SAP Community - SAP Strategy Management

Does Your Marketing Department Have a 'Genius Loci'?

2014-02-16T20:08:05+01:00

Do you have a "genius loci" in your marketing department? Every BtoB marketer needs one. The concept of a genius loci comes to us from the ancient Romans. Much like the Greek's muses, the ancient Romans believed that one could be filled with the spirit of a particular place and develop brilliant ideas. It makes me wonder if brilliant marketing is the product of external inspiration or inherent marketing genius.

The concept of an individual being a genius (versus the local spirit) is a 20th-century invention. One of the greatest BtoB marketers of all time, Thomas Edison, famously proclaimed, "Genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration." Notice that the 19th-century Edison wasn't referring to himself as a genius; he was merely saying that the fruits of his labor were largely due to his own hard work and not the genius loci.

Another 19th-century marketing legend, P.T. Barnum, once said, "Without promotion, something terrible happens ... nothing!" Inspiration found Barnum when he was selling lottery tickets. He came to realize that he wasn't selling tickets at all; he was selling dreams. Among Barnum's most brilliant marketing tactics were his extraordinary posters and newspaper advertisements that didn't promote tickets or shows; they promoted stories, adventures, bragging rights and dreams.

But until this time, genius equated with luck. Some people seemed to have more of it than others but it was seen as something that was visited upon them, not something inherent in their abilities. It wasn't until the 20th century that psychologists developed tests for creativity and IQ.

I believe that marketing genius, like IQ, can be measured on a bell curve. Most marketers are average, and for every marketing genius there's a marketing moron (Don't give me that look; you know I'm right!). The mass in the center of the curve has a certain gravitational pull that keeps the curve in shape. The only thing that keeps terrible marketers from falling completely off the chart is their ability to employ turn-key marketing tactics, or simply to do what they did last year, for better or worse. Their plans are chock-full of "once and done" tactics, with no thought given to the overall strategy. Meanwhile, the marketing geniuses are dragged back to the center of the curve by inflexible systems and processes, or unimaginative stakeholders petrified to take the risk of exploring something new.

So whether our genius erupts from within us, or we are infused with the spirit of our workplace, great marketing will only happen when we gather the strength to resist the pull to the middle of the curve. Inspiration is only 1%; it takes 99% perspiration to stay well above average. What do you say? As we ring in 2014, let's all make a resolution to nurture our marketing genius at least once. Let's be passionate. Let's remember why we got into this profession. Let's carve out a small part of our budget and eschew the "tried and true." We'll be thoughtful. We'll be creative. We'll take risks, yes, but they'll be calculated risks.

It will be … genius.

Originally published on AdAge.

Marketing innovation lessons courtesy of 'dry farming' and 'truffling'

2014-02-24T21:18:23+01:00

About 25 years ago when I lived in San Francisco, I would frequent a wonderful bistro named "Lefty O'Doul's." Situated just off Union Square, near the theaters and shopping, Lefty's was the perfect place for college students just scraping by. My husband and I would sidle through the cafeteria-style line past the glistening hand-carved turkey and beef, and head straight for the spaghetti special. Roughly $3 would buy a salad, pasta, dinner roll and drink. They had a big-screen television, and we'd buzz right through the line and be at our table exchanging small talk with other Giants fans before the national anthem.

Across town on Nob Hill, another restaurant, Acquerello, opened about 22 years ago, also featuring a three-course pasta dinner, though the price runs $70. Throw in tip, wine and valet parking, and you're looking at some serious cash. Granted, the bill of fare is somewhat different than Lefty's'. The first course is pear and foie gras ravioli―that's "dry-farmed, organic Warren pears filled with truffled torchon of foie gras." I'm fascinated by this for a number of reasons: I'd never heard of "dry farming," I hadn't realized "truffle" could be used as an adjective, and I'm puzzled that an Italian restaurant features French "torchon of foie gras."

I find a great metaphor for marketing in this. We hear a lot about innovation and I'm all for it, but we must beware of getting caught up in innovating for innovation's sake.

Just as an expensive restaurant doesn't necessarily guarantee a palatable experience, innovation doesn't have to be expensive to be effective. That's why our companies need us. A marketer is the equivalent of a concierge, guiding prospects to the right experience.

Let's look at one example, virtual events. Is the ROI worth it? That depends on why we're doing them. If frequency is key to our strategy, we'll wear out our teams and budgets by piling on too many events. But if we want to capture a far-flung audience with live content, I'd absolutely add a webinar.

But then, I'd "innovate." Consider doing some of the following:

Ensure your platform can handle application-sharing, and can include a live demo or stream a video so the event rises above the norm.
Use live tweeting during the event.
Host a LinkedIn discussion the following week to continue the conversation.
Post a scaled-back version of the webinar's PowerPoint on SlideShare.
Add short clips from the event to YouTube.
Follow up with a related article or whitepaper, and insert that same piece in your content syndication.

My mother used to tell me that necessity was the mother of innovation. Mom was right. (Who knew?) Frequently, when looking for multipliers to extend our reach, budget and bandwidth constraints challenge us to be innovative. Social media tactics promise to stretch our imaginations even further because, like pregame chatter at Lefty O'Doul's, they offer us the opportunity to build a fan base along the way.

What does it mean for the professional services industry to be in the Cloud?

2014-03-05T21:56:29+01:00

The Internet now connects 2.5 billion people and more than 15 billion devices. While those numbers are staggering, we have to ask: What do they mean?

Some prognosticators have opined that CDs and DVDs will be collectors’ items by 2020. They further believe that before the decade is over, 14% of people won’t own physical books and 11% won’t have a TV.

Why? Because of the Cloud.

The professional services industry is moving to the Cloud faster than any other. And for professional services firms the Cloud is not just about IT. It’s about driving rapid innovation throughout the enterprise. It’s about agility. It’s about enabling new business processes. We’ve entered an era where major technology decisions are made outside of the IT department. According to some, in just two short years as much as 80% of new IT investments will directly involve line-of-business executives … executives who manage teams of people used to watching movies on YouTube or Hulu. People who routinely send and receive email messages on Gmail or Yahoo. People who read books on Kindle, who keep in touch via Facebook and Twitter, who share photos on Flickr and swap recipes on Pinterest. These people ― these employees ― are now using the Cloud to manage talent better, to gain greater insight into their customers and to connect the dots in unique, unexpected ways.

