SAP Best Practices for SAP Integrated Business Planning: How to get it

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If you have read the other blogs about SAP Best Practices for SAP Integrated Business Planning for Supply Chain (SAP IBP), you know already a lot about the benefits, the assets, and the preconfigured processes. You know where to find all the assets (SAP Signavio Process Navigator), how to download them and so on. In this blog, you find answers to further questions related to your own SAP IBP tenants. 

Is the SAP Best Practices content already available in my test tenant? 

When SAP IBP Operations provisions a brand-new Test tenant (including SAP IBP Starter Edition and partner (Cloud Test & Demo) tenants), all time-series based planning and demand-driven replenishment solution processes of SAP Best Practices for SAP IBP are pre-installed.  The default option is to provision the new test tenant as a copy of our SAP Best Practices for SAP IBP "master" tenant. Please be aware that the preconfigured analytics stories are not pre-installed. The order-based planning solution processes with planning area SAP7F need to be installed manually by the customer. 

In some cases, Test tenants may be provisioned without SAP Best Practices for SAP IBP.  Examples include: where a Test tenant is copied from another Test tenant (e.g. Test to Development); tenants that have been migrated from older versions of SAP IBP (e.g. SAP IBP release 4.0 or SAP IBP release 5.0); tenants that have been migrated from one data center to another, and in some cases of system landscape extension. For example, you received your system before 1908 and did not migrate to Normalization; if you order a system landscape extension, this will be delivered w/o SAP Best Practices content. 

Production tenants do not have SAP Best Practices for SAP IBP pre-installed, but are instead delivered as "blank" tenants.  This is because Production tenants are populated directly from Test tenants using the transport functionality.

What is the pre-installed planning area called?

Starting with SAP IBP release 1808, the pre-installed planning area with the SAP Best Practices for SAP IBP content will be named "UNIPA". The description of the planning area includes the release, for example Unified Planning Area for 1808.

For the SAP IBP releases 1708 - 1805, the pre-installed planning area with the SAP Best Practices for SAP IBP content was named "UNIPA" + the SAP IBP release number (e.g., "UNIPA1708", "UNIPA1711").

Planning areas for previous SAP IBP releases were named as follows:

• IBP release 1705: UNIPA07
• IBP release 1702: UNIPA06
• IBP release 1611: UNIPA05

How can I verify whether the Best Practices content is installed, and whether it is up-to-date?

The best way is to use the Configuration app under Planning Area and Details and search for an active planning area starting with "UNIPA". 

If there is no "UNIPA" planning area, then the SAP Best Practices for SAP IBP have most likely not been pre-installed when the tenant was provisioned.

If you do find a "UNIPA" planning area, the SAP Best Practices for SAP IBP have most likely been pre-installed when the tenant was provisioned.  The description of the planning area will tell you the version (see above).  For example, planning area "UNIPA07" means that SAP Best Practices were pre-installed with SAP IBP release 1705 and the associated SAP Best Practices content.

How can I log on and view the SAP Best Practices for SAP IBP content?

The pre-installed content is created in the "master" tenant with the business user "UNIPA".  This business user should also exist in a Test tenant with the pre-installed content.  Therefore, you can copy the "UNIPA" business user's profile to your own business user, or even create an SAP Cloud Identity (SCI) user ID and assign it to the "UNIPA" business user.

Once I log in, where can I find the SAP Best Practices for SAP IBP content?

The pre-installed content can be found in the dedicated Fiori apps:

• Charts in Advanced Analytics (starting with SAP IBP release 1705);
• Dashboards in Advanced Dashboards;
• Forecast models in Manage Forecast Models;
• Segmentation rules in Manage ABC/XYZ Segmentation Rules;
• Customer alerts in Define and Subscribe to Custom Alerts;
• Planning view templates in Excel IBP ribbon under Template Admin → Templates; etc.
• Planner Workspaces

Is there any special configuration for the analytics content?

There are two global parameters that control the visibility of charts and dashboards: CHARTS_PUBLIC and DASHBOARDS_PUBLIC.  Both parameters are set in the Configuration app under Global Configuration.  If set to "false", only those charts or dashboards that were created by or shared with your own user are visible.

There are several ways to view the pre-installed charts/dashboards:

• Add your user to the user group UNIPA (preferred option); or
• Set the global parameters mentioned above to "true"; or
• Log on with the "UNIPA" business user (see above); or
• Change the owner or share the charts/dashboards in the Content Administration app (this option is available starting with IBP release 1708).

Is the SAP Best Practices for SAP IBP content updated with each SAP IBP release?

The content available via the SAP Best Practices for SAP IBP package is updated with each SAP IBP release.

However, the SAP Best Practices for SAP IBP content that has been pre-installed or added in your IBP system is not automatically updated with each IBP release.  The SAP Best Practices content will remain in the state as when the tenant was first provisioned or when the content was added.  If you want the SAP Best Practices content to be updated to the latest version, you will need to manually install the latest content (see next question below).

How can I install SAP Best Practices for SAP IBP?

If the SAP Best Practices for SAP IBP have not been pre-installed when the tenant was provisioned, or if the SAP Best Practices content is from a previous release and needs to be updated, it is possible to manually install the latest SAP Best Practices content.

Download the SAP Best Practices package, with all documentation of how to install the content, from https://me.sap.com/processnavigator/SolS/EARL_SolS-034 (click on the asset "Download all Accelerators for SAP Best Practices for SAP Integrated Business Planning" under assets).

The package includes all installation instructions, including how to create the planning area (by copying sample planning area SAPIBP1), how to upload sample data and how to install all the additional application content.  This should take approximately 2-3 days' effort for all IBP components (less if you pick and choose only certain components).

What is the difference between sample planning area SAPIBP1 and UNIPA? 

​The sample planning area SAPIBP1 is: 

• Delivered as part of the SAP IBP solution, like all other sample planning areas (SAP4/6/7/8)
• Available in all SAP IBP systems
• Used as a basis for creating custom planning areas
• Not an active planning area that can be directly used to load data or execute planning processes; it must be copied to your own custom planning area
• Covers the time-series planning processes for sales and operations, demand, inventory, and supply chain control tower
• Updated with every release

​The planning area UNIPA is: 

• Created as an active planning area by copying SAPIBP1
• Pre-installed in newly deployed non-productive systems / starter edition / partner test, demonstration, and development systems
• Includes additional configuration and sample data
• Can be directly used for process testing, demo, and evaluation
• Not automatically updated with each IBP release if pre-installed or added to your SAP IBP system

What is the starter edition and how to get it? 

The starter edition is a Proof of Concept tenant with an activated copy of the sample planning areas SAPIBP1 and SAP8 including the preconfiguration for the related solution processes and sample data. With the starter edition, you can immediately execute the sample end-to-end planning processes in SAP IBP without manual configuration. Here you find more information about the starter edition, like pricing, contract duration and so on.

What is the Cloud Test & Demo for SAP Integrated Business Planning and how to get it? 

The Cloud Test & Demo includes the same content as the starter edition, but it's only for SAP partners. Here the link to the details. 

And here you can find some general links: 

• Back to the overview blog
• Process Navigator 
• Process Navigator direct link to SAP Best Practices for SAP Integrated Business Planning (latest ver...