sexta-feira, 15 de fevereiro de 2019

Implementing S/4HANA. How different is it compared to ECC?

       
I have had quite a few questions from consultants, asking me what they need to learn before they can also do something in S/4HANA. There are rumors it is completely different.
Also where can you find resources to see the differences?
Well, let’s try to answer this.
First the question: How different is S/4HANA from ECC. Is it completely different?
No.
Most of your familiar transactions are still there. SPRO, SE80, PFCG, etc.
The transport system is comparable and from an SAP specialist point of view, actually the customizing is not so much different. The menu structure in SPRO can be somewhat different, and there are new components and version numbers on support.sap.com
Is then ECC and S/4HANA almost the same?
No again.
There are too much changes and for some important areas, the approach has been changed significantly.
Here are some noteworthy topics specific for S/4HANA:

Business partner replacing Customer and Vendor master (and Employee + User).

With S/4HANA you will have to use the business partner (BP) for your customer and vendor master. It will still replicate to the old SD and MM tables, but the SD and MM transactions will no longer work.
There is an extensive note on this: https://launchpad.support.sap.com/#/notes/2265093
There is also an option to have One BP per legal entity.  With this you can assign multiple customers/suppliers to one business partner.  You have to decide what route is preferred to take, since it is not easy to switch over on a later moment.
This option will allow you, for example, to create one BP for a customer, but to also have multiple ship-to addresses without these creating additional BPs.
https://launchpad.support.sap.com/#/notes/2706243
Another important topic to mention here, is to keep the Customer and Vendor aligned. A business partner can be extended. A customer can become a vendor and vice versa. When you use another grouping, with a different number range for your vendors, and then extend the vendor to also be a customer, you get customer numbers with numbers that are not in the customer number range.
For HR/Employee: HR is still there, there even is an app to upload employees as a mass change.
However, HR is no longer in use to do HR things. You use it in sales, workflow, procurement, etc. but not for HR as such. This can be confusing.
For the employee to BP replication, there is a note: https://launchpad.support.sap.com/#/notes/2578294
The process itself is straightforward. However monitoring and error fixing can be a bit harder.
For the user master there is a similar note:
https://launchpad.support.sap.com/#/notes/2597146
Ideal is to have the employee and user master linked to the same BP. This however might require some alignment within your organization: There will be one single point where the address is stored. This address will then be applicable for HR, user and BP. I would suggest to use the BP for this, as is intended.
There is some information on this, in this note: https://launchpad.support.sap.com/#/notes/2570961

Merge of solutions from SAP

SAP implemented the strategy to deliver core functionality in the Core, that can be extended by no more then one additional product.  The result of this, is that you sometimes have to look for a solution because it can be that functionality has changed or that a product seems to be missing from the offering.
For example in the procurement area, there was an overlap between ECC, SRM and Ariba. SRM is phased out, and the SRM functionality has been moved to either the S/4HANA core, or to Ariba.
Added to that, also a lot or products have been renamed. Hybris products are an example of that, but also PPM 6.1 is now called SAP Portfolio and Project Management for SAP S/4HANA 1.0. On premise, there are not many differences between PPM 6.1 and PPM for S/4HANA.
In order to find the right product(s) it is important to review the roadmaps. These can be found here:
https://wiki.scn.sap.com/wiki/display/ATopics/Road+Map+Updates
and
https://www.sap.com/products/roadmaps.html
Also review the product availability matrix.

Simplification

A big part of SAP has been ‘simplified’. This can implicate minor changes, but sometimes also can have a big impact. There have been changes in tables and structures, but there is also functionality that will not be made available in S/4HANA (for example the earlier mentioned HR).
On the S/4HANA help pages, there is a simplification list that will reflect the impact from ECC > S/4HANA. The list is huge, but in my experience 90% of what is in the document can be ignored because it is really outdated SAP functionality that will be unavailable or there is a clear new functionality available. The other 10% can give some headaches though…
https://help.sap.com/viewer/p/SAP_S4HANA_ON-PREMISE
https://help.sap.com/doc/fffbaea9108349c0bb2a3386140bd95c/1809.001/en-US/SIMPL_OP1809_FPS01.pdf

Fiori

In my experience this is the hardest part of the change to S/4HANA for experienced users.
You as a SAP consultant, architect, etc. will probably still use the GUI to do config and master data changes. For the user however, it is possibly the best option to switch to the Fiori Launchpad.
There are some points you have to take into account here:
1: Not all transactions have a replacement Fiori app.
You can find all Fiori apps in the Fiori app library: https://fioriappslibrary.hana.ondemand.com/sap/fix/externalViewer/
You can search by role, industry, etc. here. You will however find that not all functionality has yet been covered. SAP uses a pyramid model for this: The few modules that are used the most frequent got highest priority in moving to Fiori (e.g. Finance, procurement and sales), and other modules get less attention (e.g. GTM). For most products I did not see discrimination in the favor of a licensed add-on getting priority with Fiori. When a topic gets Fiori apps, this will cover also the core.
2: I personally do not like the simplified data entry the best option for ‘power users’. For example when you create a sales order in the GUI, you have a table. In this table you enter from the overview screen the materials, quantity and price. You can cover multiple items in one go.
In Fiori, you basically enter the header of the document. To add an item, you click the + button and you will be forwarded to the item screen. If you want to add a price, you again click on the + button and you will be forwarded to the item conditions. For another item you have to go back twice and click the + button again to add the other item.
The advantage of this, is that is really fool proof and easy to train to new personell. I do think it is more work though. However that is also what all users told me when they had to move from R/2 to R/3 and had to starting a mouse.
3: When a transaction does not have a Fiori alternative, or when the fiori alternative does not suit your needs, you can create a UI5 tile. This basically is a webgui version of the transaction. The advantage is that you can keep the neat fiori launchpad. The downside is that UI5 is just not the GUI. It does take some getting use to the menu, shortkeys, etc. This is especially relevant for ECC > S/4HANA moves with users familiar with the GUI.

