Hello Everyone,

Many people are having confusion with SAP S/4HANA Releases and its technical components versions/naming conventions.

Here is the big picture which gives you an overview of what it is and its respective technical software components in detail from Basis standpoint.

It captures both Cloud edition and on-premise edition releases.

Thanks,

JC

Hello everyone !

I have spent a nice amount of time reading the SAP documents related to S/4HANA OP, available here on SCN (great blogs as always !) and also on the SAP website for SAP partners.

As we have S/4 projects starting soon, I wanted to be sure that we fully understood the application options.

So In case you have the same questions, here is a quick recap !

S/4HANA FINANCE  

The Simple Finance Add-on on Suite on HANA (AKA ECC on HANA) was released in versions 1.0 then 2.0.

It is improving FI-CO for an ECC system on HANA, by simplifying the table architecture of, and around, BSEG and BKPF.

As the name implied, it is an ADD-ON to an existing ECC system.

It then changed its name into S/4HANA Finance, and later it also had some Support Packs.

So now the name of the add-on is S/4HANA Finance 1503, 1508, 1511...and so on (yes, it is the year and the month of the release!)

The best note to follow the names and the versions is OSS Note 2171868

S/4HANA ENTERPRISE MANAGEMENT

In November 2015, SAP released the S/4HANA Enterprise Management application: this is the real thing, the complete S/4HANA system, with all the asset management, service, sales, manufacturing processes.

The "Simple" brand is not used anymore, so there is no "Simple Logistics", just S/4HANA SALES, S/4HANA SERVICES.....etc

the first release of S/4HANA Enterprise Management was version 1511, and SAP documents mentioned a future version called 1602 and even 1605.

But......two weeks ago SAP released "SAP S/4HANA, on-premise edition 1511 Feature Package Stack 01" (official name).

If you are wondering, this is in fact the 1602 version, but the naming has changed !

So what do I need to know ?

if you plan an S/4HANA project, you have 2 options:

=> you can have  S/4HANA Finance added to your existing ECC system on HANA.
The finance tables will be simplified, you will have great improvements within the finance processes, and the other processes will stay the same. 

=> you can install a new S/4HANA enterprise Management system (or convert your existing SAP Business Suite ).
You will benefit from great innovations within all the processes (table simplification, new interface, process optimization..), and the core of the system will be different (please read the Simplification List ! ) 

=> both systems are called S/4HANA, but their technical architecture are quite different, as you can see...

Please comment if need be, and have a great day !

Eric

Introduction and purpose

Although a many good articles have been written by a number of experts about S/4 HANA, there still seem to be a lot of confusing terminology floating around. SAP customers and consultants are struggling to figure out answers to their open questions around the numerous SAP products which seem to offer similar functionality. I have provided my point-of-view on the direction SAP is headed in an effort to help relatively junior SAP consultants and aspiring future SAP consultants.

A bit of background

The biggest ERP in the market 'SAP' has evolved over the past four decades and has been the single most integrated business solution implemented in the market. While companies across the globe in numerous industries their businesses and IT systems utilizing SAP solutions, it offered a career opportunities in the form of a large number of highly paid consultants.

The integrated nature of the SAP package required a combined effort from many professionals who come with deep business knowledge and expertise in different business areas (functional consultants) such as procurement, manufacturing, sales & distribution, finance, quality, maintenance, warehouse, service, etc. In addition to the process areas, consultants with deep technical expertise (technical consultants) are needed to fill the gaps in standard SAP solution and to customize the solution. Also, there is a need for system administrators and people who administer security (basis and security consultants).

Traditionally, companies hired consulting firms (also called as system integrators) to understand their business processes and bring in their consultants with specific skill sets who can understand their business processes, design and configure the future SAP system and also train their personnel.

A quick look at how SAP product(s) evolved

The mainframe based SAP R2 was released in 1979 with a two tier architecture. The widely popular R3 system was released in 1992 which comprised of 3 tier architecture (database, application server and the presentation server being the 3 tiers). SAP kept enhancing the product in the form of releases. SAP stabilized its product with the name ECC6 released in 2006. SAP kept adding enhancement packs until 2013, the last one being EHP7 released in 2013.

In the last decade, SAP released numerous products that worked in conjunction with core ECC6 (also called as ERP6) to meet specific business needs, a few examples being mySAP CRM, SRM, APO, PLM, EWM, BW/BI, MII, SCM, MRS among many others.

In addition, numerous industry specific versions of SAP ECC6 (ERP) are made available, which catered to specific industry segments such as retail, utilities, public sector, oil & gas, healthcare, banking to name a few.

Demand for SAP Consultants

The number of SAP consultants increased steadily as the number of SAP implementation increased from late 80s until now. Depending on the demand for a certain skills, consulting companies and independent consultants charged their clients high hourly rates. However demand for the skill sets varied based on the industry trends, the number of ongoing implementations, support requirements, all in the mix of newer products and functionality being released by SAP. Seasoned SAP consultants would very well know that they need to constantly upgrade their skills with newer product releases and acquire newer skills that are in demand constantly so that they can stay in high demand.

Over the past two decades, a number of SAP skills became commoditized. For example, skills in certain SAP modules such as SAP MM, SD, FI, PP or even ABAP programming as the number of implementations diminished and the number of consultants increased. Long gone are the days when consultants charged top hourly rates for these skills.

Advent of new generation SAP products - S/4 HANA, Cloud

SAP came up with strategies to stay as a leader in ERP market with sustaining growth over years to come. SAPs new mantra to achieve this is by bringing the new S/4 HANA into the market.

What is HANA?

SAP traditionally operated on databases that they did not own. All of the SAP installations done prior to HANA were utilized competitor's databases. HANA is SAP's own 'state-of-the-art' database which is column oriented and stores data 'in-memory'. It offers 'real-time' analytics.

