Category SAP

 A recently spoke with Francis Carden, VP of digital automation and robotics at Pega. It was a lively and animated conversation in which we discussed where we’re at in terms of robotic process automation (RPA) and the much-vaunted but almost always missing outcomes of digital transformation. It’s a conversation some will find disturbing because at its heart we’re trying to understand what is driving continued interest in RPA while the digital transformation moniker continues to be plastered on (almost) every enterprise software pitch. 

In my view, much of this comes down to the reality that the dream of integrated end to end processes as originally promised in the early 1990s with SAP R/3 but also aped by other vendors never truly materialized. If you buy into that you then understand why IT investments never showed through on financial results in any material way. 

In order for that end-to-end dream to be reality, you’d have to believe that all systems are capable of talking to one another in a seamless fashion. That doesn’t happen in the real world and when it does, it’s often and quite rightly seen as incredibly difficult, hugely expensive and of limited value. And that’s largely because of the following.

Processes exist in all kinds of database and in all kinds of code including UIs and disparate applications. It’s also a fact that the last 20 years have seen an explosion of technology. In the RPA world alone, there are literally hundreds of offerings. So the enterprise software market is both expanding and fragmented. And nothing talks natively to anything else. It is one of the unique characteristics of software that two different developers working on the same codeline can build applications that on the surface look similar but are in fact different. 

Then around 2012, along comes RPA, aided and abetted by certain analyst firms, who were suckered into believing they’d seen the Second Coming but which as most vendors will quietly admit, is really screen scraping UIs. The promise of automation, pitched as a way of removing inefficiencies using RPA looked good.

In terms that buyers will understand, RPA made promises its technology could not keep. While promising that bots would be a cure-all, it turned out that wasn’t the case. Instead of eliminating manual processes and tasks, much of what we’ve seen was really augmented manual processes. There were wins for sure but they were transient. And then along came the pandemic. 

SAP Logistics Business Network is a cloud-based network platform designed to easily connect SAP customers’ back-end systems to their freight collaboration, tracking, order fulfillment and material traceability networks. It provides a central entry point to manage logistics transactions, exchange documents with key business partners and gain a better understanding and visibility across the entire value chain.

The release offers the next step in the strategy to allow end-to-end visibility, increased efficiency and seamless collaboration through a unified business network that includes:

• Sales order fulfillment tracking based on the next-generation global track-and-trace capability in SAP Logistics Business Network. This connects to milestone and live tracking services across transportation modes for global coverage.
• Enhanced freight collaboration capabilities, which includes multimodal freight order tracking that extends visibility across road and ocean events.
• Standard APIs to connect partners and networks, allowing new road and ocean partner collaborations.

SAP Logistics Business Network allows for enhanced coverages for a number of modes of transport through new and existing partners, such as:

 that provides business-to-business connectivity for freight contracting and visibility capabilities for real-time road shipment tracking and global live ocean tracking.

It offers in-transit container and shipment tracking with machine learning to cross-reference inputs to accelerate ocean-tracking choice to customers.

A European market specialist, offers its carrier network, regulatory expertise, and data intelligence to connect carriers and the truck telematics systems of millions of trucks for road shipment tracking.

Through these relationships, licensed members of SAP Logistics Business Network can now access actual shipment location, status changes and anticipated time of arrival during transportation by road and ocean carriers. The new connectivity to ocean carriers and ports, in addition to satellite systems that allows visibility across all global ocean freight.

SAP’s Logistics Business Network is a key component of SAP Business Network, which leverages insights from real-time ERP and advanced analytics while providing synergies with successful network solutions such as the Ariba Network – which connects over 5 million companies worldwide and where over US$3.4trn in commerce is transacted every year.

Uncertain times usually bring a level of fear, permeating deeply down into the core of the business and spreading across the outer edges of the customer experience. But it doesn’t have to be this way. Just imagine: what opportunities are you missing now by not allowing your company to follow its true direction?

With preparedness and precision, many organizations embrace today’s chaos by innovating new products and services, opening a new sales channel, creating new customer experiences, or rethinking their business model. They are not only finding new strategies to survive a challenging economy, but also emerging more resilient and ready when better times come.

However, such an edge can prove to be difficult to achieve for more than half of companies. According to IDC market spotlight, “Digital Transformation in Times of Change: What Intelligent Enterprises Need from Their ERP Systems,” only 48.3% of surveyed executives believe they can drive new levels of efficiency and effectiveness and enable transformational business models.

