What’s the Difference Between SAP ECC, SAP HANA, and SAP S/4HANA?
What is SAP?
SAP stands for Systems Applications and Products in Data Processing. SAP, by definition, is also the
name of the ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) software as well as the name of the company. SAP
Software is a European multinational, founded in 1972 by Wellenreuther, Hopp, Hector, Plattner, and
Tschira. They develop software solutions for managing business operations and customer relationships.
SAP system consists of a number of fully integrated modules, which covers virtually every aspect of
business management, For those with a non-technical SAP background, here’s what you should know
about the differencesbetween SAP ECC, SAP HANA, and SAP S/4HANA.
What is SAP ECC?
SAP ECC stands for SAP ERP Central Component. It’s also known as SAP ERP. It’s one of SAP legacy
applications that originally designed to operate on a third-party database such as Oracle and IBM DB2.
SAP ECC is the system that most companies have and are familiar with because it includes the more
commonly used modules such as financials, human resources (HR), warehousing, and logistics. SAP ECC
also has modules such as Production Planning, Materials Management, and Plant Maintenance for
manufacturers.
SAP ECC is the core product within SAP Business Suite and should not be confused with SAP Business
Suite. SAP Business Suite goes beyond the foundational modules and supports specialized or complex
functions such as supply chain management (SCM) and customer relationship management (CRM).
Similarto SAP ECC, SAP Business Suite can run on a third-party database such as MSSQL, IBM DB2,
and SAP HANA.
What About SAP R/3?
SAP R/3 is SAP ECC’s predecessor and some companies still run R/3. At its core, R/3 uses a clientserver model to store, retrieve, analyze, and process data while SAP ECC runs on a web-based
application server.Users can now access ERP data through web browsers as well as clients (SAP GUI).
SAP ECC began as a financial software package called RF in 1973, followed by a Material Management
module called RM/1. As SAP added additional components, the package was renamed to R1. In 1979, R2
was released to integrate accounting, manufacturing, supply chain logistics, and HR. In 1992, R/3 was
released to support various operating systems and databases. In 2004, SAP renamed it to SAP ECC. SAP
ERP and ECC are now used interchangeably.
What is SAP HANA?
SAP HANA is an in-memory columnar database designed to accelerate SAP apps and business processes
that was released in 2010. SAP HANA is now the foundation for running SAP Business Suite products.
It’san in-memory, column-oriented database. It simplified the data structure and improved performance to
increase user productivity, provide real-time visibility, and take advantage of analytics. It was created so
companies can react to up-to-the-minute data instead of static quarterly reports.
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What is SAP Business Suite on HANA?
SAP Business Suite on HANA is SAP ECC that operates on the SAP HANA database. If you are running
SAP Business Suite on a third-party database, you can move it to SAP HANA. When you put SAP
BusinessSuite on HANA, you improve performance without having to make changes to the app layer. SAP
BusinessSuite performs faster on SAP HANA because it’s working inside the memory component. The
ECC functionality within SAP Business Suite remains the same
What is the Difference Between SAP ECC vs. SAP HANA?
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SAP ECC is the ERP system and SAP HANA is the in-memory database, designed to handle
transactions and analytics. HANA was originally designed to be a data warehouse, but it has
growninto all-in-one data platform that manages analytical, transactional, and application
development.
SAP plans on terminating its maintenance support for SAP ECC in 2027 so SAP customers will
berequired to move to S/4HANA. For most companies, it’s an expensive and lengthy
undertaking, often spanning years.
What is SAP S/4HANA?
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After R/3, SAP S/4HANA is the fourth version of SAP Business Suite.
SAP rebuilt SAP ECC from the ground up to create SAP S/4HANA in 2015 to take advantage of
SAP HANA’s performance and data analytics capabilities. That is a big benefit and a big
drawback.S/4HANA can exclusively run on SAP HANA while SAP ECC can run on a third-party
database.
S/4HANA is designed to solve complex problems and manage larger amounts of data than ECC
and R/3. It provides a better user experience with SAP Fiori and makes a shift from transactional
systemsthat record data to real-time data from internal and external sources.
Why are some companies reluctant to move to S/4HANA? Some companies will have to
completelyoverhaul their existing business processes.
SAP S/4HANA Finance has become a stepping stone for this transition because S/4HANA
Finance allows users to move accounting and finance processes to S/4HANA while keep using
SAP ECC orother SAP products.
What’s the Difference Between SAP HANA vs. SAP S/4HANA?
It’s simple. SAP S/4HANA is the ERP system like SAP ECC while SAP HANA is the database.
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