Hello and welcome to this blog covering the release highlights for SAP S/4HANA Cloud 2208 regarding localization and Identity and Access Management (IAM). For localization, 2208 has been a milestone release with 4 additional local versions along with other important innovations. And with IAM, we are proud to deliver significant improvements with regard to the onboarding process, excellent new sources of information and much more.
This blog covers the following topics
Localization
Identity and Access Management (IAM)
For localization, we have three highlights that we would like to share with you: our new local versions for Chile, Colombia, Qatar, and Bulgaria, the switch to euro with Croatia, and last but not least extensibility for electronic document processing with SAP Document and Reporting Compliance.
Local versions help you meet local requirements by taking into account diverse legal frameworks, and different languages, and by complying with a wide range of local financial reporting standards, tax calculations and laws. With the new release, we add four new SAP-delivered local versions, one of them being Chile.
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Highlights of country-specific features are:
Fig. 1: 2208 innovations for local version Chile
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Highlights of country-specific features are:
Fig. 2: 2208 innovations for local version Colombia
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Highlights of country-specific features are:
Fig. 3: 2208 innovations for local version Qatar
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Highlights of country-specific features are:
Fig. 4: 2208 innovations for local version Bulgaria
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SAP Document and Reporting Compliance is the solution which enables the customers to develop an end-to-end e-invoicing solution for a country in S/4HANA cloud for ABAP Environment.
In many countries, there are regional or industry-specific e-invoicing requirements in addition to the national requirements normally supported by the standard localization. With SAP Document and Reporting Compliance extensibility for electronic documents, customers and partners will be able to support such requirements. They will also be able cover electronic document requirements in countries not localized by SAP.
Value Proposition
Capabilities
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Regarding the onboarding process with SAP S/4HANA Cloud, we have introduced a number of innovations to simplify the process for new customers:
For the onboarding to the starter and the quality system, we recommend to perform the following steps:
Log on to SAP S/4HANA Cloud with the Initial Admin User:
Log on to SAP Cloud Identity Services with the Initial Admin User:
Fig. 5: Initial System Access to SAP S/4HANA Cloud Starter and Quality System
Log on with the Initial Admin User to SAP S/4HANA Cloud:
Log on with the Initial Admin User to SAP Cloud Identity Services:
Fig. 6: Initial System Access to SAP S/4HANA Cloud Quality System
The Initial System Access Guide for SAP S/4HANA has been updated accordingly. It is now separated in initial system access information for customers using SAP S/4HANA Cloud in a 2-system landscape and the customers who are on 3-system landscape already.
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With SAP S/4HANA Cloud 2208, we ship a new app to locally maintain workforce data in SAP S/4HANA Cloud. With the SAP Fiori ‘Manage Workforce’ app, you can create and update workers (employees as well as contingent workers) with and without a work agreement in SAP S/4HANA Cloud and change their employment situation directly in the app.
In addition, the new ‘Manage Workforce’ app supports navigating to the ‘Maintain Business User’ app in order to assign a business user to your worker, as well as to the ‘Business Partner’ app to enter address and bank details of each worker. On top of that, you can navigate to the ‘Fact Sheet’ object page to view the worker at one glance and check out project or bank details. This ensures a simplified business user provisioning process for the onboarding of workers and business users.
To get a quick overview of the app, check out the 2208 release highlight video for HR connectivity:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WN_dXztdaWA
Video 1: Release Highlight Video 2208 for HR Connectivity
If you are interested in more detailed information and a system demo, you can check out the Release Highlights Blog 2208 for HR Connectivity by Claudia Rosbach.
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In the past, you had to create the first administrator business user manually with the initial technical user. As of the 2208 release, we have simplified and aligned this with the process in the 3-system landscape, by introducing a new process for the creation of the initial admin user in SAP S/4HANA Cloud in a 2-system landscape: When you log on to the system for the first time, you will automatically have an initial admin user via single-sign on.
The initial admin user is an administrator business user which has administration rights. With this user, you can, for example, create additional business users, workers, and business roles.
The handover e-mail with the login credentials for the initial technical user is no longer needed. Instead you will receive an access information mail which looks like this:
Figure 7: Access Information for SAP S/4HANA Cloud System as of 2208 release
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As of the 2208 release, we have a new app which is called 'Identity Provider - Admin Console'. The app provides an UI integration with SAP Cloud Identity Services - Identity Authentication meaning by clicking on the tile, you directly jump to the Identity Authentication of SAP Cloud Identity Services via single sign-on.
Prerequisites
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With the 2208 release, we have introduced a new task in the SAP Activate Roadmap Viewer which is called 'Self-Enable on SAP S/4HANA Cloud Identity and Access Management'.