That same Cloud (which is hastening the obsolescence of our Blu-Ray discs) is delivering the innovation and agility professional services companies need toextend existing infrastructures, to enable new processes and insights, and to quickly adapt to keep pace in today’s fast-changing world.

Clearly, expectations for the modern professional services firm in today's market have significantly evolved. Transformations in cloud computing are creating a hyper-competitive market where operational excellence and flexibility are critical to coming out on top. It’s an exciting time to work in this industry.

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SSM 10.1 now GA!

2014-04-04T05:46:17+02:00

Glad to see SSM10.1 is now GA!...I do like the new look and feel...

SAP Strategy Management version 10.1 is Generally Available

2014-04-11T00:26:46+02:00

SAP Strategy Management version 10.1 has successfully completed Ramp Up and is now generally available!

SAP Strategy Management enables organizations to define, translate and communicate strategy to ensure optimal alignment around key priorities and value generating nitiatives. With strategy-guided, risk-aware plans, increased accountability and control, and visibility into streamlined processes, organizations are well placed to outperform expectations.

SAP Strategy Management 10.1 includes the following key innovations and enhancements:

New HTML 5 based user interface that extends mobile capabilities
Right-to-Left language support
Enhanced reporting and dashboards
Partner enabled customizations

As well, this release features several user driven incremental improvements, including:

Improved formatting of printed reports
Time period selection in goal diagrams
Ability to rename scorecard levels
Administrator controlled design themes

To Learn More About SAP Strategy Management Visit:

Would you prefer 10 consultants for the next 3 months or clear outcome in a matter of days

2014-06-05T12:35:20+02:00

In The New Services Paradigm blog I described how SAP Services addresses customer requirements by shifting from traditional build-to-order implementation methods focusing on delivering resources to new innovative and simplified delivery approach focusing on delivering outcome. In this article I would like to give you some more details on what outcome-based approach actually means and what it is good for.

Imagine you have a set of requirements/characteristics for buying a new TV. You want it to be a particular size, very slim, having enough slots to connect to your other devices and have a set of other features like integrated Wi-Fi etc. In addition you expect a clear outcome like low energy consumption resulting in lower running costs, having more relaxing time by watching high quality picture and of course, having a happy partner

Would you imagine building the TV from scratch to fit your exact description? Very unlikely, I am sure you would do some survey and find TV that fits your expectations. In many cases you might need to come to a compromise, it might not have a perfect size or come without Wi-Fi transmitter but it still fulfils all your other criteria so you will buy the standard product and enhance it with some connectors if required.

Can you apply this analogy to any other product? I am sure you do. We are used to standard in our daily life; it is everywhere so why not leveraging it in our Services business?

A bit of History

Until 2008 many companies bought standard software and then spent enormous budget on hiring consultants to modify the software to fulfil their specific requirements. With the 2008 economic downturn and arrival of modern technologies (e.g. mobile business, cloud computing and big data), traditional methodology and professional services engagement models have come under greater scrutiny. Effort-based time and materials projects are no longer meeting businesses’ needs and budget management. SAP then started creating packages where service offerings are wrapped around a product and sold to the customer at fixed price. These services proved to be highly successful and formed a foundation for outcome-based services delivery. These services
normally come with fixed scope, predictable costs and predicted outcome. In the meantime the portfolio of these services grew significantly; we have hundreds of services that address customer pain points.

So how can we apply “TV” analogy to our Services Business?

In the same way as you have a set of requirements and expected outcomes when choosing home appliance, companies have a set of requirements and expected outcome to solve their business problems. In the same way as you are looking for the right appliance, we can address business requirements with one or more services (SAP Rapid Deployment solutions). Do they always fulfil all customer requirements? Probably not. However, they focus on standard solution and industry best practices so why not going for a standard solution if it addresses 80% of your business requirements. I had many discussions with customers over the last few months and they all mentioned: “We might have so many requirements, but we expect you to show us industry best practices and case studies and we might come to a compromise”.

In the picture above you can see example from warehouse management solution where your requirements will be addressed with one or more SAP Rapid Deployment Solutions that work seamlessly together and each SAP Rapid Deployment Solution have a very clear predicted outcome.

In case you are not convinced yet and think that 80% of a solution is not good enough, you can still go for standard service (= home appliance) and fulfil the missing functionality or do any modifications with effort-based time and materials approach – we call them Design Based tasks.

With this new delivery approach we can preassemble a combination of SAP Rapid Deployment solutions in record time and you can get access to fully integrated technical foundation in a matter of days. If you compare it to the traditional approach, it will take close to 3 months for 10 consultants to install, configure and activate business processes and integrate solution.

Outcome-based services combined with pre-assembled services are the new reality for consulting projects.

Guide for schedule procedure on Pas Admin

2014-07-15T20:07:16+02:00

Hope this simple guide will help when you want Schedule pas admin load procedures.

Guide to schedule loading
processes within PAS Administrator

You must create a dedicated user to run the implementation timetable proceedings (this is the recommendation of the official manual of SAP), the user must
have administrator permissions (security
level = supervisor)

For procedures run automatically
loads the current period only
to upload data to
the current day
or month (depending
on frequency), two lines of code
are used, the first indicates if the period is monthly, or diary, etc with
SET MONTHLY PERIOD,
SET PERIOD DAILY, etc, and the second tells
you pull the current month or day with
SET PERIOD TODAY.

This loading procedure in the section where
the KPI is specified and refresh dimensions and
the time period to be loaded and before the connection and query.

You must create a file (or several) with
the instructions to execute during
loading / scheduling to ease this file
is placed in the home directory location within the PAS
Administrator for Muniguate, the full path and name of the test file command
is:

C: \ Program Files
\ SAP BusinessObjects \ Strategy Management \
ApplicationServer \ home \ ejecutarprocedures.batch

If not put it in this
directory HOME, at the time of
scheduling or run the file from
the console, you must pass the full path and not just the name. This file contains the
script you want to
schedule, and he could put multiple calls
cargo procedures, not just one,
so you could call all procedures in one file, or create a file for each procedure .

