SAP Community - Cloud

Cloud ERP Close-Up: Tooling for ERP as a Service Test Automation in SAP S/4HANA Cloud, Public Edition

2023-12-04T15:16:38+01:00

Welcome to the last Cloud ERP Close-Up of the year!

SaaS is a vital catalyst for many companies to adopt trends and innovate technologies much faster for significantly improved business velocity and resilience. The definition of SaaS is rather technical: SaaS is a method of service delivery and licensing in which the service is accessed online via a subscription rather than bought and installed on individual computers.

But, when looking at SaaS ERP, Enterprise Resource Planning, nowadays often even coined as NRP, Networked Resource Planning (as the Supply Chains become more and more integrated into the overall demand-driven planning and fulfillment process), the business perspective of SaaS is much more interesting.

There are fundamental differences in expectation and delivery between Consumption as a Product and Consumption as a Service.

Characteristics of a Product	Characteristics of a Service
A thing	An activity
Products are used	Services are experienced
A product can be finalized and shipped	A service is constantly evolving

But to get there, you need to transform your organization from consuming an ERP as a Product to consuming an ERP as a Service.

In an "ERP as a Product" scenario, customers buy and own software to get it started, run, and upgrade it. Upgrades are planned at customer pace, with large IT teams responsible for preparing upgrades from both angles: technology and business. Extensive documentation is appreciated; the more, the better. It´s the project team's job to be prepared, and they do have the capacity to consume it. Customers used to practice a larger ERP upgrade every 1-4 years because the effort doesn't allow them to catch up faster.

In an "ERP as a Service" scenario, we talk about a business service activation. An upgrade becomes a significantly smaller event, almost towards a near-non-event. The solution provider takes care of nearly any aspect to keep it running. The provider does not only provide the infrastructure but also gradually steps into the task list of the customer's IT organization.

Figure 1: Stages of buying and running Software as a Product vs. a Service.

Now, we need to enable you to live up to the agile SaaS consumption models. Therefore, many things are fundamentally different if you run "ERP as a Service", here is a list of some tools reflecting the natural consequence:

Updates require running at high velocity and zero to very low risk

Tools support initial activation, availability, integrity, security, and upgradability. Upgrade knowledge, a key differentiator for a few highly specialized teams, must become ubiquitous as the specialized teams serve other purposes

- SAP Activate methodology gives guidance
- Solution scope (Process Navigator) fully transparent via SAP Signavio Process Navigator, latest delta scope per “What´s New”, individual customer delta scope via RASD (Release Assessment and Scope Dependency)
- The experience of your Partner of choice matters
- "Fit 2 Standard" vs "Fit 2 Gap" Workshops
- Different systems support lifecycle journey: TRIAL | Starter System | Test-System | DEV-System | P-System
- Supported Application Lifecycle Management with CALM
- ONE Configuration framework for everything CBC
- Extensibility in the cloud, recommended via PaaS (BTP) or on stack
- API Hub for Integration Transparency
- System Usage for customer

And there is one essential aspect that supports you after an upgrade that I want to shed light on in today's Close-Up cadence: the ability of the SaaS ERP to support an automated testing framework along with a robust testing strategy, enabling partners and customers to manage periodic upgrades with minimal effort and business disruption. It is designed to support customers in covering tests across their own data and scenarios between the "Q"-system and "P"-system upgrade period.

Test automation tool (TAT), natively available within the SAP S/4HANA Cloud, public edition solution, provides the necessary feature set to create an automated regression suite for SaaS ERP testing needs. The tool comes as a no-code, no-installation, cloud-native solution. It has 300+ standard test automates across best practices (scope items) and continues to augment its repository with every release.

Check out the Automated Test Script Index to get to know the full scope items that have test automates available with their pre-requisites.

Salient features of TAT:

The execution engine (for automated tests) of the test automation tool is deployed on the SAP Business Technology Platform (SAP BTP) and is provisioned (multi-tenancy subscription for test tool service) for SAP S/4HANA Cloud usage

It is available for use only on the Q/T-system of the SAP S/4HANA Cloud, public edition solution for customers
1. Check out the Help document: Manage Your Test Process to get started with TAT

It is now also available and accessible in partner test demo and development (TDD) systems on the 3-system landscape. It is not available in the 2-system landscape for the following tenants:
1. Partner Demo Customizing
2. Trial Customizing / Development
3. Customer Sandbox Customizing / Development

It provides a mechanism for test data maintenance and re-useability in test automates using a framework called Test Data Container (TDC)
1. Check out the blog post Centralized Test Data Management with Test Data Container for a detailed understanding of TDC and how to leverage it

Supports both user interface (UI) & API test automation frameworks. Customers can create integrated test automates that contain UI process steps chained together with API automates for one seamless end-to-end process flow
1. Refer to the blog post: Creating API Automates Using the SAP S/4HANA Cloud Test Automation Tool for a detailed understanding on working with API automates

Adapting Test Scripts – How Customers Can Create Their Own Test Processes

While TAT provides standard test scripts for most scope items, there will always be a need for customers to either define their own scripts or to adapt the standard ones as per their business process. The TAT tool also provides recording capabilities to introduce new process steps to custom test processes and the ability to reuse existing process steps. Standard test processes are maintained by SAP and cannot be modified. Custom test process can either be created from scratch or based on a copy of a standard test process.

Get a more detailed understanding in this blog post: Adapt Test Process in SAP S/4HANA Cloud Test Automation Tool

UI Control Repository – A Framework to Propagate App Level UI Updates Across Test Processes

UI controls are interactive controls such as buttons, inputs, checkboxes, and more, which are present on SAP Fiori and SAP GUI apps. They are UI control objects that can be used across applications. These controls could be changed or updated as part of updates or upgrades.

The effectiveness of any test automation tool is gauged by its ability to manage application changes introduced by regular updates and upgrades. Test automates created earlier must incorporate these changes seamlessly with minimal manual intervention.

Example: A manual action step like the "OK" button control has changed to "Go" during an upgrade. All the apps referenced by test automates created before the upgrade should reflect this change.

The UI repository is a central collection of these controls, making them modular and reusable within the TAT framework. Changes made to the objects in the UI repository ensure changes are reflected across relevant apps that use this control as part of the test automates.

In this blog post, SAP S/4HANA Cloud Test Automation Tool – UI Control Repository, you can get a good understanding of how this framework can be leveraged

SAP Activate: Your Guide for Test Automation During Implementation and Upgrades

SAP's Activate methodology provides customers with a comprehensive testing strategy and approach to be followed during different project scenarios such as implementations and upgrades.

Implementation Projects: Check out SAP Activate for SAP S/4HANA Cloud, public edition (3-system landscape) for a complete testing guidance across project phases.Figure 2: SAP Activate for implementation filtered by content testing.

Upgrade Projects: Check "SAP Activate for Upgrade of SAP S/4HANA Cloud, public edition, three-system landscape"Figure 3: SAP Activate for upgrades filtered by content testing.

Post-Upgrade Test (PUT): Safeguarding Customer Systems Through Upgrades and Updates

PUT is a quality verification service executed on customer systems post update/upgrade of their SAP S/4HANA Cloud, public edition T-system. This service, as a standard, runs SAP-delivered automates using customer-defined scope and data to regression check the impact (if any) on standard features post application update/upgrade. Customers can also run their custom automates as part of this process.

Figure 4: Post-Upgrade Test (PUT) – Process Flow

Cloud Application Lifecycle Management (CALM) integration with Test Automation Tool (TAT)

CALM is SAP's cloud-native tool available to SAP S/4HANA Cloud, public edition customers by default, to centrally manage all tasks related to their solution implementation and post-implementation operations. In the context of testing, it enables central planning and orchestration of test plans and cases across manual and automated test cases. Test automates (standard and custom) defined in TAT can be integrated into CALM for central execution and monitoring of all testing activities.

Read this blog post for a real-world experience on running test automates from CALM: Step by Step Guide – Running Automation Script in SAP Cloud ALM

Watch this informative video on how to synchronize standard test automates from TAT into CALM: Integrate the Test Automation Tool for SAP S/4HANA Cloud

Check out this help link on how to import custom test cases into CALM: https://help.sap.com/docs/cloud-alm/applicationhelp/importing-automated-test-cases

Using Third-Party Test Automation Tools via Cloud Application Lifecycle Management (CALM)

There can be scenarios in the customers' landscape where there is a need to manage test automates connected to other cloud products such as SAP SuccessFactors or third-party software. SAP CALM supports integration with "Tricentis Test Automation for SAP".

A prudent testing strategy for customers could be to adopt TAT for test processes primarily driven by SAP S/4HANA Cloud, public edition as it comes with pre-built standard automates for most processes and leverage Tricentis Test Automation to build the test scripts for processes driven primarily from other cloud systems – all this orchestrated and managed centrally within CALM.

Check out this community page to understand the Differences between SAP S/4HANA Cloud Test Automation Tool vs. Tricentis Test Automation

Check out the help document Setting Up Tricentis Test Automation for SAP Integrated with SAP Cloud ALM

Given the speed of innovation being delivered via our cloud solutions, leveraging test automation with CALM to do regression testing for public cloud solutions is a must-have strategy for any organization so that businesses can adopt new capabilities with minimum disruption and testing change management during upgrades.

Wrap Up

Testing is a vital catalyst for a smooth upgrade experience and improved business velocity and trust. I hope that with this blog post, I can give you some food for thought on how to make the best use of the tooling we have embedded in our solution. If you want to improve your system's resilience and increase your test coverage, I have good news for you: It is of the utmost importance to do so, too.

