In the last couples of years, we have seen a growing interest in the SAP BPC embedded model, resulting in productive deployments all around the globe. This can be explained by providing an alternative to the SAP BPC standard model in which data replication needs have been drastically reduced and integration with other SAP components has been enhanced.
In this post, we will focus on the reasons that have convinced our live customers to use the SAP BPC embedded model as their planning and consolidation solution.
From SAP BW-IP to SAP BPC embedded model
For existing SAP customers, one key criteria when selecting such a solution is to safeguard their past investments. Whether they look into planning software with a green field approach in mind or they are interested into enhancing their current productive planning processes – thanks to the latest available technology – customers are always keen on leveraging their existing infrastructure and skill sets. This is particularly true when customers are looking to evolve from an existing SAP BW-IP solution in use.
In this context, let’s have a look at a banking customer’s implementation. Investments in the planning processes, rules and skill sets that have been developed during the past years will be secured and can be leveraged in an embedded model deployment. Since SAP BW is used as the main data source, standard InfoObjects and transactional data can be shared and therefore reused within the embedded model of SAP BPC without any need of replication.
Then, despite the fact that such a deployment is managed and mostly owned by the customer’s IT, BPC’s administration web client allows end-users to create and maintain local objects (models, dimensions, hierarchies, etc.) to reduce the dependency to IT and provide additional flexibility to the business.
And last but not least, in addition to the in-memory acceleration provided by SAP HANA and the planning engine of SAP BW-IP, our banking customer now benefits from the BPC user experience, allowing nice features – such as Business Process Flows – to support its planning cycles.
All these motives contributed in the customer’s decision to use SAP BPC embedded model as an evolution to their BW-IP solution in use, increasing their planning cycles’ efficiency.
First step into the S/4HANA strategy
Another criteria currently inviting our customers to embrace SAP BPC embedded model is its close relationship with SAP S/4HANA. Indeed, SAP BPC optimized for S/4HANA is using the embedded model type as foundation, with all the advantages previously described. But there is more to it.
With SAP BPC optimized for S/4HANA, the integration is pushed to another level. Following the concept of Universal Journal of S/4HANA Finance where all the financial information is stored, customers can now plan, forecast and simulate scenarios in real-time without the need of replicating data between SAP ERP and SAP BW. Moreover, BPC optimized for S/4HANA consists in a packaged content (Excel templates, InfoProviders, etc.), supporting most of the current planning scenarios – such as P&L, cost center or profit center planning – that will enhance a customer’s deployment of the embedded model directly in S/4HANA.
Therefore, SAP BPC embedded model could be deployed as an initial step to converge towards the S/4HANA strategy.
To support the “first movers” and customers currently interested in both SAP S/4HANA and SAP BPC to migrate from a standalone SAP BPC embedded model to SAP BPC optimized for S/4HANA, SAP released SAP Note
2243472. For more information on this topic, you can also read the following article:
Future proof your SAP Business Planning and Consolidation project for S/4HANA
