SAP Activate is based on three pillars: SAP Best Practices, guided configuration, and one methodology for any SAP S/4HANA implementation.
In this post, we’ll look into each of the three pillars of SAP Activate.
SAP Best Practices
The first of the three pillars is SAP Best Practices. Implementation of any ERP requires sound functional knowledge and a strong understanding of the business requirements. The first pillar of SAP Activate is meant to provide a standard, consistent, and preconfigured ready-to-run business process optimized for SAP S/4HANA.
SAP Best Practices supports new implementations as well as the migration and integration of system conversion. For selective data transitions (or landscape transformations), SAP Best Practices, apart from the use cases, migration, and integration, includes the extensibility of existing business processes with the customer’s own processes.
SAP Best Practices help the project team in the following ways.
Faster Time to Value
The ready-to-run, preconfigured processes, along with other assets, will help jump-start the implementation. If followed, it drastically reduces the implementation time, and customers can reap the benefits quickly.
Predictable Results
The variety of business scenarios across the industry provides repeatable and predictable results. SAP Best Practices, along with some localization, generally forms the implementation baseline.
Quick and Simple Onboarding to the Cloud
Easy deployment to the cloud provides flexibility for clients.
SAP Best Practices are structured in the following two formats.
Documentation
You can find the SAP Best Practices documentation via SAP Signavio Process Navigator. From there, you can review or download the best practices content as per your project’s needs.
Configuration
The preconfigured best practices are available in the system but are in a dormant state and require activation. Once activated, you can execute the best practices on the activated system.
The figure below shows the SAP Signavio Process Navigator homepage.
Guided Configuration
Guided configuration, the second pillar of SAP Activate, supports SAP S/4HANA implementations by providing a framework, accelerators, playbooks, checklists, tools, and many other assets.
Because SAP Activate is a common methodology for both cloud and on-premise implementations, the tools for guided configuration vary based on the chosen landscape. In simple terms, guided configuration is your personal assistant that will help you configure the system.
For SAP S/4HANA Cloud, it also helps in managing the lifecycle of the preconfigured business process. However, guided configuration behaves differently for on-premise SAP S/4HANA and SAP S/4HANA Cloud versions, as shown in this figure.
The SAP solution builder tool is the first step of guided configuration, which allows you to activate the best practices. Within the SAP solution builder tool, processes are modeled as scope items. You can develop and structure configuration content based on the industry model. Let’s explore the guided configuration for cloud and on-premise implementations:
SAP S/4HANA Cloud
In the activated environment, a customer or a partner can use self-service configuration via the Self-Service Configuration User Interface (SSCUI) to adjust and personalize the solution. SSCUI contains the following features:
- Personalized processes
- Ability to adjust settings based on client’s needs
- Easy-to-use SAP Fiori apps
The expert configuration capabilities, on the other hand, are available only to SAP’s service center team, which works closely with the customer and/or partner to implement the desired configuration settings in the system. Expert configuration capabilities include the following:
- Deeper configuration changes
- Ability to add new processes or adjust preconfigured processes
Expert configurations are implemented in the quality system by the SAP service center team. The table below shows what is allowed and what is restricted by the expert configuration.
| Allows | Restricts |
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SAP S/4HANA (On-Premise)
The implementation team starts with the activated SAP Best Practices in the sandbox environment. After the fit-gap analysis, covered later in this chapter, the implementation team uses the standard implementation guide (IMG) for the configuration. Furthermore, the team uses SAP Solution Manager to capture and store the project documentations in one location.
You can access the guided configuration using the Manage Your Solution app to gain the following benefits:
- Evaluations of activated business processes
- Initial configuration of the activated solution and updates for continuous innovations
- A process-driven approach to test your configured business process
- A migration engine for simple data migration and end-user training
One Methodology
The third pillar of SAP Activate, which is the successor of the ASAP and SAP Launch methodologies, is the methodology itself—one modular, simpler, and agile methodology. Some of the salient features of the SAP Activate methodology are shown in this figure.
The SAP Activate methodology is wide-ranging and supports the initial implementations as well as the continuous innovations on one spectrum, while on the other spectrum, it also covers the implementations of broad SAP solutions such as SAP S/4HANA, SAP cloud solutions, and SAP Business Suite. And, on yet another spectrum, it enables co-innovations with partners and customers.
The SAP Activate methodology not only provides a structured and cohesive approach to implement the solution, but it also provides the solution, contents, and accelerators for the three transition paths. The Roadmap Viewer is the tool where you can find the methodology, contents, and accelerators, whereas SAP Best Practices will provide you with the business solution and related accelerators.
The methodology, by default, uses the agile delivery approach and provides ready-to-use, preconfigured solutions and the corresponding documentation in SAP Best Practices. Furthermore, the methodology provides fit-to-standard analysis, conducted during the explore phase of the project, to identify the gaps and adjust the baseline solutions to fit the customer’s needs.
Editor’s note: This post has been adapted from a section of the book SAP Activate Project Management Certification Guide: Certified Associate Exam by Aditya Lal and Jeyaganesh Viswanathan. Aditya is an SAP practice and transformation director with more than 24 years of experience in large and complex project management spanning across geographies, domains, and business units. He has extensive experience in managing global implementations of SAP ERP 6.0, and for the last few years, he has focused on the implementation of SAP S/4HANA. Jeyaganesh is an IT lead at Zoetis, located in Parsippany-Troy Hills, NJ. He has published research papers in reputed international journals, which are also available online. His main research focus is on artificial intelligence (AI), robotic process automation (RPA), and enterprise resource planning (ERP) process automation. With more than 20 years of expertise in SAP solution design, implementation, support, and research, he has a proven track record in streamlining processes through deep integration across SAP ERP, SAP Manufacturing Integration and Intelligence, and industry solutions including high-tech and retail modules.
This post was originally published in 5/2025.
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