Highlights of SAP S/4 HANA 2020 Release

SAP S/4 HANA 2020 is here!

SAP S/4 HANA is a next-generation, innovative and robust ERP system designed to transform your organization into an intelligent enterprise by enhancing efficiency and effectiveness of the business process, enabling decisions faster and better, increasing revenue and customer retention, reducing data footprint and cost to business and much more. It was first released in February 2015 and is SAP’s current ERP system as well as the core of the intelligent enterprise. It is built on an in-memory database platform – SAP HANA and is defined by three following principles:

• Digital age user experience
• Modern Artificial Intelligence leveraging Machine Learning and Robotic Process Automation
• Next-generation Business Processes.

SAP S/4HANA consists of two editions: SAP S/4HANA On-Premise and SAP S/4HANA Cloud and SAP S/4HANA on-premise releases are once every year. This October 2020, SAP published their 6th release for the on-premise version of SAP S/4 HANA. Starting this year, SAP has decided to name all releases concerning the year of release, hence called SAP S/4 HANA 2020. It provides all lines of business with enhanced innovation and expanded capabilities enabling customers to benefit from the latest innovations. Also, with Release 2020, SAP has integrated the SAP Analytics Cloud into the on-premise version of SAP S/4HANA.

Let us review how few lines of business will benefit from this latest release of SAP S/4 HANA:

Finance:

With SAP S/4 HANA 2020 release, it provides a new treasury reporting data from cash management, treasury, and risk management. A new treasury dashboard provides deep insight into central treasury operations and KPIs. SAP S/4 HANA reduces the use of G/L accounts by simplifying bank relationship management processes. This leads to an easy payment configuration including a harmonized configuration of self-initiated payment.

Manufacturing:

With this new release, SAP enhances Predictive material requirement planning. It contains schedule pMRP Simulation Creation App which provides a simulation view to compare quantities, capacity plan simulation, and simulation component. This provides the ideal guidance and support for end-user to system support to discover suitable outcomes.

Supply Chain:

With the 2020 release, it delivers extended service part planning. It optimizes the availability of products by a new available-to-promise check method of supply protection. It plans for future demands and reduces out of stock risk for late coming highly profitable priority orders thereby increasing customer loyalty and margins.

Sourcing and Procurement:

This release provides an individual supplier evaluation process where custom criteria can be set for performance tracking of suppliers and identify areas of improvement thereby enabling customers to choose the right suppliers to deliver goods and services. Such an intelligent evaluation capability increases the transparency into the entire supply lifecycle and strengthens the relationship between suppliers and customers.

Moreover, this release further tightens the integration between SAP S/4 HANA and SAP ARIBA which reduces the transactional cost due to reduced manual steps. Lean service requisitions can be done in SAP ARIBA guided buying and process purchase orders in SAP S/4 HANA. The service purchase order can be sent to the supplier in the SAP ARIBA network and all the follow-on documents will be processed from SAP ARIBA back into SAP S/4 HANA where the operational process is continued.

Sales:

With this innovation, a new dashboard is now offered in the SAP Analytics Cloud that exhibits all customer data pertinent to sales - from monthly sales orders, incoming orders, etc. Besides, sales staff are aided with intelligent suggestions regarding product and quantity enabling them for faster selections during the sales order creation. When a sales staff generates a sales order, the system automatically prompts the suggestions for the product and quantity based on past data. The new release also allows you to generate a pre-billing document which is an initial version of an invoice designed for negotiation purposes. This can be modified any number of times before converting it to a final invoice.

Service Management:

The in-house repair processes are streamlined to optimize service delivery to satisfy the increased demands of customers. This enhancement allows better pre-checking, planning of repairs, and service work. It also facilitates the triggering of billing after repair work. It enables the effective scheduling of recurring maintenance plans. Based on the service contracts, maintenance plans can be scheduled, and service orders can be generated.