Engage with us to take the next steps and don’t miss the chance to visit this key page in our SAP Community Automated Testing in SAP S/4HANA Cloud, Public Edition. Here, you will find the latest and greatest information about automated testing, enablement and activation information, tips and tricks, the most recent features added to the tool landscape, and an expert chat.

Another great source of information is the following SAP Note.

I am excited to learn how much you leverage test automation today. Feel free to drop a comment.

For further questions, I encourage you to leverage our SAP Community.

I hope to see you as a frequent follower of our Cloud ERP Close-Up – stay tuned and discover more product highlights in 2024.

All the best,

Bert

Follow us on @SAP and #S4HANA #Cloud, and myself on bert.schulze, LinkedIn or Twitter.

Inside SAP S/4HANA Podcast

As always, I would like to encourage you to subscribe to our podcast "Inside SAP S/4HANA". This podcast leverages the unique knowledge and expertise of SAP S/4HANA Cloud, public edition product experts, partners and customers to address objects of interest by sharing product insights and project best practice. There is no customer success without product success and project success; we share all ingredients with you to get to the next level and make your SAP S/4HANA Cloud, public edition project a success. Subscribe now and benefit from the shared knowledge.

openSAP Microlearnings for SAP S/4HANA Cloud

Our openSAP microlearnings for SAP S/4HANA Cloud offer an exciting new learning opportunity. What began with a small batch of 20 videos, has now become a channel with more than 50 microlearnings that have generated over 20,000 views. Today we cover multiple lines of business such as finance, manufacturing, and supply chain management, and key technology topics like Master Data Management, extensibility, SAP User Experience, and upgrade management. We are continuously adding new microlearnings to the SAP S/4HANA Cloud channel, so make sure you check them out.

Your Voice Matters!

If you want to learn more and actively engage with SAP subject matter experts on SAP S/4HANA Cloud, public edition, join our SAP S/4HANA Cloud, public edition topic page on SAP Community. The community brings together customers, partners, and SAP experts and has a clear mission: deliver an interactive community to engage with one another about best practices and product solutions. We invite you to explore our ‘one-stop shop’ as the central place for all resources, tools, content questions, answers and connect with experts to guide you through your journey to SAP S/4HANA Cloud, public edition.

More Information:

Highlights of the SAP S/4HANA Cloud, public edition 2308 release

SAP S/4HANA Cloud, public edition 2308 intelligent ERP update

SAP S/4HANA Cloud, public edition release info

Release blog posts

YouTube playlist for SAP S/4HANA Cloud, public edition

YouTube playlist for SAP S/4HANA Cloud, private edition

SAP S/4HANA PSCC Digital Enablement Wheel

Early Release Series

Inside SAP S/4HANA Podcast

openSAP Microlearnings for SAP S/4HANA Cloud

Best practices for SAP S/4HANA Cloud, public edition

SAP Community

Feature Scope Description

What’s New

Help Portal Product Page

Event Recap – SAP MaxAttention Summit 2024

2023-12-04T15:43:03+01:00

We sincerely thank everyone who joined us for the SAP MaxAttention Summit 2024 at the brand-new Heidelberg Congress Center (HCC) in Heidelberg on April 23-25, 2024.

We’re delighted to share session recordings and presented slide decks inviting you to relive the event.

Please find the detailed recap event blog post in our SAP MaxAttention Community.

Over the course of two days, you had the chance to interact with members of the SAP Executive Board Thomas Saueressig and Muhammad Alam, attend keynotes and eXpert eXchange sessions on topics like Business AI, clean core with SAP Business Technology Platform, and enterprise architecture, and learn from your peers during networking breaks and customer experience sessions. We were also happy to see that you took advantage of the opportunity to attend our post-event workshops at the nearby SAP headquarters in Walldorf to meet with SAP MaxAttention and SAP solution experts.

We shared and discussed best practices for maximizing value from ERP-centric SAP landscapes and enabling transformation with the latest SAP features:

Increase agility and benefit from recent innovations and technical adoption by moving to SAP S/4HANA Cloud through RISE with SAP.
Achieve a clean core with SAP Business Technology Platform and AI-powered tools and services.
Explore further SAP capabilities included in mobile applications, SAP Datasphere, and SAP Analytics Cloud.
Improve operational efficiency with SAP cloud solutions for supply chain management and procurement, and drive business process automation with SAP Signavio and LeanIX.

The summit was a true testament to the power of our SAP MaxAttention community. It was very rewarding to see people networking, forging new relationships, and sharing experiences and best practices. We hope that your impressions will resonate with you long after the event, and we look forward to welcoming you at the next SAP MaxAttention Summit.

The Summit location - Heidelberg Congress Center (HCC)

The evening event was held at the Palazzo Mannheim on Wednesday, April 24, 2024. Known for its luxurious dining, superior cuisine, and exceptional service, this prestigious venue blended traditional and innovative cooking, which made it an outstanding destination.

In addition, there was the possibility to combine the summit participation with a visit to the nearby SAP headquarters for post-event sessions with SAP MaxAttention experts and SAP Product Engineering.

Therefore, we offered dedicated post-event sessions and an SAP Experience Center Tour:

How to Transition to SAP Cloud ALM and Unleash Its Full Power
Navigating the Cloud: An Interactive Workshop on Effective IT Governance Today and Tomorrow
SAP Experience Center Tour

Please find the agenda here. Visit the SAP MaxAttention Summit 2024 page for more information.

In case of any questions please feel free to contact us.

We look very much forward to the SAP MaxAttention Summit in Heidelberg!

Mastering "Tell Me About Yourself" Answer for Technical Interviews in 15 minutes

2023-12-13T17:27:08+01:00

I'm an IT professional with over two decades of experience in North America market.

As an ERP Solutions Architect, specializing in SAP technology, and a Microsoft Certified Trainer I have worked with major industry players , providing cloud solutions and trainings.

In my career, I did 100s interviews and as a someone who has sat on both sides of the interview table, I understand the challenges professionals still face in delivering a standout response.

A crucial aspect of interview preparation is mastering the 'Tell me about yourself' question or any variation of that in a TECHNICAL interview .

Instead of a generic answer,, I'll show you how to draft a concise, impactful response that truly showcases your suitability for the job you are applying for.

I've structured this video into three parts.

1.Key Aspects Breakdown: Learn the essential considerations when crafting your response.

2.Real Job Posting Walk through: We'll analyze an actual job posting together, providing a sample answer and in-depth analysis for inspiration.

3.Common Questions Addressed: I'll tackle those lingering questions you may have.

So, whether you're stepping into the IT realm or exploring other industries insights I provide are universally applicable.

let's embark on this journey to make your next interview a success!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-qkJTg0e8VI

Share with others and Connect with us!

Please leave your comment if you have anything to add!

If you would like to ask questions, please use the community Q&A.

Give us a like and share on social media if you feel it was useful!

You can follow me in People SAP amin_omidy

Thanks!

S/4HANA Cloud 3SL onboarding and initial system set-up series

2023-12-17T14:37:27+01:00

Dear Reader,

Wish you have had a wonderful year with full of learning and excitements. As this year's (2023) clock is ticketing towards the end, thought of creating this blogpost series, which will take you through the simplified steps you need to perform while onboarding S/4HANA Cloud 3 System Landscape and initial system set-ups. Hope this series will help you in some extent while you are back from vacation in coming year.

Pre-requisites : Before starting, I'm assuming that you are already familiar with S/4HANA Cloud 3SL system landscape and components. There are multiple blogposts, learning materials are available one click away, my advice would be to go through them before reading the blogpost series. If you are looking for a bit elaborated synopsis, I highly recommend to go through this learning content : Onboarding with SAP Activate for SAP S/4HANA Cloud, Public Edition | SAP Learning

Contents : Like other SAP implementations, SAP S/4HANA Cloud 3SL implementation also follows SAP Activate methodology. Hence, you will have specific project phases, where these onboarding and system set-ups should be done. I'll not focus more into the SAP Activate phases here, rather I'll delve deeper into the technical steps which is supposed to be followed. If you need to know about "when" then you may take a look into SAP Roadmap Viewer and liaise with your project phases Roadmap Viewer (ondemand.com).

SAP S/4HANA Cloud 3Sl primarily contains 9 different tenants/SAAS components to start with , i.e.:

SAP for Me : SAP for Me portal is SAP's one-stop shop for commercial, administrative, and technical information about SAP solutions. From provisioning the tenants to getting support, it's a customer & partner enabler.

SAP Central Business Configuration : SAP's one-stop central solution which enables you to scope, configure and implement end-to-end business processes for SAP S/4HANA Cloud.

SAP Cloud ALM (Optional) : It enables to test, validate and demonstrate the implementation and operation functionalities provided to support the application lifecycle management. However, it's optional for 3SL implementation and left to customers' choices.

SAP Cloud Identity Services (Non-Prod) : It is a productive instance of SAP CIS which creates and manages users to all these tenants. SAP CBC, SAP S/4HANA Cloud Starter, Dev & Test tenants will be tied up with this SAP CIS tenants, that's why we are now categorizing it as SAP CIS Non-Prod.

SAP S/4HANA Cloud Starter System : The sandbox system with loaded master data and best practices, which will help your exploring capabilities for Fit-to-Standard workshop.

SAP S/4HANA Cloud Development System : Your productive development system.

SAP S/4HANA Cloud Test System : Your productive test system.

SAP Cloud Identity Services (Prod) : SAP CIS, tied to S/4HANA Cloud Production system and the Cloud ALM.

SAP S/4HANA Cloud Production System : Your production system.

The overall system landscape looks this this (image source : help-sap)

Now, we can categorize the onboarding and initial config steps into following sequence :

Receive order confirmation mail and set-up SAP for Me.

