Elite Digital Adoption – The New Currency of S/4HANA Success

S/4HANA has become the digital core of the enterprise. For large organizations on RISE with SAP, transformations span continents, overhaul entire operating models, and consume hundreds of millions in investment. For fast-growing midmarket companies on GROW with SAP, the pressure is different but just as intense, to adopt standard best practices at speed and unlock time-to-value

Yet across both types of programs, one hidden risk quietly erodes ROI: adoption.

Technology is rarely the failure point. Programs don’t stall because data migration wasn’t possible or infrastructure couldn’t scale. They stall because people don’t adopt the system. Users revert to spreadsheets. Processes slip back to old habits. Productivity gains fail to appear. The system is installed, but not truly used.

Fact: Over 70% of ERP transformations fail to deliver expected business value on schedule, or at all. In one global S/4HANA rollout, 40% of users reverted to legacy tools within three months, undermining millions in projected ROI.

This is the blind spot. S/4HANA programs too often treat adoption as an afterthought – underfunded, unmeasured, unsupported, and unowned.

Why Adoption Can’t Be Deferred Anymore

In the past, organizations could afford to “catch up later” on adoption. Today, that’s no longer viable.

• RISE with SAP programs are too complex: thousands of users across multiple countries cannot succeed without structured adoption strategies
• GROW with SAP programs are too fast-paced: small teams slipping back to old ways can derail the entire business case

Adoption is no longer optional. It must be planned, funded, measured, and governed with the same rigor as data migration, testing, or security.

Without it, even the most technically perfect go-live will underperform.

What Elite Organizations Do Differently

A small but growing group of enterprises have learned to treat adoption as a first-class discipline. These leaders don’t leave it to chance, they manage adoption with the same rigor as finance or supply chain.

Elite performers:

• Establish ownership: Adoption has an executive sponsor and an operational function, often a permanent Center of Excellence
• Define KPIs linked to business outcomes: Not “users trained,” but tangible metrics, cycle time reduction, error rate reduction, data accuracy, throughput, and user productivity
• Embed adoption into delivery: Adoption workstreams run alongside build, test, and deployment from day one
• Make adoption continuous: Support, reinforcement, and optimization extend far beyond go-live
• Leverage in-flow platforms: Tools like WalkMe guide users in the system, automate steps, and surface insights where work happens

The impact is clear: whether rolling out RISE globally or GROW in weeks, elite organizations see faster ROI, higher productivity, and more resilient adoption

Adoption as an Operating Model – Not a Project

The most profound shift elite organizations make is treating adoption as an operating model.

Projects end. Adoption doesn’t.

• New employees join
• Processes evolve
• SAP releases new features
• AI co-pilots become embedded

Change is continuous, which means adoption must be continuous too.

Elite digital adoption maturity looks like this:

• A funded adoption team with ongoing budget
• Integration into release cycles, change governance, and learning operations
• Adoption KPIs tracked alongside financial and operational metrics
• Accountability sustained year after year, protecting the investment

In other words, adoption becomes part of the enterprise operating fabric, not a project milestone.

Measuring Adoption Like Any Other Business Capability

Elite organizations don’t guess whether users are adopting. They measure it.

They track adoption KPIs in real time, such as:

• % of users completing critical workflows correctly
• Process cycle times before vs. after go-live
• Reduction in manual workarounds
• Correlation between system usage and business outcomes (e.g., error rates, margin impact, time-to-market)

For executives, this closes the accountability gap. Instead of hoping the system is used, leaders can see it, measure it, and manage it, just like any other business function.

The Role of AI: Amplifying Adoption

As SAP doubles down on Business AI, adoption takes on even greater importance. AI co-pilots, predictive analytics, and generative insights promise to revolutionize work, but only if people are actually using the system.

AI can:

• Automatically detect friction points from usage data.
• Personalize learning and guidance based on user behavior
• Automate low-value steps to free up productivity.
• Predict where adoption risk will emerge before it impacts performance.

But here’s the catch: AI can only amplify what already exists. If adoption is invisible or sporadic, there’s nothing for AI to optimize.

To unlock the AI dividend, adoption must already be designed as a living, always-on capability.

The SAP Lens: RISE vs. GROW Adoption Priorities

Elite adoption plays out differently depending on the program type:

RISE with SAP (Enterprise-Scale):

• Risk: Complexity across global operations causes adoption lag.
• Elite Digital Adoption Value: Protects multi-million investments, ensures global consistency, accelerates ROI.

GROW with SAP (Mid-market):

• Risk: Speed-focused rollouts skip structured adoption planning.
• Elite Digital Adoption Value: Accelerates time-to-value, prevents fallback to spreadsheets, scales with growth.

Different in scale, but identical in principle: adoption determines success.

Why DAA

This is where Digital Adoption Advisor (DAA) enters.

DAA is the world’s first elite digital adoption advisory firm. We partner with organizations to embed adoption strategies into S/4HANA programs from day one.

• Proven frameworks and playbooks for adoption maturity
• Business-aligned KPIs to track impact
• Expertise across both RISE and GROW deployments
• Technology-agnostic but SAP-aligned, with deep knowledge of platforms like WalkMe

Our mission: turn go-live from a finish line into a starting line for continuous value.

Beyond Go-Live: The Real Competitive Advantage

For organizations betting their future on S/4HANA, the truth is clear:

• Technical go-live is not the goal
• Sustained adoption is

The winners will be those who manage adoption with the same discipline as finance or supply chain, making it measurable, funded, and permanent.

Elite digital adoption is the dividing line between stalled projects and high-performing enterprises.

• For customers: Benchmark your adoption maturity with DAA. Protect your investment, accelerate ROI, and unlock sustainable value
• For SAP and partners: Partner with DAA to de-risk programs, boost renewals, and create more referenceable success stories

Elite adoption is no longer optional. It’s the unlock, at every scale.

Visit our Cloud Technologies page for more information.