You want to mass migrate Business Partner data from your existing system to S/4HANA 1511. This blog explains how to import data from tab delimited text files residing on FrontEnd computer (PC) using transaction code LSMW - Direct Input method together with a custom program provided.

1. DOWNLOAD AND EXTRACT FILES:

Download file BP.ZIP and extract into a dedicated folder ( e.g. C:\TEMP\BP) on the FrontEnd Computer (PC). Each Excel file listed below corresponds to different Master data segments of the Business Partner Object as input parameters of function module RFC_CVI_EI_INBOUND_MAIN::

          01_CVIS_BP_GENERAL.xlsx

          02_CVIS_BP_ROLES.xlsx

          03_CVIS_BP_INDUSTRY.xlsx

          04_CVIS_BP_IDENT_NUMBERS.xlsx

          05_CVIS_BP_BANK_DETAILS.xlsx

          06_CVIS_BP_TAX_NUMBER.xlsx

          07_CVIS_BP_TAX_NUMBER_COMMON.xlsx

          08_CVIS_BP_ADDRESS.xlsx

          09_CVIS_BP_ADDRESS_USAGE.xlsx

          10_CVIS_BP_ADDRESS_TELENO.xlsx

          11_CVIS_BP_ADDRESS_FAXNO.xlsx

          12_CVIS_BP_ADDRESS_EMAIL.xlsx

          13_CVIS_BP_ADDRESS_URL.xlsx

          14_CVIS_BP_RELATION.xlsx

          15_CVIS_CUSTOMER_GENERAL.xlsx

          16_CVIS_CUSTOMER_COMPANY.xlsx

          17_CVIS_CUSTOMER_SALES.xlsx

          18_CVIS_CUSTOMER_COMP_DUNNING.xlsx

          19_CVIS_CUSTOMER_SALES_FUNC.xlsx

          20_CVIS_CUSTOMER_TAX_INDICATOR.xlsx

          21_CVIS_CUSTOMER_GENERAL_VAT.xlsx

          22_CVIS_SUPPLIER_GENERAL.xlsx

          23_CVIS_SUPPLIER_COMPANY.xlsx

          24_CVIS_SUPPLIER_COMPANY_WTAX.xlsx

          25_CVIS_SUPPLIER_PURCHASING.xlsx

          26_CVIS_SUPPLIER_GENERAL_VAT.xlsx

2. CREATE STRUCTURES IN S/4HANA SYSTEM:

You can use program in BP.ZIP (file ZLSMW_STRUCTURES.TXT) to create structures. Activate the structures.

Alternatively you can manually create structures (SE11) according to specifications in provided Excel files as described below. Choose a transportable package in customer namespace and put this into new transport request.

Using transaction SE11 generate the following structures with “CHAR” data types copying the exact parameter name and data type length in the “Z” structure. Name the “Z” structures as defined in the following table:

For example, structure CVIS_BP_ROLE will match ZZCVIS_BP_ROLE component names as shown below.

Make sure that you set all data types to “CHAR” in the “ZZ” structures and add component STYPE to all structures as the first component in the structure. Activate the Structures.

3. CREATE REPORT PROGRAM IN S/4HANA SYSTEM:

Using LSMW Program source code provided in BP.ZIP (file ZLSMWDSPRG_CVI.TXT), create a program (SE38). Create a transportable package in customer namespace, adding to above transport request. Remember to add the text elements specified in the LSMW Program text elements file. Activate the program.

4. MAINTAIN LSMW CUSTOMIZING TABLES:

Using transaction code SM30, maintain tables SXDA0, SXDA1, and SXDA2 as below:

Add following entry for Business Partner in table SXDA0.

Add following entry in table SXDA1.

If you have problems to maintain entries in table SXDA1 check the following note: 2192586 - Table maintenance dialog of SXDA1 dumps

Create following entries in table SXDA2:

5. CONFIGURE BUSINESS PARTNERS:

Configure Business Partners in your S/4HANA 1511 system according to the Best Practices Building Block Configuration Guide "J61_S4HANAX_BB_ConfigGuide_EN_XX.docx". This guide is also included in the BP.ZIP file.

6. UPLOAD LSMW PROJECT FILE:

Using transaction LSMW -> Extras -> Import Projects upload LSMW Project File LSMW_S4H_ZLSMWCVI_BP.TXT

7. PREPARE DATA FIELDS FOR UPLOAD:

Open all Excel Files (Templates), rows 1-4 give you description of fields. After you input all your legacy business partner data into rows 5 onwards in each file, remove rows 2,3,4 and export the file as a tab-delimited text file, retaining the file name but saving to extension .TXT.

In the resulting upload text file, row 1 must contain the field names and row 2 and above contain the data. (Note: since certain fields such as address may have a comma in the field, we do not recommend .CSV files.). Place the upload text files into the same folder (C:\TEMP\BP).

8. ASSIGN INPUT FILES:

Assign input files to LSMW data structure only if your PC upload path is not C:\TEMP\BP). As shown below execute step “Specify Files” in your LSMW Project, and switch into change mode (Ctrl+F1).

For each file, click on the file name to open the “File on FrontEnd: Maintain Properties”.  Click the drop down button of the File field, and select your input file, navigating to the pertaining upload directory of your FrontEnd PC. The other settings should remain as follows -:

• File Contents: Data for One Source Structure (Table)
• Delimiter: Separator Tabulator
• File Structure: Field Names at Start of File
• File Type: With Record End Indicator (Text File)
• Code Page: Code Page ASCII

9. PERFORM INITIAL UPLOAD:

For the creation of new Business Partner records proceed according to standard LSMW process i.e., Read Data, Display Read Data, Convert Data, Display Converted Data and Start Direct Input Program

For each BP, the following input data has to be prepared:

          A. 01_CVIS_BP_GENERAL.xlsx file

               a. Column C BPARTNERGUID field: blank

               b. Column F OBJECT_TASK field: Enter “I” (for Insert)

          B. All input files

               a. Column A RUN_ID field: Enter the BP number for reference across multiple input files.

          C. Single entry for each BP in the following files:

               a. 01_CVIS_BP_GENERAL.xlsx (Mandatory)

               b. 15_CVIS_CUSTOMER_GENERAL.xlsx (Optional)

               c. 22_CVIS_SUPPLIER_GENERAL.xlsx (Optional)

          D. Other required master data files

               a. Multiple entries are allowed for each BP in all other files based on the business requirements.

          E. Not relevant files:

               For the data files not applicable to the business, save the blank file with only the title row into its corresponding txt file without any data.

10. PERFORMING DELTA UPLOADS:

Function module, RFC_CVI_EI_INBOUND_MAIN, called in LSMW BP upload tool only allows changes to existing data in 01_CVIS_BP_GENERAL.xlsx. Besides BP General Data, Customer General Data and Supplier General Data views, additional entries could be added to the existing BP, e.g. telephone numbers, new sales area customer SD data, additional addresses, bank accounts, etc.

For the update of existing Business Partners with changed and/or additional data records proceed as follows:

     A. 01_CVIS_BP_GENERAL.xlsx file

          a. Column C, fieldname BPARTNERGUID: Enter the BP GUID which can be extracted from BUT000 table fieldname BUT000-PARTNER_GUID.

          b. Column F fieldname OBJECT_TASK: Enter “U” (for Update).

          c. Make necessary data changes in this file.

     B. Prepare other input files to add more data views to the existing BP.

NOTE: Files 15_CVIS_CUSTOMER_GENERAL.xlsx and 22_CVIS_SUPPLIER_GENERAL.xlsx can only be uploaded once and cannot be changed by this LSMW tool. The value of the field OBJECT_TASK in these 2 files is ignored by LSMW program.

Thank you,

The S/4 HANA RIG AMERICAS TEAM

(Patrick Fiegl, Michael Foo, Jorge Baltazar & Mahesh Sardesai)

Step 1:

Navigate to SAP S/4 HANA Trial Landing Page.

https://go.sap.com/cmp/oth/crm-s4hana/index.html

S/4 HANA Trial Editions are available free in both cloud and on-premise editions.