Provisioning SAP Cloud ALM and do the initial set-ups on user onboarding.

Provisioning SAP CBC and do the initial set-ups on user onboarding.

Provisioning SAP S/4HANA Cloud Starter System and complete the initial set-ups on user onboarding.

Provisioning SAP S/4HANA Cloud Development System and complete the initial set-ups on user onboarding.

Provisioning SAP S/4HANA Cloud Test System and complete the initial set-ups on user onboarding.

Provisioning SAP S/4HANA Cloud Production System and complete the initial set-ups on user onboarding.

For 1, 2 & 3 I will create separate blogposts very soon. For 4-7 , mostly it will have similar initial set-ups, hence for it I'll create a single blogpost mentioning the minute difference steps for all the systems if any.

(image source : help-sap)

I'll see you with the aforementioned blogposts one after another.

Wishing you a happy holiday season till then. Cheers. 🙂

Monitoring of sap systems through Azure_Part-3

2023-12-27T17:50:42+01:00

Continuation of https://blogs.sap.com/2023/08/14/monitoring-of-sap-systems-through-azure-2

1.WORKBOOKS

It provides a flexible canvas for analyzing data and creating advanced visual reports in the Azure portal. They enable you to leverage multiple data sources in Azure and combine them to create unified interactive experiences

Source:Microsoft.com

1.1 SAP HANA

To check the workbook on SAP HANA, we can select SAP HANA in the Monitoring tab and then select the monitored SAP HANA instances that we need to view.

Source:Microsoft.com

First we see an overview of the SAP HANA instance, where we can see an overview of the highest CPU and memory allocated so far.

Source:Microsoft.com

We can also see more details about CPU, memory, disk and network, as well as the services running on the HANA server.
In the Usage tab we can see a detailed CPU usage.

Source:Microsoft.com

1.2 Linux Operating System

To monitor the Linux operating system workbook, we can select the operating system (Linux) in the Monitoring tab

Source:Microsoft.com

If we continue on the same tab, we can also see an overview of the average memory consumption, the space used in the file system and the network in and out of the virtual machine.

1.3 SAP NetWeaver

To monitor SAP NetWeaver workbook, we need to go to SAP NetWeaver Blade in the Monitoring tab.
The Overview tab contains a chart of system availability. We can also group them by SID.

Source:Microsoft.com

We have option to group the availability by application server.

2.ALERTS

We can also set up alerts on the data stored in Log Analytics and design the alert according to our thresholds and requirements.

2.1 Create Action Group

To send a notification, we first need to create an action group in Azure Monitor. To do this, go to Monitor → Alerts → Manage Actions and then click New Action Group

Complete all the requested details and then tap on Next: Notifications

Complete all the requested details and then tap on Next: Action

Enter details about possible actions, then click Next: Tags
Specify tags if necessary, then click Next: Review + Create.
Review all action group settings and click Create.

Wait for the deployment.

2.2 Configure Notification

For settings up alert, we first go to Azure Monitor → Alert and tap New Alert Rule

Opt the Log Analytics workspace resource where the data is stored.
Need to define the condition by clicking “Add Condition” and then “Custom Log Search”.

Define the query that must be executed to trigger the alert. Here we only use the query to check whether the system is working properly.
Also, the condition upon which the email will be triggered and click Done. The condition is added to the alert.

Now,

Created Rules we can see in the Alert Rules.

Therefore, when Log Analytics receives a GRAY from an SAP control, Alert detects this anomaly and displays it in the alert dashboard.

One mail will be trigger to the registered mail id for the notification.

3. LOGS

3.1 Log Analytics Workspace

We may observe and review telemetry data collected by providers.

2.2 Azure Monitor Activity Log

We can also check the provider's deployment logs in the Azure Monitor activity log.

Here, the SAP system installed in Azure is monitored with Azure Monitor for SAP Solutions.

Conclusion-

We discussed how to deploy and set-up workbooks, alerts, notifications, and troubleshooting logs for Azure Monitor for SAP solutions.

Related blogs –

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/sap/monitor/about-azure-monitor-sap-solutions

https://blogs.sap.com/tag/sap-on-azure/

Please share your feedback and your thoughts. Write back to me for questions and queries.

Thank you.

Empowering Businesses with New Insights: The Google Cloud and SAP Analytics Partnership

2023-12-28T12:35:19+01:00

A year ago, the tech giants Google Cloud and SAP embarked on a journey to revolutionize data analytics for businesses. Their goal: to bring together SAP systems and data with Google’s data cloud, offering customers better insights for decision making and innovation. The new SAP Datasphere Replication Flow connector for Google BigQuery is now available.

From the outset, customers have been excited about the potential of this partnership: integrating SAP's robust data models and real-time processes with Google BigQuery's comprehensive real-time data streams, including search engine data, weather data, marketing data, and customer event data, to inspire new and better ways to do business.

Prior to this collaboration, businesses found it challenging to merge data models from either side due to cost, effort, and time. This partnership aims to eliminate these hurdles, providing real-time data streams that adjust dynamically to changes from Google Cloud and SAP. Haridas Nair, the Head of Cross Product Management for Database and Analytics at SAP, stated, "Customers using SAP Business Technology Platform can now extend the reach of curated and modeled SAP business data for downstream consumption with SAP Datasphere Replication Flow. The integration with BigQuery now enables customers to combine SAP business data with Google BigQuery data. This enables new use cases that can unleash significant business value."

For example, while enterprises rely on SAP S/4HANA for their financial planning, reporting, and budgeting there are many that also have finance data coming in other systems. Join ventures, new acquisitions or decentralized business models are common cases where finance data will reside in non-SAP S/4HANA systems. Early adopters of such companies are leveraging the Google Cloud and the SAP Datasphere Replication Flow connector to unify accounting data insights into SAP Datasphere to get a single financial dashboard across all their financial sources and thereby enable secure, self-service access to reusable data models, and streamline financial reporting. The result is enhanced analytics that enable new market correlations to transpire, as well as reporting efficiency and reduced data management costs. As such finance and operations experts can receive new insights that improve their business planning.

The other common use case relates to Consumer Products and Retail companies. A prime example is a North American consumer products company selling through retailers as well as their online platform. As many other companies in this space, they're investing in brand loyalty and scaling their product portfolio to target different customer segments. The company strives to corelate online customer trends with their retail channel sales using demographics and other consumer data.

Their business goals involve improving channel inventory turns, trade promotion management, shelf-availability, SKU margins, and overall understanding of customer buying behavior. Simultaneously, they aim to reduce the cost, effort, and time for accessing SAP data and enable richer SAP ERP data in real-time.

To achieve these goals, they have connected Google Cloud and SAP data to gain better insight into their retail channels and to improve their demand forecasting and supply chain algorithms. The more real-time the connectivity between their SAP data and Google BigQuery data, the more confident they'll be in the predictive algorithms they adopt for their supply chain.

But this is just the beginning. The Google Cloud and SAP Analytics partnership opens the door to a wide range of strategic customer and supply chain programs that leverage data for advanced predictive demand models. Early examples of customer innovations include true customer 360 insight, improved sales performance, yield-driven pricing, new product introductions, unifying external accounting with SAP, manufacturing automation, and operationalizing sustainability.

Both of the Google Cloud and SAP development organizations are excited to see that their work is making a difference. Future releases plan to include more advanced features for managing enterprise scale federation, replication and data catalogs between their respective data platforms. Honza Fedak, Director of BigQuery Engineering at Google Cloud stated, "The combination of Google Cloud's data and AI expertise and SAP's deep understanding of business data is a powerful force that can help businesses unlock the full potential of their data."

As more enterprises utilize this partnership, we are confident that the Google Cloud and SAP analytics partnership can provide better insights, enable better decisions, and foster innovation. This partnership is a significant step towards creating more Intelligent Enterprises, and we hope your enterprise will be one of them.

How Generative AI is expediting cloud migration of ERP systems?

2024-01-09T02:57:01+01:00

Artificial intelligence, in particular Generative AI, is the buzzword these days. Every company is trying to harness the power of Generative AI to increase efficiency, productivity and improve user experience. How can ERP systems be left behind? Although public opinions may vary, ERP systems are generally considered mundane and boring. How cool it would be if the ERP system suddenly starts to engage with the user in a meaningful way to make work more productive. Ultimately, Generative AI is that branch of Artificial Intelligence that focuses on creating new content, designs or ideas through machine learning algorithms trained over a large set of data. The goal of an ERP system is not only to capture huge amounts of data but also to derive meaningful insight from it in such a way that it can voluntarily act or suggest the next course of action. Imagine if your ERP system gets infused with life and starts to interact with users so that work becomes more fun without the mundane repetition. Maybe a day is not too far when you do not have to remember a tile or a transaction code anymore.

The bigger question is how do we leverage the power of AI? From an enterprise resource planning perspective, to create the biggest value, AI must work within the context of the organization’s business processes and understand its data. Since AI is only in the cloud, it is not possible for on-premise ERP solutions. Hence to leverage the power of AI, organizations must push their ERP systems to the cloud. In recent years, we have seen a massive push towards cloud ERP. This is a very good move towards the right direction. Artificial Intelligence can optimize business processes using cloud ERP solutions. Organizations can run their most important processes in cloud ERP, while the AI can learn, adapt and adjust to uniquely optimize the organization’s business processes.

However, migrating to the cloud is not as easy as it seems. Organization’s mission critical processes and data reside within their ERP system. Organization’s also adapt to unique processes and data to maintain their competitive advantage. Every organization is unique and we have to be very thoughtful in any evolution in the ERP system especially if you want to combine the power of cloud and generative AI and their application to the unique business processes and data of the organization. Leading ERP companies such as SAP and Oracle have introduced cloud private edition, one such tool that allows you to combine cloud and Generative AI with unique business processes and data of an organization.

