Hi,I'm Alex
I’m a consultant and project manager specializing in strategy, operations, and SAP transformation, with 20 years of experience leading complex projects across industries.
Below you’ll find information on my consulting clients, recent updates, and blog posts.
I also run a few passion projects in writing, coding, and language learning. Feel free to explore those via the “Side Projects” section.
by Alexander Roan on Aug 8, 2025
Ever wondered how to connect a custom web app to SAP S/4HANA? I recently built a working prototype using SAP Integration Suite, a frontend built with HTML/CSS/JS, and a mock server that simulates the S/4HANA Business Partner API. I’ve written up the whole flow in a detailed article. It's starts with a business-level overview and then steps through every part of the stack (Custom Web App > SAP BTP > SAP Integration Suite > SAP Cloud Connector > SAP S/4HANA).
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by Alexander Roan on Jun 29, 2025
Business Services Organisations (BSOs) and Global Business Services (GBS) emerged in the late 1990s and have since played a central role in driving standardisation, harmonisation, and automation. By consolidating operations, they’ve helped multinationals achieve consistency across regions and deliver faster, more comparable reporting. This article takes a detailed look at how business services models work, evolve, and add value.
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by Alexander Roan on Jun 12, 2025
Embedded analytics in SAP S/4HANA sounds like a BW in SAP, but it's not. It's a core capability that utilises HANA, the virtual data model and Fiori to blend analytics and transactions in real time. It's part of the core S/4HANA platform. In this post, I explain the architecture, key app types, and how to approach implementation with real examples from finance.
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by Alexander Roan on Jun 3, 2025
The data model for finance has changed considerably from SAP R/3 to S/4HANA. These changes have provided some simplification while also making it easier to access data. Understanding the basics of the model can be useful. This article walks through the data model with a real life example.
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by Alex Roan on Mar 14, 2025
Succesful large scale transformation requires a handoff and ongoing collaboration between strategy and project delivery. This often involves senior teams working with project teams. This is a crucial part of the successful delivery of complex intiiatives such as SAP S/4HANA implementation or an acquisition integration.
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by Alex Roan on Jun 25, 2020
The chart of account (CoA) is one of the most important structures in business. It reflects all the activities a business is involved in and it provides a foundation for the majority of financial and management reporting. Correct use of the chart of accounts can both simplify operations and improve decision making capability.
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by Alex Roan on Jun 3, 2020
Recent years have seen a resurgence in large organisations taking on major SAP upgrades with the relatively new SAP business suite 4 HANA (S/4HANA) collection of applications. But what exactly is HANA? and what is S/4HANA? How is implementing or upgrading to it different from the R/3 upgrades that were significant programs for many organizations over the last few decades?
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by Alex Roan on May 18, 2020
Starting from business transactions such as the purchase of materials, payments to employees and sale of goods and services. Ending with reporting and decision making including the submission of detailed annual reports. The 'record to report' process (RtR) is a long, complex process that involves people from across the enterprise. Despite the critical nature of this process, it’s rare to find RtR clearly documented from start to finish. I've found that few finance employees can describe the complete process. In part, this is because the process touches core operational transactions (purchases, manufacturing, sales etc.). From another perspective, it's because certain parts of the process require a high level of expertise.
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