The Fiori experience in general is Super. The KPI tiles add a lot of value, the enterprise search is great. I am sure CoPilot will change the user experience big time.
Please have a look at these resources:
Fiori Lighthouse scenarios:
https://www.sap.com/documents/2018/01/12b3dec4-ec7c-0010-82c7-eda71af511fa.html
With the lighthouse scenario’s, you can offer the users an overview screen per topic with great real time reports and transactional data. One filter covers all the elements on the page. Feedback from the users has been more then positive.
Then there is and will be CoPilot:
https://www.sap.com/products/digital-assistant.html
Copilot is a digital assistant and it will be available in the launchpad and as a mobile app. I have been testing with this in a customer engagement project, and it is fabulous. I really think this can be a game changer, it will enhance the way we work with SAP.


Source: https://blogs.sap.com/2019/02/15/implementing-s4hana.-how-different-is-it-compared-to-ecc/

terça-feira, 12 de fevereiro de 2019

SAP HANA Cockpit 2.0 SP 09 What’s New – by the SAP HANA Academy

Introduction

In the upcoming days and weeks, we will be posting new videos to the SAP HANA Academy to show new features and functionality introduced with SAP HANA cockpit 2.0 SP 09, released February 2019.
For the full SAP HANA cockpit playlist on YouTube, see


For the complete list of the SAP HANA cockpit 2.0 What’s New blogs, see
For the Getting Started with SAP HANA cockpit 2.0 blog, see


Installation and Update

No changes: the installation and update process for SP09 is the same as for the previous release(s).

Administration and Monitoring

Cockpit Troubleshooting User Role (New)

Grant a user the Cockpit Troubleshooting Role. This allows the user to access XSA Logs in Cockpit Manager.

SAP HANA Cockpit Manager, Create User

SAP HANA Cockpit Manager, XSA Logs
For the documentation, see

Creating a Technical User during Registration (New)

Create a technical user during resource registration. Each resource needs a technical user to collect resource statistics, a.k.a. “health data”.  Before, you had to create this user separately using another tool.

SAP HANA Cockpit Manager, Create Technical User
For the documentation, see

Resource Enhancements (New)

Searching and sorting registered resources in Cockpit Manager and the Resource Directory has been made easier.

Unregister groups of resources.

SAP HANA Cockpit Manager, Registered Resources
For the documentation, see

System Overview Enhancements (New)

New in the System Overview
  • Right click on a link to open in a new browser tab or window
  • Delete custom tiles

SAP HANA Cockpit, System Overview

Managing System Configuration (Changed)

Take and compare (database point-in-time) snapshots in System Configuration. Previously, this was only possible for the current database configuration.

SAP HANA Cockpit, Configuration Manager

SAP HANA Cockpit, Configuration Manager
For the documentation, see

Table Placement Editor (Changed)

Create a new table placement rule by copying an existing rule and reusing the same or modified parameters. Previously, you could only create new ones.
For the documentation, see

Performance Monitoring and Analysis

Capture and Replay (New and Changed)

On System Overview
  • Start captures directly from the Capture Workloads tile (and stop when running). The tile displays capture name, start time, and duration.
  • Start replays directly from the Replay Workloads tile (and stop when running). The tile displays  name, start time, and duration.

SAP HANA Cockpit, System Overview
In Replay Configuration
  • Authenticate users with a Secure User Store Key.
  • >Choose Reset Password to reset at once the passwords for all users not authenticated by external tools or created during the replay.

SAP HANA Cockpit, Replay Configuration
In addition, you now trigger and monitor the export of a replay report. The export contains both data from the captured workload as well as the results of a replay.
For the documentation, see

SQL Analyzer (New and Changed)

Choose to color nodes by either Type or Location and set the default inner plan to Physical or Location in Plan Graph Settings.

SAP HANA Cockpit, SQL Analyzer, Plan Graph, Settings

SAP HANA Cockpit, SQL Analyzer, Plan Graph
For the documentation, see

Workload Analyzer (New)

Navigate from Workload Analyzer to Current Table Distribution (distributed systems).
For the documentation, see

Performance Monitor (Changed)

A new hierarchically sorted table legend that displays the KPI unit, y-axis scale, as well minimum, maximum, and average values.
For the documentation, see

SAP HANA Database Explorer

Client-side Encryption (New)

Database Explorer supports execution of client-side encryption-related SQL statements.

Import Data (New)

Import data supports batch inserts to improve performance. New tables are created regardless of whether or not the data is successfully inserted.

Import/Export HDI Containers (New)

Import and export HDI containers from the database explorer. Requires the HDI Container Group Administrator permission.

SQL Console GlobalPreferences (New)

  • Indicate potential SQL errors
  • Parse text into multiple statements before executing
  • Auto-commit new SQL console contents by default

SAP HANA Database Explorer, Global Preferences

Schemas folder in the catalog browser (New)

Database’s objects are grouped according to their object type. With the search filter you can  search for objects per schema.