Use cases of Generative AI in ERP applications are still in their early stages. Email integration with ERP to classify and prioritize work items, expedite freight management by automating processing of large volumes of goods receipts and delivery notes, writing compelling job descriptions and generating interview questions are some of the examples of Generative AI in action within ERP systems. With time, the scope will multiply manifold.

According to Larry Ellison of Oracle, not many technologies get the constant attention of heads of government, business elites and ordinary people together. Generative AI is truly different. Whether it is the most important new technology ever? Only time will tell.

Getting Familiar with Spaces and Pages in SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition

2024-01-12T11:20:20+01:00

Happy New Year 2024! To start off the year right, I'd like to remind you to switch from groups to spaces and pages, our go-to approach for visualization and layout in the SAP Fiori launchpad.

Why switch to spaces and pages? The groups setup on the SAP Fiori launchpad is officially outdated with the SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition 2402 release. Get ready for the next release and switch to spaces and pages now! Please note that the switch is mandatory and has to be done manually.

In the meantime, watch the videos below to get familiar with spaces and pages and the new My Home in SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition:

Switching from Groups to Spaces and Pages

SAP introduced spaces and pages in SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition in Q2/2020 already, accompanied by the announcement to deprecate the group-based visualization.

Click on the image below to watch the video:

Read more on how to switch from groups to spaces and pages in my blog post.

Using Predefined Spaces Out-of-the-Box

With SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition 2302, SAP introduced the option to use predefined spaces and pages out-of-the-box. The benefits here are clear: Fast implementation without the need of investing time and resources in designing own spaces and pages. Direct consumption of SAP enhancements to predefined spaces and pages with an upgrade.

Click on the image below to watch the video:

Importing Personalized Groups

Learn how to work with the new My Home in SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition. Import your personalized groups from the classic home page, customize your favorite apps, and stay organized with spaces and pages.

Click on the image below to watch the video:

Using the Navigation Bar

Learn how to easily arrange your spaces in the new My Home in SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition according to your needs and preferences. Optimize your workflow by pinning and rearranging spaces.

Click on the image below to watch the video:

Personalizing the Page

Learn how to personalize your pages in SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition. Easily customize your favorite pages and arrange them according to your preferences.

Click on the image below to watch the video:

Other SAP S/4HANA Cloud Enablement Assets

SAP S/4HANA Cloud is the foundation of the intelligent enterprise and is an innovative, robust, and scalable ERP. We at Cloud ERP Product Success and Cloud Co-Innovation offer a service as versatile as our product itself. Click on the image below to check out the numerous offerings our Enablement team has created for you:

Inside SAP S/4HANA Podcast

Subscribe to our podcast “Inside SAP S/4HANA“! This podcast leverages the unique knowledge and expertise of SAP S/4HANA Cloud product experts, partners and customers to address objects of interest by sharing product insights and project best practice. There is no customer success without product success and project success; we share all ingredients with you to get to the next level and make your SAP S/4HANA Cloud, public edition project a success. Subscribe now and benefit from the shared knowledge.

openSAP Microlearnings for SAP S/4HANA Cloud

Your Voice Matters!

If you want to learn more and actively engage with SAP subject matter experts on SAP S/4HANA Cloud, public edition, join our SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition topic page on SAP Community. The community brings together customers, partners, and SAP experts and has a clear mission: deliver an interactive community to engage with one another about best practices and product solutions. We invite you to explore our ‘one-stop shop’ as the central place for all resources, tools, content questions, answers and connect with experts to guide you through your journey to SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition.

More Information:

SAP User Experience in SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition 2308

Deactivation of Groups in the SAP Fiori Launchpad in SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition: Switching to Spaces and Pages Mandatory

Upcoming SAP User Experience Live Session

SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition Release Info

Release Blog Posts

YouTube Playlist for SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition

SAP S/4HANA PSCC Digital Enablement Wheel

Inside SAP S/4HANA Podcast

openSAP Microlearnings for SAP S/4HANA Cloud

Best Practices for SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition

SAP Community

Feature Scope Description

What’s New

Help Portal Product Page

Receive order confirmation mail and set-up SAP for Me

2024-01-14T19:01:31+01:00

Dear Reader,

Hope all are fine, and you had a great start into the new year.

Followed by the blogpost series on S/4HANA Cloud 3SL onboarding (which will take you through the simplified steps you need to perform while onboarding S/4HANA Cloud 3SL onboarding and initial system set-up), this is the second blogpost on the series. Hope this will help you in some extent while to catch up with the forthcoming S/4HANA 3Sl challenges this year.

Pre-requisites : Before starting, I'm assuming that you are already familiar with S/4HANA Cloud 3SL system landscape and components. There are multiple blogposts, learning materials are available one click away, my advice would be to go through them before reading the blogpost series. If you are looking for a bit elaborated synopsis, I highly recommend going through this learning content : Onboarding with SAP Activate for SAP S/4HANA Cloud, Public Edition | SAP Learning. I also hope, since you are here, you have already hovered on

https://blogs.sap.com/2023/12/17/s4-hana-cloud-3sl-onboarding-and-initial-system-set-up-series/

Contents : Here, we'll discuss on once the contract agreement is done, how the order confirmation mail comes and what's next with all these resources.

In your contract, you are supposed to provide an email-id which will be the primary IT contact point for any sort of onboarding related communication. The email-id would receive all the mails. Here, in this blogpost, my id was the primary IT contact point in the contract, hence you'll find my mailbox as the recipient of all the communications.

First mail, you'll receive is the contract details mail. This notification email will contain with Customer Number ID and your Purchase Order Number on your recent purchase.

Next, you'll receive a notification email on you S-User ID. Within SAP fraternity I don't really explain what S-User ID stands for. This will be your personal key to the entire SAP Support ecosystem. The email will contain a PDF containing your S-User ID and the initial password. You need them to enter the SAP Support Portal : SAP for Me.

Now, go to SAP for Me portal : https://me.sap.com/ and access it with the received credentials. It will ask you to create an SAP Universal ID if you don't have it already. If you have it, then please link this S-User ID with the existing account.

Then you'll be asked to set-up your SAP for Me : accepting terms & conditions to use and utilize this portal. Please read them out , accept & proceed.

Now, set up your SAP for Me home screen. You can select your area of interests. Once selected, the SAP for Me home screen will be customized accordingly.

If you by chance leave the SAP for Me set up screen after activation of the S-User ID and don't follow the subsequent SAP for Me set up (like aforementioned), you may end up with errors. Try resetting the password after some time and follow the set up screens, if still it doesn't get resolved, raise it to CIC.

Now, you have logged into your SAP for Me portal. Explore all the tabs to get to know the offerings.

To see the contract-wise tenant availabilities , go to the System & Provisioning system and see the listings. You'll find only SAP Cloud ALM & SAP Central Business Configuration are enabled for provisioning; the SAP S/4HANA Cloud provisioning option will be enabled once the first two are deployed.

You may onboard other users in SAP for Me, specially the administrators. But before doing that, add your company email domain as a trusted domain as follows. If you have partners/C-users who will be using their own domains, you may whitelist their domains here as well.

Apart from these 2 emails (contract & S-User), you'll receive another email as a part of this onboarding bundle. This will be a notification email with information on System & Provisioning and instructions on the next steps required to request the initial Systems and Tenants.

This concludes this blogpost. Next, continue to see the subsequent blogpost of this series

Provisioning SAP CBC and perform the initial set-u... - SAP Community

See you there 🙂

sh: 1: fiori: not found-> The most popular error for Fiori Developers

2024-04-05T16:34:00.137000+02:00

Introduction:

In this technical blog, we will detail how to resolve one of the most common issues encountered by SAP UI5/Fiori developers during the deployment of their applications on the Cloud Foundry of SAP BTP.
For the case here, we have the "sh: 1: fiori: not found" error here.

Prerequisites:

SAP BTP Account- If you prefer to deploy on SAP BTP HANA Cloud.
SAP Business Application Studio (recommended) if deploying to SAP BTP HANA Cloud. Even, in this case, I recommend to use SAP BAS only for deployment .
Microsoft Visual Studio Code (optional) can be used for development but specific to this solution just use it as the Integrated Development Environment (IDE).

Delving into the Error:

Single Targeted vs. Multi-Targeted Applications: There exists a distinction between single targeted and multi-targeted applications. The issue at hand typically arises with .MTAR applications, particularly SAP UI5 multi-target applications.

"sh:1: Fiori: Not Found" Error: Whenever "cf push" command is executed, developers often encounter the "sh: 1: Fiori: Not Found" error, particularly with MTAR applications. This error is not exclusive to SAP but is a common occurrence across various cloud-native applications.

Solutions and steps to be followed:

Utilize Microsoft Visual Studio Code or SAP Business Application Studio as the IDE: It's recommended to use either Vs Code or SAP Business Application Studio solely as the Integrated Development Environment (IDE). For deployment purposes, stick to SAP Business Application Studio.
Ensure Proper Configuration of Destination Services and HTML5 Services: Make sure to follow the steps for creating Destination Services and HTML5 services in your application as per the provided guidelines.
Perform .MTAR Build: Right-click on the mta.yaml file and execute a .MTAR build.
Discovering Generated .MTAR File: Following the .MTA.YAML build, the generated .mtar file may have a generic name such as abc_appname.mtar.
Deploy .MTAR File: Right-click on the generated .mtar file and select "Deploy MTAR."
Monitor Deployment Process: Once the deployment process concludes, log in to the SAP BTP Cloud Cockpit.
Accessing applications: In the left-hand menu bar, locate HTML5 applications.
Verify Deployed Applications: You should be able to find the deployed applications listed within the HTML5 applications section.

