SAP PaPM Cloud: What's New as of 2022-06-10?

[paulgabog]

Less than a month ago, one of my colleagues released a blogpost SAP PaPM Cloud : “When” to expect “What” to reach your tenant where the frequency of 'What's New' blog post series were revealed. To fulfill that promise, I am here to deliver you the next 'What's New' in SAP Profitability and Performance Management Cloud.

Modeling Screen

1.      Modeling Validation

Validations for both Modeling and Visualize Screens have been enhanced to check inconsistencies and preempt an unstable environment. A new icon, Validation, is now available in the header menu which communicates mandatory  changes a user needs to update to allow Saving for the purpose of a stable Modeling environment and Visualize chart.

Modeling

Visualize

2.      Function Activation State

In Modeling Application, additional indicators  can be seen in functions to show Modeling users the Activation State of each modeling function.  This feature is added in order to evidently see whether a function has the following states:

1. 1) X icon when function has activation errors
   2) Warning icon when the function has not been activated
   3) Check icon when function is activated

Note: Once environment is refreshed, the Check icon for successful activation icon will not be currently retained.

3.      Model View Odata

Initially released to support SAP Analytics Cloud integration, Model View Odata allows to read from an external OData with the proper setup of four main connection components such as Destination Name, Service Root, Entity Set Name and Maximum Page Size. For more information about this topic, you can check the blogpost entitled: How to setup Model View OData.

4.      RFA Sales and Distribution

Remote Function Adapter are being enhanced to cover new types such as Sales and Distribution which function the same as with how it was used in On Premise Version.

This RFA type is mainly used for integration scenarios with SAP ERP or SAP S/4HANA. In addition, this functionality enables creation of sales order, inquiry or quotation in SAP ERP or SAP S/4HANA Sales and Distribution module from SAP PaPM. Mass processing enabled. Multiple and different documents can be created at once.

It makes use of the following Sales and Distribution BAPIs:
1) BAPI_SALESORDER_CREATEFROMDAT2
2) BAPI_INQUIRY_CREATEFROMDATA2
3) BAPI_QUOTATION_CREATEFROMDATA2.

Process Management Screen

5.      Custom Workflow Checks for Activities

In order to further validate the data we have in SAP PaPM Cloud, a special check mechanism has been introduced so that only the Activities with fully maintained data can be completed. For instance if there is an editable query, where data for twenty (20) countries has to be maintained, then the activity should only be switchable to completed / in approval, if data for all twenty (20) countries is there.

The configuration of this feature is possible by adding a check in an Input/Output Activity on Process Template level as seen below.

In Process Management, when a user clicks on one of the workflow action buttons “Complete”, “Submit” or “Approve” the workflow checks will be executed and only if no errors or aborts occur, then the workflow state of the activity should change. Otherwise, the workflow state will be unchanged.

Error and Abort Checks when a process Activity has been submitted for approval.

As before, the information of the Checks are still the same and and made available  in our SAP PaPM Cloud documentation.

Show/Analyze Screen

6.      Editing of Key Figures in Analyze Screen (Disaggregation)

In case the Query has been set up with as editable key figure, this will enable the data update in Analyze Screen.

The precondition above will allow users to check the improved user interface improvement wherein only the cells where change will happen will only be enabled.

Once ‘Enter’ key is pressed, the cell will be updated including a notification that the Data has been updated successfully.

In addition to the above improvements, support for operations on granular data is also added by introducing Disaggregation. It is the most common technique to support planning and can be done on existing data and new data. In this release, Top-Down Distribution option will be available which helps users to disaggregate plan data entered from aggregated level to the most granular level. Entered characteristic data values are always used directly without modification. Entered key figure data values can be top-down distributed in several ways and this is defined individually per key figure and thus can differ from one key figure to another in the same data set.

Navigation to the functionality will be possible by:
1) Showing Totals either at top or bottom
2) Choosing the dropdown button in the cell of a results row
3) Select the disaggregation technique which user wants.

Below are the possible combinations and expectations user can use:

Disaggregation Type	Distribution Type	Results
Total
	Even	the input values will be distributed equally to all rows.
	Proportional	the values will be proportional to the current value.
	Proportional with Reference	the values will be distributed proportionally based on Reference Property (another key figure value) defined.
Difference
	Even	the difference to value entered will be disaggregated and distributed equally to all rows.
	Proportional	the difference to value entered will be disaggregated and distributed proportional to current value.
	Proportional with Reference	the difference to value entered will be disaggregated and will be distributed proportionally based on Reference Property (another key figure value) defined.
Addition
	Even	the input value will be added to current value and distributed equally to all rows.
	Proportional	the input value will be added to current value and distributed proportional to current value.
	Proportional with Reference	the value entered will be added to current value and distributed proportionally based on Reference Property (another key figure value) defined.
Multiply
	Even	the input value will be multiplied to current value and distributed equally to all rows.
	Proportional	the input value will be multiplied to current value and distributed proportional to current value.
	Proportional with Reference	the value entered will be multiplied to current value and will be distributed proportionally based on Reference Property (another key figure value) defined.