Emerge stronger with a model of intelligence

For all the effort devoted to improving organizational processes and front-office operations, companies that embrace intelligent technology to improve productivity, cost efficiencies, and process cycle times are the ones with the most significant advantage. IDC states that digitally transformed enterprises have 8x more revenue and 2x more profitability, while small and midsize businesses are more likely to report double-digit growth and higher profitability.

• Modern: Take advantage of on-demand access to agile, configurable, quick-to-implement, and scalable technology to help your employees work anywhere and anytime.
• Connected: Unify end-to-end processes with accurate data to gain transparency and make your business more resilient. By coupling ERP data with other enterprise applications, you can create strategies that are more effective and make a significant impact across the company.
• Agile: Gain visibility into what’s happening throughout your organization by providing in-depth insight into different lines of business. Leveraging simple, interactive, and intuitive technology enables mobile workflows that add flexibility to your employees’ lives.
• Compliant: Follow corporate and statutory policies to the letter with solutions that are updated regularly, helping you stay in front of evolving requirements in every area of business, including manufacturing, production, and the supply chain.
• Capable: Unlock value everywhere by focusing on industry-specific requirements with proven best practices, enabling new business models as your marketplace evolves.
• Cognitive: Turn analytics into insights and bring value in real time by analyzing substantial amounts of data using machine learning, deep learning, and robotic process automation. The result: clearer overviews and added value.
• Collaborative: Empower your workforce with a single source of real-time information to make strategic and operational decisions faster – fostering a collaborative culture of seamless insight sharing and intelligent, forward-thinking analysis.
• Innovative: Optimize the impact of core business processes by combining the benefits of the cloud with your corporate data sets, leading to new insights and quicker breakthroughs.

Months before the pandemic ignited a global business crisis, industry analysts ranked robotic process automation (RPA) among the leading ingredients of digital transformation.

IDC predicted that by 2021, the contribution of “digital coworkers” would increase by 35 percent. RPA also made Gartner’s top 10 strategic technology trends in 2020 as an important part of hyperautomation.

Now, with all eyes on recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, RPA is even more important for its ability to automate processes and augment people. Nowhere is this more apparent than in procurement, which is increasingly charged with bolstering business resiliency in an unpredictable world.

Tumultuous Times Demand Intelligent Procurement

Unlike most humans, RPA not only relishes, but excels at repetitive tasks. The more tedious and mundane they are, the better. For example, RPA can make short work of procurement processes like quickly finding out which of your suppliers are at risk during a pandemic.

Not Yesterday’s Automation

Injecting RPA capabilities into an employee’s daily procurement processes can dramatically speed up rote tasks, many of which have far greater urgency these days.

“Maybe some of your suppliers are at risk, and they’re small and could take advantage of the government support programs in the United States,” Brown said. “You need to find out if they’re financially strapped or in difficult straits. Using RPA, you could quickly look at your smaller size suppliers, see if they’ve acquired one of those loans indicating they may be at risk, apply that data into your supply chain, and find another supplier to reduce your risk.”

Pandemic or not, RPA can be tremendously useful in tackling time-consuming procurement processes. These could be common tasks such as updating supplier certification information from a third-party site or changing cost center data on a large batch of purchase orders. Accomplishing these activities in minutes instead of hours frees up employees to make more strategic contributions while delivering massive productivity gains to the company.

AI Boosts Intelligent Procurement

Brown was particularly excited about the business results from combining artificial intelligence (AI) with RPA, something he described as an ongoing learning process for both people and machines.

“Adding AI into an automated process is a natural extension…[because] you can start providing recommendations to shorten processes,” he said. “The algorithm starts learning based on how you’ve selected items. It makes decisions for you, then asks if it got it right. You can also look at the data afterwards and change the strategy, if needed, over time.”

RPA Drives Supply Chain Agility

Both experts predicted an uptick in RPA across procurement as companies weather supply and demand fluctuations through a long recovery period. Kavanagh saw RPA helping companies reengineer supply chains for more dynamic and globally friendly sourcing strategies. Brown expected a significant increase in the number of SAP Ariba customers incorporating RPA into daily procurement activities.

A lot of new restrictions, rules and guidelines are turning the SAP community upside down. Business trips and conferences are passé, but information and communication are still necessary.

I don’t necessarily need a Sapphire Now conference in Orlando. What I do need, however, is more information on AnyDB in relation to SAP’s extended maintenance deadline 2027/2030.

I don’t necessarily need to see the colorful booths at the Sapphire, the annual DSAG conference, or SAP TechEd. I’d rather have access to keynotes, information and content of all of these conferences.