SAP S/4 HANA Cloud Trial Edition is being given for free for 14 days and SAP S/4 HANA Cloud Trial Edition mainly for discovering the value of simplicity across concrete roles and predefined scenarios in finance, project management and marketing.

SAP S/4 HANA On-Premise Trial Edition is being given for  30 days and SAP S/4 HANA On-Premise Trial Edition mainly for experiencing the value of instant insight across end-to-end business processes in finance, controlling, manufacturing and service modules.

SAP S/4 HANA Cloud Trial Edition, Click "Start your journey now" link. (Highlighted below)

Step 2:

Then It will take it you SAP S/4 HANA, Cloud Edition Trial Page.

https://go.sap.com/cmp/oth/crm-s4hana/s4hana-cloud.html

Click "Start your free trial now" button.

This Trial Edition will be used for

1. Project Manager 

2. General Ledger Accountant

3. Accounts Receivable Accountant

4. Accounts Payable Accountant

5. Marketing Expert

6. Purchaser

7. Sales Representative

Step 3:

SAP S/4 HANA Terms and Conditions page will open. Read the Terms and Conditions and click "I Accept"

Then Create Initial Password (8 character long - 1 Upper case, 1 lower case and 1 digit) and Click "Access Trial".

After that, In Launch Tab, S/4 HANA Cloud Edition - URL and User Name will be provided.

Application URL:

-https://my******.s4hana.ondemand.com/sap/bc/ui5_ui5/ui2/ushell/shells/abap/FioriLaunchpad.html?sap-ushell-config-url=/resources/sap/dfa/help/sap/cfg/Help4S4TRIAL1511.json#Action-rolePicker?zset=s4hana_us

User Name:

P**********   (Your SCN User ID)

Step 4:

Click on the Application URL and Fiori Launch pad will be opened and It will ask User name and Password.

User:             P**********   (Your SCN User ID) Displayed in Launch Tab

Password:      The one you created during "Initial Password" Tab (Not your SCN password)

After Successful Logon, S/4 HANA Application will be opened for different business scenarios.

1. Create a Project (Used by Project Manager)

2. Analyze a project (Used by Project Manager)

3. Create a Campaign (Used by Marketing Expert)

4. Prepare E-Mail Campaign (Used by Marketing Expert)

5. Create a Promise (Used by AR Accountant)

6. Post Incoming Payments (Used by AR Accountant)

7. Set Payment Blocks (Used by AP Accountant)

8. Display Financial Statement (Used by GL Accountant)

9. Procure to Invoice (Used by Purchaser)

10. Check Sales Order Fulfillment (Used by Sales Representative)

Step 5:

I explored Creating Purchase Order - "Procure to Invoice" module. (By Clicking the Respective Purchaser widget)

Then the Page will navigate to Respective Procurement section.

It will gave 3 sub-modules to create Purchase Order.

1. Create Purchase Order

2. Post Good Receipt for Purchase order.

3. Create Supplier Invoice.

Create Purchase Order:

Lets Explore Create Purchase Order scenario.

Select Appropriate Purchasing Documents and Click Create Button.

Then Review and Verify the Invoice - Purchasing Items in General Data, Items, Delivery and Invoice, Address and Communication Sections. Click the Submit Button.

If Everything is fine, Purchase order will be created successfully. Notification pop-up will be displayed to user with Purchase Order ID Information.

Then This Purchase Order ID will be used for further sub modules - Post Goods Receipt for Purchase Order.

Best Regards,

Muthuram

For one fiori app, we should have authorization check, for example company code check. People from company A should only be allowed to look into data of company A.  Company B's data should be fitered out.

The structrue of the fiori app:

     FrontEnd: smart template

     BackEnd: CDS View

     Authorization Check: DCL for the above CDS View is created.

DCL looks like:

define role I_GAPSTARTNUM_DOC {

    grant select on FISVD_DOCNR_GAP_STARTNUM

    where

     ( bukrs )          = aspect pfcg_auth ( F_BKPF_BUK, BUKRS  ,            ACTVT = '03' );

}

Problem Description: Authorization check unsuccessful. Everyone can get every company's information.

How I reach my solution:

   Step 1: ensure the DCL is in the system (for systems other than Dev system.)

   Step 2: Go to backend system(where CDS view is located), use Tcode: SACM, full name for this tool is Access Control Management.

Step 3: Use Runtime tool "ACM Runtime Tool", input parameters like below, execuate it. You will find if the DCL is execuated.

Step 4: If you find issues inside of the Runtime tools mentioned in Step3, or you just have no idea, you can go to Designtime tool "DCL-Documents" mentioned in Step 2. Check the status of your DCL. Run "Generate ABAP-Artifacts" if the status is not green.

Till this step, I have solved my problem. There are other tools that can be used. Try carefully.

Hi All,

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

Part1 of the Blog can be found here -->

http://scn.sap.com/community/s4hana/blog/2016/03/10/sap-s4hana-embedded-analytics-a-detailed-walkthrough-part-13 

Introduction:

What is S/4HANA 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.

CDS Annotations:

I am not going to take you through the entire Annotations topic here but would rather concentrate on the ANALYTICS ANNOTATIONS:

It enables the analytic manager for multidimensional data consumption, performing data aggregation, and slicing and dicing data.

Some Relevant Analytical Annotations are as following:

a)   Analytics.dataCategory

By specifying the data category, the developer can give directives and hints, for example, tell the analytic manager how to interpret individual entities.

Possible values are:

@Analytics.dataCategory: #DIMENSION, #CUBE, #FACT, #AGGREGATION LEVEL

b)   Analytics.query

Query view classification. By tagging the CDS view, the developer can specify which views will be exposed to the analytic manager.

Possible values are:

@Analytics.query: true, false

c)   Analytics.dataExtraction.enabled

Application developers can use this annotation to mark views that are suitable for data replication (for example, delta capabilities must be provided for mass data)

  @Analytics.dataExtraction.enabled : true, false

d)   Analytics.hidden

You can use this flag to decide whether the entity should be visible to analytic clients.

@Analytics.hidden: true, false

e)   Analytics.planning.enabled

You can use this annotation to define an input-enabled analytic query

@Analytics.planning.enabled : true, false

f)    Analytics.writeBack.className

Only relevant for Analytics.dataCategory: #CUBE or Analytics.dataCategory: #FACT.

Disclaimer : The above contents are extracted from help.sap.com

Its Worth Noting that all S/4HANA CDS views are automatically exposed as a ODP transient Info Provider.

We would be leveraging this functionality extensively in the subsequent sections.

3) SAP BW Bex Query

{ 

Hope you remember that we had defined the SQL View name as CFIDAYSSLSOUTSTG. (in Part 1of this Blog Series)

The Transient Provider naming convention is 2C*.

So Prefix 2C with the SQL view and search with that in Bex Query designer:

(2CCFIDAYSSLSOUTSTG)

}

The Step by Step process for exposing CDS View to Bex have been explained in the below Blog:

http://scn.sap.com/community/bw-hana/blog/2016/02/10/expose-cds-views-to-sap-bw-bex-query-designer

4)  SAP Lumira

Open Lumira from your Desktop.Click New -->

Some times, the BW Connector will not be available (Like Below Screen)

For Solving that, Go to the Extensions:

Search for SAP BW Data Acquisition Connector

Download and Restart Lumira

After Reloading you can see the connection “Download from SAP BW”.

Click on that and Press Next:

Connect to Local BW System (Embedded BW in S/4 HANA System).

Provide the credentials of S/4HANA System and Proceed.

Select Info Area and Search for our Object

{ 

Hope you remember that we had defined the SQL View name as CFIDAYSSLSOUTSTG (in Part 1 of this Blog Series)

The Transient Provider naming convention is 2C*.

So Prefix 2C with the SQL view and search with that in Bex Query designer:

(2CCFIDAYSSLSOUTSTG)

}

Select and Proceed.

The Parameters defined in CDS will appear here (above screen)

Provide the Parameters and Press OK

Drag the Required Dimensions and Measures and Press Create.

You will see that the Dataset is getting created.

Arrange the Dimensions and Measures.

This Completes the S/4HANA Embedded Analytics – Lumira Scenario.

