Starting the SAP S/4HANA race with BlackLine

Your ERP is arguably the most demanding and important enabler of your business—so you need to be primed and ready to execute transformation in this area with precision. And as implementation trailblazers, finance must decide what the first step should be in this major technology evolution. Depending on your choice, you can take the sting off the first impact being the ERP itself.

Here’s what we suggest: an approach that starts with BlackLine, allowing you to test the waters where the stakes aren’t as high, giving you a better idea of your data, user adoption, and ability to drive meaningful and lasting change as you cross the finish line. Think of it as your warmup lap that paves the way for decisions and adjustments that ensure larger ROI for your SAP S/4HANA journey.

So where do you begin?

1. Tune up your vehicle

It’s time to get your financial close house in order, clean up your data and chart of accounts, and gain an appreciation for what data you wish to leverage—like defining KPIs, sources of data, and data correlations. This organization will help everyone stay on the same page, get acclimated to the evolution to come, and address change management in a bite-sized way.

2. Assemble your pit crew

Define and understand your upstream and downstream processes. This will get people talking across silos, establish a precedent for communication protocol, and set the stage for what collaboration will look like during your broader SAP S/4HANA transformation.

3. Start the race

Get your teams to the starting line—put business and IT skin in the game early and make sure your finance and accounting resources are in the driver’s seat. You’re getting them a spot at the table for what would typically be a very tech-led next stage of transformation.

4. Take your victory lap!

With BlackLine in place, you’re adding immediate value, reducing costs, and creating resource capacity as you deploy talent away from manual processes. Now your team has renewed energy as they gear up for the championship: SAP S/4HANA transformation.

With modernized accounting, you’ve got the visibility you need into your data and what process areas need to change. You’ve also got a team that has uncovered quick wins through initial transformation, so they’re set for a more modern ERP.

Now that you know what success looks like, read the 4 reasons ERP implementations fail—and what to do about it.