The script should
contain instructions for running
procedures that would be used from the command line of
the PAS Administrator, ie:
USE to select which database / hub use
and JOB to
execute a procedure within that nature,
but also this, before
selecting the database / cube the script requires
that all connections to nature
are killed, this is achieved by:

CONN TO KILL
SUP cube_name

They could perform procedures runs multiple
cubes within a single file,
you should only
have a SUP CONN
TO KILL nature
and nature USE
EXC for each cube.

When you finish making procedure calls,
indicate the end of the log and file with the following lines:

TRACE OFF BOTH

EXIT CLEAR

procedures to run another cube

CONN TO KILL
SUP Cubo2

USE EXC Cubo2

JOB procedimiento4

JOB procedimiento5

.......

Stop generation ...
bitacora

TRACE OFF BOTH

Exit and clean ...

EXIT CLEAR

Below, you can see the outline
or structure of a file that executes various processes within multiple cubes as follows:

Generation ... Turn the log and archive log naming the

TRACE BOTH 'ejecutarprocedures.txt'; ext UPDATE

Sure ... there are no connections to the hub to update

CONN TO KILL
SUP cubo1

Use the model
... in exclusive
mode

USE EXC cubo1

Call ... procedures to be executed in the bucket

JOB procedure1

JOB procedure.2

JOB proceeding3

Call more procedures
...

Perform ... steps
similar to the above procedures
to run another cube

CONN TO KILL
SUP Cubo2

USE EXC Cubo2

JOB procedimiento4

JOB procedimiento5

Stop generation ...
bitacora

TRACE OFF BOTH

Exit and clean ...

EXIT CLEAR

Leverage SAP EPM Solutions to Accelerate Value Realization Efforts

2014-11-19T16:30:57+01:00

Recently I had the pleasure of presenting at the SAP Insider Performance Management 2014 conference. As a part of that event, Ken Murphy with the SAP Insider Studio invited me to sit together to discuss new advances in the area of SAP Enterprise Performance Management (SAP EPM) and how these can support value realization efforts in SAP customers today.

SAP EPM solutions have come a very long way in a very short period of time. When I wrote the first SAP Press book on SAP EPM in 2010, the solution set addressed some very important problems still important today, such as business planning, financial consolidation, and profitability and cost analysis. These problems had to be addressed across solution domains, with different user experiences, and without a common data platform. With the release of EPM 10/10.1 earlier in this year, many of these issues around front-end and back-end solution design have been addressed. In particular, the benefit of having HANA enabled processes for those customers adopting on-premises or cloud solutions, where customers can use HANA as a commonly available financial data platform. As I discuss in my new SAP Press book on Financial Analysis & Planning, these capabilities can be extended to predictive analytics and value realization, through the introduction of SAP Rapid Deployment Solutions (RDS) which address these areas.

Value realization is a tricky business. Often value is attributed to specific systems-driven initiatives, but these initiatives alone are often not enough to drive expected business value and outcomes. For example, if we don’t agree on decision rights or information ownership at the organization level - or if policies and procedures needed are not described along with supporting systems - things don’t work as expected and benefits are not realized which then can cast doubt on transformation efforts. The Value Realization RDS takes advantage of the SAP Strategy Management application as the backbone solution to track initiatives, record expected value drivers and risk, and assign organizational stakeholders. These can be summarized into a Balanced Scorecard (BSC) model and aligned to specific business driven outcomes and benefits. For more on the Value Realization RDS visit the SAP Marketplace.

Click on the photograph below (or here) to link to the full SAP Insider interview that Ken and I recorded at the conference. Many thanks to Ken and the crew of the SAP Insider Studio, I enjoyed our time together and engaging discussion.

City of Henderson goes mobile for performance transparency

2014-12-12T16:04:02+01:00

I am very impressed by the innovative approaches that some city councils take to deliver exceptional public services, as well as engage with their customers (their citizens and electorate), through the provision of information regarding the performance of public services ie the services which those citizens consume as a matter of fact each and every day.

Not the least is the City of Henderson, who embarked on a mission to provide transparency into the performance of public services, to internal teams as well as ultimately external consumers, with the help of SAP solutions for EPM. As well as this, innovation comes in the form of utilizing SAP EPM Unwired to deliver information via mobile device. We were lucky enough to have the City of Henderson, along with business partner Cipher, join us at the recent SAP Conference for EPM and present their story – and if you’d like to hear it too then please follow this link to their presentation.

In many ways I am envious of the people living in Henderson – I wish my own city council were so focused upon performance and transparency!

Also available here is a shorter video interview with Hector Guerra of Cipher who gives a little more insight to how Cipher was able to help City of Henderson make the move towards use of mobile solutions as an extension of their EPM solution strategy.

Watch out for more videos from the SAP Conference for EPM which I shall share with you soon.

Strategy Management with SAP Value Realization rapid-deployment solution

2015-02-11T17:43:21+01:00

See this blog on SAP's Value Realization rapid-deployment solution

Rapidly Improve Performance with Value Realization Management

The solution is available here on SAP Service Marketplace:

SAP Service Marketplace - SAP Value Realization Management

Check points for SSM upgrade issues - within 10.0 series or within 10.1 series

2015-05-21T03:03:50+02:00

Here I am sharing some tips regarding the trouble shooting of upgrading issues (within 10.0 series or within 10.1 series). End users may face the following issues after SAP Strategy Management (SSM) upgraded to a higher service package within 10.0 series or 10.1 series.

Users could not access SSM End Users Interface.

For SSM 10.0, if users could not access the End User interface after upgrading, check if Chapter 3.5 and Chapter 4.6 of upgrading guide, regarding

exporting and importing roles, are strictly followed. If not, all the SSM roles need to be re-assigned SSM actions (referring to the installation guide Chapter 7).

Script errors and Undefined labels.

Check if the imported boostrap data (boostrap.zip or import.zip) are from the same version of PAS, which should be also the same SP version level of the CPMSTRMGMAPCxx_xx.xxxxxxxx.SCA file. If a patch (eg. SSM 10.0 SP11 Patch01) is applied, try to recreate named queries (http://<ser>:<port>/strategy/tools/namedquery.jsp) to fix named query errors in Netweaver Java traces.

Entry and Approval or cubebuilder is not working.

After PAS upgraded, check if the procedure files located in the InternetPub folder are replaced with the files of the corresponding database type.

Application Server (PAS) isn't working.

If the PAS is running on Windows, check if its installation path is unchanged. If the installation path need to be changed, the directory paths in

the lssever.ini file (located in C:\Windows) needs to be modified to map to the new installation path.