Hope you are already aware that now we don’t have Publish to Lumira option. Instead publish it to the SAP BI Platform (out of Scope in this blog).

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

This is a 4 Part Blog Series. In the Subsequent parts, we will see more S/4HANA Embedded Analytics options. Stay Tuned..

BR,

Prabhith

For SAP S/4HANA we already deliver the best practice content via proven channels . Now we take a huge step forward by delivering SAP S/4HANA Best Practice Process Content including BPMN2 diagrams and project WBS for consumption in Solution Manager 7.2.

Solution Manager 7.2 is now in ramp up and for testing purpose you can also consider trying Solution Manager 7.2 in CAL for testing. Having configured a Solution Manager 7.2 at customer site, the content is instantly ready for download. After the download, the content is available in the import branch of the solution. The content consists of the main documentation assets:

• process (scope item) with structure (process steps and interfaces)
• the links between processes
• BPMN2 diagrams based on the process steps and interfaces describing the flow of the processes
• building blocks with IMG activities & links to configuration documentation required for the configuration of each process
• process step originals in library
• interface originals in library
• executables (transaction codes, URL's, web dynpro applications, fiori apps)
• the WBS for the package leading to the creation of an implementation project in IT-PPM in Solution Manager 7.2 according to SAP Activate with accelerators

Most process steps carry assignments of relevant executables (transaction codes, web dynpro, programs or fiori apps). For each process and the assigned building blocks, the content delivers the links to the respective documentation. The reuse entities executables, process steps, interfaces and building blocks reside in the respective library areas in the Solution Manager Unified Directory. Take a look into our teaser video and see how it looks like to execute an import of SAP S/4HANA Best Practices content into Solution Manager 7.2.

After the import, it is possible to both work with project in IT-PPM and with content. All content can then be modified to full extent. Details of that will be shown in another posting.

In good tradition we will extend the FAQ series for SAP S/4HANA, thanks again to many feedback received. Let´s dive right into the Q1/2016 update.

What is new regarding release management and naming for SAP S/4HANA?

Let’s distinguish on premise from cloud shipments. For on premise customers, SAP has shipped a “Feature Pack Stack (FPS)”, SAP S/4HANA on premise FSP01 on February 3rd 2016. The release notes and other document like the “Feature scope description” for the solution can be found here. SAP will ship such a FPS every quarter.

For cloud customers, SAP is shipping a new release on a quarterly basis. The next cloud release of our SaaS ERP, SAP S/4HANA cloud enterprise edition, has been released in March: SAP S/4HANA cloud enterprise edition 1603. At the same time, SAP will release SAP S/4HANA cloud professional services edition 1603 and SAP S/4HANA cloud marketing edition 1603 (hybris solution).

For what additional industries has SAP S/4HANA FPS1 been releases?

With SAP S/4HANA on premise edition 1511 FPS1, SAP is supporting two new industry solutions: “Higher Education and Research” and “Defense and Security”. This is adding to an already long list of 19 supported industries like Chemicals, High-Tech, Industrial Machinery & Component, Insurance, Life Sciences and more. The latest industries have been release in November with SAP S/4HANA on premise 1511 with a full coverage, i.e. without any industry specific restriction. Generic Line of Business restrictions may apply though. More details you can find via the Note 2214213.

Important to state again: even if you are part of an industry not on this list, you can start. And many customers are doing this, take S/4HANA Finance for example or if you do not need industry specific functionality.

What is new regarding User Experience and SAP Fiori Apps?

SAP has shipped new or enhanced Fiori applications to complete the current scope of SAP S/4HANA on premise. Let me mention a few of them here, my favorites, of SAP Fiori apps that were shipped with SAP S/4HANA FPS1 for the “Shipping Specialist”

• Outbound Deliveries
• Pick Outbound Delivery
• Create Outbound Deliveries

Picture 1: new SAP Fiori App for Outbound delivery

Here a few new cross application SAP Fiori Apps shipped with FPS1:

• Application Jobs
• Implementation Cockpit
• Output Management Email Queue

More information on the available SAP Fiori apps per role, industry or line of business is available in the SAP FIORI Library here.

What new pre-configured content from SAP Activate is now available for on premise? What is planned for the cloud?

SAP Best Practices for SAP S/4HANA contain complete and consistent configuration settings and assets to use as enablement and accelerators in your implementation projects. The accelerators are integrated with implementation methodologies and tools for SAP S/4HANA.

SAP Activate is providing “scope items” that enable to run the application and speed up the implementation. The content from SAP Activate (the so called “best practices”) are following the end to end processes described in the SAP S/4HANA product map available in the Solution Explorer (check for an LoB Solution to see the product map).

For FPS1, SAP Activate is bringing additional content. Here are some examples for the on premise shipment with more than 50 new best practices for: Revenue Planning, Customer Returns, Internal Order Planning, Profitability and Cost Analysis, Credit Memo Processing, Repetitive Manufacturing. For the cloud solution, SAP will release a substantial number of best practices too, for example in procurement, manufacturing, finance. SAP will provide as well content for data integration to Ariba Nettwork and SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central, and finally data migration from SAP to S/4HANA.

This chart is showing a best practice for “Repetitive Manufacturing” that is available for on premise and cloud. For more details about the SAP Activate pre-configured content check this link.

Picture 2: Process Diagram for the best practice “Repetitive Manufacturing”

Any update on the SAP CRM 7.0 integration to SAPS/4HANA?

SAP is providing different options to connect SAP S/4HANA on premise and SAP CRM 7.0. Most important to know is the release limitation notes that shows what is in the works and will be supported in the future. Everything else on this integration topic is handled as with the integration to SAP ERP. Keep looking for updates here as SAP is going to remove all limitations over time: 2231667

What add-ons have been release for SAP S/4HANA on premise 1511 FPS1?

SAP has released the following add-on with the FPS1, more to follow…

• CPM FOR S/4HANA 1601
• SAP ADD-ON ASSEMBLY KIT 5.0
• SAP FIN. CLOSING COCKPIT 2.0
• SAP FIORI FOR SAP EHSM 1.0
• SAP FIORI FOR SAP SCM 1.0
• SAP MII 15.1
• SAP PAYMENT ENGINE 8.0
• SAP TAX CLASS REPORT 1.0
• UI FOR EHP3 FOR SAP SRM 7.0
• UI FOR EHP7 FOR SAP ERP 6.0
• UI FOR SAP PORTF PROJ MGMT 6.0

Information about the compatible S/4HANA add-ons can be found in the note 2214409

Can you share some early experience from customers?

Hundreds of projects running, as a big thank you I would like to share our first live customer with on SAP S/4HANA on premise with a logistics scope. Learn more details on the customer and on the project itself in the video here. Implemented in weeks by a partner, run on AWS infrastructure as a Service, resulting in an integrated platform for engineering to order and a platform for future growth.

Do you have a check list of “must reads” before a project starts?

Here is a good first start for a “readiness check”:

• Always check the release notes: start with SAP Note 2189824
• Check for relevant add-on: SAP Note 2214409
• Check what add-on and industry solutions are released: 2214213
• Register for download information for pre checks 2242576

What are the most important checks from a change management perspective?

Here is my list to help you assess your project efforts:

• Data model changes: go thru the Simplification List
• Regarding UX changes: make sure the apps you need
• Decide on new implementation or conversion with the note 2182725
• Check your custom code with the custom code check tool
• Project accelerators: leverage the method and content from SAP Activate

One last expert question: should customers use account based CO-PA or cost based CO-PA with SAP S/4HANA?

I’d like to close this blog with a recommendation on the topic CO-PA, profitability analysis in the new solution. Both account-based and cost-based CO-PA are available in SAP S/4HANA on premise. However account-based CO-PA has been extended and now provides more flexibility, for example with the ability to split variance (respective COGS) postings to multiple accounts. In conjunction, with the ability to add your own characteristics (“dimensions”), it is worthwhile re-evaluating the use of cost-based PA. Cost-based PA is still needed to include calculated amounts like freights.

Keep the feedback and your questions coming, we will prioritize accordingly and update our FAQ for you. Keep the feedback coming.
Also check frequently sap.com/s4hana.