SAP introduced HANA database to the market in 2011. SAP so far did a few HANA releases since then with different names and functionality. 'BW on HANA' was released in 2012 which gained a lot of momentum in the world of analytics. Soon in 2013, SAP released 'Suite-on-HANA (SOH)' which is nothing but the entire existing SAP products running on HANA database. Since the introduction of HANA, SAP is working towards enhancing and optimizing all of the existing products to take advantage of the capabilities of HANA database and eliminate restrictions that the existing relational databases imposed.

SAP continued to expand their product portfolio by acquiring a number of companies and merging the products with their new generation products. A few such examples are SuccessFactors, Ariba, Hybris, Syclo, etc.

SAP released Simple Finance in 2014, which is an S/4 product and runs on HANA. Simple Finance saw a big change in terms of how financial data is stored in the SAP system. Numerous tables that traditionally stored SAP Finance and Costing (FI/CO) data have been condensed into a handful of HANA tables which reduces complexity in data storage and increases reporting speed.

Moving ahead in the same path, SAP intends to HANAize all of the traditional modules in the ERP. SAP release 1511 S/4HANA covers the latest suite of SAP products including S/4HANA Enterprise Management.

What is Fiori?

SAP also addressed the age old complaint that the SAP screens are not user friendly and non-intuitive, by releasing what is called 'Fiori' user interface (Ux). Fiori is based on UI5 technology and contains a set of front end templates called 'tiles' that users can pick and choose for the applications thy intend to run on SAP. One other key feature of Fiori is mobility integration. All the new generation SAP products are web enabled, persona based and configurable.

It appears like the future SAP implementations would typically comprise of S/4 HANA Enterprise Management application running on Fiori front end and mobility enabled. Since the table structures would have been simplified, there would probably be a limited need for the RICEF(custom developments). Reports would be generated using the in-memory (cloud) capabilities. Just a guess but simple queries might be able to generate complex reports given that the table structures are simple. We may have to wait and watch to see if the new generation digital analytics might possibly eliminate the need for traditional BW reporting..!

What it means to SAP Consultants

While SAP is driving big changes and on their way to creating new markets for the new generation products, customers are still confused with the fast pace of changes and the array of products available currently with overlapping functionality. They have hard time making the right choices.

This offers a huge challenge as well as a huge opportunity for SAP consultants to catch up with SAP's pace and understand the latest products and provide customers with right information and guide them making the right choices. Good news is that the core business processes are actually driven by the industry and more of less would remain the same irrespective of the technology advancements. So the need of the hour for SAP consultants is to invest time in upgrading their skills, after all consultants are the ones to take the brunt of understanding the new products, features and functionality..!

Certainly there will be a many customers in the future who would wan to implement S/4 HANA and Fiori. Consultants could look forward to upgrade projects as well as new implementations the 'this' is the right time for them to gear up and get ready for the 'next big thing'..!

At TechEd last year, I welcomed you to the Future.

It was the day of Marty McFly’s time travel to the future of 2015. Today, it’s the Past already.

This week, it's time for another SAP TechEd Lecture of the Week.

So, welcome to 2016 and here it is: Transition Paths to SAP S/4HANA.

Why is this related?

2016 is the year of SAP's new Business Suite SAP S/4HANA which is now available, both in the cloud and on premise. This is here today, it’s the Present.

So while you’ve probably already given up on some of your New Year's resolutions, SAP has big plans with S/4HANA in 2016 and it’s still at the top of our list. To get there, we want to make your transformation as smooth as possible.

There are 3 different transition scenarios, depending on where you are coming from (SAP vs. non-SAP ERP), the reason for your move (getting latest features vs. starting with new business processes) and where you’re going to (cloud vs. on-premise deployment).

The 3 scenarios are:

• New Implementation:
  New implementation of SAP S/4HANA– e.g. customer migrating from a non-SAP legacy system or an SAP legacy system and implementing a net-new system that requires initial data load (aka green field approach)
• System Conversion:
  Complete conversion of an existing SAP Business Suite system to SAP S/4HANA– e.g. customers who want to change their current SAP system to SAP S/4 HANA (aka lift & shift)
• Landscape Transformation:
  Consolidation of current regional SAP systems into one global SAP S/4HANA system – e.g. customers who want to consolidate their landscape or carve out selected entities (like a company code) or processes into a single SAP S/4HANA system (aka System Landscape Transformation)

When customers are moving to SAP S/4HANA, whether their existing system is SAP ERP or they're considering implementing new SAP software, choosing the right transition path is important to mitigate the risk and reduce implementation costs. The strategy for this move and also some of your unanswered question are all addressed in this virtual session.

It’s just a click away.

What’s next?

Stay in touch with us by following my blog:

A better way to migrate your SAP data with Rapi... | SCN

Check out the in-depth sessions about each and every of the 3 scenarios:

• New Implementation (Wednesday, January 20th, 2016) - including SAP Activate!
  Update: Recording available!
  
• System Conversion (Tuesday, January 26th, 2016)
• Landscape Transformation(Tuesday, February 2nd, 2016)

Watch The Data Migration Guys:

Introducing the Data Migration Guys | SCN

Data Migration Community Space:

Data Migration | SCN

More information about Data Migration:

SAP Service Marketplace - Home

Follow us on Twitter: @SAPServices

Hello Everyone,

Many people are having confusion with SAP S/4HANA(without space) Releases and its technical components versions/naming conventions.

Here is the big picture which gives you an overview of what it is and its respective technical software components in detail from Basis standpoint.

It captures both Cloud edition and on-premise edition releases.

Thanks,

JC

Introduction and purpose

Although a many good articles have been written by a number of experts about S/4HANA, there still seem to be a lot of confusing terminology floating around. SAP customers and consultants are struggling to figure out answers to their open questions around the numerous SAP products which seem to offer similar functionality. I have provided my point-of-view on the direction SAP is headed in an effort to help relatively junior SAP consultants and aspiring future SAP consultants.