Some statuses are missing from Strategy tab.

For SSM 10.0, check if the scheduled tasks (SSM Administration > Scheduler) are re-defined and re-enabled. Make sure "Calculate All Scorecard Objects" is scheduled to be executed regularly.

Duplicate scorecard objects appear on Scorecard.

It is strongly recommended to use an NW Java infrastructure which is officially supported by SSM. If running Netweaver Java on a load balancing environment on which SSM doesn't officially support, then please shut down all the other NW instances and only leave one active instance to import the boostrap data file and database files, otherwise, the importing process might fail or duplicated items (eg. duplicated scorecard items) might be imported to the database.

If the release note of the specific version and the upgrading guide are strictly followed, then usually most of these issues can be avoided.

The following lists some other check points during upgrade:

Check if all the SSM components, especially the Application Server (PAS) and the deployed CPMSTRMGMAPCxx_xx.xxxxxxxx.SCA file are on the same Service Package level. For SSM 10.1 SP5 and earlier, or SSM 10.0 series, check if versions of all the other components are exactly same as required in the release note.
If the PAS server is running on Unix/Linux, check if the necessary environment variables are added to the necessary PAS scritps (eg. runlss.ksh, runlss.csh, lsstcp.ksh, lsstcp.csh, etc). For the details of adding variables to scripts for Unix/Linux, please refer to the installation guide. Check if the OS
user used in the definition of model connections has the permission to run the scripts and programs.

How to restrict the access of a web application user to particular dimension members

2015-06-20T03:34:36+02:00

Here is an example created in the sample database "pwsample" regarding how to use "INDEX USER-CASE-ENDINDEX" statement to restrict web application users' access to particular dimension members so different users could have a different view when accessing the same scorecard (For example, User1 takes charge of all the stores of Boston and this user should not have the access to the data of stores in Miami.)

1. Create two PAS users with properties similar to the default user “Guest”, “Guest1” and “Guest2”.

2. Use the PAS model “HFPBM” in exclusive mode. Create a procedure named “Security” in the PAS model “HFPBM” with the following
content:

INDEX USER

CASE Guest1

…Guest1 is restricted to Boston on Store dimension

…Guest1 is restricted to Women and members below Women on PRODUCT dimension.

SELECT PRODUCT Women

SELECT PRODUCT plus Below Women

SELECT STORE Boston

CASE Guest2

… Guest2 has the full access

CASE Guest

…Guest has no access to any dimension members.

SELECT PRODUCT NONE

SELECT STORE NONE

SELECT CUSTOMER NONE

ENDINDEX

3. Exit PAS.

4. Modify the model connection of HFPBM, add more Application Server Connections, “Guest1” and “Guest2”. Assign the web application user “SSM_USER1” to “Guest1”, and the web app user “SSM_USER2” to “Guest2”.

5. Connect to the context “Fashion Enterprise” in the sample database “pwsample” separately through “SSM_USER1” and “SSM_USER2”. Compare the difference.

Scorecard of the user "SSM_USER1"

Scorecard of the user "SSM_USER2"

"Cascading" in SSM

2015-08-10T04:47:03+02:00

Overview

Cascading is a helpful functionality if multiple scorecards under a context hierarchy have similar definition. Here are the main related features:

* Compare scorecard items with different names in Scorecard Comparison.

In SSM 7.5, only if a scorecard item exists in multiple contexts with the exact same name, this item could link multiple contexts and appear in the same line of the Scorecard Comparison view. In SSM 10 and SSM 10.1, if using Scorecard Cascading functionality, scorecard items on the cascade level can be linked together and appear in the same line of the Scorecard Comparison view even if their names are different.

A) Traditional Comparison View

B) Cascading Comparison View

*Copy and Compare initiatives.

Not just the scorecard items could be similar. You might also want some similar initiatives based on those linked scorecard items created in every context under the context hierarchy.

Scorecard Cascade

Below is an example based on "pwsample" regarding how to set up Scorecard Cascade.

1. Assign the cascade level in SM Admin > Administration > Set Defaults page.

2. Create a group of scorecards / contexts with hierarchy.

( "Miami" is copied from "Northeast" but has a dimension filter "Store: Miami" in SSM Admin > Scorecard > Set Defaults page.)

As shown in the above screen shot, the "Fashion Enterprise" is on the top level, "Northeast" and "Miami" are on its sublevels.

3. Create linked non-KPI scorecard items (objectives) in Library.

Below is a screen shot of cascade objective details:

4. Assign these cascade objectives to scorecards.

5. Display linked Scorecards in SSM Admin>Context Management>View Cascade Details.

6. Compare cascaded items on Scorecard Comparison View.

Initiative cascading

Create an initiative and cascade it to other contexts.

1. Create an initiative "Cascade Test" in the top level "Fashion Enterprise", and assign the cascaded scorecard item "Cascade Testing - Fashions Enterprise" to it.

2. Click on "Cascade" link on Initiative tab.

3. There are two options, "Cascade Based on Context" and "Cascade Based on Cascaded Items". Compared to "Cascade Based on Context", the "Cascade Based on Cascaded Items" could copy all assigned scorecard items and replace the cascaded scorecard items with their linked ones belonging to the context.

The initiative will be copied to all the selected contexts. It also provides the chance to change the name, owner, actual or budget of those new initiatives. As in the below screen shot, the linked cascaded scorecard items could be replaced by the linked one belonging to the scorecard.

4. View linked initiatives by selecting "Linked Initiatives" view on Initiative tab.

Modify frequency of KPI from code (PAS Admin)

2015-09-03T20:32:06+02:00

Applies to Sap Strategy Management 10.0 and 7.5

To modify the frequency of a KPI from code (after creation) is done by typing the command:

SET VARIABLE variables periodicity list

Example: you wanted to change to semester a list of KPIs that were created in cube builder quarterly, for that the following is typed:

SET VARIABLE KPI1_ACT, KPI1_TAR, KPI2_ACT, KPI2_TAR semiannual

The possible recurrence options:

A short introduction to Strategic Management

2016-08-20T08:27:31+02:00

1.What is strategy

A company’s strategy consists of a set of competitive moves and business approaches that management is employing to run the company.Strategy can thus be called as the management’s game plan to achieve the following :

Attract and please customers
Stake out a market position.
Conduct operations
Compete successfully
Achieve organizational objectives

Thus a strategy can be defined as an action plan for deploying resources to achieve a competitive advantage in the marketplace.A competitive advantage is created when any company successfully formulates and implements a value creating strategy.Any value creating strategy can only be deemed successfully when it is sustainable and the competitors are unable to duplicate the same.