Lets stay connected@SDenecken

Series:SAP S/4HANA - Frequently Asked Questions - the collection

Following changes in SAP PP related master data expected in SAP S/4HANA, on-premise edition 1511: 

Material Number Field Length Extension

With SAP S/4HANA, on-premise edition 1511, the maximum field length of the material number is extended from 18 to 40 characters.

MRP fields in Material Master

Following fields in material master are not used in SAP S/4HANA, on-premise edition 1511.

• MRP1 tab
  • Lot size data
    • Unit of Measure Group
• MRP2 tab
  • Procurement data
    • Quota Arrangement Usage
• MRP4 tab
  • BOM explosion/dependent requirements data
    • Selection Method
  • Repetitive manufacturing /assembly / deployment strategy :
    • Action control
    • Fair share rule
    • Push distribution
    • Deployment horizon
  • Storage location MRP data
    • Storage Location MRP indicator
    • Special procurement type: SLoc 
    • Reorder Point
    • Replenishment quantity

The database fields for these "omitted functionality" remains existing in the system.

BOM, Routing, Production Version

With SAP S/4HANA, on-premise edition 1511, the functional relation between Bill of Material (BOM), Routing and Production Version has changed.

The Customizing for date validity is no longer considered for BOM explosion. Instead, only BOMs with valid production version are considered during BOM explosion. Therefore, it is now mandatory for Manufacturing BOMs to maintain the product version for correct BOM explosion.

PP-MRP – Subcontracting

SAP ERP had three different ways of planning parts to be provided to a subcontractor:

• Planning subcontracting demand together with internal demand in the make-to-stock planning section (3.0-logic)
• Separating subcontracting demand and stock into single subcontracting planning sections (one section per subcontractor) and planning uncovered subcontracting demand together with internal demand in the make-to-stock planning section (4.0-logic)
• Planning separately the demand of every subcontractor by means of subcontracting MRP areas (available from SAP ERP release 4.5)

In SAP S/4HANA on-premise edition 1511, the 4.0 logic was removed while the 4.5 logic was simplified. The SAP S/4HANA MRP uses default planning parameters if MRP-area-specific material master records do not exist. You only have to create an MRP area for every subcontractor. Of course, it is still possible to create MRP area/supplier-specific material master data if required.

This simplification has the following advantages:

• Separate planning of every subcontractor is possible without having to create an MRP-area-specific material master record.
• The planning logic is simplified. There are two rather than three different ways to plan parts to be provided to a subcontractor.

Storage Location MRP

The S/4HANA MRP only plans on plant and MRP area level. Planning on storage location level is not available in

SAP S/4HANA, on-premise edition 1511.

In SAP ERP, storage locations can be excluded from MRP planning or they can be planned separately from other storage locations. In the latter case a reorder point procedure with maximum lot size is used which triggers transport reservations to fill up the storage location.

MRP areas cover the very same business requirements. Materials with MRP-area-specific MRP type 'ND' (no MRP) can be used instead of materials with a storage location excluded from MRP. Materials with MRP-area specific MRP type 'VB' (reorder point planning) can be used instead of materials with separately planned storage locations. The storage location functionality is a subset of the MRP areas capabilities.

The reasons for this change are:

• The MRP logic is simplified. There is only one solution for planning on storage location level
• The MRP area logic is more advanced than the logic for planning on storage location level. All MRP types and lot-sizing procedures are possible on MRP area level
• The system creates planning file entries on plant and MRP area level. If planning is required on MRP area level, then the system only plans the affected MRP area. The system does not create planning file entries on storage location level and it did not do so in SAP ERP. The SAP ERP MRP had to plan all separately planned storage locations and the plant level every time inventory or an expected receipt was changed in a single separately planned storage location. Planning on MRP area level is more efficient

Simplified Sourcing

SAP S/4HANA, on-premise edition 1511 supports the following types of sources of supply:

• Production versions
• Delivery schedules
• Purchasing contracts
• Purchasing info records

Sourcing selects valid sources of supply with the following conditions:

• The source of supply is a production version
  • procurement type of the material is either 'E' or 'X'
  • production version is neither "Locked for any usage" nor "Locked for automatic sourcing"
  • planned material receipt's quantity is inside the quantity range of the production version
  • planned material receipt's delivery date is in the validity period of the production version
• The source of supply is a purchasing info record when
  • procurement type of the material is 'F'
  • purchasing info record is flagged for "Relevant for automatic sourcing"
  • planned material receipt's quantity is inside the quantity range of the purchasing info record
  • planned material receipt's delivery date is in the validity period of the purchasing info record
• The source of supply is a delivery schedule or a purchasing contract if the procurement type of the material is 'F'

Quota arrangements can be used to prioritize sources of supply in case several sources of supply are valid simultaneously. If sourcing determines several valid sources of supply for the same material, plant, quantity, and date, but does not find any quota arrangements, then its priority of selection is as below:

1. Production versions
2. Delivery schedules
3. Purchasing contracts
4. Purchasing info records

If sourcing selects a production version as source of supply, then the material receipt is going to be a planned order. If sourcing selects a purchasing info record, then the planned material receipt is going to be a purchase requisition.

Miscellaneous changes

Logistics Batch Management

The following transactions related to Logistics Batch Management are not available in SAP S/4HANA, on-premise edition 1511: MSC1, MSC2, MSC3 and MSC4. The functional equivalents in SAP S/4HANA, on-premise edition 1511 are the following transactions:

• MSC1N Create Batch
• MSC2N Change Batch
• MSC3N Display Batch
• MSC4N Display Change Documents for Batch

Classification

With SAP S/4HANA, on-premise edition 1511 transactions of the Classification is renovated so that transactions may have changed functionality or may be completely removed within SAP Product Lifecycle Management (SAP PLM).

• User Defined Data Type (031) for characteristics has been removed.
• Rename Characteristic functionality has been disabled.
• Parameter Effectivity has been hidden.
• Due to security reasons batch import has been limited and batch import is possible only from presentation server.

New Material Type SERV

Material type "SERV" for services is introduced for Product Master in SAP S/4HANA, on-premise edition 1511.

Supported user departments are:

• Accounting
• Purchasing
• Basic Data
• Sales

Availability of Transactions in MM-IM

The following "MB transactions" are not available with SAP S/4HANA. In SAP S/4HANA only the single-screen generalized transaction MIGO is available:

MB01, MB02, MB03, MB04, MB05, MB0A, MB11, MB1A, MB1B, MB1C, MB31, MBNL, MBRL, MBSF, MBSL, MBST and MBSU

The transactions MMBE_OLD (Stock overview), MMBE (Stock overview), MB51 (Material Document List), MB52 (Display Warehouse Stocks of Material) and MB5B (Stock at posting date) are still available for some time.

Business Partner Approach

Business Partner is now capable of centrally managing master data for business partners, customers, and vendors. With current development, BP is the single point of entry to create, edit, and display master data for business partners, customers, and vendors.

Transaction like XD01, XD02, XD03 or VD01, VD02, VD03 / XK01, XK02, XK03 or MK01, MK02, MK03 etc. are not available in SAP S/4HANA, on-premise edition 1511.

As planned. SAP has released the new SAP S/4HANA cloud editions as planned on March 10^th  2016:

• SAP S/4HANA, cloud marketing edition 1603, helps your marketing department capture and analyze customer interactions from different channels
• SAP S/4HANA, professional services edition 1603, covers everything from project management to professional services automation
• SAP S/4HANA, cloud enterprise edition 1603, covers the most important scenarios to run a company, from finance to procurement to manufacturing and supply chain – our ERP in the cloud

Let me give you a quick overview of the scope of this new release with a few examples.

SAP hat shipped a few new functionalities for the Marketing edition like “Predictive models” helping manage predictive model for the KPIs used for example in segmentation. For this edition we have added the “paid search integration”: integration to Google AdWords of the paid search campaign, including link to existing paid search campaigns in Yahoo, Bing…

SAP S/4HANA, cloud professional services edition with new country availability. France and Philippines have both been added to a existing list of 10 supported countries.

Finally, for the cloud enterprise edition next to functional enhancements, SAP is now supporting the following countries: Australia, Hungary, Netherlands, Singapore and United Kingdom.