A bit of background

The biggest ERP in the market 'SAP' has evolved over the past four decades and has been the single most integrated business solution implemented in the market. While companies across the globe in numerous industries their businesses and IT systems utilizing SAP solutions, it offered a career opportunities in the form of a large number of highly paid consultants.

The integrated nature of the SAP package required a combined effort from many professionals who come with deep business knowledge and expertise in different business areas (functional consultants) such as procurement, manufacturing, sales & distribution, finance, quality, maintenance, warehouse, service, etc. In addition to the process areas, consultants with deep technical expertise (technical consultants) are needed to fill the gaps in standard SAP solution and to customize the solution. Also, there is a need for system administrators and people who administer security (basis and security consultants).

Traditionally, companies hired consulting firms (also called as system integrators) to understand their business processes and bring in their consultants with specific skill sets who can understand their business processes, design and configure the future SAP system and also train their personnel.

A quick look at how SAP product(s) evolved

The mainframe based SAP R2 was released in 1979 with a two tier architecture. The widely popular R3 system was released in 1992 which comprised of 3 tier architecture (database, application server and the presentation server being the 3 tiers). SAP kept enhancing the product in the form of releases. SAP stabilized its product with the name ECC6 released in 2006. SAP kept adding enhancement packs until 2013, the last one being EHP7 released in 2013.

In the last decade, SAP released numerous products that worked in conjunction with core ECC6 (also called as ERP6) to meet specific business needs, a few examples being mySAP CRM, SRM, APO, PLM, EWM, BW/BI, MII, SCM, MRS among many others.

In addition, numerous industry specific versions of SAP ECC6 (ERP) are made available, which catered to specific industry segments such as retail, utilities, public sector, oil & gas, healthcare, banking to name a few.

Demand for SAP Consultants

The number of SAP consultants increased steadily as the number of SAP implementation increased from late 80s until now. Depending on the demand for a certain skills, consulting companies and independent consultants charged their clients high hourly rates. However demand for the skill sets varied based on the industry trends, the number of ongoing implementations, support requirements, all in the mix of newer products and functionality being released by SAP. Seasoned SAP consultants would very well know that they need to constantly upgrade their skills with newer product releases and acquire newer skills that are in demand constantly so that they can stay in high demand.

Over the past two decades, a number of SAP skills became commoditized. For example, skills in certain SAP modules such as SAP MM, SD, FI, PP or even ABAP programming as the number of implementations diminished and the number of consultants increased. Long gone are the days when consultants charged top hourly rates for these skills.

Advent of new generation SAP products - S/4HANA, Cloud

SAP came up with strategies to stay as a leader in ERP market with sustaining growth over years to come. SAPs new mantra to achieve this is by bringing the new S/4 HANA into the market.

What is HANA?

SAP traditionally operated on databases that they did not own. All of the SAP installations done prior to HANA were utilized competitor's databases. HANA is SAP's own 'state-of-the-art' database which is column oriented and stores data 'in-memory'. It offers 'real-time' analytics.

SAP introduced HANA database to the market in 2011. SAP so far did a few HANA releases since then with different names and functionality. 'BW on HANA' was released in 2012 which gained a lot of momentum in the world of analytics. Soon in 2013, SAP released 'Suite-on-HANA (SOH)' which is nothing but the entire existing SAP products running on HANA database. Since the introduction of HANA, SAP is working towards enhancing and optimizing all of the existing products to take advantage of the capabilities of HANA database and eliminate restrictions that the existing relational databases imposed.

SAP continued to expand their product portfolio by acquiring a number of companies and merging the products with their new generation products. A few such examples are SuccessFactors, Ariba, Hybris, Syclo, etc.

SAP released Simple Finance in 2014, which is an S/4 product and runs on HANA. Simple Finance saw a big change in terms of how financial data is stored in the SAP system. Numerous tables that traditionally stored SAP Finance and Costing (FI/CO) data have been condensed into a handful of HANA tables which reduces complexity in data storage and increases reporting speed.

Moving ahead in the same path, SAP intends to HANAize all of the traditional modules in the ERP. SAP release 1511 S/4HANA covers the latest suite of SAP products including S/4HANA Enterprise Management.

What is Fiori?

SAP also addressed the age old complaint that the SAP screens are not user friendly and non-intuitive, by releasing what is called 'Fiori' user interface (Ux). Fiori is based on UI5 technology and contains a set of front end templates called 'tiles' that users can pick and choose for the applications thy intend to run on SAP. One other key feature of Fiori is mobility integration. All the new generation SAP products are web enabled, persona based and configurable.

It appears like the future SAP implementations would typically comprise of S/4HANA Enterprise Management application running on Fiori front end and mobility enabled. Since the table structures would have been simplified, there would probably be a limited need for the RICEF(custom developments). Reports would be generated using the in-memory (cloud) capabilities. Just a guess but simple queries might be able to generate complex reports given that the table structures are simple. We may have to wait and watch to see if the new generation digital analytics might possibly eliminate the need for traditional BW reporting..!

What it means to SAP Consultants

While SAP is driving big changes and on their way to creating new markets for the new generation products, customers are still confused with the fast pace of changes and the array of products available currently with overlapping functionality. They have hard time making the right choices.

This offers a huge challenge as well as a huge opportunity for SAP consultants to catch up with SAP's pace and understand the latest products and provide customers with right information and guide them making the right choices. Good news is that the core business processes are actually driven by the industry and more of less would remain the same irrespective of the technology advancements. So the need of the hour for SAP consultants is to invest time in upgrading their skills, after all consultants are the ones to take the brunt of understanding the new products, features and functionality..!

Certainly there will be a many customers in the future who would wan to implement S/4HANA and Fiori. Consultants could look forward to upgrade projects as well as new implementations the 'this' is the right time for them to gear up and get ready for the 'next big thing'..!