Reference Link for more steps on deployment of Multi Target Applications by SAP: Building and Deploying Multitarget Applications

By following these steps, you can effectively resolve the "sh: 1: fiori : Not Found" error encountered during the deployment of SAP UI5/Fiori applications on the Cloud Foundry of SAP BTP.

Welcome to the SAP MaxAttention Community Group!

2024-04-18T09:04:24.479000+02:00

We are pleased to welcome you to this new channel of communication on all things SAP MaxAttention.
Here you will find a variety of resources, including expert blog posts, announcements of upcoming events along with useful information about SAP MaxAttention. But there's more - this group also provides a platform for you to communicate with your SAP MaxAttention peers in our discussion forum.

You can interact with other members, contribute and be part of lively discussions. Please feel encouraged to be active and contribute to the growth of this group. You are welcome to start a thread, add a comment and give a "like" or "kudos".

To maximize the benefit of your participation, we kindly invite everyone to respect a few simple and self-explanatory rules:

Be polite, respectful and friendly: treat others with a sense of kindness and consideration.
Act professionally, ethically and with integrity: maintain a high standard of behavior in all interactions.
When posting, please use English as your main language: This will help ensure effective communication between all members.

By following these guidelines, we will be able to create a supportive and inclusive environment where everyone feels valued and heard.

We look forward to embarking on this journey with you!
Your SAP MaxAttention Team.

To RISE or Not To RISE

2024-07-03T02:23:20.139000+02:00

This is a key decision facing most organisations that run their SAP estate in an on-premise environment or natively on a hyperscaler and are thinking about the future.

It is not an easy decision to make and requires deep analysis relating to their current operating model, the resource and skill mix available and SAP’s future roadmap and strategy. Organizations also need to identify the expected operational, commercial and process benefits to justify the move to RISE and change their status quo.

Having been associated with RISE with SAP since its inception, I have seen how SAP’s offering has matured over the years. SAP is making significant investments into the operational and delivery capabilities of RISE. SAP’s strategy has also evolved to fully support this cloud model. It is my firm belief that NOW is the right time for customers to decide and move to RISE with SAP. Here are some of the reasons.

Maturity

RISE with SAP was launched by SAP’s CEO, Christian Klein in January 2021. Since then, the offering has matured significantly. The commercialisation of a large proportion of SAP’s previously on-premise solution offerings has occurred to allow them to now be offered in the cloud model.

There has been significant investment in tools, automation and people so that the delivery of the cloud service is world class. The ‘Enterprise Cloud Services’ or ECS organisation is the delivery arm of SAP for the RISE offering where these investments have occurred.

ECS supports the operational delivery & support of the RISE offering and is separate to the implementation services which implements S/4HANA. ECS is purely involved in the operational, day-to-day, business-as-usual (BAU) maintenance and management of customer’s SAP landscape under RISE.

New Board Area - Customer Services & Delivery

At the start of 2024, a new board area was established called, ‘Customer Services & Delivery’ which brings together all the resources involved in the architecture and delivery of RISE and associated services. This board area now has architecture and pre-sales teams involved in architecting our customer’s cloud solutions (Cloud architects), the services teams that implement the S/4HANA capabilities (Services teams) and the teams involved in the actual day-to-day operational delivery of service for RISE customers (ECS team).

This was a strategic decision and is extremely important as it reflects the internal transformation within SAP as it expands from an engineering, product development, and a sales organisation, into a cloud service provider ensuring customer success through adoption and delivery of cloud services and focuses on achieving successful customer outcomes.

Our customers will gain from RISE with SAP by utilising SAP’s expertise and experience in managing S/4HANA customers globally and benefiting from SAP’s focus on customer adoption and outcome driven approach.

You can read about these here.

Incentives

Since RISE with SAP launched, SAP has been listening to customer feedback and has released the RISE with SAP Migration and Modernisation program in Jan 2024. The news article is here.

Through this program SAP recognises the complexity of the transformation required and offers to actively support customers on their journey to the cloud and to help make the transition easier.

The program offers customers a Migration Methodology to provide guidance across their migration journey, providing roadmaps for innovations, and more significantly, it offers commercial incentives for customers moving to RISE.

This incentive is called the RISE Transformation Incentive and is a limited time fund through till the end of 2024 that SAP has created to support customers moving to RISE. Through this program, SAP customers can leverage this fund and receive incentives in the form of credits as a means of offsetting some of the costs involved in their transformation journeys.

This incentive will be offered to current SAP S/4HANA and SAP ECC on-premise customers moving their SAP landscape to RISE and they will stand to gain credits as a percentage of the amount of their RISE with SAP subscription. These credits can be utilized to offset either the on-premise maintenance costs, implementation services costs or the cost of the RISE subscription fee itself.

To date I have engaged with several customers that have benefited from this incentive. It is my view that this incentive fund represents a significant opportunity for customers to initiate their move to RISE in 2024.

Partner Ecosystem

When RISE was first launched, our partner ecosystem was quite apprehensive. However, over time, our partners have also understood that RISE with SAP is at the core of the SAP Cloud Strategy and have now jointly worked with SAP to tailor their own offerings based on the RISE implementation methodologies.

Several of SAP’s partners have also become RISE customers including Accenture, IBM, Wipro, HCL, Microsoft, which further goes to show the strength of the offering and the trust that partners, most of whom have their own SAP practices, bestow upon SAP in managing their SAP landscapes for them.

So, if you are sitting on the fence and trying to decide whether the time is right to move to RISE, I would say that 2024 is definitely the year you should make the decision and take the plunge. I can safely say that you will get the kind of support from SAP that you would have never seen before!

Blog Series: S/4 HANA Cloud Public Edition – 04 TM Freight Cost and SD Customer Billing

2024-08-13T07:38:19.357000+02:00

Software as a Service (SaaS) or public cloud option of SAP, has high standardization and less flexibility to configure/modify. SAP adds more features in SAP S/4 HANA Cloud Public Edition regularly. As of now, every year there are 2 major releases in February and August. Smaller fixes are released between these major releases and systems are upgraded automatically during these release cycles. Hence, it is important to keep track of the available functionalities in each release. Moreover, some of the features are first released in the public cloud version before it is released in the on-premise or private edition. This blog focuses on the functionality to use SAP TM (Transportation Management) Freight Order charges in SAP SD (Sales and Distribution) Billing Document, which was first released in S/4 HANA Cloud Public Edition (2019). This feature is now available in the private edition too.

Business Requirement:

One of the common business requirements for an end-to-end integrated order to cash and logistics process is the ability to invoice the customer the freight cost incurred for delivering the product. Some of the common scenarios are:

Mark-Up: Charge an amount in Billing Document (as separate item) which is more than the estimate from the TM. One reason is to generate additional profit and freight revenue which will add to the overall profitability of the sale. Another reason is to incorporate the normalized amount of variance in freight costs (with respect to actual carrier invoices received from carrier) so that further credit/debit memo can be avoided.
As-is: Charge the initial estimate from TM as is in the billing document. If there is a variance in freight cost (compared to carrier invoice), then the customer is charged a subsequent invoice or debit/credit memo. Some customers may write-off/ignore the variance or embed the normalized/estimated variance in the overall selling price of the product.
Slabs: If we use the price from TM as is or with a percentage mark up, then there is chance that the freight charge amount in the billing document can be different for the same ship-to party from the same source location. This can be because of the variability of weekly fuel surcharge, other accessorial charges etc. To resolve this issue, certain customers employ slab rates where the freight charge within a specific range will be a fixed amount.
Do not use TM cost: Here the freight charge used in the billing document is not based on freight estimate from TM system. Instead, quarterly or annual freight cost incurred is analyzed and the pricing is finalized. In this case the customer gets a fixed cost for specific scenarios and the variance with respect to actual cost is incurred by the selling company. This technique is losing popularity as the relatively accurate cost is available from TMS system nowadays.
Do not charge freight as a separate amount: In this scenario, freight is not charged as a sperate item in the billing document. However, the freight cost may be incorporated/embedded in the selling price. The break-up of freight is masked, and the customer may not have the visibility of freight component of the overall price and selling prices can vary based on the customer’s location. However, the Freight-Out accounting will be critical as the margin or Cost & Profitability Analysis (COPA) is the key input for pricing.

In short, the freight cost to deliver the product to customer is an important component for SD (Sales and Distribution) pricing. This will be critical when the freight cost is significant compared to product cost. Additionally, if the customer invoice is based on the TM freight estimate (either as is or marked up) then there will be the key and essential requirement of distributed freight cost. When multiple orders for different customers are transported together, distributed freight cost (for example based on ratio of weight of the products) is required to invoice the customers. Moreover, businesses would like to have different logic/rules to charge the freight cost (based on TM estimate) for different customers.

SAP Solution:

SAP Sales and Distribution uses condition technique to accurately calculate the prices in Billing Document. Same technique is used to calculate price for sales orders, purchase orders and other similar documents in SAP S/4 HANA. Over the years, using this feature, SAP could cater to most of the business requirements in the pricing area across industries.

The condition technique is an infrastructure that helps to define master data and configure its determination. The master data are called condition records and are maintained in condition tables. To configure the determination, it uses the pricing procedure, condition type, and access sequence. In pricing, master data can be prices, discounts for materials and business partners, surcharges, sales taxes, and planned costs for customs or freight. The system uses this data to calculate the net value in a business document.

