SAP Community - SAP S/4HANA Private Cloud

Recap of SAP S/4HANA 2023 Highlights Webinar: Sales

2024-04-30T16:40:42.027000+02:00

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Summary

In this webinar, we have Christine Hofmann, Solution Expert of SAP S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition, offering a well-rounded review of the 2023 release of S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition in Sales. Let's have a look at how sales is evolving, interesting things about solution quotations and SAP's billing and revenue management, and how a customer can have a say in SAP's development plans.

We first explore updates in sales, focusing on role-based access for pricing elements, improved product returns, Fiori apps updates, and the use of spreadsheets for contract uploads. We also discuss changes in available-to-promise (ATP) results and upcoming platform extensions. Then, we look at solution quotations with a new multi-level configuration. In the SAP Billing and Revenue Innovation Management section, we discuss advancements in Subscription Order Management, Contract Accounting, and Convergent Invoicing. Finally, we glimpse SAP's roadmap and see how we can influence the future of the products.

Key features and enhancements

Role-Based Access Controls: Introducing accurate access controls to price and cost details in sales and billing documents. This feature safeguards the business from information misuse, delivering relevant data access to authorized staff, and preventing unnecessary access.
Flexible Customer Return Procedures: With the 2023 release, we can use a return product while the valuation process is pending, enhancing the user experience and ensuring a smooth and easy return process.
Sales Contract Creation via Spreadsheet: Simplifying sales contract management, the 2023 release enables creation of sales contracts through spreadsheet uploads, saving time and manual entry efforts.
Advanced Configuration in Solution Quotations: The update brings a new feature that lets us set up solution quotations for subscription products with multi-level advanced variant configuration. Many innovations also let us see info about price groups, subscription billing, plan cycles, and Work Breakdown Structure elements (WBS elements) right in our solution quotations.
Refined ATP Analysis in Sales Order: With this 2023 release, we enable the analysis and adoption of confirmed delivery dates and quantities on the Availability-To-Promise (ATP) results screen for sales-order items in the SAP Fiori app.
Expansion of BRIM: There are new features in subscription order management like adding project breakdown elements, setting payment deadlines, adjusting refunds, and support for multiple configurations. Upgrades in contract accounting and convergent invoicing include longer contract periods, linking payment functions, a more adaptable approval flow, and more flexibility for billing plans.
Future Roadmap: The SAP Roadmap provides a comprehensive view of the planned enhancements and features for future releases, painting a vivid picture of where SAP aims to take its products.

Other Webinars in the Series

Overview
Sales
Finance
Research and Development (includes the area formerly known as "Project Systems" - PS)
Supply Chain
Sourcing and Procurement
Manufacturing
Asset Management
Service

Recap of SAP S/4HANA 2023 Highlights Webinar: Finance

2024-04-30T16:40:48.036000+02:00

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Summary

In this webinar, we have Michel Haesendonckx discussing the strategic product direction, and planned and delivered innovations in SAP S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition 2023 in the Finance line of business.

Key features, enhancements and roadmap items

Financial Planning & Analysis: This process supports strategic planning by allowing ad-hoc analysis and providing insights into costs and margins to understand financial performance. This increases confidence in business plans with the help of reliable data.
Margin Reporting: This feature allows us to track down details not only on Profit & Loss but also on specific balance sheet items.
Dashboards: There are enhancements in the delivery of complex dashboards that combine information from different sources. These dashboards are designed based on finance foundation in SAP Datasphere directly integrated to the SAP S/4HANA Cloud, to provide more robust financial content from different areas.
SAP S/4HANA Finance Foundation: This feature provides an end-to-end finance foundation within the SAP Datasphere application, enabling the combination of information from different sources, even those residing outside the S/4HANA system.
Flexibility in Defining Market Segments: The new release offers more flexibility in defining and updating market segments, independent of the operating concern.
Profit Center Valuations: The additional ledger for profit center valuation, pricing agreements between profit centers, and the elimination of intercompany margins, allows profit centers to trade at arm's length using transfer pricing.
Universal Parallel Accounting (UPA): The UPA is a key innovation that extends the ledger concept not only to financial accounting but also to controlling. With UPA, we can establish a parallel value flow across end-to-end processes.
Carbon Accounting: This is a pioneering innovation that allows transactional carbon accounting within the S/4HANA system as part of the Universal Journal. This is part of the Green Ledger approach where sustainability information is treated similarly to financial data.
Record to Report: This process ensures that every financial accounting entry is event-based, resulting in reduced manual intervention and improved financial reporting.
Financial Closing: Enhancements have been made in defining validation rules and the automation of certain tasks in the financial closing process.
Enterprise Service Management: This is a next-generation solution supporting end-to-end shared services automation with Generative AI, making it particularly useful for Shared Service Organizations.
International Trade and Global Tax Management: The release also includes enhancements in trade compliance, tax compliance, and documentary reporting compliance.
Governance, Risk, and Compliance (GRC): There's a focus on integrating risk management and financial information, facilitated by SAP Financial Compliance Management solution.

Other Webinars in the Series

Overview
Sales
Finance
Research and Development (includes the area formerly known as "Project Systems" - PS)
Supply Chain
Sourcing and Procurement
Manufacturing
Asset Management
Service

Recap of SAP S/4HANA 2023 Highlights Webinar: Research and Development

2024-04-30T16:40:58.457000+02:00

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Summary

In this webinar, we have Vinay V, discussing the latest release highlights of SAP S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition 2023 in the Research and Development (R&D) line of business. It is a broad area that includes project control (including project logistics and project financial control – classically the area that Project Systems covered), and product engineering as the core areas. R&D also includes product compliance, product lifecycle management (PLM), portfolio and project management, and circular economy. The 2023 release brings improvements in many of these areas.

Key features and enhancements

Project Control: With the 2023 release project cash management is made to acces the Universal Journal directly. Also, new integration of responsibility management into project systems enables efficient team assignment for workflow and situation handling, etc.
Product Development Foundation: A new item category called a 'non-plant item' has been introduced to add services and project items without needing a plant assignment. It simplifies the set-up, especially in service-based organizations.
Change Management: Taking feedback from customers, we have provided the ability to add the same component multiple times with different relevancy into a change record. This is useful especially for long-running change processes, providing transparency over different phases of product change.
Integration with External PLM Systems: Enhanced integration with external Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) systems is made possible through seamless bi-directional document exchange between SAP solutions to an external PLM system.
Product Compliance: In the context of substance management, better management of customer-specific phrases (“called company-owned phrases") is now available. This reduces complexity, eliminates duplicates, and ensures synchronization for effective compliance management.
Listed substances provisioning through regulatory content service: This update ensures organizations to stay informed with the latest listed substances and listed substance group assignments.
Substance Volume Tracking: Enriched control and flexibility are offered for substance volume tracking processes. This functionality helps organizations comply with regulatory requirements by recording quantities of sensitive substances.
Safety Data Sheets Handling: Enhanced handling of multiple and international addresses in safety data sheets results in efficient and regulation-compliant documentation and labelling – for example, printing of product names in English and Chinese.

Other Webinars in the Series

Overview
Sales
Finance
Research and Development (includes the area formerly known as "Project Systems" - PS)
Supply Chain
Sourcing and Procurement
Manufacturing
Asset Management
Service

Recap of SAP S/4HANA 2023 Highlights Webinar: Supply Chain

2024-04-30T16:41:05.492000+02:00

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Summary

In this webinar, we have Vinay V, delving into highlights of new features and enhancements included in the 2023 release of SAP S/4HANA in the supply chain line of business. From inventory management to order promising, we have covered a wide range of scope in this release. The logistics area sees advancements like composite barcode scanning support and the introduction of advanced shipping and receiving processes. For sustainability, we also introduced capabilities for emissions tracking in transportation management. The 2023 release also includes the introduction of a new business process scheduling framework and further improvements to the packaging framework.

Key features and enhancements

Composite Barcode Scanning: We have enhanced the ability to scan barcodes to recognize composite barcodes, which contain more information than their one-dimensional ones. This includes material information, global trade information, batch information, serial information, and more.
Advanced Shipping and Receiving: We have streamlined end-to-end processes for transporting and warehousing products. The integration of embedded warehouse management and transportation management within a single system has simplified many logistics processes. There's also updated integration to Defects and Notifications in Decentralized SAP Extended Warehouse Management (SAP EWM).
Unified Package Builder: The unified package builder for handling packaging material has been further enhanced, making it consumable in the context of core logistics for both outbound and inbound deliveries.
Warehouse Management with Robotics: The integration of warehouse management with a native cloud-based solution called Warehouse Robotics is a significant development in warehouse automation. In larger warehouses, this can be extended to fleet management systems.
Sustainability in Transportation Management: There’s a new ability to track greenhouse gas emissions in the area of transportation. This helps support sustainability initiatives while providing clear indications of emission performance.
Order Promising with Availability Change Log (ACL): The availability change log allows changes in supply and demand to be factored into order promising. This provides better order promising capabilities for customers.
Business Process Scheduling: A new logistics-based scheduling framework, considering different scheduling algorithms used in transportation management, is introduced. This can provide better predictability of material availability.

Other Webinars in the Series

Overview
Sales
Finance
Research and Development (includes the area formerly known as "Project Systems" - PS)
Supply Chain
Sourcing and Procurement
Manufacturing
Asset Management
Service

Recap of SAP S/4HANA 2023 Highlights Webinar: Sourcing and Procurement

2024-04-30T16:41:13.640000+02:00

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Summary

In this session, we have Michael Deller, taking a deep dive with us into what's new with the 2023 release of SAP S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition in the sourcing and procurement line of business. We go through an overview of the functional areas of Sourcing and Procurement, then we zoom in on the latest innovations, all tailored to boost productivity of your operations - from central procurement to product sourcing, and beyond. The innovations include the capability for mass creation or modification of model product specifications, improved accuracy in supplier evaluations through a plant-level factory calendar, and simplification of product sourcing via a dedicated overview page. Additionally, the update also focuses on sustainability with the ability for suppliers to submit carbon footprints. The integration of AI for material group recommendations and provisions for mass changes to centrally managed purchase orders using the SAP Fiori app also adds to the efficiency. Usability enhancements in self-service requisitioning streamline various aspects. We will also refer to SAP Road Map Explorer that helps to get informed of the future of our product road map.

Key features and enhancements

Mass Creation of Model Product Specifications: This new app allows users to import model product specifications using spreadsheets, easily create or modify model product specifications, including up to five levels of item hierarchies that can include products, services, and free text.
Supplier Evaluations: We have added the ability to maintain a factory calendar on the plant level, allowing users to define working and nonworking days more accurately. With this update, nonworking days will no longer be considered for supplier evaluation. Furthermore, you will be able to configure the factory calendar for the calculation of supplier evaluation scores. This enhancement increases the accuracy of calculating supplier evaluation scores for time variance.
Product Sourcing Overview Page: The new features allow sourcing managers to collaborate with stakeholders throughout the sourcing process. They can now easily track and review various sourcing projects and associated quotations with the new overview app.
Collecting and Managing Carbon Footprint Data from Suppliers During Direct Material Sourcing Process: Sourcing managers create cost breakdown templates, mark relevant materials, let suppliers provide cost breakdown information during bids, and compare this information to determine the best supplier bid. Beyond quantities and qualities, collect carbon related data from your suppliers in the same well-structured way.
AI Material Group Recommendations: Get proposals of recommended material groups with confidence scores based on a machine learning algorithm that analyzes previous purchase orders.
Mass Changes of Procurement: Mass changes of centrally managed purchase requisitions can now be done by using SAP Fiori app in online mode rather than just via Excel uploads.
Usability Enhancements in Self-Service Requisitioning: Numerous smaller updates have been made to improve self-service requisitioning such as Improved Status Tracking, Storage Location, and Ability to Copy Accounting Details.
Road Map Explorer: This is a centrally accessible source for all future development plans for SAP products. The road map explorer allows you to filter depending on product, line of business, which industry or any other criterion relevant to you.

Other Webinars in the Series

Overview
Sales
Finance
Research and Development (includes the area formerly known as "Project Systems" - PS)
Supply Chain
Sourcing and Procurement
Manufacturing
Asset Management
Service

Recap of SAP S/4HANA 2023 Highlights Webinar: Manufacturing

2024-04-30T16:41:22.081000+02:00

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Summary

In this webinar on SAP S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition, Vinay V and Stefan Gerber explore highlights of new features with release 2023 in the Manufacturing line of business. The discussion covers a range of areas, all meant to streamline our operations from planning to the shop floor. Exciting enhancements include Order Notes Management, Interactive Scheduling Board, and improved Capacity Planning. Meanwhile, managing inputs from multiple storage tanks becomes easier with Tank Planning, and the Time-Dependent Safety Stock and Reorder Point is there to handle seasonality and special situations for report-point replenishment of stocked materials. There are improvements to Advanced Scheduling Board for smoother planning and rescheduling.

Key Features and Enhancements

Order Notes Management: Improves hand-over from production planning to the shop floor by structuring the notes based on planned orders or in-house production orders.
Interactive Scheduling Board: Enables resource assignment through simple drag and drop, considering all dependencies and constraints.
Capacity Planning Enhancements: Provides updated functionalities including the grouping of work centers, displaying the sales order for made-to-order scenarios, and improvement to the Capacity Scheduling Table app to display the availability date of components.
Tank Planning for Process Manufacturing: Can manage inputs from multiple storage tanks along with a flexible definition of storage tank quantities and their sequencing and the intuitive Fiori UI.
Time-Dependent Safety Stock and Reorder Point: Provides flexibility to define and handle special situations, as well as phases for temporary adjustment of inventory levels like campaigns or seasonal trends, without the need for continuous updates of the master data.
Advanced Scheduling Board: Adds a new interactive Gantt chart that allows for a flexible evaluation of the planning horizon, with the added ability to reschedule and realign interactively. Furthermore, the scope of responsibility now includes work center groups.

Other Webinars in the Series

Overview
Sales
Finance
Research and Development (includes the area formerly known as "Project Systems" - PS)
Supply Chain
Sourcing and Procurement
Manufacturing
Asset Management
Service

Recap of SAP S/4HANA 2023 Highlights Webinar: Asset Management

2024-04-30T16:41:31.092000+02:00

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Summary

In this webinar, we have Noboru Ota, exploring the latest additions and improvements in the Asset Management line of business with the new 2023 release of SAP S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition. The priorities for the 2023 release are to assist businesses in achieving a closed loop between asset strategy and execution and to further enhance the core maintenance management capabilities.

For user experience, we will see system demonstrations on the new features added to mass editing, work packs printing, object lists modifications, and equipment structure configurations. Furthermore, we will look at significant improvements to the work permit process, with new Fiori apps simplifying user interactions to enhance safety measures and precautions throughout the maintenance procedure.

Key Features and Improvements

Key features and enhancements include:

Mass Editing: We have added mass editing capabilities to an assortment of Fiori apps so that we can edit numerous entries simultaneously, providing a faster and more streamlined way to manage data.
Printing and Output of Work Packs: We can now print multiple shop papers and job cards in one go. You can flexibly group them by various criteria such as work center, maintenance technician, or the technical object being maintained or repaired, and include attachments as part of the printout. This includes auto-attachment based on output and document types.
Adding Object List Entries to Maintenance Items: With the ability to add, remove, or change object list entries within maintenance items, we can have better control and efficiency in managing data.
Configuration of Equipment Structure: An easy way to configure the equipment structure. This feature includes the ability to install new components or dismantle existing ones and record the action details.
Work Permit (Work Clearance Management): With the new Fiori apps, the work permit process is simplified, while still ensuring a safe work environment. This process can be customized as per the organization's needs and uses predefined templates for recurring safety measures. We can link a permit to maintenance orders and use the work permit for search and display it in the resultant list of maintenance orders.

