What is the Difference Between SAP ECC vs. SAP HANA?
SAP ECC is the ERP system and SAP HANA is the in-memory database, designed to handle transactions and analytics. HANA was originally designed to be a data warehouse, but it has grown into all-in-one data platform that manages analytical, transactional, and application development.
SAP plans on terminating its maintenance support for SAP ECC in 2027 so SAP customers will be required to move to S/4HANA. For most companies, it’s an expensive and lengthy undertaking, often spanning years.
What is SAP S/4HANA?
After R/3, SAP S/4HANA is the fourth version of SAP Business Suite.
SAP rebuilt SAP ECC from the ground up to create SAP S/4HANA in 2015 to take advantage of SAP HANA’s performance and data analytics capabilities. That is a big benefit and a big drawback. S/4HANA can exclusively run on SAP HANA while SAP ECC can run on a third-party database.
S/4HANA is designed to solve complex problems and manage larger amounts of data than ECC and R/3. It provides a better user experience with SAP Fiori and makes a shift from transactional systems that record data to real-time data from internal and external sources.
Why are some companies reluctant to move to S/4HANA? Some companies will have to completely overhaul their existing business processes.
SAP S/4HANA Finance has become a stepping stone for this transition because S/4HANA Finance allows users to move accounting and finance processes to S/4HANA while keep using SAP ECC or other SAP products.