The purpose of this task is to learn about Identity and Access Management in SAP S/4HANA Cloud. Identity and Access Management (IAM) is the security control that allows the right individuals to access the appropriate resources during the authorized time for the authorized reasons. In SAP S/4HANA Cloud, the IAM launchpad enable customers to view, monitor and control business users, business roles, business catalogs and access restrictions.
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With this app, you can access the new maintenance UI for restrictions as well as the Restrictions Overview. With the app, you can also define business roles by combining predefined business catalogs. You use business roles to control the access to your applications. The predefined catalogs contain the actual authorizations that allow users to access apps and allow to define instance-based restrictions where necessary. Business catalogs bundle authorizations for a specific business area. Once you have created a business role, you can assign it to multiple business users who perform similar business tasks.
Fig. 8: New App 'Maintain Business Roles (New) - Preview'
Fig. 9: Existing App 'Maintain Business Roles'
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If you are looking for a central location, a one-stop shop for helpful IAM-related content for SAP S/4HANA, there is a new blog which provides exactly this. The blog is called “SAP S/4HANA Cloud Identity Access Management – Your Knowledge Base” by Anand Kapadia aimes at simplifying your journey to become an SAP S/4HANA Cloud IAM expert and is a collection of different resources such as blog posts, SAP notes, webinars etc.).
It is definitely a recommended read and covers three topics:
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Similar to the previous releases, also for SAP S/4HANA Cloud 2208, there is an SAP Note called ‘3198650– Identity and Access Management (IAM)': Change Overview for SAP S/4HANA Cloud 2208’.
This SAP Note has a release-specific change overview document attached to it which covers all changes relating to Identity and Access Management (IAM) which have been introduced compared to SAP S/4HANA Cloud 2202. The changes listed in the attached central spreadsheet cover:
Fig. 10: The IAM Change Overview for SAP S/4HANA Cloud 2208 comprises all IAM-related changes compared to SAP S/4HANA Cloud 2202
As a starting point for your release process, please refer to our step-by-step guidance:
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Watch the Replays of Our SAP S/4HANA Cloud 2208 Early Release Series!
We’ve hosted a series of compelling live sessions from the heart of the SAP S/4HANA Engineering organization. Missed the live sessions? Watch our replays on demand!
Among the replays, you can find a replay, a presentation, and demos for Localization and HR Connectivity as part of the SAP S/4HANA Cloud 2208 release as well as 20 other sessions on diverse topics like Manufacturing, Finance, Consumer Products, SAP User Experience, Developer Extensibility, and much more. For more information on the SAP S/4HANA Cloud Early Release Series and how to sign up for it, see this link.
For more information on SAP S/4HANA Cloud, check out the following links:
Follow us via @Sap and #S4HANA, or myself via LinkedIn or @DeissnerKatrin
This blog covers the following topics
Localization
- Local Versions
- Local Version for Chile
- Local Version for Colombia
- Local Version for Qatar
- Local Version for Bulgaria
- Croatia: Switch to Euro with SAP S/4HANA Cloud
- Extensibility for Electronic Document Processing with SAP Document and Reporting Compliance
Identity and Access Management (IAM)
- Onboarding Process
- 'Manage Workforce' App
- New Process for Initial Admin User in SAP S/4HANA Cloud
- 'Identity Provider - Admin Console' App
- New IAM-Task in SAP Active Roadmap: Self-Enable on SAP S/4HANA Cloud Identity and Access Management
- Additional Innovations
- New App 'Maintain Business Roles (New) - Preview'
- New Blog “SAP S/4HANA Cloud Identity Access Management – Your Knowledge Base”
- Note 'Identity and Access Management (IAM): Change Overview for SAP S/4HANA Cloud 2208'
Localization
For localization, we have three highlights that we would like to share with you: our new local versions for Chile, Colombia, Qatar, and Bulgaria, the switch to euro with Croatia, and last but not least extensibility for electronic document processing with SAP Document and Reporting Compliance.
Local Versions
Local versions help you meet local requirements by taking into account diverse legal frameworks, and different languages, and by complying with a wide range of local financial reporting standards, tax calculations and laws. With the new release, we add four new SAP-delivered local versions, one of them being Chile.