Other Webinars in the Series

Overview
Sales
Finance
Research and Development (includes the area formerly known as "Project Systems" - PS)
Supply Chain
Sourcing and Procurement
Manufacturing
Asset Management
Service

Recap of SAP S/4HANA 2023 Highlights Webinar: Service

2024-04-30T16:41:36.895000+02:00

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Summary

In this webinar, we have Noboru Ota, exploring how the SAP S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition 2023 release enhances the service line of business. We will learn about highlights of improvements in service management capabilities in the new release in system demonstrations. The highlights include the new Item-Based Accounting, which provides real-time visibility into profitability and revenues for your service business. New features also cover complex asset maintenance processes with the Service with Advanced Execution and scenarios like inter-company service execution.

Key Features and Improvements

Improved Visibility into Profitability and Revenues Recognition: This new financial integration feature (Item-Based Accounting) offers real-time cost and revenue recording and analysis for service orders and contracts, enhancing reporting and improving margin analysis. It also eliminates the need for period ending activities and data warehouse tools, providing real-time profitability for your service business.
Service with Advanced Execution: This feature offers a full-service process to be divided into a commercial service order and an execution maintenance order, facilitating detailed planning and quote generation based on the simulated actuals. Introducing Configurable Task Lists reduce work planning time by describing a sequence of repeat service activities. Furthermore, we now have a system that supports Resource-Related Billing using a Dynamic Item Processor profile (DIP), transforming actual service costs into billable items.
Inter-company Service Execution: This feature facilitates the modelling of service business procedures, allows different companies to complete various aspects of the service execution process, and automates internal cost transfers.

Other Webinars in the Series

Overview
Sales
Finance
Research and Development (includes the area formerly known as "Project Systems" - PS)
Supply Chain
Sourcing and Procurement
Manufacturing
Asset Management
Service

SAP S/4HANA Data Migration and Master Data Management Best Practices with SAP BTP

2024-05-02T00:01:01.306000+02:00

In this excerpt from the podcast “SAP S/4HANA Data Migration and Master Data Management best practices”, Terry Penner, Bill Todd and Randy Connelly discuss best practices and practical approaches for migrating data and master data management with SAP S/4HANA and SAP Business Technology Platform.

Topics discussed

Part 1: Data Migration

Key challenges
Best practices for system conversion
Best practices for selective data transition
Best practices for new implementations
Data migration tool options

Part 2: Master Data Management

Challenges and priorities
Efficiently working with master data

Part 3: Clean Core

Data management and clean core
Getting started with data migration to S/4HANA

About the speakers

Terry Penner is part of the SAP BTP Marketing and Solutions team, focused on BTP for SAP S/4HANA. He has more than 20 years experience in the SAP platform and analytics, including working directly on hundreds of customer implementations.

Bill: is a principal solution advisor from SAP. For the past 20 years, his focus has been on data management solutions. He is passionate about data, and has deep experience in data quality, data integration and master data management.

Randy: is the global data governance practice lead for Syniti, with more than 30 years experience in the SAP space, in data migration and data quality. The last 12 years have been focused on master data governance.

Part 1: Data Migration

Terry: Welcome to our expert panel discussion on best practices for migrating data and managing master data for S/4HANA cloud customers, particularly those in the early stages of their RISE with SAP journey.

Let's start off talking about data migration. First, why is data migration and master data management important to an S/4HANA customer starting their RISE journey.

Bill: Accurate and trusted master data is crucial for any business initiative, particularly for transitioning to S/4HANA and embarking on your RISE journey. Without a solid foundation of reliable data, you risk building on unstable ground due to potential inaccuracies. To draw an analogy, think of constructing a building - everything begins with a strong foundation. Similarly, master data forms the fundamental base for S/4HANA.

Randy: Migration is a critical component of your digital transformation into S/4 HANA. This process involves setting up key business standards, policies, and rules to meet your operational needs. On top of that, these standards are leveraged in the master data governance area. This is to ensure that you maintain data integrity by consistently applying the standards, policies, and rules set during migration.

As long as organizations utilize these standards, they can improve their operations and efficiencies. This will also pave the way for future innovations.

Key data migration challenges

Terry: Based on your experience with customers, what are some of the key data challenges that S/4HANA customers are facing as they migrate to S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition, whether it's from ERP or S/4HANA on-premises?

Randy: One thing I often notice is the crucial role of data cleansing, harmonization, and aligning business interests. By alignment, I mean getting everyone on board, whether on a regional or global level, with new standards, policies, and rules. Achieving this consensus can be tricky due to differing viewpoints. So, it's essential to focus on change management to ensure solid user acceptance and confidence, paving the way for smooth progress.

Bill: Absolutely, Randy, I totally agree. It all circles back to the quality of data. We really don't want to carry over old data issues into the new system. This is our opportunity to get it right, and data quality is always an issue that needs careful handling.

As for the S/4HANA customers you asked about, I've found that the conversion of business partner data is a significant and often tricky task. In S/4HANA, we see our customers and vendors through the business partner model. It's a broad category that encompasses companies that might be both a customer and a vendor.

The challenge here lies in the transition of data. Currently, most companies treat customers and vendors as separate entities. But with S/4HANA, they need to be viewed as business partners. This is a critical aspect that needs addressing as part of the migration process. Moving forward, we will treat such records as business partners.

Data migration best practices for system conversion

Terry: There’s three main data migration approaches to consider: system conversion, selective data transition, and a new implementation. Let’s talk about the benefits and drawbacks of each of those options and best practises.

The first approach of system conversion, or 'lift and shift', is a popular method when moving to S/4HANA. It's basically a technical upgrade where you're doing the bare minimum. You're not really taking advantage of the new S/4HANA innovations, and there's usually little customization involved. You're not changing the data, just moving it.

What needs to be considered with system conversion?

Bill: In my experience, the approach we're discussing is ideal for companies with strong data management practices and high-quality data. It's particularly useful if you're in a rush to transition to S/4HANA and are considering a simple "lift and shift" strategy. However, ensure your existing data is of high quality to maximize the benefits of this approach. Otherwise, you're just transferring all your old data and its associated issues. If you plan on addressing data issues later, it's akin to moving all your old stuff into a new house and then deciding to declutter. It doesn't make sense, right? Why would you want to move boxes of unwanted items from your old house to your new one?

Randy: Sure, you made some excellent points there. Many organizations, especially when transitioning to S/4HANA, really start to consider implementing formal governance. Even if they're just doing a straightforward system conversion, they need to think about this in a wider context. As they begin to formalize their governance, there's likely to be changes in their standards, policies, and procedures that need to be consistently applied. This might also be a part of the 'house cleaning' process where they need to adjust their master data to align with the new processes and the data they want to use moving forward. So, the house cleaning aspect is critical in this context.

Data migration best practices for selective data transition

Terry: Let's talk about the second approach to migration, selective data transition.
This can involve multiple SAP ERP systems or ERP systems. Typically, there's data harmonization and cleansing required, and definitely data migration necessary. What best practices do we need to know?

Randy: One of the key things to remember is that SAP provides applications such as ADMM [ SAP Advanced Data Migration and Management Tool ] and SKP [ Syniti Knowledge Platform ] via Syniti. These are essential for conducting important activities. An integral part of this process is the use of an application that can standardize tasks and create a process that can be repeated and reused.

Many organizations approach this on a case-by-case basis, focusing on a single ERP system, division, or business unit at a time. This repeatable and reusable process is crucial for efficiency. It allows for data to be gathered into a common repository and transformed.

Just as important is validation, which ensures alignment with the new S/4 environment. This leads to the creation of loads for the new S/4 environment, guaranteeing high quality data.

This process pairs well with formalized governance from an MDG perspective. It allows the creation of load programs that can be used for both S/4 and MDG, whether in a hub model or co-deploy back into S/4.

Bill: When Randy mentioned the importance of a repeatable and reusable approach, he was really emphasizing the need to tackle tasks one at a time. This could mean focusing on one business unit today and another tomorrow. Or, if you often merge with or acquire companies, you'll eventually have to integrate their ERP systems.

Having a standard methodology - complete with tools, processes, rules, and data conversion routines - is crucial. This way, we can hope for a rinse-and-repeat scenario where we can apply this approach again and again. This approach allows for an effective phased implementation.

As Randy noted, this methodology often dictates how you'll actively manage and govern your data as you create it. For instance, as you generate new master data for your HANA system, you'll likely reuse many of these rules. If a rule helps keep data clean from the get-go, it's likely a good rule to keep for future data creation. Therefore, having a repeatable and reusable system is key.

Data migration best practices for new implementations

Terry: Yes, that will certainly help with the total cost of ownership.
And then for the third approach of starting with a new implementation, what are your thoughts on some best practices for this approach?

Randy: Similar to what we just discussed; a key part of the process often involves a "Big Bang" implementation. This means that instead of a phased approach where each ERP system or business unit is handled individually, everything is implemented all at once.

In such a case, it's crucial to have a standardized process that can be used across all areas - be it materials, business partners, financials, or transactional data. All these must be realigned to fit into the new S/4 environment.

An aspect we didn't touch on earlier is that there might be a need for data construction. This involves creating new data that didn't exist in the old systems but is necessary in the new system to meet operational needs.

We need to leverage standardized processes to validate and create load files consistently, as there will be several test cycles. The goal is to ensure that everything is working and improving, so that by the time you reach the production implementation, you have clean data with an accuracy rate of 99% to 100%.

The drawback is the time and effort up front, but the outcome can make it well worth the effort.

Bill: The “Big Bang” approach is no small task. You're diving into a large project from the start, but the payoff is in the final product. Yes, it requires quite a bit of effort, but the result? You've tackled all the issues and managed all the data. There's hardly anything left to do when you're migrating. Well, unless you're acquiring a company or something like that.

Then, you might lean more towards the second approach we've discussed, the system conversion or selective data transition. And remember, these methods aren't always separate. Sometimes, there's a bit of a hybrid, right? They don't have to be mutually exclusive.

Data migration tool options

Terry: What are recommended tool options for migrating data?

Randy: When you think about transitioning to S/4HANA, the first thing that usually comes to mind is the SAP S/4HANA Migration Cockpit. This tool allows you to extract, map, and load data directly into your S/4HANA system. However, the key thing to consider, as we've often discussed, is the cleanliness of your data. The Migration Cockpit works wonderfully for those who've already cleaned, harmonized, and deduplicated their data.

If your data isn't clean or if you're dealing with a different situation, another option we've discussed is SAP's Advanced Data Migration by Syniti. This tool offers a comprehensive and customizable solution for your unique circumstances, regardless of whether you're migrating from multiple or single ERP systems, or a combination of SAP and non-SAP systems. It provides immense flexibility for data cleansing, harmonization, and validation, which are crucial when introducing new master or transactional data into your S/4 environment.

Part 2: Master data management – challenges and priorities

Terry: Let's pivot to master data management and some of the key challenges and priorities.

Bill: Dealing with data issues is always a significant challenge. It's crucial to identify and correct these problems. Take duplicate data, for instance. Identifying duplicates can be tricky, but many robust matching engines and techniques can help with this.

The bigger challenge I've noticed from my interactions with customers isn't identifying the duplicates but figuring out how to create the best record from these duplicates. They often refer to this process as survivorship or merging. In SAP master data governance, we call it creating a 'best record'.

The goal is to allow data experts or stewards to review the duplicate records and decide how to consolidate them. For instance, if we have five versions of the same company, we need to figure out how to create that one superior, or 'golden' record, moving forward.

A solution like SAP Master Data Governance can be helpful in this scenario because it has specialized processes, tasks, and user interfaces for reviewing duplicate records and creating a 'best' or 'golden' record. So, that's one major challenge. But there are others, of course.

Apart from correcting data issues, another significant challenge that comes to mind is automation. In this era of AI, companies want to automate as much as possible, like auto-creating master data or extending materials to plants and sales organizations. This has been a focus in the last two releases of SAP master data governance with its data derivation capabilities. With the current trend of generative AI, I foresee a lot of progress in the future in this area. So the two critical areas are automation and correcting data issues.

Randy: A key term that's often linked to this discussion is self-enablement. Many organizations are striving for this, to reduce their dependence on IT departments. They're leveraging platforms like MDG to empower the business to maintain data quality, ensuring they have reliable data they can trust.

You gave an example of an international manufacturer of industrial materials. They faced issues during the deduplication process due to variations in units of measure - metric or imperial. This problem affected warranties and spare parts for their products across different regions.

A product purchased in one region may end up in another, but the warranties still apply. However, when spare parts are needed, if there's a discrepancy between metric and imperial measurements, it becomes a significant international challenge.

To overcome this, they reviewed their governance process, looking at how they could standardize units of measure globally. This ensures they can support their products anywhere in the world.

This situation demonstrates the importance of master data. It's not just about the top-level data - the underlying attributes also need to be analyzed. In the context of data governance, it's crucial to understand how these are used and the impact they have on the business.

Efficiently working with master data

Terry: What are key points that I need to know about working with master data efficiently in S/4HANA?

Bill: When discussing master data management and S/4HANA, it's crucial to stress the importance of establishing appropriate governance early on for creating or altering master data for S/4. If not, you run the risk of S/4HANA reverting to past behaviors, potentially operating in a system that didn't uphold governance over master data creation.

That's why companies transitioning to S/4HANA should think about using something like SAP master data governance. I often describe it as a gatekeeper, or even a bouncer, acting like a firewall to ensure we stick to a regulated process. This process actively governs how we create or update master data, ensuring it's accurate, reliable, consistent, and compliant with any regulations. Plus, it provides transparency so we can trace how that master data was created.

Without such governance, you could end up creating master data without any checks, validations, or oversight, and without an audit trail. That's where MDG steps in, providing a governance layer to control how master data is created for S/4HANA.

And don't delay - many times, if you wait until you're live on S/4HANA, it's almost too late. On day one, people will start creating master data, so if you don't have this in place from the start, you're setting yourself up for potential difficulties.

Randy: I agree with you Bill, especially when transitioning to S/4 it's essential to establish formal governance. This isn't just about cleaning up your data, but also maintaining its cleanliness.

There are many organizations currently mapping out their transition strategies and they might not be ready just yet. However, they can utilize governance and SAP MDG as stepping stones towards S/4. A lot of organizations might not realize that they can set up an MDG environment on S/4HANA, which allows them to introduce formal data governance into their legacy ECC or ERP systems.

While preparing to transition to S/4, this approach gives them the data model necessary for the S/4 environment and accommodates new data requirements. This data can then be replicated back to existing ECC and non-SAP systems in their current formats, keeping the data clean.

Once they activate their S/4 environment, they already have all the necessary information prepared and it's compatible with the new S/4 data models. So there are really some excellent options for organizations looking to clean their data and transition to S/4.

Part 3: Data management and clean core

Terry: How does data migration and fit in with a clean core strategy and even more important, what happens after I migrate the data. How do I how do I stay clean?

