Earlier this month SAP announced the next-generation ERP system, S4 HANA, which will replace S3 or SAP Business Suite. The new model promises an easier-to-use interface, disruption-free migration and super-fast data analysis, supported by entirely rewritten code. SAP co-founder Hasso Plattner predicted that S4 HANA would eliminate 40 percent of SAP IT load.

As appealing as S4 HANA sounds, for now it is merely a vision for SAP, and won't be released for at least a few more years. Still, the launch, called "the biggest in the vendor's history," could mean a lot of changes for consumers when it finally comes to fruition.

Reduced complexity: Analyst house Pierre Audoin Consultants stated, "While the SAP landscape has become more and more complex due to the various new components the vendor has added over time, it is SAP's intention to reduce this complexity with S4 HANA. With this, SAP delivers on its promise to provide an integrated system." Plattner claims that data complexity has been reduced drastically in S4 HANA simply though getting rid of aggregates, redundancies and creating satellite applications that do not need their own instance.

Fast analysis: Undoubtedly S4 HANA will continue the SAP trend of high speed data analysis. During the launch SAP product and innovation lead Bernd Leukert showcased the tool's speeds by analyzing 245 million lines of items for a company's profits and losses within seconds.

Cloud capabilities: With S4 HANA SAP is looking to configure cloud products so they can be used on-premise, for consumers who are not quite ready to make the upgrade. This is a reversal on last year's announcement that the vendor had put a deadline in place for on-premise ERP support.

S4 HANA represents a radical shift for SAP, since the new ERP will be dependent on HANA instead of supporting multiple databases. While it seems to be an impressive system so far, what S4 HANA can really do remains to be seen. For more information on new ERP systems and other business management software get in touch with Accent Software. We would be happy to answer your questions!