SAP S/4HANA Upgrade for a Global Materials Manufacturer

In just six months, ACBaltica successfully delivered a technically complex SAP S/4HANA upgrade for the Customer, a global materials and components manufacturing company.

The project included an upgrade from SAP S/4HANA 1809 to SAP S/4HANA 2023, a transition from a standalone to an embedded Fiori architecture, and optimization of the overall system landscape – all completed within extremely tight timelines and without disrupting global operations.

Customer

The customer is a global industrial group specializing in advanced materials and components used across a wide range of industries – from consumer goods to high-tech and industrial applications. As a market leader with global operations, the Customer relies on a single, centralized SAP S/4HANA system used by all regions worldwide.

The company’s SAP landscape is managed by a distributed team. Application support sits in one region, but the people who work on the system are spread across several continents.

Challenge

The Customer first approached ACBaltica in 2024. At that point, a few things stood in the way:

1. End of SAP S/4HANA 1809 maintenance

Standard maintenance for SAP S/4HANA 1809 had ended in December 2023, with extended maintenance scheduled to expire in 2025. Continuing on the old version posed increasing operational and compliance risks.

2. Highly complex Fiori architecture

Fiori was running in a standalone deployment model across four systems (Sandbox, DEV, TEST, PROD). While this architecture was acceptable in the past, SAP now strongly recommends an embedded Fiori model.

Migrating from standalone to embedded Fiori is a technically demanding process involving:

• Consolidation of multiple systems
• Migration of a large number of Fiori roles and authorizations
• Preservation of custom Fiori tiles
• Risk mitigation for business-critical processes dependent on Fiori access

Without this complexity, the upgrade would have been significantly simpler.

IT landscape before the start of a project:

3. Additional technical dependencies

Alongside the core upgrade, the customer needed to:

• Upgrade the Vendor Invoice Management (VIM) component from version 16.3 to 23.4
• Align it with a newly upgraded archiving solution

ACBaltica outsourced the update of these components to subcontractors. However, it required careful coordination to ensure compatibility with SAP S/4HANA 2023.

4. Extremely tight timelines

The Customer wanted to run its November closing in the new system, and the whole project had to be done by December 2025. That gave ACBaltica only seven months to complete the update.

Solution

ACBaltica proposed a focused, risk-controlled upgrade. The priority was keeping the system stable and the business running.

Here is what that approach came down to:

• Upgrade-as-is: No new business processes or functional redesigns; existing customizations were preserved
• Embedded Fiori transition: Migration from standalone Fiori to embedded deployment as part of the upgrade
• Landscape optimization: Decommissioning standalone Fiori servers after go-live
• Strict timeline control: Clearly defined milestones and a tightly managed cutover window

The upgraded landscape included four SAP systems – Sandbox, DEV, TEST, and PROD – all migrated to SAP S/4HANA 2023 with embedded Fiori.

Implementation approach (SAP Activate)

ACBaltica delivered the SAP S/4HANA upgrade for the customer following the SAP Activate methodology that helps ensure a structured, transparent, and low-risk transition to SAP S/4HANA 2023.

Given the global usage of a single SAP system and extremely tight timelines, the project focused on technical excellence, strict governance, and business continuity rather than functional redesign. So the Customer chose to preserve the existing business processes and customizations and transition to a modern, supported SAP platform.

Prepare phase – Governance and Readiness

The Prepare phase established the foundation for a controlled upgrade.

Key activities:

• Establishment of project governance
• Definition of project governance, roles, and escalation paths
• Alignment of responsibilities between the Customer, ACBaltica, and the support partner
• Sandbox preparation activities
• Copying data from the PROD server to the Sandbox and TEST systems

This phase ensured all stakeholders shared a clear understanding of the roadmap, risks, and timeline before technical execution began.

Explore phase – Sandbox & DEV validation

In this project, the Explore phase covered both Sandbox and DEV environments and was used to explore technical impacts and remove early risks.

Sandbox (Explore)

• Refresh of Sandbox from Production
• Simplification Item Check execution
• Technical upgrade of Sandbox (S/4HANA 1809 → 2023)
• Transition from standalone to embedded Fiori
• Identification of custom code incompatibilities

DEV (Explore)

• Technical preparation of the DEV system
• Upgrade of DEV to S/4HANA 2023 with embedded Fiori
• Correction of custom code based on Sandbox findings
• Development freeze and retrofit (from this stage up to Hypercare)
• Cookbook and cutover plan preparations

No business validation was performed yet – the focus remained on technical feasibility and stabilization.

Realize phase – TEST system & business validation

The Realize phase was limited to the TEST system, fully in line with SAP Activate for upgrade projects.

Key activities:

• Technical upgrade of the TEST system to S/4HANA 2023
• Final transition to embedded Fiori
• Post-upgrade technical adjustments
• User Acceptance Testing (UAT) executed by the Customer’s Global Key Users
• Validation of:
  • End-to-end business scenarios
  • Fiori roles, catalogs, and tiles
  • Data consistency and reporting

This phase ensured that the upgraded system was business-ready before moving to production.

Deploy phase – Production Cutover

The Deploy phase covered the production upgrade and go-live.

Key activities:

• Final cutover planning and readiness checks
• Production shutdown on Friday evening (CET)
• Technical upgrade of PROD system
• Final embedded Fiori activation
• Transport synchronization and validation
• Smoke testing and business sign-off
• Go-live on Monday morning

The cutover finished inside the planned windowб and global operations were never interrupted.

Run phase – Hypercare & Handover

The Run phase focused on stabilization and transition to steady-state support.

Key activities:

• Hypercare support with close monitoring
• Immediate resolution of upgrade-related issues
• Knowledge transfer to the support provider
• Smooth handover to business-as-usual operations

Teams involved

Three organizations worked on the project together:

• The сustomer – business users, Digital Excellence SAP team, and Global Key Users
• ACBaltica – end-to-end responsibility for SAP upgrade delivery
• The existing SAP support provider

ACBaltica also brought in specialist subcontractors to update the data archiving server and the related Vendor Invoice Management components.

During hypercare, the support provider took first-line support. ACBaltica handled everything related to the upgrade, along with knowledge transfer. Splitting the work this way kept operations stable and kept risk down.

Results & benefits

Despite all the challenges and timeline limitations, the project was successfully completed on time. As expected, it brought some significant outcomes.

1. Successful upgrade to SAP S/4HANA 2023

The customer moved off an unsupported version onto a current, fully supported SAP platform.

2. Embedded Fiori architecture

The standalone Fiori systems are gone. That leaves less technical complexity to manage and a system that is easier to maintain over time.

3. Optimized system landscape and cost savings

Decommissioning the standalone Fiori servers cut infrastructure costs, including cloud hosting.

4. Preserved customizations

All critical custom developments were retained and validated.

5. Business continuity ensured

The Customer successfully completed its first monthly financial closing in December 2025 on the new system.

Why choose ACBaltica

Although ACBaltica offered a highly balanced price-to-quality ratio, price was not the deciding factor in the customer’s choice of ACBaltica over several alternatives. These reasons included:

• A clear, technically sound upgrade strategy
• The ability to commit to and meet very tight deadlines
• Strong SAP S/4HANA and Fiori expertise
• Fast, transparent, and proactive communication throughout the sales and delivery phases

Unlike other vendors, ACBaltica consistently provided clear answers, remained fully engaged, and never gave the impression that the project was deprioritized.

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