Project Description
Business processes need to work efficiently in order to be effective. Disruptions in an end-to-end cycle such as OTC or P2P can happen anywhere, and so trying to keep tabs on them as and when they happen in SAP is a difficult and daunting task, particularly if you are heavily reliant on manual data extraction from reports, queries or SE16 tables. But no need to fret, help is at hand. Business Process Analytics and Improvement (BPAI) is specifically designed by SAP to do away with this burden, and to empower organisations with the ability to visualise and monitor how well processes are being executed, to help identify errors, inconsistencies and bottlenecks and target areas for improvement across all of your organisation, all process areas, all SAP production systems.
There are more than 1,200 out-of-the-box problem oriented KPIs looking at incomplete or blocked documents, overdue orders, processing errors, posting exceptions, undesirable document changes, process deviation etc, all neatly categorised in a KPI catalog, supported by a set of user-friendly analytical, dashboarding and monitoring tools. What’s more, you probably already have this functionality at your disposal!
Let’s take a look at a couple of end-to end-processes and how the BPAI tooling can help (expand each toggle below):
So you think your Order to Cash process is running smoothly in SAP? Think again….
If only we could place a customer order, deliver what they have requested, on the date they have requested, and the quantity they have requested. Then get an accurate invoice to them on time and then receive payment for it on time, every time, deliver what they have requested, on the date they have requested, and the quantity they have requested. Then get an accurate invoice to them on time and then receive payment for it on time, every time.
As simple as O,T,C.
But there are a whole raft of potential pain points and bottlenecks that can make achieving these goals a real challenge. Think of the SAP OTC process as a walk in the park. You’ve planned to meet a friend on the other side, and as you set off you are suddenly set upon by a pack of Jack Russell terriers persistently nipping at your ankles. You might eventually get across that park, but it will have taken you longer than expected, you’ll be exhausted from all the effort, and will probably need to fork out for a new pair of trousers. And to add insult to injury, your friend has left and gone to meet somebody else.
Don’t let inefficient business process execution be your Company’s achilles heel. Keep those terriers on a leash with Business Process Analytics and Improvement (BPAI) using SAP Solution Manager.
The image opposite (click to enlarge) describes just a few of the KPIs available for the core processes in the OTC cycle, specifically targeting common bottlenecks and inefficiencies from order entry right through to customer accounts receivables. Whether they be functionally or technically related (such as interface errors), you will be able to quickly identify potential issues and set courses of action to resolve them.
Let’s explore the tooling in more detail:
Business Process Operations (BPO) Dashboards
By selecting the most critical or relevant KPIs to your business you can gain valuable insights across 
your entire organisation using BPO Dashboards and by using threshold targets, you can instantly gauge the extent of a problem and identify the sites that require most urgent attention. Then track progress of the derived improvement actions via daily, weekly or monthly trends. The figures can be presented by document count or by document value, where the financial impact may be of more relevance. What’s more, you can even drill down into the managed system (e.g. SAP ECC or S/4HANA) to view and work on the related documents themselves with one touch of a button!
The dashboards can be used as a focal point for discussing issues and capturing action items for periodical review (click image opposite for an example):
Dependency Diagrams
Those same KPIs can also be presented in the form of dependency diagrams (aka KPI Trees), where the relationship between each KPI can be appreciated. So, for example, you can see that where there is a high number of incomplete sales order items, this may be the reason why you also have a large number of exceptions raised during billing due processing.
Some of the benefits and features of Dependency Diagrams are:
- Allow managers and process experts to visualise how low level KPIs may impact high level business goals
- Instantly visualise current results versus the previous week with a percentage-based change calculation
- Check if desired targets are being met per key figure based on threshold ratings
- Drill down into Business Process Analytics (BPA) for further granular analysis
- Introduce BW BEx queries (e.g. OTIF report) to combine BW reporting and operational BPA data in one view
Progress Management Boards
Furthermore, where you have defined a more project-based improvement initiative, in order to make the tracking and status of actions more manageable, you can use what are known as Progress Management Boards. Here you measure how well you are doing based on predefined baseline measurements, targets and due dates, and see how much progress has been achieved over time, to ensure momentum is maintained.
You can track organisational elements and actions to determine:
- If initial cleansing / clean-up activities have been undertaken
- If the Business and/or IT are engaged
- If a corresponding action plan has been defined and agreed by all parties involved
- If a sustainable solution has been implemented to prevent recurring issues
Fact-based tracking per KPI where you can see the latest available figures compared with:
- A defined baseline measurement: How much progress has been made compared to your starting point? Or compared to last week or month?
- A defined target value: Are you on track to meet your desired targets/goals?