Most of the organizations now running SAP are trying to ascertain the business benefits with S/4 HANA. Highlighted the design principles behind S/4 HANA in one of the previous blogs in URL http://scn.sap.com/community/s4hana/blog/2015/11/16/principles-features-directions-methodology-and-market-trend-with-sap-s4-hana-1511-update. Simplification list of Release 1511 states that the activation of material ledger is mandatory. Writing this blog to summarize ‘What is material ledger’, ‘ challenges in implementing in SAP ERP’ and ‘How S/4 HANA can simplify material ledger with its new data model’.

Material ledger (ML): Provides following main features

• Multiple currency : Traditionally inventory is mainly valuated with a single currency in SAP ERP. ML allows valuation in two additional currencies. Today’s global organizations operating in different countries desire to valuate inventory in multiple currencies. Like for example, a company in Norway dealing with oil needs to maintain their books in Norwegian currency (NOK) , they will also like to evaluate their inventory in USD as oil is traded in international market in USD. This functionality is available in Release 1511 of S/4 HANA.

• Multiple valuations : ML offers the option of  three different levels of valuations (Legal ,group and Profit center) for a corporate group operating in multiple countries . Generally legal valuations are stored in local currency, group & profit center valuations are stored in group currency (mostly in USD). Parallel valuations support transfer pricing for internal sales between legal entities or profit centers within the group for worldwide supply chain. If a product is assembled in China with parts produced & procured from different units operating in different countries (within the same group) , then final cost price may get added up to a very high value (due to internal profits in cross company sales). If company wants to reduce this final cost price, then this multiple valuations help them to achieve that by eliminating internal profits for MNCs’. This functionality is expected to be ready in S/4 HANA in middle of 2016.

• Actual costing : Inventory and material movements are generally valuated either at Standard price (S) which is constant over a period of time or Moving average price (MAP) which gets adjusted (calculated) automatically based on every Goods receipt or Invoice receipt. Both of these two methods have their own pros and cons. Actual costing combines the advantages of standard price with advantages of using MAP.

ML captures all price variances (like purchase price variances, production variances etc) and allows (as optional period end activity) revaluation of ending inventories at period end and releases it as standard price (generally) for next period. Actual costing is optional in S/4 HANA.

Challenges with ML in SAP ERP : Material ledger functionality is present in SAP ERP , but not many companies have implemented it mainly due to

• Several configurations (perceived to be complex)
• Discipline in logistic process specially for actual costing and need for high quality master data (Material price can be changed at any time without ML , but there are restrictions in changing the price within a period if actual costing is active. Material posting needs to happen in current period only, Goods receipt should be done before Invoice receipt for purchase order etc)
• Production startup activity (Perceived to be complex with considerable business down time)
• Additional period end activities (Specially when actual costing is active)
• Performance (Transaction run time gets impacted due to update in several ML tables during goods movement , invoices and additional period end activities) 
• Analytics (Analysis of price to be drilled down to individual document takes time)

Valuation on actual costing is a legal requirement in many countries like Brazil. Many MNCs’ have implemented ML only for their Brazil unit but not for units in other countries.

Simplified data model of S/4 HANA : Data will now be stored mainly in universal journal table ACDOCA , several ML tables have been replaced with HANA views with same name.

So, existing customers using ML will be happy as bottlenecks with performance and analytics will be eliminated through simplified data model, higher throughput, ‘on the fly’ aggregates, real time reporting. Some of the period end activities (for reconciliation etc) may not be needed with single table ACDOCA. But, other customer not using ML (for all of their plants) may not be happy for mandatory implementation of ML in all plants.

Undoubtedly ML has great features and global companies will reap benefits with parallel currency and parallel valuations with ML embedded in S/4 HANA , but many customers may like to get clarified on following questions

• Will requisite configurations be simplified? Will ‘guided configuration’ be useful or relevant?
• Will relevant business logic and certain restrictions with ML be simplified? 
• Will there be explanatory logs for complex cost calculations for regular business users?

ML is just a single chapter in the story of S/4 HANA, there are several chapters in it and each chapter has its own nuances as highlighted in another blog in URL http://scn.sap.com/community/s4hana/blog/2016/02/03/transition-to-s4-hana-pre-checks-and-whether-migration-or-new-implementation.We will eagerly wait to read the chapters not yet released, predict what can or should happen next, but we must all agree that the story is very interesting, probably the right path for digital economy,but it is not simple !!

I used to think that activating FIORI apps is a cumbersome task and I have to admit I had to give it a few attempts before I got some success.

But today I got four of them running in a short time, so I really got "in the flow". Now I think that it's not that hard, after all.

I'll share with you what I did / my general approach here:

[Please note: I'm working on an sandbox system, that is not even accessible from the "outside world" - if you're in a productive environment you probably have to pay a lot more attention to security-concerns.

(Like, thinking twice and checking back with others, before activation services in SICF; or fine-tuning the authorizations)]

Have your systems installed / up to date

We are running a backend with S/4 HANA 1511, SP1:

S4CORE          100       0001     SAPK-10001INS4CORE            S4CORE

Our frontend (gateway server) has SAP Fiori for SAP S/4HANA 1511 installed:

UIS4HOP1        100       0000     -           UI for S/4HANA On Premise

For configuring those systems, I use a document called "SAP Fiori Technical Foundation Configuration(EE0)" (I got it from a colleague, I couldn’t find a link to provide to you, maybe someone can help me out with that?)

Other prerequisites:

• Have a equally named user in both the front- and the backend.
• For testing, I give them quit a lot of authorization in fron- and backend (like SAP_ALL). 
• In the backend, let it have role SAP_SM_S_RFCACL .

After this is done, to activate an app what I do is this:

(if not mentioned otherwise, things are done on the front end = gateway server).

1. Find your App in the App-Libraray (https://fioriappslibrary.hana.ondemand.com/sap/fix/externalViewer/)

     I'll take "Manage Purchase Orders" (https://fioriappslibrary.hana.ondemand.com/sap/fix/externalViewer/#/detail/Apps('F0842')/S3OP) as an example.

