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Author's profile photo Radhakrishnan G K

Demand Planning Add-In for Microsoft Excel

Hi All

SAP has come up with a add-in for excel in 2014. All the  documentation is available in the link SAP Advanced Planning and Optimization, Demand Planning Add-In for Microsoft Excel 1.0 – SAP Help Portal Page

Kindly go though the  “Administrator’s Guide” and the “Application Help” ( market place log in needed ) .The below blog is just additional screen shots /tips /tricks/ which may help consultants.The screen shots are from a test system and for actual system the security aspects like firewall settings ,HTTPS should be considered.

The excel add in will work only on SCM7.0 EHP3 and on higher versions of EHP2.At the client side it supports Office 2010 and higher as explained in the guide

1.Open the transaction SICF. The Maintain service screen opens.

2.Click the Execute button or press F8.

3.PNG

3.Expand default_host in the service list.

4.Expand sap -> scmapo -> rest-> epm.

5.Double-click demand_plan_srv. The Create/Change a Service screen opens.

2.PNG

This is only available in  SCM7.0 EHP3 and on higher versions of EHP2 ( please refer the guide )

6.If the service is active, you can see Service (Active) written next to the service name. If you cannot see this text displayed, continue with the next step.

7.Click the Back button.

8.Right-click demand_plan_srv in the service list.

9.Select Activate Service from the context menu that appears.

10.Choose Yes in the dialog box that opens.

1.PNG

Now test the service

4.PNG

.A new window should open with a logon screen

5.PNG

The Url will be in the format http://[host]:[port]/sap/scmapo/rest/epm/demand_plan_srv/

If the window does not appear then few ICM setting are missing in RZ10 and this has to be checked by Basis team

The three ICM seting are shown below

rz10_for this.PNG

At the client side


The excel add in  available  in marketplace and download access will be needed to get this file. It has multiple prerequisites like specific version of dotnet and MS office  as explained in the guide.

inst1.PNG

After installation , we can see a new add in in the excel

ex1.PNG

Click on  log on button

excel first.PNG

create a new connection for the required planning book and view as shown

pb3.PNG

Data in the planning book

pb1.PNG

Now based on the layout needed ,click the format and adjust the same

The row , column and page axis needs to be sent as per the requirement

fm1.PNG

fm2.PNG

fm3.PNG

fm4.PNG

After all this , the report should be able to pull data from planning book as shown below .

aa.PNG

If planning book numbers need to changed from excel then active the below option

edit.PNG

After this if numbers are changed in the excel and “upload data” button is clicked then numbers are changed in planning book as shown below

update data1.PNG

update data2.PNG

There are large number of options explained in the guide such as read only settings, color formatting in excel and formulas.They need to be configured as per business requirements.

Pros:

Most of the demand planners work in excel and will prefer to work in excel than planning book

Cons:

Supported only in SCM7EHP3 and higher versions of EHP2

Planners may expect all the data in excel and may try to avoid planning books altogether.

The impact of all the default/ start / level change /exit  macro’s needs to be tested

The security aspects may be involved .If we compare this with BW-Bex report then it gives access only to read data but here it is read /write.

Performance issues with large selections need to be tested 

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      6 Comments
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      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      Excelenet documentation, very good work RK...

      Author's profile photo Satish Waghmare
      Satish Waghmare

      Very good stuff. Thanks Radhakrishnan for sharing this information.

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      Hello, somehow I got the following error message when I try to test the service, do you have any idea?  The ICM settings look fine.

      Thanks in advance for your hints

      <CustomApplicationMessages>

      <CustomApplicationMessage>

      <code>004</code>

      <description>Invalid HTTP request, method  is not valid ( /SAPAPO/EDP 004)</description>

      <log_id/>

      <severity>High</severity>

      </CustomApplicationMessage>

      </CustomApplicationMessages>

      Author's profile photo Radhakrishnan G K
      Radhakrishnan G K
      Blog Post Author

      I suggest you to contact your Basis team.It might be related to settings in RZ10 or firewall settings and this should be fixed by Basis team.The screen shots are from a stand alone test system.

      Author's profile photo Neil Betts
      Neil Betts

       

      Hi, wondering if you can help.

      I can load the Add-in and view, change, upload changes directly into APO.

      However, I can only do this by selecting an item via the APO product selection field (am able to load multiple SKU's by selecting them individually). I can also see, and change a selection variant in the ribbon.

      However, when I click a selection variant, it does not load the SKU's associated.

      Please can you advise if it's possible to load all SKU's into an excel Add-in workbook for a specific selection variant.

      Many thanks

      Neil

      Author's profile photo Radhakrishnan G K
      Radhakrishnan G K
      Blog Post Author

      it is possible to share few screen shots. You can strike out / blur any company specific information in the screen shot . I did not work in excel addin for last 3-4 years but will try to check with friends .Most of the people are going the IBP way !!