This blog summarizes insights and highlights at a glance for the released #SAP #S4HANA Cloud 1608.

This product version was released on August 29^th.

The new scope was developed thanks to the massive contribution from Customers, Co-Innovators, Partners and many teams across SAP. We included several links providing in-depth information about the added functionality.

The third shipment of this year for the SAP S/4HANA Cloud, includes updates for:

• SAP S/4HANA Enterprise Management Cloud
• SAP S/4HANA Professional Services Cloud
• SAP S/4HANA Marketing Cloud

See this video for a quick overview

A comprehensive Highlight overview can be found here.

Extended 4 Quarter Roadmap in the Cloud

In the cloud it is all about transparency. We want to continue to build customer trust and drive innovation adoption by giving more visibility into our product roadmap with a clear focus on business value.

We drive the SAP S/4HANA Cloud roadmap as a frontrunner by sharing the planned innovations and features related to upcoming releases, with a horizon of 4 quarters ahead as demonstrated below.

 

The SAP S/4HANA Cloud 1608 Roadmap can be viewed here.

 

Business Innovations with SAP S/4HANA Cloud 1608

Let’s talk about business processes first. All processes delivered are built on extensible turn-key business scenarios, provided by SAP Activate.

The blog only contains highlights, for a complete list of the existing scope shipped, click here.

 

 

Key highlights: SAP S/4HANA Enterprise Management Cloud 1608

Key highlights: SAP S/4HANA Enterprise Management Cloud 1605

SAP S/4HANA Enterprise Management Cloud covers the most important business scenarios to run a company, from finance to procurement to manufacturing and supply chain like

• Streamlined Procure to Pay
• Accelerated Plan to Product
• Optimized Order to Cash
• HR Connectivity
• Core Finance
• Project Services

Country availability: 1 country has been added: Switzerland (now covering 13 countries and 10 languages)

Additional business processes for

Streamlined Procure to Pay

• Supplier Activity Management
• Supplier Classification and Segmentation
• SAP Ariba – Sourcing Integration
• Requisitioning
• Basic Functionality for Serial Number Management

Accelerated Plan to Product

• Make-to-Order Production – Semi finished Goods, Planning and Assembly

Optimized Order to Cash

• Sales Contract Management
• Credit Memo Processing
• Debit Memo Processing
• SAP Fiori Overview Pages for Sales and Distribution
• Accelerated Customer Returns

Core Finance

• Accounting and Financial Close – Parallel Ledger
• Statutory Reporting Framework Reports (not applicable for all countries)
• Asset Accounting – Parallel Ledger
• Asset Under Construction – Parallel Ledger
• SAP Ariba – Integration for Finance
• Profit and Loss Plan Data Load from File
• Bank Integration with Financial Services Network (need additional license)

Project Services

• Customer Project Analysis
• Utilization Analysis

Enhancements in the areas of Streamlined Procure to Pay for

• Collaborative Sourcing and Contract Management
• Operational Purchasing

Enhancements in Basic Production

Enhancements in Order and Contract Management

Enhancements in Core Finance for

• Accounting and Closing Operations
• Cost Management and Profitability Analysis
• Treasury and Financial  Risk Management

Enhancements in Project Services for                        

• Contract to Cash
• Project Management

 

SAP S/4HANA Enterprise Management Cloud 1608 is integrated with SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central, SAP Hybris Cloud for Customer, SAP Ariba Network and SAP Financial Services Network.

For a complete list of the new scope items shipped with 1608, click here.

Key highlights: SAP S/4HANA Professional Services Cloud 1608

Integrates with SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central, SAP C4C, SAP Hybris, and SAP Ariba network.

Key highlights: SAP S/4HANA Professional Services Cloud 1605

This edition supports end to end customer project services delivery.

Project planning, costing, staffing, billing and financial accounting are the key pillars.

