Essity
Re-Establishing Governance in an S/4HANA Program During Hyperscaler Exit
Client Overview
Essity is a global hygiene and health company operating across multiple markets with complex supply chain and finance processes supported by SAP.
The organization was running a major SAP S/4HANA program when a strategic infrastructure decision was made:
To move SAP systems from a hyperscaler environment back to on-premise infrastructure.
The Context
The S/4HANA program was already underway.
The landscape was hosted on a hyperscaler platform, but challenges related to:
- Cost control
- Operational transparency
- Infrastructure governance
- Technical dependencies
led to the decision to repatriate systems to on-premise.
This introduced a dual complexity:
1. Continue delivering the S/4HANA transformation
2. Execute a major infrastructure shift simultaneously
SAP Solution Manager played a central role in maintaining governance during this transition.
The Challenge
Moving from hyperscaler to on-premise during an ongoing S/4 program introduced significant risks:
- Landscape reconfiguration
- Monitoring adjustments
- Transport path restructuring
- Dependency mapping
- Release timing impact
- Increased coordination complexity
The key question was:
How do you maintain control while the foundation itself is shifting?
The Role
Change & Release Control
- Maintaining structured ChaRM governance
- Managing transport consistency during landscape redesign
- Preventing sequencing conflicts
- Aligning release waves with infrastructure milestones
Infrastructure change must not compromise release discipline.
Monitoring & Operational Transparency
- Adjusting monitoring configurations
- Ensuring visibility during migration phases
- Maintaining system health tracking across environments
- Supporting stability during infrastructure transition
Operational transparency was critical during cutover phases.
Landscape Governance Alignment
The infrastructure shift required:
- Re-evaluation of system roles
- Redefinition of transport routes
- Validation of retrofit and parallel development structures
- Close coordination between infrastructure and SAP program teams
Solution Manager functioned as the governance backbone during this structural change.
Governance Philosophy Applied
Rather than viewing infrastructure repatriation as purely technical, the approach emphasized:
- Stability over ideology
- Governance continuity
- Structured change control
- Clear ownership during transition
- Business-aligned release timing
The S/4HANA program could not pause. Control had to remain intact.
The Result
The structured governance approach supported:
- Controlled release execution despite infrastructure shift
- Transport consistency across redesigned landscape
- Maintained monitoring transparency
- Reduced operational exposure during transition
- Stabilized coordination between infrastructure and SAP teams
Most importantly:
The S/4HANA program maintained governance integrity during a major strategic pivot.
Strategic Insight
Cloud vs. on-premise is not a religious discussion.
The real question is:
Where do you maintain the highest level of control, transparency, and sustainability?
This engagement reinforced that:
- Governance architecture must adapt to infrastructure strategy
- Change control must remain consistent during transformation
- Lifecycle discipline is independent of hosting model
Why This Matters
Organizations undergoing infrastructure shifts often underestimate the governance impact.
Without structured change and release control, parallel transformations increase risk exponentially.
Experience in managing SAP governance during infrastructure repatriation provides a rare combination of:
- Technical understanding
- Release discipline
- Monitoring transparency
- Strategic perspective
Closing Perspective
Infrastructure strategy may change.
Governance must not.
Structured lifecycle control is what protects business-critical SAP transformations — regardless of hosting model.
Client Overview
H&M Group is one of the world’s largest fashion retailers, operating across multiple markets with complex supply chain, finance, and retail system landscapes.
SAP plays a central role in supporting global business processes — making structured change and release management critical to operational stability.
The Context
At H&M, SAP Solution Manager was used as the central Application Lifecycle Management platform, with a strong focus on ChaRM (Change Request Management).
The landscape was large.
The release cycles were complex.
The business impact of failure was high.
Even minor change errors could affect:
- Retail operations
- Logistics flows
- Financial postings
- Store operations across markets
This was not about configuring ChaRM.
This was about running enterprise-scale release governance from the customer side.
The Challenge
The environment included:
- Multiple parallel development tracks
- High release frequency
- Cross-functional dependencies
- Global rollout complexity
- Strict separation of duties
Key challenges included:
- Ensuring release transparency
- Preventing transport conflicts
- Coordinating approvals across stakeholders
- Maintaining stability during peak business periods
- Balancing agility with control
In global retail, downtime is not theoretical.
It is revenue impact.
The Role
Working on the customer side, responsibility included:
- Running ChaRM-based release cycles
- Coordinating change approvals
- Governing transport sequencing
- Aligning development and business readiness
- Ensuring structured go-live procedures
This required both technical understanding and governance discipline.
Release management was treated as a control function — not an administrative task.
Governance Approach
Changes were grouped into controlled release waves with:
- Defined scope boundaries
- Clear approval checkpoints
- Transport sequencing rules
- Pre-go-live validation
No uncontrolled deployments.
Transport Governance & Risk Control
ChaRM was used not only for documentation, but for:
- Enforcing approval workflows
- Preventing unauthorized transport imports
- Ensuring correct sequencing
- Creating traceability between change and deployment
This reduced production risk significantly.
Business Alignment
Release planning was aligned with:
- Business calendars
- Peak retail seasons
- Financial closing periods
- Market rollout schedules
Governance was aligned to business reality — not just IT timelines.
The Result
The structured ChaRM governance model delivered:
- Controlled enterprise release cycles
- Reduced transport conflicts
- Improved transparency for stakeholders
- Strong audit traceability
- Stable go-lives across complex landscapes
Most importantly:
Release governance became predictable instead of reactive.
Strategic Insight
Large SAP landscapes do not fail because of missing features.
They fail because of uncontrolled change.
This engagement built deep practical experience in:
- Enterprise release governance
- Transport control in complex landscapes
- Cross-functional coordination
- Change transparency under pressure
Why This Matters Today
As organizations transition toward SAP Cloud ALM, many underestimate what structured change governance really requires.
Tools change.
Governance principles do not.
Experience running enterprise ChaRM from the customer side provides critical insight when designing future lifecycle governance models — including transitions toward SAP Cloud ALM.
Closing Perspective
Enterprise SAP environments require more than configuration skills.
They require structured control, release discipline, and business-aligned governance.
That is the difference between technical setup — and operational stability.
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