Difference SEM-BCS and BO PLanning & Consolidation

[Former Member]

Hi all,

as announced in the subject. I was wondering what the difference between SEM-BCS and BO Planning & Consolidation is(so referring to the consolidation part)?

Is BO Planning & Consolidation = BO Planning + SEM BCS

Looking forward to your ideas!

Best regards

Hagen

[former_member209721]

I wrote this article a few months ago : "SEM-BCS VERSUS BPC - FOCUS ON CONSOLIDATION"

http://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/scn/index?rid=/library/uuid/90aadc65-87f5-2d10-cba1-d0d11515cbe0

[Former Member]

Very nice article. I didn't see it.

Just recently I compared SEM-BCS and SAP BO FC (which is much more powerful than SAP BO BPC). I'll mention just a couple more moments where BCS has advantage.

1. Time-dependent hierarchical structure of ConsUnits and functional module in virtual cubes allow to do consolidation for all scopes (perimeters) at once. In BPC and FC you have to create as many scopes as you need. It's not flexible.

2. BPC has no Matrix consolidation. Though, FC reportedly will have it in version 10.

So, I repeat that for the biggest companies SEM-BCS will remain # 1. But the majority of votes will go to SAP BO FC. It's very flexible and user-friendly product and companies that do not need sophisticated Cons of Investments will prefer it.

IMHO, a share of SAP BO BPC is not going to be big.

[former_member209721]

Hi Eugene

Thanks for your feedback regarding BO FC. I would be very interested if you have written a document or a summary of the comparison b/w SEM-BCS and BO FC

[dan_sullivan]

It seem to me that in the USA there are far more BPC implementations for consolidations than BCS or FC.

It is my opinion that SAP is pushing BPC to get a better return on their investment in OutlookSoft, even though it is considered by most consolidations consultants that BCS is better in most cases.

[former_member209721]

Apparently the Matrix Consolidation is available in BPC.

I found this How to on the SDN "Articles" section :

http://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/scn/index?rid=/library/uuid/200f619f-3652-2e10-96b4-f72f8ddb9f60

[Former Member]

Hi Collet,

Sorry I have no time to make a full-fledged comparison SEM-BCS and SAP BPC as you asked.

Regarding your last link: very interesting information. Thank you very much.

The citation from the article:

Known Limitations

In SAP BusinessObjects Planning and Consolidation (BPC), organizations (i.e. entities and groups/consolidation scopes) car vary according to Category and Time. However, all the other dimensions are static, which means they have neither category nor time dependency. As a result, the model presented here will use static Profit Center and Intercompany Profit Center dimensions.

Eliminations (so called Automatic Adjustments in BPC) are primarily driven by Legal Entity and Intercompany dimensions. As a result, when it comes to Matrix Consolidation, each elimination will still occur based on this fact. So, basically, an elimination is triggered if both an Entity and the Intercompany entity are being consolidated under the same node (i.e. Group or Consolidation scope). In other words, BPC does not evaluate as such the Profit Center and Intercompany Profit Center dimensions when it comes to performing eliminations. Amounts will be eliminated based on the Legal Entity view. However, it is possible to analyze and group eliminations by Profit Center later on. As a result, Matrix consolidation will heavily leverage the reporting/filtering capabilities of the product.

I'm afraid that in SEM-BCS' sense the Matrix consolidation has much more deep meaning than that presented here.

[former_member209721]

Yes, I agree with you Eugene.

To be honnest, I didn't have time to test this solution and analyze in detail its limitations.

However, the positive aspect of this doc is that SAP is working on the subject.... These limitations might be solved in the future versions of the product

[Former Member]

Here is, very shortly, my IMHO:

For the biggest companies SEM-BCS is # 1. Pluses: rich functionality (still developed) and flexible BW - BO capabilities in reporting and creating a data model satisfying almost all complex requirements (plus ABAP, debugging, user exits, BAdIs etc.).

SAP BO BPC for purposes of consolidation I'd consider as a product for small companies (or middle ones - if CoI is not complicated). SAP itself positioning the application more as a planning one.

[Former Member]

concise and precise and i agree 100% with Eugene. BO needs to overcome semantic layer growing pains to reach the level of sophistication of BCS (if it ever gets there). BO is more user intuitive for financial planners (Excel) than for accountants. SAP is promoting both tools and there is nothing historical about BCS except that it mainly deals with historical records (actuals).

my 2 cents worth...

Edited by: Gregory Misiorek on May 10, 2011 6:01 PM

[dan_sullivan]

It is suggested you search this forum for BPC and you will get the requested information as it has been raised several time already.

These are independent products.

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Edited by: Dan Sullivan on May 10, 2011 8:27 AM