The pricing procedure defines the calculation sequence for the net value by specifying the order of condition types and subtotals. In addition, it defines which values are posted to accounting (Statistical Check Box). Subtotals are intermediate results of the price calculation, like the sum of discounts or sales tax values.

A condition type is a representation of a price, a discount, surcharge etc. Condition types control the process from the definition of master data to the net value calculation in a business document. For most condition types, different condition records can be defined for a combination of different price-relevant attributes and their values.

To control the search sequence per condition type, an access sequence can be defined and assigned to a condition type. Additionally, the access sequence defines when the system must stop searching.

For typical pricing activities, the standard SAP system provides predefined pricing procedures (sales), condition types, and access sequences. For example, the delivery includes condition types for material prices, discounts for materials, customers, or suppliers, and surcharges for freight and sales taxes. In the case of each element, one can use the standard version, modify the standard version, or create entirely new definitions to suit the business needs.

Reference: SAP Help

The above example details the use of condition technique to calculate the handling fee in billing document. Based on the parameters in Billing Document and Pricing procedure determination configuration, Z17J01 pricing procedure is selected. HF01, which represents handling fee, is a condition type assigned to the Pricing Procedure. HF01 has the access sequence AS01, which has 3 accesses and condition tables respectively. Since the system didn’t find any condition records (which match the billing data) for the first access (No 10/ table 901), condition records in for condition table 902 is checked and 10 USD is determined. This value is later used in the Billing Document for pricing. Similar process is executed for all condition types in pricing procedure and the total amount is calculated.

Once the Freight Units (based on Sales Order/Delivery) are planned in TM to create Freight Order, charges are calculated based on the carrier assigned. The standard TM module distributes the cost to underlying order items based on the rule (for example gross weight) set in the configuration. During billing document creation, the distributed cost can be pulled from the TM FO into the Billing document pricing conditions using the standard set-up.

Details for this set up are available in document ‘Setting Up Manual Transportation Planning’ (6W2 - version 2024-06-26) Section 6.1 to 6.6. In short, the condition type config should have FCTM as the Condition Function. Additionally, we need to update the price source in copy control settings between delivery and billing document for item category as I - Order/Freight Order. Accordingly, distributed freight costs from TM will be available in Billing document against the condition type at the item level.

If we want to mark up and charge a higher percentage to the customer, standard pricing features of SD area can be utilized. For example, we can use a statistical or inactive condition type to pull and store the distributed freight cost while creating the billing document. Then we can have another condition type with a markup percentage which references the statistical condition type. Also, it is common to mask the percentage markup and print only the total freight cost in the invoice document we send to the customer.

Demo:

In order model the scenario to charge the certain customers 5 or 10% markup of the distributed freight cost calculated in TM FO, some of the key configuration set up (via Central Business Configuration) used are detailed below:

Pricing procure Z17J01 is configured to have ZBHD condition type (along with other condition types) with statistical check. ZFRM condition type (active) is also included in the pricing procedure and is a reference to item 10 (ZBHD statistical condition type) to calculate the markup percentage and amount.

Pricing procure Z17J01

ZBHD condition type is configured to pull the distributed freight cost from TM.

ZBHD condition type

Additionally copy control settings are updated for the relevant item category as I – Order/Freight Order.

ZFRM condition type (active) is configured to calculate the markup with reference to inactive ZBHD condition type and access sequence DGP2 is assigned.

ZFRM condition type (active)

Access Sequence DGP2 has one access with condition table 020.

Condition Table 020 has Sales Org, Distribution Channel, Division and Price Group as the fields.

For ZFRM condition type, condition records with condition amount/ratio 105% (5% markup) is maintained for C1 Price Group and 110% for C2 Price Group.

Condition Records

Please note that in the demo only the few pricing condition types are included to focus on the TM freight cost. Secondly input parameters to determine condition records are limited to Price Group only. This can be extended, and all features of SD pricing are available to cater to the business requirements.

Demo Process/Document Flow

Sales order 110 is created in Sales Area 1710/10/00 for US Customer 2 (1700002) with Shipping Condition 06 (TM – Int Planning) and Customer Price Group as C1 – Regular Buyer. 200 PC or 3600 KG TG11 material is order from Plant 1710.

SO 110

Similarly, Sales order 111 is also created for 300 PC / 5400 KG. Automatically created FU 4200000910 & 4200000911 against SO 110 & 111 are planned in Transportation Cockpit to create FO 6600000813. Carrier is updated and freight charges of 1000 USD are calculated in TM based on freight contracts/agreements maintained in TM.

Freight Order 6600000813

Deliveries 80000070 & 80000071 are created from TM and the documents are updated in TM document flow.

FO Document Flow

Pick, Pack and Post Goods Issue process of the outbound deliveries are completed, and the document is ready for billing. Additionally Distributed freight cost (based on ratio of gross weight) 400 USD & 600 USD are also available in the Freight Order.

FO Cost Distribution

Using Create Billing Document App, the billing document 90000037 for Sales Order (110)/ Delivery (80000070) is generated and saved.

Billing Document 90000037

Freight cost (400 USD) at item level is retrieved from TM and is updated in item/header condition ZBHD of the billing document as an inactive/statistical charge. ZFRM condition referenced the ZBHD condition type, determined 105% markup from the condition records (as the condition records for customer group C1 is 105%) and updated the total amount as 420 USD. The total amount in the billing document includes the Price (PPR0), Freight Customer (ZFRM) and Tax (JR1). As designed, it did not include the inactive charges (Internal Price (PCIP) & TM Freight Cost/Est (ZBHD)). In this way we could charge a 5% markup of the distributed TM freight cost to the customer (with Price Group C1). This is just one way to model the prices. Using the SD pricing feature these can be designed differently and efficiently as per the business requirement.

Please note that there are some limitations to using TM distributed freight cost in SD billing. The feature can be used (as of now) when there is only one freight order document for the delivery and the freight order has the same currency in which you calculate the cost. For example, multistage delivery with multiple freight orders or bookings assigned are not supported. Freight Cost accounting (Freight-Out) and Cost & Profitability/Margin Analysis aspects are also not discussed in this blog as this blog focuses only on the freight revenue and use of TM freight cost in SD billing document. These areas can be topics for future blogs.

Business benefits:

Using distributed Freight Cost from TM in SD pricing conditions can significantly improve the accuracy of the pricing.
Customer satisfaction from robustness in pricing and integrated SD-TM solution.
Improved analytics helps in deciding collect vs prepaid contracts with customer.
No need to push for collect scenarios with customer because of the inability of TMS to provide reasonably accurate freight cost.
Ability to generate reasonable freight revenue as per the business requirement.
Options to avoid freight allowance (Reference) charged by customers by using prepaid scenarios

Conclusion:

SAP adds more features in SAP S/4 HANA Cloud Public Edition regularly. Some of the functionalities are first released in the public cloud version before it is released in the on-premise or private edition. Hence, it is important to keep track of the available features in each release.

Ability to use distributed TM freight cost in SD billing document is critical business requirement and an integrated solution is the key to cater to such requirements. In S/4 HANA Cloud Public Edition, in addition to pull the distributed freight cost from TM, all the features of SD pricing can be utilized to modify the total freight charged to the customer. This showcases robust and seamless integration of various modules in S/4 HANA Cloud Public Edition. Additionally, this solidifies the business case for having an integrated solution where all the products are from the same product vendor (SAP). Hence potential SAP customers must evaluate whether S/4 HANA Cloud Public Edition with its current functionality and future roadmap is suitable for their business process, before they decide to explore other products/vendors.

ALM Nuggets: Creation of Public Views on SAP BTP for SAP Cloud ALM

2024-08-23T09:34:53.355000+02:00

Introduction

With this blogpost I will describe the new possibility to create public views, which can be used by all users within your SAP Cloud ALM tenant.

Views

You find views in mostly every Apps in SAP Cloud ALM on the top left side.

Steps on the SAP BTP Cockpit

Open your SAP BTP cockpit:
https://cockpit.btp.cloud.sap

Open the subaccount that contains your SAP Cloud ALM tenant:
Choose Security > Role Collections > Create

Name: Public View Editor
Description: Create and edit public views, which are shared with all users in your SAP Cloud ALM tenant.

Under Roles, select the role FlexPublicViewEditor and choose Add and click on Save.

Under Users, select all users who should be able to create public views and click on Save.

SAP Cloud ALM

It is now possible to create public views.
And every SAP Cloud ALM user can use the public views.

In the user management of SAP Cloud ALM you can now also see the new role:

That's it.

ALM Nuggets: Erstellen öffentlicher Ansichten auf der SAP BTP für SAP Cloud ALM

2024-08-23T09:46:30.425000+02:00

Einführung

In diesem Blogbeitrag beschreibe ich die neue Möglichkeit, öffentliche Ansichten zu erstellen, die von allen Benutzern in Ihrem SAP Cloud ALM tenant verwendet werden können.

Ansichten

Sie finden Ansichten in fast allen Apps in SAP Cloud ALM oben links.

Schritte im SAP BTP Cockpit

Öffnen Sie das SAP BTP Cockpit:
https://cockpit.btp.cloud.sap

Öffnen Sie den Subaccount für Ihren SAP Cloud ALM tenant:
Wählen Sie: Security > Role Collections > Create

Name: Public View Editor
Description: Create and edit public views, which are shared with all users in your SAP Cloud ALM tenant.

Unter Roles, selektieren Sie die Rolle FlexPublicViewEditor und fügen diese hinzu.

Unter Users wählen Sie diejenigen Benutzer aus welche öffentliche Ansichten erstellen dürfen.

SAP Cloud ALM

Es ist jetzt möglich, öffentliche Ansichten zu erstellen.
Und jeder SAP Cloud ALM Benutzer kann die öffentlichen Ansichten verwenden.