- Steer business operations globally with ease utilizing SAP-delivered localizations
- Address increasing legal changes and compliance requirements on time
- Leverage standard processes and automation to address regulatory requirements worldwide, like taxes, e-invoicing, statutory reporting, and payments
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Local Version for Chile
Highlights of country-specific features are:
- Generated and storage of electronic accounting books in a digital format established by the service of Internal taxes (SII)
- Withholding tax report that includes:
- Withholding tax
- Additional tax
- Value-added tax (VAT)
- Global complementary tax
- E-invoicing
Fig. 1: 2208 innovations for local version Chile
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Local Version for Colombia
Highlights of country-specific features are:
- Income withholding tax certificate for suppliers
- VAT withholding certificate for suppliers
- e-invoicing solution
- Magnetic media report DIAN
- VAT reporting
- Asset Accounting
- Withholding tax to independent workers
Fig. 2: 2208 innovations for local version Colombia
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Local Version for Qatar
Highlights of country-specific features are:
- Withholding tax and retention scenarios
- Postdated checks
- Generic cash flow statement
- Withholding tax reports, monthly declaration, vendor certificate
Fig. 3: 2208 innovations for local version Qatar
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Local Version for Bulgaria
Highlights of country-specific features are:
- Fixed asset report -country specific layout and customizing
- Fixed Assets Tax depreciation plan - country specific layout and customizing
- Withholding tax reporting
- Payment methods:
- VAT protocol printout
- VAT returns
- Intrastat - Monthly declaration file
- Payment formats and bank statements
Fig. 4: 2208 innovations for local version Bulgaria
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Croatia: Switch to Euro with SAP S/4HANA Cloud
Value Proposition
- Croatia plans to adopt currency Euro. The Switch to Euro is approved by EU committee to be effective 1st January 2023
- From the beginning of the year of Euro introduction, financial reports will have to be compiled using Euro
- Croatia local version is planned to be made available in October 2022 to be compliant with operations in Euro
Capabilities
- Please refer to SAP Roadmap Explorer for further details.
- The local version for Croatia is planned to have localization available in EUR
- Customers can go live with the local version of Croatia after the EUR changeover happens avoiding currency conversion efforts
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Extensibility for Electronic Document Processing with SAP Document and Reporting Compliance
SAP Document and Reporting Compliance is the solution which enables the customers to develop an end-to-end e-invoicing solution for a country in S/4HANA cloud for ABAP Environment.
In many countries, there are regional or industry-specific e-invoicing requirements in addition to the national requirements normally supported by the standard localization. With SAP Document and Reporting Compliance extensibility for electronic documents, customers and partners will be able to support such requirements. They will also be able cover electronic document requirements in countries not localized by SAP.
Value Proposition
- Leverage the existing capabilities of SAP Document and Reporting Compliance for the countries where standard e-invoicing solution is not available
- Helps customer to stay compliant as per local regulations
- Easy to use and simple to configure
Capabilities
- End-to-end enablement of a country e-Invoicing requirement
- Enable S/4HANA cloud customers to develop their own scenarios and custom features using SAP Document and Reporting Compliance extensibility
- Enable outbound and inbound country processes
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Identity and Access Management (IAM)
Onboarding Process
Regarding the onboarding process with SAP S/4HANA Cloud, we have introduced a number of innovations to simplify the process for new customers:
Onboarding to Starter and to Quality System
For the onboarding to the starter and the quality system, we recommend to perform the following steps:
Log on to SAP S/4HANA Cloud with the Initial Admin User:
- A provisioning mail is sent to your IT Contact. Follow the access link (URL), you are signed in with single sign-on.
- Open the Business Role Templates app, to create the business role for your business user and to copy all business role templates in your customer namespace.
- Open the Manage Workforce app, to create a worker.
- Open the Maintain Business Users app, to create a business user for your worker.
Log on to SAP Cloud Identity Services with the Initial Admin User:
- Use Import Users in SAP Cloud Identity Service - Identity Authentication to import and update your user data.
- Send e-mails with logon credentials to your employees.
Fig. 5: Initial System Access to SAP S/4HANA Cloud Starter and Quality System
Onboarding to Production System
Log on with the Initial Admin User to SAP S/4HANA Cloud:
- A provisioning mail is sent to your IT Contact. Follow the access link (URL), you are signed in with single sign-on.
- Access the Import Collection app, to import your business roles.
- Access the Manage Workforce app, to create a worker.
- Access the Maintain Business Users app, to create a business user for your worker.
Log on with the Initial Admin User to SAP Cloud Identity Services:
- Use Import Users in SAP Cloud Identity Service - Identity Authentication to import and update your user data.
- Send out e-mails with logon credentials to your employees.
- Alternatively, you can use the SAP Cloud Identity Service - Identity Authentication in the role of a proxy for your corporate identity provider. For more information, check the SAP Help Portal and follow the configuration steps as described in Corporate Identity Providers.
