SAP S/4HANA Cloud, the Intelligent Cloud ERP: Q4 2018 overview of some key business scenarios

Welcome to the Q4 product update of the “intelligent Cloud ERP” series.You have certainly read the article from Sven Denecken on the SAP News Center.

The year 2018 has witnesses a lot of innovation in the cloud ERP space. This collection blog will give you a comprehensive overview.

The Intelligent Enterprise is the next frontier for SAP customer. It is about automated processes, empowered employees, revenue creation, with ease and intelligence.

The November release of SAP S/4HANA Cloud 1811 continues to deliver on the intelligent enterprise promise for customers.

In a good tradition, this video will present use cases leveraging digital assistant, machine learning or predictive capabilities. The use cases were all built to automate and add value to existing ERP business processes.

To enable the intelligent enterprise, we rely on 3 core technologies that you will find systematically in the current and future product update:

• Digital assistants supported by native language integration and SAP CoPilot
• Machine learning, powered by SAP Leonardo intelligent services
• Predictive analytics, leveraging the SAP Predictive Analytics Integrator capabilities

How are those technologies helping automate Cloud ERP processes?

With this 1811 update, we ship a few new skills in the area of Finance with the following apps like “Manage Cost Centers” or “Monitor Payments”.

As an other example for this quarter, we have shipped another innovation based on Machine Learning in the area of Procurement. A reliable delivery lead time for materials will be predicted during the creation of a purchase requisition or purchase order.

Machine Learning in Procurement: Supplier Performance Prediction

What is on the roadmap for the near future?

A new “quick create” feature in Sales, planned for SAP S/4HANA Cloud 1902 (March 2019) update, will help to Create sales quotations. With the same update, we will provide an update to the delivery performance functionality for the LoB Sales.

Beyond this, for the 1905 (May 2019) update, we are planning to leverage the “Quick create” command again to create customer material information records. In 1905 as well, in Enterprise Portfolio and Project Management, we are planning to extend the conversational enablement of project management, for better project collaboration. In the EPPM area now, we plan enhancement for project forecasting with the 1905 update. It will come with extended functions leveraging predictive analytics and machine-learning capabilities.

Later, for 1908 (August 2019), yet another quick create functionality for sales orders will be available. With the same update, we are planning to enable sales managers to monitor the delivery performance spanning from procurement to transportation processes.