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Time for another quick update on our FAQ series, in time for our 1511 release update for SAP S/4HANA.


What is SAP S/4HANA Enterprise Management?

 

At the center of SAP S/4HANA Suite we have a SAP S/4HANA Enterprise Management, which has been built by simplifying the SAP ERP solution and starting to re-integrate and simplifying portions of the SAP Business Suite products like SAP SRM, CRM and SCM into this core. The SAP S/4HANA Enterprise Management is available on-premise and in the cloud, with different licensing / subscription models.


The S/4HANA Digital Core is the description for the „ECC component“ we deliver as part of SAP S/4HANA. This can be more than the SAP S/4HANA Enterprise Management, as some elements that are technically delivered as part of the core will be positioned and licensed separately.

What is the content of SAP S/4HANA on-premise 1511 delivery?


As of Q4/2015 we are introducing SAP S/4HANA Enterprise Management solution. This will be updated with a full ERP scope and subsequently following an industry enablement roadmap.

The solutions, Streamlines Procure to Pay, Accelerated Plan to Product, Optimized Order to Cash, Enhanced Request to Service, Core Human Resources and Core Finance within the blue box represents the business priorities. The white boxes represents the End to end Solutions.

What is the content of SAP S/4HANA Cloud 1511 delivery?


The scope of SAP S/4HANA Cloud enterprise edition solution is close to a full ERP scope (Business All in One scope) however focusing on supporting standard scenarios. SAP S/4HANA Cloud marketing edition Cloud project services edition providing simplified key scenarios with a clear focus and priority on the cloud qualities, which are guaranteed across all UIs and all processes to ensure that a true SaaS solution is offered.


Where did the term Simple Logistics aka sLOG go?

 

Simple Logistics or sLOG was an internal working name for the S/4HANA simplifications in that specific area. For the official launch and going forward, we will use the umbrella term ‘Materials Management & Operations’ instead of ‘sLogistics’ or ‘sLOG’. The scope of Materials Management & Operations includes all modules except Finance and HR. You will find the information in the SAP S/4HANA Enterprise Management roadmap under the respective end-to-end processes.

What means the new term “Materials Management & Operations?

SAP Simple Logistics was an internal Project Name and now we rename this term to “Material Management & Operations”. This term is an Umbrella term, as we combine multiple LOB:

  • Manufacturing
  • Supply Chain
  • Sourcing & Procurement
  • Sales

What is the scope of Materials Management & Operations in S/4HANA (Enterprise Management)?


Innovations in Materials Management & Operations fall into 3 different categories.

The one is role-based user experience, with a new Responsive design. The UIs run on any devices, desktops, tablets, smart phones, and even smart watches and have been redesigned for exception-bases issue handling.

Second set of innovations are in the S/4HANA Core, which has been modernized by simplifying & optimizing the technology footprint, and by collapsing Online Transaction Processing & Online Analytical Processing to make the functionality more relevant and designed for data-driven businesses.

Thirdly, by eliminating functional redundancies which have been built into the Business Suite over the years.  The user benefits from a superior solution.


Innovation Highlights achieved in SAP S/4HANA for this area

  • Reduce cycle time by optimizing material flow for Internal requirements (MRP)
  • Gather Real-time stock & material flow insight with pre-built analytical views
  • Material Planner can easily simulate supply alternatives
  • Available to promise: New ATP algorithm based on HANA embedded in mass component check in production
  • Leverage simplified data model of inventory management for real-time, high-volume processing
  • Easy to consume data model supporting flexible analytics
  • Real-time alerts based on current stock requirements situation
  • Decrease stock buffers due to better transparency & insights
  • Improve percentage on-time delivery
  • Elimination of locking, increased throughput for standard price utilizing material ledger valuation, streamlining multi currency usage, and multiple valuation methods

What is the “Simplification Item Database” which is called in connection with SAP S/4HANA?


To support the customer to detect custom code which need to be adapted moving to SAP S/4HANA, on-premise edition a customer can verify his current custom code based on the offered custom code analysis tools (as part of the NW 7.50). The customer can verify if his current custom code complies with the SAP S/4HANA data structures and scope.

