SAP S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition | 2023 FPS02 Release – Part 2

[Chr_Vogler]

In the dynamic world of the consumer industry, last-minute deliveries have become crucial for meeting the demands of rush orders. However, this urgency brings forth significant challenges that businesses must address to ensure customer satisfaction. In this blog post, you learn about how our new SAP S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition 2023 FPS02 release will aid in overcoming these challenges. For instance, by implementing a streamlined process for the assignment of deliveries to routes after checkout, businesses can efficiently fulfill rush orders. This innovative approach not only optimizes logistics but also enhances the overall customer experience by ensuring timely deliveries.

In this blog, I will also give you an overview of some selected industries' highlights of SAP’s second shipment of this year for the SAP S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition 2023 release.

The blog is built as a series of 2 parts and presents the key highlights:

•             Part 1: Lines of Business
•             Part 2: Industries and Cross Components (coming soon)

For the entire list of innovations, see the What's New Viewer on SAP Help Portal here.

Agribusiness

Trading in agricultural commodities like wheat, corn, soybeans, and coffee is a niche business with unique requirements. Commodity traders often engage with multiple counterparties and hold several contracts with each. These contracts can be complex, featuring terms and pricing that may include quality-based adjustments. Execution of these contracts involves both scheduled and unscheduled deliveries, which need to be accurately recorded and assigned to the appropriate contracts. The settlement process must also address reassignments, quality-related pricing, tolerances, and optional features.

Agricultural Contract Management (ACM) in SAP S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition provides a comprehensive solution for commodity traders to handle these complex agreements. It supports the entire contract lifecycle, from capturing contract terms and managing logistical processes to final settlement and closure.

SAP Fiori Notifications for Status of Background Jobs

Business Background

When pricing actions—such as mass pricing, cancellation, lift, and roll (including scenarios involving equity and CDOTE)—are executed on contracts with multiple pricing lots, the system initiates batch jobs to process large datasets in the background. This approach ensures that user experience in the applications remains uninterrupted, even if the defined threshold in the configuration is exceeded.

Key Features

The system automatically submits tasks as background jobs to enhance user experience when processing large volumes of data in SAP Fiori. However, users often find it challenging to know when these jobs are scheduled, and completed, or if they finished successfully.

SAP Fiori Notifications will be utilized to address this issue. The initiative includes developing a common framework for all areas of ACM and implementing it in the SAP Fiori app “Application Jobs for ACM” (F8227).

The scope of this new release includes 3 types of notifications:

1. Job Scheduled/Submitted: Users will receive a notification indicating that a job has been scheduled, along with a link to view the job in the SAP Fiori app F1240.
2. Job Completed: Users will be notified when a job has completed processing, with a link to view the application logs in SAP Fiori app F1487.
3. Status Update for Long-Running Jobs: Users will receive periodic status updates
   (% complete) for long-running jobs, including a link to view the job in the SAP Fiori app F1240.

 Picture 1: Usability improvements by providing information about batch job updates to the end user.

For more information, see Fiori Notifications for Status of Background Jobs.

Contract Quantity Type Overview, including Nominated Quantity

Business Background

Throughout the lifecycle of a contract, commodity quantities are consumed at different stages. The Dynamic Quantity Types feature allows you to access precise consumption details of contract quantities at any moment during an Agricultural Contract Management (ACM) transaction.

This functionality dynamically retrieves quantity type details for trading contracts. Additionally, you can utilize the drill-down feature in SAP GUI for each dynamic quantity type to explore the specifics of all documents associated with a particular quantity type.

Key Features

With this new release, new dynamic quantity types have been introduced to report quantities that are scheduled on a nomination item, but not yet called off. This feature helps in improving usability by providing detailed planning information and reducing the risk of missing out on unscheduled contract quantities.

We have now five new nomination-based quantity types included in the contract quantity type views:

• Planned total quantity v2,
• Planned confirmed quantity v2,
• Nomination-consumed quantity,
• Available-to-plan quantity,
• Open-nomination quantity.

This new release enhances the visibility of available quantities for end users while minimizing the risk of missing unscheduled contract quantities during nomination and scheduling.

Consumer Products

Flexible Planning of Reload Stops for Deliveries

Business Background

Rush orders are typically initiated by urgent customer needs, requiring businesses to adapt quickly to fulfill these demands. This process is crucial for maintaining customer loyalty and competitive advantage.