Fig. 6: Initial System Access to SAP S/4HANA Cloud Quality System
The Initial System Access Guide for SAP S/4HANA has been updated accordingly. It is now separated in initial system access information for customers using SAP S/4HANA Cloud in a 2-system landscape and the customers who are on 3-system landscape already.
More Information
- SAP Help Portal: User Onboarding for SAP S/4HANA Cloud
- SAP Activate Roadmap Viewer: Prepare Phase - Initial System Access for SAP S/4HANA Cloud
- SAP Help Portal: How to Import and Export Business Roles
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'Manage Workforce' App
With SAP S/4HANA Cloud 2208, we ship a new app to locally maintain workforce data in SAP S/4HANA Cloud. With the SAP Fiori ‘Manage Workforce’ app, you can create and update workers (employees as well as contingent workers) with and without a work agreement in SAP S/4HANA Cloud and change their employment situation directly in the app.
In addition, the new ‘Manage Workforce’ app supports navigating to the ‘Maintain Business User’ app in order to assign a business user to your worker, as well as to the ‘Business Partner’ app to enter address and bank details of each worker. On top of that, you can navigate to the ‘Fact Sheet’ object page to view the worker at one glance and check out project or bank details. This ensures a simplified business user provisioning process for the onboarding of workers and business users.
To get a quick overview of the app, check out the 2208 release highlight video for HR connectivity:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WN_dXztdaWA
Video 1: Release Highlight Video 2208 for HR Connectivity
If you are interested in more detailed information and a system demo, you can check out the Release Highlights Blog 2208 for HR Connectivity by Claudia Rosbach.
Back to Top
New Process for Initial Admin User in SAP S/4HANA Cloud in 2-System Landscape
In the past, you had to create the first administrator business user manually with the initial technical user. As of the 2208 release, we have simplified and aligned this with the process in the 3-system landscape, by introducing a new process for the creation of the initial admin user in SAP S/4HANA Cloud in a 2-system landscape: When you log on to the system for the first time, you will automatically have an initial admin user via single-sign on.
The initial admin user is an administrator business user which has administration rights. With this user, you can, for example, create additional business users, workers, and business roles.
Please Note
The handover e-mail with the login credentials for the initial technical user is no longer needed. Instead you will receive an access information mail which looks like this:
Figure 7: Access Information for SAP S/4HANA Cloud System as of 2208 release
More Information
- SAP Help Portal: Initial Admin User for SAP S/4HANA Cloud
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'Identity Provider - Admin Console' App
As of the 2208 release, we have a new app which is called 'Identity Provider - Admin Console'. The app provides an UI integration with SAP Cloud Identity Services - Identity Authentication meaning by clicking on the tile, you directly jump to the Identity Authentication of SAP Cloud Identity Services via single sign-on.
Prerequisites
- SAP S/4HANA Cloud: 'Security - Identity Provider'business catalog (SAP_CORE_BC_SEC_IDP_PC) has to be assigned to respective user
- SAP Cloud Identity Services - Identity Authentication: User needs administrator authorization
More Information
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New IAM Task in SAP Active Roadmap: Self-Enable
With the 2208 release, we have introduced a new task in the SAP Activate Roadmap Viewer which is called 'Self-Enable on SAP S/4HANA Cloud Identity and Access Management'.
The purpose of this task is to learn about Identity and Access Management in SAP S/4HANA Cloud. Identity and Access Management (IAM) is the security control that allows the right individuals to access the appropriate resources during the authorized time for the authorized reasons. In SAP S/4HANA Cloud, the IAM launchpad enable customers to view, monitor and control business users, business roles, business catalogs and access restrictions.
More Information
Back to Top
Additional Innovations
New App 'Maintain Business Roles (New) - Preview'
With this app, you can access the new maintenance UI for restrictions as well as the Restrictions Overview. With the app, you can also define business roles by combining predefined business catalogs. You use business roles to control the access to your applications. The predefined catalogs contain the actual authorizations that allow users to access apps and allow to define instance-based restrictions where necessary. Business catalogs bundle authorizations for a specific business area. Once you have created a business role, you can assign it to multiple business users who perform similar business tasks.
Fig. 8: New App 'Maintain Business Roles (New) - Preview'
Fig. 9: Existing App 'Maintain Business Roles'
Please Note
- The Maintain Business Users (New) Preview app provides access to a new Maintain Restrictions UI. This has an improved and more efficient design. It provides consolidated access to restrictions, values and access categories as well as faster navigation.The Maintain Business Roles App with the previous UI for maintaining restrictions will still be available and can still be used.
