Learn when and where to use Embedded Analytics, some of the pitfalls to avoid when implementing, and the lessons we learned from a recent S/4HANA migration for a Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) customer who enabled real-time data access between SAP S/4HANA and SAP BW and also underwent a Business Objects upgrade.
“Best Practices, Innovation and Speed” summarizes the NIMBL consultant, while talking about S/4HANA Cloud.
“Bingo!” is excitedly whispered by someone in the back of the room, as another game of Buzzword Bingo comes to a close.
What the skeptical audience has yet to experience, is the demonstration of the application, and why those buzzwords, often assigned to a bovine scatological reference, are actually meaningful in this case. As the demo unfolds, the audience sees a system that provides google-like search through thousands of records in sub-second time, returning context sensitive information that can be acted on immediately. They see interactive tiles that provide a real-time dashboard that allows the business user to focus on what is more important. The audience is further witness as to how SAP has applied the abilities of its in-memory HANA database along with its recently released Co-Pilot digital assistant to re-imagine cash management. A real-time view of cash balances drives an “instant message” like collaboration discussion between the treasury accountant and the purchasing manager to use some excess cash to take advantage of procurement discounts. No Excel downloads. No overnight data extractions. All real-time insight to action.
In wrapping up the demonstration, the consultant adds that this is but one of a myriad list of business processes that have been dramatically improved. And, further, that with quarterly updates coming from SAP, new technologies like machine learning and more will provide the company continuous process improvement beyond what is seen today.
A remaining skeptic in the room offers up a joke about demos and the real world. The consultant laughs and remembers his own joke about demonstrations, and then lets the skeptic know that this is not some demo environment built for sales, but it is the same cloud-based application being used by real companies across the globe, including NIMBL.
Taking one last, hopeful jab, the skeptic asks, “yeah, but how long does it take to implement?” The consultant answers that the implementation is done in weeks because the application is already configured. He adds that there can be complicating factors, like integrations, but the use of SAP “whitelisted” APIs and the SAP Cloud Platform integration manager makes those integrations a repeatable process for the project team. No implementation is easy, the consultant cautions, but it doesn’t have to be financially debilitating or overly painful either. The consultant finishes, “with a preconfigured solution, implementation tools like a migration cockpit and test automation suite, and pre-built APIs, the implementation of S/4HANA Cloud will not look like your father’s ERP implementation.”
As the demo ends, the audience begins to understand the epic shift SAP is bringing to the business world with S/4HANA Cloud. Hands go up to see additional business scenarios based on SAP Best Practices, Innovations like the Co-Pilot digital assistant, and the Speed of the HANA in-memory database. The bingo cards have dropped to the floor..along with a few jaws.
If you would like more information on SAP S/4HANA Cloud, contact Michael.jolton@benimbl.com.
The business value of Blockchain extends well beyond cryptocurrencies. In this presentation, Michael Pytel shows how Blockchain can now be leveraged to specifically track essential steps in the lifecycle of a product; providing “irrefutable digital records” and allowing for constant communication between manufacturers, suppliers, customers, and service providers throughout the entire process.
If you are interested in more information regarding blockchain you can register to BlockChain for Business and IT Leaders in Boston, November 8-9. If you are interested click the link below for the top 5 reasons to attend, event highlights, speaking events, registration links etc.
Denver’s NIMBL among the fastest-growing inner city businesses in America
Annual ranking published by the Initiative for a Competitive Inner City and Fortune recognizes high-growth companies in urban areas
Denver- The Initiative for a Competitive Inner City (ICIC) and Fortune announced that NIMBL has made the 2017 Inner City 100 list. The list, which was revealed at the 19th Annual Awards and Conference in Boston on October 3rd, ranks the fastest-growing inner city businesses in America by revenue growth. NIMBL ranked 83rd on the list of 100, and reported 2016 revenues of $14.58M and a five-year growth rate of 80.62% from 2012-2016. NIMBL’s feature and the full list is available on Fortune’s website.
ICIC’s Inner City 100 list seeks to celebrate and enable urban entrepreneurship. Over the course of nearly 20 years ICIC has awarded 928 companies whose success illuminates the innovation and business growth happening in our inner cities. Inner City 100 companies are forces of economic opportunity, optimism and transformation in their communities. Providing a platform for recognition, networking and learning, the Inner City 100 program continues to open doors for other budding urban entrepreneurs and stimulate inner city business development and job creation.