Get more knowledgeable about the scope and the new functionalities via the Feature Scope Description available on the SAP Portal here.

Manage Material Shortage with SAP S/4HANA cloud enterprise edition

Let´s also have a look at SAP Best Practices content, which is key for our cloud offerings optimizing the usage significantly.

SAP has delivered additional Best Practices from SAP Activate. Here are a few examples of scope items available with the SAP S/4HANA, cloud enterprise edition:

• Order to Cash: Debit Memo Processing
• Make-to-Stock Production - Discrete Industry
• Order to Cash: Sales Order Processing with Customer Down Payment
• Asset Accounting

And for the SAP S/4HANA, cloud professional service edition:

• Sales Order Processing for Project Based Services
• Time Recording for Project-Based Services
• Accounting and Financial Close
• Account Receivables

Example of new scope items from SAP Best Practices

Now a few words on integration

Seamless integration is key in the cloud. SAP is offering native integration between its cloud solutions throughout the cloud portfolio, leveraging middleware like SAP Hana Cloud Integration (HCI) or SAP Process Integration (PI) – the later especially interesting for existing SAP customers to leverage their skills. SAP cloud solutions enable customers to run end to end business processes. With the 1603 release, SAP is now including within the Best Practice packages for SAP S/4HANA, cloud enterprise 1603 edition the following integration scenarios:

• New integration scenario: Ariba Integration for Financials
• Additional process steps for existing integration scenarios, using SAP HCI or SAP PI technology for:
  • Ariba Network Integration
  • Employee Central Integration into S/4HANA

You will find more information about the Best Practices for the 1603 release for both integration and best practice content here.

What is coming next for the SAP S/4HANA cloud editions?

You will find more information about the roadmap for SAP S/4HANA cloud editions in the Service Marketplacehttp://service.sap.com/roadmap> Product and Solution Roadmap > Cross topics > SAP S/4HANA cloud edition

Now it’s your turn: check out the trial version for SAP S/4HANA cloud editions.

Start your SAP S/4HANA cloud edition experience now with a 14-day trial. There you can already put on the shoes of different roles like the Project Manager, the Purchaser or the Marketing expert. The 1603 version is planned to go live on April 18, and will contain the new scenario „Marketing – Planning”.

Access the cloud edition trial here.

Keep the feedback and your questions coming, we will prioritize accordingly and update our FAQ for you. Keep the feedback coming.
Also check frequently sap.com/s4hana. Lets stay connected @SDenecken

Before the era of computers, we had documents. We had Sales Orders, Purchase Orders or Accounting Document. Likewise, all the business processes are represented by a document. With the invent of computers and Database, these are represented by a table called core table to represent the line item table. These tables had about 200 to 400 fields depend on the industry of record.

Whenever there is a change in these documents, the whole record is copied and created a new record. When there are series of changes in a document, there is a necessary to keep track of all the changes in a changelog table. Like who changed it or what changed in it for Audit purposes.

In those days, Data Modelers have got an idea to split the table into smaller ones like header, line and schedule line evolving to the concept of normalization. Of course the other tables have fewer fields. But the concept remains the same. If anything changes it copies the whole record and maintains the changes in the Change Log tables of their own. For this reason one business process has so many smaller (20 to 30) tables forming a cluster by having a join between them. Currently this is the process to support traditional databases.

On top of this there are database constrains like many to one issues or Join relations, DB administrators have to keep it intact to maintain and sustain it. Also, have locking, latching, deadlock, Paging issues and thus creating lot of performance issues. It has two things, massive table space usage and reading these tables is too slow. When the DB is slow, for all these tables with the method that has to be read by a query, we start adding indexes further creating new tables. On each of these tables, it is not necessarily 1, there could be many indexes. These are copy of the tables with a narrow method of access. For the fact that system is getting slower, we are trying to copy the tables taking yet more space and forcing the system to narrowly usable.  But, it turns out to be indexes are not fast enough. So we have started creating aggregates. These are whole new tables by managing the SAP code build and tested to get like daily/weekly/monthly total invoices, thus getting more complex in managing these SAP codes and customer exits. This is all to get better reporting and speeding up the system. These are the standard Indexes and aggregates. But our great DBA's, with their experiences, they analyze the queries specific to the customers and they build additional custom indexes and aggregates. During the upgrades, service pack updates, and new releases, apart from the work what we have to do, system also has to do lot of work by rolling up the data to all these standard and custom build tables, indexes and aggregates to reflect the changes in the documents and be reportable.

Just a case, if we have to build a dashboard reporting, as a developer, we need to know what business processes change will impact what tables or trigger any change and how it is influencing down the flow. That’s why BW has become significant. SAP has integrated the flow and made a module specific or process specific extractors enabling the single source in BW. BW Extractors took care of this spider web of tables and simplified the logic which makes sense to the consumers.

This is only way we have to run the system brilliant and all the traditional databases are being the best to build and sustain the model. Now, let us talk about what different is in S4 Hana and why?

Alternatively we have to think of getting away from this complexity.

With Suite of Hana, SAP did several things, They were able to drop the need for some of the Indexes and aggregates but the fundamental aspects of all the documents and relations, tables required to maintain them was unchanged in order to have compatibility for customers.

But S4, Complete rethinking by leveraging the capabilities of Hana by simplifying it for customers and making it much more agile for development staff. Document concept is still the same. We still have the same record but it is not a row table. It is now represented as individual columnar stores for each of the fields. The big difference is, if the value changes, we just insert one field. We don’t replicate the whole record with the changed values. It is almost impossible to run this for such a 400 field tables in any relational data bases having so many table rows and indexes. We still have the same no of field changes but each field will have its own columnar storage, which means every field can act as an individual index.

We are now to 1 table from the spider web of 20 to 30 tables for each business processes. All the complexities I talked above on the table locking and latching is no more an issue.  I have to take care of only one locking issue that might happen during the multiple inserts on the same columnar table. We do not need to create whole new aggregates for a new requirement. We can run on the same table and Hana creates on the fly. No need to create any indexes to speed up the process. We don’t need any different status tables or header tables. So all these nested tables has been collapsed into one single line item document. All the SAP code in maintaining the cluster of tables is now that my understanding is all gone. Now think about the testing and regression required, all of that is radically simplified which means higher quality process. With all those variations, ups and downs, mistakes that can go wrong is traditional databases is tremendous with comparison to when we code against this S4 simpler process.

As you read, S4 is a huge innovation leveraging that was not possible before HANA due to both its ability to have a simple system and ability to aggregate on the fly and enabling new code pointing to this simpler structure.

Last, but not the least, Traditional Data bases with this complex structure, they are not compatible with Multi-Tenant Cloud. It has to go through a hosted service or an On Premise environment. SAP took care of this issue while upgrading from clustered table structure to new code line of S4 HANA, they designed in such a way that they can run on multi-tenant cloud or hosted or On Premise. It enables customers to go back and forth between these business models. This is not possible with any of the other ERP mates.

S4 Hana is enabling lot of business benefits leveraging the advantages from Suite of Hana.

S4 Hana Rocks!

Hi All,

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

Part1 of the Blog can be found here -->

http://scn.sap.com/community/s4hana/blog/2016/03/10/sap-s4hana-embedded-analytics-a-detailed-walkthrough-part-13

Part2 of the Blog can be found here -->

http://scn.sap.com/community/s4hana/blog/2016/03/11/sap-s4hana-embedded-analytics-a-detailed-walkthrough-part-2

Introduction:

What is S/4HANA Embedded Analytics?

              It is a set of Analytical Features integrated in SAP S/4HANA, that enables users to perform real time analytics on the live transactional data. It comes with a set of inbuild representations of operational data, called VDM (Virtual Data Models) which will allow users to arrive at better decisions from the available data.

It doesn’t require a separate installation or implementation or any other licenses. It is a part of the S/4HANA Software and is generally available with the new S/4HANA releases.Customers can extend the existing CDS Views VDM’s and build new ones.

Please be informed that SAP S/4HANA Embedded Analytics will not replace any existing SAP Solutions and S/4 HANA has an Embedded Analytical engine, but certain steps/activation needs to be done for making this engine to work.

