In this blog post, we’ll discuss the preconfigured system solutions from SAP as well as SAP solutions dedicated to specific industries.
For many years, SAP offered preconfigured industry solutions within the SAP Model Company concept, which was a reference solution with preconfigured processes and data tailored to a selected industry or line of business (LoB). This solution has been retired and is not available anymore. At the same time, one of the variants of SAP Model Company called SAP Model Company for Multinational Corporations has been replaced by the enterprise management layer for SAP S/4HANA.
On top of the any-premise solutions just described, there are industry components in SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition. Note, however, that the industry-specific content offered in SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition is quite limited compared with on-premise SAP S/4HANA or SAP S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition. From the industry coverage point of view, SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition offers solutions for several groups of industries, including service-centric industries (e.g., professional services), consumer industries (consumer products, retail, wholesale distribution), discrete manufacturing (e.g., automotive), public services, and energy and natural resources. We expect that the industry coverage will be continuously expanding in the next releases of SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition.
One possible way to implement preconfigured content in SAP S/4HANA is through SAP Best Practices, which are delivered with relevant system content (business process configurations) and several accelerators, including process flows, tutorials, and setup instructions. These include LoB-specific, cross-industry, and industry-specific processes, provided in the form of so-called SAP Best Practice scope items. SAP Best Practices are provided in country-specific versions for more than 40 countries.
Note: Each SAP Best Practice scope item is identified with a unique three-character code (e.g., J77 – Advanced Bank Account Management, 4RS – Decentralized EWM – Replenishment).
SAP Best Practices are available in SAP Signavio Process Navigator, as shown in the figure below, which can be accessed via SAP for Me. This cloud-native service provides detailed information about each SAP Best Practices scope item, including process models, process documentation, setup instructions, and process-related implementation accelerators. Additionally, you can obtain information about country-specific and industry-specific scope. All information available in SAP Signavio Process Navigator is structured according to the rules of SAP Enterprise Architecture Methodology.
Note: You can access SAP Best Practices via SAP Signavio Process Navigator at the following link: https://me.sap.com/processnavigator (an SAP login is required to access). Many Best Practices scope items cover SAP S/4HANA functionalities that require additional licenses, and information on this is available in SAP Signavio Process Navigator.
SAP partners also offer preconfigured cross-industry or industry-specific solutions, which typically expand SAP Best Practices offerings with additional differentiating content from the partner. Great examples here are the IMPACT industry solutions offered by IBM, which extend SAP Best Practices content with additional industry-specific preconfigured processes and provide an enriched set of data conversion, testing, and training accelerators.
The SAP S/4HANA fully activated appliance is a prepackaged SAP S/4HANA system with activated SAP Best Practices, plus additional demonstration scenarios with sample master and transactional data. It allows you to quickly create your own preconfigured SAP S/4HANA system environment for sandboxing or presentation purposes within hours (in the cloud) or days (in an on-premise client environment). Technically, it’s delivered as a compressed system image that can be quickly extracted to enable accelerated SAP S/4HANA implementation or conversion project activities.
The enterprise management layer is a preconfigured SAP S/4HANA global template that’s dedicated to customers operating their businesses in multiple countries. The solution is delivered with preconfigured and localized business processes across all lines of business for up to 49 countries as of the time of writing (43 with pre-activated SAP Best Practices content plus 6 with finance scope) in 25 system languages (in the version for SAP S/4HANA release 2023 FPS01). On top of the application content, the enterprise management layer for SAP S/4HANA is delivered with sample master data, business document forms, activated SAP Fiori applications, and documentation for end users.
The enterprise management layer can bring several benefits to SAP S/4HANA projects. You can leverage it in many ways, from using it as a sandbox environment during the exploration phase of projects to using it as a starting point for developing the corporate group’s global SAP S/4HANA template. In both cases, the benefits include the potential to accelerate the implementation project, reduce risk by using verified and tested preconfigured content, and enable early kick-start project activities. Finally, the enterprise management layer can help as a tool supporting fit-to-standard and clean core initiatives. All of these benefits can lead to reduced overall cost of implementation and overall reduced total cost of ownership (TCO).