In this context we can define strategic management as a process by which managers choose a set of strategies for the enterprise to pursue its vision.Strategic management is this both the art and science of formulating,implementing,evaluating cross functional decisions that enable any organization to achieve its objectives.The three facets of strategic management are :

Strategy formulation
Strategy implementation
Strategy evaluation

2. Benefits of Strategy management.

The following are the tangible and intangible benefits of strategic management

Strategy formulation activities enhance the organization’s ability to prevent problems.
Group based strategic decisions are likely to be drawn from the best available alternatives
The involvement of employees in strategy formulation improves their understanding of the productivity-reward relationship in every strategic decision and heightens their motivation.
Gaps and overlaps in activities among individuals and groups are reduced as participation in strategy formulation clarifies the differences and responsibilities of roles.
Resistance to change is reduced.

3. Risks in Strategic management.

The following can be some of the risks in strategic management

The time managers spend on strategic management process can have a negative impact on operational activities
If the formulators of strategy are not intimately involved in the implementation,they may shirk the responsibility for the decision reached.
Strategic managers must be trained to respond and anticipate to the disappointment of participating subordinates over unattained expectations and results.
Managers may try to opportunistic and try to implement value destroying strategies that enhance their own personal wealth and powers.Corporate governance and ethics needs to be established to prevent such opportunistic behavior.

4. Dimensions of strategic decisions.

The following are some of the key dimensions of strategic decisions :

Requires top management decisions and actions
Requires large amount of the firm’s resources
Often affects the firm’s long term prosperity
Future oriented
Usually have multi-functional or multi-business consequences
Requires consideration of the firm’s external environment.

5. The three levels of strategy.

The following are the three levels of strategy implemented in an organization.

Corporate level strategy :: At this level the fundamental task is to develop a balanced portfolio of businesses which will achieve the goals of the organization and satisfy its stakeholders.
Business level Strategy : At this level ,the business or set of activities is given and the major task for strategic planner at this level is for business to succeed against competitors and also satisfy corporate success criteria.
Functional level Strategy :At this level the major task is to provide appropriate functional strategies(Finance and accounting,marketing,R&D ,HR etc) for SBU or corporate level strategy.

6. Business level strategy.

A business level strategy is an integrated and coordinated set of commitments and actions that the firm uses to gain a competitive advantage by exploiting core competencies in specific product markets.The fundamental tenet of a business level strategy is to “Compete for advantage”.The firms need to answer the following questions:

Who
What
How

There are three generic business level strategies which are used across industry segments :

Low cost leadership
Differentiation
Focus

Successful businesses use their competitive advantages to develop one of these generic business strategies.Organizations also combine these strategies to achieve further benefits.Most of the big corporations in today’s world follow a combination of these strategies in varied scales.

Cost Leadership Strategy.

This strategy is an integrated set of actions designed to produce or deliver goods and services at the lowest cost relative to competitors with features that are acceptable to consumers.The features can be :

Relatively standardized products
Features acceptable to many customers
Lowest possible price.

Firms that succeed in cost leadership strategy has usually the following advantages :

Access to low cost capital and resources
Building efficient facilities
Skill in designing products for efficient manufacturing
High level of expertise in manufacturing process engineering
Efficient distribution channels
Tight control systems with focus on quantitative targets.

Cost leadership results in the following advantages :

Economies of scale
Vertical integration
Corporate inter-relationships
Location advantage

The following can be some of the risks of cost leadership :

Other firms may also be able to lower their costs as well.
Firms following a focus strategy and targeting various narrow markets may be able to archieve a even lower cost within their segments and thus can gain significant market share.

Differentiation Strategy.

The differentiation strategy is an integrated set of actions designed by a firm to produce or deliver goods or services that customers perceive adding value.The features can be as follows :

Price may exceed standard offering
Non-commodity products
Customers value differentiated features than than they value low cost.

Some differentiation themes can be as follows :

Unique taste
Multiple features
Wide selection and one-stop shopping
Reliable,superior service
Service network availability

Firms that succeed in the differentiation strategy has got the following strengths :

Access to leading scientific research
Highly skilled and creative product development team
Focus on quality
Strong sales team with ability to successfully communicate the perceived strengths of the product
Corporate reputation for quality and innovation

The following can be some of the risks in this strategy :

Imitation by competitors
Changes in the customer tastes
Various firms pursuing focus strategies may be able to achieve even greater differentiation

Focus Strategy.

This strategy focuses on a narrow segment and within that segment attempts to achieve either cost advantage or differentiation. Firms that succeed in a focus strategy are able to tailor a broad range of product development strengths to a relatively narrow market segment that they know very well.

Because of their narrow market focus,firms pursuing a focus strategy have lower volumes and therefore less bargaining powers with their suppliers.However firms pursuing a differentiated-focus strategy may be able to pass higher costs on to the customers since close substitute products do not exist.

Some of the risks involved in pursuing focus strategies can be as follows :

Target segment becomes unattractive
Demand disappears
Large competitors may set their sights on the niche market.

In addition to the above strategies some firms also pursue an integrated cost leadership-differentiation strategy.The advantages of such an approach can be :

Adapt quickly to environmental changes
Learn new skills and technologies more quickly
Efficiently leverage its core competencies while competing against the rivals.

The major risks in the above approach can be :

An integrated cost/differentiation strategy often involves compromises(neither the lowest cost nor the most differentiated item)
The firm may become “stuck” in the middle lacking the strong commitment and expertise that accompanies firms following the cost leadership or differentiation strategies.

7. Corporate level strategy.

A corporate strategy is an action taken to gain a competitive advantage through a selection and management of a mix of businesses competing in several industries or product markets.Corporate strategy is mostly concerned with the broad and long term questions of :

What business(es) the organization is in or what to be in.
What is wants to do with those businesses.

The tasks involved in corporate strategy can be as follows :

Moves to enter new businesses
Actions to boost combined performance of businesses
Ways to capture synergy among related businesses
Establishing investment priorities and steering corporate resources into most attractive units.