Most of the operational reporting can be done with S/4HANA Embedded Analytics.BW would be required for EDW, which will help to analyze the historical data, data consolidation from multiple sources.

SAP Best Practices for Analytics with S/4HANA: (RDS now be renamed as Best Practices) (Available in SMP since March 7th 2016-- http://service.sap.com/analyticswiths4h) (V1.0)

              SAP Best Practices for analytics with SAP S/4HANA provides a comprehensive portfolio of analytical content based on SAP S/4HANA. It provides guidance on how to get started with SAP S/4HANA embedded analytics and how to integrate with best in class analytical platform and solutions from SAP for ex: SAP BI platform, SAP BW etc.

3 Options/Scopes:

1) Embedded Analytics with SAP S/4HANA (Mandatory)

--> Set up of SAP S/4HANA Embedded Analytics with CDS views and various analytical apps based on CDS views.

2) Integration between SAP S/4HANA and SAP BO (Optional)

Enhance analytical use cases by integrating between SAP S/4HANA and SAP BI platform. Pre-built reports and content built in SAP BI client tools ex: Design Studio 1.5 (Ex: --> Core Finance, P2P, O2C), Webi (Ex: Sales revenue, Sales Analysis), Crystal Reports can be leveraged and extended based on business use cases. (Based on BI 4.2 Version, works on 4.1 aswell).

Procurement of a separate License for BO platform would be required, the Best Practices would have only the configuration content.

3) Integration between SAP S/4HANA and SAP BW (Optional)

Consolidate data from SAP S/4HANA in SAP BW and build analytical use cases based on enriched data environment from other data sources in SAP BW.(using SDA Concept)

Procurement of a separate License for BW Platform(7.4) would be required, the Best Practices would have only the configuration content.

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:

5) Analysis Edition For Excel:

Open an analysis for Microsoft excel:

Access the Analysis Tab and click on the Select Data source option within “Insert Datasources”.

Skip the next screen:

Select the S/4HANA System:

Enter the system credentials:

Select Search for the required Object

{ 

Hope you remember that we had defined the SQL View name as CFIDAYSSLSOUTSTG.

The Transient Provider naming convention is 2C*.

So Prefix 2C with the SQL view and search with the name:

(2CCFIDAYSSLSOUTSTG)

}

The system will prompt for the Variables Screen which we have added in the CDS definition using Parameters:

Create the Final report according to your requirement.

A sample report is shown in the below Screenshot.

The above scenario is just an overview of how to bring in the CDS View in Analysis of Excel. Hence the later steps of how to showcase more flavours to the final report is not been explained in this blog.

6) SAP DESIGN STUDIO:

Open Design Studio

The Design studio application will open.

Create anew Analysis application

Provide a Application name and select a layout.

Add a Datasource

Select the S/4HANA System.

Provide the credentials:

Select Search for the required Object

{ 

Hope you remember that we had defined the SQL View name as CFIDAYSSLSOUTSTG.

The Transient Provider naming convention is 2C*.

So Prefix 2C with the SQL view and search with that name:

(2CCFIDAYSSLSOUTSTG)

}

Check the details:

Drag the data source from Left to the Right Pane and proceed with your requirement.

PS: My Skill in this tool is very bad. Hence don't want to take a risk here, by designing a complex report.

Once you have completed your requirement, there is an option to "Execute Manually".

The created application/report will look something like below:

7) Cloud for Analytics(C4A):

The integration between S/4HANA  and C4A seems to be in the early stages.

We will discuss on that integration, once it is generally available.

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

This is a 4 Part Blog Series. In the Subsequent part, we will see more S/4HANA Embedded Analytics options. Stay Tuned..

BR,

Prabhith

There's a openSAP course talking about the SAP S/4 HANA these weeks.

In week 1 materials the instructors introduced the new impletmentation Methology: SAP Activate framework and talked about the SAP Activate Methodology including the Jam space with the methodology content.

Many course participants expressed interest to gain access to this space. You can do so by registering at thehttp://bit.ly/SAPActivate.

After registration, the team will send you an invite to the SAP Activate Methodology Jam. This takes typically 24 business hours (maybe even faster). Thank you for your interest in this topic!

I hope it'll be helpful for some of you!!

32 Views(edit)Tags: s/4hana, methodolog

Can any body tell....

what are the mandatory fields in Vendor Master template.

Thanks & Regards

K. Prem Anand Raj

Good Evening All,

Please anybody tell the process of SAP implementation after placing order to till GO-Live.

Regards

K. Prem

Hello All,

As you all are aware of, S/4HANA is the new buzz word in the SAP World and there are lot of discussions happening around on the same, here in SDN aswell.

I am really lucky to be a part of some early S/4HANA projects, here @SAP.

At times, we had faced some issues, for which we had to spent a lot of time in identifying the real solution.

Through this series of blogs, I would take all possible efforts to include all those issues and the corresponding solutions. The main intention would be to help you understand more about S/4HANA and to save your time searching around for the solution.

Disclaimer:

1) This series is exclusively for Beginners in S/4 HANA and all those S/4HANA experts here, please excuse me.

2) These are some Solutions/Observations that we have found handy in our projects and am quite sure there would be multiple ways to derive the same result.

3) These series of blogs are collaborative in nature. So please feel free to edit the Blog, wherever required!

4) I am not a core functional guy. So you might see very less of the S/4HANA Functional aspects/Simplification topics here in this blog series.

5) I will regularly update this blog with the new tips and solutions.

So, here we go

1)  How to Quickly open a Standard CDS View:

Tip:

Log into the ABAP Perspective in HANA Studio and access the S/4HANA System.

Access the Button:

Provide the CDS View name:

Click on the Data Definition and you can see the underlying CDS code.

2) Sometimes, you will see the following error message while previewing the CDS View.

Error : Message Content is not acceptable.

Solution:

This happens with the lower versions of HANA Studio.

Try using the latest Studio Versions like REV102.

3) Sometimes, the CDS View will not be appearing in the KPI Modeler of S/4HANA Smart Business tiles.

Solution:

If CDS View is not available, its obvious that the corresponding Odata service will also not be available.

This can be solved with the Following 2 steps:

a)  Ensure that the corresponding CDS View has the annotation --> @ODATA.PUBLISH = TRUE.

b)  Once the above step is done, you will find an auto generated service in the gateway system.

Naming Convention for Service = <CDS VIEW NAME>_CDS

EX: Log into the gateway system and access the Tcode:

/N/IWFND/MAINT_SERVICE

Click Add service.

    Provide the System Alias.

    Click Get Services.

    Now all the related Services will be available.

    Search with the naming convention, EX:

Click on the required Service and add a Package and the Transport Number

Now you can see that the service and Metadata was created successfully.

    Now the CDS and ODATA Service will be available.

4)  Error reading Info provider for CDS View error while activating the CDS View.

Solution:

This basically happens when you provide the wrong name in the Select from Statement.

Additional Tip: In a CDS View, we have 2 concepts:

DDL SQL View and DDL Source View.

The select from should always happen on DDL Source view name.

5) Annotation; @ODATA.PUBLISH = TRUE will create a Service automatically.

But when we try to activate the service, we get the following error.(Unknown or Deleted Query)

Solution:

This is basically happening due to incorrect CDS Definition.

Ensure that you have the right DDL source view in the Select From Definition.

6) Annotation; @ODATA.PUBLISH = TRUE will create a Service automatically.

But when we try to activate the service, we get the following error.(Unknown or Deleted Query)

(Only Queries with an easy Query layout are supported by this version)

We have a Tcode(/n/IWFND/ERROR_LOG) in the gateway system, which give lot of information about the error message.

But in this case, even the Tcode did not help us.

Solution:

My CDS View Initially did not have a measure been defined.

Later when I added a measure to my CDS View, the issue was completely solved.

7) An Alternative solution for activating your CDS View:

Tip:

Log into the S/4HANA Backend System and access the following program.

Provide the CDS View name and Execute.

8) An alternate option to view your CDS View Content.

Tip:

TCODE --> RSRTS_ODP_DIS

  If you click on Standard Query Button, You can see Bex Query Output Format.