SAP HANA Database Explorer, Catalog Browser

Connection Settings (New)

View connection settings button in the SQL console

SAP HANA Database Explorer, Connection Settings
For the documentation, see

Documentation

New features and known issues are documented in
For all SAP HANA cockpit documentation, see

Thank you for watching

The SAP HANA Academy provides technical enablement, implementation and adoption support for customers and partners with 1000’s of free tutorial videos.
For the full library, see SAP HANA Academy Library – by the SAP HANA Academy
For the full list of blogs, see Blog Posts – by the SAP HANA Academy




Source: https://blogs.sap.com/2019/02/11/sap-hana-cockpit-2.0-sp-09-whats-new-by-the-sap-hana-academy/

segunda-feira, 11 de fevereiro de 2019

Sales Contract Management with SAP S/4HANA

Get an overview of sales contracts in SAP S/4HANA in this blog.
SAP S/4HANA supports the creation, processing, and analysis of sales contracts with customers. Through the use of SAP Fiori apps, expiring contracts can be easily addressed, and contracts can be better analyzed to determine fulfillment rates. There are two main types of sales contracts:
  • Quantity contract: This is an agreement between company and customer for the customer to purchase a specific quantity of a material at a certain price within a specific time period.
  • Value contract: This is an agreement between a company and customer that contains the materials and services the customer will receive within a specific time period, up to a specific value.
Contracts can be fulfilled through a single sales order or through multiple sales orders that are called from the contract during the specified time period. These release orders must be created with reference to the contract. If the customer knows the dates of fulfillment at the time of creation, a scheduling agreement can be created in place of the contract.
Let’s look at key SAP S/4HANA functionality for sales contract management.
Create, Change, and Display Contracts
With SAP S/4HANA and SAP Fiori, users can easily find and analyze contracts within the system, which is helpful for both users and managers to better understand and process their contract pipeline.
In SAP S/4HANA, after it has been determined that a contract is required, the user will access an SAP Fiori app called Manage Sales Contracts. With this application, you can search for sales contracts according to filter criteria and display them in a list. In the example in the first figure below, 29 sales contracts are listed.
You can also navigate from the same page to the Create Contract screen shown in the second figure.
Additional customer information is entered into the contract, including sold-to, ship-to, purchase order number, and the validity dates of the contract. Validity dates are a required element for contracts. Supplemental information, such as order reason, description, and master contract, can be added to the contract header details if required. The materials or services that are part of the contract are added to the document, along with the agreed-upon specific quantity. The agreed-upon value for the products and services is also included in the contract. After the contract is saved, you can access it again using the Change Contract or Display Contract apps in SAP Fiori.
With SAP S/4HANA 1809, a new feature for exporting to a spreadsheet was added to the Manage Sales Contracts app. Thanks to a new OData service, you can now retrieve sales contracts that are blocked for negative credit check and can perform check, read, and release operations. You can also update and delete sales contracts in the SAP Fiori frontend.
List Incomplete Sales Contracts
After the incomplete contracts list is displayed, the user can access the contract directly from the application instead of accessing a different transaction to change the contract.
By running the List Incomplete Sales Contract app, you can easily check which documents and data are incomplete. A new version of this app released in SAP S/4HANA 1809 allows users to identify contracts with various incompletion issues. The figure below shows the flexible search options provided through this SAP Fiori app; in our example, we haven’t added any search parameters to return all incomplete contracts.
Users can then drill into a particular contract to access the incomplete details, as shown below.
In the following figure, you can see that the contract has missing Valid-From Date and Valid-To Date data, per the incompletion log of the document.
After addressing issues in the contract, the user is taken back to the incompletion list and can continue resolving the incompletion issues.
Users can also list contracts based on a variety of selection criteria, including customer, material, the person responsible, and validity period, using the List Contracts app. For ease of contract handling, SAP Fiori also provides apps to list completed contracts, expired contracts, and contracts that are expiring soon. Again, SAP Fiori allows you to directly access the contracts through these lists instead of finding the contract number with the list and accessing the contract through a different transaction.
Sales Contract Fulfillment Rates
Sales Contract Fulfillment Rates is a powerful SAP Fiori app that management can use to identify contract fulfillment rates across sales organizations, customers, employees, and materials. The example below shows a completion rate of 61.13%. Users can also quickly identify the top 10 contracts by target value. Further drilldown capability based on real-time data is available. Managers no longer need to wait for contracts to expire or periods to close in order to analyze the sales contracts.
Manage Subscription Contracts
Subscription contract management helps to manage complex contracts that can be bundled across multiple product and service offerings. Users can manage contracts for customers by adding items, modifying terms, tracking usage, and removing contract elements. It can be handled in one of two ways in SAP S/4HANA.
For simple subscription scenarios, where a customer is paying a set amount over the course of a time period, such as a monthly payment over the course of a year, a value contract can be used to manage the process. The value contract will have a billing plan outlined at the item level. Based on the billing plan, down payment requests are generated and posted to the customer’s account when payment is made. Deliveries can be called against the value contract throughout the validity period. At the end of the contract, the down payment balances are used to clear the open balances from the deliveries, and the contract can be closed or extended.
The Manage Sales Contract app is used to process subscription contracts in SAP S/4HANA. Below you’ll see a settlement against the contract over the course of a year through monthly payments based on a defined billing plan. These monthly payments are achieved by creating down payment request documents. After all items are delivered and open balances cleared, this subscription contract can then be closed.
The Manage Customer Down Payment Requests app shown below helps to create down payment requests that are posted to customer accounts and against which payment is made.
For more complex subscription scenarios, the cloud applications in SAP C/4HANA can be used to support subscription order management.
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Excerpt from the book Logistics with SAP S/4HANA: An Introduction by Deb Bhattacharjee, Vadhi Narasimhamurti, Chaitanaya Desai, Guillermo B. Vazquez, and Tom Walsh. Used with permission of SAP PRESS. All rights reserved.
Follow SAP PRESS on LinkedIn for info on new releases, news, and more!