Corporate level strategies thus enable firms to decide on diversification and divestitures.

Levels and Types of diversification

Firms can be classified based on the levels of diversification within the firm into the following :

Low levels of diversification
Single business
Dominant business
Moderate levels of diversification
Related constrained
Related linked
Very high levels of diversification
Unrelated

Reasons for diversification : Firms diversify for value-creating,value-neutral and value-reducing reasons.

Value creating diversification

1.Achieving economies of scope(related diversification)

2.Increased market power(related diversification)

3.Achieving financial economies(unrelated diversification)

Value neutral diversification

1.Anti trust regulations

2.Tax laws

3.Low performance

4.Uncertain future cash flows

5.Risk reduction for firm.

6.Tangible resources

7.Intangible resources

Value reducing diversification

1.Diversifying managerial employment risk

2.Increasing managerial compensation.

Value creating diversification : Related corporate strategies :

Related constrained and Related linked are two corporate level strategies followed by organizations to create value.Both these strategies exploit and develop the economies of scope between the businesses.The economies of scope can be defined as cost savings a firm creates by successfully by sharing some of its resources or capabilities or transferring one or more corporate level competencies that were developed in one of its businesses to another of its businesses.The former is called related constrained strategy and the latter is called related linked strategy.

In this context we need to understand the terms operational relatedness and corporate relatedness concepts.Operational relatedness is used in related constrained strategies while corporate relatedness is used in related linked strategies.

Operational relatedness
Corporate relatedness

Related corporate strategies are also used by firms to create market power.A market power exists when a firm is able to sell its products above the existing competitive level or to reduce costs of primary and support activities below the competitive level or both.Market power can also be increased by :

Multi-point competition
Vertical integration

Value creating diversification : Unrelated corporate strategy :

Unrelated corporate strategy create value through financial economies.Financial economies are cost savings realized through improved allocations of financial resources based on investments inside or outside the firm.The financial economies are achieved by the firms through :

Efficient internal capital market allocation.In this case corporate office distributes capital to business divisions to create value for overall company.
Restructuring of acquired assets.In this case a firm creates value by buying and selling other firms assets in the external market.

It has been seen that generally conglomerates that follow the unrelated diversification corporate strategy have a fairly short life cycle because financial economies are more easily duplicated by competitors than are gains from operational or corporate relatedness.

SAP EPM Tag Collection (BPC NW, BPC MS, DSM, FC, EPM Add-In, PCM, SM, SPM, BOC)

2016-10-13T21:19:27+02:00

I would like to invite all members of the former EPM spaces to participate in the new community and to use the new and improved features. Please find the primary tags and the direct links to the content/tag pages below:

SAP BusinessObjects Planning and Consolidation, version for SAP NetWeaver

SAP BusinessObjects Planning and Consolidation, version for the Microsoft platform

EPM Add-In for Excel
- All Content (Blogs / Questions)
- Direct Link to Create EPM Add-In Question

SAP BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation (BFC)
- All Content (Blogs / Questions)
- Direct Link to Create BFC Question

SAP BusinessObjects Disclosure Management (DSM)
- All Content (Blogs / Questions)
- Direct Link to Create DSM Question

SAP BusinessObjects Profitability and Cost Management (PCM)
- All Content (Blogs / Questions)
- Direct Link to Create PCM Question

SAP BusinessObjects Financial Information Management (FIM)
- All Content (Blogs / Questions)
- Direct Link to Create FIM Question

SAP Spend Performance Management (SPM)
- All Content (Blogs / Questions)
- Direct Link to Create SPM Question

SAP BusinessObjects Strategy Management (SM)
- All Content (Blogs / Questions)
- Direct Link to Create SM Question

SAP BusinessObjects Cloud (BOC)
- All Content (Blogs / Questions)
- Direct Link to Create BOC Question

Looking forward to seeing the first questions and blogs posted.

Best regards,

John

World Rugby Heads for the Clouds

2019-01-30T05:15:55+01:00

New SAP ByDesign will make sure the upcoming Rugby World Cup is a hit!

It’s going to be a big year for rugby fans. That’s because, as well as enjoying the usual action-packed fixtures calendar, November will see the Rugby World Cup taking place in Japan for the first time ever.

The tournament, which comes around once every four years, is now the 3rd largest sports event after the Summer Olympics and the Football World Cup. The heavy responsibility for making sure everything goes off without a hitch falls to the sport’s global governing body, World Rugby. However, this year it’s getting a little help from an increasingly familiar player in the sports world – SAP!

Looking for a wide ranging IT strategy

World Rugby has been responsible for the regulation, development and promotion of the game of Rugby Union since 1864. It’s grown tremendously in recent years, as interest in the game and the internationally televised Rugby World Cup has exploded. However, like many established and successful businesses, the organisation also found itself being held back rather than helped by its existing infrastructure.

In addition to manual systems running key operations, there was a heavy reliance on manual and potentially error-prone spreadsheets. Numerous legacy systems, which didn’t talk to each other, made arriving at a single and correct version of the truth difficult. Different departments were creating or acquiring their own systems, leading to a large amount of shadow IT across the organisation.

The situation was clearly not sustainable. As World Rugby’s Clare Skelly recently explained, “We needed a wide-ranging IT strategy to support the growth objectives of our organisation.”

World Rugby kicked off a transformation project to replace its legacy systems and gain complete operational visibility. After a rigorous RFP and evaluation process which involved 10 different vendors, the field was whittled down until SAP Business ByDesign emerged as the perfect solution.

Built for mid-market success

Built for the mid-market, SAP Business ByDesign was ideally suited to World Rugby’s needs

“We wanted one end-to-end set of processes that used one system and the same set of data across the business. One integrated platform to manage all of the organisation’s processes and reduce complexity and duplication,” said Skelly, who manages the Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) project for World Rugby

One of the main drivers of the transformation initiative was to introduce efficiencies across the organisation by providing Anytime Anywhere Access via a cloud based solution. Mobility is important to World Rugby because, although most of its 100 or so staff are based in Dublin, about 70% of them travel 70% of the time. This makes easy access to information a critical consideration.

“With SAP Business ByDesign we were able to quickly introduce a cloud ERP solution with complete, on-the-go visibility into our business operations,” Skelly said.

