As most of you are aware, in SP09, SAP Profitability and Performance Management (PaPM 3.0) released an optional, visual user interface, which can be accessed via the Studio tile in the SAP Fiori Launchpad. This user interface is also known as Visual Modeler and is being enhanced by development team all throughout the development cycle for better user experience. The latest enhancements can also be experienced by applying the latest visual modeler notes. In this blog post, let me give you an overview of the first major SP12 enhancement SAP Note: 2972475 - FS-PER Rel. 3.0 SP12: Visual Modeler Screens enhancements and fixes (01).
Environment Screen (Read-only)
In Environment Screen, a new column called History Versions has been added which shows the number of history versions an environment has. 
Users can click on the number displayed in the column and a window will appear on the sidebar showing the History Version details of the environment selected.
Users can then select two versions and can later on compare by choosing the compare button in the pop up window that will appear once a version has been selected. And this will lead me to my next topic which is Comparison Screen.
Comparison Screen
As discussed in the above section, this screen has just been recently added and is what modelers can use to compare two environment versions. Once modeler selects two environment versions and choose Compare button, comparison screen will open in a new window.
Modelers can already utilize the search functionality which is available in the header section of the screen.
As well as choose which view to use to compare the two environment versions. Default view is side by side wherein the screen is divided into two sections which is shown in the above screenshots. Modeler can choose to compare it in a Unified View which will show the environment differences in just one section as shown in the screenshot below.
Modelers can also choose to export the comparison screen details into a PDF file by choosing the export button in the header section.
Additional Information: Comparison screen feature has been available in this SAP Note but please take note that performance improvement is on going to accommodate comparison of huge environments which will be released in next notes or support packages.
Modeling Screen (Read Only)
The new feature added in Modeling Screen is connected to Historization. Historize button is now added in Modeling Screen of Visual Modeler so there's no need to perform historization in the expert UI. Just click the Historize button in Tools section of the Header and once successful, the version can already be used for comparison.
Process Management Screen (Read Only)
- Timeline behavior has been enhanced for better user experience.
- Users can choose different zoom perspective from the zoom controls in the header and can even zoom in to see the hours perspective.
- Non-working days like weekends are a bit more emphasized than the working days to help users better plan their activities.
- Styling for process records or activities (Process, Input/Output and Execution Activities, and Nodes) has been improved like colors of the activity types.
- Tooltips have been enhanced. There are now different font colors for Activity Statuses. Date format shown in the tooltip is also now according to what the user has set in Default Settings.
- Team names are also now displayed beside the activities so users will not have to expand properties panel just to see the performer or reviewer group assigned to the activity.
Visualize/Report Management Screen (Editable)
In Visualize and Report Management Screens, an improvement in one of the chart types that is already released has been added. In Sankey Chart, axis labels is now supported. If axis label toggle is enabled, users can see the dimensions visible in the chart.
Tools like "Analyze" and "Analyze in excel" were also added in Visualize Screen which has the same functionality as the "Analyze" and Analyze in Excel" buttons that can be found in Modeling and Process Management Screens.
Application General
Lastly, an information is now added in the screen in case the user opens Visual Modeler in an unsupported browser (e.g.IE11).
Hint: I recommend to use Google Chrome as the browser for better modeling and reporting experience while using Visual Modeler.
My blog post ends here. I hope that you learned something from this blog post and that you became excited to implement the latest SAP Note for PaPM Visual Modeler.
For more information about Visual Modeler, you may also check PaPM SAP Help portal in the link below.
Thank you for reading this and I invite you to check the next Visual Modeler SAP Note blog post!
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