There is a misperception in the marketplace that SAP has neglected their 4,000+ Business Planning and Consolidation (BPC) Customers, forcing them into the hands of small niche Planning vendors. In reality, SAP has provided a variety of options that will help customers maximize their investment in BPC while taking advantage of modern planning and advanced analytics. Unfortunately, many customers lack proper and/or timely education on these alternatives and don’t realize the true potential value of each option.
This post will dive deeper into each option that SAP BPC Customers have: Move, Complement, or Add.
Option 1: Move Completely to SAP Analytics Cloud
Common Reasons Why Customers Might Move to SAP Analytics Cloud?
Reduce Risk:
Address end of life (See PAM)
Avoid compatibility issues with EPM Add-in and MS Office versions
Reduce user errors by forcing planning at the lowest level of granularity
Save Money:
Decommission dependent systems like SAP BW or SQL
Achieve a cloud-based infrastructure
Avoid associated technical support costs for on-premise systems
Plan, Analyze and Predict all in one solution leading to a reduction of the number of systems and associated training and enablement costs
Save Time:
Plan faster with top-down/bottoms up planning capability
Leverage prebuilt content
Build purpose-built planning models with minimal effort/time
How do Customers Leverage Their BPC Investment by Moving to SAP Analytics Cloud?
BPC customers looking to move to the SAP Analytics Cloud (SAC) can do so faster and with less cost by using the out of the box connectivity with SAC. Rather than paying a consulting firm or using internal resources to build Dimensions, Load Dimension Master Data (members, hierarchies, attributes, etc.), Build Models (including Rates Model) and design Model structure customers can import current BPC Models (Master Data, Model Structure, Transaction Data, etc.) within a few hours. After the initial import, the connection between BPC and SAC can be disconnected and the connection to Master and Transaction Data can be established. This alone will save customers a lot of money and reduce implementation timelines significantly.
What are the Key Considerations for Customers That Want to Move to SAC?
Change Management – Customers should develop a Change Management Strategy to move users from BPC to SAC.
Transformation and Conversions – Customers should evaluate and determine the best approach to handle BPC Transformation and Conversions.
While SAC does have great Wrangling functionality, the current functionality might be insufficient. Customers should evaluate leveraging SAP Data Warehouse Cloud (DWC) for complex or voluminous Transformations and Conversions.
Evaluate current BPC Reports and Input Templates – What BPC reports/input templates are required to be redeveloped in SAC?
Option 2: Compliment BPC with SAP Analytics Cloud
Common Reasons Why Customers Might Compliment BPC with SAP Analytics Cloud?
Provide end-users with flexible planning options while delivering a modern user experience (i.e. top-down/bottoms up planning)
Facilitate “What-if” simulations with SAC version management
Enable users with advanced analytics vs. tabular BPC reporting to uncover hidden insights and reduce the time between insight and action
Simplified and advanced predictive forecasting for non-data scientists
Provide browser-based planning and analytics
Enable mobile reporting
Reduce disruption to BPC environment while providing quick time to value
Visual planning with Value Driver Tree
Foster collaboration with fully integrated collaborative features (chat, sharing, data point commentary, etc.)
How do Customers Leverage Their BPC Investment by Complimenting BPC with SAP Analytics Cloud?
BPC Customers looking to Compliment BPC with the SAP Analytics Cloud can do so faster and with less cost by using the out of the box bi-directional connectivity with SAP Analytics Cloud. Keep BPC and SAC synchronized – data entered/loaded into BPC can be automatically sent to the cloud and any data entered into the cloud can be automatically published to BPC.
What are the Key Considerations for Customers That Want to Compliment BPC with SAC?
Which users will continue to work in BPC vs. SAC?
What connection approach will be utilized (Basic or Automatic Write-Back)?
Are there requirements to have additional master data in SAC to enable driver-based planning?
Option 3: Add Planning or Analytic Models Within SAP Analytics Cloud
Common Reasons Why Customers Might Add Models within SAP Analytics Cloud?
Current BPC environment might not have detailed planning models to support functional plans such as CapEx, Human Capital, etc.
Change Management: Begin the journey to migrate users away from BPC
Take advantage of data connectivity to 250+ data sources (i.e. connect to SAP Concur, SAP SuccessFactors, etc.)
Provide live connectivity to detail data for reporting and analytics
Provide a modern browser-based user experience
How do Customers Leverage Their BPC Investment by Adding within SAC?
BPC Customers looking to Add within SAC can do so faster and with less cost by using the out of the box bi-directional connectivity with SAP Analytics Cloud. Customers can add models within SAC quickly at a lower cost by reusing Dimensions already created within BPC to develop functional/Line of Business (LOB) planning models. Using the bi-directional connectivity, the planning results in functional models within SAC can be sent back to BPC for consolidated reporting and analytics.
What are the Key Considerations for Customers That Want to Add within SAC?
What overlap, if any, will there be with users that require models that are in both BPC and SAC?
What detailed planning is still done in offline Excel files that can be built within SAC?
What data is required to support detailed planning models within SAC?
SAP BPC Customers have multiple options with SAP Analytics Cloud that will leverage the investment made within BPC while providing additional benefits for the organization and end-users. SAP BPC Customers evaluating other planning solutions shouldn’t make a decision until they are able to view an SAP Analytics Cloud demo and speak with an expert. The cost of transitioning to SAP Analytics Cloud from BPC is far less than moving to another solution with greater value added for customers.
There are many factors in addition to the considerations above. To get started, here are some next steps for BPC Customers:
Educate your IT and Finance teams on the benefits of SAP Analytics Cloud with a live demonstration of the solution.
Consider your options: Move, Compliment, or Add. Not sure which option is right for you? Set up a strategy call with SAP and Analysis Prime to see which option will add more value to your organization.
Develop a plan. Connect with our team of experts to define your objectives and create an action plan.
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