Over a period, Planning Solutions in SAP has evolved. The journey started with native SAP ECC Planning in Cost Center Accounting, Profit Center Accounting, and General Ledger Module in Financial Accounting (FI).
However, as customer requirements grew, there was a need to have a much more complex planning solution that could help organizations plan, budget, and forecast on multiple dimensions, interact with data at the same time, produce analytics and quickly change their inputs to be able to see new outcomes instantly. This need resulted in a new generation of planning platforms that are not only capable of handling complex planning scenarios but easy to deploy and extremely scalable.
Below is a summary of how SAP’s Financial Planning and Analysis grew:
SAP S/4HANA ERP (Classic ERP Planning Transactions)
What was previously known as FI/CO planning has been eliminated from SAP S/4HANA, giving way to contemporary BPC/SAC functionality and content. It is still possible to use certain ERP planning functionalities within the new S/4HANA system.
SAP Business Planning and Consolidation for NetWeaver (BPC)
SAP Business Planning and Consolidation for Netweaver (BPC_NW) is an established and trustworthy planning and consolidation application that is being operated by numerous customers. It continues to be maintained so that the users’ assets are protected.
BPC for SAP S/4HANA
Integrated Business Planning for Finance (IBPf) was the first proper S/4HANA financial planning tool which was later eventually renamed BPC for S/4HANA (BPC Optimized for S/4 HANA). A limited provision of BW is embedded within this to provide support to host the BPC application. Actual expenses are obtained from ACDOCA and forecasted/ budgeted data is stored in the ACDOCP table.
SAP Business Planning and Consolidation for BW/4HANA
SAP Business Planning and Consolidation 1.1x version for SAP BW/4HANA is the latest product launched for SAP BW/4HANA. This maintains the HANA database while utilizing SAPUI5 technology. BW/4HANA is a fresh data warehouse tool that is elevated for the SAP HANA platform.
It delivers, in real-time, enterprise-wise analytics that reduces the movement of information and merges the whole organization’s data into a singular analytical view.
SAP Business Planning and Consolidation 11 can be deployed in two configurations:
- Within an embedded structure, Business Planning and Consolidation is incorporated together with SAP HANA-optimized processing
- Within a standard structure, you can utilize all the functions available in the standard design of SAP Business Planning and Consolidation
SAP Analytics Cloud
SAP Analytics Cloud (SAC) is a strategically planned software – as – a – service (SaaS) solution. This allows businesses to plan, discover, predict and collaborate from one single point. Additionally, SAC has the added advantage of a modern user interface that allows accessibility across all mobile devices.
SAC is fully incorporated within SAP S/4HANA which allows for the complete integration of financial planning and budgeting processes. To trade information, SAC is connected to ODATA services within SAP S/4HANA. For the purposes of financial planning requirements, SAP carries the predetermined Integrated Financial Planning for SAP S/4HANA business content that is already present within its demo data. This allows you to bring in your own data from SAP S/4HANA and export your results back to SAP S/4HANA.
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