From Custom Code Inventory to Clean Core: CORE-Fit—A Portfolio-Level Methodology for Rationalizing ERP Extensions in SAP S/4HANA
Article Sidebar
Main Article Content
Abstract
Enterprise resource planning (ERP) modernization increasingly requires organizations to reconcile two competing objectives: preserving business-specific capabilities and reducing the lifecycle burden created by tightly coupled custom code. Clean Core addresses this tension through fit-to-standard processes, governed extensibility, stable interfaces, and deliberate placement of capabilities inside or outside the transactional ERP core. This paper introduces CORE-Fit (Customization Optimization, Rationalization, and Extensibility Fit), a design-science methodology proposed in this study for rationalizing inherited ERP customizations into five disposition paths: retire or standardize, key-user extension, on-stack developer extension, side-by-side extension, or governed exception and remediation. The underlying principles and related SAP approaches to custom-code rationalization and extension design were already established; CORE-Fit does not claim novelty for retirement, fit-to-standard, or extension technology selection as individual concepts. Its contribution is the specific six-stage portfolio-level decision artifact that integrates business-need validation, standard-fit analysis, transaction and data proximity, lifecycle independence, integration and economic/operational fit, and governance into five explicit disposition outcomes. CORE-Fit is evaluated using an anonymized customer-system assessment of 121 RICEF objects. The resulting disposition comprised 22 objects (18.2%) retired or standardized, 11 (9.1%) classified as key-user extensions, 73 (60.3%) as on-stack developer extensions, 15 (12.4%) as side-by-side extensions, and none as governed exceptions. The results illustrate that Clean Core rationalization need not equate to aggressive externalization: in this portfolio, most surviving requirements remained close to the transactional core through governed developer extensibility. The study presents a case-evaluated methodology for applying these criteria consistently across a legacy customization portfolio.
Article Details
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
References
[1] B. Light, “The maintenance implications of the customization of ERP software,” J. Softw. Maint. Evol. Res. Pract., vol. 13, no. 6, pp. 415–429, 2001, doi: https://doi.org/10.1002/smr.240.
[2] L. Brehm, A. Heinzl, and M. L. Markus, “Tailoring ERP systems: a spectrum of choices and their implications,” in Proceedings of the 34th annual Hawaii international conference on system sciences, IEEE, 2001, pp. 9-pp. doi: https://doi.org/10.1109/HICSS.2001.927130.
[3] S. Koch and K. Mitteregger, “Linking customisation of ERP systems to support effort: an empirical study,” Enterp. Inf. Syst., vol. 10, no. 1, pp. 81–107, Jan. 2016, doi: 10.1080/17517575.2014.917705.
[4] Y. Dittrich and S. Vaucouleur, Customization and Upgrade of ERP systems.: An empirical Perspective. IT University of Copenhagen, 2008.
[5] S. Parthasarathy and M. Daneva, “Customer requirements based ERP customization using AHP technique,” Bus. Process Manag. J., vol. 20, no. 5, pp. 730–751, 2014, doi: https://doi.org/10.1108/BPMJ-04-2013-0044.
[6] E. Hustad and J. Stensholt, “Customizing ERP-systems: A framework to support the decision-making process,” Procedia Comput. Sci., vol. 219, pp. 789–796, 2023, doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.procs.2023.01.352.
[7] A. Abendroth, B. Bender, and N. Gronau, “The Evolution of Original ERP Customization: A Systematic Literature Review of Technical Possibilities,” 26th Int. Conf. Enterp. Inf. Syst. (ICEIS 2024), vol. 1, pp. 17–27, Apr. 2024, doi: 10.5220/0012305500003690.
[8] SAP SE, “ABAP Cloud: Background concepts and overview,” SAP.
[9] SAP SE, “Clean Core Roadshow: Your Path to Clean,” SAP.
[10] SAP SE, “Extend SAP S/4HANA in the cloud and on premise with ABAP-based extensions (Version 2.2),” SAP.
[11] SAP SE, “Clean core extensibility for SAP S/4HANA Cloud (Version 1.0),” SAP.
[12] SAP SE, “SAP MaxAttention Innovation Workshop ‘Intelligent Custom Code Management,’” SAP Community.
[13] SAP SE, “SAP Application Extension Methodology: Version history (Version 2.3),” SAP.
[14] M. Matha, “Introducing SAP Application Extension Methodology version 2.2,” SAP Community.
[15] A. R. Hevner, S. T. March, J. Park, and S. Ram, “Design science in information systems research1,” MIS Q., vol. 28, no. 1, pp. 75–106, 2004, doi: https://doi.org/10.2307/25148625.
[16] H. F. Hansen, M. Haddara, and M. Langseth, “Investigating ERP System Customization: A Focus on Cloud-ERP,” Procedia Comput. Sci., vol. 219, pp. 915–923, 2023, doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.procs.2023.01.367.