Bill: It's important to remember that "clean core" can have different meanings for different people, depending on the context. In this case, when we're talking about migrating data to S/4HANA, a clean core refers to the accuracy and usability of that data. Everyone wants a clean core system, and that always begins with clean data.

Randy: Organizations aiming to transition to a clean core will need to strategize on how they'll undertake data cleaning, harmonization, and migration activities. They'll face challenges, but they'll also have to determine how they're going to map eliminated data elements to the new clean core system. This is crucial to ensure business activities continue to run smoothly. They will need to consider the migration issues we discussed earlier as part of their shift to a clean core.

Terry: Yes, we recently did a podcast and blog on a deeper dive on what clean core means, whether it's extensions, processes, data - it's an important concept. How does how does MDM master data management fit into that clean core strategy?

Bill: For the importance of maintaining cleanliness in your systems, we emphasize the need to clean up data, migrate it to S/4, and then continue to keep it clean.

That's precisely where master data management becomes crucial. It's a process that helps you maintain this clean core system. As I've mentioned, active governance and control are key. You need the right people, process, and technology to ensure your core stays clean. This is where master data management, specifically solutions like SAP master data governance, come into play.

Randy: Earlier we emphasized the importance of maintaining cleanliness in our system. The central idea is to first clean up the data, transition smoothly to S/4, and then ensure it stays pristine.

This is where the role of master data management becomes critical. It's a process that's essential for sustaining a clean core system. Like I mentioned before, it's about actively governing and controlling the system. To do this effectively, you need the right combination of people, processes, and technology. That's where a specific solution like SAP Master Data Governance steps in to support this goal.

Getting started with data migration to S/4HANA

Terry: Any final words of advice for customers who are migrating data to S/4HANA, whether they’re doing the “Big Bang” approach or a new implementation.

Randy: I think it's crucial for any organization to carefully consider what path suits them best. Every organization is unique, with its own needs and culture, especially when it comes to handling change management. Whether a company can handle a 'Big Bang' approach or if it needs to take it step by step, maybe rolling out a new ERP system or tackling it division by division to ensure success.

We've gone over many of these points in our conversation, but it really comes down to a case-by-case basis. It's about finding the right fit for each organization, and that includes deciding if a 'clean core' strategy is the right move. The big plus of a clean core is how it simplifies upgrades. It takes away a lot of the hassle and worry because, with a clean core, your upgrades are automatically in sync, whether we're talking about S/4 or your MDG platform. There are a lot of considerations for every organization.

Bill: Clean core is essential for streamlining business processes. The key is to do things differently, to adopt best practices, and to work efficiently, making sure everything aligns with SAP's recommended methods. This includes using SAP Advanced Data Migration and Management, or ADMM, to ensure data is clean, correct, and smoothly transferred to S/4. Then, there's SAP Master Data Governance, or MDG, which is crucial for overseeing how master data is created.

I remember working with a major high-tech company, and they had a clear rule: the only way into S/4 is through SAP MDG. It's how they ensure their master data is properly set up for S/4. They made it clear to everyone in the company that this was the change they had to embrace. By sticking to this process, they could trust that their data foundation would be accurate and reliable for the future.

Terry: Thanks Bill and Randy for joining me in this conversation and discuss this important topic for S/4HANA customers.

Listen to the full podcast at SAP S/4HANA Data Migration and Master Data Management best practices with SAP BTP

Key links:

Assign Accounting Principles to Ledgers and Company Code: SAP Public Cloud

2024-05-03T07:50:02.826000+02:00

Leading Ledger

SAP delivers the leading ledger 0L. This ledger is updated in all company codes, that is, it's assigned to all company codes. The document numbers assigned in this ledger apply to all dependent ledgers. In each company code, the leading ledger receives exactly the same settings that apply to that company code: the currencies, the fiscal year variant, and the variant of the posting periods. For these reasons, the leading ledger can act as the global ledger for the whole entity (that is, with the valuation done according to legal reporting requirements).

Non-Leading Ledgers

Along with the leading ledger, you can have another, non-leading ledger or extension ledger. The non-leading ledger is a parallel ledger to the leading ledger. It can be based on a local accounting principle, for example. You can either use ledger 2L (by default, for IFRS) or ledger 3L (by default, for US GAAP) as the non-leading ledger. You have to activate the non-leading ledger for the individual company codes.

If there is a mismatch in the ledger assignment as per the standard expectation, Addressing this issue will require you (Customer),

To reset the data (refer to documentation) for all company codes in both DEV and TEST systems and then
reassign* the local accounting principle as recommended below.

Current Settings / As is situation. (This will be the default configuration when partner receives the initial system access to CBC from SAP). FI consultant should check the configuration and do the needful.

Ledger	Corporate Accounting Principle	Local Accounting Principle
0L	IFRS
2L	LKAP

Recommended Customizing / To be situation.

Ledger	Corporate Accounting Principle	Local Accounting Principle
0L	IFRS
2L		LKAP

*Important: Please do not create/post any fixed assets in your Production System before the recommended changes are effective in your production system. As soon as you have a transactional posting in Fixed Assets in your Production system, it will not be possible to change the Accounting Principle to Ledger settings at Company Code in your landscape.

How to generate a wrapper for function modules (BAPIs) in tier 2

2024-05-06T16:10:39.975000+02:00

Introduction

In a tutorial Implement a Wrapper for the "Create Purchase Requisition" (BAPI_PR_CREATE) function module that was published recently it was shown how to deal with the case in which no convenient released API is available to create purchase requisitions.

The question that came to my mind was whether there would be a way to automate the steps described in this tutorial so that creating wrappers for other BAPIs would become more easy.

So I did some investigation and have build a prototype of such a wrapper that it based on the same framework as the transaction ACO_PROXY.

This transaction is already available for quite some time and can be used to generate a wrapper class for one or more function modules.

In order to leverage the generated code it would however be necessary to perform several manual steps to adapt the same. Since these steps can be automated I have build a helper class and a helper report that perform these tasks for your convenience.

RFC tier2 proxy generator

The RFC tier2 proxy generator is based on the same API that is used by the transaction ACO_PROXY which is described in the following tutorial. This transaction allows to generate a wrapper class for one or more function modules. The code can however not be used immediately since it contains a few statements that need to be adjusted (e.g. CLASS-METHODS statements and CALL DESTINATION _dest_ statements).

The transaction ACO_PROXY and its underlying API now also check if a data element that is used by a non released function module itself has been released. If this is the case, no shadow type will be generated.

The recommended approach (see the tutorial above) is also to use a C1-released interface and a C1-released wrapper class that intantiates the wrapper class being used in your ABAP Cloud coding.

So I developed a class that calls the same API

cl_aco_static_proxy=>create_static_proxy_by_rfc(
               EXPORTING
                 function_names         = i_function_modules
                 proxy_name             = i_proxy_class_name
                 destination_name       = 'NONE'
                 devclass               = i_package_name
                 trkorr                 = i_transport_request
                 classic_exceptions     = abap_false
                 bapi_exceptions        = abap_false
                 generate_inactive      = abap_false
                 destination_by_constructor = abap_false
                 do_not_create_released_type = abap_true
             ).

and which in addition

creates an interface and a factory class
moves part of the code generated by the API mentioned above to the interface
changes the code of the generated wrapper class to use the interface
C1-release the factory class and the interface

How to get the source code of the RFC tier2 generator

The source code of the RFC tier2 generator has been published in the following repository on Github.com

SAP-samples/tier2-rfc-proxy

Prerequisites

- You have to have a system based on SAP S/4HANA 2022 or 2023 on premise.
- You have to have enabled Developer extensibility
- You have to apply the following notes
- [SAP Note 3444292 - ACO Proxy creates unnecessary shadow types](https://me.sap.com/notes/3444292)
- [SAP Note 3457580 - SAP ACO - Duplicate Types for Table Parameters](https://me.sap.com/notes/3457580)

How to use the RFC tier2 generator

When you have downloaded the class and the report simply start the report zr_gen_rfc_tier2_proxy.

Here you can select one or more function modules that will be wrapped by one single class.

(e.g BAPI_PR_CREATE, BAPI_PR_CHANGE, BAPI_PR_GETDETAIL, ...)

Now you have to specify additional parameters such as the target package where the wrapper objects are going to be generated.

Then there there are two radio buttons that allow you to choose between the generation of an interface, a wrapper class and a factoy class (option 1, recommended) or just one wrapper class (option 2).

As described in the above mentioned tutorial the approach of using an interface and a factory class is the recommended one.

Last not least you have to provide the names of the repository objects that will be generated.

When the reports finishes successfully it will list the generated repository objects.

The objects can then be checked in the target package.

Hope this will help to speed up the process of creating wrappers for non-released function modules.

ToDo's

What is left to do is to change the value help of the report such that only function modules can be selected that are marked as stable.

How to find SAP APIs for SAP S/4HANA 3-tier extens... - SAP Community

SAP/abap-atc-cr-cv-s4hc: ABAP test cockpit cloud readiness check variants for SAP S/4HANA Cloud (github.com)

Future Outlook

In future the idea is to provide such a generator as well in the ABAP development tools for Eclipse.

This will be possible with the next S/4HANA release and the ADT generator framework.

Shared Trouble is security doubled: the shared responsibility model for SAP S/4HANA Cloud

2024-05-07T09:21:45.077000+02:00

One of the advantages of cloud applications is that you don’t have to take care of security. Which is true – mostly. In reality, while most of the security responsibilities and tasks are taken over by the cloud service provider, there are some things which the customer still holds responsible for. And that also goes for the security responsibilities in SAP S/4HANA Cloud.

Now, the title of this article specifically mentions SAP S/4HANA Cloud, without specifying whether it refers to private or public cloud. This is intentional as the focus is on the customer's responsibilities in the S/4HANA Cloud responsibility model – and in the following I’d like to highlight the responsibilities of the customer in general, while detailing the differences between SAP S/4HANA Cloud Privat Edition versus SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition.

Responsibilities in General

In terms of security, responsibilities are relatively clearly split between the Cloud Service Provider (CSP) and the customer. On a high level, the CSP’s responsibility includes security operations, network application, database management, operating system management, and the bare metal, unless partnering with a hyperscaler.

The customer, on the other hand, is responsible for the application's access and security. However, there's a significant distinction depending on whether we're discussing SAP S/4HANA public or private cloud.

Looking at it from another perspective, as the cloud service provider, we don't have access to your customer data, user identities, authentication, and business processes. The responsibility for these aspects lies with the customer. Conversely, security for the application server, database, operating systems, physical security, and bare metal security falls under our, SAP's, jurisdiction as a cloud service provider.

Understanding the difference is crucial, not just for security, but for adjacent topics as well.

Auditing cloud applications

In order to get an overview, let’s begin with how auditing is approached in different cloud deployment options. This will help elucidate why it's critical to clearly distinguish responsibilities between you as a customer and SAP as the cloud service provider.

When examining IT general controls, one should consider business processes, applications, and infrastructure. These elements require auditing by your auditor. IT application controls relate to business transactions and processes. The software, such as SAP S/4HANA, handles this. However, as the customer, you define the business processes and are therefore accountable to the auditor to ensure these processes function as designed.

Secondly, there are application-related controls. These involve access management, change management, security configuration, and monitoring of application jobs and integration scenarios. The goal here is to ensure the application is implemented securely and correctly to meet the requirements of the business processes.

The same principle applies to IT infrastructure, which must be implemented correctly to support business processes without negative impacts. This includes operating system and database security, but also physical data center security.

Customer Audits

When considering various cloud service models, the scope of the auditor's role varies significantly between on-premise installations and software as a service. In an on-premise model, the customer’s auditor must assess everything from physical security to business process controls.

Different Cloud Deployment Models

In an Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) model, the auditor would need to rely on the cloud service provider for physical data center security and hardware matters. However, everything else, including service operating systems and databases, remains the customer's responsibility and must be audited accordingly.

With Platform as a Service (PaaS), like S/4HANA private cloud, responsibilities for the security of operating systems and databases shift to the cloud service provider.

Software as a Service (SaaS) extends this concept further, in cases like the SAP S/4HANA public cloud, where standardized software is used by all customers.

To manage these varying responsibilities, the SOC (Service Organization Control) report, specifically the SOC 2 report has been established as an industry standard. This report is an attestation from auditors that all controls regarding IT infrastructure and application responsibility are functioning as designed.

The SOC report's purpose is to prevent each customer's auditor from having to verify that a CSP is maintaining their controls correctly.

However, it's crucial to note that customers must request the SOC 2 report regularly from the CSP, review it, and ensure it aligns with their security requirements. Subsequently, the company and its IT auditors need to review the controls within the SOC 2 report to verify everything is in order.

The differences in SAP S/4HANA deployment models

Let's delve into the S/4HANA application, specifically focusing on the differences between private and public cloud options.

To do this, we could proceed alphabetically by topic, but the most effective approach would be through the lens of the SAP Secure Operations Map. This tool, although developed before the advent of cloud technology, remains relevant as it comprehensively covers all tasks required for running applications like S/4HANA.

SAP Secure Operations Map

As a brief overview, the map starts at the top with the organization, which isn't directly related to IT. It emphasizes the need for security governance awareness and risk management - an area that's often overlooked. In essence, it's crucial to identify potential risks, prepare responses, and manage them appropriately.

Next, the secure operations map addresses the application itself, highlighting aspects like access management, authentication, authorizations, and custom code security. It considers all customizations made in your SAP S/4HANA system.

On the system level, the map focuses on security hardening, secure SAP code, our secure development process, and security monitoring.

At the bottom of the map, mirroring the cloud responsibilities we've discussed, there’s the environment. This includes network security, operating system, database security, and client security.

Taking a closer look at this, and returning to the cloud deployment models we discussed earlier, we see that the Secure Operations Map's five topics (environment, system, application, process, and organization) are all the customer's responsibility in an on-premise environment.

In a private environment, the responsibility transitions between SAP and the customer around the application area. In a public environment, we, as the service provider, shoulder a larger share of the responsibility compared to the customer.

Network security is a shared responsibility between customers and SAP, regardless of whether the environment is private or public. As a customer, you must ensure that the network you use to access applications is secure. For instance, in a private environment, you may use SAP GUI via a VPN tunnel to our network. In contrast, in the public cloud, you can only access the software through a web browser over the internet. In both cases, you as the customer need to ensure that the network on your end is secured.

The operating system database security is our responsibility, again, regardless of whether it's a private or public cloud. Client security, on the other hand, such as ensuring the SAP GUI or web browser is set up securely, falls under the customer's domain in both cases.

When it comes to system security hardening, it's our responsibility, fully. Secure SAP code, from a development perspective, is our responsibility in both private and public cloud scenarios. However, there's a key difference when it comes to patch management in the private cloud. Here, updates are individual per customer and may affect business processes or require system restarts. Therefore, we coordinate with you before initiating any updates, unlike in the public cloud, where updates affect all customers.

Security monitoring and forensics represent another shared responsibility, but there are differences between Rise and Grow. In Rise, due to access to most of the ABAP stack, similar to an on-premise environment, you receive more information, including infrastructure logs provided by our private cloud operations team, a service called LogServe.

In a public cloud scenario, we provide a limited number of logs for security monitoring. Some information, technically, is shared among all customers; hence, we can't share it with individual customers.

The application

Let's delve into the application, specifically User and Identity Management.