“We are extraordinarily proud of these pioneering entrepreneurs who lead the way in innovation, job creation and the economic revitalization of America’s inner cities,” said Steve Grossman, CEO of ICIC. “In addition to excellence in business, they have also demonstrated a deep commitment to and passion for their communities, which plays a huge role in the wellbeing of their local economies,” he said.
In addition to being published in Fortune, CEOs from the winning companies were invited to the Inner City 100 Conference and Awards, a full-day event featuring robust networking opportunities and educational sessions led by executives and academics from top-tier universities, including Harvard Business School and New York University. Past winners have reported connecting with multi-million dollar investors as a result of appearing on the Inner City 100 list and attending the Conference.
Keynote speakers at this year’s event included former CEO of Constant Contact, Gail Goodman; award winner and CEO of the Menkiti Group, Bo Menkiti; and Harvard Business School Professor and ICIC Founder and Chairman Michael E. Porter. Other speakers included Tom Lewand, CEO of Shinola, David Segura, CEO of VisionIT, Lynda Applegate of Harvard Business School, and David Whitford, Editor-at-Large at Inc. Magazine. ICIC also celebrated 17 businesses as members of the Inner City 100 “Hall of Fame,” which recognizes companies that have achieved making the list at least five times.
Boasting an average five-year growth rate of 320% between 2012 and 2016, the 2017 Inner City 100 companies represent a wide range of geography, hailing from 27 states. Collectively, the winners employed 9,402 people in 2016, and on average 42% of their employees live in the same neighborhood as the company.
Highlights of the 2017 Inner City 100 include:
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Inner City 100 Methodology: The Initiative for a Competitive Inner City (ICIC) defines inner cities as core urban areas with higher unemployment and poverty rates and lower median incomes than their surrounding metropolitan statistical areas. Every year, ICIC identifies, ranks, and awards the 100 fastest-growing businesses located in America’s inner cities. In 2017, companies were ranked by revenue growth over the five-year period between 2012 and 2016. This list was audited by the independent accounting firm Rucci, Bardaro, and Falzone, PC.
Initiative for a Competitive Inner City (ICIC)
ICIC is a national nonprofit founded by Harvard Business School professor Michael E. Porter. ICIC’s mission is to promote economic prosperity in America’s inner cities through private sector investment that leads to jobs, income and wealth creation for local residents. Through its research on inner city economies, ICIC provides businesses, governments and investors with the most comprehensive and actionable information in the field about urban market opportunities. The organization supports urban businesses through the Inner City 100, Inner City Capital Connections and the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses programs. Learn more at www.icic.org or @icicorg.
Media contacts:
Jake Eisbart, Marketing Manager, NIMBL
917.319.0318
jake.eisbart@benimbl.com
Hannah Roccki, Senior Communications Associate, ICIC
(617) 238-3010
A celebrity requires an entourage of people to keep them relevant, informed, and as successful as possible. Your company’s SAP Landscape is the celebrity of your business and the entourage that keeps it performing to its highest standard is Solution Manager 7.2. Let’s break it down…
Just as an entourage is the central management tool that empowers a celebrity so is Solution Manager to that of the SAP customer. Not only does Solution Manager reduce total operating costs by providing tools designed to support the entire lifecycle of SAP applications, but now, with Solution Manager 7.2 many of the functions have been completely redesigned to focus on providing business value and making it a tool that the business can utilize to support business critical operations.
If you would like more information on Solution Manager 7.2, please contact Jereme.swoboda@benimbl.com
September 12, 2017: NIMBL Announces Its Participation at SAP® TechEd® to Showcase Upgrade Roadmap to SAP S/4HANA® Cloud, SAP S/4HANA, Analytics and SAP Solution Manager 7.2
Denver, CO — September 12, 2017 — NIMBL, one of North America’s trusted SAP partners, today announced that it will participate at SAP® TechEd® being held September 25-29, 2017 in Las Vegas in booth 606. NIMBL will be conducting demos that detail the comprehensive roadmap to SAP S/4HANA®, the upgrade path to SAP Solution Manager 7.2, and the business case – both technical and functional – for implementing SAP S/4HANA Cloud. Furthermore, NIMBL will be meeting with SAP, partners and customers during the week for in-depth business-driven discussions.