The solution supports customer with:

• real time information for better decision-making
• always accurate financial figures for projects and revenue recognition
• improve of people utilization and external resources
• reduce time from projects delivery to cash collection

Supported Countries: 3 new countries have been added: Switzerland, Luxembourg and United Arab Emirates (now covering 17 countries and 10 languages)

 

Additional business processes for

Project Services

• Event-Based Revenue Recognition – Project-Based Services
• Customer Project Analysis
• Utilization Analysis

Core Finance

• Ariba – Integration for Finance
• Bank Integration with Financial Services Network (additional license required)

 

Enhancements in the areas of Project Services and Finance

• Contract to Cash
• Project Based Services (Time Recording with single timesheet process for both employees and contingent workers, Sales Order processing including capability to create credit memo requests)
• Accounting and Closing Operations
• Treasury and Financial  Risk Management (additional license required)

 

SAP S/4HANA Professional Services Cloud is integrated with SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central and SAP Ariba Network.

 

For a complete list of the new scope items shipped with 1608, click here.

Key highlights: SAP S/4HANA Marketing Cloud 1608

This edition leverages the full SAP Hybris Marketing scope in the cloud by extensible out-of-the-box scope for

• Consumer and Customer Analytics with extensible scores visible in the Contact Profile and available for segmentation
• Contact Segmentation and Campaign Execution by E-Mail and Text Message with A/B Testing
• Offer Management with Loyalty through out-of-the box integration to SAP Hybris Marketing, loyalty option

Additional business processes for

• Offer Management with Loyalty

Enhancements for following business processes

• Consumer and Customer Analytics
• Segmentation and Campaign Execution by E-Mail and Text Message

Standardized interfaces for data load and business integration scenarios e.g.

• Load Social Media for SAP S/4HANA Marketing Cloud
• File Based Data Load for SAP S/4HANA Marketing Cloud
• Integration with SAP Cloud for Customer
• Integration with SAP Hybris Commerce
• SAP ERP Actual and Committed Spend Integration

 

For a complete list of the new scope items shipped with 1608, click here.

 

Modular concept of SAP S/4HANA Cloud

SAP S/4HANA Cloud has a modular concept. Customers might want to start their public cloud journey somewhere and expand overtime. To address this our next package will be the SAP S/4HANA Finance Cloud, which is launched at the Finance Connect in Las Vegas on August 29^th. What is it? SAP S/4HANA Finance Cloud provides basic processes for Procurement, Sales and the integration into HR, as depicted in the Release video above and we will share more information shortly.

LABS preview – Two-Tier-ERP based on a single codeline with multiple deployment options

And one special topic which is key for our clients in respect to their ERP landscape TCO, and the two-tier ERP approach.

Many companies still have a patchwork of ERP solutions across their business. Rationalizing these applications can deliver economies of scale via global standardization. As SAP S/4HANA’s code line and platform are similar for cloud and on premise, it is naturally offering a best-in-class two-tier ERP landscape. Just to name a few key advantages: A consistent data model and taxonomy between our cloud and on-premise applications, a single user experience, and native integration.

For a Two-Tier ERP, the combinations are endless. We are showing here one option where the manufacturing plants run their local finance and consolidate on the headquarter level, whereas the manufacturing, inventory process run locally only. This approach would equally apply for example to Warehouse Management or to Retail processes.

Find more information about SAP S/4HANA Cloud 1608

• Watch a Professional Service Highlight with the “SAP S/4HANA Event Based Revenue Recognition” in 1608 
• Innovation showcase interactive experience:

SAP S/4HANA Enterprise Management Cloud

SAP S/4HANA Professional Services Cloud

SAP S/4HANA Marketing Cloud

More information about SAP S/4HANA Cloud Editions

The following links on the SAP Help Portal are helpful:

• Understand the complete  scope of the solution with the Feature Scope Description
• Have a look on “What’s New” to see what has been added with the 1608 release
• Find additional details on 1608 on the SAP Help Portal
• SAP Best Practices for