When we discuss roles and authorizations, we see a distinction between private and public cloud environments. In a private cloud, customers retain access to the PFCG, the SAP system transaction where roles and authorizations are defined and implemented. It's important to note that while you do have PFCG access in the private cloud, it's not usually full access. You typically can't assign authorizations or access the roles and authorizations definition, PFCG, as an admin, particularly when it comes to technical security topics.

In the public cloud, we implement a different strategy. We use what we call business catalogues, the smallest units of roles and authorizations. These catalogues are combined to create roles within the application, aligning with your business processes.

Regarding Custom Code Security, your code is generally your responsibility. However, there's a slight difference between private and public clouds. In the private cloud, you have more opportunities to program additional applications on top of S/4HANA. In contrast, in the public cloud, we provide Developer Extensibility that allows business application extensions but limits access to low level functionality.

The last main topic from within the Secure Operations Map is Processes and Organizations. This is primarily the customer's responsibility, which is why we won’t discuss it here.

Conclusion: Lots and less to think about

As mentioned in the opening of this article: moving to the cloud gives you a lot less to think and worry about, especially when it comes to security. However, it does not relieve customers from all responsibility - something to keep in mind. On the other hand, we at SAP will support now and in the future by guiding customers through those settings they are responsible for. And by making S/4HANA Cloud the most secure ERP system.

2024 Gartner® WMS Magic Quadrant™: SAP in the Leader’s Quadrant for the 11th consecutive year!

2024-05-07T17:47:56.352000+02:00

We are pleased to announce that for the 11th consecutive year, SAP has been named as a Leader in the 2024 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Warehouse Management Systems. SAP is positioned in the Leaders Quadrant based on our Ability to Execute and for the Completeness of our Vision.

We believe that this recognition confirms our strategy in Logistics which is based on three pillars:

Connecting every process to facilitate synchronized logistics execution, supporting highly efficient and fast-paced fulfillment cycles through seamless integration with logistics applications like SAP Transportation Management and SAP Business Network for Logistics etc.
Collaborating within a diverse ecosystem of system integrators, software partners, hyperscalers, hardware partners, and Robotics OEMs, with warehouse management being an integral part of cloud ERP.
Contextualizing every decision leveraging AI and machine-learning to optimize operations and to provide business insights.

SAP Extended Warehouse Management (SAP EWM) is an integral part of the overall SAP strategy and gives companies the ability to operate modern warehouses that must respond quickly to changing business conditions. The flexibility of SAP EWM helps manage a high volume of goods and run sustainable, risk-resilient operations with digitized warehouse processes in the cloud including direct control of warehouse automation equipment. We continue to innovate in SAP Extended Warehouse Management based on our market analysis and even more importantly based on feedback from our global install base and ecosystem. Recent innovations included cross-process integration in the areas of transportation, production, quality management, addressing industry-specific requirements, extensibility, and usability.

SAP EWM combined with SAP Transportation Management and SAP Business Network for Logistics, provides a platform for companies to collaborate with their logistics partners to gain end-to-end visibility and insights across their logistics operations. Our global partner network made up of systems integrators, business consultants and technology providers help our customers manage their warehouse management transformations, whether they be system replacements, upgrades, greenfield deployments, or part of larger enterprise transformations.

“Warehouse Management with SAP EWM is an integral part of our cloud ERP offering. Customers use SAP EWM to manage their warehouse operations in sixty-six countries and twenty-four industries.” said Till Dengel Global Head of Logistics & Manufacturing Product Marketing at SAP.

“SAP Extended Warehouse Management helped Bridgestone reduce errors, with a new level of productivity and safety.” Eric Dyason, National Distribution Manager, Bridgestone New Zealand Ltd.

For more details on the latest Gartner Magic Quadrant for WMS: Gartner Report

* Gartner, Magic Quadrant for Warehouse Management Systems, Simon Tunstall, Dwight Klappich, Rishabh Narang, Federica Stufano, 2 May 2024

GARTNER is a registered trademark and service mark of Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and internationally, MAGIC QUADRANT is a registered trademark of Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates and are used herein with permission. All rights reserved.

Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in its research publications, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other designation. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner’s research organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

NF3-e Technical Note 2024.001: New Fields Added to Electronic Nota Fiscal for Electrical Energy

2024-05-08T17:22:26.898000+02:00

(Versão em português aqui)

Hi everyone,

The SAP Document and Reporting Compliance, outbound invoicing option for Brazil team has released updates on the mapping for XML files in the Electronic Nota Fiscal for Electrical Energy (NF3-e).

NF3-e Technical Note 2024.001

This release complies with the SEFAZ NF3-e Technical Note 2024.001. The new update on NF3-e allows you to create electronic notas fiscais for electrical energy (model 66) with the following fields using EDOC_BR_ISU_EE_MAP_FILL_AUTH BAdI.

ICMS60 group: The vICMSDeson (Exempt ICMS) and cBenef (Tax Benefit Code for RBC) fields were added to the XML file layout, and both are optional.
ICMS90 group: The vICMSDeson (Exempt ICMS) and cBenef (Tax Benefit Code for RBC) fields were also added to the XML file layout, and both are optional too. The pFCP (Tax Rate for FCP Deferral) and vFCP (FCP Value) fields were added for the Fundo de Combate à Pobreza (FCP), and both are optional in the XML file layout.

The XML schema and mapping have been updated in our service, and it is not necessary to implement SAP Notes for this change in your backend system. For more details on this update, read SAP Note 3460797.

NF3-e Nota Técnica 2024.001: novos campos na nota fiscal eletrônica de energia elétrica

2024-05-08T17:37:20.211000+02:00

(English version here)

Olá pessoal,

O time de SAP Document and Reporting Compliance, opção de emissão de fatura de saída para o Brasil entregou atualizações no mapeamento de arquivos XML de nota fiscal eletrônica de energia elétrica (NF3-e).

Nota Técnica 2024.001 de NF3-e

Esta versão está conforme a Nota Técnica 2024.001 de NF3-e da SEFAZ. A nova atualização de NF3-e permite criar notas fiscais eletrônicas de energia elétrica (modelo 66) com os seguintes campos utilizando a BAdI EDOC_BR_ISU_EE_MAP_FILL_AUTH.

Grupo ICMS60: foram adicionados ao layout do arquivo XML os campos vICMSDeson (Valor do ICMS desonerado) e cBenef (Código de Benefício Fiscal), ambos opcionais.
Grupo ICMS90: os campos vICMSDeson (Valor do ICMS desonerado) e cBenef (Código de Benefício Fiscal) também foram adicionados ao layout do arquivo XML, sendo ambos opcionais. Os campos pFCP (Percentual relativo ao FCP) e vFCP (Valor relativo ao FCP) foram adicionados para o Fundo de Combate à Pobreza (FCP), e ambos são opcionais no layout do arquivo XML.

O XML Schema e o mapeamento foram atualizados em nosso serviço, não sendo necessária a implementação de SAP Notes para esta alteração em seu sistema. Para mais detalhes sobre esta atualização, leia a SAP Note 3460797.

Blog posts relacionados:

Dashboard do Usage Analytics

Para obter um passo a passo sobre como usar a solução de nota fiscal eletrônica de energia elétrica (NF3-e), consulte as seguintes páginas do portal SAP Help:

Você pode receber alerta por email quando novas SAP Notes forem lançadas ou atualizadas nos componentes listados abaixo; basta seguir as instruções do SAP Knowledge Base Article 2171560.

CA-GTF-CSC-EDO-BR-OU
CA-GTF-CSC-EDO-BR
FI-LOC-NFE-BR-OUT
LOD-LH-NFE

Acesse o gerenciador de modificações legais para ter uma noção do que está planejado para ser suportado. Consulte o SAP Knowledge Base Article 3421995 e a página Regulatory Change Manager para entender como usar esta ferramenta.

Gostou desse post? Dê um “like” (kudos) e compartilhe o conteúdo com seus colegas. Sinta-se à vontade para deixar suas perguntas no SAP Community e ler posts semelhantes no blogging space do SAP Document and Reporting Compliance.

Para acompanhar as últimas notícias da NF-e, siga a tag SAP Electronic Invoicing for Brazil (SAP Nota Fiscal Eletronica) e a comunidade SAP Document and Reporting Compliance.

Obrigado e até a próxima,
Thiago

Preferred Success Round Table Discussion with SAP Customers on 29th April @ SAP NOW India.

2024-05-08T17:41:46.240000+02:00

This is all about the "Preferred Success Round Table Discussion". An excellent chance to engage in this discussion with customers. The discussion delved into #SAPPreferredSuccess, providing deeper insights.

During the event, we engaged in focused conversations with customers, addressing the challenges presented by today's operating conditions in their businesses and how Preferred Success can effectively tackle these challenges. I shared my real-time experience as an ECSP orchestrating Preferred Success to support customers in accelerating their Cloud Adoption, fostering business acceptance of change, and creating efficient business processes through the utilization of SAP’s expertise, resources, tools, content, and personalized roadmap, all tailored by the ECSP.

Insights from the discussion:

1. When is the right time to subscribe Preferred Success?

2. How does it help me during implementation?

Ideally this should be part of your RISE contract.

This helps you get valuable insight into best practices for cutting-edge digital core technology, Readiness Check, Q-Gate, Solution Launch check, Success Checks, Data Migration, Data Reconciliation, Adhoc Advisories, Best Practice advisories in the pre go-live phase.

Customer can track Project status during critical milestones

Multiple Success checks to minimize risk and potential business disruption after solution go-live.

Overall you will get a dedicated support from SAP Preferred Success to ensure the successful implementation and go-live.

3. I am already live on Rise, can I still subscribe Preferred Success?

4. How does it support post implementation?

Yes!

SAP Preferred Success has exclusive success content, resources, and planning methods that are orchestrated through customer success experts. These success resources are aligned throughout your success plan and solution lifecycle to provide proactive, prescriptive best-practice guidance on implementing, adopting, operating, and optimizing your SAP cloud solution(s).

Post Implementation, all the services offered are based on the customer needs and business goals. Your Customer Success Expert will build a personalized roadmap focused on solution adoption, usage, and optimization post go-live to derive value out of your investment in SAP Solution[s].

Below are some of the Post Implementation Services:

Continuous Clean Core Guidance
Continuous Application Operations Guidance
Data Quality Insights
Solution Planning
BTP Exploration
Integration Exploration
Extensibility Exploration
UX Exploration
Analytics Exploration
Intelligent Technologies Exploration

5. I already have Premium Engagement do I still need Preferred Success?

These are complementary services that SAP offers, each has a very specific focus.

Preferred Success has been introduced to help customers fully realize the value of SAP software using SAP standards and Best Practices. This program is designed to improve adoption, consumption, and enablement.

Preferred Success is a proactive alliance with SAP, this encompasses a spectrum of advantages, including personalized services recommendations, comprehensive release guidance, specialized learning initiatives, and service-level agreements (SLAs) designed to amplify support and many other services all of which aligns with customer's lifecycle.

While PE supports in Business and Process Transformation, in depth hands-on, and covers customization.

6. Is there a limit to the services offered as part of Preferred Success? when does the engagement end?

Preferred Success is a proactive alliance with SAP offering continuous support.

Delivers value during the full lifecycle of customer contract.

Apart from the above discussion, we also discussed, about other PrS offerings like the Learning Hub Licenses: The customer who signs up for preferred success would get 5 user license to learning Hub Solution Edition and in addition to that they would also get live access to the system and the users can also certify themselves.

With my customer who is into manufacturing and selling of drilling machineries, Asset Management was critical topic to them. Since this customer is Preferred Success Customer, I was able to plug in few topics based on their requirement in the area of Asset Management. As you know, Learning Hub has extensive learning content. As their Customer Success Partner, I was able to identify, recommend, map and provide the learning content relevant to them.

Post this, the user had many queries and these queries were addressed by organizing a 1 to 1 session with the SAP Expert.

We also discussed about SLA’s. Enhanced SLA’s that comes with Preferred Success is another key topic. The preferred success customer would get their incidents tagged, which automatically gets flagged and is prioritized. For P2 to P4 you have a 50% faster response time.

Last but not the least is the topic about Latest SAP Innovations.

7. How do you address innovation with Preferred Success?

Of course! In preparation for each cloud release, your customer success expert takes a proactive approach to enabling you on the upcoming changes. With each release, your customer success expert will identify release dates, notes, and important details surrounding new functionality and/or sunsetting functionality within your SAP cloud solution(s) so you can stay up-to-speed on what’s relevant to your business. This approach to release readiness enables you to enhance the usage of your SAP cloud solution(s) and helps to quickly achieve your business objectives.

Example | SAP Preferred Success for RISE with SAP (private Edition) Personalized Mapping

Conclusion:

Preferred Success has much more to what we discussed in our 1 hour of Round Table.

SAP Preferred Success is designed to help you take an advanced step toward the adoption of cloud software in a simpler, faster, safer way. The offering can be an always-there companion to help you work in cloud solutions from SAP and help make you more successful – for example, through increased productivity and more efficient business processes. In a nutshell, it can be your helpful guidance and support model for working in the digital environment.

For more information, please visit the SAP Preferred Success Page

Thank you

Puja K

Enterprise Customer Success Expert @ SAP

Follow me on LinkedIn

How Defense and Security Organizations can Easily Migrate to the Cloud with RISE with SAP

2024-05-10T12:58:55.515000+02:00

Figure 1: Example picture

1) Introduction

In the recent years, cloud computing has been among the most important IT trends, and it will continue to do so within the next decade. The leading technology consulting firm, Gartner, published various insightful statistics about the technology and its importance that highlight the importance for both private enterprises and public organizations. For one thing, as the below graph shows, the market for public cloud services will grow to $1 trillion by 2026. This relates to a growth rate of more than 100% when compared to the year 2021 and even marks the highest growth rate of all existing IT markets.

Figure 2: Forecast for public cloud services growth by Gartner

This strong trend towards cloud computing is also reflected in a Gartner survey among 367 enterprises . As you can see in the chart below, more than 50% of the survey participants in 2022 think that cloud technology is either indispensable or heavily impactful. When asked about the year 2027, even 90% believe that this will be the case.

Figure 3: Gartner cloud computing survey

Furthermore, 50% of surveyed organizations will use industry cloud platforms to accelerate their digital business initiatives in 2027, according to Gartner. In contrast, less than 5% of the participants gave this answer in 2022.

2) The Importance of Cloud Computing for the Defense and Security Industry

Cloud services are also of high importance for Defense and Security (D&S) organizations, like armed forces, aid organizations or emergency organizations. A recent study financed by the European Defense Agency shows that cloud computing can be applied to both the strategic level and the field level of military organizations. Furthermore, cloud technology can support European armed forces in achieving information superiority against its adversaries. The advantages of cloud technology apply to emergency organizations, like police forces, in a similar manner. Here cloud technology does not only improve the collaboration within and across police organizations, but also helps to complete criminal investigations faster. Fire departments can benefit from the technology as well. Examples for this include cost reductions, access to innovative IT services, a higher reliability of IT services or improved cybersecurity. Rescue service organizations, in turn, can profit from cloud computing through a better and faster handling of medical data. In this way, rescue chains in general and the planning of medical treatments can be improved significantly, which in the end can help to save people’s lives.

3) What is RISE with SAP?

