Deloitte Launches Lab for SAP® S/4HANA Finance to Serve Finance and IT Leaders

NEW YORK, May 12, 2016 — Deloitte today announced the launch of a lab program designed to help finance and IT leaders transform the enterprise and explore opportunities to unlock new business value through the SAP^® S/4HANA Finance solution.

Deloitte’s new lab for SAP S/4HANA Finance will provide executives with a one-day experience focused on enhancing the value of the CFO and CIO organizations by highlighting areas prone to lack of transparency and operational inefficiency, and demonstrating how SAP S/4HANA Finance can make a difference. Participants will learn ways their teams can align their efforts with the Finance 2020 vision for the CFO function while also learning how to create value with SAP Business Suite 4 SAP HANA^® (SAP S/4HANA) and how to plan their next steps toward transformation.

“Finance and IT leaders today are under more pressure than ever to deliver results that support big-picture business goals and deliver real value to the bottom line. They understand that SAP S/4HANA Finance can serve as a powerful solution for delivering high-quality data and actionable real-time insights for decision making,” said Steven Ehrenhalt, principal, Deloitte Consulting LLP, and global finance transformation leader. “But faced with today’s increasingly complex finance function and a multitude of possibilities when it comes to transformation steps, many leaders aren’t sure how to get started.”

By offering a hands-on program that guides leaders through relevant capabilities of the SAP solution, process considerations and detailed operational scenarios, the Deloitte lab for SAP S/4HANA Finance provides executives with a real-world “boot camp” experience that can help them start planning their transformation efforts. Launch of the lab coincides with Deloitte’s receiving a 2016 SAP Pinnacle Award as the SAP S/4HANA Adoption Partner of the Year. The award recognizes Deloitte’s strength in helping accelerate adoption of the platform, based on co-innovation efforts, market impact and innovative solutions.

Though the lab program will launch first in the United Kingdom, lab-focused programs and activities are expected to extend worldwide through related initiatives — such as mobile lab opportunities and the Deloitte Greenhouse program, which bring together Deloitte professionals and clients in cutting-edge physical spaces located around the world to help address complex problems.

“Understanding the full potential of SAP S/4HANA Finance requires more than a quick demonstration. The solution brings innovative new capabilities and answers to long-standing challenges and leaders really need to see it at work. It requires an in-depth, interactive discussion on the technical considerations as well as considerations around business processes,” said Thack Brown, general manager and global head of SAP's Line of Business Finance. “The lab for SAP S/4HANA Finance offers them an opportunity for practical education and to start imagining what their businesses might look like in the future.”

Central to Deloitte’s approach for the finance lab is a three-step process:

A future-state discussion takes a forward-looking approach to the finance organization, allowing participants to collaborate with Deloitte to identify and understand current pain points and limitations in achieving the desired state. The discussion includes a deep dive into how SAP S/4HANA can help accelerate the transformation and deliver meaningful results for the organization.

An emphasis on visualizing possibilities advances the discussion through an interactive approach that provides live demonstrations and enables participants to understand the practical implications of incorporating SAP S/4HANA Finance into future plans.

A high-level roadmap serves as the final output of the lab, offering participants a foundational element they can use for linking the benefits of SAP S/4HANA to big-picture strategy and essential next steps.

The Deloitte difference

The new lab addresses critical issues that executives are facing by leveraging key Deloitte strengths — SAP S/4HANA know-how, Deloitte’s focus on collaboration and aligning technology and business processes across the enterprise. This includes the deep experience of Deloitte industry-focused professionals and Deloitte’s skill in engaging stakeholders in meaningful conversations that put challenges front and center.

As part of a growing Deloitte portfolio of labs focused on specific solutions, industries, business functions and use cases, the lab for SAP S/4HANA Finance represents a key offering that enhances many transformation plans: a practical, solution-specific “look and learn” experience linked tightly to strategic next steps.

“For Deloitte, these labs build on our already-extensive relationship with SAP and our long history of deploying SAP solutions to deliver business results that matter,” said Jan Waals, principal, Deloitte Consulting LLP, and global SAP leader. “We’ve been recognized repeatedly by SAP for our dedication to quality and excellence. These labs extend that reputation. It’s what our clients expect from us when it comes to SAP.”

To learn how to participate in an upcoming lab and how to start tapping the power of SAP S/4HANA to begin transforming the finance organization, please contact us directly at SAP@Deloitte.com.

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