By now, I think it’s obvious where I’m going with this. Business class flights and five-star hotels don’t make for a good, informative article, and conferences with expensive evening events do not contribute to the education of the community.

These days, we’re more and more recognizing that nice, pleasant things not always count as necessities. While traveling can be fun and rewarding, it is not a bare necessity – and I think the aquatic life in Venedig, Italy would agree, seeing as the water in its canals has cleared up for the first time in many decades.

The lessons SAP should learn

Lockdowns, shelter-in-place orders, closing borders – while all of these measures are necessary, we still don’t really know how our world might look after all of this is over. Businesses and countries have survived the 2008 financial crisis, but we haven’t really acted on any of the knowledge gleaned from it. This time, we should do more to permanently implement the new lessons we’re learning every day.

I strongly believe that one of those lessons for SAP should be that the community needs more information and education instead of event marketing. SAP customers don’t need marketing gags and colorful booths, but they need reliable information if S/4 Hana is ever supposed to find its footing. The current challenges are a unique opportunity to distinguish what the SAP community really needs.

SAP customers are dealing with a lot of uncertainties at the moment. Questions about indirect access, consolidation and harmonization of SAP’s cloud acquisitions, SuccessFactors’ availability, Hana 3 or the right implementation approach (brownfield, greenfield or bluefield) are dominating discussions in the community. The only one remaining silent is SAP itself, and that’s just not a good communication strategy.

Customer expectations have changed significantly. Businesses not only have to react quickly to today’s customer needs, but also must anticipate customer requirements. This means that they need to learn to understand what customers’ requirements will be tomorrow. In the future, the competitive ability of a business will depend on this new customer paradigm. Successfully Managing The Digital Transformation Journey.

Data are the key to success here. If they are managed securely and are quickly available, they hold huge opportunities. A lot of business processes can be optimised and simplified with their help. In addition, they contain relevant customer information which is crucial for digital transformation.

A strategy that ensures a fast, flexible and straightforward strategy with the company’s own data is, therefore, key. However, many existing systems and approaches to data processing are not suitable for this purpose.

High-performance evaluation of large amounts of data

One remedy is innovative technological solutions that redefine how data are handled. A proposed solution is S/4 Hana and BW/4 Hana, both of which are based on the SAP Hana platform. Hana stands for “High Performance Analytic Appliance” and is a software platform which enables data to be analysed in real time.

S/4 Hana is the abbreviated designation for the new generation of the SAP ERP application which follows the current ERP application on SAP Business Suite Basis, where the “S” stands for “simple”.

The core of Hana is the so-called “in-memory technology”. In comparison to conventional databases, in-memory technology does not load the data for processing from the hard disk into the main memory. Instead, it keeps them completely available in the main memory.

A brand-new technology which is available as of the Hana 2.0 SPS04 version, is NSE (Native Storage Extension), which allows a large part of the unused data to be left on the disk and only loaded into the Hana buffer should they be needed. This saves a lot of main memory. In addition, the Hana data are compressed and therefore require less storage space than uncompressed data. As all required data are available in the main memory, considerably larger amounts of data can be evaluated simultaneously, maintaining higher performance.

In classical relational database architectures, transactional data are replicated in a separate data warehouse for analytical tasks. This is not necessary with Hana if reports only need to be generated on the data available in the database. This is because transactional and analytical data are jointly available in the SAP database. Analyses and reports can thus be carried out directly on the transactional data, which can be performed much faster than before.

They are designed for compute- and data-intensive workloads, but can also be used for traditional transaction processing. Due to their high flexibility, stability, performance and cost-efficiency, IBM Power systems are ideally suited as an infrastructure platform for the operation of Hana databases and the applications based on them.

In the future, Hana will be the only database platform from SAP. Accordingly, all new SAP products and existing applications will be consistently aligned with Hana. in this way you can Successfully Managing the Digital Transformation.

SAP offers a variety of software packages for enterprise technologists, much of it in the enterprise resource planning (ERP) space. Many large companies demand that their developers have at least some familiarity with SAP’s software. That means SAP training is essential.

A quick breakdown via Burning Glass, which collects and analyzes millions of job postings from across the country, shows that a hefty percentage of technologist jobs, including software developer, database architect, and systems analyst, request some combination of SAP-related skills.

Fortunately, there’s a lot of documentation and training material out there, thanks to SAP’s 400,000 customers worldwide and the accompanying need for information. If you’re in the market for SAP training, you can pretty much find anything on the company’s analytics, warehouse management, Cloud, and HANA modules. 