In the context of custom code management a central component is a data store called "Simplification Item Database" that will contain all information about the changes that have taken place between the classical Business Suite and SAP S/4HANA. The following figure describes basically the supporting custom code management approach related to SAP S/4HANA.

The Custom Code Management Tools offer the opportunity to analyses the impact on custom code of a future move to SAP S/4HANA, on-premise edition in current customers SAP Business Suite.


Do you have SAP S/4HANA Enterprise Management Simplification examples?

Simplification example 1 (Procurement): Operational Procurement – Self Service Requisitioning

Business Context:

  • Give employees self-service requisition capabilities to create, manage, and track their own orders efficiently 
  • Simplify the purchasing process for casual users and employees and enable employees to purchase goods and services directly, while ensuring they are following purchasing policies and pricing agreements and using preferred suppliers. Automate, tightly control, and streamline the purchasing process using cross-catalog search, catalog-driven pricing, contract logic, and an approval workflow.
  • Use Ariba Procurement Content for catalog buying and efficient catalog content management

Simplification:

  • The ERP Shopping Cart functionality is no longer necessary within SAP S/4HANA, on premise edition 1511 thanks to the new SAP S/4HANA Self Service Requisitioning functionality.
  • Impact: the SRM-MDM Catalog is not part of SAP S/4HANA delivery. However, SRM-MDM catalogs can be connected like all other OCI capable third party catalogs.

Simplification example 2 (Finance): Accounting and Financial Close - Financial Reporting

Business Context:

  • Streamline financial reporting and multidimensional analysis 
  • Reduce risk and cost of real-time financial reporting and multidimensional data analysis for accounting standards with SAP solutions. Use predefined reports and configurable reporting tools to leverage general ledgers, sub-ledgers, and consolidation applications. Drill down into financial statements and source applications such as materials management or sales and distribution. Support all auditors in regulatory or tax audits with audit information and tax retention functionality.

Simplification:

  • Provide better and more actionable business insights by utilizing the comprehensive portfolio of business intelligence solutions
  • Improve compliance and auditability by enabling the production and publication of reliable, complete, and auditable financial and regulatory statements
  • Reduce audit cost by leveraging comprehensive audit trails, audit information system, and tax data retention and reporting

Simplification example 3 (Logistic): Manufacturing Execution – Basic Subcontracting

Business Context:

  • Manage the subcontracting process from planning to execution and monitoring
  • Overcome capacity bottlenecks and reduce inventory with proactive, sound decision making throughout the subcontracting process. Meanwhile, you can integrate financials and other business areas to gain the visibility needed to detect and resolve potential problem areas. The result? Perfect planning, execution, and monitoring of the entire subcontracting process.

Simplification:

  • Separate planning of every subcontractor is possible without having to create an MRP-area-specific material master record.
  • The planning logic is simplified. There are two rather than three different ways to plan parts to be provided to a subcontractor

 
 

Are there examples of best practices in SAP S/4HANA ?


The processes delivered with SAP Best Practices core support main industry requirements and cross enterprise priorities and are optimized for SAP S/4HANA. SAP Best Practices support requirements of 11 core industries, not including industry extensions.

Following tree examples of best practices:


Order and Contract Management – Sales Order Processing with Collective Billing


This SAP Best Practices describes how to use the standard sales processing (sell-from-stock) for mass processing. The process starts with the creation of several standard sales orders. In periodical intervals, all sales orders due to deliver and with availability of the material are selected and deliveries are created.


For optimization of shipping costs, all sales orders which are delivered to the same customer are packed into one delivery document.

For Lean Warehouse Management storage locations, Warehouse Management transport orders and picking documents for picking are automatically created. The materials are picked and the actual amount of picking is noticed in the delivery.


In the next step, goods issues are posted and the materials can leave the warehouse. In periodical intervals, all deliveries are selected for billing. For cost optimization, all deliveries due to invoice to the same customer are packed into one invoice document. The revenue is posted to accounting.     




Key Process Steps Covered

  • Create sales orders
  • Create deliveries via collective run
  • Execute picking
  • Post goods issue
  • Create billing documents via collective run

Benefits

  • Cost optimization in collecting customer orders due to deliver to the same customer in one delivery via a collective run
  • Cost optimization in collecting deliveries to the same customer for one invoice via a collective run

More to come, lets stay connected via @SDenecken

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