Im User Management von SAP Cloud ALM können sie die neue Rolle nun ebenfalls sehen:

Das wars, vielen Dank fürs lesen.

SAC Report Broadcasting - Blog 2 - Live Data

2024-08-28T10:00:00.027000+02:00

Introduction

Hello and welcome to part 2 of this blog series. In this blog I will be discussing the functionality of report broadcasting in SAC when the data is live from a data source. I will address the following points:

Supported Live Connections
Setting up
How to create publications
View and Modify your Scheduled Publications
Data Validation and Refresh

Supported Live Connections

You can schedule publications in SAC for the following live data sources:

SAP BW
SAP HANA
SAP S/4HANA
SAP HANA 2.0
SAP HANA Cloud (Must be a HANA Cloud connection type)
Stories based on live data tunnel connections

Unfortunately, data coming live from SAP Datasphere into SAC cannot be scheduled.

Setting up

The first step you need to take to set up SAC report broadcasting for live connections is allowing the tenant to schedule a publication. You can set up the tenant so that SAC can publish to either SAP users or non-SAP users or both. This is the same step for scheduling import data for publication however there are some additional steps that need to be taken.

Login to your SAC tenant
Go to System >> Administration. Click on the System Configuration tab and toggle the two schedule publication options on.
Go to the Data Source Configuration tab and scroll down to the ‘Live Data Sources’ section. You need to toggle the ‘Allow live data to securely leave my network’ on.
Navigate to your Connections app and select and edit your live connection. Open the ‘Advanced Features’ header. Check the box beside ‘Let users set up a schedule for publishing stories’. This will use the credentials of the user who schedules the story publishing to be used to retrieve the data.
You will be asked to select a Location ID as well as a Virtual Host and Port.

6. Once these advanced settings are configured successfully, you can schedule a story created on a live connection.

How to create publications

Go to your files in SAC
Select the story or analytical application you want to schedule for publication. Choose the Share option and select Schedule Publication
The Schedule Publication window will open. Here you will add your publication information such as event name, start date etc.

Name	Give your Schedule a name
Start Date	Give your schedule a start date and time. You can add a recurrence so that the publication is scheduled to recur every day/ week/ month etc. You can also add details about ending the recurrence.
File Type	You can choose between either a PDF, PowerPoint or CSV
Email Subject	This is the subject for the email which would be delivered to the recipients
Email Message	This is the message body for the email which would be sent to the recipients over email
Email Delivery Options	You can choose which email delivery option you’d like: · Attachment · Attachment and Preview Inline · Preview Inline
Include link to story	If you select this checkbox, the story/ analytic application link would be sent along with the email.

4. Add details to the Distribution heading

SAP Analytics Cloud Recipients	Add SAP users or teams to this view
Non-SAP Analytics Cloud Recipients	Add non-SAP users to this view e.g. joe.bloggs@hotmail.com . You can input a maximum of 3 non-SAC users.
Story view	You can choose the story, global bookmarks or my bookmarks.
File Name	The name the file will appear under in your email as a attachment

5. Click on Create. This will set up a schedule a publication.

View and Modify your Scheduled Publications

Go to the Calendar app in SAC
You can see in Calendar, your scheduled publication events and its recurrence.
You can also edit you’re a recurrence event. Select the recurrence event from the calendar view and on your right side, a new panel opens where you can modify.

Data Validation and Refresh

Like our previous blog, it is important for the data in the scheduled publications are up to date an accurate especially if they are recurring. A user does not want to receive the wrong data or the same data that they received in last week’s report. Live data is live meaning it is always up to date and refreshed.

Conclusion

SAC Report Broadcasting with live data simplifies the work of delivering up-to-date reports to your audience. By supporting various live data connections and offering flexible scheduling options, it ensures that recipients always receive the most current information. This functionality enhances the accuracy and reliability of your reporting, making it an essential tool for real-time data distribution.

Streamline Your PPAP Journey with SAP PLM Collaboration

2024-08-29T10:54:16.076000+02:00

Introduction: In the intricate landscape of modern manufacturing, quality assurance stands as a cornerstone of success. Ensuring that every component meets stringent standards is not just a goal but a necessity. Enter the Production Part Approval Process (PPAP), a meticulous protocol designed to validate the quality and compliance of supplied production parts before they integrate into your manufacturing processes. In this blog, we delve into how harnessing SAP Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) collaboration can revolutionize your PPAP journey, elevating efficiency, precision, and reliability to unprecedented levels.

Problem Statement: If SAP PLM Collaboration were not in place, communication with suppliers would be disparate and asymmetric, with less authorization control. Teams would be repeatedly reinventing the process, lacking guardrails and visibility into ongoing, completed, and pending tasks. There would be no logging and tracing of document or information flow, and decisions and approvals would rely on emails or offline modes. The absence of process or project visibility and insights would result in inefficiencies. Document versioning and real-time notifications of changes would be non-existent.

“Customers have benefitted from SAP PLM Collaboration, enhancing their PPAP process efficiency and optimization across their enterprise. Have you faced similar quality assurance challenges in your PPAP process? Discover how SAP PLM Collaboration can transform your PPAP process and drive efficiency.”

SAP PLM collaboration provides a centralized platform that resolves these issues by offering streamlined communication, enhanced authorization control, structured workflows, comprehensive visibility into tasks and processes, robust document tracking, and real-time notifications, thereby optimizing the PPAP process and ensuring efficient quality assurance.

Some abbreviations that will be used in this blog:
PPAP: Production Part Approval Process
FFF: Fit, Form, and Function
PSW: Part Submission Warrant
QIR: Quality Info Record
OEM: Original Equipment Manufacturer
APQP: Advanced Product Quality Planning
PLM: Product Lifecycle Management

Understanding Your PPAP Journey: A High-Level Process Map

At the heart of your quest for excellence lies a structured and meticulously orchestrated PPAP journey. Let's navigate through its key phases:

Phase 1: Triggering PPAP The journey commences with the generation of a PPAP request, emanating from your ERP systems. This triggers a cascade of actions, setting the stage for a seamless execution.

Phase 2: Evaluation Upon receipt of the PPAP request, your teams dive into meticulous evaluation, laying the groundwork for collaborative efforts that follow. This phase ensures alignment with project objectives and your business expectations.

Phase 3: PPAP Preparation Attention turns to meticulous preparation, from creating registrations to assessing item risk levels and establishing Quality Info Records (QIR). Every detail is scrutinized and curated to uphold the highest standards.

Phase 4: Automation Leveraging SAP PLM collaboration, workflows are automated based on predefined templates, streamlining processes, and enhancing efficiency. The collaboration workflow template encompasses critical stages such as planning, defining quality scopes, product and engineering design reviews, drawing and specification assessments, and supplier qualifications. Moreover, the collaboration document structure encompasses considerations, team details, benchmarks, goals, KPIs, and compliances, ensuring a holistic approach to quality assurance.

Phase 5: Making Parts/Docs Collaborative efforts come to fruition as PPAP documents are added by suppliers using your integrated SAP PLM Collaboration platform. Suppliers and OEMs exchange product and other data via SAP PLM Collaboration, ensuring seamless communication and data exchange. Sample PPAP parts are produced, and documents are submitted for review, ensuring adherence to specifications.

Phase 6: Closure or Reinitiating PPAP With approvals in hand, suppliers ship goods, followed by final processes such as FFF and PSW. Quality Info Records are updated, marking the successful closure of the PPAP cycle.

Process Visibility and Continuous Improvement These processes are meticulously measured via the Process Visibility dashboard available in your SAP PLM Collaboration platform. This dashboard provides insights into the process, identifying impediments and areas for improvement. By leveraging these insights, you strive to deliver timely, quality products while continuously enhancing efficiency and effectiveness. your SAP PLM platform integrates custom PPAP dashboards, offering stakeholders dynamic visualization tools for real-time insights and actionable intelligence.

Transformative Outcomes: Complex Custom Workflows and Risk Templates The culmination of your efforts yields transformative outcomes, marked by the emergence of complex custom workflows and risk templates. These tailored solutions empower stakeholders to navigate the PPAP journey with confidence, driving efficiency and upholding stringent quality standards.

To Summarize: Elevating Quality Assurance with SAP PLM Collaboration In the intricate world of modern manufacturing, quality assurance is essential. Ensuring every component meets strict standards is not just a goal but a necessity. The Production Part Approval Process (PPAP) is a meticulous protocol that validates the quality and compliance of supplied parts before they enter your manufacturing process. This blog explores how SAP Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) collaboration can revolutionize your PPAP journey, boosting efficiency, precision, and reliability.

Sample Workflow for PPAP stage gates:

Reference: Modeling Workflows

Sample Process Visibility Dashboard for PPAP Process:

Sample Collaboration for PPAP process:

Reference: Collaboration

Further:
If you're interested in learning more about SAP PLM collaboration solutions, check out our website: https://www.sap.com/products/scm/product-lifecycle-management.html

If you're already a user of SAP PLM collaboration, join our community to stay up to date: https://pages.community.sap.com/topics/product-lifecycle-management

About the author:
Ayan Pandey (ayan.pandey@sap.com), Product Manager for SAP PLM Cloud, specializes in customer-centric innovations and process optimization.