Source: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/sales-contract-management-sap-s4hana-sean-fesko/

Mass Change/Creation of Condition Records with Templates in SAP SD

In this blog, learn how you can use a template to perform mass changes or mass creations of condition records in SAP SD.
Condition maintenance provides the ability to perform mass changes. Nevertheless, you will change existing condition records in their current validity period only in rare cases; for example, if you want to correct a mistake. However, condition changes should only take effect starting with a specific date.
This is why, in the Create with Template function, you first select the set of affected condition records and create a new validity period. Since there cannot be overlapping validity periods, when saving the new records, the program sets the end date of the previous validity periods to the last day before the start date of the newly created validity period. The start date of the next interval (if existing) is set to the first day after the end of the current validity period.
We will watch this process using the example of Transaction VK14 (Create with Template). In the first step, we need to select the required condition type in order to select the affected set of condition records using the offered selection parameters in the next step (see below).
With the date Valid On, the validity periods of the template data are determined. In the lower part of the selection screen, you can find the switch Keep end of validity period. If this switch is clicked, the validity end for the conditions is taken from the reference conditions. If the switch is not checked, then the validity end for the conditions is proposed from the Customizing of the condition type.
Next, we select the condition records found and set the validity period to the desired start and end date. In most cases, the start date will be the date of the price change and the end date will be 31.12.9999—that is, the last validity period that then always runs until further notice. We have chosen the example of a limited change in price—for example, from 01.08.2016 until 31.08.2016—in order to observe how the program-controlled validity period split takes place.
In the next step, you can start Transaction VK12 (Change Condition Records) and set the selection parameter Valid On, for example, to the beginning of the newly created interval in which the price change is to take place.
If we now look at the validity periods for the selected condition records, we note that—as previously described—three validity periods have been formed, as shown below.
If you select the set of condition records and click the Change amount button, you can specify in a subsequent popup window either Percentage or Absolute amount and optionally choose a Rounding rule (see first figure below). After this change, a log with the changed values will be displayed, and the changed data can be saved.
Due to the chosen situation of a limited change in price from 01.08.2016 until 31.08.2016 with the program-controlled validity period split, the situation seen in the second figure is our new result.
The selected rounding rule 4 has ensured that the new values were set to zero in the second decimal place. In addition to rule 4, there are three other rounding rules in the standard SAP system.
Like most routines in SD, the rounding rules are maintained with Transaction VOFM (Maintain: Requirements and Formulas). The rounding rules can be found using menu path Formulas > Rounding Rules.
Since these are double-digit routine numbers, the customer namespace is from 50 to 99. By means of customer-specific rounding rules, the behavior when changing the condition amount can be affected in a specific way.
Now go forth and perform these changes and creations!
Excerpt from the book Pricing and the Condition Technique in SAP ERP by Ursula Becker, Werner Herhuth, and Manfred Hirn. Used with permission of SAP PRESS. All rights reserved.
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Source: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/mass-changecreation-condition-records-templates-sap-sd-sean-fesko/

Subcontracting Within Sourcing and Procurement in SAP S/4HANA

Get an overview of subcontracting in SAP S/4HANA, using the sourcing and procurement functionality.
Some supplier relationships require you as the purchasing organization to provide the supplier with the components used in their part of the value creation. A typical example in manufacturing would be assembly. Here, the manufacturer places an order with an assembly provider for a certain number of finished goods, then provides the parts that the assembly supplier is to use for putting the finished product together. These components are usually associated with a BOM, as evidenced by the figure below.
Standard Subcontracting Approach
In SAP, there are multiple ways of setting up this transaction, but many approaches add more complexity than they are worth. For example, you can choose to create plants that are technically the supplier’s locations and track your inventory as you move it to these locations for finishing. For each transaction requiring subcontracting, you then have to issue a PO and create multiple goods movements and accounting entries internally to support the process. This approach requires more manual effort and accounting acrobatics than is optimal. The most straightforward way to support subcontracting processes is to use the standard subcontracting approach in the system. The process is as follows:
  1. Select PO type L when creating the purchase order for a subcontracted item. L is the subcontracting PO type and allows you to create subitems manually or via a BOM explosion automatically for the components to be provided to the subcontractor. Although the final product doesn’t necessarily require a materials master, the components do require a material master record for this process in SAP.
  2. For the MRP to pick up the subcontracting order correctly, you must maintain a subcontracting entry for the associated material in its MRP area assignment, an MRP-relevant source of supply/quota agreement with the subcontracting setting (source lists are not supported in SAP S/4HANA before version 1709 for MRP, so you would need to use a quota agreement as a workaround in these versions), and a BOM containing the components. During the MRP run, the system explodes the BOM requirements and classifies dependent, subcontracting elements as such.
To flag a material master directly for subcontracting, choose a half finished (HALB) or finished (FERT) material, and in the MRP tab maintain the Special Procurement field with option 30 for the plant, as shown in the figure below.
Subcontracting in SAP S/4HANA
In previous versions of SAP ERP, component materials to be provided to the subcontractor could be planned as a separate stock. However, with SAP S/4HANA, a subcontracting MRP area is the default option for subcontracting planning. Subcontracting will appear under the general plant stock if there is no MRP area maintained for the supplier.
Also, in previous versions of SAP ERP, you could check subcontracting stocks by supplier by running reports from a specific IMG menu path. This transaction is now available as an app in SAP S/4HANA, as shown in the next figure.
In SAP S/4HANA, MRP areas have to be created for every subcontractor; if MRP area–specific material master records don’t exist, MRP uses default planning parameters. This differs from classic SAP ERP for subcontracting, in which you could plan either with or without MRP areas. If you elected to plan without MRP areas, you weren’t able to use the full functionality around lot sizing and were only able to order full lot sizes. If you chose the MRP area route, material data on an MRP area was required for all components. These two options are now combined into one driven by MRP areas, but it doesn’t require material data on all components and can support full-lot sizing and sourcing functionality.
Upgrading MRP Subcontracting to SAP S/4HANA
To upgrade MRP subcontracting processes in SAP ERP to SAP S/4HANA, you need to take stock of your existing subcontracting suppliers and processes and identify any gaps, execute a standard upgrade to SAP S/4HANA, and then at postprocessing proceed as follows:
  1. Maintain subcontracting MRP areas for all subcontracting suppliers requiring provision stocks to be planned separately from requirements. The customizing entry in the supplier master is sufficient to trigger stock transfers and reservations from the plant to the subcontracting MRP area. You only have to maintain entries in the material masters if special situations exist for lot sizing, purchase requisitions/orders, and/or third-party order processing.
  2. Run regenerative MRP and test.
Subcontracting Order Collaboration
As detailed in this blog post, the standard subcontracting process in SAP entails a leap of faith to a degree, which some MRP controllers and their ilk are unwilling to make. Upon issuing a subcontracting PO and shipping out the components to the supplier, the buyer doesn’t technically receive updates on the production of the order until the final product or subassembly with the components is shipped back from the supplier to the buyer. Tracking the materials and valuations, which technically still belong to the buying organization, becomes difficult using the standard process. This often is used as justification by finance and other stakeholders on the buyer side for setting up phantom plants to represent the supplier and then moving and tracking the materials in these plants. This creates a host of additional transactions for each subcontracting order and does scale well.
SAP Ariba Supply Chain Collaboration for Buyers provides an extra layer of visibility that has been sought in the subcontracting process, including component receipt and consumption notices from the supplier, as well as full B2B-level manufacturing visibility into the supplier’s progress.
The next figure shows how in using the supplier portal on the Ariba Network, a supplier can log in and confirm the consumption of subcontracting components into the assembly.


