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choirshark
Advisor
Advisor


As we are launching SAP Simple Finance at SAPPHIRE NOW in Orlando as we speak, I wanted to write a short blog post to capture some of the thoughts and discussions we have been having around this new offering in the past weeks and months. Many of you might have questions, and maybe this blog post will answer some of these questions, and hopefully it will also encourage you to post more questions in the comments for me and the experts to address.

So, what exactly is included in SAP Simple Finance?


Based on SAP HANA, SAP Simple Finance is a new offering consisting of a set of end-to-end finance solutions delivered as easy to consume, yet comprehensive value packages covering the complete capabilities of the SAP Finance Value Map. For maximum choice and flexibility, SAP Simple Finance is offered with subscription pricing and can be deployed as a managed service via the SAP HANA Enterprise Cloud. This set of finance solutions can also be connected to other cloud and on-premise applications in a hybrid deployment model, allowing customers to protect and extend their current IT investments. The set of solutions includes:

Base Package     
     (SAP ERP Foundation Extension, financials add-on for SAP Business Suite powered by SAP HANA)
Financial Planning and Analysis
     (including Planning and Reporting)

Accounting and Financial Close,

     (including Corporate Close, Financial Closing Cockpit, and Master Data Governance, Lease Administration by Nakisa)
Treasury and Financial Risk Management
     (including Treasury Operations, Treasury and Risk, Financial Services Network, and Commodity Risk Management)

Collaborative Finance Operations
     (including Receivables Management, Payables Management, Travel Management, and Shared Service Framework, Ariba Collaborative Finance)

Enterprise Risk and Compliance Management
     (including Risk Management, Fraud Management, and Audit Management)    

The offering can be easily connected  to the broad portfolio of public cloud applications from SAP for key lines of business such as human resources (HR), procurement, sales, service and marketing, as well as to the Ariba Network, enabling collaboration in the world’s largest trading community.


Some of you have asked if SAP Simple Finance is new code, or if Simple Finance is just a new provisioning of the SAP Value Map for Finance in SAP data centers. The answer is that SAP Simple Finance provides new code to customers in specific areas, for example in the financials add-on for SAP Business Suite powered by SAP HANA and in the new, planned finance applications based on the financials add-on (e.g. SAP Accounting powered by SAP HANA and SAP Cash Management powered by SAP HANA, etc.). In addition, SAP Simple Finance also contains all existing SAP Finance solutions that are available for deployment in the SAP HANA Enterprise Cloud. This provides consistent finance solution scope and capability independent of the customer’s choice of deployment.

Another questions that comes up very often is around the choice of word "simple". Simple is not the first thing that springs to mind when we talk about enterprise-caliber finance solutions. We chose the word "Simple" to draw attention that we can now bring simplicity across the most complex finance tasks with the SAP Cloud powered by SAP HANA. SAP Simple Finance is also designed to provide the most simple experience for easy cloud adoption — from the discovery of the solution to the deployment, until the actual usage by finance users. By leveraging modern design principles, customers also have the option to deploy the SAP® Fiori® user experience for personalized, responsive and simple interactions across most common financial tasks.

While all the enterprise-caliber capabilities of the SAP Finance solution are still available, the internal accounting architecture, analytical methodology, discovery, consumption, on-boarding, configuration, packaging, and extensibility are and will continue to be radically simplified. By delivering easy-to-consume, and simply subscribed value packages and by progressively applying more and more cloud capabilities to the set of solutions over time, SAP recognizes that cloud deployment and consumption of enterprise software will be the "new normal". Yet, SAP is moving beyond simple cloud enablement with SAP Simple Finance. We are delivering on all the benefits of the cloud (e.g. ease of deployment and consumption, etc.) while not compromising on SAP's traditional strengths of enterprise caliber breadth and depth, high degree of automation, globalization and industry support. In summary: SAP Simple Finance makes the most complex finance functions and tasks simple to consume and perform while delivering sophisticated capabilities.

That's all for now, I look forward to your questions!

CHHO, Walldorf, June 2014

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