This blog looks to address what truly determines success in an SAP data migration project: practical strategies and guiding principles, forged from real-world SAP ECC to S/4HANA conversions.
Optimizing SAP Analytics Cloud (SAC) Financial Planning with Scripting APIs
What exactly is SAC for planning? Financial planning involves numerous components, and SAC plays a vital role in this process. By understanding SAC planning's complexities and leveraging scripting capabilities effectively, organizations can enhance their financial planning
SAP Devtoberfest: Enhancing Financial Insights with Embedded Analytics
SAP Devtoberfest is an exciting annual event that brings together developers to explore the latest innovations within the SAP ecosystem. This year, a significant emphasis has been placed on ABAP Cloud, particularly its embedded analytics capabilities. These updates are designed to enhance financial reporting, providing organizations with powerful tools to analyze and visualize their financial data effectively—critical for making informed business decisions in today’s fast-paced environment.
How to Set Up Cross-System Reporting with SAP Datasphere
In March 2024, SAP announced the latest capabilities in SAP Datasphere, focusing on streamlining the business data fabric, which seamlessly connects various SAP and third-party data sources. These advancements are set to transform how enterprises manage and report data, providing a unified platform for real-time data integration and analysis. For example, Hershey’s is using SAP Datasphere in combination with SAP S/4HANA to build a modern data analytics platform that enables business self-service and trusted data models for decision-making.
These new features include the integration of SAP Analytics Cloud with SAP Datasphere for seamless planning and analytics. Business users can now take advantage of advanced capabilities like Monte Carlo simulation for risk analysis and planning adjustments, all powered through a simple chat interface. This kind of integration enhances operational and financial planning by providing a unified model for data preparation, analytics, and planning.
Moreover, SAP has collaborated with leading partners like Collibra and Confluent to expand its data and AI governance capabilities. Collibra AI Governance ensures trusted and compliant use of data within AI models, while the Confluent integration allows for real-time data streaming to and from SAP Datasphere, making the data management ecosystem more robust and user-friendly. These partnerships emphasize SAP's commitment to creating a comprehensive, open data ecosystem that can effectively meet the diverse needs of enterprises.
With all these updates, SAP Datasphere stands out by providing an advanced and integrated data foundation, allowing enterprises to set up cross-system reporting efficiently without sacrificing context, security, or performance. Let’s now dive deeper into the steps you can take to set up cross-system reporting with SAP Datasphere and leverage its latest innovations for your organization.
The 2024 SAC Q3 Update: Transforming Financial Planning in SAP Analytics Cloud
SAP Analytics Cloud (SAC) propels into Q3 2024, leveraging new features that enhance financial planning and strategic decision-making. This quarter, SAP introduces deeper integrations with Microsoft PowerPoint and advanced forecasting tools, paralleling innovations seen in tech leaders like Google and Amazon.
The highlight is the integration with Microsoft PowerPoint, allowing for live data updates directly in presentations—vital for real-time business decision-making. Deeper integration with Microsoft PowerPoint now allows financial planners to present up-to-the-minute financial data directly in their strategic presentations, ensuring decisions are based on the latest insights.
SAP Revamps Advanced Financial Closing Solution with New Company Code Groups
SAP has introduced a transformative update to its Advanced Financial Closing (AFC) solution with the introduction of Company Code Groups, allowing finance teams to streamline and organize financial closing tasks more efficiently. For those new to this, AFC is a robust SAP solution designed to optimize the complex process of financial closing by automating tasks, enhancing reporting accuracy, and reducing closing times.
This update marks a significant milestone for global enterprises like Siemens and Nestlé, which now have enhanced capabilities to streamline their financial operations efficiently across various business dimensions.
The new Company Code Groups feature revolutionizes financial closing by allowing more dynamic, customizable groupings of company codes. This means finance teams can tailor their processes to fit distinct business units or geographic regions with unprecedented precision. This tool simplifies handling your finances, making sure everything's up to standard with rules like IFRS and SOX, and lets you check your financial status on the fly, all from one spot.
In this blog, you will discover how SAP’s latest innovation in AFC will significantly reduce the complexity and duration of financial closing processes. We’ll delve into the technical nuts and bolts of Company Code Groups, explore their impact on flexibility and efficiency, and look at real-world applications that demonstrate why this tool is essential for today’s multinational corporations.
SAP Sets New Standards in Business AI Implementation
With the ongoing generative AI boom, businesses are seeing unprecedented scalability and accessibility in AI applications, making advanced AI tools available not just to large corporations but to startups and mid-sized businesses as well. The blend of these advancements with SAP’s innovative approach paves the way for a transformative era in business technology.
Top 4 Tips and Tricks for Streamlining Financial Processes Using S/4HANA
You’ve probably heard about the cloud and big data, but today, we're focusing on something that's crucial yet often overlooked: streamlining financial processes.
Why does this matter? Well, as amazing as the S/4 suite is, without proper management and effective streamlining, your system can easily devolve into a basic document repository rather than a data-driven powerhouse for financial operations.
Take for an example, the ten fortune 500 which currently runs on SAP. To have all financial tasks—reporting, account payables, Treasury management, asset management running smoothly without any hiccups must have required and require deliberate streamlining efforts.
So, let’s get into this.
Real-Time Reporting in S/4HANA Finance: 5 Key Advantages for Your Business
This article delves into the concept of real-time reporting, highlighting the fundamental differences between real-time and traditional reporting. We'll then explore five key advantages that real-time reporting in S/4HANA Finance offers, such as enhanced decision-making, improved operational efficiency, etc.
Additionally, we will discuss the key features of S/4HANA Finance that support real-time reporting, and how businesses can leverage embedded analytics within S/4HANA and SAC for practical real-time FI reporting use cases.