Two-tier ERP and Group Reporting: Deployment Options with SAP S/4HANA Public Cloud Edition

2024-09-12T08:18:10.169000+02:00

Potential Two-tier ERP Customers running their operational ERP systems on SAP S/4HANA Private Cloud Edition or SAP S/4HANA on-premise can connect to SAP S/4HANA Public Cloud Edition to perform group reporting in different ways subjected to business requirements. Below three are most used type of deployments

Connect SAP S/4HANA Public Cloud Edition subsidiaries with Group Reporting Data Collection (GRDC)
Run Group Reporting in SAP S/4HANA Public Cloud Edition connecting to private cloud ERPs
Connect SAP S/4HANA Public Cloud Edition subsidiaries with Central Finance

1.Connect SAP S/4HANA Public Cloud Edition subsidiaries with GRDC - Leverage Group Reporting & integration with the set up at Headquarters running on SAP S/4HANA Private Cloud Edition when subsidiaries are running on SAP S/4HANA Public Cloud Edition

Key capabilities with this type of deployment includes

Subsidiaries can run on SAP S/4HANA Public Cloud Edition
Financial statements & trail balances can be uploaded to GRDC at Headquarters.
Mostly Group Financial Consolidation is performed at Headquarters running on SAP S/4HANA Private Cloud Edition.

Note :

* GRDC can be deployed both on S/4HANA Public Cloud or Private Cloud Edition

Data upload/replication can be manual or via SAP delivered Integration

2. Run Group Reporting in SAP S/4HANA Public Cloud Edition connecting to private cloud ERPs - Group Profitability can be measured in SAP S/4HANA Public Cloud Edition which is typically performing Group Reporting on behalf of Headquarters when subsidiary is running on SAP S/4HANA Private Cloud Edition

Key capabilities with this type of deployment includes

Running Group Reporting in the SAP S/4HANA Public Cloud Edition that leverages latest Group Reporting innovations delivered through continuous upgrades
Financial statements & trail balances can be uploaded to GRDC
Any ERPs that cannot (yet) transition to the SAP S/4HANA Public Cloud Edition can stay in private cloud

Note :

* GRDC can be deployed both on S/4HANA Public Cloud or Private Cloud Edition

Data upload/replication can be manual or via SAP delivered Integration

3.Connect SAP S/4HANA public cloud edition subsidiaries with Central Finance - Group Consolidation and profitability can be measured at Headquarters running on SAP S/4HANA Private Cloud Edition with Central Finance

Key capabilities with this type of deployment includes

Real-time accounting document replication to central finance system running on SAP S/4HANA Private Cloud Edition
Subsidiaries can run on SAP S/4HANA Public Cloud Edition

Note: Customers can further evaluate each deployment option to select the one that best suits their business requirements and organizational needs.

SAP on a Mini PC - my experience with the ABAP Cloud Developer Trial

2024-09-30T09:20:22.128000+02:00

I have been using the free trial version of the SAP application on a mini PC for about a year now and am very happy with the product. It seems to me that the product is so fine that it is worth promoting and not everyone knows about it yet. I think I can share my insights and experiences with you.

Let's start with what system we are talking about, I need to say that I have a slight problem with this because over the years the product kept changing names. Of course, I must also admit that the software itself and the way it is distributed has also undergone an evolution.

The product in discussion is SAP Cloud Developer Trial 2022. But don't let the name fool you, because you don't need the cloud at all to run it. It is just one of the options. The current version of SAP's free trial is the direct successor to a distribution called SAP ABAP Platform Trial. This one, in turn, evolved from earlier versions - SAP NetWeaver AS ABAP Developer Edition.

ABAP Cloud Developer Trial 2022

ABAP Cloud Developer Trial is a free platform to try out the ABAP language and toolkit. In reality, we get much more - an SAP system without business logic, but with a whole bunch of extras. So we have the same engine that powers S/4HANA 2022, with working access via SAP-GUI, browser or even from Eclipse. We can use Fiori, at least at the technical layer, because of course the lack of business modules somewhat limits applications. We can also try abapGit, which is configured out of the box, without any problems. In the system image, we will also find SAP Cloud Connector, with which we can easily connect MiniSAP to the BTP platform. It's worth knowing that BTP also has free trial accounts - so we have a great duo.

The software is distributed by sap as a docker container available through DockerHub. This is a very convenient solution supporting ease of installation. So the system itself can be installed in a few minutes, at most half an hour if you have a fast enough connection.

I, referring to my system, often say S/4Hanna-like sandbox. However, I will emphasize once again that this system does not contain business modules. Therefore, it is certainly not for everyone. On the other hand, it has very many applications.

Who is the ABAP Cloud Developer Trial for?

One would like to say that it is for everyone, but in fact it is not for everyone. In my opinion, Developers and Basis Administrators can benefit most from it. And while the former are somewhat limited by the lack of business logic included in the system. While for Basis administrators it is basically an ideal system. And I don't mean at all the meme that without applications and users the system works better. I, as a Basis consultant, am able to test many things on this system: build prototypes of simple solutions, test planned changes, try out features that are not available on older customer systems.

Besides, while running an educational youtube channel about SAP Basis, security and AI, I was able to prepare a lot of material based on this system. If you don't believe, see at least my videos on the 100 most important Basis transactions, SSO configuration using certificates, work processes in SAP or even ICM. Most of them could not have been created if I did not have access to a clean system without client data.

Developers, on the other hand, will also find something for themselves. After all, building ABAP prototypes is not always related to Business Modules. The system provides an excellent opportunity to test new programming techniques, integrations or conduct experiments that would be impossible to do on a real system, even on a client sandbox.

Mini PC

I've been using trial systems from SAP for a year or so on Mini PCs. This is a great solution because the current Mini PCs are very energy efficient and cheap at the same time. You can buy a PC with 16GB RAM, a fast SSD and an Intel n100 processor for around $100. It doesn't offer top-notch performance, but it delivers a great power consumption-to-performance ratio. And even though the Cloud Developer Trial runs on HANA, the performance is perfectly sufficient for one person. If you have any doubts, watch the videos on my channel and see how the system works.

My previous sandbox based on ABAP Platform Trial, which I ran on a Firebat T8 pro PC, cost me $130 in 2023. I recently moved to the ABAP Cloud Developer Trial, switching the MiniPC to Firebat AK2 Plus at the same time. I chose this computer because it allows easy memory expansion, which I did.

If you are curious about what the migration process looked like I encourage you to watch the video. There it shows both securing the data on the previous sandbox, expanding the memory, and inastalling the new system.

Summary

I realize that an intuitive approach to the expensive world of SAP, and in particular to an in-memory database like HANA, evokes associations with very expensive hardware. At first almost everyone asked about SAP systems has connotations of large system requirements. On the other hand, contrary to appearances, current computers are really powerful and the system itself is quite well optimized. As you will see on your own, a cheap mini PC is quite sufficient for operation. I highly encourage you to install and experiment.

Two Tier ERP Transactional Data Replication options

2024-10-02T15:29:26.786000+02:00

Two Tier ERP Integration:

Integration is crucial for Two-Tier ERP scenarios, as understanding end-to-end business processes, including both master and transactional data flows, is vital for customer success. It’s important to identify integration requirements early in the process. SAP S/4HANA Cloud will also need to integrate with various other solutions within the customer’s system landscape. Two-Tier ERP offers multiple deployment options, For instance, let's look into one of the deployement option where companies running their main ERP systems (headquarters) on SAP S/4HANA Private Cloud Edition or SAP S/4HANA on-premise can connect to subsidiaries using SAP S/4HANA Public Cloud Edition.

Two Tier ERP Transactional Data Integration options

For easier understanding, we have separated integration into two categories: Master Data and Transactional Data. This blog focuses on the options for transactional data integration, while you can find the master data options in this linked blog https://community.sap.com/t5/enterprise-resource-planning-blogs-by-sap/two-tier-erp-master-data-replication-options/ba-p/13879970

Option 1: BTP Integration Suite - Cloud Integration

Top 5 reasons to choose SAP Integration Suite

Tackle ANY integration challenge with a holistic approach.
Accelerate business outcomes with out-of-the-box integration.
Innovate faster with an open API platform for the future.
Speed time to value.
Outperform with enterprise-grade integration.

The Integration Suite is applicable in the following Two-Tier use cases:

Headquarters is using S/4HANA on-premise, S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition, or S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition, while subsidiaries are on S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition.
The customer has a mixed landscape, including non-SAP solutions that need to integrate with headquarters.
The customer is currently using SAP S/4HANA Cloud editions and plans to expand to additional applications in the future.
The customer already has a Business Technology Platform (BTP) account with the Integration Suite.

Key Aspects of SAP Integration Suite from a Two-Tier ERP Integration Perspective:

SAP Cloud Integration enables seamless connections between both cloud and on-premise systems, whether they are SAP or non-SAP.
It supports real-time scenarios and provides a wide range of pre-built integration content (Integration Packages), along with extensive capabilities and connectivity options.
Integration Flows (iFlows) allow you to design message processing logic and configure sender/receiver adapters within SAP Cloud Integration.

You can find details of one of the Two-Tier ERP Buyer and Supplier scenario integration flow here https://api.sap.com/package/IntegrationofSAPS4HANACloudProcurementwithOnPremiseSuppliersS4HANAorERP/integrationflow

Option 2: SAP Business Accelerator Hub

Don’t have an SAP BTP account with the Integration Suite service? No worries—you can still meet your integration needs through the API Hub.

Seamlessly discover content that addresses all your integration and extension requirements.
Explore integrations between SAP products as well as between SAP and third-party applications.
Browse various products, categories, business processes, partners, featured APIs, integrations, and more here https://api.sap.com/search?searchterm=Two%20Tier&tab=All&$refinedBy=true

The key takeaway of this blog is our recommendation to use the SAP Integration Suite service for transactional data replication wherever applicable, allowing you to leverage pre-built integration content for your scenarios.

Future Exploration
In upcoming blogs, we will explore Master Data and Transactional Data in greater detail, and discuss how they can benefit your business.