2. Check that the needed front- and backend-components are installed.

3. Activate the UI5-application in SICF.

The path is allways: /default_host/sap/bc/ui5_ui5/sap/

The appslibrary will tell you the service name (MM_PO_CRES1)

-> just right-click and activate.

4. Activate OData services:

In /IWFND/MAIN_SERVICE, publish the OData servic(es) mentioned in the appslibrary (MM_PUR_PO_MAINTAIN).

Also make sure that it's activated in SICF as well:

Here the path is: /default_host/sap/opu/odata/sap/

5. Assign the role given in "PFCG role for Business Catalog" (SAP_BR_PURCHASER) to your user and start testing:

6. Log on to the Fiori-launchpad.

It's usually located at [server:port]/sap/bc/ui5_ui5/ui2/ushell/shells/abap/FioriLaunchpad.html .

Tipp: use Chrome as your browser.

7. You now should see the Apps as provided by the PFCG-Role.

8. Find the one you wanted (Manage Purchase Orders) and klick on it.

9. It's quite possible that it will not work right away, but don't let that stop you:

The F12-Key is your friend!

-> switch to the Console.

Press F5 to reload the launchpad again.

Then click the App again.

-> Watch the error messages in the console!

There are usually 2 main error sources you can identify by those messages:

a)

A service is not running!

GET http://[hotsname]/sap/bc/ui5_ui5/sap/mm_purdoc_lsts1/~29C6FEC22735BB70BBE819198D78D~5/Component.js403 (Forbidden)

-> go to the SICF-Node given in the URL (here: /sap/bc/ui5_ui5/sap/mm_purdoc_lsts1) and activate it.

b)

An OData service is not available:

GET http://[hostname]/sap/opu/odata/sap/ME2STAR_OD_SRV/$metadata?sap-language=DE 403 (Forbidden)

-> go to /IWFND/MAINT_SERVICE and publish it!

(don't forget to to activate the respective SICF-Node as well!)

You probably have to repeat those steps (reload, Click, Look, activate something in b) a few times, but in the end you should have your running app:

Bonus-steps:

You already see the other apps (provided by the PFCG-Role) so why not make the usable, too!?

-> you can use the same "klick, look, activate"-cycle for it.

Conclusion:

As always you have to invest some time and get acquainted with the problem domain. As you gain experience, the solution hidden behind an error message will get more and more obvious to you.

F12 is key when trying to find out what's wrong!

So what do you think of this approach? What steps do you go when implementing Fiori-Apps (in S/4 HANA or elsewhere)?

Your comments are most welcome!

There are lots of things to be aware of when you are thinking about moving to the new SAP S/4 HANA. You should be aware that it’s not an upgrade, we are talking about a suite transformation.

One of the most important innovations in the new SAP Business Suite, is the simplified data model, which has particular impact on the financials area of your existing suite.

Don’t be daunted, but be aware that there are some “todos” before your SAP S/4H go-live

1. Universal Journal, this massive simplification completes the circle that started with the initial simple finance add-on.

The classic R/3 structure could be represented as one single link, at a header level between FI and CO. That constraint created more complexity for reconciliation purposes in the first instance and secondly for interrogation of the information. The result being the creation of summarization and index tables.

The Simple Finance add-on was merely an intermediate step, including POSNR (Position Number) and AWKEY field for reconciliation purposes between the different financial tables and analytical areas.

With the Universal Journal, the simplification has gone much further. We are now in front one of the major simplifications thanks to HANADB and its in-memory capabilities.

Major impacts of this innovation are, from my perspective, at a change management and data governance level. Because the data model is different, the approach to some of the classic problems should be different:

Secondary elements are now G/L accounts.

Accounting principles are now at a company code level.

If the fiscal year differs, you will need to use ledgers to represent parallel accountings.

2. Only customers with customer/vendor integration in place can move to SAP S/4HANA.

To ensure a successful conversion to the new SAP S/4HANA, all customers and vendors should be first converted into business partners. This is also true for the business partners that are already in use. When the customer/vendor transformation process is triggered, the system posts all required fields into the business partner.

SAP OSS Notes that will help you through the process:

2211312

2216176

1623677

Major impact on the master data governance area.

3. The account based CO-PA switch should be turned on.

Don’t be afraid, but be aware that SAP allows to have both switches on. Therefore, you will only need to activate the account to start using SAP S/4HANA.

• Costing- based: groups costs and revenues using value fields
• Account-based: it’s organised in general ledger accounts and is always reconciled with Finance.
• Combinations: Costing- Based + Account based

Custom fields (equivalent to CE1XXX old tables) are still allowed, they need to be handled in the new universal journal table ACDOCA, which will give you instant insights and easy extensibility. Derivation rules are still available.

“The don’ts”, no option to include calculated fields as per example freight insurances.

4. Material ledger is mandatory for classic material valuation.

I’m aware or at least my experience tells me that the use of material ledger is not massively extended to Europe. For the new SAP S/4HANA this will be mandatory. This feature will give you the ability to carry material prices in multiple currencies/valuations, and the actual costings to your organization.

How will this impact my organization, once we activate material ledger?

• New net customers can activate Material Ledger during migration/Go-Live.
• Existing customers without ML can activate Material Leger during migration/Go-Live as well. 

• For existing customers with active ML but not using transfer prices, migration program transfers data to the new S/4HANA tables. 


Do I need to change material valuation strategy approach?

This is clearly a don’t. SAP still recommends the classic approach.

Another don’t: transfer prices are not yet supported in SAP S/4HANA.

(S- price) Standard price still recommended for manufactured goods. The major innovation is that parallel updates are supported and application logs removed.

(V- price) Moving average price will be used for purchased materials and services. Application locks are still in place to ensure continuous consistency.

