Consumer Industries in SAP S/4HANA 2021 – Part 2

[Chr_Vogler]

This industry cluster provides solutions to companies that relate to products purchased by individuals and households rather than by manufacturers and industries.

Consumer products (CP) companies face pressures from all sides, including empowered consumers, new competitors, and channel partners that are competing with their own private label products. Added to all that, tremendous volatility persists in basic costs, from raw materials to labor, to shipping and beyond.

Bringing SAP S/4HANA and intelligent technology together as a digital foundation results in a more flexible and intelligent enterprise. To achieve next-generation business processes, companies need Intelligent ERP to continuously enhance and extend innovative business services and applications built on emerging technologies. Many consumer products companies have already begun the journey.

In this blog series, I will give you an expert view, from product experts to product experts, of some selected highlights for Industries of our SAP S/4HANA 2021 release. All these innovations will also be available for SAP S/4HANA Cloud, private edition.

The blog is built as a series of 6 parts and present the key highlights for:

• Part 1: Consumer: Consumer Products and Fashion and Vertical Business


• Part 2: Consumer: Retail and Wholesale Distribution


• Part 3: Financial Services


• Part 4: Public Services


• Part 5: Energy & Resources


• Part 6: Discrete

In this second blog, you can find information on functions that are used by Retail and Wholesale Distribution Industries.

Retail

Assortment Management

In the retail industry, one of the central strategic and operational challenges is the definition of assortments. An assortment is a collection of products that are available for sale in a certain store as of a specific date. This also implies the timely procurement of these products for the store. The relationships between products and the corresponding retail sites are mapped as assignments, which are time-dependent. Each relationship controls whether and for which time period the respective product can be ordered for the corresponding store. Each store is related to a subset of all available products and vice versa.

The process of defining such relationships is referred to as listing. Each relationship is always time-dependent, that is, the definition of the time period, for which a product can be ordered, received, and sold, is essential.

The assortment module management solution provides a flexible and immediate approach to defining such relationships. Usually, this is done by means of assortment modules that serve as the basic concept of the solution. While the relationships define the procurement periods of products at retail sites, sales periods originate in the product master data and are thus not targeted by the assortment module management solution.

Key features

With the SAP S/4HANA 2021 release, you can assign a store to exist assortment modules. Assigning a store to an assortment module is a vital step when defining assortments because an assortment definition can be described as a relationship between products and stores. Thus, together with the respective product assignment, your store assignment entails the corresponding listing condition and initiates the generation of the product master data for the assigned store.

Picture 1: Increase flexibility, speed, and ease within the listing process by performing store assignments with multiple assignment periods.

• The "Assign Store to Assortment Modules" SAP Fiori app enables assortment specialists, product master data specialists, and store managers to do the following:
  
  
  
  • Assign a store to one or more assortment modules for multiple assignment periods
  
  
  • Copy the entire assortment of a reference store to a new store as of a specific date
  
  
  • Add and adapt the time periods of store assignments for assortment modules
  
  
  • Terminate store assignments by the end of the current day
  
  
  • Exclude products for single stores and undo such product exclusions
  
  
  
  


• The "Application Logs - Assortment Module Management" SAP Fiori app enables assortment specialists to conveniently display and monitor application log entries that originate from the assortment module management solution.
  
  
  
  • The enhancements to the "Manage Assortment Modules" SAP Fiori app enable assortment specialists to do the following:
  
  
  • Assign an assortment user to an assortment module for multiple assignment periods
  
  
  • Adapt the time periods for which the products are assigned to an assortment module version
  
  
  • Adapt the time periods for which the assortment users are assigned to an assortment module
  
  
  • Define whether a product is mandatory for the assigned assortment of users
  
  
  
  


• Version 0002 of the "Assortment Module (A2X)" OData service facilitates the following in addition to the first version's scope:


• Create assortment modules as deep entities and delete them


• Assign an assortment user to an assortment module for multiple assignment periods


• Read and delete such assortment user assignments


• Adapt the assortment user's assignment periods.

Product Taxonomy Management

With this feature about the Migration of Retail Merchandise Category and Merchandise Category Hierarchy Node, you can use the following migration objects to migrate retail-specific data from your existing system to SAP S/4HANA.

You can use the following migration objects to migrate retail-specific:

Merchandise Category Hierarchy Node (MCHN) Characteristic Value Restriction

• MCHN characteristic value restriction

Merchandise Category

• Merchandise category


• Merchandise category text


• Assignment of characteristic to merchandise category

Merchandise Category Characteristic Value Restriction

• Merchandise category characteristic value restriction

Merchandise Category Hierarchy Node

• Merchandise category hierarchy node


• Text


• Characteristic assignment

Merchandise Category Hierarchy Node Assignment

• Assignment of merchandise category hierarchy nodes

Merchandise Category Reference Article

• Assign merchandise category with a reference article

For more information about retail-specific migration object details, in addition to standard Product migration object, see SAP Help.