Using Predictive Accounting in S/4HANA Finance
Predictive accounting enables you to take the most up-to-date data from areas in S/4HANA outside of Finance, such as Sales; other integrated products, such as SAP Concur; or external systems, and use it to predict future results at any time. You then have a better understanding of what your accounting results, at the end of the current period or quarter, might look like, and why.
Using the postings in the prediction ledger, along with the actual data from the underlying ledger, you can predict future figures, such as the revenue forecast for one product. It is also possible for you to see a report of all line items for one product. You can display and analyze the data in detail but also at a higher level, for example, in a financial statement. Since all postings, such as expenses or revenues, both actual and predicted, are stored in one place, the universal journal, you can drill down from your profit and loss statement or your balance sheet to the individual journal entries in the general ledger and display the corresponding line items.
The Impact of AI on SAP Analytics: Enhancing Insights and Decision-Making in SAP Analytics
Artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly reshaping how businesses operate and gain insights from their data. Within the world of SAP analytics, AI is a toolbox of technologies that enable faster, smarter, and more predictive decision-making. From streamlining operations to personalizing customer experiences, SAP Business AI unlocks the hidden potential within your organization's vast data stores.
Scoping Your SAP S/4HANA Public Cloud Solution
The Digital Discovery Assessment (DDA) is used in the sales cycle to assess a customer's requirements and match them with the best SAP S/4HANA Cloud solution to fit their needs. This occurs in the Discover phase of the SAP Activate Methodology.
Conducting Fit-to-Standard Workshop with Cloud Mindset – Mindset Shift to Cloud
To make an SAP S/4HANA Cloud implementation successful, we need to move away from the traditional "Fit-Gap" on-premise mindset to the Fit-to-Standard Cloud mindset. The purpose of the Fit-to-Standard Analysis workshops is to confirm the scope identified in the Digital Discovery Assessment and gather configuration and customization requirements. To do this, implementation consultants demonstrate the SAP S/4HANA Cloud business processes to customer experts from each line of business.
Configure SAP Public Cloud with Central Business Configuration
SAP Central Business Configuration (SAP CBC) is a new tool that is used to configure a business process spanning different SAP cloud solutions from one central place. SAP CBC allows you to manage your configurations for SAP cloud implementations and ongoing operations centrally through Project Experience. We can initiate change anytime to make additions to your scope and organizational structure or make changes to existing configuration settings.
The Future OF SAP BOBJ
In a recent survey conducted by APOS, a prominent SAP partner, 80% of BusinessObjects (BOBJ) customers participating in a BOBJ regroup webinar indicated that they were in the process of migrating from their current BOBJ version or at least had migration plans within the next few months.
From trending YouTube videos discussing the future of SAP BOBJ developers to SAP's latest Business Intelligence (BI) statement of direction released in April, it's only natural to have concerns about the current state of SAP BOBJ.
SAP ECC Classic GL to SAP S/4HANA – Direct Conversion Without Requiring a New GL Migration First
The new General Ledger on SAP S/4HANA or ECC has certain advantages over Class GL. Examples: usage of parallel ledgers, Document splitting, Profit Center Financial statements, Segment' reporting that is required for segment reporting according to IAS and U.S. GAAP, etc. In addition, Customers can enhance the new General Ledger flexibly, that is, they can enter user-defined fields and update the relevant totals. Many standard reports can evaluate the information from the user-defined fields. Customers can use the 'Document Splitting' functionality to create financial statements at the company code level and, if required, for entities, such as the segment. As a result, we no longer have to carry out time-consuming reconciliation tasks between FI and CO for the end of the period since cross-entity processes are transferred in real-time to the new General Ledger in Controlling.
Starting from 1709, In new installations of SAP S/4HANA, the new General Ledger Accounting is activated by default. The existing ECC customers moving from SAP ECC to SAP S/4HANA will also get new GL automatically. As a result, ECC customers will also move to New GL on SAP S/4HANA Conversion. However, they cannot implement document splitting or a further accounting principle/ledger during the conversion project. The architecture of the accounting module in SAP S/4HANA from the 1709 version is based on the concept of the former "New GL". The concept of the Subsequent Implementation of Document Splitting in SAP S/4HANA differs from the Migration Scenario 6 of the "New GL".
How to Find the Best SAP Resources Online: A Beginner's Guide
If you are new to SAP, you might feel overwhelmed by the amount of information available online. How do you know which sites are reliable, up-to-date, and relevant to your needs? As an SAP Consultant myself, this is one issue, I myself have been plagued with. After years of skimming the web, I decided to compile a list of helpful sites I would recommend as go-to for SAP resources. Whether you are searching for tutorials, blogs, forums, podcasts, or courses, these sites will help you learn SAP faster and easier.
SAP's Embedded Analytics
This article will discuss an overview of analytics in the modern SAP digital economy, SAP's embedded analytics Strategy, the VDM model, and examples and use cases of Embedded Fiori Applications.
The Modern SAP Digital Economy
SAP’s Embedded Analytics Strategy
The VDM model
Use Cases For Embedded Fiori Applications
An Overview on Rise with SAP
Customers moving to SAP S/4HANA come from different backgrounds and have different end goals. RISE with SAP is designed to address unique customer scenarios. RISE is not a system upgrade, it's a redesigned method of working that allows customers to change not only once, but to continuously transform. Rise with SAP simplifies a customer's move to the cloud and helps throughout their business transformation journey. RISE with SAP delivers seamlessly with SAP partners, Hyperscaler partners, the Reseller community, and Software partners. RISE with SAP is designed to help SAP customers.