VU University BAO6714: SAP S/4HANA Finance Benefits and Case Studies

This report provides a detailed analysis of SAP S/4HANA Finance, beginning with a historical overview and comparing it to the traditional SAP ERP FICO system. The report highlights the key benefits of SAP S/4HANA Finance for businesses, including real-time reporting, improved data analysis, and enhanced decision-making capabilities. The report explores the advantages of SAP S/4HANA Finance, such as its ability to consolidate financial and operational data, automate processes, and provide real-time analytics. Furthermore, the report presents case studies of companies that have adopted SAP S/4HANA Finance, examining the issues they faced during migration and the positive outcomes they achieved. The case studies illustrate the practical application of SAP S/4HANA Finance in various business contexts, offering valuable insights into its implementation and impact. Overall, the report aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of SAP S/4HANA Finance and its role in modern business operations, supported by practical examples and real-world scenarios. The report includes details like ALA Company Limited and Escribano business case.

Title: SAP S/2HANA
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Introduction
The need for companies to deal with the digital age forced them to embrace the use of
various financial software. For example, to ensure proper operational and data analysis in the
company and effective financial reporting, real-time analysis, simulation and forecasting
increased the need for a tool (Abdullah, et al., 2016). Therefore, SAPS/4HANA is among the
current software that has been adopted to improve its operations. SAPA/4HANA has
currently relieved a key point of report and analysis reconciliation.
Overview; SAPS/4HANA finance was initially called SAP Simple Finance (Alister, et
al., 2017). It contains features such as universal journal, simplified design, and real-time
analytics, which are critical to its functionality. SAP was launched in 2014, when the need to
optimize financial accounting arose. It was adopted primarily to help increase the
effectiveness with which financial information is reported and to reduce the time needed to
analyze financial reporting (Anisoara , et al., 2017). This has resulted in the assignment of
SAP Asset Accounting to help increase efficiency in the useful life of assets. It also helps
you determine how the related asset has affected your company's liquidity. Whether they
provide long-term resources by using these resources or not.
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However, SAP was developed from various versions, version 1 released in 2014, version
2 released in 2015 which is SAPS/4HANA and is currently redesigned to reduce the
technical aspects of the original version and also to provide simple ways to record financial
statements.
The release of SAP in 2014 created confusion about what [the product was] (Blecus &
Rachmanin , 2013). Other users could confuse it with the financial accounting and control
module from which it proved simpler compared to Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP).
From the top, the understanding proved to be adding something special to the business. It
provides a suitable platform where financial and analytical accounting could be done. For
example, a single trade repository that is posted to the individual ledger (Burrows & Cynthia,
2016). This can result in the material ledger and asset accounting being posted to a single
uniform journal.
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The difference between SAP S/4HANA Finance and current SAP ERP FICO
1. SAP ERP FICO is the cost and finance module, which is robust and covers all business
processes. That is, it provides financial analysts with an output that enables them to predict,
make financial decisions to buy or not to buy, and acquisition-related decisions. While
SAPS4/HANA handles financial management solutions (CIPRIANI, 2015). That is, the activities
related to finance and reporting can be carried out accurately and within the recommended
timeframe, with valuable results.
2. SAP ERP FICO consists of two main components: SAP FI which means financial
accounting and CO which means controlling. SAP FI has sub-components that include items
related to: receivables, payables, asset accounting, general ledger accounting, and asset
accounting that are interlinked and integrated to facilitate the analysis of financial statements and
extend control over the items; while SAPS/4HANA provides a common view of financial data
that is consistent, comprehensive, and maximizes the reconciliation effort (Cardinal , 2014). It
also helps to provide central financing for which the final return data is consolidated.
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3. The recent SAPS/4HANA review demonstrates exceptional processing speed as a result
of the capabilities built in to enhance your ability to digest data and provide a proper result in a
short period of time (Chandana , 2011). These capabilities increase your ability to complete
multiple financial tasks compared to SAP ERP FICO. Although primarily used to help the
company generate and manage financial statements for analysis and reporting, and thus provide
effective business planning and decision making.