For Tim Webb, managing director of enterprise technology services at Robert Half Technology, learning SAP is a way to enter into a long, diverse career with a technology deeply embedded in some of the world’s biggest companies. Here are some of his tips about SAP training. 

What companies use SAP? 

Because of the cost and complexity of SAP, it’s typically only used by larger corporations—those in the $1 billion (and over) revenue bracket. For people looking to develop a skillset within SAP, that means they’ll most likely end up utilizing those skills within a large, enterprise-style environment. While that’s great for some people who enjoy working within huge teams (which, hopefully, have large budgets to match), it’s not necessary for everyone, especially those used to fast-paced startups. 

It’s also important to recognize that, given how SAP software is usually embedded deeply within an enterprise, any technologist specializing in it will likely need good “soft skills” such as collaboration and communication. That’s because the outputs and inputs of SAP platforms are often shared among multiple teams, with lots of collaborating (and competing) stakeholders.

Why should someone learn SAP skills?

Overall, experience with SAP gives you an worthwhile and in-demand toolset that you can leverage to build your career. Webb noted that SAP careers can be great springboards to more general management roles such as functional data consolidation manager, director of material management or a functional/logistics manager. 

“There’s a lot of different ways and areas in which you can get into SAP, depending on where someone wants to be,” he said. “It’s such a wide array of roles and responsibilities that come out of SAP, there’s a position within that frameworks for almost any technology skill set.” 

What is SAP training used for?

“In the enterprise resources market, it’s a great technology, one that’s been around for years, and companies aren’t going to move away from it,” Webb said. “Businesses are looking to more cloud-based solutions, and knowing SAP offers individuals that next career opportunity within IT.”

That’s partly because knowing SAP is a cross-functional skill; its modules and packages touch on everything from data analytics to project management, including:

• ERP and Finance
• Digital Supply Chain
• CRM and Customer Experience
• HR and People Engagement
• Network and Spend Management
• Business Technology Platform (data and analytics)

SAP training will not only allow technologists to work on projects within organizations, but, if they have an eye on ascending into management, the technology itself will give them key insights into what’s driving a particular business. That will come in useful if you apply for an executive role and show that you have a holistic sense of what a company actually needs. 

Migrating your existing ERP system to S/4 Hana is not a trivial task. S/4 Hana requires significant technical redesign and complex conversion that can take a lot of your time, resources, and money.

S/4 Hana offers three deployment options: cloud, on-premises and hybrid. Whether you are migrating an existing ERP solution or creating a new one from scratch, you have to choose the deployment option based on your business needs, budget, and resources. This article compares two out of the three options: cloud and on premises.

What is SAP S/4 Hana?

SAP S/4 Hana is an (ERP) business suite based on the Hana database. SAP S/4 Hana Cloud enables companies to analyze business data in real-time and perform transactions.

S/4 Hana was released in February 2015 as a successor to Business Suite. S/4 is designed to simplify administration by processing large amounts of data. The ERP system is available in the cloud and on premises, including hybrid deployment models. If you want to run SAP on Azure, AWS, or GCP, managed services are available. There is also a managed service available directly from SAP.

S/4 Hana in the cloud

Cloud environments enable companies to use high-performance computing that covers their core business strategies, while providing flexibility, and fast upgrade cycles. The light and flexible database platform of S/4 Hana is suitable for middle size businesses interested in growing at scale. 

S/4 Hana on premises

On-premises S/4 is suitable for large enterprises with proven business processes. The system is located on a local server to enable more effective monitoring and configuration workflows than in the cloud. SAP 4 Hana technology in cloud.

S/4 Hana with a hybrid model

A hybrid model is suitable for companies interested in quickly transforming their business while avoiding setup costs. A hybrid model combines both cloud and on-premises versions. The on-prem version stores data and applications on the organization’s hardware. The cloud version enables you to make changes to the system and adopt new opportunities without additional advance charges.

Infrastructure and maintenance

On-premises S/4 Hana deployment requires companies to invest in their own database, hardware, and networks. Companies also need to have dedicated IT teams to maintain on-premises infrastructure. The initial deployment of on-premises S/4 may be expensive, but you will have more control over costs later. Furthermore, you do not need to immediately rebuild the entire system every time there is a new upgrade. You can upgrade at your own pace.