- Customer feedback for this new app is highly appreciated. Please use the feedback function for SAP S/4HANA Cloud as described in the blog 'Tell us what you think: Feedback functions in S/4HANA Cloud' by Joergen Jensen.
- In case of tickets please use component BC-SRV-APS-IAM.
More Information
- SAP Help Portal: Maintain Business Roles (New) - Preview
- 'Tell us what you think: Feedback functions in S/4HANA Cloud' by Joergen Jensen
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New Blog “SAP S/4HANA Cloud Identity Access Management – Your Knowledge Base”
If you are looking for a central location, a one-stop shop for helpful IAM-related content for SAP S/4HANA, there is a new blog which provides exactly this. The blog is called “SAP S/4HANA Cloud Identity Access Management – Your Knowledge Base” by Anand Kapadia aimes at simplifying your journey to become an SAP S/4HANA Cloud IAM expert and is a collection of different resources such as blog posts, SAP notes, webinars etc.).
It is definitely a recommended read and covers three topics:
- Managing authorizations
- Managing identities
- Tools
More Information
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Note 'Identity and Access Management (IAM): Change Overview for SAP S/4HANA Cloud 2208'
Similar to the previous releases, also for SAP S/4HANA Cloud 2208, there is an SAP Note called ‘3198650– Identity and Access Management (IAM)': Change Overview for SAP S/4HANA Cloud 2208’.
This SAP Note has a release-specific change overview document attached to it which covers all changes relating to Identity and Access Management (IAM) which have been introduced compared to SAP S/4HANA Cloud 2202. The changes listed in the attached central spreadsheet cover:
- New, renamed, deprecated, or deleted apps
- New, renamed, deprecated, deleted, or dependent business catalogs
- New and renamed business role templates
- Renamed business groups
- Restriction type assignments
- New and renamed business role templates
Fig. 10: The IAM Change Overview for SAP S/4HANA Cloud 2208 comprises all IAM-related changes compared to SAP S/4HANA Cloud 2202
As a starting point for your release process, please refer to our step-by-step guidance:
- For 2-system landscape: the accelerator document “Identity and Access Management Release Activities” assigned to the “Run” phase of the roadmap “SAP Activate Methodology for SAP S/4HANA Cloud” in the deliverable “Release and Update Cycles for SAP S/4HANA Cloud” within the task “Revise Business Roles and Business Catalogs”.
- For 3-system landscape: the accelerator document "Identity and Access Management Release Activities" assigned to the "Realize" phase of the roadmap "SAP Activate for Upgrade of SAP S/4HANA Cloud 3-system landscape" in the deliverable "Manage Upgrade" within the task "Revise Business Roles and Business Catalogs".
More Information
- SAP Note refers to SAP’s Best Practice approach for consuming IAM changes for release upgrades: “Identity and Access Management Release Activities”
- Customers can find the SAP Note via
- The Activate Roadmap in task Revise Business Roles and Business Catalogs
- The What’s New Viewer by searching for the keyword IAM
- The blog “SAP S/4HANA Cloud Identity Access Management – Your Knowledge Base”
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Watch the Replays of Our SAP S/4HANA Cloud 2208 Early Release Series!
We’ve hosted a series of compelling live sessions from the heart of the SAP S/4HANA Engineering organization. Missed the live sessions? Watch our replays on demand!
Among the replays, you can find a replay, a presentation, and demos for Localization and HR Connectivity as part of the SAP S/4HANA Cloud 2208 release as well as 20 other sessions on diverse topics like Manufacturing, Finance, Consumer Products, SAP User Experience, Developer Extensibility, and much more. For more information on the SAP S/4HANA Cloud Early Release Series and how to sign up for it, see this link.
For more information on SAP S/4HANA Cloud, check out the following links:
- Link Collection – Technology Topics with SAP S/4HANA Cloud here
- SAP S/4HANA Cloud release info: http://www.sap.com/s4-cloudrelease
- Latest SAP S/4HANA Cloud Release Blogs here and previous release highlights here
- Product videos on our SAP S/4HANA Cloud and SAP S/4HANA YouTube playlist
- SAP S/4HANA PSCC Digital Enablement Wheel here
- Early Release Webinar Series here
- Inside SAP S/4HANA Podcast here
- openSAP Microlearnings for SAP S/4HANA for Finance and GRC here
- Best practices for SAP S/4HANA Cloud here
- SAP S/4HANA Cloud Customer Community for Finance here
- Feature Scope Description here
- Help Portal Product Page here
- Implementation Portal here
Follow us via @Sap and #S4HANA, or myself via LinkedIn or @DeissnerKatrin
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