Evolution and Deployment Options of Enterprise Systems: The Case of SAP S/4HANA Enterprise Application Suite

Evolution and Deployment Options of Enterprise Systems: The Case of SAP S/4HANA Enterprise Application Suite

연구 분야: Software Development

학회: IBIMA Conference on Artificial intelligence and Machine Learning

This research aimed to examine the architecture of a modern Enterprise System based on the case of SAP S/4HANA, present a refined definition of Enterprise Systems, and identify the possible deployment options and their implications for the clients. The motivation for this study is twofold. Firstly, many authors tend to equate Enterprise Systems with Enterprise Resource Planning and consider the topic mature and well-researched. The evolution of Enterprise Systems, resulting in the change of the scope of possible solutions within enterprises, the complexity of implementation projects and the impact on the operations of the companies which use such systems are not represented in the literature. Secondly, the change in the deployment options of Enterprise Systems, including the invention of the cloud, is also not well represented. We applied the analysis of the source documentation as a research method. We found that Enterprise Systems have evolved from Enterprise Resource Planning to organisation-wide, multi-component systems, covering major business processes and management functions of an enterprise and including both transactional (Enterprise Resource Planning, Supply Chain Management) and analytical sub-systems. We also identified three main deployment options for Enterprise Systems: public cloud, private cloud, and on-premise. We discussed the major consequences of choosing each option, which involve a trade-off between the ease of implementation offered by a cloud solution and the scalability provided by the private cloud and on-premise solutions. The paper concludes with suggestions for further research directions.