Key Features

Assignment of deliveries to routes after check-out to fulfill rush orders

When additional customer deliveries are required to complete a route, for example, to fulfill rush orders, in a mobile scenario, a transportation manager can create a reload request by using the “Manage Reload Requests” (F4745) app. The reload request contains information about the products that belong to the customer delivery that are to be loaded and the reload stop. After the reload request has been released, the system assigns the delivery to the reload request and adds the reload stop (either an existing stop or a new stop) to the route.

 Picture 2: Manage Reload Requests app – Create and edit reload requests during route execution when additional products and/or customer deliveries are required to complete routes.

For more information, see Reload Request Processing.

Manual transfer of route stock related to rush orders

If route stock management is used, it is possible to transfer stock related to customer deliveries to route stock manually. When a transportation manager has created a reload request to fulfill a rush order by using the “Manage Reload Requests” app, after the products for the customer delivery have been loaded onto the vehicle at a reload stop, the goods movement needs to be posted to route stock.

OData API: Reload Request

To fulfill rush orders, it might be necessary to add last-minute deliveries to the load of a vehicle for a planned route before the vehicle leaving the distribution center or warehouse. If a third-party solution is used to manage reload requests, reload request information can be imported into SAP S/4HANA by using the Reload Request OData service. For more information about this service, see Reload Request (available in English only).

In addition to drivers being able to create and upload requests to load additional products for van sales, it is now also possible to assign customer deliveries to a route. Furthermore, after a reload request has been released and the products for the customer deliveries have been loaded onto the vehicle, the related stock can be transferred to route stock.

For more information, see Upload Use Cases: Reload Requests.

Update of Unloaded Quantities at Final Check-In Before Final Settlement (Paper-Based Scenario)

Business Background

Last Mile Distribution facilitates the presettlement of unloaded quantities only in a paper-based context. Settlement clerks may not always be present on-site, meaning they might not be at the warehouse where drivers check in after completing a route. Consequently, checkers need to update the unloaded quantities during the final check-in before the ultimate settlement. Additionally, settlement clerks may not process the documents submitted by drivers until several days after the route has been completed. Therefore, presettling unloaded quantities is crucial to ensure that the warehouse possesses the latest information, enabling further processing of empty containers, returned items, and unsold products. Moreover, the timely documentation of unloaded quantities is assured, allowing products to be readily available for future deliveries or sales.

A few days after a route is completed, the printed documents are sent to the back office where they are processed further. The settlement clerk enters or updates route data in the “Settle Route Data” (F4242) app based on the information in the printed documents. Route data is then settled during the final settlement.

Key Features

With this new release, you can update unloaded quantities before final settlement to support accurate inventory management and efficient processing of returned or unsold products.

Unloaded quantities can now be updated directly at final check-in. Especially for locations where settlement clerks do not work on-site, that is, at the warehouse where drivers check in at the end of a route, checkers must update unloaded quantities right away. Also, settlement clerks might not process the printed documents handed in by drivers until a few days after a route has been executed. Therefore, the presettlement of unloaded quantities is necessary to ensure that the warehouse has the most up-to-date information, which allows for further processing of empties, returned products, and unsold products. In addition, the timely recording of unloaded quantities is guaranteed so that the products are again available for upcoming deliveries or sales.

 Picture 3: Settle Route Data app - Capture all data related to a route, record payments, and settle routes in the system.

For more information about the process in general, see Presettlement of Unloaded Quantities.

Breakdown of Payments by Payment Method for Settled Routes

Business Background

With Payment Amounts for Settled Routes, we deliver a comprehensive overview of all payments that were collected by a driver and assigned to open items provided for settled routes.

After a route has been settled, the “Collected Payments - Settled Routes” app can be used to review all payments that were assigned to the route, including the payment methods used, and to identify settled routes with payment differences.

Key Features

This new release enables you to gain a comprehensive and holistic view of all payments collected by a driver and assigned to open items for settled routes.

The “Collected Payments - Settled Routes” (F4747) app can now be used to review all payments that were assigned to individual settled routes in a paper-based scenario, whereas previously it was only possible to review payments for settled routes in a mobile scenario. New payment amount fields allow you to review all payments by the payment methods that customers use. Furthermore, it is now possible to review payments of invoices to which credit memos were applied (mobile scenario only) and to review payments collected for those clear open items.

 Picture 4: Collected Payments app – Review all payments that were assigned to settled routes and identify differences between the payments received and the payments due.