World Rugby now has a set of streamlined, end-to-end business processes that have dramatically improved operations.

For example, with the old monthly payroll cycle, making sure everyone everywhere was paid on time was a challenge. After implementing SAP, the organisation is now able to execute two payroll cycles a month, winning a lot of positive feedback across the business for removing a major pain-point.

The original travel system made gaining any visibility extremely difficult. SAP’s Concur solution has changed that completely, and a self-booking tool allows people to book their own trips without having to go through travel agencies.

SAP SuccessFactors has also been enormously popular and removed a sizeable source of frustration. World Rugby now uses SAP SuccessFactors for recruiting, performance management and hosting HR policies and procedures.

SAP Business ByDesign Business Benefits

·       Driven improvement across global operations

·       Optimised finance, HR, and supplier processes

·       Established end-to-end processes, integrated analytics and ensure timely reporting

·       Streamlined operations, manage daily transactions more efficiently, and increasing the accuracy of forecasts

·       Tightened controls and enabled in-depth insight on travel-related spend and expenses

·       Improved HR efficiency and productivity through collaboration across the organisation

·       Laid down a strong foundation for enhanced organisation performance

The game isn’t over

With SAP Business ByDesign, World Rugby has laid out a solid foundation for the future. In fact, it is now using it as the base for all decisions around new systems.

For example, it is currently looking at a Grants Management System, which will be built out from SAP and talk to it. The organisation is also looking at SAP’s project management functionality to roll out a standard project management methodology across the organisation.

In addition, the organising body is expanding the use of CRM, from the rugby unions and other stakeholders, to partners such as sponsors and broadcasters, and reviewing how inventory for events is managed.

Now that everything has bedded in, World Rugby is considering implementing a Business Intelligence tool that will sit across all of the organisation’s systems, extract and analyse data, and present it to the management via dashboards.

“That’s our ultimate aim. To give management more meaningful insight,” said Skelly.

Advanced Available-To-Promise (aATP) with Back Order Processing in HANA 1809

2019-03-18T16:51:32+01:00

Dear All,

In this blog will be seeing how to Activate aATP Process and How to Create BOP Job Run using Fiori Applications to Re prioritise Sales Orders based on Strategy in the BOP.

Now let's Focus on what is aATP and BOP before going into Activation & Configuration parts.

SAP has introduced aATP with its 1610 release Advanced Available-To-Promise (aATP) with new functionality to execute order fulfilment and improve supply chain processes in a better way compared to classic ATP.

Before going Further Let's see ATP Vs aATP

Basic Available to Promise (ATP)

Simple product availability check

Basic allocation check

Manual material determination

Semi-manual plant substitution

Material-/plant-based backorder processing for sales orders

Simple transportation and shipment scheduling based on days (and hours)

Advanced Available to Promise (aATP)

Backorder processing with intuitive requirement classification

FIORI Applications for Release for Delivery

Mass enabled fast availability check

Use-case-driven product allocation check

Intelligent and automated selection of best confirmation considering alternative plants and substitutable materials

Easy-to-use and device-independent ATP explanation and simulation app

Advanced transportation scheduling.

What is Back Order Processing

If A customer requires a product XX Immediately and Customer B order is committed with available stock.

To address this type of Supply Vs Demand BOP is used.

Supply:- Stock, Production Order etc.

Issues:- Sales Order, STO(out bound) Schedule Line Agreements.

Now Let's see some Key Innovations which are released part of 1809 Release.

Product Availability Check:-

Promise what you can deliver / Avoid over-confirmation Fast turn-around time during online check

Support of Segmentation you can include customer - specific stock segment

2. Product Allocations:-

Product Allocation Sequence can create product allocation sequences which can be used to confirm requested quantities during availability checks for sales orders and stock transfer

3. Back Order Processing:-

Support for stock transfer orders

Supply Assignment

usability improvement for SAP UX

Simplification improvements for the creation and maintenance of BOP Variants have been introduced

New SAP Fiori Applications to create and schedule jobs for BOP

Now let's get into the Activation Process of aATP

Available-to-promise (ATP) stock is the uncommitted portion of a company’s inventory and planned production, used to support order promising for a customer order. The ATP quantity is very different from the available stock quantity. For example, perhaps there are 100 total pieces of stock for a product, but 80 pieces have already been committed to other sales orders or internal production. In that situation, the ATP quantity is only 20 pieces, which can be promised to new sales orders or new requirements.

To Activate in Configuration --- OVZ2

Checking Rule and Scope of Check Remains Same of Classic ERP

Strategies in BOP

The slide picture below demonstrates how each strategy can acquire inventory from the lower-priority strategies.

1) WIN:

▶Confirm as requested

▶Shall be fully confirmed in time (the most important customer orders)

2) GAIN:

▶Improve if possible

▶Shall keep the confirmations and should gain if possible (orders that cannot lose the earlier confirmations)

3) REDISTRIBUTE:

▶Redistribute and Reconfirm

▶Might gain, might lose (orders that can lose confirmations)

4) FILL:

▶Delete confirmation, if required

▶Shall not gain anything, should keep confirmation, but may also lose (non-priority customer orders)

5) LOSE:

▶Delete confirmation

▶Shall lose all confirmations (orders under credit block)

We now proceed to BOP Application that will create the parameters to decide what inventory is allocated to certain sales orders. The first BOP app, Configure BOP Segment,

These segments will filter and sort data per the selection criteria documented.

There are a host of standard options available, such as Sales Organization, Document Type, Date Ranges or Plant, providing broad flexibility in segment creation. Once complete, a segment may appear as per below Snaps, where we are selecting all orders shipping from the Supplying Plant 1710.

Fiori Applications

Configure BOP Segment:-

In Selection Criteria You can Give Selection condition with a basic code for Ex:- "Delivery Prior. of the SalesData of an ATP Document is equal to '01'

and also you can prioritize Attributes as well.

Configure BOP Variant:-

In BOP Variant will Assign BOP Segments which we created as per requirement.

Schedule BOP Run:-

In Schedule BOP we need to give the Variant which we created using Segments and Run the Job

Once Job Run is completed we can check status in Monitor BOP Run App

So From Above Snap, you can see from Sales order "14" Quantity has been Pratroised to Sales Order "15".

In this Way, We can Pratroise Order Based of Customers Requirement Vs Inventory.

