SAP and Winshuttle Product Compatibility
Winshuttle tracks SAP Graphical User Interface (GUI) and SAP S/4HANA releases according to the publicly-available SAP roadmaps.
Winshuttle Engineering performs Interoperability Testing on our latest product releases as soon as SAP releases its products. As SAP does not make its latest releases available to Winshuttle ahead of the release date, Winshuttle starts rigorous testing only when the new SAP product is released in the market.
Winshuttle considers SAP Interoperability Testing a high-priority, ongoing-maintenance activity, which is performed in parallel with the new product version releases. This is analogous to how we consider Winshuttle product hotfixes a maintenance activity that occurs in parallel with new product version releases.
Winshuttle does not perform Interoperability Testing on the SAP hotfixes usually and reserves the right to determine on a case-by-case basis, when SAP patches or hotfixes warrant Interoperability Testing before being considered as supported by Winshuttle.
SAP S/4HANA Release Support Policy
When SAP releases a new version of S/4HANA (the on-premise version; not the cloud product), Winshuttle tests the new S/4HANA release for compatibility with only the latest version of the Winshuttle Function Module (WFM) and Studio at the time of the SAP release. Certification from SAP is sought for the Winshuttle Studio product as the certification covers the usage of Studio with Connect, Studio with User Governance, or Studio with Foundation.
Usually a minor product version or a hotfix is released by Winshuttle (for Winshuttle Function Module, and occasionally Studio, User Governance, or Foundation) to support a new SAP S/4HANA release. The expected time frame for the posting of the SAP certification letter for a version of Studio for beta software for lab testing, or General Availability (GA) software depends on the changes in the new SAP product release, and varies according to Table 2 – Time frame for SAP Certification for an SAP S/4HANA release date of October 25, 2018.
* Classifying an SAP release as Major or Minor for Winshuttle products is at the sole discretion of Winshuttle.
Table 2 – Time frame for SAP Certification for an SAP S/4HANA release date of October 25, 2018 is an example of the time frame assuming an SAP S/4HANA release date of October 25, 2018.
* Classifying an SAP release as Major or Minor for Winshuttle products is at the sole discretion of Winshuttle.
Winshuttle does not certify or provide customer support for a new SAP S4/HANA release against the older supported versions of Foundation, Studio, or WFM. Additionally, customers who use a later certified version of the WFM with the new version of SAP S/4HANA are expected to plan to upgrade their Studio and Foundation products to be at the same or later version of the deployed WFM, to ensure they are in a standard supported configuration.
As a best practice, Winshuttle recommends that all customers should plan to install the latest WFM while they are planning to deploy the new SAP server release (e.g. S/4HANA or ECC) to ensure interoperability with the new SAP server release. Subsequently they should prepare for a Studio or Foundation upgrade that will provide additional features and/or performance improvements that are tied to the WFM. For more details, refer to the Studio Upgrade Guides. However, customers using version 11 or later of Studio and/or Foundation, could possibly upgrade their WFM to the latest version of the WFM that is certified with the newly available SAP S4/HANA release. If customers run into issues with the mixed version configuration, they need to upgrade their version of Studio to the same version as that of their WFM to receive Winshuttle customer support. For very complex scripts, customers may need to additionally update their scripts to work seamlessly with the newer version of Studio and WFM with SAP S/4HANA.
SAP GUI Client Release Support Policy
When SAP releases a new version of the SAP Graphical User Interface (GUI), Winshuttle assesses the new SAP GUI release for compatibility only with the latest released version of the Winshuttle Function Module (WFM) and Studio. Historically, Winshuttle does not seek an official certification for SAP GUI releases as Winshuttle performs an extensive and robust Regression Testing, above and beyond what is required for SAP’s certification program. Winshuttle’s testing of the SAP GUI with the latest released version of Studio, covers its usage with Connect, User Governance, and with Foundation. Customers should expect that a minor product version or a hotfix would be released by Winshuttle to support a new SAP GUI version. The expected time frame for the availability of a supported version of Studio depends on the new SAP product release changes and varies according to Table 3 – Time frame for support for a new SAP GUI version.
* Classifying an SAP release as Major or Minor for Winshuttle products is at the sole discretion of Winshuttle.
Table 4 – Time frame for support for a new SAP GUI version release date of October 25, 2018 is an example of the time frame assuming an SAP GUI version release date of October 25, 2018.
* Classifying an SAP release as Major or Minor for Winshuttle products is at the sole discretion of Winshuttle.
Recommended Deployment
Customers are highly recommended to follow a standard, application-deployment best practice of using a four-system SAP landscape for their Winshuttle products' deployment:
- Sandbox – Get an initial impression and perform a check
- Development – Develop scripts and/or solutions
- QA/Sign off – Perform a final verification
- Production – Finally deploy in this environment