4. SAP ERP FICO is exceptional for functions related to finance, while translating to wider
use by various companies that have adopted it as financial software that has therefore translated
into an urgent and constant need of each company that intends to embrace the digital
environment (Chandana , 2011). Therefore, this has helped in various activities, namely running
SAP business warehouses, guiding consultants in modules, training recruits and end users,
providing support in the testing process and discerning problems and errors and documentation
and seizing opportunities to improve the business system that has greatly improved the level and
standards for which the company operates at the moment (Junaid & Shahzad, 2016). While
SAPS/4HANA primarily deals with the internal and specific entry of financial records into the
company. He seeks to relate the translation and obtained a valuable result in a short period of
time and with accuracy (Chandana & Danture, 2009).
What are the benefits of SAP S/4HANA Finance for businesses; Today's global
business revolution requires companies to embrace the digital business world (Jairos, et
al., 2010). The ability to provide for large customers and satisfy their desires is the key
issue that each company seeks to address if it is to exist in today's business environment.
Therefore, SAP S/4HANA provides several advantages to companies to improve their
financial and accounting goals that they include:
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1. It brings the concept of power one, that is, it provides a single repository of business
transactions that includes posting to the individual G/L account, that is, the material ledger
and asset accounting (Chandana & Danture, 2009). It also improves the posting of asset
accounting in the unified journal, which further increases the accuracy with which company
code transactions are presented. It also provides a major contribution through which
profitability analysis, material price determination can be generated effectively (Ilias, et al.,
2009).
2. SAP S/4HANA has relieved one of the main pain points, real-time reporting and analysis.
This was achieved by providing ETL (Extraction Transformation and Loading) which
improves the connection to the data warehouse (Danture , 2011).
3. SAP S/4HANA can transact and report everything at the same time, because within
SAPS/4 HANA these houses are interconnected and lurking in a complete system. However,
since there is no ETL separate from (SAP BW), there is no delay in data processing (Ige & S,
2015).
4. It is also able to make real-time reports that combine transaction data and real-time data.
This gives you the ability to make strategic and tactical decisions based on the latest data. It
has considerably expanded the data flow in the FI module (Chandana , 2011). Driven by the
ability to facilitate the single transaction that should be updated every time it is published.
Today, it has improved it. It also allows many tables to be updated and reduces the
complexity of the data model.
5. SAP S/4HANA provides a super-fast processing speed with features from various
financial functions such as finance and administrative accounting. Because it enables much
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faster reconciliation of financial processes, such as quarterly closing and provision of a single
source of financial truth and transparency for a company (Edvard, et al., 2009).
6. The ability to use real-time data with analytics to model and predict the impact of
changes that a company may have intended to make such an acquisition, allowing
professionals to play a more prominent role in making cooperative decisions ( How &
Alawattage, 2012). It can implement a standalone and package together, which is key to
improving overall business performance and the predictable future of the business.
Case one.
ALA COMPANY LIMITED
ALA is the most important commercial and specialized organization in the
aerospace industry with a system of workstations and activities in Italy, France, Israel and
the United States.
Techedge has supported ALA through a development process that has resulted in
the company being confronted with improvements in its business equipment worldwide.
The development process was completed in 2018, with Advanced Analytics and Data
Discovery separated, depending on Qlik Sense. During this period, Techedge has
transferred more than 20 applications to gain knowledge of the data identified in all
business units, from control and finance to logistics and quality.
Features
The daily update of the organization's key performance indicators without the
need for physical verification has led to an increase in the effectiveness of the indicators
by up to 90 percent;
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By managing the research themselves, customers can redesign existing
applications or even create news applications every few minutes. In 30 minutes, the
customer can create another user dashboard with (up to) 95% efficiency;
The infographics presentation, which only takes a few minutes, gives customers
access to more than 50 predefined KPIs.
ALL REAL ESTATE
ALA - Advanced Logistics for Aerospace has more than 30 years of experience in
coordinating and inventorying network management activities and is responsible for the
aviation and life market. Headquartered in Naples, ALA is a major trading and specialist
cooperative with a system of workstations and tasks in Italy, France, Israel and North
America. ALA is, on the one hand, a universal service provider with a certain experience
in building cost-effective warehouse networks for which managers are responsible for
closures and, on the other hand, a pioneer in the inventory management of mechanical
raw materials and finished products.
