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This blog post provides insights into the topic of project demands as part of SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition. In case you’d like to watch the replay of the corresponding live session as part of the series “In-Depth with SAP S/4HANA”, you can follow this link.
Introduction and Overview of Project Demand
In this blog post, we delve into the topic of project demand. First functionalities were released in 2021 with the aim to simplify project planning. In the following, we’re looking at project demands as part of enterprise projects, covering four project types:
- Projects with revenue
- Overhead projects
- Investment projects
- Statistical projects
These types have some common features like budget availability control or time recording, and now also project demands.
Before project demand was introduced, various challenges were present. For example, there were a lot of manual activities for each role and immense communication overhead due to the absence of synchrony between project data and purchasing data. Any changes in quantities or dates had to be reflected across multiple places, leading to large overhead costs. So only once the planning was done, all the logistics aspects of a project could be set up.
To break this blurred line between planning and execution stages, we introduced project demands.
The Solution and Benefits of Project Demand
The solution to these logistic planning problems was the advent of the concept of project demand. Project demand essentially represents a certain need of a particular WBS (Work Breakdown Structure) element at a specific time and location. It enables you to plan, trigger and monitor your logistics in a single application within your enterprise projects.
With project demand, we offer unique types of demands tailored for different procurement processes leading to a better user experience. The logistics associated with projects, like purchase requisitions, independent requirements, or timesheet entries, are generated automatically when a project demand is released. Moreover, any changes in quantity or dates are directly incorporated into the subsequent documents, thus leading to better control for project managers. Project Demands are not cost object, the underlying WBS Elements remain the cost objects.
Features and Functions
In this chapter we’re taking a closer look at the different categories, types and successor documents we offer as part of project demands. Moreover, we’ll take a closer look at the planning, the triggering, and the monitoring of demands as well as the subsequent logistic and cost relation.
The screenshot below provides an overview of the three demand categories we offer as of today or plan to offer in the near future.
Screenshot 1: Table of available or planned demand types and corresponding business scenarios
Planning of Project Demands
Project demand planning is a significant pillar that helps organizing tasks more conveniently than using methods outside the system or creating project-related logistic objects, such as purchase requisitions or reservations.
A big advantage of project demands is that there is no need to create project demands from scratch as you can make use of project templates or reference projects. When creating new projects, you have the option of copying the corresponding demands along with the dates.
Project managers often lack the precise knowledge of material codes and other specifics that they might not want to be involved with during the initial stages of project planning. Hence, the demands can be created with bare minimum information, and as the project progresses, experts can fill in the remaining details of the demands.
Moreover, we offer context relevant UI and extensibility options such as field extensions, allowing you to add extra fields into the project demand. Furthermore, Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) are provided for users to create their own sets of features.
Video 1: This demo provides insights into the planning process of project demands.
Triggering the Request of Project Demands
After the successful creation of project demands, a project manager can change the demand status in order to trigger the request. There are basically three options when requesting demands:
- Request on WBS Element Release: With this option, the demand gets requested once the WBS element is released. This scenario is typically used with a rather strict logistics control.
- "Request on Save": The demand gets requested independently of the WBS element status. This scenario is typically used when you want to procure something with a long lead item.
- Mass request: With the selection of multiple demands, you can release them together.
Monitoring Project Demands
Throughout the lifecycle of a demand, we have the possibility of monitoring.
Once a demand gets requested, a purchase requisition gets immediately created. In the lifecycle you can follow your ordered items for which you get a good receipt, and after successful delivery also the supplier invoice. At every moment you can follow this logistics data. While these demands are progressing, the project manager or also the logistics controller can get real-time insights into the current status via the list report page. With these project monitoring capabilities, you can better plan your projects and take necessary actions if needed.
On top, project managers can make use of the situation handling framework which alerts them in case any errors occur while requesting a demand, e.g. in case of budget overrun.
Logistic and Cost Relation
When it comes to the cost relation between project demands and WBS elements, commitments or actual costs are always posted against the corresponding or associated WBS elements.
For easy maintenance of your project data, you can easily navigate from the ‘Project Planning’ app to your project demands. In addition, you can synchronize demand dates with WBS elements dates. That means, whenever you change a WBS date, the dates of demands and even the successor documents such as purchase requisition, reservation etc. will automatically be adapted.
As outlined above, we allow for the option to request demands together with the release of WBS elements. To further improve status synchronization, we enabled the feature to automatically set demands to ‘Closed’ when WBS elements are set to ‘Closed’.
Video 2: This demo provides insights into the triggering and monitoring process of project demands.
Key Value Proposition of Project Demand
The chart below shows a comparison when you run your project with project demand versus when you run your project without project demand. While some features are exclusively supported by project demand, project managers would need to find e.g. alternative methods or use multiple applications to successfully run projects.
Screenshot 2: This chart shows which features are already supported or are planned to be supported by project demand.
For more details and guided testing, please have a look at the Project Control - Resourcing and Procurement (4RF) scope item.
Outlook
The following topics are currently either being executed already or planned to be released in the near future.
- We want to integrate project demand for internal resources with SAP S/4HANA Cloud for Projects, Resource Management. With this integration, a project manager can raise a request for demands based on availability, skills, etc. of the resource. Once a resource gets staffed, this would be reflected in the respective time recording application.
- The plan is to trigger outbound delivery from project demands; especially helpful for revenue projects or ETO projects: Project managers shall be enabled to execute the delivery from the project directly without going via the sales order.
- Once all logistics data is maintained in the project demand, a project manager is supposed to be able to automatically derive planned costs from the project demand.
- Intelligent scenarios in project demand:
- Earliest possible demand fulfillment date to better plan the project
- Profitability of demand being fulfilled on the demand date to assess risk
And more.
More Information on Project Demand
Blogs
Leverage Project Demands in Enterprise Projects
Extensions
Project Demand – Developer Extensibility
Learn
Videos
Consulting Hour – Project Demand
If you’re an SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition customer or a partner (also in implementation phase) and would like to know more about this, we are providing additional consulting hours. Simply raise a request via the component PPM-SCL-DMN and mention your need of a consulting hour. After triggering the request we’ll get in touch with you directly and provide you with additional information on the topic of project demand and help you figure out how to best make use of it for your project.
Where to find out more details on the product?
- Explore the ready-to-run cloud ERP here
- Enterprise Portfolio and Project Management Community
- Demo Playlist of Product Release Highlights here
- Cloud ERP Product Success digital enablement wheel here
- SAP S/4HANA Cloud, Public Edition Early Release Series here
- Latest SAP S/4HANA Cloud, Public Edition Release Blogs here
- Watch our SAP S/4HANA Cloud product update videos on YouTube here
- Inside SAP S/4HANA Podcast here
- SAP S/4HANA Cloud, Public Edition Community here
- Find best practices on SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition here
- Check out what’s new here
- Find help here
- Read the feature scope description here
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