USEFUL LINKS:

1) CDS Annotations --> https://help.sap.com/saphelp_hanaplatform/helpdata/en/6f/cd6e5883f04de5b618a6d91141afb4/content.htm

USEFUL NOTES:

1) 2269696 - OQ: Brain 501 "Unknown or deleted query"

2) 2257830 -  OQ: OData query with tracing

Hopefully, the above points were useful.

Thanks for Reading.

I will be regularly updating this blog with the new tips and solutions.So stay tuned for more updates on this topic.

BR

Prabhith

With SAP S/4 HANA a new Output Management approach is in place. The complete configuration differs from the configuration that is used when output management is based on NAST (condition technique). The configuration is based on BRF+. In SAP S/4 HANA, the target architecture is based on Adobe Document Server and Adobe Forms only. For the form determination rules (along with other output parameters) BRF+ functionality is used.

  Output management based on NAST is not available for new documents in SD Billing from 1511 and is extended to sales order management from 1602. Similarly, output     management using BRF+ is mandatory for Purchase order from 1511.

Prerequisites –

• Uploading XML for importing output determination application in BRF+ (Ref note 2248229).
• BRF+ is active and usable
• Background RFC configuration has been set up
• Adobe Document Server is available – ADS needs to be implemented to allow SAP to fetch PDF properties for rendering output form
• KPRO has been maintained – KPRO allows to store PDF attachments on physical location.

Steps for uploading XML –

Note 2248229, provides decision tables for new output management. We need to download XML files to local drive and import them using below steps.

BRF+ workbench will be displayed. For importing output application, we need to change layout to “Expert” mode. Follow below steps –

a) Select user mode as “Expert”.

b) Save this settings.

Steps to import –    

a) Download zip files from SAP note 2248229 and save them on your local machine   

b) Next, we need to select Import XML under the Tools menu.  

c) Select relevant file in below screen.        

d) Specify Customizing request.    

e) Click on “Upload XML File” button.    

f) Uploaded application will now be available under Repository tab. 

Configuration –

Below configuration steps are relevant for all application areas (Sales Order, Purchase Order, Billing Documents and Outbound Delivery)

  SPRO Node for output configuration (IMG Path --> Cross Application Components)      

1) Define Output types –   

     Output Control -> Define Output Types   

2) Assign Output Channels -

     Output Control -> Assign Output channels     In this activity assign output channels to output type. 
     

3) Define Determination of Form Master Templates –    

Output Control -> Define Determination of Form Master Templates    

The master form template contains static data (such as a logo and footer) that is applied to each form page and is determined based on configuration setting maintained.     

Activities 
a) Enter a rule ID, preferably an ID that indicates the logic of the rule.     

b) Enter an ordinal number to specify the position of the rule in the determination sequence.     

c) Following parameters are optional –

• Organization Type
• Organizational unit

• Channel
• Sender country
• Form Template

    During document output, the master form template is determined by comparing each defined rule with the current data provided by the application. If a parameter is not      defined (no value entered), this parameter is considered as a match, and else, system determines the rule where all parameters match. Master form template is used      corresponding to this rule.

Business Rules for Output Determination –

Below configuration steps are relevant for all application areas (Sales Order, Purchase Order, Billing Documents and Outbound Delivery)

SPRO - > Cross-Application Components -> Output Control -> Define Business Rules for Output Determination (Transaction: OPD)

In this Customizing activity, you can define how the system determines output parameters during document processing. You can define business rules for the determination of output parameters, such as output types, recipients, and form templates. 

Following determinations are available -

Example of maintenance of Channel determination -

• Select Rules for relevant document, example BILLING_DOCUMENT.
• Select determination, example Channel to be used for triggering output type.
• Input parameters could be changed by adding input columns to determination table. Each determination table consists of input columns (condition columns) and result columns. You can add new input columns via the table settings.
• Maintain relevant input combination to determine the channel needed. Multiple channel can be selected for the same combination.

After changes, click on Save and Activate.

Output processing –

• Output determination is performed in document based on determination rules defined for Output type, receiver role, channel, form template, receiver email address and email template withe status as 'In Preparation'. Default data can be changed in the document.

                  Overview Screen:                     

             Detail Screen: 
            

• Processing of output –

           Only two dispatch times are available in new output management system.

• Immediately (1)

                    Output is processed as soon as document is saved. If no errors, output type status changes to “Successful”. In case of errors, output will be in “Error” status.                     Errors can be viewed by clicking log button.

• Scheduled (2)

                    Output is processed using new transaction introduced VF31F for billing document.              

• Email output in SOST –

          Invoice copy is sent as PDF attachment.

Hi All,

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

Part2 of the Blog can be found here -->

http://scn.sap.com/community/s4hana/blog/2016/03/11/sap-s4hana-embedded-analytics-a-detailed-walkthrough-part-2

Part3 of the Blog can be found here -->

http://scn.sap.com/community/s4hana/blog/2016/03/20/sap-s4hana-embedded-analytics-a-detailed-walkthrough-part-3

Introduction:

What is S/4HANA Embedded Analytics?

               It is a set of Analytical Features integrated in SAP S/4HANA, that enables users to perform real time analytics on the live transactional data. It comes with a set of inbuild representations of operational data, called VDM (Virtual Data Models) which will allow users to arrive at better decisions from the available data.

It doesn’t require a separate installation or implementation or any other licenses. It is a part of the S/4HANA Software and is generally available with the new S/4HANA releases.Customers can extend the existing CDS Views VDM’s and build new ones.

Please be informed that SAP S/4HANA Embedded Analytics will not replace any existing SAP Solutions and S/4 HANA has an Embedded Analytical engine, but certain steps/activation needs to be done for making this engine to work.

Most of the operational reporting can be done with S/4HANA Embedded Analytics.BW would be required for EDW, which will help to analyze the historical data, data consolidation from multiple sources.

SAP Best Practices for Analytics with S/4HANA: (RDS now be renamed as Best Practices) (Available in SMP since March 7th 2016-- http://service.sap.com/analyticswiths4h) (V1.0)

               SAP Best Practices for analytics with SAP S/4HANA provides a comprehensive portfolio of analytical content based on SAP S/4HANA. It provides guidance on how to get started with SAP S/4HANA embedded analytics and how to integrate with best in class analytical platform and solutions from SAP for ex: SAP BI platform, SAP BW etc.

3 Options/Scopes:

1) Embedded Analytics with SAP S/4HANA (Mandatory)

--> Set up of SAP S/4HANA Embedded Analytics with CDS views and various analytical apps based on CDS views.

2) Integration between SAP S/4HANA and SAP BO (Optional)

Enhance analytical use cases by integrating between SAP S/4HANA and SAP BI platform. Pre-built reports and content built in SAP BI client tools ex: Design Studio 1.5 (Ex: --> Core Finance, P2P, O2C), Webi (Ex: Sales revenue, Sales Analysis), Crystal Reports can be leveraged and extended based on business use cases. (Based on BI 4.2 Version, works on 4.1 aswell).

Procurement of a separate License for BO platform would be required, the Best Practices would have only the configuration content.

3) Integration between SAP S/4HANA and SAP BW (Optional)

Consolidate data from SAP S/4HANA in SAP BW and build analytical use cases based on enriched data environment from other data sources in SAP BW.(using SDA Concept)

Procurement of a separate License for BW Platform(7.4) would be required, the Best Practices would have only the configuration content.

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)

In some Cases, you might face some issues while trying to open the Design Studio Flavor of the CDS.,

You will have to activate an object in the Embedded BW System to make this work.

Please follow the below document for the same

-->  Solution for 0ANALYSIS Issue while trying to access ‘Open in Design Studio’ option of S/4HANA CDS Views

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

Alternately, You can use the Following Button in ABAP Perspective to directly navigate to the CDS View.

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

In case if you want to preview the data, please do the same by right clicking(Context Menu) on the CDS View.

There are many other options in the context menu, which is out of scope of this blog.

Sometimes, you might get the below error.

The above issue is seen mostly on the older versions of HANA Studio. Upgrade the studio to solve this issue.

Since we have defined the view with Parameters, the CDS view will prompt for the  parameters(as shown in the below picture). Provide the necessary values and proceed further.