Having authored the upcoming and definitive SAP Press books on SAP S/4HANA Cloud, SAP S/4HANA and SAP Solution Manager 7.2, NIMBL will be providing insight directly from the authors highlighting business value, checklists to implementations and upgrades, and overall best practices. As one of SAP’s trusted North American partners, NIMBL provides best-in-class SAP software consulting services to both the midmarket and Fortune 1000.
“We are truly excited about the value SAP drives and how it will provide innovative opportunities for both business users and technical support teams. Having recently completed our own SAP S/4HANA Cloud implementation, we’re specifically looking forward to sharing the firsthand insight we gained,” said Michael Jolton, VP of Delivery and SAP S/4HANA Cloud Practice Lead, NIMBL
The SAP TechEd conference focuses on technology with an emphasis on collaboration and hands-on workshops, going beyond technical education. NIMBL has consistently presented at SAP TechEd since NIMBL’s inception alongside the SAP product team. As a passionate technologist specializing in SAP software, the NIMBL team is especially excited about this year’s innovation and business-focused North American SAP TechEd.
For more information or to register for SAP TechEd 2017 in Las Vegas click the link below:
TechEd Overview and Registration
About NIMBL
Since inception in 2009, NIMBL has been recognized as a thought leader in the SAP ecosystem. Based in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado, NIMBL is an award-winning and nationally recognized SAP software consultancy. Powered by years of countless successful initiatives, NIMBL provides functional and technical consulting services for SAP solutions (including SAP S/4HANA on-premise and SAP S/4HANA Cloud, SAP Fiori® UX, SAP Screen Personas software, testing, SAP Solution Manager, strategy, functional/business process, integration, TDMS, etc.), as well as cost-effective delivery of Denver-based remote application management services and consulting, to both the midmarket and Fortune 1000.
SAP, TechEd, SAP S/4HANA, SAP Fiori and other SAP products and services mentioned herein as well as their respective logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of SAP SE (or an SAP affiliate company) in Germany and other countries. See http://www.sap.com/corporate-en/legal/copyright/index.epx for additional trademark information and notices. All other product and service names mentioned are the trademarks of their respective companies.
For more information on booth activities and scheduling an insight session contact:
Jake Eisbart
jake.eisbart@benimbl.com
As SAP continues to promote its Cloud services, software, and platforms it can sometimes get a little confusing as to how they work in tandem with one another and, ultimately, which subscription based models are right for your company. In this article, we use the Netflix model to provide you with a high-level understanding of SAP Cloud Platform, its services, and value adds to your organizational IT landscape.
If you would like more information on SAP Cloud Platform pricing, functionality, or implementation, please contact Hari at Hari.sonnenahalli@benimbl.com.
On the heels of all the attention given to SAP S/4HANA Cloud at Sapphire 2017, I had the opportunity to sit down with NIMBL’s VP of Delivery and S/4HANA Cloud Lead, Michael Jolton, and the S/4HANA Cloud Architect Anthony Plute to discuss NIMBL’s own implementation of S/4HANA Cloud and the lessons they learned in the process.
Q: What were some of the major factors that compelled NIMBL to Implement S/4HANA Cloud?
Michael Jolton: There were a couple factors. NIMBL wanted to be a lighthouse partner and get direct implementation experience with the tool, so that we would get lessons learned and know what we were getting into going into the customer implementation. The second reason is that NIMBL is a growing concern. And as a growing concern we are outstripping our use of QuickBooks and as a result we need a better, more robust accounting system and S/4HANA Cloud presents a great opportunity to move to a world class system.
Q: Can you break down the specific skillsets you needed to successfully complete the implementation?
Michael: You need a few different types [of skillsets]. You’re going to need a project manager who coordinates everything. There are a lot steps involved. You’re going to need a technical resource who’s savvy on the network architecture because you need to make sure that you have the bandwidth in your wireless network or your hardwired network for moving to a cloud based application like this. It’s not a huge requirement but it is something that you should double check so there are no surprises when you go live. Also, there is, for printing, some downloaded software that’s required that would need to go onto a server. So you want to know someone who knows how to put that software onto a server. Next you need a functional resource depending on what scope you’re implementing. If you’re implementing core finance only then you’ll need a functional finance resource…someone who is versed in financial processes, understands the “close the books” processes, understands everything about chart of accounts and general ledgers, accounting , accounts receivable, and so on and so forth. That person should also be skilled on S/4HANA…whether that’s on premise or cloud. Obviously cloud is preferred, but on premise is also fully acceptable.