Figure 4: Introductory video to RISE with SAP

RISE with SAP is a holistic package for customers, which want to transform their existing on-premises SAP systems into the cloud. RISE with SAP thereby not only includes SAP’s top-of-the-range software solution, SAP S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition, but also various connected services, such as, cloud infrastructure and security as well as related migration and modernization programs. Businesses and organizations, which are not yet SAP customers can instead use GROW with SAP. GROW with SAP is an offer, that is specifically designed for new customers and small and midsized companies and organizations. But let us now take a closer look what specifically RISE with SAP offers for existing customers.

Figure 5: RISE with SAP overview graphic

The RISE package generally makes system transformations easier and allows customers to profit from all of the latest innovations from SAP. The key components of RISE – as the above graphic shows – are:

1) Cloud Solutions

S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition allows you to optimize processes in an unprecedented way. The Cloud ERP solution in this regard covers all common business functions of Defense and Security organizations like, for instance, procurement, human resource management or military planning and operations. Additionally, RISE with SAP includes packages, like the SAP Business Technology Platform (BTP) for app development, data management, automation and real-time analytics and SAP Signavio for process mining. The RISE solution beyond this also includes diverse innovative and helpful SAP Business Artificial Intelligence functions and features, that allow your organization to get better insights and save valuable time and money. What is more, the RISE program enables D&S organizations to use our holistic sustainability software, SAP Sustainability Solutions. These solutions not only allow organizations to monitor and manage sustainability and environmental issues, but also to ensure the safety of their employees at their workplaces.

2) Cloud Infrastructure and Security

RISE with SAP is built on the foundation of state-of-the-art IT infrastructure and security. In this regard, our customers can benefit from a very modern cloud infrastructure, that helps to ensure the highest possible system performance and availability of services around the clock. Furthermore, D&S organizations can profit from simple and effective service level agreements (SLAs), that guarantee a 99.7% availability as well as regular maintenance of our SAP cloud solutions. Moreover, our RISE with SAP offering is based on the highest standards for security and data protection. This not only entails regular security updates, but also the ability of permanently monitoring the system with regards to performance, compliance and potential threats.

3) Migration and Modernization

Our RISE with SAP cloud package aims to make the migration from on-premises systems to modern cloud systems as simple as possible. SAP for this created an easy, guided implementation process, that is based on the SAP Activate methodology. This methodology allows our customers to:

Gain an in-depth understanding of the extensive capabilities of cloud ERP.
Receive expert guidance to strategically plan and prepare for a smooth migration.
Discover new avenues to craft detailed implementation plans across multiple workstreams.
Seamlessly progress through all six implementation stages with clarity and precision.
Tap into a vast partner ecosystem for enhanced support and collaboration.
Access comprehensive assistance, that is available in more than 100 countries worldwide.

4) The Key Advantages of RISE with SAP

RISE with SAP unites all advantages of cloud computing technology with the well-known advantages of SAP software solutions. The combination of the two technologies thereby even enabled SAP to create its most advanced ERP products so far, SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition and SAP S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition. The main advantages of RISE with SAP are:

High scalability and usage-based pricing

Our cloud solutions allow your D&S organization to easily scale your SAP systems, in a needs-based manner. This is not limited to a certain part of your organization, but can be applied across your entire global operations. The high scalability thereby not only facilitates your organization’s IT processes, but also pays off financially due to the “pay only what you need approach”.

Better collaboration

SAP S/4HANA Cloud allows for a better collaboration among your workforce. Your employees are enabled to work jointly on tasks, communicate directly and share information. This can be done for instance with the SAP Signavio Process Collaboration Hub, a versatile tool for process collaboration. Furthermore, our cloud ERP solutions also enable our clients to better collaborate with their stakeholders, such as suppliers.

Process automatization and access to diverse innovative functions and features

The RISE with SAP offering entails access to various innovative platforms, functions, and features as well as to a variety of useful partner solutions. Examples for this are the SAP Business Technology Platform or SAP Business Artificial Intelligence, two solutions, that were designed to complement each other perfectly. The BTP, on the one hand, is a platform, that bundles services like data management and analytics, application development, automation, and integration as well as artificial intelligence in one environment. The platform is thereby also helping to accelerate the transformation to the cloud significantly. SAP Business AI, on the other hand, is an umbrella term for all available AI solutions from SAP. Good examples for this are SAP Joule, a Generative Artificial Intelligence-based copilot within SAP applications. SAP Joule can answer diverse questions, guide the user through the application or even solve various tasks in an automated manner. Other examples for SAP Business AI include the automatization of processes, such as guided buying or automatically generated job descriptions.

5) Migration Options

D&S organizations, which are already using SAP solutions and want to migrate their systems to the cloud can choose among two principal migration options:

1) Migrate from SAP ERP

D&S organizations, that use SAP ERP and want to migrate to the state-of-the-art SAP S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition can profit from a guided transformation process. This process allows the organizations to make use of diverse best practices for the migration of their systems and data throughout all phases of the transformation journey. Principal advantages of this concept are that customers are enabled to maintain system configurations just like their data sets easily in the new cloud environment.

2) Migrate from SAP S/4HANA

The migration from an existing on-premises SAP S/4HANA system to SAP S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition is even less complex. The transition to the cloud here works very frictionless, which means that – in most cases – customers can just transform their systems and data centers to the new S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition environment.

3) Alternative for new customers: GROW with SAP

As already mentioned above, SAP recommends new customers the tailored cloud transformation program GROW with SAP. GROW with SAP allows for a fast and predictable implementation of the SAP cloud systems and includes most of the advantages of the RISE offering. Unlike the RISE with SAP package, the GROW solution relies on a Public Cloud architecture in the form of SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition.

6) Security Features of RISE with SAP

RISE with SAP is built on a comprehensive security architecture, that enables our customers not only to work safely, but also to protect their data regardless from where and in which local circumstance they work. The security architecture comprises enterprise-grade security features and standards, like:

Physical access control
User authentication and authorization functions
Advanced functions for the function and user-based separation of data
Data encryption
Automated back-ups and protection from data losses (data recovery)
Data encryption features
Full compliance with data protection guidelines like the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)

- Comprehensive protection of client data

- Auditing functions

- Integrated capabilities for deleting personal data

Sovereign Cloud solutions for organizations with higher security and data-protection requirements, including:

- Use of data centers, that are located in the resident country or region of the respective company or organization

- Data being solely stored and processed within the sovereign borders of the country or region

- Corresponding proof of national and international security certifications and attestations

- Adherence to high security standards throughout all steps

- Increased security requirements for employees

7) Cloud Solutions with Advanced Security Features by SAP NS2

For companies and organizations, which have even higher cybersecurity requirements, SAP is offering cloud solutions with advanced cyber security measures. SAP therefore established its own independent subsidiary called SAP National Security Services (SAP NS2). SAP NS2 is mainly focused on the US, Canadian and Australian market, where it, among other things, is responsible for the adherence of SAP products to diverse security and regulatory requirements. The focus of SAP NS2 thereby lies on ultra-secure cloud solutions for highly regulated industries like D&S organizations, but also for actors with such needs within other industries. This includes highest level of security standards, like the US Department of Defense Impact Level 4 (DoD IL4) requirements just like the US Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP) certification. The company’s product portfolio includes:

SAP Secure Cloud Services and Products
- SAP NS2 offers a great range of SAP cloud products and solutions with enhanced security standards. The product portfolio includes ERP-solutions, like SAP S/4HANA, as well as diverse solutions for functional areas, like Supply Chain Management, Finance, Human Resource Management or Spend Management. In addition, NS2, with the SAP Business Technology Platform, also offers diverse automation, analytics, data management and Artificial Intelligence solutions.
Professional Services
- SAP NS2 offers its customers a variety of Professional Services, that range from cloud transformation over advisory services to implementation services.
Support
- SAP NS2 permanently supports its customers with a highly specialized customer service team, which answers any kinds of questions or issue resolution.
Mission Solutions
- SAP NS2 offers a variety of additional services under its brand DataCTRL, that allow D&S customers to securely manage and catalog data across their organization. DataCTRL thereby enables D&S organizations to perform a better and faster data handling, which, for instance, can speed up the migration from on-premises to cloud systems.

Key Takeaways

All in all, this blog entry has shown that RISE with SAP brings significant benefits for Defense and Security organizations, that shouldn’t be ignored. This includes advantages, such as, process automatization just like better collaboration or access to the latest functions and features. What the blog has also shown is that cloud technology, like RISE with SAP, can make all types of D&S organizations more efficient and successful, and here even allows them to strengthen themselves within their core competencies. Although the security of cloud solutions is typically a rather controversial issue among IT responsibles, it has been shown in the blog that SAP’s cloud solutions are built on the foundation of a strong security architecture. This architecture includes various security functions and features like automated backups, encryption, or access control functions. For organizations with even higher cybersecurity requirements, SAP can refer its customers to its specialized subsidiary, SAP NS2. SAP NS2 offers ultra-secure cloud solutions with the highest possible security certifications for highly regulated industries, like Defense and Security. Beyond that, our customers can expect numerous further innovations for the future from SAP, which includes Generative AI functions just like the stepwise integration of SAP’s intelligent copilot, Joule, into SAP applications.

Product Tour for SAP S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition

If you are interested in learning more about RISE with SAP and SAP S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition and its advantages for the different operational processes in the following product tour:

Figure 6: Link to the RISE with SAP product tour

Sources

Accelerate Digital Transformation, Enable Compliance, and Mitigate Risk with Sovereign Cloud Capabilities from SAP. (2023, September). SAP.

Breaking the cloud barrier in aerospace and defense. (2022). Accenture.

‘Combat cloud’: EDA study shows benefits of cloud computing for EU militaries. (2024, January 24). European Defense Agency.

Digitalisation of Defence in NATO and the EU: Making European Defence Fit for the Digital Age. (2023, August 10). IISS.

Healthcare Cloud Computing: Meaning, Advantages, and Implementation Pitfalls. (2023, August 16). IEEE.

How fire departments can extinguish money, space, and data loss with the cloud. (2020, May 11). ZDNET.

Military Cloud Computing Market. (2023, September). MarketsandMarkets.

RISE with SAP Overview. (2024). SAP.

SAP National Security Services Subsidiary. (2024). SAP NS2.

The Future of Cloud Computing in 2027. (2022). Gartner.

Transition to SAP S/4HANA. (2024). SAP.

Why using the cloud is about more than just efficient storage. (2022, September 2). POLICE1.

RingFencing & DeCoupling S/4HANA with Enterprise Blockchain and SAP BTP - Ultimate Cyber Security 🚀

2024-05-14T13:56:58.227000+02:00

tl;dr

As part of S/4HANA Transformation Programs, Security, Accessibility, Resilience are being re-imagined.

The going in position for a lot of S/4HANA Transformation Programs includes the Cyber Security principles:

Only Employees will have direct access to the Digital Core as End Users
There will be no direct access to the Digital Core by 3rd Party Applications

The first principle, 'Only Employees will have direct access to the Digital Core as Users', decoupling the SAP system for External Users has been an architectural design pattern for more than a decade. For example, due to the extremely sensitive and confidential nature of Product LifeCycle Management Data, 13 years ago SAP were advocating, building an empty SAP PLM system in the DMZ which would use RFC's to communicate with the actual SAP PLM system in the Secure Network Zone:

The beauty of this design is that it decouples End User Access from the core SAP PLM system, therefore enhancing the security protection of the SAP PLM system.

Today's equivalent of that is to put the SAP Build Work Zone Launchpad in front of the S/4HANA Digital Core.

That is fine, that means the Digital Core is digitally decoupled for End Users, but what about Machine to Machine, Application to Application, 3rd Party Applications which want to get Data from the S/4HANA ?

Do you really want 3rd Party Companies calling APIs on your Digital Core - atkrypto.io

When a 3rd Party Company calls an API on your S/4HANA Digital Core, you are replicating your Data to that 3rd Party Company.

How can the S/4HANA Digital Core be decoupled when 3rd Party Applications need to get Data from the S/4HANA, how can the S/4HANA Digital Core be architected in such a way that there are no Machine to Machine calls directly to the S/4HANA for the purpose of getting Data ?

As elaborated in more detail in a previous blog, API's enable your Data to be replicated to 3rd Party Applications which can also be in 3rd Party Partner Companies, and this brings a set of problems centered around:

Trust between Partners: The more Partners in a Business Transaction or Business Process, the less trust there is between Partners. This is a very simple graph, as the number of Partners in a Business Transaction or Business Process goes up, so the trust between the Partners goes down. What is trust in a Business Transaction or Business Process, doing what you said you would, data, instruction, confirmation. I will deliver the parcel to the address you gave me, but what if somebody in my Team changes the delivery address for their own benefit ?

Protect the Originality & Integrity of the Data - When your S/4HANA sends the Data to your Business Partner's System we need to make sure that the Data cannot be modified or destroyed and therefore protect the originality and integrity of the Data

Replicating & Integrating the Data from your S/4HANA to your Business Partner's System and at the same time Protect the Originality & Integrity of the Data - we need to get the Data from the S/4HANA to the Business Partner's System and we need to be sure, to have surety that the Data which arrives at the Business Partner's System is the same Data as was sent from your S/4HANA. If this Data can be changed in any way, we won't be able to trust the Business Processes and Insights which are depending on that Data. And so, in the activity of moving the Data we need to make sure that that piece of Data cannot be modified or destroyed and therefore protect the originality and integrity of the Data

and it doesn't end there, it's often the case that a 3rd Party Organisation will be getting Data directly from your S/4HANA (as the Source) or posting Data to your S/4HANA (as the Target), in both cases it could be an API which through your Integration Technologies is ultimately exposed to the Internet and where the system calling the API needs to have a User on your S/4HANA.

As ever, the pattern is the same, the theme is the same,

it's all about the Data

what are the security, sensitivity, confidentiality, availability, criticality requirements of the Data

Ring Fencing S/4HANA raises the Cyber Security by reducing the attack surface.

The most secure way is with Enterprise Blockchain as a Data Ring Fence around the S/4HANA Digital Core, therefore digitally decoupling access and integration of the S/4HANA Data from other Applications.

The Enterprise Blockchain is:

. Ring Fencing of the S/4HANA

. S/4HANA does not expose API's directly to any 3rd Party Companies

. A Secure Store of Data

. A Secure Communication Channel for Data

. A Common Shared Single Source of Truth in your Organisation and across Organisations

. The next generation Data Integration is about having a Common Shared Single Source of Truth

The S/4HANA Ring Fencing with Enterprise Blockchain as a shared single source of truth could involve the Enterprise Blockchain running on your SAP BTP Kyma Runtime and at the same time running on Kubernetes Servers in your Business Partner's Data Center:

S4HANA RingFenced by Enterprise Blockchain S4HANA does not expose any APIs directly to 3rd Party Companies Ultimate Cyber Security - atkrypto.io

Or alternatively the S/4HANA Ring Fencing with Enterprise Blockchain could be where the Enterprise Blockchain is running on your SAP BTP Kyma Runtime and your 3rd Party Business Partner Company reads the Data from your Enterprise Blockchain on your SAP BTP Kyma Runtime as a shared common single source of truth for the Data:

S4HANA RingFenced by your own Enterprise Blockchain S4HANA does not expose any APIs directly to 3rd Party Companies Ultimate Cyber Security - atkrypto.io

Read on for the full story... 🚀

Introduction

The reason I am so interested in this is I have been securing availability and accessibility of SAP systems for the last 25 years, and back in 2013 I wrote this blog about "Alternatives for Securing Internet Facing Applications".

