Last year's post "Overview of GROW and RISE with SAP" was one of the most popular and widely shared episodes in this blog series and so it is now time to take another visit to these topics. In this new post, we explore both the progress SAP has made with RISE and GROW evolution and a look at the exciting opportunities going forward.

Quick Review of GROW and RISE with SAP

The GROW and RISE initiatives both grew out of SAP's emphasis on helping customers migrate to more efficient, scalable and cost effective cloud deployments. Based on an understanding of the different starting points for companies that have been using SAP on-premise vs those that are new to SAP,  the RISE and GROW options provide distinct roadmaps for customer success.

For new companies that need standardized processes, want to always be at the latest release, and prefer their cloud provider to manage their infrastructure, GROW with SAP offers a seamless Greenfield deployment path to SAP S/4HANA Cloud public edition.

On the other hand, for companies using SAP on-premise that require a high degree of customization and control over their deployment environment, SAP S/4HANA Cloud private edition provides the power of cloud with the ability to adapt to each company's specific needs. In these situations, RISE with SAP enables a customizable forward path for either Greenfield or Brownfield deployment scenarios. RISE also is best for companies that want to run a hybrid, two-tier, cloud environment using both public and private cloud editions for different functions.

Both GROW and RISE with SAP are designed to support smooth customer transformation journeys from their unique starting points by leveraging the SAP modular ERP cloud architecture as shown below. The core cloud ERP can be SAP S/4HANA Cloud in either public or private cloud deployments.

In combination with the SAP Business Technology Platform, the core cloud ERP has access to a wide range of applications and third-party extensions that help clients differentiate their businesses with technologies such as machine learning, process automation and artificial intelligence (AI), such as Joule. These core cloud ERP functions are surrounded and supported by a huge complement of Line-of-Business and industry-specific applications providing end-to-end business solutions for intelligent, sustainable enterprises.

The Bramasol team can help clients that are either new to SAP and need to migrate and optimize their businesses in the public cloud using GROW with SAP or those with more complex needs who are better served by private cloud using RISE with SAP.

For companies that are "starting fresh" and want a hassle-free standards based cloud solution, the Bramasol team would focus primarily on GROW with SAP tools while helping to build-out and optimize specific areas, such as quote-to-cash and revenue recognition processes.

Or, as discussed in the next section, we can use RISE with SAP to help with migrating existing elements to the private cloud, while integrating new functionality such as subscription-based business models using quote-to-cash cloud solutions.

Leveraging RISE with SAP to Comply, Optimize, and Transform your Business

With Bramasol's years of experience in helping clients achieve compliance with new mandates such as revenue recognition (ASC 606 and IFRS 15), lease accounting (ASC 842 and IFRS 16) and optimizing Office of the CFO processes for Order-to-Cash-to-Compliance, treasury, cash flow, risk management and more, Bramasol long ago adopted a comprehensive, integrated approach - as exemplified by our Comply, Optimize, Transform methodology. 

From the beginning of any project, we believe that transformative change can never be achieved by using ad hoc or limited scope approaches because short-term thinking invariably results in process inefficiencies, manual offline workarounds, and a lack of forward migration capabilities.

Instead, the Comply, Optimize, Transform approach inherently keeps the future in mind by emphasizing integration of compliance solutions within the overall business operations, while also laying the groundwork for future transformation.

The Comply, Optimize, & Transform approach and RISE with SAP migration tools both emphasize establishing a clean core as the foundation to enable client-specific journeys that lead to building an Intelligent Enterprise on S/4HANA. 

For example, RISE with SAP technical migration tools can be very helpful for companies that are looking to move their compliance processes into the overall scope of business transformation.  Likewise, the infrastructure elements in RISE with SAP provide a helpful pathway for clients that are looking to migrate from on-premise or legacy environments to S/4HANA.  

While we have long offered a range of options for helping clients migrate to S/4HANA cloud, RISE with SAP adds an attractive additional capability, with the advantage of bringing all the key elements together in a single package.

Summary

Both the GROW and RISE with SAP offerings enable smooth, secure migration to SAP S/4HANA cloud, with embedded intelligence, real-time insights, and advanced technologies, that can improve compliance and build business resilience.

Also, through the end of 2024, when moving to the RISE with SAP or GROW with SAP solution, SAP S/4HANA and SAP ECC customers will have access to credits that can be applied to offset the cost of maintenance, cloud services or cloud subscription. This incentive will include SAP S/4HANA Cloud and line-of-business solutions such as supply chain, human resources, spend management, CRM, business transformation tools and the business technology platform for extensibility.

Regardless of whether the overarching goal is migration and digital transformation of existing systems or jumpstarting a new greenfield implementation, the Bramasol team's experience can help companies map out an optimal strategy that takes into account each company's specific starting point and budget while addressing both their near-term and long-term goals.