outlook

Customers who have successfully migrated to S/4 often ask themselves which planning tool can be used in the future and whether an SAP BW system is still needed. Planning projects are usually time-consuming and costly, and there are various SAP solutions. Ideally, you want to invest in a future-proof planning solution and, if necessary, continue to (partially) use existing implementations. SAP BPC optimized for S/4 HANA Finance is available as an add-on for S/4 and offers improved and direct integration with the SAP S/4HANA system. This blog article describes the advantages and disadvantages of BPC optimized for S/4 HANA and gives an overview of the planning options available for this purpose.

Overview of SAP planning tools for classification

The integrated planning options in S/4 are still partially possible, but just like the BPC Standard (Classic Model) or SAP IP (Embedded Model), they have no longer been recommended for new implementations and have been replaced by BPC Embedded/SAC. The recommended planning solutions are currently:

What is BPC optimized for S/4 HANA?

SAP BPC optimized for S/4HANA is a product that runs directly on SAP S/4HANA, SAP's ERP system. It is a planning solution that contains predefined planning models for easy and quick introduction with various planning templates and BW content. It is based on limited embedded BW, which is not intended as an enterprise data warehouse and not for larger amounts of data.

Only embedded modeling is supported. The source for actual data is the ACDOCA table, and planned figures of the planning content are stored in ACDOCP. However, it is also possible to create and create your own data models. The /erp/InfoObjects contained in the content can be used and adapted.

What are the benefits of SAP BPC optimized for S/4HANA?

• It eliminates data replication and provides real-time access to master and transaction data maintained in SAP S4. This is done via HANA Calculation Views. There is no need to create data flows between S4HANA and BPC anymore.
• Predefined planning models are included, which can be easily installed from SFIN/BW/HANA content.
• You can create your own planning models based on SAP BW 7.5.
• You can carry out real-time analyses of plan data and actual data.
• You can plan based on real-time master data.

What are the disadvantages of SAP BPC optimized for S/4HANA?

• Content limited to the predefined planning model for SAP FI/CO only.
• The planning content can only be extended to a limited extent and if additional fields are required, it is not really recommended.
• Planning functions for physical deletion in AdsO are missing.
• The predefined content is based on an old 7.5 data model and does not use the new modeling objects Composite Provider, AdsO, etc.
• There is no technical content for embedded BW.
• The /ERP InfoObjects show master data and attributes via HANA Calculation Views, which are maintained in S/4 using the corresponding S/4 transactions. This also means that master data cannot be maintained via BPC/BW in the standard version. However, this can still be made possible with additional InfoObjects and clever use of HANA Calculation View.

conclusion

For companies that are thinking about not running their own BW system, SAP BPC S/4HANA is already a possible alternative. Especially when real-time planning without data replication is required. In customer projects taking individual requirements into account, the predefined planning content has proven to be of only limited use. Your own planning models can be created with a slightly limited range of functions. For planning projects that are not based on FI/CO, it is not necessarily recommended because the corresponding content is missing and must be created manually. Instead of data replication, actual data can be displayed in real time using ABAP-CDS Views and HANA Calculation Views, saving a lot of development work for data extraction and the storage space required for this. Master data is recorded in S/4 and also does not need to be replicated.