Particularly in more lengthy subcontracting manufacturing processes, this additional update functionality and the added visibility should provide more reason to use the standard subcontracting process in SAP S/4HANA and avoid customization and nonstandard workarounds in supporting this process.
Excerpt from the book Sourcing and Procurement in SAP S/4HANA by Justin Ashlock. Used with permission of SAP PRESS. All rights reserved.
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Source: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/subcontracting-within-sourcing-procurement-sap-s4hana-sean-fesko/

segunda-feira, 4 de fevereiro de 2019

Influencing SAP S/4HANA Cloud

             
How can you influence SAP S/4HANA Cloud? SAP offers a range of programs that give customers the opportunity to influence SAP software development decisions and adopt new innovations early on. I would like to mention two influencing options here: SAP Customer Influence and a new end-to-end testing initiative.

SAP Customer Influence for SAP S/4HANA Cloud

SAP Customer Influence plays a key role to connect customers and partners with SAP, and influence the software. The SAP Customer Influence for SAP S/4HANA Cloud was launched in Q2 2018, you will find more information in this blog. Do you want to know more about the software and engage with other customers or submit new ideas for improvements, features, and functionalities? Have a look at SAP Customer Influence for SAP S/4HANA Cloud and select your area. You will find many projects there focusing on fascinating topics such as Analytics, Finance, Procurement, and much more.

End-to-end Testing Opportunity for End Users

In addition, SAP is planning to offer E2E process testing for SAP S/4HANA Cloud in different labs. The new approach is to bring business processes as the central element viewed from a persona / business role: invoice to cash, hire to pay, engineering to order, engagement to cash, and more.
If you are working in a role that we are currently looking for, you would be able to influence our S/4HANA Cloud product development backlog on three levels: user interface (UX), integration, and of course features and processes.
A few seats are still available for the pilot!
The pilot phase of the end-to-end testing will take place on February 13-14, 2019 in Sankt Leon Rot, Germany. Currently, there are still 10 seats available. This is a great opportunity for end users to join the pilot phase of this new E2E testing initiative.
What are we looking for? We are looking for end users who work as accounts payable consultants or cash/treasury managers to test the latest ‘invoice-to-cash’ process in SAP S/4HANA Cloud.

Interested? Come to Rot, Germany, for half a day on the 13 or the 14 of February and have our Finance product experts guide you through a 1.5 hour testing session.
If you would like to join this testing opportunity, please follow me.
Looking forward to seeing you there!

Source: https://blogs.sap.com/2019/02/03/end-to-end-testing-for-sap-s4hana-cloud/

Intelligent ERP Update: SAP S/4HANA Cloud 1902 Release

Highlights of the SAP S/4HANA Cloud 1902 Release
Today, we’re proud to announce the general availability of our SAP S/4HANA Cloud 1902 release. Our 1811 release,  as well as the rest of the last year was fully dedicated to delivering the intelligent enterprise suite. This year, we will continue this journey moving full speed ahead.
This blog is intended to give you a first snapshot of our brand-new 1902 innovations within SAP S/4HANA Cloud, SAP’s intelligent, next-generation cloud ERP solution. For a quick overview of all the great new innovations, play my video below.


Finance
Advanced Financial Closing
Thanks to this key highlight in Finance, you can significantly speed up your closing processes by planning, executing, monitoring, and analyzing financial closing tasks for the entities of your group. Advanced Financial Closing provides full transparency regarding the complete closing process and allows for multiple persons involved in the same activity. On top of that, it supports you with periodically recurring closing activities with a fixed chronological or dependent sequence.

