The S4 HANA 2021 update for the on-premise edition introduces some significant advancements for the sales department. In this blog, we will highlight the most significant innovations and changes in the Order Management domain that affects most business sectors.
The first noteworthy update is in the highly popular and practical- Sales Order Fulfillment software, which is utilized for corporate decision-making. The currently available various tiles in the Sales Order Fulfillment category, such as Sales Order Fulfillment – Analyze issues or Resolve Incomplete Data, will be deleted in the upcoming version and replaced with Sales Order Fulfillment – Analyze and Resolve issues. While the current Sales Order Fulfillment app and tiles are still functional and usable, they are now designated as Deprecated. SAP advises against continuing to use them in favor of the new app.
The second highlight is the new sales order generating apps, which automatically construct sales orders by accepting input data from several mediums.
- Create Sales Orders – Automatic Extraction of Sales Orders
- Import Sales Orders
These apps, available in both the cloud and on-premises versions, are a practical example of how SAP integrated automation and machine learning concepts into its SAP document generation process.
An internal sales representative can upload files they receive in unstructured data format into the S4 HANA system and use the Automatic Extraction to build sales orders from them.
This is useful in cases where they receive the orders in the form of attachments like PDFs. Since the system automatically extracts file information and maps key data like Sold to Party and Material number, the manual effort of mapping the file into the master data included in S4 HANA and issuing a sales order is eliminated.
Importing Sales Orders
With the help of the Import Sales Order app, sales representatives can create sales orders from a compressed XLSX spreadsheet file that they have access to from various sources, such as external order entry tools or a manual field data collection consolidation, etc. This file is then combined into an excel file for multiple orders or multiple order items.
The fact that the excel format supports custom fields is the nicest aspect.
Creating New Sales Orders
Next is the app for creating sales orders, which was initially introduced in the cloud version but is now also offered in the on-premise edition.
The classic SAP GUI for VA01 order creation is being replaced with the new Fiori programming platform in this first transactional Fiori app for making Sales orders.
The business benefit is clear in terms of ease of navigation, graphical process flow, and extensibility to manage KPIs on the same screen bringing business users’ deliquescence. However, this app is not fully functional for order creation. It is not meant to replace the Create Sales Order-VA01 app, at least for now, since it does not support all order types by default as in the Create Sales Order-VA01 app and needs configuration setup for supported document types and other limitations.
The Manage Sales Orders app or the Create Sales Orders tile on the Fiori dashboard can be used to access this app. You can now see this additional app in addition to the Create Sales Order-VA01 app within the Manage Sales Order app.
The following key changes for the 2021 release are outlined below:
1. New Release for Business Partner
The adjustments connected to BP are the other significant changes in the 2021 version (Business Partner). The ability to manage address-dependent data and allow SD documents to consume these addresses and associated address-dependent data for a single BP record is now available with multiple address handling for BP. The next two business operations must be turned on to enable this feature.
This will be reflected in several sales procedures. For instance, the system will ask you to choose the appropriate BP’s address when you create sales papers in the Create Sales Orders – VA01 app or outbound deliveries in the Create Outbound Delivery – Without Order Reference app.
2. New Release for Preliminary Documents
The capabilities for Preliminary billing documents are the last feature I want to highlight for the 2021 release. The inability to filter documents based on user id and creation date was one of the key capabilities lacking in the previous release regarding the generation of preliminary documents and billing documents. The “Created By” and “Created on” fields are now available for the Preliminary and Billing due lists as of the 2021 release.
Additionally, automatic process approval for scheduling jobs for preliminary documents with a completed status is enabled.
3. New Release for Mass change
This program is another excellent resource for changing sales document fields in bulk. It is now free to use for all types of sales documents, including quotes and sales orders, and will have improved features in the 2021 version. A new field profit center for Sales Orders is now accessible at the item level. The Quotation level does not currently have this field available.
With the ability to run in the background, the mass change can now be monitored in real-time with simple-to-view tiles. The ability to easily rerun failed jobs without creating a new one is another helpful feature of these job titles.
Final Thoughts
We all agree that the advances in sales in the 2021 edition were substantial; nonetheless, we’ve only talked about the most important ones. Other intriguing updates and changes have been made to the SAP portal’s current features and Fiori apps for Sales.
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