For more information, see Payment Amounts for Settled Routes.

Fashion and Vertical Business

Control Input Processing of Sales Order IDoc Enhancements with Returns

Business Background

You can use intermediate documents (IDocs) to transfer data between the SAP system and non-SAP systems. You can create sales documents for single articles, and generic articles along with variants using IDoc. You can transfer single articles, generic articles, or variants of the generic article using IDoc to create or change sales documents. You can also use OData API to create sales documents.

Key Features

With this new release, you can now enable the system to use direct input calls using Fashion APIs FSH_API_SALESDOCUMENT_CREATE and FSH_API_SALESDOCUMENT_CHANGE instead of batch data communication (BDC) calls for sales documents of category type Returns (H).

This is an addition to the already supported sales documents of category type Sales Order (C), Contracts (G (fashion contracts only)), and Free of Charge (I).

Note:    To use this feature, you need to activate the business function ISR_RETAILSYSTEM. For more information on the business function, see Retail.

For more information, see Sales Documents using Intermediate Documents (IDocs) or OData API.

Manage Excess Requirements Enhancements

Business Background

Excess requirements are quantities that are left over due to a change in demand status or can result from a shortage of stock for different document types.

The different document types are sales orders, stock transport orders (STO), Fashion contracts, and account-assigned sales orders.

Key Features

With this new release, we made enhancements to the “Manage Excess Requirements” app, and you can now

• Select the relevant fashion contracts for processing by filtering them by valid-from and valid-to dates,
• View the rejection code for the corresponding rejection code description,
• Filter the rejection codes based on the document types.

 Picture 5: Manage Excess Requirements app – View and manage excess requirements that is left over due to a change in demand status or can result from a shortage of stock for different document Types.

Note: To use this feature, you need to activate the business function ISR_RETAILSYSTEM.

For more information, see Manage Excess Requirements.

Oil & Gas

Oil & Gas deals with the entire supply chain of hydrocarbons from the exploration, extraction, refining, and transportation through different modes of transportation up to its consumption. The industry is divided into three supply chain sectors, namely upstream, midstream, and downstream.

Enhancements for Process Receipts - Stock and Non-Stock Items Application

Key Features

This new release enables you to:

• Receive procured stock, non-stock, and service-related (supplier) items at base and remote plants using network orders with Field Logistics supply processes.
• Dynamically print instructions on material labels and handling unit labels based on processes concerning field logistics status (cross-docking and hold) for non-stock and service items.
• Send the material label and handling unit label details to the output management print queue.
• Implement BAdI and add custom fields & logos to print custom forms in output management.
• Reverse the receipt of non-stock and supplier items using a two-step reverse wizard in case a warehouse task and handling unit exist for an item.
• Receive procured stock, non-stock, and supplier items for cases where the maintenance/logistics plant and planning plant differ in the requesting maintenance/network order.
• Auto-create pick warehouse task for non-stock and supplier items on removal of hold from maintenance order or network order.
• Receive procured non-valuated materials at the base and remote plant.
• Receive consolidated purchase orders (items with different supply processes) and stock transport orders at the base and remote plant.

 Picture 6: Receive stock, non-stock, and supplier items at both base and remote, acknowledge receipt of the items perform goods receipt and reversal for both inventory managed and extended warehouse managed storage locations.

Process Returned Items

Key Features

With this new release, we introduce a new SAP Fiori app “Process Returned Items” “F7985” app and you can now:

• View and track the statuses of returned items that are sent for post-processing,
• Handle and record the actions performed on returned items,
• Trigger basic post-receipt actions such as the creation of Returns PO (Purchase Order), OBD (Outbound Delivery), Subcontract PO, STO (Stock Transport Order), GI (Goods Issue), etc.,
• Manually maintain other follow-on documents that are created (outside the application) during the return process,
• Maintain notes for any action needed for the item,
• Add and delete post-processing activities for returned items,
• Add attachments relevant to processing the returned items,
• Mark the item life cycle as completed,
• Perform Mass-Edit – Add activities and complete items for more than one item at the same time from the list page.

For more information, see Process Returned Items.

Manage Kits

Key Features

With this new release, we introduce a new SAP Fiori “Manage Kits” (F8005) app for managing kits at remote locations:

• Track kit status,
• Stage and prepare kits in alignment with the required start date from the maintenance or network order, as well as drop point,
• Gain kit overview of the required components, including components that come kitted from the base as well as those that are at remote stock,
• Provide the ability to stage, drop, and issue to order,
• Assemble remote-only kits.

