Intelligent Procurement in S/4HANA Webcast Summary

[TammyPowlas]

This was a recent ASUG webcast
Source: SAP
From manual to automate..
Want to automate, streamline
Digital procurement is "nothing special any more"; no paperwork required
Move towards automated procurement

Intelligent procurement - proactive insight to action
Machine learning not new; now have the CPU and power to run it
Brings things to your attention

Automated Procurement - pattern, automate it
- trigger based on ML algorithm
- RPA bot for automation
- IoT - monitor PO delivery

Autonomous Procurement
- sophisticated, strategic sourcing decisions
- when create a sourcing event - RFQ, which suppliers to invite
"on the horizon"
Direction

Strategic - good relations with suppliers

Day to day - still need to process
- automate effort, bring "smartness" to save topic

Source: SAP - what is Intelligent Procurement today
IoT - sensor data - smart watches, smart homes
- monitor PO deliveries
- tag with sensor, purchaser is notified

Automation - RPA is one example
- repetitive tasks to automate
- use RPA to create purchase requisition with Excel
- import incoming invoices
- automate entire procure to pay process (being investigated)

Qualtrics
- improve buying experience for employees for self service procurement - requestor can order via catalog
- system asks 'did you find what you were looking for'

Machine Learning
- blue lines -already delivered by SAP
- need license - "Procurement Intelligence"
HANA PAi

More sophisticated use cases use SAP Cloud Platform

Blockchain - one use case, avoid fraud in RFQ

Conversational AI
- Alexa, Siri
- Smart buying - requisition by chat bot - by chat or voice

Operational Bot: Source: SAP
"show me all overdue purchase orders" - a short cut

Situational Handling- Source: SAP
- core functionalities - proactively inform end users on things that require attention
- no additional license, need to activate them - SAP delivers template, and you adjust with your needs

Three things - trigger, related information, proposed action

related information - historic information

Proposed action - alternative suppliers

Source: SAP

UX In Procurement
- overview
- most important items at a glance

Source: SAP

What delivered, where delivered, which use case available

Links provided by SAP

SAP S/4HANA Intelligent Technologies
Requisitioners: https://youtu.be/T9Wfm Xci0M

Operational Purchasers: https://youtu.be/104hSZpZRAs
Strategic Purchasers: https://youtu.be/t9ijHv7QLJE

Reduce Free Text items with SAP S/4HANA Procurement:
https://youtu.be/4ZlydAF2MQY

Reduce Off Contract Spend with SAP S/4HANA Procurement
https://youtu.be/GD7FTtHvBM4
(Prototype with Hololens : https://youtu.be/4kL2mxWIHso )

Avoid Delivery Deficits with SAP S/4HANA Procurement
https://youtu.be/75m0GxhcPW8

Optimize Corporate Purchasing with Machine Learning
https://youtu.be/zj3u2SJluMY
More information about SAP Procurement Intelligence:
https://help.sap.com/viewer/p/SAP_S4HANA_CLOUD_INTELLIGENT_INSIGHTS

Information about iRPA
https://rapid.sap.com/bp/#/IRPA_S4HANA
SAP S/4HANA 1909 Release Highlights
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=91U_muUPTpM
Introduction to Fiori 3
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGc6I79OgCI
Secure Bidding with Blockchain
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4EZRUzh8rPo

Q&A:

Q: How are recommendations from ML different from MRP runs?
A: What is here is not directly related from MRP; this covered that the requisition is in place

Q: For those not on S/4, can chat bots be implemented in ECC?
A: Propose material group use case - embedded in S/4HANA - algorithm on SCP, could connect via ECC but it would be a custom implementation

Source: SAP

Source: SAP

Source: SAP

Legal disclaimer; things in the future are subject to change during the webcast

 

I think this helped me understand where I need additional licenses and where I would need SAP Cloud Platform (also additional licenses)