There is so much to talk about on this subject, let's get in to it. Back in 2013 at a Customer, we were looking at Ring Fencing critical systems.

Back then the focus was on DeCoupling the SAP system where End User access was required from people coming in from the Internet, infact the reasons for the RingFencing were centered around:

Access - Authentication & Authorisation
Storage of Data
Communication Channels
DeCoupling especially for Internet Collaboration

The DeCoupling for Internet Collaboration was based around SAP's SAP PLM Reference Architecture,

and the SAP PLM Technical System Landscape recommendation:

Fast forward to today, and SAP Customers have the luxury that the worry of securing End User Internet Access to their SAP systems is outsourced to SAP through the implementation of the SAP BTP Build Work Zone Launchpad. It should not go unnoticed that when you implement the SAP BTP Build Work Zone Launchpad Service, you also don't have to care for Web Access Firewalls and the Security of Internet Access.

But what about API's, what about System to System, Machine to Machine ? What about Integrations ? What about when Non-SAP Applications in your Company or other Companies need data from the S/4HANA ?

S/4HANA has a rich collection of API's which is always growing, but, should Applications from your Partner Companies call API end points on the S/4HANA Digital Core ?

Should 3rd Party Applications, and 3rd Party Partner's Applications be directly accessing the Digital Core S/4HANA API's ?

Regardless of whether the S/4HANA is an [Any]OnPremise, S/4HANA RISE Private Cloud Edition, S/4HANA Public Cloud Edition, should 3rd Party Applications be allowed to directly call API's on your S/4HANA ?

Let's take the S/4HANA Business Partner API, should Applications from your Partner Companies be allowed/able to call this API on your Digital Core S/4HANA to retrieve changes to Business Partner Data ?

Legacy API Integrations calling S4HANA API and Replicating Data to 3rd Party Company Applications - atkrypto.io

If you have doubts or think the answer is no, then read on, there is a solution, it is very nice, and very easy, and very secure.

One of the biggest Cyber Security threats to your Data and therefore your Operations and therefore your Business, is allowing 3rd Party Applications from 3rd Party Companies to call Data from API's on your S/4HANA Digital Core, and then, replicate your Data to Servers in their Company.

As ever, the pattern is the same, the theme is the same,

it's all about the Data

what are the security, sensitivity, confidentiality, availability, criticality requirements of the Data

Like the other blogs in this series, this blog is going to break the subject down in to three sections:

Section 1.0: The What is it of RingFencing and DeCoupling S/4HANA, and Enterprise Blockchain

Section 2.0: The Why is it, of RingFencing and DeCoupling S/4HANA, and Enterprise Blockchain

Section 3.0: The How is it, of RingFencing and DeCoupling S/4HANA, and Enterprise Blockchain

In case you missed them, the previous blogs in this series are here:

Why I love SAP and Blockchain Databases and why you should too 🚀

SAP Enterprise Architecture: Positioning Blockchain Database as an Enterprise Technology Standard 🚀

SAP Enterprise Architecture: Let the Use Case find the Blockchain 🚀

Oil & Gas - Ultimate Data Security - Blockchain Data Backbone from OT to SAP IT 🚀

The What Is... The Why To... The How To... of: ESG & SAP & Enterprise Blockchain 🚀

BCP: Business Continuity Planning for SAP S/4HANA - made easy with Enterprise Blockchain 🚀

Trustable AI thanks to - SAP AI Core & SAP HANA Cloud & SAP S/4HANA & Enterprise Blockchain 🚀

IoT - Ultimate Data Cyber Security - with Enterprise Blockchain and SAP BTP 🚀

B2B Business Processes - Ultimate Cyber Data Security - with Blockchain and SAP BTP 🚀

Section 1.0: The What is it of RingFencing and DeCoupling S/4HANA, and Enterprise Blockchain

What is RingFencing ? There is a very nice description here:

RingFencing is about isolating Data, away from the most important SAP system, the S/4HANA Digital Core.

DeCoupling, the word DeCoupling has a number of meanings in Enterprise IT. What we are talking about here in the case of the S/4HANA Digital Core and Data access by 3rd Party Company Applications is that we are DeCoupling the Data access away from directly on the S/4HANA, by DeCoupling we are making the S/4HANA Data indirectly accessible.

It can be thought that if we are RingFencing, or Isolating, or DeCoupling the S/4HANA Data away from the S/4HANA then we are creating another copy of the Data, another Replica of the Data, which is true, we are, and that is the same as when Data is replicated to 3rd Party Systems via API, whichever way you look at it, the ultimate goal is a Replica of the S/4HANA Data which is available and accessible to the 3rd Party Company Application for the reasons of that Application of Business Transaction.

We can replicate the Data using an S/4HANA API to the 3rd Party Company Application and lose all control of the Data and also have to deal with how to secure Authentication and Authorisation and Network Access to the API, or we can replicate to our own RingFenced isolated trusted location.

SAP S4HANA RingFenced DeCoupled Data Cyber Security Principles - atkrypto.io

What about the Enterprise Blockchain, what is Enterprise Blockchain ?

Enterprise Blockchain is:

. a Secure Store

. a Secure Communication Channel

. A Common Shared Single Source of Truth in your Organisation and across Organisations

. The next generation Data Integration is about having a Common Shared Single Source of Truth

McKinsey & Company, in their December 2023 Featured Insights Publication, gave a beautiful description of what is unique and special about Blockchain, "Blockchain is a secure database shared across a network of participants, where up-to-date information is available to all participants at the same time". If we just pause for a moment and let that sink in, and think about what that means, to Business Processes, to Collaboration, to System Resilience, we start to see what is so special about Blockchain Databases and Distributed Ledger Technology.

In these previous blogs, I made a deep dive in to what Enterprise Blockchain is and why we should be positioning it in our Enterprise Architecture:

Why I love SAP and Blockchain Databases and why you should too 🚀

SAP Enterprise Architecture: Positioning Blockchain Database as an Enterprise Technology Standard 🚀

SAP Enterprise Architecture: Let the Use Case find the Blockchain 🚀

S4HANA RingFenced by Enterprise Blockchain S4HANA does not expose any APIs directly to 3rd Party Companies Ultimate Cyber Security - atkrypto.io

and in a nutshell, Enterprise Blockchain is:

. The Digital Transformation of Information Security into Cyber Security

. The Next Generation Data Integrity, Originality, Confidentiality Protection

. Re-imagining Information Security

. Natively, out of the box, due to its special characteristics the strongest, hardest, most resilient Enterprise Database product

To wrap up this section:

. RingFencing is about isolating and protecting Data

. Enterprise Blockchain is about Cyber Security of Data

Section 2.0: The Why is it, of RingFencing and DeCoupling S/4HANA, and Enterprise Blockchain

Why would we want to RingFence and DeCouple S/4HANA, the Digital Core from 3rd Party systems which legitimately need S/4HANA Data ?

The answer is simple, Cyber Security, Cyber Threats.

Not so long ago, the focus was on High Availability and Disaster Recovery, the biggest threat was the system going down and not coming back.

Today, things have changed, and the biggest threat is a malicious actor rendering our business Data unusable.

Today we know we can buy new servers, we know we can get a Data Center up and running, but how do we repair Data which has been maliciously rendered unusable ? Think about the Ransomware attack.

So what is ring fencing and why do we need to do it ?

Ring Fencing is about reducing exposure to Cyber Threats.

What are the biggest easiest ways that we can reduce exposure to Cyber Threat ?

Stop 3rd Party Companies from calling API's on the S/4HANA Digital Core.

Stop publishing API's for 3rd Party Application access on the S/4HANA Digital Core.

Stop doing this:

Do you really want 3rd Party Companies calling APIs on your Digital Core - atkrypto.io

And what's the solution ?

The solution is the Enterprise Blockchain as the Common Data Back Bone across Companies.

Instead of replicating and sending the Data to your Business Partner, you write the S/4HANA Data to the Enterprise Blockchain.

This is like pick your own strawberries, instead of sending your Partners the strawberries, you tell your Partner the strawberries are ready and which field they are in and you let your Partners pick the strawberries themselves from the Enterprise Blockchain.

S/4HANA Data Events write the Data to the Enterprise Blockchain and S/4HANA Notification Events notify the Partner that something has happened, then, instead of calling an API on your SAP S/4HANA, the Partner then calls the API of the Enterprise Blockchain and Reads the Data from there.

The Enterprise Blockchain Database software is running on your SAP BTP Kyma Runtime and in your Partner's Servers, therefore, creating natively, out of the box, the most secure and resilient common shared single source of truth. Your have a Distributed Ledger running from your SAP BTP to the Partner's Servers.

Therefore, S/4HANA Data Event Writes to the Enterprise Blockchain as the Common Shared Single Source of Truth across the Organisations, and the S/4HANA Notification Event notifies the Partner that something has happened and that they should call the Enterprise Blockchain API to get the Data of what has happened.

And as will be explained later in the blog, it's not only about the Enterprise Blockchain being a common shared source of truth across organisations, it's about digitally decoupling the S/4HANA from 3rd Party System Integrations and gradually ring fencing the S/4HANA away from being directly accessed by 3rd Party Systems as it is today with API's.

Imagine, as described in the previous blog, when we let the Use Case find the Enterprise Blockchain, we have a Business Requirement, a Business Demand, to make Data for B2B Business Process the safest it can be, the most trustable that it can be.

When we look in our Enterprise Technology Standards, and we look for the Technology Standard in our Enterprise Portfolio which is positioned to bring the strongest protection to Data, we find the Enterprise Blockchain.

Comparison Enterprise Blockchain Database and Traditional Legacy Database - atkrypto.io

In the previous blogs, we have discussed in detail about the special characteristics of Enterprise Blockchain and just why it natively out of the box protects the integrity of data to a level that legacy database products cannot do, in a nutshell....

B2B Business Processes are about Data

B2B Business Processes are about the Data that goes from your S/4HANA outside the boundaries of your Company and your Network and to Partner Company's Applications and Networks and Databases.

This means B2B Business Processes are about Data and the Data depends on a Database or a Datastore

What kind of Database do B2B Business Processes Data need ? What capabilities does the Database for the B2B Business Processes Data need to have ?

1. It must not be possible to modify the Data in the Database ]- the Database needs to be immutable

2. The Data in the Database, the integrity and originality of that Data must be protected to the highest level that is technically possible

3. The Data must be available with the highest availability, the Database must be resilient to attack

4. The Database must be running simutaneously in your DataCenter and your Business Partner's DataCenter

5. S/4HANA must not expose any API's to Business Partner Companies

When we look in our Enterprise Technology Standards we find 1 Technology Standard in the Enterprise which has those capabilities, and that is..... Enterprise Blockchain

Enterprise Blockchain ticks those boxes...

Immutable - tick that box

Integrity must be protected to the highest level - tick that box, thanks to the Enterprise Blockchain Hash Mechanism and the Enterprise Blockchain Consensus Mechanism

Highest level of resilience and availability - tick that box thanks to the Distributed and Decentralised nature of the Enterprise Blockchain DeCouples S/4HANA from the process, no need to S/4HANA API's to be exposed to 3rd Party Business Partner's Applications

This is why, Enterprise Blockchain is the enabler of trustable outcomes from Enterprise B2B Business Processes.

atkrypto.io what is a blockchain

But there's more than that, B2B Business Processes can produce a lot of data, and the volumes of data can be big.

And this is why, in this blog we take the Enterprise Blockchain Technology story one level further and we introduce the:

Enterprise Blockchain Wallet

Off-Chain Data Storage

In the Enterprise Blockchain Platforms, the Enterprise Blockchain Wallet is used for Off-Chain storage of big data and in the following paragraphs we will explain why.

What is the Enterprise Blockchain Wallet, and what is Off-Chain Data Storage and why would we use them and why do we need them ?

As we have explained in a previous blog, the Enterprise Blockchain Database, the Distributed Ledger, can be looked at simply as a Database Table (which is replicated and synchronised across multiple Servers) and in principle it stores the Data like this:

Blockchain is a very simple form of database atkrypto.io

This is fine, and suited to what we call Structured Data, and as AWS nicely describe, Structured Data is information like words and numbers. This kind of data is perfectly suited to being stored in an Enterprise Blockchain Database and also a legacy Database. Examples of the data would Names, Addresses, Phone Numbers, Product Information etc.

But, Payroll can produce a lot of Data, and in large volumes which would be too big to be stored on the Enterprise Blockchain Database itself.

And that's ok, Enterprise Blockchain Platforms are ready for that, and have been designed to store both Structured Data and Data which is in files which are so big that they cannot be stored in the Enterprise Blockchain Database itself, for example the photographs from a Waste Truck's onboard camera proving that waste was responsibly tipped in the correct location and taken at the same time as recording GPS location coordinates proving the location of the Waste Truck.

So, if we can't store the large photographs files in large quantities to the Enterprise Blockchain Database, then how, in an Enterprise Blockchain Platform do we store large files of Data ?

Voila.... bring in the Enterprise Blockchain Platform Wallet. The best Enterprise Blockchain Platform products include what is called the Enterprise Blockchain Platform Wallet, or to make it shorter, the Enterprise Blockchain Wallet.

The Enterprise Blockchain Wallet enables us to store large Data, like large Files safely and securely off the chain, or 'Off-Chain'.

But if we store the large Data files Off-Chain in the Enterprise Blockchain Wallet, then how do we also have them some how on the Enterprise Blockchain Database ?

The way this works is elegant, in any decent Enterprise Blockchain Platform, the Enterprise Blockchain Wallet location is completely configurable, and could be anywhere from SAP HANA Cloud (Data Lake), or for example multiple hyperscaler object stores, such as Amazon S3, OSS (Alicloud Object Storage
Service), SAP HANA Cloud, Data Lake, and Azure Blob Storage.

The configurable Enterprise Blockchain Wallet of the Enterprise Blockchain Platform looks like this:

Enterprise Blockchain Platform - Enterprise Blockchain Wallets - Configurable Enterprise Wallets - atkrypto.io

Ok, so we've got the large volumes of Data stored in the (configurable) Enterprise Blockchain Wallet, but what about securing the Data ? Obviously the Enterprise Blockchain Wallet storage location has built in security, for example the SAP HANA Cloud, the AWS S3 Buckets, but we need more than the out of the box security of these products, the reason we are using the Enterprise Blockchain Database is because of the amazing security strengths that it natively out of the box has, and so, what about the Enterprise Blockchain Wallet, doesn't the Enterprise Blockchain Platform have some cool super hard way of protecting the data in the Enterprise Blockchain Wallet ?

Well yes it does, this is the magic of Enterprise Blockchain Database 'Off-Chain' storage in the Enterprise Blockchain Wallet. This is so unique to Blockchain Technologies.

What happens is this, when store data in the Enterprise Blockchain Wallet, the Enterprise Blockchain Platform software runs a hash algorithm over the data that we have stored and the data, and the large file gets hashed:

The data or the file in the Enterprise Blockchain Wallet gets hashed, and then, that hash is stored in the Enterprise Blockchain Database.

This means we now have a unique hash of that data or file, and if anybody or anything makes even the tiniest teeniest change to that data or file, next time we run a hash over that data or file the result will be different that the original hash which is safely stored in the Enterprise Blockchain Database and this is how we will know that the data has been changed and we cannot trust the Data and therefore we cannot use it for our Enterprise Business Processes.