The finance part of the solution offers parallel accounting capabilities according to three principles (three ledgers: group 0L, local 2L, and tax YS). There are also available local ledgers and tax ledgers with alternative fiscal year variants and extension ledgers for management accounting and commitment and order entry. Local and tax ledgers with alternative fiscal year variants can be used in countries where the statutory fiscal year is different from the calendar year (e.g., in Japan, where the government’s fiscal year is from April to March and most corporations follow it rather than the calendar year). There’s one group-wide SAP-standard operational chart of accounts that’s compliant with International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) requirements, and additionally, there are available country-specific charts of accounts in the countries whereit’s a statutory obligation to use such charts of accounts (e.g., in France). It’s also possible to convert the SAP-standard operational chart of accounts to a customer-specific chart of accounts, with an additional service offered by SAP’s Data Management and Landscape Transformation (DMLT) team.
The documentation content of the enterprise management layer of SAP S/4HANA is available in SAP Signavio Process Navigator, as shown in the figure below, and it includes the following key tabs:
The system part of the enterprise management layer is delivered as a preinstalled solution, and it can be flexibly configured according to client requirements, including the following:
There’s a wide range of standard scopes to select from the standard offering. You can enhance the standard offered scope by selecting additional scope options (additionally licensed components) and additional implementation service options, covering, for example, advanced intercompany sales or Project System.
The enterprise management layer system can be delivered as a sandbox only or with all typical tiers of system landscapes (development, quality assurance, and production). It can be deployed either on-premise (including with hyperscalers), in SAP S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition, or temporarily in SAP infrastructure (in this case, as a sandbox system only).
When we’re talking about Industry 4.0 in the context of SAP S/4HANA, we’re not focusing on any specific industry cluster, but rather on an industry cluster-agnostic, innovative approach aimed at automating traditional manufacturing and industrial processes by leveraging intelligent technologies. These technologies can include the Internet of Things (IoT), mobile devices, location detection technologies, geofencing, human-machine interfaces, 3D printing, and smart sensors.
SAP offers a portfolio of solutions for Industry 4.0 and the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT). SAP’s aim here is to connect production with end-to-end process execution all along the supply chain. The portfolio of solutions is delivered within the following four main categories:
In the preceding categories, there are solutions based on SAP S/4HANA functionalities, such as SAP S/4HANA Manufacturing for production engineering and operations. We can also list here solutions that can be integrated with SAP S/4HANA, which are typically cloud applications that are integrated via SAP Business Technology Platform (SAP BTP) and that enhance the SAP S/4HANA core functions with the above-described Industry 4.0 capabilities. As an example, we can mention SAP Warehouse Robotics on SAP BTP, which (as of SAP S/4HANA release 2022) can be integrated with SAP Extended Warehouse Management (SAP EWM), can read relevant warehouse orders and tasks, and can assign them to robots, update statuses, and confirm tasks based on the actual stage of processing orders by robots.
SAP’s industry solutions (formerly referred to as the industry cloud) play an important role in the portfolio of industry solutions from SAP. SAP’s industry solutions are an open business and technology platform where SAP and partners build vertical industry applications that extend core SAP processes offered by different SAP solutions. The platform leverages SAP BTP with a shared open integration and composition layer consisting of application programming interfaces (APIs), a data/domain/process model, and business services, as well as enabling industry-focused content from SAP and its partners.
Cloud applications, built by SAP or its partners, can be combined into industry cloud solutions, which can be offered to clients as a software service, including the relevant integration, configuration, content, and business services. The full industry solutions application portfolio is offered to clients via the SAP Store.
Editor’s note: This post has been adapted from a section of the book SAP S/4HANA: An Introduction by Devraj Bardhan, Axel Baumgartl, Madalina Dascalescu, Mark Dudgeon, Piotr Górecki, Asidhara Lahiri, Richard Maund, Bert Meijerink, and Andrew Worsley-Tonks. They are are a multinational author team working for IBM, SAP, and Accenture. They have
been working with SAP S/4HANA since its first release.
This post was originally published 3/2025.