SME SAP S/4HANA clients risk migration delays if they wait on help from Tier-1 systems integrators

The Bottom Line: SMEs must look for an experienced S4H partner packed with industry capabilities, business process understanding, and local market support in competitive pricing.

SME clients need partners that understand their particular needs, can deliver all SAP S4H services, including consulting services, and provide the right mix of resources and tools at the right price. FPT Software will tick all those boxes for many.

Large enterprises are at the front of the queue when getting attention from global systems integrators. But small and medium enterprises (SME) need support in migrating to SAP S/4 HANA (SAP S4H) just as urgently.

The solution for SMEs is to look to a mid-tier services provider giving them the focus and prioritization they need.

Large enterprises don’t hold the monopoly on needing a mature SAP S4H services partner with local support, such as regional language capabilities and tools, at competitive pricing. Small and smaller-medium organizations and APJ (Asia-Pacific, Japan) market clients are often not a high priority for large and mid-tier services providers such as Accenture, Capgemini, LTI, and others.

Our ongoing SAP Top 10 research highlighted a Vietnam-based mid-tier services provider, FPT Software, that recognizes the SME opportunity. With its 20+ years of experience in the SAP space, it addresses the needs of businesses with revenues of less than $1 billion and the APJ market.

Given that the window (2027) in which support for SAP ERP’s previous versions must inevitably close, SMEs can’t afford to wait. Leaving it until the rush at the end and supply shortages could mean you end up paying a premium.

SME clients’ search for suitable ERP services partners ends with the provider that packages its services based on customer needs

Potential partners often ignore SAP S4H clients’ concerns with cost constraints. These clients look for a partner with high expertise willing to go the extra mile. FPT Software serves SME clients in Japan, Germany, Spain, Italy, Slovakia, Poland, and Czech Republic and large ERP (enterprise resource planning) clients. Currently, two-thirds of FPT’s clients with revenue less than $500 million, and 25% of clients are mid-sized firms (with revenue between $3 billion and $5 billion). The remaining are large enterprises (with revenue of at least $10 billion). Europe is already generating 49% of the company’s revenue, and FPT is rapidly expanding in this market.

For a successful ERP rollout provider, SMEs must look for evidence of well-applied business cases, industry expertise, and resources to fully understand their business model during the evaluation process. FPT Software has served ERP clients in manufacturing and logistics, technology, retail and consumer goods, and banking and financial services sectors for two decades. It has rolled out many ERP systems for utilities clients in Europe and integrated SAP ERP modules for a German-based energy and utilities company, where it also maintained and enhanced the SAP solutions.

With delivery locations in Vietnam, Japan, Slovakia, and Thailand (onshore, offshore, and best shore delivery models), FPT Software has packaged its end-to-end SAP S4H services offering as Exhibit 1 illustrates.

Exhibit 1: SAP S4H service portfolio

Source: FPT Software, 2021

Strong SAP S4H capabilities and rollout experience

FPT Software has more than 95 dedicated consulting professionals and 250 implementation professionals. It offers flexible working options, such as its best-shore delivery model (a nearshore flexible resourcing approach to reduce onsite costs).

FPT Software has had a deep association with SAP for more than two decades as an implementation and rollout partner. Key differentiators are its robust talent development strategies, tools, methodologies (FPT Digital Kaizen and standard SAP methodologies), and delivery models.

We spoke to one of FPT’s SAP S4H clients in the spice business, based in Vietnam. This client migrated from Microsoft Dynamics to the SAP S4H public cloud. The client highlighted FPT Software’s business understanding, SAP S4H expertise, process knowledge, resource pool, and, most importantly, its competitive pricing. The client implemented the procurement business module and plans to expand to other business functions, such as human resources.

Takeaways

Like large organizations, small and medium enterprise clients are prioritizing their SAP S4H implementation and migration. Migration drivers such as increased performance, simplification, and optimization remain the same regardless of enterprise size. Enterprises must stick with their transformation objectives in the implementation and migration process and experiment with cloud-inspired ideas to enhance and optimize business processes to realize value. We reiterate that, instead of waiting for a tier-1 provider, look for a delivery partner with industry and solution expertise with the right mix of delivery capabilities, resources, and pricing that fits your requirement.