(PU-price) Actual costing based on Material ledger

• Balances per material and inventory account in up to 3 FI currency types: company code, Group, a third FI currency type.
• All balances are updated in the new ACDOCA table.
• Currencies defined for the leading ledger in Financial Accounting will be used.
• No separate currency customizing in Material Ledger 


Material Price Analysis will work as expected. However, displayed data from aggregated data sets (MLCD) and then drilled down to the document level (MLIT, MLPP) will be now read from the universal journal (ACDOCA).

5. Revenue recognition with SAP Revenue accounting

The existing SD-RR solution cannot be used for new IFRS15 accounting standards. This new solution includes enhancement in account determination to be compliant with IFRS15/ ASVC606.

SAP OSS notes

• 2225170 - S/4 HANA SD-Revenue Recognition

• 2227824 - S4/HANA Pre-check for SD-Revenue Recognition

Custom code will no longer work in S/4HANA

Revenue Accounting determines the G/L accounts to be posted for order items using an extended account determination (OKB9)

Below is a useful link to review all the pre-checks necessary for your next step to digitalization.

https://uacp.hana.ondemand.com/http.svc/rc/PRODUCTION/pdfe68bfa55e988410ee10000000a441470/1511%20000/en-US/CONV_OP1511.pdf

Thanks for rating!

Stay tuned for more, xherce (@xherce) | Twitter

what to learn in SAP HANA to get Job

What to Learn in SAP HANA to get job, itjobswatch.co.uk - YouTube

you can watch video, and put forth ur question

There are lots of things to be aware of when you are thinking about moving to the new SAP S/4 HANA. You should be aware that it’s not an upgrade, we are talking about a suite transformation.

One of the most important innovations in the new SAP Business Suite, is the simplified data model, which has particular impact on the financials area of your existing suite.

Don’t be daunted, but be aware that there are some “todos” before your SAP S/4H go-live

1. Universal Journal, this massive simplification completes the circle that started with the initial simple finance add-on.

The classic R/3 structure could be represented as one single link, at a header level between FI and CO. That constraint created more complexity for reconciliation purposes in the first instance and secondly for interrogation of the information. The result being the creation of summarization and index tables.

The Simple Finance add-on was merely an intermediate step, including POSNR (Position Number) and AWKEY field for reconciliation purposes between the different financial tables and analytical areas.

With the Universal Journal, the simplification has gone much further. We are now in front one of the major simplifications thanks to HANADB and its in-memory capabilities.

Major impacts of this innovation are, from my perspective, at a change management and data governance level. Because the data model is different, the approach to some of the classic problems should be different:

Secondary elements are now G/L accounts.

Accounting principles are now at a company code level.

If the fiscal year differs, you will need to use ledgers to represent parallel accountings.

2. Only customers with customer/vendor integration in place can move to SAP S/4HANA.

To ensure a successful conversion to the new SAP S/4HANA, all customers and vendors should be first converted into business partners. This is also true for the business partners that are already in use. When the customer/vendor transformation process is triggered, the system posts all required fields into the business partner.

SAP OSS Notes that will help you through the process:

2211312

2216176

1623677

Major impact on the master data governance area.

3. The account based CO-PA switch should be turned on.

Don’t be afraid, but be aware that SAP allows to have both switches on. Therefore, you will only need to activate the account to start using SAP S/4HANA.

• Costing- based: groups costs and revenues using value fields
• Account-based: it’s organised in general ledger accounts and is always reconciled with Finance.
• Combinations: Costing- Based + Account based

Custom fields (equivalent to CE1XXX old tables) are still allowed, they need to be handled in the new universal journal table ACDOCA, which will give you instant insights and easy extensibility. Derivation rules are still available.

“The don’ts”, no option to include calculated fields as per example freight insurances.

4. Material ledger is mandatory for classic material valuation.

I’m aware or at least my experience tells me that the use of material ledger is not massively extended to Europe. For the new SAP S/4HANA this will be mandatory. This feature will give you the ability to carry material prices in multiple currencies/valuations, and the actual costings to your organization.

How will this impact my organization, once we activate material ledger?

• New net customers can activate Material Ledger during migration/Go-Live.
• Existing customers without ML can activate Material Leger during migration/Go-Live as well. 

• For existing customers with active ML but not using transfer prices, migration program transfers data to the new S/4HANA tables. 


Do I need to change material valuation strategy approach?

This is clearly a don’t. SAP still recommends the classic approach.

Another don’t: transfer prices are not yet supported in SAP S/4HANA.

(S- price) Standard price still recommended for manufactured goods. The major innovation is that parallel updates are supported and application logs removed.

(V- price) Moving average price will be used for purchased materials and services. Application locks are still in place to ensure continuous consistency.

(PU-price) Actual costing based on Material ledger

• Balances per material and inventory account in up to 3 FI currency types: company code, Group, a third FI currency type.
• All balances are updated in the new ACDOCA table.
• Currencies defined for the leading ledger in Financial Accounting will be used.
• No separate currency customizing in Material Ledger 


Material Price Analysis will work as expected. However, displayed data from aggregated data sets (MLCD) and then drilled down to the document level (MLIT, MLPP) will be now read from the universal journal (ACDOCA).

5. Revenue recognition with SAP Revenue accounting

The existing SD-RR solution cannot be used for new IFRS15 accounting standards. This new solution includes enhancement in account determination to be compliant with IFRS15/ ASVC606.

SAP OSS notes

• 2225170 - S/4 HANA SD-Revenue Recognition

• 2227824 - S4/HANA Pre-check for SD-Revenue Recognition

Custom code will no longer work in S/4HANA

Revenue Accounting determines the G/L accounts to be posted for order items using an extended account determination (OKB9)

Below is a useful link to review all the pre-checks necessary for your next step to digitalization.

https://uacp.hana.ondemand.com/http.svc/rc/PRODUCTION/pdfe68bfa55e988410ee10000000a441470/1511%20000/en-US/CONV_OP1511.pdf

Thanks for rating!