On the other hand, if just before we load the data in to the SAP Enterprise Applications, eg SAP Asset Performance Management and SAP S/4HANA, from the Enterprise Blockchain Wallet, if we run a hash over the data and the hash result is the same as we have in the Enterprise Blockchain Database, then we will know we can trust the Data and we can use it in our SAP Applications and we will have trustable Data.

Enterprise Blockchain Wallet Data Hashes Stored in the Enterprise Blockchain Database - atkrypto.io

And this is why, for all of these reasons,

Ring Fencing S/4HANA Digital Core depends on Data being stored in the Enterprise Blockchain

But that's not the end of the Ring Fencing need Enterprise Blockchain.

As we showed at the beginning of the blog in this picture:

S4HANA RingFenced by Enterprise Blockchain S4HANA does not expose any APIs directly to 3rd Party Companies Ultimate Cyber Security - atkrypto.io

As the picture shows, we have an Enterprise Blockchain Database Tenant installed on a Server Host at the in your DataCenter, in your Network on your SAP BTP Kyma Service AND we have an Enterprise Blockchain Database Tenant installed on your B2B Business Partner's Network, if they are a SAP Customer then like you they can put it on the SAP BTP Kyma Service, if not they can run it on Kubernetes.

The consequence of this is that we have a distributed Enterprise Blockchain Database table which stretches from your DataCenter and Network where your S/4HANA is writing Data to it and stretches all the way across the Network to your Business Partner's DataCenter.

This means we have Ring Fenced S/4HANA with Enterprise Blockchain Data Protection from the source from your S/4HANA to the target your B2B Business Partner's It infrastructure enabling the trusted resilient reliable Business Processes to be completed.

At the same time, we are not exposing S/4HANA or the API's on the S/4HANA to any 3rd Party Applications.

We have Ring Fenced and digitally decoupled the S/4HANA Data and Access from the Business Process.

And this is why we say, Enterprise Blockchain is a Secure Communication Channel, because instead of integrating Applications sending and replicating Data across Networks, we are sharing the Data across the Enterprise Blockchain and the Enterprise Blockchain is the Secure Communication Channel.

To conclude this section, the Why to, B2B Ring Fencing S/4HANA and Enterprise Blockchain, B2B Business Process Data needs to safely replicated and trustable.

Enterprise Blockchain, due to its native super strong security strength when used as a store of Data enables B2B Business Processes to be both Secure, and Trustable.

And as we will see in the next section, it's not only about the Enterprise Blockchain being a common shared source of truth across Organisations, it's about Ring Fencing and digitally decoupling the S/4HANA and removing the attack surface from 3rd Party System Integrations and gradually ring fencing the S/4HANA away from being directly accessed by 3rd Party Systems as it is today with API's.

Section 3.0: The How is it, of RingFencing and DeCoupling S/4HANA, and Enterprise Blockchain

The goal of this blog was to show how instead of using the legacy fire and forget approach of replicating data to 3rd Party Business Partners, the Enterprise Blockchain can be deployed as a common shared single source of truth running, with an Enterprise Blockchain Tenant running close to your S/4HANA and another Enterprise Blockchain Tenant running close to your Business Partner's Application. Thus Ring Fencing and Digitally DeCoupling S/4HANA Digital Core and bringing the highest level of Cyber Security and attacked surface reduction.

In this section of the blog we will show all of the possible potential Technical Solution Architectures which will enable you to implement this next generation approach to sharing Data with the highest level of Cyber Security already today.

As described above one of the many beauties of this approach is your S/4HANA writes to the Enterprise Blockchain and your Business Partner's Application reads from the same Enterprise Blockchain. This achieves a number of things including:

. Total Control - you have total control over the Data you are sharing with the Business Partner, and you know that as long as your Business Partner's Application reads the Data from the common shared source, the Enterprise Blockchain

. Ultimate Cyber Security - then you know the maximum has been done to minimise the S/4HANA attack surface and the chance for Cyber Security risks and the maximum has been done to protect originality, integrity, and confidentiality of the Data

. S/4HANA Ring Fenced and Digitally DeCoupled from the Business Process - and on top of this, the S/4HANA has been digitally disconnected from the Business Process, because no longer do any 3rd Party Applications directly call API's on the S/4HANA

In the Technical Solution Archecture there would be two main ways for getting the data from the S/4HANA and writing it to the Enterprise Blockchain, these would be:

. API's

. Events

In these Technical Solution Architecture examples we will prioritise using S/4HANA Events to write the Data to the Enterprise Blockchain, we will be sending the Event Notification and the Event Payload, we could of course draw the same Technical Solution Architecture with API's, but we prefer the Events for the simplicity and reduced call backs to the S/4HANA and therefore making the S/4HANA more Ring Fenced and Digitally DeCoupled and therefore, enabling the S/4HANA to be protected to the higher security level and exposed to less Cyber Security risk.

Ok, let's go with the Technical Solution Architectures, in these examples we will focus on the OutSourced Payroll as the integration and B2B Business Process Example.

What do we have and what do we need:

Your Company will need:

. S/4HANA

. SAP EM and preferably SAP AEM since it has richer Security and Event Payload size capabilities and can Publish Events from Non-SAP Enterprise Applications and connect to your Enterprise Event Mesh

. SAP BTP

. SAP BTP Kyma Runtime Service - this is where the Enterprise Blockchain Container will run

. Enterprise Blockchain Platform Software which can run on Kubernetes

. If there will be larger Data objects then you will need Large Storage for Large Data and the Enterprise Blockchain Wallet in the form of SAP HANA Cloud (Data Lake)

Your Business Partner will need:

. Obviously their Payroll Application

. Either SAP BTP with Kyma Runtime, or Servers which can run Kubernetes Containers

. n.b. there is an Optional Technical Solution Architecture where you simply allow your Business Partner to read data from your Enterprise Blockchain where the Enterprise Blockchain Platform is running exclusively on your BTP, we will show that Option as well

Technical Reference Solution Architecture for SAP S/4HANA and SAP SuccessFactors and OutSourced 3rd Party Payroll Provider using Enterprise Blockchain as a Common Shared Single Source of Truth for Data and the Ultimate Cyber Data Security for B2B Business Processes...

OutSourced Payroll Process B2B Business Processes with S4HANA and Ultimate Data Cyber Security thanks to Enterprise Blockchain atkrypto.io

In the next example, we have the same basic Technical Solution Architecture as the previous example, except, this Reference Use Case is ready for the Enterprise Blockchain needed to be able to handle large volumes of data and brings the Enterprise Wallet in to the picture. In the Enterprise Blockchain Platform the Enterprise Wallet storage is configurable and therefore could be SAP HANA Cloud (DataLake) or AWS S3 Buckets or other HyperScaler Data stores.

All of the other Cyber Security characteristics remain the same, S/4 is ring fenced and digitally decoupled from the Business Partner, Enterprise Blockchain is used as a common shared single source of truth for Master and Transactional Data, and the Enterprise Blockchain Tenants are running in both your DataCenter (AnyPremise) and the Business Partner's DataCenter (AnyPremise):

OutSourced Payroll Process B2B Business Processes with S4HANA and Ultimate Data Cyber Security thanks to Enterprise Blockchain & Enterprise Wallet atkrypto.io

The next example Reference Technical Solution Architecture is a little bit different, let's assume, for their own reasons, your Business Partner is not going to run an Enterprise Blockchain Tenant in their (AnyPremise) DataCenter.

This is still fine, you will set up the Enterprise Blockchain Platform in your DataCenter(s) (AnyPremise) and your B2B Business Partner, in this case the outsourced 3rd Party Payroll Vendor will simply use API's to read and write to and from your Enterprise Blockchain.

All of the other benefits of the design remain the same, all of the other next generation Data sharing Cyber Security characteristics are still there, S/4 is ring fenced and digitally decoupled from the Business Partner, Enterprise Blockchain is used as a common shared single source of truth for Master and Transactional Data.

Here it is:

OutSourced Payroll Process B2B Business Processes with S4HANA and Ultimate Data Cyber Security thanks to your Enterprise Blockchain atkrypto.io

Finally, we have the same Reference Technical Architecture as above, but to be able to cater for large volumes of Data we include the Enterprise Wallet in the design.

Ok let's wrap this up, the conclusions:

Ring Fencing the S/4HANA Digital Core substantially raises the Cyber Security and reduces the attack surface for 3rd Party Attackers, Ultimate Cyber Security for Ring Fencing S/4HANA is the Enterprise Blockchain, where the Enterprise Blockchain acts a common shared single source of truth for Data across Organisations

Enterprise Blockchain is:

. Ring Fencing and Digitally DeCoupling the S/4HANA Digital Core

. A Secure Store of Data

. A Secure Communication Channel for Data

. A Common Shared Single Source of Truth in your Organisation and across Organisations

. The next generation Data Integration is about having a Common Shared Single Source of Truth

The next generation Integrations don't allow direct access to API's published in the S/4HANA and replicate Data, that's legacy, the next generation Integrations use Enterprise Blockchain as a common shared single source of truth.

The configurable Enterprise Blockchain Wallet enables you to store Big Data 'Off-Chain' and the hashes of the Data are stored safely and securely on the Enterprise Blockchain Database.

The good news is, as we discussed in the previous blog, this is no longer hype, we can do all of this today, and now, within the SAP Partner Edge Open EcoSystem there are enabling technology Blockchain Products designed and built by SAP Experts specifically for the needs of SAP Customers to make doing Blockchain and SAP easy, and so you can do SAP and Blockchain, today it's real and there's nothing stopping you.

So what are we waiting for ? Oh yeah, deep dive in to more use cases, ok, that will be the next blog.

What do you think, are the words Blockchain, Web3, Distributed Ledger Technology, starting to appear in your Company's visions and technology visions ? What use cases are you looking at ? Let's chat about it in the comments.

For now, over and out.

Andy Silvey.

Independent SAP Technical Architect and CEO of atkrypto.io

Author Bio:

Andy Silvey is a 25 years SAP Technology veteran [15 years SAP Basis and 10 years SAP Tech Arch including Tech, Integration, Security, Data from 3.1H to S/4HANA PCE on RISE and the BTP and everything in between, and former SCN Moderator and Mentor alumni].

Andy is also co-Founder of atkrypto inc, an startup whose ambition is to make Blockchain easy for Enterprise.

atkrypto.io's flagship product is the atkrypto Enterprise Blockchain Platform for SAP, and atkrypto.io is a SAP Partner Edge Open EcoSystem Partner.

The atkrypto Enterprise Blockchain Platform for SAP has been designed by SAP Independent Experts for the needs of SAP Customers and to be deployed on the SAP BTP Kyma Runtime Service and leverage native integration to SAP Products.

atkrypto Enterprise Blockchain Platform for SAP has a number of unique qualities, including being the only Blockchain software in the world which has a DataCenter version and a light mobile version which can run on Edge/IoT/Mobile devices and enables data to be written to the Blockchain at the Edge where that same Blockchain is running on a Server in the DataCenter, protecting the integrity and originality of data from the Edge to Insights. Taking Blockchain to the Data at the Edge instead of taking the Data to the Blockchain.

All of this makes atkrypto,io the DePIN Decentralised Physical Infrastructure Network solution for Enterprise.

atkrypto is one of the Next20 startups being featured at TM Forum's DTW Ignite in Copenhagen in June

If you will be at DTW24 come and talk to us about Cyber Security of SAP Data with Enterprise Blockchain.

SAP Cloud Application Services - Technical and Operational Support for SAP S/4HANA private Cloud

2024-05-16T08:55:31.106000+02:00

What is SAP Cloud Application Services?

SAP Cloud Application Services (CAS) are technical service subscriptions for SAP private cloud contracts. Designed to supplement existing SAP cloud services, it simplifies the operation of the SAP solution landscape.

Role of SAP Cloud Application Services in Operating SAP Software in the Private Cloud

The technical services aim to enhance the operation and maintenance of SAP software in customers private cloud. With these services, customers get to enjoy the benefit of a smoothly run, constantly updated system, not unlike having a dedicated team ensuring all the gym equipment working flawlessly and effectively. So SAP customers can focus fully on their fitness.

What are the detailed SAP Cloud Application Services Packages?

Depending on the operational needs, SAP offers two types of SAP Cloud Application Services - predefined fixed packages and customer specific tailored packages. Be it everyday administrative tasks or highly specialized support, the respective services cater for all and can be tailored depending specific needs.

The following graphic illustrates CAS packages.

Who Manages SAP Cloud Application Services?

The Client Delivery Manager (CDM)

As customer, you can count on your direct contact, the CDM, for successful service implementation. From observing Service Level Agreement (SLA) standards to timely service progress reports and proactive suggestions, the CDM collaborates closely with your team and SAP CAS resources. CDMs also administrate or request additional services or support the Renewal-Process.

Service Desk

This is the hub for the processing of all SAP CAS tickets that promises service delivery within agreed service hours. The Service Desk seamlessly integrates with SAP's service and support offerings, especially in SAP Enterprise Support, Cloud Edition.

Service Delivery

This is the customer-assigned delivery team which takes charge of managing issues, change requests, service requests, consulting, continuous improvement and monitoring activities with expert understanding of customers SAP landscapes.

See here an illustration for the customer interfaces and working model:

Examples of SAP Cloud Application Services, Fixed Scope Packages

Release Version Upgrade

Planning an upgrade? Expect comprehensive end-to-end project planning, resource relief, and seamless upgrade management.

Functional Application Management

Benefit from continuous and bespoke SAP solution and business process support based on Service Level Agreements for

Incident Management,
Problem Management,
Change Management und
Service Request Management.

Advanced Security and Compliance

This pre-designed Cloud Application Services package aids in managing user master records and roles in accordance with SAP Best Practices – all geared towards improved user and system security.

See here an overview of SAP Cloud Application Services, Fixed Scope Packages.

SAP Cloud Application Services - Custom Tailored Offerings

The diverse portfolio including different services like functional application management, deployment, or data lifecycle management. Much more can be customized to meet your unique needs. See the following graphic for an overview:

What are the Benefits of SAP Cloud Application Services?

SAP Cloud Application Services helps SAP customers in taking care of their infrastructures and solutions. To summarize, they

are easy to plan, as they deliver clearly defined services at fixed annual prices.
make SAP your partner for infrastructure and solution management based on defined requirements ensuring End-to-End governance.
offer a flexible scope of services, delegating technical and functional services to SAP and changes can easily be done via adaptions.
are available globally and can be adapted to regional, language and industry-specific requirements.

Additional information on SAP Cloud Application Services

find more on the sap.com page: SAP Cloud Application Services

(The article originally was created by my colleague Patricia Gantert in german language).

Custom Analytical Queries as an alternative for LIS in SAP S/4HANA Production Planning (PP)

2024-05-16T09:05:24.136000+02:00

Level 1: Easy; 15 minutes read & 15 minutes example exercise.
Audience: Subject Matter Experts – SAP PP (S/4HANA Private Cloud)
Author: Pramodh K.T , SAP S/4HANA Private Cloud Products Manufacturing (PP)

1. Introduction

In this blog, we will compare the information which is available in CDS (Core Data Service) views against LIS (Logistics Information System) & SFIS (Shop Floor Information System) with reference to Production Planning. We will also discuss how we can use S/4HANA Extensibility features to write queries using standard CDS views and use them to create Analytical reports as an alternative to LIS.
You can jump to Point#5 to view an example in order to skip the background.

