10 FAQ to understand SAP FSN (Financial Services Network)

1.WHAT IS SAP FSN?

• It is a NETWORK connecting Corporate Customers (mainly SAP ERP) and Financial Services providers. The hub is located in the SAP datancenter in Germany.

2.WHY IS IT IMPORTANT FOR BANKS?

Integrating Corporate customers has been always an issue for financial services providers.

It takes time, investment on both sides, and most of the times it is not integrated into the ERP system. Consider that nowawadays, a delayed collection update simply blocks deliveries due to (e.g.) customer credit limit validation, causing a major impact from logistics to treasury.

Corporate customers also reject any type of propietary bank format, since it’s strategic to be connected to all financial services providers exploiting all existing open standards (security, format, network, regulations, cloud services, etc….) providing flexibility and stability.

SAP FSN allows financial services providers to interact with the customer transactional systems in real time, providing a key differenciator.

3.HOW DOES SAP FSN EXPLOIT THE TECHNOLOGICAL READINESS?

Nowadays a number or number of conditions are met from technological perspective that makes SAP FSN the clear smart choice.

SAP ERP (and the different industry solutions) is the leader in it’s segment with global support and adoption, SAP corporate customers have been creating financial transaction request and importing reporting information for more the 20 years.

From the communication stand point, everybody accepts web servicesand XML shared in a secure way. Also there is global connectivity protected by legaly well defined legal requirements.

4.WHAT IS SOLD?

• A SERVICE that integrates the partner to the network:
• One Time Onboarding Project:
  • SAP Cloud Professional Services helpo withh
    • Integration (mainly security)
    • Routing
    • Transformations
  • SAP RDS for regional consulting available
  • SAP Support included

5.WHAT IS CONTAINED IN THE FOUNDATIONAL SERVICES?

• Transactions:
  • Vendor Payments + Payment Status (PS free of cost)
  • Electronic Bank Statements
• Monitoring
• SAP Support

The sky is the limit

Foundational services do not represent any type of limits, actually, it is the baseline scope for the integration, but SAP FSN is basically providing open SAP ERP integration to your financial services provider and it’s up the them to continue innovating exploiting this new integration architecture and delivering SAP FSN Value Apps focusing on financial services.

6.HOW IS SAP FSN POSITIONED FOR SAP ERP USERS?

• Non-disruptive: all existing configuration can be reused
• Non-intrusive: No other systems required
• Business as usual

7.IS THERE ANYTHING TO BE INSTALLED ON PREMISE?

• There is an SAP ERP Add-on: SAP FSN Connector mainly used for message level security (encryption, signature, reliable messaging and encoding).

8. SAP ERP VERSION SUPPORTED?

• Basic: SAP ERP 6.00 + WS-RM runtime configured (NetWeaver dependent)
• SAP FSCM BCM integration: SAP ERP 6.02. SAP FSCM BCM is recommended but not required.
• SAP NetWeaver PI integration: PI must support WS-RM. SAP NetWeaver PI/PO is optional.

9.WHAT IS THE VALUE PROPOSITION?

*Banks: All financial services providers

10.WHAT ARE THE SAP FSN VALUE APPS?

• Applications developed by customers, banks or third parties that can be purchased and deployed in the private customer space  in the SAP Datacenter.

Summary: SAP is uniquely positioned to build a technological hub to enable the financial ecosystem interact in a much clever way offering the service required to evolve the financial integration paradigm

Discover how your business can thrive with the implementation of this innovative on-demand solution from SAP. Register now to attend our SAP FSN webinar.