Country Level of acceptance % Adoption duration
Italy 56 4 months
France 74 2 months
Israel 78 7 Months
USA 87 1 month
Issues faced in migration
1. It was difficult to Find out how early users organized their business cases and ROI
models. This majorly due its recent emerging use of SAP S/4HANA that will help in
developing the transactional matters (Maximova , 2010).
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2. Find the most important choices for the scheme they were thinking about, for
example, whether they're standing or heading to the cloud and going with a
Greenfield or brownfield organization. That helps in the synchronization on whether
the software shall be embraced by ALA and its branches effectively.
3. Understand what motivated the first users to dive and what's holding back the
organizations that are going to advance. This was challenging as most branches could
not easily understand and feel threaten when it is embraced they can lose their job.
4. Find out how SAP S/4HANA can handle the progress and deep mechanization of
business forms. As the expert were not easily found to operate the software in ALA
branches.
5. See how the movement affects your custom layout, applications, and existing
structures. This was an issues on implementation as very few staff could understand
the functionality and importance.
Case 2
Escribano business case
Escribano is a family business, but most of the offices and type of equipment
created in recent months has brought about significant development in both the number
of employees and the number of factories.
This progress, and the authentic organization mantra to promote consistent
improvement expert and individual to achieve progress, are vital to stimulate the
organization to an important step for an important step in its internal administration: the
move to a powered, showcase ERP drive.
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After a careful evaluation of the available arrangements, Escribano settled into a
valuable situation to boost your business from the outset, including business center
procedures and devices. They chose SAP S/4HANA Enterprise Management, a phase
that, while accelerating internal procedures such as Purchasing, Sales, Finance, and the
like, provides superior, continuous insight into the design process and integration with
different capabilities.
Upon receiving the new phase, Escribano was able to accelerate coordination and
accounting procedures to achieve better business results.
Real Estate
EMBEDDED ANALYTICS to encourage the control of all budget and activity
information, with a point-to-point perspective of the business in a new phase.
Greater Operational EFFICIENCY for Finance, Sales and Purchasing groups, with a 3x
faster budget closing process.
REAL-TIME OPERATIONS for increasingly agile cash procedures, greater visibility
and data governance and faster business choices.
FULL SCALABILITY to support the development and global expansion of the
organization.
ABOUT SCRIBANO
Escribano Mecánica y Ingeniería is a Spanish organization, founded in 1987 and
headquartered in Madrid. The specialist in strategic assembly and precision electronic
parts. With a mindset focused on changing progress in innovation and procedures, the
items are a point of reference for aviation, aerospace and defense.
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Escribano implements a separation system with continuous innovative changes and
constant improvement of its fairs to become a major supplier.
Issues
Distinction between existing business forms
Considering all of this, Escribano need to understand what their current business
processes are, what the encrypted sum is in SAP, how much adjustment volume in first
performance is now part of Khan's S/4 standard, and whether updating the old code
changed in a new stage is extremely basic to the business (Yaftian, et al., 2017). It is
especially real if the business procedure that was first coded two decades ago is no longer
used or has been fixed, but the user code has not been updated (Jan & Shahzad, 2016).
Transmission of business requests
According to the SAP Panaya consultant of Escribano enterprise, to take full
advantage of SAP S/4 Khan speculation, the IT department should pass on business
requests as quickly as possible, without interfering with the business (Javed & Shahzad ,
2016). Due to the fact that IT groups are starting to implement various initiatives -
relocation, implementation, creation of new production facilities, etc... - Its shelf life
increases from 12 to 18 months, the organization is currently preparing a technical
document (Shahzad, 2009).
Accept responsibility
Stuart Browne, head of an independent SAP consulting firm the result said a
common problem Escribano faces is that organizations often mistakenly recognize that it
is the system integrator who is responsible for the correct implementation of ERP when,
ultimately, it is the customer's responsibility (Philipp , et al., 2009).
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An update is missing.
Escribano is one of the organizations that have come together to support more
experienced SAP platforms. The idea behind the third-party support contract is that it
allows the company to reduce the cost of ongoing maintenance by postponing the
transition to the latest article on this SAP S/4 Khan situation (Philipp , et al., 2009).
Case 3
Innovasport enterprise
Since its inception in 1999, Innovasport has developed rapidly, expanding its physical
store surfaces to more than 20 facades that customers see year after year. Today, it has an
extensive system of more than 150 physical stores in Mexico, in addition to an automated
purchasing system.