For more information, see Manage Kits. 

Enhancements for Process Cross-Plant Receipts Application

Key Features

Support the business scenario where a planning plant is used only for work center/labor planning for a group of plants, whereas different maintenance plants are chosen in the components. Hence, this feature enables the entry of a different plant on the component level for supply process determination. Material demand is coming from different maintenance plants, components are delivered to these different plants from the base.

This new release enables you to:

• Automatically remove any item with the status Dispatched, Arrived, or Received for Transfer from the Delivery Items/Handling Units/Package/Container tabs if the goods issue for that item is reversed using the standard LoB app,
• Receive items supplied or returned for/from a network order,
• View the order category of an item (maintenance or network),
• Receive deliveries for account-assigned STOs and continue the lifecycle of this item as non-stock,
• Receive non-valuated materials at remote and base locations.

Utilities

SAP S/4HANA Utilities is an established meter-to-cash solution, covering the requirements of different market roles within the utilities industry in various regions around the world, both in regulated and deregulated markets. 

Extended Integration of Sales Orders with Utilities Commodity Contracts

With this new release, we extend the integration of sales orders with utility sales contract management in customer engagement, including:

• Promotion of the following three additional lifecycle events that can be triggered using the SAP S/4HANA sales order to influence existing contracts upon creation of a sales order: change start date, change end date, and contract withdrawal,
• Update the sales order item status if processing of the contract fails, for instance, due to a negative response in the market-communication process.

New life cycle events for sales integration interface

This feature enhances the sales integration interface of sales contract management. It allows users to modify the start and end dates of utility sales contracts through sales orders. Also, a new process called “Withdraw Contract” has been introduced. This process can be executed on any item of a utility’s sales contract, and it can invalidate all items of the corresponding utility sales contract. This means that if a contract item is withdrawn, all other items linked to the same contract will also be invalidated. However, this process has its limitations. It fails when trying to withdraw an item of a contract that is already billed.

This ensures that billed items remain intact and are not affected by the withdrawal process. This provides greater flexibility and control over the contract lifecycle, enabling efficient management of sales contracts. This feature is designed to streamline contract adjustments, reduce manual errors, and improve overall contract administration.

 Picture 7: Extend integration scenarios for commodity contract creation and lifecycle management using APIs for SAP S/4HANA Sales.

For more information, see Utilities Life Cycle Events.

Sales Order or Item Status During Processing

This feature is designed to streamline the sales process by providing a detailed rejection reason during sales integration in the sales order. This feature becomes particularly useful when the sales integration fails on the utility side, even after a successful order creation in Sales. The system now includes a mapping between the error messages that occur in utilities and a Sales-rejection reason. This rejection reason is then reflected in the corresponding sales order item, providing clear and precise information about the cause of the failure. This feature not only enhances the transparency of the sales process but also aids in quick troubleshooting and resolution.

For more information, see Process Overview of Sales Integration. 

Advanced Product Search, Simulation, and Comparison

With this new release, we made improvements for product search, simulation, and comparison for selling within the sales contract management User Interface (UI) of SAP S/4HANA Utilities:

• Support for simulation before configuration is done, for instance, by prefilling some configuration attributes from context,
• Product configuration directly together with product search and simulation already taking configuration input into account,
• More detailed feedback from simulation, including simulation items, and the ability to display selected details such as usage charges or base charges.

UPIL Billing Simulation Integration with Sales Contract Management

This feature aims to enhance the Utilities Product Integration Layer (UPIL) billing simulation API to support configurable attributes, allowing it to be incorporated into various sales contract management processes such as new contract creation or product changes. The feature involves the creation of a "draft" item that allows users to input configuration on the AVC configuration screen for the product they wish to compare. To meet the requirement of simulating configurable commodity products, whether during product development by the product manager or the selling process by the end customer or agent, the UPIL billing simulation API was enhanced to accept name-value pairs. This provides a more flexible and customizable user experience.

 Picture 8: Improve flexibility of simulations for sales, product changes, and product comparisons.

Customizing for Products Used with UPIL and Utilities Sales Contracts

A new customizing entry has been added under the SAP Customizing Implementation Guide, allowing users to define billing simulation items for products. These settings are applicable for the UPIL billing simulation API and for the display in utilities sales contracts. During the creation of a sales order, the utilities simulation is executed to simulate the results of the sales integration. This is facilitated by a mapping setup where steps from utilities are mapped to sales-condition types.

