The many names of Simple Finance Add-in 2.0
It is always fun being on the leading edge of implementing new software solutions and Simple Finance living up to that standard. There are extra challenges and learning opportunities for both the user, the implementer, and SAP. In this post I wanted to talk a about the new naming conventions for Simple Finance and hopefully eliminate some of the confusion.
As most of you probably know with the introduction of SAP S/4 HANA SAP is shifting to a cloud first development schedule. S/4 HANA will be available both on premise and in the cloud. However, due to the industry standard of multi-tenant cloud offerings deploying updates on a quarterly basis new functionality will be first deployed in the cloud and then rolled back into the On Premise additions. Since Simple Finance is the first piece of S/4 we are seeing the naming change to denote more of that philosophy.
Simple Finance was first released as SAP Simple Finance Add-on 1.0. This version contained some of the new functionality for simple finance however, it did not incorporate all of the table structure simplification and fiori apps that would come with the next version SAP Simple Finance Add-on 2.0 and be the base for S/4.
Coinciding with the release of Simple Finance 2.0 SAP took the opportunity to rename the product to be more in line with their future cloud first strategy. Simple Finance Add-on 2.0 was renamed to Simple Finance On-Premise Edition 1503 – The edition numbers represent the year and month of release. The support packs for a given On-Premise edition have also been renamed to include the year and month of release.
For example
| Old Name Simple Finance add-on | New Name Simple Finance, on Premise Edition |
|---|---|
| 2.0 – Released | 1503 – Released |
| 3.0 – Planned | 1602 – Planned |
| Product Version | Old Support Pack Stack # | New Support Pack Stack # |
|---|---|---|
| SAP Simple Finance 1503 | SPS 00 | Initial Shipment Stack |
| SAP Simple Finance 1503 | SPS 01 | SPS 1505 |
| SAP Simple Finance 1503 | SPS 02 | SPS 1508 (planned) |
| SAP Simple Finance 1503 | SPS 03 | SPS 1511 (planned) |
This note outlines the name changes in more detail:
2171868 – SAP Simple Finance: Information on Product Name and Versioning Changes as of May 2015
Dear John,
At the moment we are on SFIN 2.0 on premise. This is my current understanding.
SAP will release a new version for the cloud which includes also simple accounting. Will the same happen with SFIN 3.0? Is SFIN 3.0 - 1602 on premise the same code line as the new cloud solution? I expect there will be no difference only that SAP will offer a quarterly release cycle compare to a yearly release cycle.
In addition I guess the new cloud solution has the same architecture as the current on premise solution.
Is this somehow correct what I understand?
Regards,
Alexander
Hi Alexander,
So you are on what is now called Simple Finance On-Premise Edition 1503.
Yes there is/will be (I am not sure if it is out yet or not) a cloud version which will have simple finance in it as well as the other "simple" components of S4 Hana as they release. The way I understand it and someone from SAP can feel free to validate this here, the functionality will flow in the opposite direction of what you mention. The quarterly releases of functionality in the cloud will be packaged in the yearly releases for the On-Prem version. So it is not the on prem flowing to the cloud it is the cloud flowing to on-prem.
The cloud version will be the same architecture with some limitation on customer specific enhancements. Since it is a single instance multi-tenant environment you will not have the same enhancement points as you will on prem. However, it will be the same simantic layer and speak the same language to allow for hybrid options for deploying pieces of your landscape on prem and in the cloud.
Hope this helps.
John