The Following screenshot shows the Data preview of a CDS View.

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 4 Part Blog Series. In the Subsequent parts, we will see more S/4HANA Embedded Analytics options. Stay Tuned..

BR

Prabhith

In SAP S/4HANA - Import Best Practice Content into Solution Manager 7.2 we showed how to import SAP Best Practice for SAP /S/4 HANA into Solution Manager 7.2. The following video takes a closer look at the specific structure of the content imported:

• which object types belong to the content
• where are the Business Processes and the library elements
• give some insight into the overall navigation between processes, diagrams and library objects
• how do some simple authoring use cases work

Look at the video to get in insight into the SAP Solution Manager 7.2 repository functionality with SAP Best Practices for SAP S/4 HANA.

I’m currently evaluating our S/4 HANA 1511 system and of course part of it are the Fiori-Apps.

I wrote about how I tackle implementing them at http://scn.sap.com/community/s4hana/blog/2016/02/25/activating-fiori-apps-in-s4-hana--not-so-hard-after-all .

Today I want to have a look at the apps I got running already.

I put them together in a group  in order to have them all in one place.

(In a real-world scenario you would group them by the different roles of the users utilizing them, but for my test having all in one place is just the right thing. )

Here’s the overview:

Please note that “Post Goods Receipt for Purchase Order” is crossed out in the Screenshot to indicate the following: it used to work (that’s why I put it in my group), but currently it doesn’t anymore :-(  - I don’t know why.

So, for the other apps, let’s go through them one by one:

1 Manage Purchase Orders

Features:

• Gives an overview of open purchase orders in the system
• You can select / filter them by certain criteria
• The button at the right end of the line (or just klicking the line itself) takes you to “Edit Purchase Order”
• The Copy-Button on the lower right end of the screen takes you to “Create Purchase Order” with the Header- and Item-Information taking from the selected PO.
• The Create-Button simply takes you to the Create Purchase Order-App.

What I’m missing:

You can see some orders are in status “in Approval”, so I would expect the ability to approve them here (given the authorization to do so, of course), but so far I didn’t find a way to do it.

2      Create Purchase Order

At first, you get a list of Info Records, grouped by supplier. Of course you can search/filter to reduce the list.

You can select one or more info records (only of the same supplier) and then click the create button to the lower right. Note that you also can click create without selecting anything.

In the next screen, you enter header data and some items, the use the submit-button to create the PO (only if everything is fine, of course). You can check first with “Simulate” or the “Message” button. (To me, both appear to do the same thing – but the “Message” button is only activated if “Simmulate” was pressed before. )

3     My Purchasing Document Items

Gives you an overview of the Purchasing Document Items by supplier. You can click on the numbers to set the filter / choose the right tab accordingly.

Nice: the Purchase Orders-Tab also lets you jump to “Create Purchase Order” (if nothing is selected) or “Post Goods Receipt for Purchase Order” if a PO is selected. Also interesting: while that App itself doesn’t work for me currently, that way does!.

4      Manage Sources of Supply

Lists info records.

You can:

• Edit them, by clicking on a line.
• Delete them by selecting them (checkbox to the right) and clicking the delete-button (lower right)
• Create new ones with the create-button (lower right).

5  Conclusion and Outlook

I can imagine that all those Fiori-Apps will be (or allready are) quite usable as they grow more and more powerfull. Especially if they are connected with each other (example as mentioned above: display a list of POs --> post goods receipt for a PO on the list).

What are your expriences with Fiori apps in S/4HANA? Do you evaluate them, too, or even use them in production, yet?

Or do you maby feel that sticking to good old SapGui is the right thing to do?

As indicated by the "Part 1" in the title (and the overview-screenshots sowhing more apps than I have mentioned) I plan to write another blog aboute some more apps, soon.

As allways, your feedback is most wellcome!

Release of SAP Best Practices for user experience in S/4HANA - Deploy the user experience of your choice

Followed by the release of SAP S/4HANAand SAP Activate for S/4HANA, we are now excited to announce the availability of the first version of SAP Best Practices for user experience in S/4HANAready to download free of charge from the SAP Service Marketplace:https://service.sap.com/bp-s4h-ux

As announced, SAP S/4HANAis designed with the most modern, role-based user experience called SAP Fiori. It gives users a personalized, responsive, and simple UX across all tasks and devices. With S/4HANA, it is more important to look at how people work and what is needed to help users get their job done, rather than rewriting existing transactions with a new UI technology.

SAP Best Practices are a key pillar of SAP Activate methodology, which is the new innovation adoption framework for a faster deployment of SAP S/4HANA.

SAP Best Pracitces for S/4HANA Portfolio Overview

The SAP Best Practices for UX have been designed to support customers to implement all available UI technologies relevant for S/4 HANA on premise which must be configured and to make them available via one single access point, the Fiori Launchpad. The best practices also provide guidelines how to configure standard SAP GUIs, Web Dynpro applications or customized transactions using SAP Screen Personas to achieve a harmonized Fiori-inspired user experience.

Scope for SAP Best Practices for UX in SAP S/4HANA

• Step-by-step guide how to set up the Fiori insfrastructure, deploy Fiori apps and how to automate this for a repetitive deployment in multiple systems
• Deployment of recommended Fiori security settings and basic network configuration, like Single-Sign-On
• How to add different types of apps to the Fiori Launchpad (SAP JAM, Web Dynpro, SAP Screen Personas, etc.)
• How to design, create and add Fiori-inspired SAP Screen Personas Flavors including examples for Create Sales Order
• Mobilizing of Fiori apps using the SAP Fiori Client
• How to extend and customize Fiori apps using SAP Web IDE and the SAP Fiori Theme Designer

Get started

Download the full best practice package by following the steps below:

1) Go to the SAP Best Practices for UX in S/4 HANA web page:  https://service.sap.com/bp-s4h-ux

2) Check the scope and software and delivery requirements

3) Tab on the orange button on the right hand side Download package*

4) Select the link Installation

5) Download and extract the ZIP file to your local hard disk. All documentation assets will be available offline on your desktop

7) Chose start.htm to open the Content Library to flexibly simulate the Scope-Items as you need them and get the related Configuration Guides.

8) Before you start with the implementation, refer to the SAP Note(login required) and the attached Configuration Guide: Getting Started for the latest updates or enhancements to this package.

*Note: To be able to download, you need an account for SAP Service Marketplace. If you do not have one yet, you can register now.

There allready are some blogs trying to solve confusion about S/4HANA versions, like Still confused about the S/4 (On premise) versions and their differences ? .

Also, there is SAP S/4HANA 1511 - SPS 00 & 1511 FPS 01 : What's NEW & What's NOT !!

There is one thing though, which still confuses me:

Is there a difference between a Support Package (SP) and a Feature Package Stack (FPS)?

I tend to say "yes" beacuse when things have different names, they should refere to different things;

But I'm more and more drawing the conclusion that they are the same!

For sure, there are currently 2 versions of S/4HANA 1511 on-premise available:

1. “SAP S/4HANA, on-premise edition 1511” ( http://help.sap.com/s4hana_op_1511)  ( FPS 0 / Initial Shipment Stack)

2. “SAP S/4HANA, on-premise edition 1511 Feature Package Stack 01” ( http://help.sap.com/s4hana_op_1511_001 )

(Oh, this used to be known as "1602" as well, but that name is no longer used)

We started out with SAP S/4HANA, on-premise edition 1511.

The we applied (as far as I understand) a Service Pack (SP1), now our system looks like this:

So it clearly says "SP-Level" 0001 - but where can I see the FPS (Feature Package Stack) ?

Is it the same thing? I don't know!

So what S/4HANA 1511 on-premise release are you on? Do you know? (Or do you - like me - just think you know? ;-) )

Your feedback is most welcome!

[Edit: Now that everything is explained very nicely at SAP S/4HANA on premise edition: FPS versus SPS, I know that my system is a “SAP S/4HANA, on-premise edition 1511 Feature Package Stack 01”-System.

Formerley also know as "SAP S/4HANA, on-premise edition 1602" (please note that the SAP Fiori apps reference library still uses that term!).

]