For more information, see Sales Order to Utilities Sales Contract Integration Including UPIL. 

Support for Specific Utilities Devices like Control Boxes

Key Features

With this new release, we introduce a new utilities basic device category called “control box” allowing to support legal requirements in Germany (EnWG, paragraph 14a):

• In the context of the §14a Energy Industry Act, grid operators in the German energy sector are introducing a device with a new category that can be used to provide grid-oriented control of consumption installations, such as charging stations or heat pumps that allow this type of control.
• To represent this in SAP Utilities, the basic device category „Control Box” has been introduced. A device allocation type is available for this, which is used to allocate to a smart meter gateway.
• The new basic device category does not contain any information about the register and is completely integrated into the AMI infrastructure thanks to its AMI data. In addition to providing information about the device, it therefore also enables the device allocation to be communicated to the smart meter gateway using SOA Enterprise Services.

For more information, see Device Category.

Insurance

Insurance provides advanced claims, policy, and billing management capabilities that insurers need to improve efficiency, profitability, and customer loyalty. It enables insurers to implement best-in-class business processes. 

Remote-Enabled Function Modules for 'New Business' and 'Change' Business Processes

Key Features

With this new release, we improved the integration of the Policy Management solution with any external system, and you can perform specific 'New Business' and 'Change' business functions from an external (i.e. remote) system:

Remote-Enabled Function Modules for Change Business Process

This feature enables you to call the following functions from the Change business process by Remote Function Call (RFC):

• Change contract,
• Suspend contract or coverage,
• Perform reinstatement after suspension,
• Change-related contract,
• Edit provisional reported data.

Remote-Enabled Function Modules for New Business Process

With these features, you can do the following in the New Business process:

• You can call the Shift Policy Start Date, Shift Contract Start Date, and Shift Coverage Start Date functions by Remote Function Call (RFC),
• You can process assessment-based data in the Read New Business Application, Create and Process New Business Application, and Change New Business Application remote-enabled function modules (RFMs). 

OData API: Insurance Policy (Version 2.1.0)

Key Features

The RESTful API Insurance Policy Service has been enhanced and is now available with version 2.1.0. The following enhancements are available:

• The service definition now exposes the Assessment Basis entity (table /PM0/ABDABASE) under contracts and coverages.
• The Create Insurance Policy and the Update Insurance Policy operations (POST) now also contain the Assessment Basis entity to process and create assessment basis data under contracts and/or coverages. With this, you can now add, modify, or delete assessment-based data for contracts or coverages.

This API is available on the SAP Business Accelerator Hub (https://api.sap.com/Information) published on the SAP site.

 Picture 9: Extension of service to handle a new entity (/PM0/ABDABASE) that has not been covered so far.

For more information, see Insurance Policy (Version 2.1.0). 

OData API: Insurance Open Application

Key Features

The RESTful API Insurance Open Application has been enhanced and is now available in version 1.1.0. The following enhancements are available:

• You can use this program interface to shift the start date of a policy, contract, or coverage,
• The service definition now exposes the Assessment Basis entity under contracts and coverages,
• The Update Application action now contains the Assessment Basis entity (table /PM0/ABDABASE) for processing both under contract and coverage level. With this, you can add, modify, or delete assessment-based data for contracts or coverages.

This API is available on the SAP Business Accelerator Hub (https://api.sap.com/Information) published on the SAP site.

For more information, see Insurance Open Application (A2X).

Defence & Security

Defense & Security ensures global, multinational peacekeeping and humanitarian missions with integrated defense forces that are responsive, effective, and can be tailored to individual needs. Centralized operations can provide the transparency needed to improve military planning and operations, military supply chain, and maintenance and engineering. 

Improving System Administration and the Foundation for Consistent Data Distribution

This new release brings enhancements to

• improve the SAP Fiori app "Monitor Disconnected Operations Systems" by increasing ease of use,
• enable customer-specific data distribution filters,
• enhance online and offline connectivity,
• provide a report for generic data distribution or change protection,
• and to ensure software release downward compatibility for data distribution technology.

Increase the Usability of the “Monitor Disconnected Operations Systems” app

This feature provides additional capabilities with a focus on usability improvements for the “Monitor Disconnected Operations Systems” app. This feature provides the system administrator with an overview of the data distribution between the central system and multiple remote servers.