Supplementary Value Adjustment option is also available which is described below

Value Adjustment
	No Adjustment	values are distributed equally and value difference is not adjusted.
	Last Row	values are distributed equally and value difference is added to last row.
	Biggest Value Row	values are distributed equally and value difference is added to row with highest value.
	Absolute Biggest Value Row	values are distributed equally and value difference added to row with highest value not taking the +/- sign into account.

7.      Filter per Process Selection fields

In Process Management, when user selects specific activity and clicks show/analyze icons, the chosen screen is open with chosen process field selection as a default filter for the screen.

Information below shows the selection defaults which are expected to be available once the screen is launched.

Show and Analyze Screen – where URL is extended with selection default information respectively.

Roles and Authorizations

8.      SAP PaPM Cloud Roles Stabilization

Roles and Authorizations relevant in operating modeling, execution and analysis of data has been enhanced and is already posted in detail in the documentation section. Just one thing to note, in this release, the functionality has been aligned directly on the proper screens which a specific role can access. In case you suddenly encountered that your user is unable to access an application, please have a check on the Roles and Authorizations and ask your Administrator to adjust your user based on your needs.

There you go!  Are you wanting for more? Bookmark the SAP PaPM Cloud Community section and
stay tuned to forthcoming updates. From here on, you’ll know what the next features  the solution has cooked. Ciao!

[Chanchal]

Love the disaggregation functionality in editable queries. just the right thing for so many data entry requirements.

[paulgabog]

Thanks Chanchal for always sharing these blogposts in our LinkedIn community!

[Chanchal]

That's the least I can do. Thanks for always taking time to share the good content.

[josue_tiburcio]

Hi everyone, i just was triying the analize screen with a editable query, so i find a Bulk Edit button, but it's always stay disable, did you know whats for this button and how can i enable it?

[gtp241]

Hi,

Can this function be used in Visual Modeler only, or in Expert UI as well?

Thanks.

[edwiromero_s]

Hi! After this upgrade 2 models  that we have (in 2 differents BTPs) are not able to be executed on the Process management page, in other words, the RUN button isn't enabled.

[emanuele_fumeo]

Thanks for highlighting this, Chanchal! Great feature indeed

And thanks Paul too

[emanuele_fumeo]

Hi Domas, please note this is a PaPM Cloud blog post, so there is no expert UI, that is only available in PaPM on premise

[gtp241]

Good point, thanks.

Do you know, is the disaggregation functionality available for PaPM on premise?

Thanks.

[Samantha_Yasay]

Hi Edwin,

Greetings!

Regarding the question you raised, may we kindly ask what activity you are trying to execute and also the process state of the process instance you are working on? A screenshot of the process instance configuration will be a great help for us to investigate the issue.

The execution of an activity (run button) will be enabled if the process instance is in the "Deployed" process state and if you are executing an Execution Activity Type.

Thanks and Best Regards,
Samantha

[emanuele_fumeo]

Unfortunately I don't know. Let's wait for Paul to answer your question.

[edwiromero_s]

Hi Samantha, Thanks.

Problem solved, a collegue that has experience in On Prem as well told me the same as you,  the execution instances should be in "Deployed" state to work. But in the previous Cloud version that wasn't a requirement, the processes worked on Open Status as well.

Thanks again Samantha.

Regards!

[arliesanisidro]

Hi Josue,

Greetings!

Regarding your inquiry, the Analyze Screen displays the results of a function on a pivot table mode. This is why the Bulk Edit option is disabled for Analyze Screen since its in pivot table view (enabled).

On the other hand, user can perform bulk editing in the Show Screen (with pivot mode disabled) by selecting two or more data rows, which will then enable the option to update selected values accordingly. Kindly note that bulk editing is only applicable for Model Tables and Editable Queries which means that: in Show of a Join function for example, the bulk edit option would remain disabled even if user selects two or more rows.

We hope this helps. Thank you.

Kind Regards,
Arlie

[gfaerber]

In SAP PaPM onPrem, EE and PCE this requirement is covered by the underlying BW, so you can do that when you model your query on top of a BW Cube already.
In SAP PaPM Cloud there is no BW, so that is the reason it had to be done like described.