Ever since SAP announced a 2027 end-of-support deadline for Business Suite 7 software (which includes the enterprise resource planning (ERP) system, ECC 6.0), the company’s S/4HANA modern ERP has emerged as the next big shift in technology—a move to cloud-based, open technology systems.

Designed for in-memory computing and digital technologies with cloud and mobile enablement capabilities, S/4HANA serves as an organization’s “digital core”—empowering users to connect people, systems and data, and take advantage of next-generation technologies such as the internet of things (IoT) and advanced analytics, including artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML) and robotic process automation (RPA). With these newfound technical capabilities, S/4HANA users have experienced myriad business benefits, including increased agility, the ability to innovate on-demand, unprecedented real-time insights, modern operations, optimized performance, an improved customer experience and so much more.

Given its transformative power, in just a few short years, S/4HANA has become the de facto foundation for building an intelligent enterprise—one that can innovate, differentiate and succeed in today’s competitive business landscape.

For all of these reasons, Navisite recommends jumping feet-first into the S/4HANA journey now—regardless of whether you’re still running on ECC 6.0 and need an upgrade or thinking about using SAP as your company’s ERP vendor of choice for the first time. But, we also know that reading about how business-changing a new technology can be and seeing it in action are two different things entirely—that’s why the power of real-world success stories can’t be beat.

To showcase the positive impact S/4HANA can have on your business, here are three real-world examples to inspire your next move.

Trulieve is the first and leading medical cannabis company in Florida, with more than 110 dispensaries located throughout the state. In 2019—three years after cannabis legalization for medical use in Florida—Trulieve was rapidly growing, while simultaneously outgrowing its legacy ERP systems. The company needed a modern ERP that could support the company’s national expansion, while supporting timely, data-driven business decisions and meeting state-specific reporting requirements.

Trulieve partnered with Navisite to implement S/4HANA—and the company realized transformation in less than six months. Right from the start, Trulieve achieved a lower total cost of ownership, benefited from an agile platform that evolves alongside business demands and experienced increased scalability to support its national expansion. Most importantly, with S/4HANA, the company is driving business efficiencies with data-driven insights across every aspect of its cannabis operations—from seed to sale—and meeting specific compliance reporting requirements with the newfound ability to easily track and report on its cannabis production and products.

Similar to Trulieve, when Hallstar—a global chemical supplier and reseller with a focus on the industrial, beauty and personal care industries—began growing its global presence, the company found its 18-year-old ERP system couldn’t keep pace with the rapid expansion. As a result, Hallstar faced currency issues around conversion and consolidation, processing problems due to everything taking place outside the system and a complete lack of mobile functionality. Hallstar also was struggling with siloed workflows and lacked the ability to tap into advanced analytics.

S/4HANA was the answer to overcoming all of these challenges, and Hallstar worked closely with Navisite to modernize its legacy ERP software. Post-deployment, Hallstar gained a global footprint of S/4HANA to drive its business—including core processes like finances, materials management, production, sales and distribution, logistics execution and quality management.

Soon after the initial implementation, Hallstar built on its S/4HANA foundation by implementing SAP Analytics Cloud—which gave the company an intuitive and modern mobile component that could facilitate real-time data and up-to-date dashboard replication to bring its massive amounts of financial and manufacturing data into alignment.

Enable Injections is a developer of on-body delivery devices designed to self-administer high-volume and high-viscosity therapeutics. The company’s groundbreaking technology holds the potential to completely revolutionize the way patients receive critical treatment—and the company knew it was time to bring its technology to market on a large scale. However, working through FDA approvals and bringing a combination of products to market is a complicated and lengthy process that involves a lot of money and a great number of people. But once approvals are granted, the new pace can shift quickly, and precision performance is needed to successfully maneuver it.

To make the jump from small start-up to big business, Enable Injections knew an enterprise IT system that could support its growth was a necessary investment. The company turned to S/4HANA—and Navisite as its implementation partner—to fill this need. With S/4HANA at its digital core, Enable Injections is benefitting from a fully integrated system to support finance and costing, production planning, materials management, quality management, product lifecycle management, compliance, document management and more. S/4HANA also has helped the company automate the management of tedious FDA requirements, including training, traceability, recall handling and documentation—helping to reduce the amount of paperwork, simplify compliance and tighten controls. And, because many pharmaceutical companies also run on SAP software, Enable Injections realized seamless integration with its partners.