Figure 1:  Our new SAP Fiori app ‘Closing Task Completion’enables you to analyze the status and completion rate of active closing tasks as a summary
 
Group Reporting
The new matrix consolidation functionality in SAP S/4HANA Cloud comprises consolidation for management-oriented organizational units such as profit centers and business segments. It enables business unit managers and group controllers to rapidly respond to changes resulting from internal restructuring. In addition, the group structure manager allows you to main consolidation group specific settings for consolidation unit and consolidation unit assignment.
 
Supply Chain
Inventory
With our brand new ‘Inventory KPI Analysis’ app, you can effectively ensure forecast and inventory accuracy for your inventory. With its attractive user interface, the app allows you to effectively monitor the inventory flow according to critical key performance indicators (KPIs) such as stock changes, consumption changes, inventory/aging changes, inventory/turnover changes, and range of coverage changes. On top of that, inventory analysts can investigate potential issues and, for example, identify potential outliers affecting the fixed capital situation.

Figure 2:  Our new SAP Fiori app ‘Inventory KPI Analysis’ allows you to monitor KPIs effectively to ensure forecast and inventory accuracy
 
Quality Management in Warehousing
With our new quality management functionality, you can now perform quality inspections during goods receipt. This allows you to inspect products which have been delivered by production or external suppliers before putaway in the warehouse. You can also record usage decisions for partial lots if only part of the stock items in the inspection show the desired quality.
 
Asset Management
Mass generation of orders for maintenance notifications
Our SAP Fiori app ‘Maintenance Notifications’ allows you to perform mass generation of orders for maintenance notifications. You can either generate separate maintenance orders for every maintenance notification that you have selected or you can generate one single maintenance order for all selected maintenance notifications.

Figure 3:  Our new SAP Fiori app ‘Maintenance Notifications’ allows you to generate maintenance orders in mass mode

Sourcing and Procurement
Analytics for Changes in Purchase Order Items
In the SAP Fiori app ‘Purchase Order Changes’, you can now monitor changes to purchase order items, such as purchasing group, supplier, quantity, material group, and price in real-time. You can drill down to purchase order item level to take necessary actions.

Figure 4: Our SAP Fiori app ‘Purchase Order Item Changes’ allows you to monitor changes to purchase order items
Service
Service Contract Management
Our new functionality for service contract management enables you to handle service contracts coming from external systems. Service contracts are outline agreements with business partners that define services offered for a particular period and usually represent a long-term service agreement with customers. In addition, SAP S/4HANA Cloud 1902 provides a holistic view of all services that a customer has subscribed to. This way, you can manage pricing agreements and discounts to have the flexibility to offer services priced based on your customers’ needs.

Figure 5: Our SAP Fiori app ‘Service Contract’ allows you handle service contracts from external systems
 
Professional Services
Maintenance of Work Location in Timesheet
As of SAP S/4HANA 1902, you can now maintain country, state, and local work locations of employees or service performers in the timesheet. This allows you to handle or track location-specific processes, such as tracking project tasks executed at a customer site.

Situation Handling
Proactive Alerts in Procurement
With situation handling, you can now mitigate several potential business risks in Procurement. The system proactively alerts you regarding non-deliverable items based on supplier confirmation, missing confirmations for demands that are due soon, overdue purchase orders in connected systems, as well as contracts which will expire soon or are almost consumed. Thanks to this, you can take the necessary steps at an early stage and thus avoid potential negative implications on your business processes.

SAP Enable Now
Thanks to the integration of SAP Enable Now in SAP S/4HANA Cloud, you can customize and enrich the Web Assistant – the context sensitive in-app end-user documentation. This allows you to customize any SAP in-app standard content and to create your own guided tours and context help for specific application functions. Furthermore, any SAP Enable output – such as interactive simulations, courses, documentation, or videos – can be embedded easily into the Web Assistant.

Figure 6: Embedded learning with SAP Enable Now in SAP S/4HANA Cloud

SAP Activate
Last but not least, I would like to mention SAP Activate where we have further refined the end-to-end experience for our SAP S/4HANA Cloud customers. As of 1902, you can now work in the implementation portal within Cloud Application Lifecycle Management (CALM) for SAP S/4HANA Cloud. CALM makes use of our well-proven SAP Activate methodology and provides a smooth journey to Cloud ERP by providing you with guided to-do lists that contain all necessary implementation tasks, such as fit-to-standard analysis and scoping.

If you would like to learn more about SAP S/4HANA Cloud, stay tuned for the updates that my colleagues will be providing within the next couple of days.
For more information on SAP S/4HANA Cloud, check out the following links:
Follow us via @SAP and #S4HANA, or myself via @SDenecken


Source: https://blogs.sap.com/2019/02/04/intelligent-erp-update-sap-s4hana-cloud-1902-release/

sexta-feira, 1 de fevereiro de 2019

UX for S/4 HANA virtual bootcamp – What key topics should be considered to deliver a UX for S/4HANA Project



