SAP Activate Methodology: An overview

For over a decade there has been a rapid change in technology, with regards to digitalization, cloud deployments, machine learning, artificial intelligence and much more. The difference is not only limited to technology on how it has revolutionized but also to customers in terms of cost/performance ratio, expectations from the product they use, faster business operations, high demand, and so on.

These rapid changes laid the foundation for the ERP giant, SAP, to come up with an approach that would revolutionize the initial S/4HANA project implementation, on-going business innovations, and deployments with a simple, flexible, modular and agile methodology called Activate (formerly aSAP methodology). The Activate methodology is a combination of Best Practices, guided configuration, and agile methods to simplify an SAP project implementation.

Please follow this link if you are looking for Activate training. 

Why SAP Activate?

The SAP Activate Mthodology is the next generation agile approach that delivers ready-to-run business processes optimized for S/4HANA software implementations with a reference solution designed for continuous innovation. It offers an iterative implementation with frequent validations. It also provides best practices for migration, integration, and configuration for S4HANA. It supports different types of deployments, such as new implementation, system conversion, and landscape transformation. Activate includes six distinct phases in its implementation methodology.

Different phases

The Activate implementation methodology consists of the following phases:

• Discover phase
• Prepare phase
• Explore phase
• Realize phase
• Deploy phase
• Run phase

Discover phase

The first phase of the Activate methodology helps you to develop a roadmap and the strategies for the implementation. SAP offers a free trial for both cloud and on-premise deployments with preconfigured best practices scenarios. In this phase, business users explore S/4HANA on-premise (30 days trial) and cloud (14 days trial) options to evaluate various business processes across the enterprise functions. It also enables the users to prepare a business case for the S/4 HANA adoption. To learn more about this phase, check our SAP Activate - Discover Phase Overview course.

Prepare phase

In the Prepare phase, the project team conducts the initial planning and preparation activities to get the project started. In this phase, the team defines project goals, scope, and a project plan. Also, the roles and responsibilities of the project team are defined. Besides these, there are many activities such as establish project standards, organization, and governance, customer team assessment, establish project management, tracking and reporting mechanisms for the delivery, team orientation, and access to the system are executed in this phase. Are you looking for more information about prepare phase? Check out our SAP Activate - Prepare Phase Overview course to learn about this phase in detail.

Explore phase

In the Explore phase, the project team verifies that business requirements can be met within the boundaries of the solution and project scope. A preconfigured solution from SAP best practice with customer solution scope is used to facilitate this phase, and solution validation workshops are conducted. Integration with legacy systems is started, and activities such as data requirements review, data cleansing, defining configuration values and identifying master data and organizational setup requirements. Interested in learning more about the Explore phase, check out the SAP Activate - Explore Phase Overview course.

Watch this intro lesson for SAP Activate - Explore Phase:

Realize phase

In the Realize phase, the project team uses a series of iteration to build and test a complete business and system environment based on the inputs from the previous steps. The business user conducts overall end-to-end testing of the solution and creates a cutover plan. They also walk through solution processes with the stakeholders. Other activities, such as solution configuration, preparing change management, and end-user training is also carried out in this phase. Additionally, the project team completed activities such as Data Volume Management (DVM), data migration & verification, security implementation, IT infrastructure setup, sizing & scalability verification in this phase.

Deploy phase

The Deploy phase is the essential phase in the Activate methodology. In this phase, the project team prepares and executes the system for production release (Go-Live). The group runs the cutover plan, transitions business operations to the new system, and moves from implementation support to production support. The final dress rehearsal and production cutover planned in the earlier phase is carried out by the team to ensure a smooth transition. This phase ends with hyper-care activity post the system release.

Run phase

The Run phase is the final phase in the Activate methodology. In this phase, the project team winds up all activities and handover all details to the support team. The team also involved in last minutes bug or error fixes in the system. Integration with the SAP Solution Manager for operations, monitoring, and support are completed in this phase. The project team closes the project and handovers all relevant documents to the business owners. 

Activate – The Future

The Activate methodology is an iterative approach with incremental and frequent validation. This next-generation agile methodology eases the challenges customers face while implementing S/4HANA in their organization. With the leverage of preconfigured business solutions with SAP best practices, it makes SAP innovations fast, flexible and straightforward. Also, faster deployments, cost-to-effort ratio, reduced risk by providing re-use, pre-built, tested solutions, and choice of deployments provide organization to go for Activate as their implementation approach for the S/4HANA adoption. Activate is the best implementation method for companies who choose to stay ahead in technology by simplifying their business processes. With rapid innovation , this methodology is here to stay for the coming years.

Looking for SAP Activate Courses? 

Interested in learning more about SAP's new implementation method? Our SAP Activate Methodology Courses are the best place to start your journey in Activate.