Q: What if you’re looking to do more than core finance?
Michael: If you’re doing more than core finance, if you’re also doing order to cash, procure to pay, plan to produce, or professional services, you’re going to need different functional skills for them. It would follow that same pattern. You are also going to need at least one of those resources who is able to go in and modify forms. That’s not a heavily technical process so they don’t need to be technical but they will need to understand Adobe Forms Designer. Depending on the size of the source data or your legacy data, you’ll need a resource to do the data migration. That team is first going to scope out what data is being migrated from the current legacy system over to S/4HANA Cloud. Then that person is going to download data from the source system; they’re going to go through the migration process using the S/4HANA migration cockpit, and then they’ll upload the information in. That’s generally a data manager-type role…someone’s who’s done data migration.
Q: What were some of the technical and functional challenges when it came to the implementation?
Anthony Plute: I would say, a functional challenge is understanding “what is self-service configuration versus expert configuration?” I think that’s key. I mean, once you do it, you understand it, but if you come from the on premise world, you’re so used to doing so much different configuration that’s not expert configuration. So discovering that difference [self-service vs expert configuration], I think is a challenge.
Michael: Yeah, that’s actually a role I left out, the subject matter experts. You have to have your business area subject matter experts separate from your configuration team. Building on Anthony’s point about challenges, the master data, there’s a lot of codes and it’s not always clear what those codes stand for or how they impact processes down the road. That’s where it really helped having Anthony who knew S/4HANA and the SAP code structures.
Q: What is the profile of the company that you see benefiting most from S/4HANA Cloud?
Michael: There’s a couple of different profiles. Certainly the company that is running SAP today…they’re on an outdated version of ECC…they’ve overly customized it…not necessarily because they have an overly unique way they do accounts receivable or process orders but because they didn’t fully understand how to use the system. Maybe when it initially rolled out it didn’t meet their needs, so they created customizations and over time that functionality had been built in – but because they created customizations, they weren’t able to upgrade. The list is long. The point is, if you have a company that really has basic ERP usage requirements, but is on an outdated SAP system: they become a great candidate to move to S/4HANA Cloud very quickly. The same goes true if you’re on an outdated Oracle or J.D. Edwards or any other system that you’re paying maintenance for and you’re not getting any value out of that maintenance because you can’t do the system upgrades. Another excellent customer is the two tiered scenario where you’ve got a parent company that’s a huge multi-national conglomerate and they own many subsidiaries. They’ve been chasing the holy grail of having every business unit on a single platform and the different business units are different enough that they really can’t go onto one single instance of SAP and they’re not big enough that they would justify an on premise customized solution like S4 on-prem. Therefore, they become – all these subsidiaries or separate strategic business units – excellent S/4HANA Cloud candidates.
Q: Would the reverse be true? Meaning if you have a company that is running S/4HANA and they want to create a parent company. Would the parent company be a candidate for S/4HANA Cloud?
Michael: Absolutely. That’s the other two tiered example… where you’ve got a company that is running SAP or S/4HANA on premise – either way – and then they decide to create a parent company. The parent company would not have all the necessary manufacturing requirements that would come with S4 on premise and so you could just implement S/4HANA Cloud just for the financial support and then integrate that way…even though the subsidiary is actually bigger and running the bigger system. A third type of customer is the growing customer, like NIMBL …one that is outstripping its current application. Whether it’s cloud based or on premise, the functionality doesn’t meet the company’s needs anymore as it’s getting bigger and more sophisticated.
Q: What advice would you give to a company considering implementing S/4HANA Cloud?
Michael: My first piece of advice is: this is an ERP, so don’t take it lightly. Don’t expect the integrator to do it to you or for you. They need to do it with you. You need to have your business people involved in this. The second piece is, again, this is an ERP, this is a big project and even on a small scale there is a lot of coordination. You’re going to want a project manager coordinating everything.
Anthony: I would agree. You’re looking for total devotion, participation, and buy-in from your subject matter experts and management. I’d say…and we heard this from another company whose doing an implementation right now…make sure that your master data is as cleaned up as possible. At the end of the day, the business owns the data and they need to make sure that the data is pristine, strong, accurate and that will make things a lot quicker and easier. And definitely make sure that the business and the people [of the company implementing] are ready to adopt business best practices into the solution.
