team for maintaining and monitoring their SAP system landscapes. The operations apps have visibility into any system set up as a managed landscape, and therefore provide a one-stop shop for monitoring the health of a customer's entire landscape of integrated systems. These apps help ensure smooth business operations and enables the customer's IT team to be proactive in addressing potential issues.

Learn how to use the SAP Cloud ALM for Operations apps in the Expert Portal.

SAP Cloud ALM for Service apps are designed to make the end-to-end service delivery process between SAP and customers as transparent as possible. For example if a customer requests a specific service from SAP outside the scope of a standard implementation, they can track all action items along the service delivery process and when they will be delivered, collaborate with the SAP Service Delivery Team, receive a summary of the service results and outcomes, and document and assign any follow-up tasks after the service has been delivered.

Learn how to use the SAP Cloud ALM for Service apps in the Expert Portal.

In the context of an SAP S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition implementation, SAP Business Technology Platform (BTP) is engine powering many applications including SAP Cloud ALM and SAP Cloud Identity Services. It's also where the SAP standard integrations have been developed and run, and where customers can access the additional low/no-code tools included in their RISE with SAP enablement package to build extensions, automate processes and create engaging business sites with SAP Build Apps, SAP Build Process Automation, and SAP Build Work Zone.

Beyond this, SAP BTP has around 90 services to support any type of customization or extension a customer may need. Explore all services in the SAP Discovery Center.