Public cloud means standardization

For several years now, everyone has been talking about the SAP Public Cloud, but what it actually offers in practice is often unclear. A recent public cloud project with the customer Ocilion IPTV Technologies GmbH provides some answers.

“Let me get one thing straight,” says Klaus Augner, Sales Manager at INFORMATICS, “SAP remains SAP, whether it’s a public or private cloud. Both options are based on a genuine SAP S/4HANA system, albeit with a few differences.” One of these differences is that the private cloud can be viewed as a traditional on-premises system. “Except that the servers are located at SAP or a hyperscaler like AWS, Google, or Azure, and SAP handles the basic operations,” says Augner.

The SAP S/4HANA Public Cloud, on the other hand, relies entirely on SAP Fiori as its sole user interface. “In other words, the traditional SAP GUI no longer exists, so we’re fully committed to standardizing business processes,” explains Wolfgang Wiesmayr, Team Leader for SAP Applications. These processes, which SAP refers to as ‘best practices,’ are run through with the customer in ‘Fit-to-Standard’ workshops directly within a sandbox environment. Augner: “Deviations from the standard process are documented, evaluated, and implemented later.” This is illustrated by the example of an ongoing project with Ocilion. “Here, the standard functionalities for component traceability were insufficient, which is why the business process was supported by custom apps.”

“S/4HANA in the public cloud provides us with the features we expect from a modern ERP system without requiring us to allocate resources to ensure technical availability.”

Hermann Grabner, Head of Delivery at Ocilion

Ulrike Schwaberger, Selina Weidlinger, Hermann Grabner, Sebastian Schätzl

STANDARD FIRST – YET HIGHLY FLEXIBLE
On a technical level, SAP Best Practices already include predefined customizing settings and authorization templates. “The former can only be customized to a very limited extent, which should be taken into account during the workshops,” explains Wiesmayr. The motto of the public cloud is therefore clearly “standard first.” But this also has its advantages, because a public cloud can be implemented quickly and relatively cost-effectively, and it is a “state-of-the-art ERP system that grows with the company,” says Wiesmayr. INFORMATICS is currently working with Ocilion on the implementation. Wiesmayr: “If everything goes as planned, we’ll be able to share more details in the next SAPspots.”

Ocilion IPTV Technologies GmbH, based in Ried im Innkreis, is a pioneer in IPTV solutions for network operators and in-house settings such as hospitals and hotels. Since 2004, the company has been providing its customers with customized TV programming packages that include licensing rights, content, apps, and a video library.