 

Store Merchandise and Inventory: Count stock ad hoc

Store associates need to keep a track of the stock count for the products on a need basis for each storage location available in the store. The app helps to increase the efficiency of the store replenishment process.

As a store associate, you can submit a stock count document and an inventory document is automatically created in the SAP S/4HANA system.

Picture 2: Increased efficiency of the store replenishment process.

Key features

• Count the stock quantity of multiple products in a storage location through a single stock count document


• Add products in the stock count document by scanning the barcode (GTIN) or by using the search functionality


• Count and track the products from different placement


• Count products in each shelf/placement with multiple units of measure


• Scan the products for a particular placement


• Send the completed stock count document using email


• Print the completed stock count document, if required


• View the stock count document which posted recently

 

Store Merchandise and Inventory: Adjust Mass Stock

Store associates need an intuitive app to adjust the stock of multiple products for different reasons to maintain the stock accuracy of products available in the store. Additionally, the app helps to increase the productivity of the store and the replenishment process of products to the store.

Picture 3: Save time when adding products and increase the store associate's productivity and eliminate end-user errors in scanning.

As a store associate, you can use the app to adjust the stock quantity of products at the store and storage location levels for different reasons that you can define such as write-offs, wastage, breakage, giveaways, and own consumption by scanning the barcode (GTIN) of products and posting the adjustment in the system quickly. The stock quantity will be updated immediately after the posting.

With the SAP S/4HANA 2021 release, we enable store app 'Adjust mass stock' for RFID and now you can:

• Consume RFID data in the SAP Fiori app “Adjust Mass Stock”


• Add products to the app using an RFID mobile reader, in addition to the ability to add products using camera scanning or laser.

 

Store Merchandise and Inventory: Integration for click-and-collect scenarios

With this new release we introduce the integrations for an e-commerce handover to customers in brick-and-mortar stores, such as when orders are collected using lockers:

• OData Service API (service name: API_STOREPICKUPORDER) to retrieve all relevant information of a given click-and-collect order and to also book the handover of orders to customers using SAP S/4HANA


• Provision of the following operations: (1) read a store pick-up order; (2) hand over a store pick-up order

Integration enabling the relevant data of an e-commerce order to be sent to the POS system in case a customer wants to add products to order or denies a product during handover; implementation of a new BAdI (RFM_ST_PICK_ORD_INFOTO_POS_MOD) method (MODIFY_INFO_TO_POS) required.

The benefits here are:

• Use information from store pick-up orders for goods issue and billing at the time of order hand over to the customer, through the API


• Send the data of a BOPIS (buy online, pickup in-store) order to a POS system during hand over of the order to customers, through the BAdI

 

Wholesale Distribution

The wholesale distribution industry acts as a vital link in the global supply chain and is responsible for distributing the majority of products between business partners around the world.

Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, distributors have been challenged with unpredictable demand and increased strain on customer relationships, supply chain disruptions, and an intense need to safeguard the workforce.

With the new release of SAP S/4HANA, we continue our innovation in this industry to help our customers to turn these challenges into core differentiators.

 

Settlement Management: Enabling quick insights on personnel settlements

With SAP S/4HANA 2021 release, we have a new SAP Fiori app to display a fact sheet of a personnel settlement document.

This SAP Fiori enables you to display personnel settlement document data that was created in Settlement Management based on commissions data transferred from SAP Sales. You can enter the personnel settlement document directly using the Enterprise Search. You can display the details of the personnel settlement document data from within the Manage Personnel Settlement Documents app and Monitor Personnel Settlement Documents app.

Picture 4: Quickly overview a personnel settlement document, for example, when searching for a document using the global search functionality.

Key Features

You can use this app to:

• Check the status of a personnel settlement document


• View the number of commissions for an individual personnel settlement document

 

Settlement Management: Schedule jobs to process documents and contracts in settlement management

With this release, you can manually schedule the completion of settlement management documents. You can specify which settlement management documents are to be considered in the job (for example, only those with a specific settlement document type, settlement process type, posting date, or bill-to-party). The system then completes the selected settlement management documents at the appointed time.

Picture 5: Enablement about monitoring of scheduled settlement management documents using processing control and application logs.

Key Features

Provide job scheduling apps to schedule different operations in the area of settlement management:

• Schedule completion of settlement management documents. With this feature, you can manually schedule the completion of settlement management documents. You can specify which settlement management documents are to be considered in the job (for example, only those with a specific settlement document type, settlement process type, posting date, or bill-to-party). The system then completes the selected settlement management documents at the appointed time.