2. LIS Background

In the Logistics Information System (LIS) data can be analyzed based on statistical data, which is contained in "information structures". Important key figures are directly updated from the operative application to the information structures.

The shop floor information system (SFIS) is part of the logistics information system LIS which can be used to compare planned vs. actual parameters like lead time, execution time, queue times, scrap, and so on.

Historically, following LIS tables (mentioned below) were used for standard or custom reports in Production Planning

LIS Table	Description
S021	SFIS: Order Item Data for Material
S022	SFIS: Order Operation Data for Work Center
S023	SFIS: Totals Records for Material
S024	Totals Records for Work Center
S026	Material Usage

Future of LIS

The above-mentioned LIS tables will not be available in future in S/4HANA because:

i. LIS operates on redundant data. Every business transaction not only updates the business documents, but also pre- data in LIS. Performance suffers, locking conflicts might occur, and memory is wasted.
ii. LIS operates on pre-aggregated data. It is not possible to drill down into the individual business documents. Multi-dimensional reporting (aka Slicing and dicing) is only possible for dimensions provided in the pre-aggregated data.
iii. LIS uses an old UI technology making multi-dimensional reporting clumsy.

More information on this, can be found in Note 2268063 - S4TWL - Logistic Information System in PP

This Note also mentions the following:Future production analytics will be based on HANA, CDS views aggregating transactional data dynamically, and powerful analytical UIs for multi-dimensional reporting. With this it will be possible to replace the current LIS. You will be able to use classic LIS and the future production analytics in parallel for some time as long as you do not switch off the update of the LIS tables (Functionality is available in SAP S/4HANA on-premise edition delivery but not considered as future technology).

With reference to the above point, we want to explain how S/4HANA Private Cloud Customers can create Custom analytical queries for PP using S/4HANA Key-User Extensibility feature (In further sections below)

4. S/4HANA Key-User Extensibility (Background)

Before going into the details of creating Analytical Queries, we would like to briefly introduce S/4HANA Key-User Extensibility.

Extensibility is a key capability of SAP S/4HANA. It enables customers to create a competitive advantage by customizing their business processes and allows customer s & partners to enrich core with tailor-made solutions. In-lined with cloud strategy, SAP S/4HANA provides a new upgrade-stable cloud extensibility model that clearly separates SAP code and extensions via public SAP APIs and SAP extension points.

SAP partners and customers have been traditionally building extensions on SAP ECC system using ABAP code. However, with SAP S/4HANA and customer’s digital transformation journey towards cloud, we need a more robust yet loosely coupled extensibility model.

SAP S/4HANA provides a new upgrade-stable cloud extensibility model that clearly separates SAP code and extensions via mandatory public SAP APIs and SAP extension points.

This cloud extensibility model consists of:
i. Key-user extensibility
ii. Developer Extensibility (Embedded Steampunk)
iii. Side-by-side extensions on SAP BTP

What is Key user (in-app) extensibility?

Key user extensibility empowers business experts to build extensions to SAP S/4HANA Cloud mostly without a single line of code.

Target Persona – Key Users

Key users typically have deep knowledge of SAP business and process but no or only limited coding skills.

With the provided key user tools , the key user can achieve the following use-cases:

i. Adapt the screen layout such as moving fields and field groups, hiding fields, changing labels etc.
ii. Add custom fields to business objects. The custom field is then available in the entire application stack (from the UI to the database tables or for developer extensibility).
iii. Add custom business objects to handle custom data with very little coding efforts.
iv. Add custom logic to validate the custom fields using cloud BAdIs.
v. Add custom Core Data Service (CDS) views to create APIs, Analytical Queries etc..
vi. Add custom Analytical Queries to use data in analytical applications (reports, KPIs, ...)

5. S/4HANA Extensibility (Custom Analytical Queries) as an alternative for LIS Data Analysis

As part of S/4HANA Key-User extensibility, we will use 2 key user tools to replace LIS Data analysis in PP

i. Custom CDS Views: To create CDS queries from standard SAP released CDS Views. More about this tool available here.
ii. Custom Analytical Queries: To create Analytical Reports to Slice & Dice data based on required dimensions & measures. More about this tool available here.

6. Example: How to re-create S021 - SFIS: Order Item Data for Material (Using Extensibility)

As an example, we will cover how to create Analytics for LIS: S021 - SFIS: Order Item Data for Material, which will be split into following parts:
i. Create Custom CDS Views
ii. Create Analytical Cube
iii. Create Analytical Query
iv. Publish Fiori App

Note: Before starting the steps, ensure the following:

a. ATO Setup: Ensure that Extensibility is enabled in your S/4HANA Private Cloud system by completing necessary ATO setup, please refer ATO Setup guide – You can contact BASIS team to assist with this setup.

b. Fiori App configurations: Implementation pre-requisites are completed for the following Fiori apps:
i. Custom CDS Views
ii. Custom Analytical Queries
iii. View Browser

c. Extensibility Authorizations: To create custom CDS view, you need to have the administration level access and BASIS team needs to create a role with the authorizations shown below and assign the role to user ID.

Once above pre-requisites are completed, let us move on to the steps:

Steps Overview:

Please note that in some of the requirements, SAP would have already provided a released CDS which is of type Analytical Cube (Step 2) or Analytical Query (Step 3). In such cases, you can start from the subsequent steps.

As per the date when this Blog is published, In our example LIS S021 - SAP does not have a released CDS of type Analytical Cube or Analytical Query, hence we will start from Step 1.

Step1: Create Custom CDS Views (Base View):

In this step, we will take an SAP released CDS View that matches with our LIS requirement S021.

As of S/4HANA Private Cloud release 2022 , CDS View I_ManufacturingOrderItem has most of the required data/columns for LIS S021, we shall create a Custom CDS view using the same.

a. Open app “Custom CDS Views”

b. Once app is opened, Follow Steps:

1. On the table toolbar/header, click on Create
2. In corresponding Popup, enter Label, CDS Name & select Scenario “Standard CDS View”
3. Click on “Create”

c. In “Primary Data Source” selection:

1. Search for “I_ManufacturingOrderItem”
2. Select the line corresponding to I_ManufacturingOrderItem to add this CDS as a Primary Data Source.

d. Once Primary Data Source is selected:

1. Switch to “Elements” tab
2. Select Add -> Elements

e. In the “Select: Elements” popup, add the following elements

1. Search for “Product”
2. Select/Check the Product under “I_ManufacturingOrderItem”

Similarly add the following Elements under “I_ManufacturingOrderItem” (Mapped against corresponding LIS S021 Table Field).

LIS S021		CDS: I_ManufacturingOrderItem
Field	Label	Element
MATNR	Material Number	PRODUCT
FTRMS	Scheduled release date	MFGORDERSCHEDULEDRELEASEDATE
FTRMI	Actual release date	MFGORDERACTUALRELEASEDATE
GSTRP	Basic start date	MFGORDERPLANNEDSTARTDATE
GSTRS	Scheduled start	MFGORDERSCHEDULEDSTARTDATE
GSTRI	Actual start date	MFGORDERACTUALSTARTDATE
GLTRP	Basic Finish Date	MFGORDERPLANNEDENDDATE
GLTRS	Scheduled finish	MFGORDERSCHEDULEDENDDATE
GLTRI	Actual finish date	MFGORDERACTUALENDDATE
PGMNG	Planned Total Order Quantity	PLNDORDERPLANNEDTOTALQTY
PSMNG	Order Item Planned Total Quantity	MFGORDERITEMPLANNEDTOTALQTY
WEMNG	Quantity of Goods Received for the Order Item	MFGORDERITEMGOODSRECEIPTQTY
PAMNG	Planned Scrap Quantity	PLNDORDERPLANNEDSCRAPQTY
PSAMG	Order Item Planned Scrap Quantity	MFGORDERITEMPLANNEDSCRAPQTY
IAMNG	Expected Surplus/Deficit For Goods Receipt	MFGORDERITEMACTUALDEVIATIONQTY

Note:
• Elements “ManufacturingOrder” & “ManufacturingOrderItem” are already added as Keys from your Primary data source, hence we have not added in above list.
• Unit of Measures for Quantity fields such as “BaseUnit” & “ProductionUnit” are added automatically, Hence we have not added any UOMs in above list.
• You can also add any other Elements from I_ManufacturingOrderItem necessary for your Data Analysis.

f. Add Element “ProductionPlant” from “_MfgOrder”

Similarly add Element “CreationDate” from “_MfgOrder”

g. Verify selected Items

1. Ensure that all required Elements are selected and shown in the “Selected Items”.
2. Click on “Ok” to add them to the Custom CDS View

h. Check CDS View:

1. Click on “Check” button
2. Ensure that the status is set to “Check Successful”

i. Publish CDS view:

1. Click on “Publish” to release view for further usages
2. Ensure the status is changed to “Published Successfully”

Step2: Create CDS Analytical Cube

a. Open app “Create Custom CDS” again

b. Once app is opened, create the view

1. On the table toolbar/header, click on Create
2. In corresponding Popup, enter Label, CDS Name & select Scenario “Standard CDS View”
3. Click on “Create”

c. In the Primary Data Source, select the Base CDS View

1. Search for the Base CDS View (either released by SAP -or- created from Step1)
2. Select the CDS View

d. Click on Add -> Associated Data Source

e. Search for CDS “I_FiscalCalendarDate” and select it from the list

f. Click to add Join Condition

g. Change Cardinality for Associated Data Source

1. Change Cardinality to “Zero or One [0..1]”
2. Click on button “Propose Join Condition”

h. For the Data Source Field “FiscalYearVariant”, fill the following:

1. Value Type: Constant Value
2. Value: Choose the financial report Fiscal Variant used by your company -or- C1 (For Calendar Year Jan to Dec)

Examples:

i. For the Data Source Field “CalendarDate”, fill the following:

1. Value Type: Field
2. Value: Press the F4 / Value Help button3. Search for Field “CreationDate”
4. Select the field "CreationDate" from the BASE CDS View (ZZ1_MFG_OrderItem_BASE)

j. Once the Join values are entered, Click on Close

k. Add Elements

1. Goto Elements Tab
2. Select Add -> Elements

l. Add All elements from BASE View

Note: In general, you can Ignore Associations starting with an underscore unless required for your analysis.

m. Add following elements from “_I_FiscalCalendarDate” Association

Incase you are using Financial / Fiscal Periods for Analysis use Option1, else for Calendar Periods use Option2 from below:

Option1: Add FiscalYear, FiscalPeriod, FiscalQuarter from _I_FiscalCalendarDate as shown below:

Option2: Add CalendarYear, CalendarMonth & CalendarQuarter from “_CalendarDate” association under _I_FiscalCalendarDate Association

Note: You can add any other Fiscal/Calendar date related fields from this section which will later be used for Analytics.

n. Review fields and click “Ok”

o. Click on “Publish” to Publish the CUBE CDS View

Ensure status is set to “Publishing Successful.”

Step3: Create Custom Analytical Query

a. Open Fiori app “Custom Analytical Queries”

b. Create a new Analytical Query

1. Click on “Create” link from the table toolbar
2. Enter Query name: “MFG_OrderItem_Query”
3. Enter Data Source: “ZZ1_MFG_ORDERITEM_CUBE” (or a pre-delivered CDS CUBE) and click “OK”

c. Enter label for this Analytics

d. Under the “Field Section” tab, select all required fields

e. Select fields for Row Axis

1. Under Display tab
2. Open “Free” section
3. Select “Fiscal Year” (Or Calendar Year)
4. Under Properties select: Sorting “Ascending”
5. Select Axis “Rows”

f. Similarly Change Axis to “Rows” for fields Fiscal Period & Fiscal Quarter (Or CalendarMonth & CalendarQuarter)

g. Add FiscalYear (Or CalendarYear) as Mandatory Filter

1. Open “Filters” tab
2. Select Field “Fiscal Year” (Or any other column required in filter bar in Analytical Report)
3. Select “User Input Values”
4. Selection Type: “Single” (You can also use multiple for multi selection)
5. Enable “Multiple Selection” & “Mandatory”
6. Increment Variable Sequence to 10

h. Similarly add filters for Field “Fiscal Period” (Or CalendarMonth) as follows:

i. Similarly add filter for Field “Product” as follows:

j. Click on “Save Draft” and then “Publish”

k. Click on “Preview” to preview the analytical report

l. In the Analytical Report, enter mandatory field “Fiscal Year” and click on “Go” to view data

Note: All measures such as Quantity fields are automatically summed/aggregated to respective Fiscal Year, Fiscal period & Fiscal Quarter (Based on Elements added as Dimensions/Rows)

m. You can further add drilldowns by opening menu “Drilldown” -> “Add Drilldown”

n. Select “Production Plant” and click ‘OK’

o. You can now see the data drilled down to the Production plant level for each Fiscal period & Quarter.

p. To show the ID & Description of a column, you can right click on the column & Goto Display -> ID & Description

Before:

After:

q. Once the Analytical report is ready as per requirements, you can download the data in an excel by using ‘Export As’ option in the toolbar

Enter File Name and export it to a location on your computer

Sample Excel Output:

Step4: Publishing as a Fiori Tile

There are 2 options to save this analytical report as a tile:

1. If this report is used only by you, you can quickly use the Share option in the toolbar to ‘Save as Tile’

Enter Tile details and save it to ‘My Home’ (Or any other Page in Fiori Launchpad)

Tile will appear in Fiori Launchpad

2. If this Analytical Report is used by other employees (as a Fiori tile):

a. Open View Browser app:

b. Search for the Custom Analytical Query created earlier (ZZ1_MFG_ORDERITEM_QUERY) and go into details

c. Goto Annotation tab and copy the Annotation value against SQLVIEWNAME

d. Create a Fiori tile via Catalog and assign it to users via PFCG role – steps available here (Or contact a Fiori expert)

Note: While creating the Fiori tile, Instead of creating a Transaction/URL based tile, enter the following details
1. Title, Subtitle & Icon as per your requirement
2. Semantic Object: AnalyticQuery
3. Action: analyze
4. Parameters: bsa_query=2C<SQLVIEWNAME>
<SQLVIEWNAME> was the code copied from the View Browser previously

Continue with tile assignment to users via a new PFCG role explained here

With this, the end-to-end process of creating an Analytical Report using CDS is covered along with an example for LIS S021.

Additional Tips:

During Analytical Report Execution, if you wish to add more Filters, respective Element should be added as filters while creating the Analytical Query.
In certain scenarios the Quantities shows as ‘*’ (because the Analytics engine is not able to total Quantities with multiple Unit Of measures ) . In such cases, we suggest using a Quantity conversion by creating a new Filter Parameter (Display Unit) and use it as Quantity Conversion of a new Display Column.

Similarly, following are some CDS that may be used for other LIS Tables as part of Production Planning

LIS Table	Description	Possible CDS View
S021	SFIS: Order Item Data for Material	I_ManufacturingOrderItem
S022	SFIS: Order Operation Data for Work Center	I_ManufacturingOrderOperation
S023	SFIS: Totals Records for Material	I_ManufacturingOrder / I_ManufacturingOrderItem
S024	Totals Records for Work Center	I_ManufacturingOrder / I_ManufacturingOrderItem
S026	Material Usage	I_ManufacturingOrderComponent