Why SAP Customizing Causes Upgrade Nightmares

Enhancements vs. Modifications in SAP Imagine you’ve bought a brand-new car from the dealership, and now you want to personalize it to suit your preferences. In SAP, that car represents the standard functionality provided by SAP. Let’s use this analogy to understand the difference between **Enhancements** and **Modifications**: Modifications : Think of it like replacing parts of the car When you modify SAP code, it’s like taking out standard parts of the car (like swapping the engine or changing the dashboard) and putting in your custom parts. While the car still works, it’s no longer the original design from the manufacturer. Here are some key points about modifications: 1.Direct changes to the SAP code : You’re altering the core system itself. 2. Risky for upgrades : When you take your car for a service (upgrades or patches in SAP), the mechanic may have trouble because your custom parts don’t fit the standard manual. 3. Difficult to maintain : Future upgrades or patches from SAP may break your system, as it relies on the original setup. In short, Modifications are invasive. You’re altering SAP’s delivered functionality, and that requires extra care when maintaining and upgrading your system. Enhancements:  Think of it like adding accessories to the car. Enhancements are like installing accessories on your car—like adding custom seat covers, a roof rack, or a spoiler. These are add-ons that don’t interfere with the car’s engine or core functionality. You’re enhancing the car’s usability or aesthetics without changing its original design. Here’s how enhancements work in SAP: 1. Non-invasive : You’re not changing the standard SAP code; you’re adding functionality through provided enhancement points. 2. Easier to upgrade : When SAP rolls out updates (like taking the car for servicing), your enhancements typically remain unaffected as they don’t interfere with the core system. 3. Future-proof : Enhancements can be removed or adjusted without disrupting the base system, making it more flexible. With enhancements, you respect the core SAP structure and build on top of it without risk to future upgrades or the system’s stability. Conclusion: - Modifications: Alter the core structure (like replacing car parts). - Enhancements : Add extra features without changing the core (like adding accessories). SAP generally recommends using enhancements over modifications whenever possible, as it preserves the integrity of the system and simplifies future maintenance.

How Clean Core Saved My Go-Live (and My Sanity) Five months before our S/4HANA go-live, business heads were nervous. Really nervous. The kind of nervous where they start secretly googling “How to Undo SAP HANA upgrade ?” Why? ☠️ 6,800 custom objects 👻 312 user exits 💣 Enhancements nested inside enhancements... like ERP Inception. It was not a system. It was an archaeological site, raw and lurking with hidden dangers! So, we launched a mission codenamed “Operation Baggage Checkroom” with the sole objective to detox before we detonate. ·        Step 1: Use SAP Custom Code Analyzer + UPL to find the dead code. (Spoiler: 42% had been ghosting us since 2011.) ·        Step 2: Chase business users like friendly bounty hunters with one question:  “When was the last time you actually used this Z-report?” Silence. Nervous laughter. Convenient amnesia. Repeat n times ......until they surrender. ·        Step 3: Rebuild only what is mission-critical, irreplaceable, and not easily replicated. Everything else? Archived with full military honours. An exemplary example was a legendary Z-inventory report from 2010 with 12 filters. 7 joins. 4-minute runtime. We rebuilt it using standard CDS + Fiori + Embedded Analytics. Now it loads in 5 seconds. No prayers required. 🎯 Results of Operation Baggage Checkroom? ✅ 42% custom code reduction ✅ BTP = innovation playground ✅ Go-live = zero escalations, zero zombies ✅ And yes, we went from “those tech villains” to “digital heroes” in record time. So, what changed? Mindset. The moment businesses realized they could get what they needed without hijacking the core, they were all in. Because Clean Core is not “No.” It is “Yes but smarter.” So next time someone says: “We’ve always done it this way,” Just smile and ask: “But has it ever worked cleanly?” Clean Core does not just fix your ERP. It detoxes your thinking first and foremost. #CleanCore #S4HANA #RISEwithSAP #SAPBTP #DigitalTransformation #WittyERP #SAPLeadership

Stop customizing your S/4HANA implementation. Seriously. Stop. I just had a client insist they needed custom Z-codes for their "unique" business processes. They wanted to recreate all their ECC customizations in S/4HANA. I explained that customizations are severely limited in modern SAP environments. They didn't believe me. Here's the reality: clean core isn't optional anymore. SAP, Oracle, and Workday all require process standardization. You fit your business to the application, not the reverse. Custom development creates technical debt that compounds over time. This client had hundreds of Z-codes in their ECC system. Each one represented a process that didn't fit standard SAP functionality. Each one required maintenance, testing, and updates. Each one increased their total cost of ownership. In S/4HANA, those customizations become roadblocks. They prevent you from accessing new functionality. They complicate upgrades. They create integration problems with third-party tools. The clean core approach forces process discipline. Instead of customizing the system to match broken processes, you fix the processes to match best practices. Instead of building technical workarounds, you implement business solutions. Companies that embrace clean core get faster implementations, lower ongoing costs, and access to new capabilities. Companies that insist on customizations get expensive implementations that limit their future options. Your business processes aren't as unique as you think. Standard SAP functionality handles 90% of business requirements across industries. Are you planning to fit your processes to S/4HANA or force S/4HANA to fit your processes?

Every time you hear "we need to customise that", your implementation costs just doubled. Here's what your implementation partner won't tell you: they love customisation requests. Why? Because they get to bill you twice - once to build it, and again every time it breaks during an upgrade. Yet 80% of customisation requests are just people wanting the new system to work exactly like their old one. That's not transformation - that's expensive nostalgia. Want to know the real cost? It's not just the development time. It's the testing overhead, the upgrade complications, and the technical debt that compounds with every change. Stop letting "but that's how we've always done it" drive your implementation into the ground. (… and no, I am not denying the value of customisations that are required for legal or compliance reasons, or those that result in truly competitive value – I’ve only been doing this for 30 years now…) And as my colleague Shaun will explain later today, it gets even worse when you try to build custom solutions on poor quality data...   What's the most unnecessary customisation you've seen in a D365 F&O implementation? Share your horror stories below. #D365FO #Implementation #Customisation #TechnicalDebt