Cloud Myth Busting: Myth #4 – Localization is Limited in the Cloud

Next in the series (part 3 here), lets check in on localization/globalization in the cloud.

Multinational enterprises need a Cloud ERP that facilitates global rollouts. A key differentiator for SAP S/4HANA Cloud is its ability to help enterprises scale their business processes across the globe by addressing country-specific requirements and regulatory needs.

What is “Localization” in SAP S/4HANA Cloud?

Localization plays a pivotal role in supporting the cloud journey. A dedicated team of localization experts deployed across the globe help deliver the legal changes for SAP S/4HANA Cloud. Localization supports customer business compliance and caters to adjusting the product’s functional properties, characteristics, and content to accommodate the language and legal differences.

• Functional localization delivered by SAP addresses areas that require enhancement of processes in the core of SAP S/4HANA.
• Content Localization caters to the localization configuration to run basic business processes and the Business Configuration layer enables further customization using Self-Service Configuration UIs.
• Extensibility features help in adapting and adding on top of what SAP is delivering.
• The SAP Central Business Configuration- Configuration Localization Tool (Planned) enables a copy of the business configuration content so that the customer/partner can create a new SAP Delivered Local Versions.

The different layers in a localization are represented with examples in the illustration below:

What is the Localization Coverage of S/4HANA Cloud? 

SAP Offers S/4HANA Cloud with Standard Localization for 43 countries and 27 languages.

SAP localization addresses some of the cases where localization is a must and required: Payments, Invoicing, Languages, Validations, Statutory reporting, Time Data, UIX, Benefits, Social Media Integration, Tax.

• There are country-specific accounting processes and reporting needs.
• Businesses have ultimate accountability for indirect tax and its compliance.
• There are validations for country-specific formats for addresses, bank accounts, etc.
• Country-specific formats for incoming/outgoing payment data.
• Document and Reporting Compliance: electronic document exchange, statutory reporting requirements as mandated by regulatory authorities.
• Users want to interact with the solution in their local language, therefore software must support region-specific rules/formats such as calendar, currency, time zone, etc.

How Can a Customer and/or Partner Implement Localization on Their Own?

The Configuration Localization Tool enables customers to configure localization during the implementation stage. This tool offers the ability to copy local versions from a source to a target local version. The configuration localization tool is currently under development.

Development:

To cover the last mile, we have localization extensibility. This enables customers to extend what SAP already offers as localization for the delivered local versions or develop altogether new local versions not delivered or planned by SAP.

• Key User Extensibility (In-app Extensibility): Enables customers to create, edit or add fields and business objects (allow-listed) and insert custom logic (pseudo code) via the user interface of the application.

Some of the business use cases covered in the localization toolkit:

• Print Payment Due Date on Output Form of the Manual Invoice for Singapore
• Extending SAP S/4HANA Cloud for Japan Subcontract Act
• Search for Country-Specific Extension Attributes
• Building Custom Solutions by Extending CDS Views on SAP S/4HANA Cloud
• Side-by-side Extensibility: SAP Business Technology Platform (BTP) allows you to build cloud applications consuming APIs, CDS views, and other data objects from SAP S/4HANA Cloud.

Some of the business use cases covered in the localization toolkit:

• Tax Service: Calculate Indirect Taxes in SAP S/4HANA Cloud and On-Premises
• Developer Extensibility: SAP S/4HANA Cloud ABAP Environment (Planned in 3SL) enables developers to build applications and services using ABAP, with the restriction that only released SAP APIs and objects can be used in the custom code.
• Extend SAP solutions for simple scenarios such as new payment format, tax numbers, and custom forms. Localizations requiring modification of SAP code are not possible.

Available scenarios within the localization toolkit:

• Create a New VAT Report using Advanced Compliance Reporting
• Create a New Withholding Tax Report using Advanced Compliance Reporting
• Create reports in Advanced Compliance Reporting

More information can be found here.

What is the Localization Toolkit?

The toolkit consists of specific localization tools coupled with general tools and technologies to extend an application. Alongside the in-built localization features such as Advanced Compliance Reporting and Payment Medium Workbench, the toolkit leverages the generic extensibility features such as fields, logic, UI, and CDS Views. The toolkit also provides guidance on how to cover the requirements on top of the available localization features for a country.

What are the Customer Success Stories on Localization?

One of the global market leaders in geographic information system (GIS) software, location intelligence, and mapping wanted to capture country legal compliance for Australia, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Singapore in the output forms, primarily those that need to be issued to the customer, vendor or any external to the client. The customer was able to meet its legal requirements by using Key User Extensibility.

SAP S/4HANA Cloud with SAP Document and Reporting Compliance provide a ready-to-use global solution for customers to fulfil all types of mandates, from electronic invoices to statutory reports, all in one platform with a process standardized worldwide. Be it NFe for Brazil, e-invoicing for India, EU, LATAM or SAF-T, they are all managed out-of-the-box centrally with a standardized solution.
As a global solution, it goes beyond local compliance. From a business perspective, it translates into improved efficiency, automation, and transparency by digitalizing and automating processes. Additionally, it allows for harmonization across two worlds – e-invoices and reporting.

Where Can I Find Detailed Information Regarding the Localized Versions?

• SAP Delivered Local Versions -> Currently Available
• Localization Roadmap
• Localization Toolkit for SAP S/4HANA Cloud
• Frequently Asked Questions around the Localization Toolkit for SAP S/4HANA Cloud

Inside SAP S/4HANA Podcast

As always, I would like to encourage you to subscribe to our podcast “Inside SAP S/4HANA”. This podcast leverages the unique knowledge and expertise of SAP S/4HANA product experts, partners, and customers to address your needs by sharing product insights and project best practice. There is no customer success without product success and project success; we help you get to the next level and make your SAP S/4HANA projects a success. Subscribe now and benefit from the shared knowledge.

openSAP microlearnings for SAP S/4HANA

Just a couple of months ago, we launched openSAP microlearnings for SAP S/4HANA as an exciting new learning opportunity. What began with a small batch of 20 videos, has now become a channel with more than 50 microlearnings that have generated over 20,000 views since then. Today we cover multiple lines of business, like Finance and Manufacturing & Supply Chain, and key technology topics like Master Data Management, Extensibility, User Experience, and Upgrade Management. We are continuously adding new microlearnings to the SAP S/4HANA channel, so make sure you check them out.

Your Voice Matters!

If you want to learn more and actively engage with SAP subject matter experts on SAP S/4HANA Cloud, join our SAP S/4HANA Cloud Community – now fully integrated with SAP Community. The community brings together SAP S/4HANA Cloud customers, partners and SAP experts and has a clear mission: deliver an interactive community to engage with one another about best practices and product solutions. We invite you to explore the new SAP S/4HANA Cloud Community ‘one-stop shop’ as the central place for all resources, tools, content questions, answers and connect with experts to guide you through your SAP S/4HANA Cloud journey.

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

• SAP S/4HANA Cloud: New Product Releases here
• Latest SAP S/4HANA Cloud Release blog posts here
• SAP Intelligent Robotic Process Automation Content here
• SAP S/4HANA PSCC Digital Enablement Wheel here
• Inside SAP S/4HANA Podcast here
• SAP S/4HANA Cloud Community here
• SAP Activate Community here
• Best practices for SAP S/4HANA Cloud here
• Help Portal Product Page here
• What’s New here

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