The following enhancements are available in the Monitor Disconnected Operations Systems app:

• Choose a remote server and set the connectivity with the central system to online/offline using the Open Connectivity Manager button,
• Online remote servers can be set to offline by invoking the Set System to Disconnected option. Likewise, offline remote servers can be set to online by choosing the Set System to Connected option,
• Display the timestamp of the last synchronization of a remote server with the central system. This information is available on the card for each remote server,
• On the monitor queues object page, the queue details separate facets for the initial data distribution and delta distribution.

 Picture 10: Analyse and understand data distribution more efficiently.

Provide Report for Generic Data Distribution

As a system landscape administrator, you can use this feature to distribute the specific data and change protection that is required in addition to the data distributed using the standard mechanisms of initial or delta data distribution between the central system and a remote server.

The following applies to the generic data distribution: 

• Central system to remote server: Distribution of master data and transactional data with or without change protection,
• Remote server to central system: Distribution of change protection for specific business objects,
• Transaction: DFS_GENERIC_DISTR.

The following business objects are supported in generic data distribution:

• Organizational Flexibility: Person
• Generic: Classification: Class and Characteristic, Document Info Record, Partner
• Maintenance: Equipment, Functional Location, Work Center, Bill of Material, Revision, Master Warranty, Permit, Task List, Production Resource / Tool (PRT), Single Cycle Plan, Strategy Plan, Multiple Counter Plan.
• Materials Management: Material, Stock Transfer Requisition (STR)
• Accounting: Internal Order.
• Project System: Project.

Enhance Capabilities for Online/Offline Connectivity Between the Central System and the Remote Server

This feature provides enhancements to the capability for a system landscape administrator to manually set the connection status between the central system and a remote server to offline and back to online, thereby controlling the stop and restart of processing of data distribution queues.

The following applies to setting the connection status between the central system and a remote server to offline and back to online:

• The sending system checks the system connectivity status to the target system automatically regularly,
• If the system connectivity check is not successful, the system sets the connectivity status to offline,
• If the system connectivity check is successful, the system sets the connectivity status to online and queue processing is restarted automatically,
• Monitoring the system connectivity is integrated with the SAP Computing Center Management System (CCMS).

Provide Customer-Specific Filter Options for Data Distribution

This feature enables you as a system administrator to define filter settings, which reduce the data volume and increase the performance of data distribution between the central system and a remote server.

Customers may have different requirements for filtering data based on their business processes. Based on their business needs, they can now define their filter logic for data distribution in one place for both the initial data distribution and delta distribution.

Enable Release Downward Compatibility for Data Distribution Technology

This feature enables the central system to communicate with remote servers and distribute data even if the systems have different release versions. This feature enables greater flexibility of upgrade times for systems within a disconnected operations landscape.

The software distribution and installation in operational scenarios can be challenging and sometimes not possible due to various restrictions. This situation requires a solution in which data exchange between the systems in the system landscape is an important requirement.

The downward compatibility framework ensures that all systems in the system landscape can communicate across the various mobile applications.

In the central system and on the remote servers, the table /ISDFPS/ALE_SYS contains information about the mobile application used by each system in the system landscape. 

Extend the Scope of Data Distribution and Business Process Coverage for the Remote Server

This new release focuses on enhancing cross-system support for various maintenance and supply processes in communication-challenged environments, improving data quality through immediate entry even when disconnected, ensuring data consistency between the central system and remote servers after data distribution, and guaranteeing data completeness in the central system by transferring additional relevant data from remote servers.

Key Features.

• Distribute the changes of a force element and its assigned business objects from the central system to a remote server,
• Distribute the position assigned to a force element from the central system to a remote server,
• Distribute the person assigned to a position from the central system to a remote server,
• Distribute work orders that are part of a work order hierarchy between the central system and a remote server,
• Distribute a digital signature for a work order operation between the central system and a remote server,
• Edit storage-location-specific data of the material master on a remote server and distribute changes to the central system,
• Enable processes for personal and functional equipment on a remote server,
• Enhance the cross-system supply process (change protection on the line-item level, change supplier storage location, and change protection pop-up),
• Distribute change documents from a remote server to the central system,
• Provide multiple enhancements in the area of change protection.

 Picture 11: Improve data consistency in the central system and in remote servers after initial and delta data distribution.

Public Sector

The Public Sector industry provides solutions for activities and services provided by public authorities at the federal, state, and municipal levels. Solutions are provided for the financial management of services, incomes, taxes, and applications in conjunction with citizens and commercial organizations. The Public Sector Management (PSM) solutions are designed to manage the government income and expenditure budget. 