SAP S/4HANA Enterprise Management Cloud

SAP S/4HANA Professional Services Cloud

SAP S/4HANA Marketing Cloud

Planning Your Journey to SAP S/4HANA

Digital technologies are fundamentally redefining the way we work, live, and play. With self-driving cars, 3D printing, and personalized healthcare and products, we are already seeing the first results of the digital age, and the transformation has only just begun. This spurs innovation and, with it, exponential growth. Success in the digital economy depends entirely on how companies can digitally transform themselves to meet the challenges of this hyper-connected future. Instead of marginal improvements to existing business models and IT landscapes, companies are looking to create new digital experiences that completely re-imagine the way organizations relate to their customers, suppliers, workforce, and assets.

To fully take advantage of the digital transformation, companies need to have a digital core. No matter how well designed a race car is, and no matter how good the driver, it needs a powerful engine and a light chassis. That’s what the digital core is all about. It connects, drives, and supports digital business.

With SAP S/4HANA, SAP has introduced a new product and the next-generation SAP Business Suite.

For some organizations, the move to SAP S/4HANA will be their first point of contact with in-memory technology and thus an entirely new architecture. This new architecture comes with new opportunities and capabilities, enabling SAP to deliver the innovation that its customers demand. During the transition to a new architecture, the two elements of investment protection and short-term investment have to be balanced. Preparing a system for the future requires a set number of changes for the long-term. To manage this duality, SAP follows the guiding principle of applying changes that not only drive simplification, but also lay the foundations for SAP S/4HANA as the digital core. Where change management is required, to the greatest possible extent, SAP has applied a compatibility concept to give customers both the time for and control over the conversion. The following will provide a detailed description of how SAP envisions the conversion to SAP S/4HANA.

To better support customers on their way to SAP S/4HANA, SAP provides resources to identify and handle changes during the transition from SAP Business Suite to SAP S/4HANA.

To enable our customers to plan their journey to SAP S/4HANA in detail, we have created the “Simplification List for SAP S/4HANA, on-premise edition 1511.” This list provides detailed functional-level descriptions of the required changes to individual transactions and solution capabilities in SAP S/4HANA. It supports customers who are transitioning from SAP ERP 6.x or SAP Simple Finance, on-premise edition, to SAP S/4HANA, on-premise 1511 edition and includes guidance on the activities customers need to complete before, during, and after the conversion to SAP S/4HANA.

Based on the experience gained from current projects, we expect that a typical customer system will be affected by on average 30 to 40 of the currently around 300 Simplification Items. Technical pre-checks, which assess the usage and configuration of a customer’s existing SAP Business Suite system, identify the relevant Simplification Items. Customers can run these pre-checks on their existing SAP Business Suite systems during the planning phase prior to the actual conversion to SAP S/4HANA. SAP plans to further improve the process of identifying Simplification Items by providing additional pre-checks and even more advanced tools that will reduce the list per system to a specific subset for that particular system.

With the Simplification List approach, a customer can identify the relevant items early in the planning phase of the transition to SAP S/4HANA and can make the necessary preparations before the system conversion. Many of these preparatory steps can be carried out independently of the transition to SAP S/4HANA in the existing SAP Business Suite system. This includes, for example, the migration from Sales & Distribution Foreign Trade to SAP Global Trade Services (SAP GTS). Another, more technical example would be the adaptation of custom code to use the official MATNR domain for materials instead of customer-specific domains in preparation for the material number field length extension in SAP S/4HANA.

The Simplification List is complemented by the Custom Code Migration Worklist, a worklist of custom code entities that do not comply with the new data structure and scope of SAP S/4HANA. One example of this would be custom code that relies on the Beverage solution that is not available in SAP S/4HANA. The Custom Code Migration Worklist supports the customer in adapting custom code for use with SAP S/4HANA, where required.