Don’t let P2P become “Painful to Process”
The P2P process is one of the most important processes in a company’s operations, particularly for manufacturing organisations who need to procure essential raw materials, components, packaging and maintenance services to ensure their production plants are manufacturing the required finished goods to meet customer demand. By running Materials Requirement Planning (MRP) you determine what materials are required and when. A purchase requisition is raised, which is then converted into a purchase order which is sent to the vendor. The purchased materials are delivered and goods receipted, the invoice is also received and verified, usually a 2 or 3-way match between the purchase order, goods receipt and invoice, to ensure that the receipted goods match the purchase order quantity, and crucially that the invoice also matches the quantity of the received goods, as well as the purchase order with regards to pricing, payment terms etc. Automating the P2P process as much as possible, and in turn reducing how much of the tasks are performed manually is key to minimising errors and delays. But how do you really know if your automated processes are truly automated? How much manual intervention is taking place on the procurement side? Are defined processes being adhered to? How many manual changes are made to purchase orders, and are they being delivered on time? And what about the invoice and payment end? How often are you having to deal with GR/IR variances, blocked invoices, overdue AP open items, or exceptions during payment runs?
Without proper visibility, understanding the extent to which some of these activities are impacting the efficiency of your P2P process, is a substantial challenge. With Business Process Analytics & Improvement (BPAI) in SAP Solution Manager, there are hundreds of out-of-the box metrics (S/4HANA, ECC, SRM) specifically designed to target potential bottlenecks and pain points across all the key steps in the end-to-end process. Supported by a wealth of analytical, dashboarding and monitoring tools, BPAI gives your organisation the insights it needs to quickly identify areas for improvement.
Let’s explore in more detail:
KPI Catalog
The KPI Catalog in the Cloud contains all of the pre-defined key figures available, conveniently organised into logical groups by application area, end-to-end process, to name but a few. The definition and business risk of each key figure is also explained together with its technical specifications. This is extremely handy in removing any confusion or ambiguity as to what the KPI is measuring (click on image opposite to enlarge).
Once the key figures are selected and activated, the collected data can be analysed using several tools, 3 of which are explained below:
Business Process Operations (BPO) Dashboards
By selecting the most critical or relevant key figures to your business you can gain valuable insights across your entire organisation using BPO Dashboards, where you can combine KPIs from both your ECC and SRM systems, use threshold targets to instantly gauge the extent of a problem and identify the sites that require most urgent attention. Then track progress of the derived improvement actions via daily, weekly or monthly trends. The figures can be presented by document count or by document value, where the financial impact may be of more relevance. What’s more, you can even drill down into the managed system (e.g. SAP ECC or S/4HANA) to view and work on the related documents themselves with one touch of a button!
The dashboards can be used as a focal point for discussing issues and capturing action items for periodical review (click image opposite for an example):
Dependency Diagrams
Those same KPIs can also be presented in the form of dependency diagrams (aka KPI Trees), where the relationship between each KPI can be appreciated. So, for example, a high number of blocked or overdue MM invoices may be reflected in a similarly high number of overdue vendor open items.
Some of the benefits of these Dependency Diagrams are:
- Allow managers and process experts to visualise how low-level KPIs may impact high-level business goals
- Instantly visualise current results versus the previous week with a percentage-based change calculation
- Check if desired targets are being met per key figure based on threshold ratings
- Drill down into Business Process Operations (BPA) for further granular analysis
- Introduce BW BEx queries (e.g. OTIF report) to combine business BW reporting and operational BPA data in one view
Progress Management Boards
Furthermore, where you have defined a more project-based improvement initiative, in order to make the tracking and status of actions more manageable, you can use what are known as Progress Management Boards. Here you measure how well you are doing based on predefined baseline measurements, targets and due dates, and see how much progress has been achieved over time to ensure momentum is maintained.
You can track organisational elements and actions to determine:
- If initial cleansing / clean-up activities have been undertaken
- If the Business and/or IT are engaged
- If a corresponding action plan has been defined and agreed by all parties involved
- If a sustainable solution has been implemented to prevent recurring issues
Fact-based tracking per KPI where you can see the latest available figures compared with:
- A defined baseline measurement: How much progress has been made compared to your starting point? Or compared to last week or month?
- A defined target value: Are you on track to meet your desired targets/goals?
At this point, you are probably wondering why you had never heard of Business Process Analytics and Improvement (BPAI) using SAP Solution Manager. But now that you have, what are you waiting for!
If you want to see what is really happening in your SAP systems and take advantage of:
- Increased global visibility and transparency of processes
- Better process adherence
- Less document backlog
- Increased process automation and less manual rework and intervention
Then feel free to contact us now to arrange an initial discussion or non-committal demo.
We hope that you found this insight of interest and that the topics discussed have struck a chord with you. If you would like to know more about the challenges of improving business process execution and how BPAI in SAP Solution Manager can help, please feel to download our 2 part Whitepaper “The Quest for Business Process Efficiency in SAP” here:
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