Stay tuned for more, xherce (@xherce) | Twitter

Maybe you might ask yourself how the Integration path of S/4HANA is being used in the context of SAP cloud solutions? Here is the answer:

SAP S/4HANA is the next-generation business suite product that provides innovated and tightly coupled solutions that supports end-to-end business processes integration between SAP S/4HANA core components and SAP software-as-a-service (SaaS) cloud solutions such as SAP Ariba, SAP SuccessFactors, SAP Fieldglass, Concur, SAP Hybris, SAP Cloud for Costumer, SAP Financial Services Network, or other third-party solutions depending on the available API’s to those.

  Figure :Integration path of SAP S/4HANA, On-premise and Cloud Edition

To understand and explore the whole picture of the Integration capabilities of SAP S/4HANA to SAP cloud solutions, please check out the following link:

• Integration capabilities of SAP S/4HANA and SAP cloud solutions

All latest and greatest information on S/4HANA can be found at: http://scn.sap.com/docs/DOC-64980

What is the benefit?

• SAP S/4HANA priovides choice of integration and deployment options for on premise and cloud editions.
• SAP S/4HANA is closely integrated with cloud solutions from SAP, such as Ariba Network, SuccessFactors Employee Central, and Concur and more.
• SAP S/4HANA offers Integration technology options based on the deployment selection: SAP process orchestration, SAP HANA cloud integration and web services.
• SAP S/4HANA is easy to integrate because it leverages preconfigured best practices, guided configuration and onboarding either for the cloud or on premise deployment model.
• SAP S/4HANA is designed with SAP Fiori UX and integrated user experience with simplified usability on any device.

Stay tuned for more details on this exciting enhancement and functional aspects of each S/4HANA Integration scenarios.

Hello,

find attached the Simplification List for SAP S/4HANA, on-premise edition 1511  FPS1 in the XLS format.

http://service.sap.com/~sapidp/012002523100004341232016E.xls

The textual version of the Simplification List can be found in SAP Help: SAP S/4HANA, on-premise edition – SAP Help Portal Page

Kind Regards,

Frank

You've probably heard a lot about SAP S/4HANA by now and the S/4HANA Community Space as well as the S/4HANA cookbook are the right places to learn more about it overall. I already wrote about the transition to SAP’s latest Business Suite in my earlier blog post for both, on-premise and cloud editions. Check it out using the link below:

Welcome to 2016 – Transition Paths to SAP S/4HANA | SAP TechEd Lecture of the Week

When it comes to the SAP S/4HANA Cloud Editions, did you ever think about migrating your data to the cloud? We at SAP did and therefore, we actually built the migration engine right into the foundation of the S/4HANA Cloud Editions. While this applies for cloud only, it’s a really smart way to get your data in by file upload with generated templates that you can work with using MS Excel. But it’s not just an upload, it also includes validations and value mapping as this is supported by the new tool. This is available as part of SAP S/4HANA through the 'Manage Your Solution' SAP Fiori application that contains the app for migrating your data. You can execute data migrations directly out of this application and the migration objects are proposed based on the selected preconfigured business processes.

Data Migration based on the 'Migrate Your Data' app at a glance:

• Create your own migration project to transfer data from file by leveraging the built-in data migration best practices content
• Select the migration objects you need to transfer according to the given solution scope your very own the SAP S/4HANA cloud edition system
• Download template files that provide the metadata for the available and required fields as well as some additional technical fields
• Learn about the fields and fill in your source data into the template according to the structure
• Upload the populated spreadsheet, view the data and manipulate it
• Validate the data, perform the value mapping and resolve errors
• Load the data into SAP S/4HANA

Click here for watching the demo.

You can find more information on this in the SAP Service Marketplace (SMP) by clicking the link below:

SAP Service Marketplace - SAP BP for SAP S/4HANA, cloud enterprise edition 

(http://service.sap.com/public/s4ce)

Simply open the 'Enterprise technology' area and you'll find the data migration scope items that are built-in for SAP S/4HANA Cloud Enterprise and Cloud Project Services Edition.

Watch The Data Migration Guys:

Introducing the Data Migration Guys | SCN

Data Migration Community Space:

Data Migration | SCN

Follow us on Twitter: @SAPServices

In 2015, more than 2,700 companies chose SAP S/4HANA. By any measure, it has been SAP’s most successful launch. Companies of all sizes, across every industry, are recognizing the value of a next generation business suite designed to enable digital transformation. But how do you know what SAP S/4HANA can do for your organization?

Beyond the broad topics of an award winning user experience and a single source of data for transactions and analytics, what impact can SAP S/4HANA deliver to your organization? And, once you know that, where should you focus first?

To help answer these questions, we developed the Business Scenario Recommendation tool (BSR). Through the BSR, we examine your current landscape and usage, then provide you with a free custom analysis in 5 business days or less.

You will receive tailored recommendations, by line of business and based on your current productive system usage, that highlight where you can most benefit from SAP S/4HANA:

• 
An overview of the improvements to line of business-specific value levers
• The process innovation delivered by SAP S/4HANA to address today’s business challenges
• The impact of SAP Fiori UX and SAP HANA on your business

We even provide you with an example migration path to SAP S/4HANA and recommendations of SAP Support Services for your implementation.

Get started today with a free Business Scenario Recommendation for SAP S/4HANA.

If you are starting an SAP S/4HANA or even considering implementing SAP S/4HANA there are a number of tasks that you need to perform to ensure it is a success.

SAP provides documentation to cover off the functionality within SAP S/4HANA and produces a document called the Simplification List that provides details of the various changes that have occurred compared to SAP ECC.

Within the On-Premise version of SAP S/4HANA a number of SAP Transaction codes have been removed, improved or replaced compared to SAP ECC. Reviewing this document and understanding the changes that are required for your specific system usage will enable you to have a better view of the changes that will be required. Without a piece of information it can be hard to plan the project or to understand the scale of the effort that will be required. Lastly, without this information you cannot understand the level of business change required or the business benefits that you can achieve with SAP S/4HANA.