SAP Fiori is the re-imagined and improved user experience for SAP S/4HANA; it encompasses significant productivity improvements via innovations (e.g. exception-based processing through machine learning) and simplifications (i.e. a more precise fit of the user interface to the task & business role).
There are 2 facts that customers need to understand wrt implementing SAP Fiori:
  • it is not a replacement for SAP GUI. Customers need to implement the apps that gives the most value to their business processes.
  • implementing SAP Fiori is more than simply activating standard apps; there are specialised tasks involved to personalise the solution and to unlock the delightful UX.
Legacy ECC implementations only required setting up authorizations to allow users to access the SAP GUI transactions that are relevant for them. SAP Fiori leverages concepts such as role based access to standard apps designed for specific task execution, machine learning, SAP CoPilot, insights to action paradigm, improved workflows, mobile access etc. It needs careful consideration by UX experts to determine the right type and number of apps required for each user role. Other considerations include extending standard apps, creating custom apps, extending transactions where SAP Fiori apps are not available using Screen Personas, setting up user roles, security, and whether mobile devices are in scope etc to name a few.
UX&Mobile SAP Consulting Practice have compiled UX for SAP S/4HANA Virtual Bootcamp; which is a series of short videos that describes the key topics to be considered to plan and deliver a great UX for SAP S/4HANA. Target audience for these videos are customers who are considering transformation to SAP S/4HANA or are already in project execution mode.
Linked to these videos you will also find some accelerators, related blogs and useful documentation that will help you understand more details of what is described in the videos.

Transformation Planning Phase:

In this section we have selected the videos and links that will help customers to determine the UX scope during the  planning stages of SAP S/4HANA transformation. This information should be used to work with the chosen implementation partner to arrive at budgetary estimates.
First we suggest you review the following video UX is here to stay and you should not forget , then the video Identifying Fiori apps and run the Fiori Apps Recommendation Report, visit the Fiori Applications Library while watching the video Lighthouse apps
Finally, we suggest going through the following blogs:
Fiori for S/4HANA – Top 10 Myths & Misconceptions to Avoid
Fiori for S/4HANA Value Proposition
Fiori for S/4HANA Fundamentals
Fiori for S/4HANA Architecture

Project Implementation Phase:

This is not intended to be a step by step guide or a service that will describe exactly what you should do to deliver the project, but to clarify selected key topics.


Delivery PhaseContent
PrepareVideo
Planning a UX for S/4 HANA project
All projects require careful planning of the delivery activities. Learn the key elements to consider while planning a Fiori for S/4HANA project.
Accelerators
SAP Best Practices for user experience in SAP S/4HANA‎
Blogs
Fiori for S/4HANA – Top 10 Myths & Misconceptions to Avoid
Essential Roles in Fiori for S/4HANA projects
Critical UX activities in S/4HANA projects
Documentation
SAP Fiori for SAP S/4HANA Wiki
Deployment Recommendations for SAP Fiori
 
Video
Landscape deployment and App Activation
A carefully designed house is sure to amaze its occupants, so is the case of your Fiori for S/4HANA project. Learn the key considerations of Fiori architecture and application deployment.
Accelerators
SAP Best Practices for user experience in SAP S/4HANA‎
Blogs
Fiori for S/4HANA – Top 10 Myths & Misconceptions to Avoid
Fiori for S/4HANA Architecture
Fiori for S/4HANA – Getting started with configuration
SAP Fiori for S/4HANA – Basic Configuration with help of Task Lists
Documentation
SAP Fiori for SAP S/4HANA Wiki
UITECH OP1709 FSP0
Administration Guide to Implementation of SAP S/4HANA with SAP Best Practices (1709 FPS0)
SAP S/4HANA Fiori Foundation Configuration (MAA)
SAP S/4HANA Fiori Basic Network and Security Configuration (MAB)
SAP S/4HANA Fiori App Deployment (MAD)
SAP S/4HANA Fiori Launchpad Operation (MAG)
SAP S/4HANA Other App Types Deployment (MAL)
 
ExploreVideo
Identifying Fiori apps
Need to know which apps to implement in your project? Let us show you how to find out which apps would be important for your project.
Accelerators
SAP Best Practices for user experience in SAP S/4HANA‎
SAP Solution Explorer for S/4 HANA
Blogs
Fiori for S/4HANA – Top 10 Myths & Misconceptions to Avoid
Fiori for S/4HANA – Fiori 2.0 Implementation Guidelines
Documentation
SAP Fiori for SAP S/4HANA Wiki
 
Video
Lighthouse apps
SAP is experienced delivering Fiori for S/4HANA projects. Find out the apps that are sure to offer more value to your project.
Accelerators
SAP Best Practices for user experience in SAP S/4HANA‎
SAP Solution Explorer for S/4 HANA
Blogs
Fiori for S/4HANA – Top 10 Myths & Misconceptions to Avoid
SAP Fiori Lighthouse scenarios
Documentation
SAP Fiori for SAP S/4HANA Wiki
 
Video
Authorizations, user roles and why you may not always use the standard catalogues and groups
Security is an important topic for our customers. Learn the key considerations of Fiori security and security planning.
Accelerators
Fiori Launchpad Configuration guide
SAP Fiori Launchpad – Setting up the right environment
Blogs
Fiori for S/4HANA – Top 10 Myths & Misconceptions to Avoid
Fiori for S/4HANA – Fiori 2.0 Implementation Guidelines
Fiori for S/4HANA – Limit Search Object Access in Fiori Launchpad
Documentation
SAP Fiori for SAP S/4HANA Wiki
 
Video
UX for S/4HANA Fit gap – Overview
Fiori standard apps may not fit your customers’ requirements. Let us show you the key considerations when planning for fit-gap analysis.
Accelerators
SAP Best Practices for user experience in SAP S/4HANA‎
Blogs
Fiori for S/4HANA – Top 10 Myths & Misconceptions to Avoid
Documentation
SAP Fiori for SAP S/4HANA Wiki
 