Michael: Exactly. This is a paradigm change. You, as the company, are adopting best practices. You’re changing your business to meet the software. A perfect example is the chart of accounts. The SAP best practices has a full chart of accounts: 724 accounts or something like that that’s out there. If you don’t like those accounts, the first question has to be, “Well can we use the same account structure and modify what’s within…in terms of you changing the name of an account or just to be more specific?” As an example if you’re talking about magazine sales vs newspaper sales. You’re still working within that structure. You don’t want to add new general ledger accounts unless it’s absolutely mandatory. You can do that, but you want to try and live within the best practices first.
If you would like to see a more comprehensive presentation of this journey, please register for the upcoming webinar, “Diary of an S/4HANA Implementation”: https://cc.readytalk.com/r/gzhkqm13yc7l&eom
Ever since the advent of ERP software, large multi-tiered enterprises have been in search of the cost savings and overall process improvement that would come from unification of business systems. For several reasons, this search has become their Holy Grail. Some of the major obstacles have been:
SAP, with the advent of S/4HANA Cloud and S/4HANA, has provided a guide for this search, allowing the previously unheard of to become reality. S/4HANA is a full, enterprise class ERP – the latest version of the business software that has made SAP the gold standard. S/4HANA Cloud is a pre-configured version of S/4HANA, utilizing the same codebase. The pairing of these two solutions in a two-tiered ERP model, addresses each of the issues previously preventing ERP standardization:
Everything that sounds too good to be true usually is and the devil is always in the details. Those clichés noted, the combination of SAP’s S/4HANA and S/4HANA Cloud to create a two-tiered ERP provides a clear vision and roadmap to consolidate ERP platforms and business processes.
For more information on S/4HANA Cloud, please feel free to contact Michael.jolton@benimbl.com.
As with all versions of Solution Manager, SAP regularly releases new Support Packages providing enhancements and corrections to known issues. Usually the even number support packs contain corrections only while the odd numbered support packages contain corrections and enhancements. On May 9th 2017, SAP released the latest version of Solution Manager 7.2 with Support Package 05. This release provided enhancements in a variety of areas.
One of the more notable changes is an entirely new capability within Process Management. SAP has now provided an option for exporting and importing Solution Documentation. With this, you can export the entire contents of a branch within a single solution and import the contents into another branch or into another solution manager entirely. You also have the ability to save all KW documents, TBOMs, or Test Configurations assigned to a branch to a transport request. The transport can then be moved to a different SAP Solution Manager system as a target within a transport landscape. Keep in mind job documentation is not currently supported for export and import. Beyond that, the graphical editor for creating business processes has also been enhanced. They have improved the overall design of the editor making it more usable and the global diagram elements have been improved. This includes new Universal diagrams that can be used as a starting point for building your own business process diagrams. Diagrams can now be exported and imported as well.
Business Process Operations has also seen some valuable enhancements. You now have the ability to export all types of monitoring objects, Alerting Objects, Analytics objects and job monitoring objects. Within Application Operations there have been a wide variety of improvements as well. Interface and Connection monitoring allows for the monitoring of STAD records (statistical Data) for web services. Flat File interfaces can now be monitored for the last updated folder. SAP has also added an analytics page to the SAPUI5 dashboards for Job, HANA/BI Monitoring, PI Monitoring, and Message Flow Monitoring allowing for additional views of the monitoring data.
Furthermore, Change Control Management and IT Service Management have also seen some modifications. The most notable of these changes includes a new Quality Gate Management SAP Fiori App to enable for the pass, not pass, and reset Q-Gates, allowing approval or rejection of urgent changes. Also Downgrade protection is now available for non-ABAP systems, supporting the imminent downgrade and predecessor checks. ITSM has a new Resolve and Dispatch incidents Fiori app, enabling the ability to send incidents back to the reporter with an immediate solution, request further information from the reporter, or dispatch incidents to other support teams. Lastly Data Volume Management also has four new Fiori apps: Data Aging, Unused Data, BW Savings and BW Savings Potential.
For a complete list of all changes and new enhancements please check out the SAP Help Website at: https://help.sap.com/viewer/10e6d9cb3bc740e6a4c41588d9fc07a3/7.2.05/en-US/61f48903f1e240eb8419c8f657aa7481.html
If you would like more information on SAP Solution Manager 7.2, please contact Jereme.swoboda@benimbl.com