Increasing Visibility on Grantor Programs, Applications, Agreements, and Claims

Key Features

This new release provides an overview of the most important key performance indicators for grantor applications, agreements, and claims by using the by using the following SAP Fiori apps:

• My Grantor Program
• My Grantor applications
• My Grantor agreements
• My Grantor Claims

My Agreements app: With the new “My Agreements” (F8056) app, you can get an overview of the total amounts (authorized and billing requests) related to all grantor agreements in the system.

For more information, see My Agreements.

My Applications app: With the new “My Applications” (F8055) app, you can get an overview of the total amounts (authorized, requested, and eligible amounts) related to all grantor applications in the system.

For more information, see My Applications.

My Claims app: With the new “My Claims” (F8057) app, you can get an overview of the total amounts (authorized, eligible, billing request, and requested) related to all grantor claims in the system.

For more information, see My Claims.

 Picture 12: Gain real-time insight into key information about grantor applications, agreements, and claims. 

Additional Controls for Creating Snapshot Versions

Key Features

With this new release, you can create new snapshot versions either using the Business Rule Framework plus (BRFplus) 'TRM Update FB' action or using the newly added PSCD event P355 to deal with the straight-to-zero standard process.

The key features are:

• Implement additional controls for snapshot creation by utilizing user status, specifying the snapshot type, or leveraging the business rule framework,
• Enhance usability by integrating date and time information for each snapshot version, improving the user experience,
• Provide a direct link between billing documents and precise datasets (form bundle or snapshot version) used for calculating the tax liability.

For more information, see Creating New Snapshot Versions.

Business Rule Framework plus (BRFplus)

Business Rule Framework plus (BRFplus) provides a comprehensive application programming interface (API) and user interface (UI) for defining and processing business rules. It allows you to model rules intuitively and reuse these rules in different applications.

The interface between a business rule modeled with BRFplus and an application using that rule is provided by a BRFplus function. The function serves as a container for the entire business logic of a rule, no matter how complex it may be. Rules are implemented as expressions that are assigned to a function. The rule input is known as context and the rule output is called result. Context and result consist of data objects of one of the following types: element, structure, and table.

BRFplus supports features such as simulation, trace, transport, XML export, and import.

 Picture 13: BRFplus Overview.

For more information, see Business Rule Framework plus (BRFplus). 

Additional Options for Controlling the Billing and Invoicing Processes

Key Features

With this new release, three additional features are introduced to give you more control over the invoicing process:

• Set up the invoice process through standard configuration,
• Improve the API to return the new billing document created during the process of the form bundle(s),
• Pass the new header attributes of the new billing document during the amendment process using Business Rule Framework plus (BRFplus).

For more information, see Personalizing the Billing Process. 

New Timestamp in the Form Bundle Status Log

Key Features

This feature provides you with enhancements to the form bundle status log in the Form Processing Framework (FPF). A new timestamp column has been added to display the status record with micro-second precision. The activity column has been removed to further streamline the process, and the Status ID is now available in the status column.

For more information, see Form Bundle Status Log.

How Customers and Partners Can Give Input to the Roadmap of the SAP S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition

We would like to provide you with a comprehensive overview of how and where you can raise your voice to influence developments in SAP S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition going forward.

For more information, see the blog post from my colleague Anja Wilde here.

For general roadmap information please check the SAP S/4HANA Roadmap. 

Thanks for reading this blog post. 

If you are also interested in other Lines of Business and Industries for this new SAP S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition 2023 release, I would like to draw your attention to my link collection blog – The Link Collection.

If you want to learn more about SAP S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition, join our Partner Community. This group focuses on providing enhanced learnings and periodic updates concerning the SAP S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition product. Our goal is to facilitate collaboration with your peers and SAP subject matter experts.

For more information on SAP S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition, check out the following links:

• SAP S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition release info: sap.com/s4hana
• SAP S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition Community here
• SAP S/4HANA PSCC Digital Enablement Wheel here
• Inside SAP S/4HANA Podcast here
• Best practices for SAP S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition here
• Help Portal Product Page here
• Feature Scope Description here
• What’s New here

Follow the SAP S/4HANA Cloud tag and the PSCC_Enablement tag to stay up to date with the latest blog posts, or myself via @VoglerChrist and LinkedIn