Video
UX for S/4HANA Fit gap –  Detailed Activities
Fiori standard apps may not fit your customers’ requirements. Let us show you the detailed activities when planning for fit-gap analysis.
Accelerators
SAP Best Practices for user experience in SAP S/4HANA‎
Blogs
Fiori for S/4HANA – Top 10 Myths & Misconceptions to Avoid
Documentation
SAP Fiori for SAP S/4HANA Wiki
 
RealizeVideo
Move to Fiori and find where to safely invest with your custom developments
S/4HANA offers a new ABAP programing model based around Fiori. Learn how to plan for an adoption of this new model and leverage the best features available in S/4HANA.
Accelerators
SAP Best Practices for user experience in SAP S/4HANA‎
Blogs
Fiori for S/4HANA – Top 10 Myths & Misconceptions to Avoid
Getting Started with ABAP Programming Model for SAP Fiori Apps in SAP S/4HANA
Fiori elements – How to create an Object Page Extension
Fiori Elements – How to develop a List Report – Basic Approach
Fiori elements – How to Develop an Object Page
Fiori elements – Turn your List Report into a Master-Master-Detail app with Flexible Column Layout
Documentation
SAP Fiori for SAP S/4HANA Wiki
ABAP Programming model for SAP Fiori
Introduction to SAP Fiori Elements
 
Video
Analytics Use Cases
S/4HANA offers new possibilities to analyze data. Learn the key considerations and available tools to analyze data in an S/4HANA system.
Accelerators
SAP Best Practices for user experience in SAP S/4HANA‎
Blogs
Fiori for S/4HANA – Top 10 Myths & Misconceptions to Avoid
Creating a SAP Fiori Product Analytics Application
Documentation
SAP Fiori for SAP S/4HANA Wiki
SAP Smart Business Modeler Apps
Report Designer Modeler Apps
Using Analytical Reports
Analytical Apps Based on Analysis Path Framework (APF)
Query Browser
View Browser
 
DeployVideo
Frontend Client Copies
Planning your client strategy in S/4HANA systems has a direct impact in your Fiori landscape. Learn the key considerations and recommendations when planning your landscapes client strategy with Fiori.
Accelerators
SAP Best Practices for user experience in SAP S/4HANA‎
Blogs
Fiori for S/4HANA – Top 10 Myths & Misconceptions to Avoid
Fiori for S/4HANA – Mass OData Unassign
Updated task list available for SAP Gateway service activation
Custom task list for OData service mass maintenance
How to configure Fiori with Multi-Clients for SAP S/4HANA
Documentation
SAP Fiori for SAP S/4HANA Wiki


 
RunVideo
UX for S/4HANA housekeeping – Monitoring your system
Once your Fiori for S/4HANA implementation is finished and end users start adopting Fiori Apps you will need to understand and perform maintenance and troubleshooting tasks in the system.
Accelerators
SAP Best Practices for user experience in SAP S/4HANA‎
Blogs
Fiori for S/4HANA – Top 10 Myths & Misconceptions to Avoid
Fiori for S/4HANA – Troubleshooting Authorization concept in SADL based OData Services
Fiori for S/4HANA – Troubleshooting Tips and Tricks in S/4HANA On-Premise
Documentation
SAP Fiori for SAP S/4HANA Wiki
 
 
 
 
This compilation is the result of many experiences from different areas delivering UX for S/4 HANA around the world. I’d like to thank the Emanuel Affatati, Diego Rodriguez, Leonardo Gomez and Paulo Silva from UX&Mobile Consulting LAC, Andreanna Michaels, Brian Bremer, Evan Schiele , Santhabai Sreekumar and Tushar Pradhan from UX&Mobile Consulting North America, Andreas Rahe , Jonas Halbe and Aaron Schwarz from UX&Mobile Consulting Germany, Jocelyn Dart from S/4 HANA RIG, Hannes Defloo from P&I, Juan Pablo Meouchi from LAC CoE, Jameela Shabeer and Ralf Weppernig form  UX&Mobile Consulting Global Practice that participated in this work. And special thanks to Jorge Baltazar who made it possible.

Do you have any questions? Let us know in the comments section.
Thanks,
UX&Mobile Consulting Global Practice
 
Source: https://blogs.sap.com/2018/08/09/ux-for-s4-hana-virtual-bootcamp-what-key-topics-should-be-considered-to-deliver-a-ux-for-s4hana-project/

My Inbox App: Tile Error

Introduction
This blog is especially for configuring My Inbox App. These details are about to setup the configuration for My Inbox App.

Problem:
After configuring My Inbox App from Launchpad Designer, have faced this issue in our Fiori Launchpad.

To resolve this issue, have to implement SAP Note 2348671 and perform following steps;
  1. Execute transaction code SPRO

  1. Click on SAP Reference IMG or Press F5

  1. Navigate to the structure and Execute Manage SAP System Aliases as shown below by clicking on the time/green check icon:

  1. Click on Create System Alias icon

  1. Now define a new system alias and change the Software version from DEFAULT to /IWPGW/BWF as shown below:

  1. Then Go to TCode Activate and maintain services.

  1. Click on Find option and search the TASKPROCESSING.

  1. Click on ZTASKPROCESSING version 2.0

  1. Check System Alias and click on Remove System Alias.

  1. Click on Add System Alias.

  1. Fill the properties as shown below, give SAP System Alias as you have defied in your 5th step and save it.

  1. Execute Cache Clearing Programs.



  1. Then go to Launchpad, load My Inbox App.


Conclusion:

See the tile error has gone now.


Should you have any further query, please let me know how I can help.
Thanks for reading my post.
Regards,
Muhammad Hassan Alam Khan


Source: https://blogs.sap.com/2019/01/29/my-inbox-app-tile-error/