The Simplification List, therefore, serves three purposes:

• Planning the actual system conversion from a traditional ERP solution to SAP S/4HANA
• Reducing efforts during the actual conversion by enabling individual Simplification Items to be dealt with in advance for those customers intending to migrate in a future project (if, for example, they are currently tied up in other projects)
• Implementing SAP S/4HANA-compliant strategic capabilities when rolling out new capabilities to avoid rework on SAP S/4HANA (relevant to, for example, customers who still need to finish major rollouts prior to converting to SAP S/4HANA)

The items on the Simplification List follow four major patterns:

Implementing the “Principle of One”

Over the years, existing solutions and technologies in the SAP Business Suite have been repeatedly improved and replaced by newly developed successor solutions and technologies. In some areas, this has led to situations whereby multiple solutions and technologies co-exist that cover the same – or very similar – functionality.

Based on the process innovation that results from the advanced digitization we see today, SAP will rework existing capabilities. SAP S/4HANA, therefore, follows the principle of one by focusing only on the most recent and advanced of the multiple redundant solutions or technologies. This simplification leads to reduced complexity in operating systems. This also holds true in cases where solutions for the SAP Business Suite are not available for SAP S/4HANA, but a (for example, Fiori-based) solution is newly developed in SAP S/4HANA, due to SAP S/4HANA being a new, separate product and not a successor of the SAP Business Suite.

Examples of this include:

• SAP Global Trade Services (SAP GTS) is the new SAP S/4HANA solution. Sales & Distribution Foreign Trade is not available for SAP S/4HANA.

Customers are supported by:

• Descriptions in the Simplification List of solutions and functionality that are not available in SAP S/4HANA
• Pre-checks that identify whether a customer is using solutions and functionalities that are not available in SAP S/4HANA
• Custom Code Migration Worklist content to identify technical artifacts of no longer available solutions and functionalities in the custom code
• Tools and guidelines for a successful migration from an old solution or technology to its successor

Non-Strategic Functionality in Compatibility Scope

To reduce complexity by eliminating redundant solutions and technologies, the previously described “principle of one” should still be applied. That is why SAP has introduced the concept of the compatibility scope, whereby a specific existing solution, while not the recommended target solution, is still available in SAP S/4HANA on an interim basis, with the aim of making the transition to SAP S/4HANA easier. Even after transitioning to SAP S/4HANA, customers have sufficient time to move from an old solution to the new, recommended solution.

 

Examples of this include:

• Warehouse Management
• Logistics Information System

Customers are supported by:

• Descriptions in the Simplification List of solutions and functionalities that are not available in SAP S/4HANA

Removal of obsolete / Long-Tail Functionality

Not every functionality that has been developed over the years for and in the SAP Business Suite has seen equal levels of usage. Special, non-mainstream solutions that were still moderately used a decade ago might not have been used at all in recent years.

To further reduce complexity, functionalities with no or barely any usage in the SAP Business Suite may not be available in SAP S/4HANA.

Examples of this include:

• Removal of the IS-Beverage elements of the SAP Business Suite in 2004

Customers are supported by:

• Descriptions in the Simplification List of solutions and functionalities that are not available in the respective SAP S/4HANA solution
• Pre-checks to identify if a customer is using one of the above mentioned solutions and functionalities
• Custom Code Migration Worklist content for identifying technical artifacts that belong to this area

Change of Existing Functionality

To get the most out of the capabilities of SAP HANA and be able to provide new, innovative business processes in SAP S/4HANA, some existing functionalities, technologies, and data models were changed.

Examples of such changes include:

• Material number field length extension
• Data model changes in SD, MM, and FIN

Customers are supported by:

• Descriptions of the changes in the Simplification List
• Pre-checks to establish whether a customer is currently using the changed solutions or technologies
• Custom Code Migration Worklist content to identify the above mentioned affected functionalities
• Tools and guidelines on handling the necessary adaptations related to these changes, for example, reports for automatically migrating data to the new data model during the system conversion

Like us on Facebook here. | View our website here.