Cloud deployments of SAP are responsible for the entire infrastructure, including maintenance. You do not need to invest in your own databases or IT staff. Cloud SAP systems are upgraded automatically every quarter. You will always have the latest version of the software. However, you do not have control over the system since it is entirely managed by a third-party solution. Here is an example of SAP S/4 Hana Cloud Or On-Premises. Which one is right for us? SAP S/4 Hana Cloud Or On-Premises. This is an example of SAP HANA technology in Cloud.

SAP Hana XSA enables different deployments in one single Hana database. However, companies have to consider various security guidelines to ensure diligent access management

Hana XSA makes different deployments (separated development environments) in one single Hana database possible. Every application operates in a separate container and in its own environment, meaning that problems in one application do not affect the others.

Companies have to consider various security guidelines to ensure diligent access management. SAP Hana XSA Cockpit orchestrates the solution, managing users, access and security configurations (e.g. tenants or SAML identity providers).

In user management, admins can create new accounts or convert existing Hana users to XSA users. Access is granted by so-called role collections. For example, for user management the role collection XS User Admin is necessary, and for role management users need the role collection XS Authorization Admin. For viewing only, standard role collections XS Authorization Display and XS User Display are available. Accountability is guaranteed by Hana’s auditing. It is a Total new thing in the SAP HANA method.

How SAP Hana XSA works

The basic structure of SAP Hana

XSA consists of organizations and spaces. In spaces, users can develop applications. Organizations are containers meant to structure the spaces. Developers operate in spaces. After the user master data have been created, developers are assigned spaces and access rights. There are three types of roles: Space Manager (space management as wells as evaluating applications); Space Developer (implementing, activating and deactivating of applications, matching applications to services); and Space Auditor (evaluation of applications and role management).

Regarding organizations, the role Organization Manager enables user management and maintaining the spaces in an organization. Protection Rule in SAP Education

The central development platform for SAPUI5 applications is SAP WebIDE (integrated development environment). It supports various programming languages like Java, Java Script, SAPUI5 HTML5, Node.js and more. WebIDE can be used for on-prem applications (Hana XSA) and as central development application for SAP Cloud Platform (Cloud Foundry).

To leverage WebIDE, developers have to be assigned corresponding access rights in SAP Hana XSA. Two standard templates already exist for this purpose: WebIDE Developer and WebIDE Administrator. To authorize users for application development, a role has to be created from the template WebIDE Developer. Here is Protection Rule in SAP Education

To implement access rights in customized solutions, companies have to define their own rules. They can also integrate actions into customized solutions that can be recorded using Hana’s auditing (category application auditing).

Using the new SAP MaxAttention Analytics and Data Management portfolio, SAP Premium Engagement customers can now experience X+O Analytics Consulting services to further enhance their organisation’s business improvement process. The brand new offering aims to empower customers to drive innovation by providing authoritative guidance in leveraging the combined power of X-data (experience data) and O-data (operational data) with SAP analytics technology.

Ever since the acquisition of leading experience management company by SAP in 2018, the global solutions provider has been encouraging and educating customers and prospects all over the world on the importance of bringing O-data together with X-data in transforming customer engagement and driving business goals. Combining these two sets of data eliminates what Qualtrics calls an “experience gap”—the disconnect between how a company perceives its product and/or service performance and how customers actually feel about it.

X+O Analytics: An Integral Part of Business Improvement Process

SAP has been the leader in helping companies gather O-data from enterprise applications in managing their businesses. O-data is data a type of strategic data collected from day-to-day operations that include internal control and operational environment information such as:

• customer information (the number of new or lost customers, the number of website visitors)
• workforce information (employee attrition, employee promotion history, and employee performance rating)
• financial information (sales figures, profitability)
• inventory turnover
• information on direct competitors

Obtaining these data is the first step to understanding the experiences of customers. The second step is gathering X-data which is the customer’s “side” of the story. In a blog post, Karthik Thirumalai, Vice President of Analytics and Insight Services at SAP Customer Success, explains the importance of this next step in designing a company’s business improvement process.

With the latest X+O Analytics Consulting service from the SAP MaxAttention team, SAP Premium Engagement customers will be able to successfully develop an X+O Analytics capability that seamlessly integrates into their existing SAP analytics landscape. SAP MaxAttention experts will help in efficiently gathering O-data from SAP information systems to compare against and combine with the outcomes of X-data tracking. 

The standardised specialist service will be delivered in a phased manner across SAP MaxAttention’s Prepare, Discover, Design and Deliver phases, according to Thirumalai. Furthermore, the X+O Analytics service also has touchpoints with other SAP services like the Quick Start Service for Experience Management Solutions that help develop and validate an Experience Management (XM) program strategy.