Pillar · SAP & Enterprise Core
SAP S/4HANA & Retail Core
Target state, core boundaries and retail master data in S/4HANA — brownfield and greenfield.
What is at stake for the CIO
The core is the only place where article, price, assortment and order can come into being unambiguously. Every extension pulled in here makes every release more expensive for the next ten years. Every capability wrongly pushed out creates shadow logic nobody can switch off again.
The question behind it
What belongs in the S/4HANA core — and what deliberately does not?
- 1Requirement
- 2Standard checked
- 3Core · extension · platform
- 4Decision log
Systems and processes
- SAP S/4HANA, brownfield conversion and greenfield build
- SAP Retail and IS-Retail
- MM and SD, purchasing, requirements planning and merchandise management
- Retail master data: articles, variants, assortments, prices, promotions
- AFS and FMS for season, collection and size-colour logic
- Template definition and rollout waves
Decisions that go wrong most often
- Clean core written as a prohibition rather than a decision rule — the business then builds beside it.
- Fashion processes forced into the standard core too early; the bill arrives at every rollout boundary.
- The template is described, but nobody is allowed to decide on deviations.
- Brownfield chosen because it sounds cheaper, without assessing the legacy first.
Decisions FirstRetail prepares
- 1Which capabilities sit in the core, which as extensions, which on a platform beside it.
- 2Which differences between countries and brands are paid for permanently — and which are not.
- 3How retail master data is held, and who owns it.
- 4Brownfield or greenfield, argued from legacy, schedule pressure and operational risk.
Where the experience comes from
Consultant at SAP AG from 2001 to 2007 for SAP IS Retail and for AFS and FMS, with implementations across Europe and Asia. A full R/3 implementation in German department-store retail, including the integration of the fashion module. Currently enterprise architecture in a programme consolidating more than ten grown SAP systems onto one S/4HANA platform.
Every name here stands for historical delivery experience from completed programmes. None of them is an endorsement or an indication of a current client relationship. I do not display logos; that would need a permission I do not have.