This site causes a large number of changes in the company every month. The customer's
internal ERP framework was outdated and did not have the responsibility and monetary control
necessary to continue its development. Phase one of the centers of risk around the administration
and control of the company's money, with a plan to extend the perceptibility of the budgeting
procedures. The deal should also work seamlessly with its core business forms that remain
housed within the ERP framework of the legacy until phase 2 of the enterprise is driven.
Innovasport has received SAP S/4 HANA® as the new ERP phase to utilize the existing
capabilities in terms of finance and control, with a fully controlled administration of the center's
budget procedures. Thanks to the coordinated research capabilities of the agreement, they are
now ready to effortlessly track all budget and operational data and add parts of the business
knowledge in a lonely phase, reducing all rental costs and saving time identified with the
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combination and approval of the information. Customers are currently willing to do research
with the assurance that the information they are displaying is present and accurate.
Properties
SAP S/4 HANA FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS in 4 MONTHS from startup to commissioning.
REAL TIME, Embedded Business Intelligence, REAL TIME, Embedded Business Intelligence
Used ONLY, made possible by more than 20 SAP Fiori applications.
ZERO BUSINESS DOWNTIME (ZERO BUSINESS DOWNTIME), throughout the enterprise
and the go-live.
Profits in PERFORMANCE and VISIBILITY OF PROCEDURE: end-month decline of nearly
33% in the single closing time.
ON INNOVATION SPORTS
Escribano a consumer goods retailer that represents a significant authority in sports
equipment and one of the top three pioneers in the e-commerce of sportswear in Mexico.
Founded in Mexico in 1999, Innovasport currently sells products on the web and more than 150
physical stores throughout the country.
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.
Issues
Business Partner Approach
This change on Innovasport enterprise will affect all GSP customers in the
transformation phase. In SAP S/4HANA, an assistant colleague is the only purpose to
pass and support customers and retailers. A colleague's idea is not new and has been
around for some time. It was used before S/4HANA was introduced into SAP Business
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Suite applications such as FSCM Credit and Collection, Executive, CRM SRM or
industry agreements (Kanapathippillai, et al., 2012).
Inconsistencies in the data.
The important element of change in SAP S/4HANA in Innovasport is the
redistribution of budget information. At this stage, value-based information is converted
into a new information model for an inclusive journal. For the current information
exchange to be effective, it must be impeccable and reliable (Marie, et al., 2011). No
matter how well you handle the integrity of your information, there is unfortunately a
good chance that you have some errors in your information. One of the most common
errors is the contrast between general and secondary records (AA, MM, AR, AP...),
between the ledger and the tables of records and irregularities in asset accounting
(Maximova , 2010).
Movement of monetary information
The currently represent SAP S/4HANA, administer the software update manager,
and start the implementation of the IMG cash flow management projects (Implementation
Guide) for Innovasport. Before it actually move the spreadsheets, it is essential that you
perform a cost-based validation of the information. In addition, a consistency check is
performed after each step of the zero point movement (Philipp , et al., 2009).
Main changes in functionality
The Compared to SAP ERP, S4HANA has undergone some notable changes in
the practical scope of SAP S/4HANA in migration by Innovasport. In some cases,
everything reaches such an extreme level that entire segments of applications are replaced
by new mechanisms. For example, SAP Classic Cash and Liquidity Management is no
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longer available in SAP S/4HANA and has been replaced by the newly developed SAP
S/4HANA Cash Management system (Shahzad, 2009).
SAP FIORI as a new user interface.
The SAP FIORI UX is the solution's user interface for SAP S/4HANA. The new
FIORI UI online is an extreme change in itself. It seems completely unique from the
outdated SAP GUI interface, and the whole idea has changed to jobs especially for
Innovasport employees. This, as in any other important user interface upgrade, can lead
to change protection when multiple customers can complain about a new FIORI-based
interface (Yaftian, et al., 2017).
Conclusion
The introduction of SAP S/4HANA discussed provided companies with unique
items. This has improved business operations by improving financial analysis and
reporting. It also improved the quality of the report with valuable information that
improved the decision-making of individual companies. Thus, any company seeking to
exist in the current environment must comply with digital transformation. This has
proven useful for any company that needs to exist in the industry. As SAP S/4HANA has
proven to be essential for every company.
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