In today’s competitive digital economy, businesses aren’t just upgrading systems—they’re reinventing themselves. And no transformation journey has captured the enterprise world’s attention quite like RISE with SAP, a bold, comprehensive offering designed to simplify and accelerate the move to the cloud using SAP S/4HANA.
This isn’t just another lift-and-shift—it’s a full-blown reinvention of your business processes, architecture, and digital capabilities. Whether you’re migrating from SAP ECC or looking to consolidate fragmented ERP systems, RISE with SAP provides a curated path to innovation—on your terms, on your timeline, and with a single contract that puts SAP in the driver’s seat for everything from infrastructure to software support.
🔍 What Is RISE with SAP?
RISE with SAP is Business Transformation as a Service (BTaaS). It’s not a product—it’s a bundled offering that combines:
- SAP S/4HANA Cloud (private or public edition)
- Business Process Intelligence (BPI)
- SAP Business Technology Platform (BTP)
- Migration tools and services
- Infrastructure from hyperscalers like AWS, Azure, or GCP
- A unified Service Level Agreement (SLA)
The goal? To give businesses everything they need to migrate, modernize, and optimize their ERP landscape in the cloud—while minimizing risk and complexity.
🧠 Core Components of RISE with SAP
1. SAP S/4HANA Cloud
The intelligent ERP suite at the center of it all. Real-time processing, embedded AI, and a redesigned user experience make S/4HANA the modern enterprise’s operating core.
Choose:
- Public Edition: Multi-tenant SaaS for faster time-to-value
- Private Edition: Greater customization and flexibility for regulated industries
2. Business Process Intelligence (BPI)
Before moving, SAP helps you analyze and model current business processes, identify bottlenecks, and optimize operations for the cloud.
Key Tools:
- SAP Signavio Process Intelligence
- Embedded benchmarking and improvement recommendations
3. SAP Business Technology Platform (BTP)
The BTP layer offers extensibility, analytics, integration, and AI/ML tools to supercharge your SAP landscape post-migration.
Key services include:
- Integration with third-party apps
- Data orchestration and analytics (with SAP HANA Cloud)
- AI automation and intelligent workflows
4. SAP Migration Tools and Services
RISE provides access to:
- SAP Readiness Check
- SAP Landscape Transformation (SLT)
- SAP Activate methodology
- Optional consulting and support from SAP or certified partners
5. Infrastructure from Leading Cloud Providers
Run SAP S/4HANA on your choice of:
- Amazon Web Services (AWS)
- Microsoft Azure
- Google Cloud Platform (GCP)
- SAP’s own cloud
With RISE, SAP manages the relationship—you only deal with SAP, even for infra.
🛠️ The RISE Migration Journey to SAP S/4HANA Cloud
✅ 1. Discovery & Planning
- Identify legacy SAP workloads (SAP ECC, Business Suite, etc.)
- Define target architecture (greenfield, brownfield, or selective data transition)
- Conduct a RISE Fit-to-Standard workshop
- Run SAP Readiness Check and Business Process Discovery
✅ 2. Business Process Reimagination
- Use SAP Signavio tools to model your “as-is” and “to-be” states
- Align IT transformation with business KPIs and outcomes
- Reengineer outdated workflows before moving them
✅ 3. Landscape Design & Infrastructure Setup
- Select hyperscaler (AWS is a top choice for global reach + flexibility)
- Plan your HA/DR setup, VPCs, network routing, and storage strategies
- Choose deployment models: single-tenant or multi-tenant
✅ 4. Migration Execution
- Use RISE with SAP migration tools and partner accelerators
- Leverage SAP Activate methodology for a guided, phase-based approach
- Reduce downtime with blue/green deployment or zero-downtime migration
✅ 5. Post-Migration Optimization
- Establish proactive monitoring and predictive alerts
- Enable cost optimization tools like AWS Cost Explorer or Azure Advisor
- Integrate AI, analytics, and robotic process automation using BTP
🔐 Security, Compliance, and Governance
RISE with SAP delivers enterprise-grade security from infrastructure to app layer.
- Built-in encryption (at rest & in transit)
- Role-based access control (RBAC) and SAML/SSO integration
- Compliance certifications: ISO 27001, HIPAA, GDPR, FedRAMP (depending on cloud)
SAP also provides:
- Advanced threat protection via SAP Enterprise Threat Detection
- Real-time compliance insights
- Support for regulated industries with GxP, ITAR, SOX, and more
📊 Real-World Benefits of RISE on AWS
🚀 Scalability
- Instantly provision new environments for dev, test, training, and production
💸 Cost Efficiency
- Move from CapEx to OpEx
- Reserved instances for predictable costs
- Pay only for what you use
🔗 Native Integrations
- Use AWS tools like:
- CloudWatch for monitoring
- S3 for backups and document storage
- SageMaker for embedded AI/ML use cases
💬 Success Story Example
A global manufacturing firm migrated from SAP ECC to SAP S/4HANA Private Edition on AWS using RISE. Within six months, they reduced IT overhead by 32%, increased financial reporting speed by 40%, and integrated their global supply chain into a single intelligent dashboard.
🎯 Who Should Consider RISE with SAP?
- Businesses still running on-prem SAP ECC
- Orgs with complex, multi-system ERP environments
- Enterprises seeking a unified contract and managed service model
- Companies who want speed, security, and scale without managing infra directly
🏁 Final Thoughts
RISE with SAP is more than just a cloud migration—it’s a strategic shift toward operational excellence, resilience, and innovation. With SAP S/4HANA as your intelligent core, BTP as your digital engine, and AWS as your infrastructure foundation, the future of your enterprise can be more agile, data-driven, and built to last.
And with one contract, one point of accountability, and one transformation roadmap, RISE simplifies what used to be an overwhelming journey into a focused path forward.
