Enterprise Portfolio and Project Management in SAP S/4HANA Cloud 2002

This blog provides you with the latest and greatest innovations that our SAP S/4HANA Cloud 2002 release has in store for you in the area of Enterprise Portfolio and Project Management. As in our last update in 1911, we’re releasing innovations for Project Financial Control (1NT) which is one of our foundation processes and also applicable to R&D Project Management (35E) and Capital Investment Project Management (35F).

Watch my video and get a quick overview of our 2002 highlights:

Copying Projects in Project Control Application

As a project manager you probably set up projects on a daily basis. As this can be a very time-consuming task, we have developed a feature which improves the usability. With SAP S/4HANA Cloud 2002 you can copy a selected project in the Project Control application. When copying, all information regarding the work package hierarchy, the project and work package master data, any milestones and all team assignment information is taken over from the original project.

The information that is needed in order for the system to copy the selected project is a project name, a new project ID and the planned start or planned finish of your new project. A very smart approach we’ve been taking to additionally improve the usability is for the system to suggest the next available project ID. This new copy functionality is very easy to use and can heavily reduce your manual efforts.

After copying the project, it can be edited directly in Project Control application, or you can also navigate to the Project Planning or Project Briefs application.

Fig. 1: Reduced manual efforts with new copy functionality in Project Control application

Blocking Functions for a Project/Work Package

As a second innovation I’d like to shed some light on the new blocking functions for a project or work package. As of SAP S/4HANA Cloud 2002 we enable the functionality to block business functions. Project managers can make use of this functionality in case a contract needs to be renegotiated, for example.

Business functions can be blocked at each work package level via the Project Control as well as the Project Planning applications. The business transactions which can be blocked are time recordings captured in the time sheet application, activity allocations, concur expense postings and other expense postings. These transactions can be blocked at the same time and there is no special role required to maintain them. The blockings are not date relevant or scheduled, but they are a simple state associated with the work package / project.

Fig. 2: Project managers can block business functions at each work package level via Project Control and Project Planning applications

Validation of Open Time Postings

As a third highlight I’d like to introduce you to the validation of open time postings. This innovation enables you to check if there are any pending time sheet approvals before moving a project or work package from the status ‘released’ to ‘completed’. That means that in case there is an open time sheet entry which hasn’t been taken care of by the respective project manager, the system will automatically run a check in the background and send a notification. Only after taking care of the pending approval, the project manager will be able to complete this project or work package.

This feature is enabled in both the Project Control and also the Project Planning applications.

Fig. 3: ‘Validation of Open Time Postings’ improves project control

Enhanced Import Parameters of Validation/Determination Cloud BAdIs in Project Definition

This feature allows you to make validations and determinations in cloud BAdI. When you want to create or update a particular work package, the system will run a validation in the background and check whether this change you want to execute is valid or not. This validation by the system is based on the parent and root work package data or values.

Having this innovation in place, the systems supports you to use the correct combination of data across projects with minimal mistakes. On top, your manual efforts are reduced as you don’t have to fill the data manually against various fields. This enhancement is adopted in Project Control, Project Planning, Project Builder and Project Briefs applications including API and migration reports.

Fig. 4: Validations and determinations based on parent and root work package data lead to more accurate project data with less manual efforts

Investment Profile in Mass Changes App, Migration Object and API

As of our SAP S/4HANA Cloud 2002 release we improve the functionality by introducing investment profile in the Mass Changes to Projects application, migration object and API.

In the past, the value of the investment profile of a project has been generated as follows: the investment profile of an investment project has been derived by default from the project profile for the project header and work packages. In case you wanted to change the value of the investment profile field you would have had to change it in the detailed page of each project element.

With the new field Investment Profile being added to the migration report, the Mass Changes to Projects application and CRUD API, you can efficiently change the investment profile. In the video below you can see this feature in action in the Mass Changes to Projects application.

Fig. 5: Investment Profile in Mass Changes to Projects application supports the efficient change of investment profile fields for project headers and work packages

New Field Related to Joint Venture in Master Data  

Last but not least, I’d like to mention the new field related to joint venture in master data. The new field ‘Joint Venture Type’ which we are enabling is an attribute of joint venture accounting and it is derived from the joint venture.

This field is available across all kinds of projects in enterprise projects for the joint venture active company codes. It is incorporated in the Project Control and Project Planning applications. When you provide the joint venture information as part of a project and a work package, the new field ‘Joint Venture Type’ is automatically filled out by the system.

Fig. 6: Along with all Joint Venture attributes the new ‘Joint Venture Type’ field supports you to choose the appropriate Joint Venture

For more information on SAP S/4HANA Cloud, check out the following links:

• SAP S/4HANA Cloud release info: http://www.sap.com/s4-cloudrelease
• Sven Denecken’s SAP S/4HANA Cloud 2002 Release Blog
• The Link Collection for Enterprise Portfolio and Project Management here
• Early Release Webinar Series here
• Inside SAP S/4HANA Podcast here
• Best practices for SAP S/4HANA Cloud here
• SAP S/4HANA Cloud User Community: register here
• Feature Scope Description here
• What’s New here
• Help Portal Product Page here
• Implementation Portal here

Follow us via @SAP and #S4HANA, or myself via @CorinaReise and LinkedIn