The so-called Fully Activated Appliance (FAA) is a system that has been developed by SAP for companies, partners, employees, public users etc. to have a perception of what the S/4HANA system has to offer. It is not only supposed to give you an inside view, but it is also easy and fast to get it up and running. Throughout the project phases, employees, consultants, partners etc. usually like to see sample master data, carry out some sample testing and view live demo sections of different scenarios related to their business to understand and get acquainted with the new system, especially regarding the implementation of the new S/4HANA Transportation Management (SAP TM).
Use of FAA
The Fully Activated Appliance can be seen as a pre-packaged system template which comprises of SAP S/4HANA software, pre-activated so-called SAP Best Practices with additional configurations for end-to-end business processes as well as prepared demo scenarios. More to that, it is made available with incorporated sample master and transactional data as well as some technical configuration such as the Fiori Launchpad. It can be used as trial system for sandboxing, proof of concept or for scoping exercises.
In the S/4HANA FAA, the following SAP Best Practices processes for (Basic) Transportation Management have been activated:
- Outbound Transportation
- Inbound Transportation
- Stock Transport Orders between a company’s facilities
These processes cover example data of a producing company in the US. The demo flow for Outbound Transportation e.g. starts with the creation of a sales order for a customer, and ends with the verification of a carrier invoice.
The Fully Activated Appliance system is easy to get, as it can be deployed:
- via the SAP CAL (Cloud Appliance Library)
- via an on-premises hardware.
Getting FAA via SAP Cloud Appliance Library
The Fully Activated Appliance is made available via SAP CAL which is an online library containing pre-designed and ready-to-use SAP business solutions deployed into your own cloud account.
For the deployment, the CAL requires a hosting environment with a cloud provider such as Amazon Web Service (AWS), Microsoft Azure or Google Cloud Platform (GCP).
This method is fast and will take approximately 1-2 hours to have everything set up and ready for immediate use. Once the installation is done, you will have available technical components such as the SAP S/4HANA, SAP NW JAVA / Adobe Document Services (ADS), SAP Business Intelligence (BI) Platform and Remote Desktop. The Remote desktop and the BI platform can only be tested via the SAP CAL but remain optional.Not using them will reduce the fee.
Using the SAP CAL, it is also possible to have a free one-month trial which gives you the opportunity to get a first impression of the system. If it fits your requirements, you can then decide to extend it by buying the SAP CAL subscription license.
Getting FAA via SAP On Premise
SAP has also given the possibility to have the installation done on your own personal hardware by downloading it directly or by shipping them out via Blu-ray discs. But be aware that installations using this method are different from a “normal” SAP installation, so the support of e.g. an experienced SAP partner will certainly be useful.
More to that, with the on-premises installation, you can only get technical components suchs as the SAP S/4HANA and the SAP NW JAVA / Adobe Document Services.
SAP S/4HANA FAA in Summary
- The Fully Activated Appliance provides a better insight into the S/4HANA system as it contains SAP’s Best Practices.
- It remains a great and awesome tool as it contains all necessary prerequisites to carry out Basic Transportation Management demos.
- There is flexibility in getting the installation as you can get it via the SAP CAL or on premise.
- SAP offers a 1-month free trial when using the SAP CAL.