We can use aATP with BOP to Praitotise the Sales Orders using different Strategy in BOP like

WIN, GAIN, REDISTRIBUTE, FILL & LOSE based on the customers and business process.

without losing a good customer for a delay in delivery with this aATP with BOP we can full fill all requirements of Different Customers with positive feedback

Using Networking to Empower Success

2019-10-08T11:07:07+02:00

UKISUG Connect is a great forum to get to know other SAP customers and hear their stories – Bernadette Brennan, SAP Solution Architect

The Electricity Supply Board (ESB) is a state-owned electricity company operating in Ireland. As a vertically integrated utility, ESB operates right across the electricity market: from generation, through transmission and distribution to supply. The Electricity Supply Board currently supplies electricity to approximately 1.4 million customers throughout the island of Ireland and employs approximately 7,000 people.

With SAP systems at the centre of its business organisation, it is imperative for the ESB team to stay up to date with SAP changes and offerings, as the company adheres to a ‘Get Current / Stay Current’ strategy in relation to support of its enterprise-wide application systems. Keeping abreast of any changes in relation to SAP services is key to continually implementing efficient business processes throughout ESB.

Events such as Connect are a valuable source of information in relation to SAP’s latest developments, innovations and product roadmaps which helps us leverage our existing SAP landscape, maximise the return on our technical investments and ultimately deliver an improved end user experience – Malcolm Dalton, SAP Solution Architect

The UK & Ireland SAP User Group (UKISUG) has provided more than 16 hours of networking at UKISUG Connect. The three-day event also includes keynotes, interactive workshops and breakout sessions in various areas relating to the public sector and utilities organisations - including Platform and Database and Total Workforce Management (including hire to retire).

The delegates from ESB who have attended UKISUG Connect have passed on the knowledge and experience they gain at the conference to their peers, meaning the wider team are engaged either directly or indirectly, empowering SAP success across the board.

Professional knowledge transfer and experience stories to share with colleagues. Good networking opportunities – Paul Quinn, SAP Solution Architect

In 2018, ESB came away from Connect with genuine business benefits…

Last year we were in the process of making a business case for embarking upon our SAP S/4 HANA journey. The Connect event offered us an excellent opportunity to liaise and network with other User Group members to gain a greater insight into how they prepared for this major undertaking, what challenges they experienced and more importantly what pitfalls may potentially arise and how best to avoid them. Through increased collaboration with other SAP users and the detailed information garnered at Connect 2018, we certainly were in a much better position to approach our S/4 HANA migration project with greater confidence – Malcolm Dalton, SAP Solution Architect

Completely independent from SAP, UKISUG exists solely to engage and empower all SAP customers, including those in the public sector. Taking this, the theme of UKISUG Connect 2019 is Empowering Minds, Engaging Success through facilitating the power of YOUR network. ESB have benefitted.

This year, will you?

To sign up or find out more, visit sapusers.org/connect19

A Decentralized World Uniting People

2019-10-23T22:46:06+02:00

An economy is nothing more than the aggregate of its markets. To be an effective leader of a corporation or government, an understanding of the economy is essential. All attempts to grasp what is going on in markets are informed by looking at who is doing the buying and selling of goods, services and financial assets, whilst asking ‘why?’. The current widespread impatience with economic sluggishness, best illustrated by the stagnant wealth middle- and lower-income earners, is leading to risky populism and nationalism. Fittingly, the impact of digital technology on the evolution of our ecosystems has become a key focus as the global debate sprouts branches of tributaries with evolving design. Whether it is the political establishment versus Facebook, the SEC v. Crypto or 680,000 Spotify premium-tier members ‘facing the power of the App Store’, it is clear that the role of technology in our ecosystem is mainstream and growing. The recent blockchain enabled decentralized computing platform models of today provide a glimpse into how technology might evolve to balance competing payoff sets and priorities.

As the human ecosystem evolves, so does our understanding of technology. Often blockchain is used interchangeably or understood to be synonymous with bitcoin. It is not. Blockchain is an application on top of a much broader fundamental movement exhibited by the world of today. A reflection of the years gone by, reveals the important role that the world wide web has played in our lives through the rise of ‘centralized platform technology’. Companies such as Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix and Google all leveraged the web to create centralized platforms that divert essentially all social, media, retail and advertising business through their centralized models. As the impact of all of this is debated by society, a peak at the 10 year growth curves of FAANG NASDAQ market capitalizations confirms that this has been good for business. The discussion on the impacts of this technology in our society is huh, hmmm, oh, no, errr lively.

Enter a horizontal architecture and concept called blockchain. While bitcoin does perform exceptionally well for the case it was built to enable, it is not a miracle worker for all use cases. There are currently more than 110 different blockchain technologies and frameworks in the market (Ideation Centre @ SAP Canada count as of 06/2019). Blockchain technology is developing to ensure deficits are being addressed through prototypes that are now live with a learning feedback loop. Centralized computing is no longer always the tool to select when faced with a new challenge at your organization, even if it is the tried and proven default.

Take for example a recent challenge faced by a North American business seeking to expand globally to fulfill customer demand. Bumble Bee Foods was looking to track a fish from “bait to plate,” to let customers know who caught it, packed it, and shipped it. That challenge to solve was ‘how could they ensure that the full ocean-to-table experience for their customers with a line catching fisherman off the shores of Indonesia would happen with new business partners operating their own way?’ A tablet yielding fisherman’s son on the beach proved to be the key insight that led to a blockchain enabled supply chain that traverses ocean focused NGOs, government agencies, packagers, and retailers. The independent fisher across the planet leverages the NGO for pricing power which benefits from supply chain visibility from the SAP application. As everything is backed by encryption, the consumer scanning the QR code can tell that it has not been tampered with at any point, and that the fish they are taking home to eat was genuinely caught at the time and location indicated by the entry on the blockchain made by the local fisherman. Numerous challenges in our world could benefit from enhanced trust between the consumer and entrepreneur like this network provides not only for the end points, but all of the other essential partners along the journey.

We are in a world where person to person interaction has been usurped by focusing on screens, headphones, or any other social connection limiting action when in the company of people. Creating more connections and trust through openness makes sense for a variety of services in today’s world. So perhaps a world with centralized platform technology offerings complimented by decentralized technology innovations can help to unite us all. If we can comprehend the previous sentence that is.