Central Finance is an SAP S/4HANA implementation scenario, not a pure deployment option like on-premise or cloud. It is specifically designed to enable financial transformation with minimal disruption to existing business operations. In a Central Finance scenario, transactional data is replicated from various source systems (SAP and non-SAP) into a central S/4HANA system. The crucial point is that the source systems remain operational. Therefore, the vast majority of "average SAP end users" in logistics, sales, and procurement continue to perform their daily tasks in their familiar legacy systems without any change or disruption. The change is primarily contained within the central finance department, making this the approach with the least widespread business disruption.

B. On premise: An on-premise deployment, whether a system conversion (brownfield) or new implementation (greenfield), is a major project that directly replaces the existing ERP system, causing significant disruption for all users through downtime, UI changes, and process adaptations.

C. Private cloud: Similar to an on-premise deployment, moving to a private cloud edition of S/4HANA involves a large-scale migration or conversion project. This is inherently disruptive for end-users as their core transactional system is being fundamentally changed.

D. Public cloud: This option typically causes the most disruption. It usually requires a greenfield implementation, forcing the company to re-engineer its processes to align with standardized SAP best practices, which is a fundamental change for all end-users.

1. SAP Press (Official Vendor Documentation): In the "SAP S/4HANA Central Finance and Group Reporting" book

the authors state

"Central Finance is a deployment option for SAP S/4HANA that allows customers to move to SAP S/4HANA Finance in a nondisruptive way... The existing source systems can continue to be used..."

Source: SAP S/4HANA Central Finance and Group Reporting

1st Edition

by SAP Press (2022). Section 1.2

"What Is Central Finance?"

Page 21.

2. SAP Help Portal (Official Vendor Documentation): The official documentation for Central Finance highlights its non-disruptive nature. It explains that the approach allows for a phased transition to SAP S/4HANA without disrupting existing system landscapes.

Source: SAP Help Portal

SAP S/4HANA

"What Is Central Finance?". The overview section explicitly mentions the ability to "transition to SAP S/4HANA Finance without disrupting your existing SAP ERP systems."

3. SAP Learning Hub (Official Vendor Courseware): The SAP S/4HANA Finance training courses

such as S4F01

describe Central Finance as a specific scenario that decouples the financial transformation from the operational system upgrade

thereby minimizing risk and operational disruption.

Source: SAP Learning Hub

Course S4F01 - Financial Accounting in SAP S/4HANA. Unit: "SAP S/4HANA Deployment Options".