To speed this process up we have built a simple SAP Fiori app that allows a customer to review their current list of SAP ECC transaction codes that they currently use and see which particular ones require additional attention.

By using this SAP Fiori app, you can clearly see which transaction codes have been impacted by SAP S/4HANA with further information around the changes that you should make. By importing in your current list of SAP transaction codes you can compare them against the master list of impacted transaction codes.

Have a look at the video below which provides an overview of how the tool works.

Alternatively, you can watch the video on YouTube here: Bluefin S/4HANA TCode Analyser - YouTube

We are using transaction BP in SAP On Premise edition 1511.  When trying to link a Plant to the Vendor in BP transaction ( using BP Role FLVN01 ), we find that the Plant field in " Additional Purchasing Data " is greyed out :

On clicking on the "Create" button, we are getting a screen where we can enter the Plant, but getting an Error saying Vendor Sub Range is mandatory. We do not need VSR, we only need to assign a Plant to the Vendor BP in order to enable Stock Transfer Order scenario.

Getting the Message " Enter Vendor Sub-Range " as shown above.  So, we are unable to assign the Plant in Additional Purchasing Data.

Any help would be appreciated.

If you are starting an SAP S/4HANA or even considering implementing SAP S/4HANA there are a number of tasks that you need to perform to ensure it is a success.

SAP provides documentation to cover off the functionality within SAP S/4HANA and produces a document called the Simplification List that provides details of the various changes that have occurred compared to SAP ECC.

Within the On-Premise version of SAP S/4HANA a number of SAP Transaction codes have been removed, improved or replaced compared to SAP ECC. Reviewing this document and understanding the changes that are required for your specific system usage will enable you to have a better view of the changes that will be required. Without this information it can be hard to plan the project or to understand the scale of the effort that will be required. Lastly, without this information you cannot understand the level of business change required or the business benefits that you can achieve with SAP S/4HANA.

To speed this process up we went through the 270-page Simplification List document and compiled a list of all affected transaction codes. Using Google Sheets as an Odata service, we built a simple SAP Fiori app that allows a customer to review their current list of SAP ECC transaction codes that they currently use and see which particular ones require additional attention. Here is a useful post on how to use Google Sheets as JSON.

By using this SAP Fiori app, you can clearly see which transaction codes have been impacted by SAP S/4HANA with further information around the changes that you should make. By importing in your current list of SAP transaction codes you can compare them against the master list of impacted transaction codes.

Have a look at the video below which provides an overview of how the tool works.

Alternatively, you can watch the video on YouTube here: Bluefin S/4HANA TCode Analyser - YouTube

Related reading: Beginners Guide to Transitioning to S/4HANA 1511 On Premise edition for Existing SAP ERP 6.0x users

Have you come across other tools that could help customers start their S/4HANA projects? I'd be interested to read your comments.

Hi All,

S/4HANA is steadily gaining shape in the market and so is the S/4HANA Embedded Analytics.

Introduction:

What is Embedded Analytics?

          It is the collection of all Analytical Features integrated in the SAP S/4HANA Suite that enables, Business users or end users to perform real time analytics or operational reporting on the live transactional data. It comes with a set of predefined and prepackaged representations of operational data. These representations called VDM (Virtual Data Models) allows business users to derive good insights into the data.

It doesn’t require a separate implementation. It is a part of the S/4HANA Software and is generally available with the new S/4HANA releases.

Customers and partners can extend the existing CDS Views VDM’s and build new ones in SAP  S/4HANA.

Please be informed that SAP S/4HANA Embedded Analytics will not replace any existing SAP Solutions.

SAP strategy is to offer customers maximum choice and flexibility and more innovations and S/4 HANA Embedded Analytics compliments existing SAP Solutions.

You can carry out all your operational  reporting with S/4HANA Embedded Analytics. This can help you reduce the operational reporting load from your SAP BW Application. You might still need BW for your EDW which will help you analyze the historical data, data consolidation from multiple sources and intensive data analysis.

My Personal opinion here is with SAP S/4HANA Embedded Analytics, SAP BW (Embedded BW) has got a lot of significance.

Now we will go through the various S/4HANA Embedded Analytics options:

1)  QUERY BROWSER

Launch into a Fiori Launchpad of a S/4 System.

You will have a tile called Query Browser, which basically displays the available CDS Views. The CDS view output can be accessed through “Open in Design Studio”. (I believe this is just a flavor of Design studio and not the entire application)

Once your Analytics is completed, you have the flexibility of saving the same as a Tile as well.

If you want to explore the CDS code behind, Double click on the View name, to see more details.

Go to the Annotation tab

Take the SQL View name from the Annotations tab.

Go the Backend system in the SAP Logon PAD.

Take SE11 --> Provide the SQL View name in the Views part and click display.

Double click the Package name to Open the Package Hierarchy

Remember this name and open the Backend System in HANA Studio ABAP Perspective.

Right Click on the system and click “Add a Package”.

Select the package name that we took earlier and click OK.

We can now find the CDS View definition within the Data Definitions  Folder

Double Click on the same and the CDS View definition is displayed.

2)  MULTI DIMENSIONAL REPORTS

Multidimensional reports are based on Webdynpro grid application that we have as a template. It renders all sorts of analytical CDS queries. All queries can be rendered in the same way. Functionality is the same for Analytical reports.

Example: Incoming Sales Orders

Thanks for going through the Document. Do let me know your Reviews and Suggestions.

This is a 3 Part Blog Series. In the Subsequent parts, we will see more on:

a)   Analytics Annotations

b)   Accessing CDS View in Bex

c)   Accessing CDS View in Analysis for Excel

d)   Accessing CDS View in Lumira

e)   Accessing CDS View in DesignStudio

f)   Accessing CDS View in Cloud For Analytics(C4A)

g)   FIORI Smart Business Apps(Newly Introduced S/4HANA KPI Modeler tools)

h)   Analysis Path Framework (APF) in Fiori

BR

Prabhith