• Schedule revoke completion of settlement management documents. With this feature, you can manually schedule a job to revoke the completion of settlement management documents. You can specify which settlement management documents are to be considered in the job (for example, only those with a specific settlement document type, settlement process type, posting date, or bill-to-party). At the appointed time, the system then revokes the completion of the selected settlement management documents.


• Schedule mass pricing of settlement management documents. With this feature, you can manually schedule the mass pricing of settlement management documents. You can specify which settlement management documents are to be considered in the job (for example, only those with a specific settlement document type, settlement process type, posting date, or bill-to-party). The system then carries out the mass pricing for the selected settlement management documents at the appointed time.


• Schedule message processing of settlement management documents. With this feature, you can manually schedule the message processing of settlement management documents, for example, the processing of messages with the status Not processed or In preparation. You can specify which settlement documents are to be considered in the job, for example, only those with a certain posting date or document date. The system then processes the messages at the appointed time and, provided the job completes successfully, changes the message status to Successfully processed.


• Schedule message redetermination of settlement management documents. With this feature, you can manually schedule the message redetermination of settlement management documents. You can specify which settlement management documents are to be considered in the job (for example, only those with a specific settlement document type, settlement process type, posting date, or bill-to-party). The system then redetermines the messages for the selected settlement management documents at the appointed time.


• Schedule creation of settlement document lists. With this feature, you can manually schedule a job to create settlement document lists. You can specify which settlement management documents are to be considered in the job (for example, only those with a specific settlement document type, settlement process type, posting date, or bill-to-party). At the appointed time, the system then creates the settlement document lists.


• Schedule creation of supplier settlements. With this feature, you can manually schedule a job to create supplier settlements. You can specify which settlement management documents are to be considered in the job (for example, only those with a specific settlement document type, settlement process type, posting date, or bill-to-party). At the appointed time, the system then creates the supplier settlements.


• Schedule creation of supplier settlement lists. With this feature, you can manually schedule a job to create supplier settlement lists. You can specify which settlement management documents are to be considered in the job (for example, only those with a specific settlement document type, settlement process type, posting date, or bill-to-party). At the appointed time, the system then creates the supplier settlement lists.


• Schedule creation of customer settlements. With this feature, you can manually schedule a job to create customer settlements. You can specify which settlement management documents are to be considered in the job (for example, only those with a specific settlement document type, settlement process type, posting date, or bill-to-party). At the appointed time, the system then creates the customer settlements.


• Schedule creation of customer settlement lists. With this feature, you can manually schedule a job to create customer settlement lists. You can specify which settlement management documents are to be considered in the job (for example, only those with a specific settlement document type, settlement process type, posting date, or bill-to-party). At the appointed time, the system then creates the customer settlement lists.

 

Settlement Management: Analyze settlement document pricing elements and document flow

You can now view pricing and account assignment information of a current settlement document and analyze the full document flow in a detailed way. Dependent on the relevancy of settlement documents, you can now view contract accounting information and journal entry data.

With this release, we made enhancements for the object page for a settlement document within the SAP Fiori app "Manage Settlement Documents" include the following features:

• Display of pricing elements for header and for items


• Display of a basic document flow


• Option to open a network graph for the document flow allowing a more detailed analysis


• Account assignment configuration analysis

Picture 6: Improved transparency for the underlying business process of a settlement document by providing an overview and a detailed view of the document flow.

 

Settlement Management: Manage condition contracts for sales rebates, purchasing rebates, and royalties

With SAP S/4HANA 2021 release, we have 3 new SAP Fiori apps:

• Manage Customer Condition Contracts: With this feature, you can get an overview of supplier condition contracts related to purchasing rebate processing with the ability to search for specific supplier condition contracts, as well as to perform actions quickly like, for example, lock and release supplier condition contracts for settlement. You can navigate to a specific supplier condition contract to display additional information such as the current contract value and open accruals amount


• Manage Supplier Condition Contracts: This feature enables you to get an overview of your customer condition contracts related to sales rebate processing with the ability to search for and navigate to specific customer condition contracts. You can perform actions quickly, like, for example, locking and releasing customer condition contracts for settlement.


• Manage Royalty Condition Contracts: With this feature, you can get an overview of your royalty condition contracts related to royalties settlement processing with the ability to search for and navigate to specific royalty condition contracts. You can perform actions quickly, like, for example, lock and release royalty condition contracts for settlement.

Picture 7: Increase productivity of the following workers by providing easier-to-use and comprehensive SAP Fiori apps to work with condition contracts related to sales rebates, purchasing rebates, and royalties.

 

Settlement Management: Flexible analysis of detailed statement information for royalties

This new release enables you to view an itemization of the business volume for selected condition contract settlement documents. The sales billing documents relevant for royalties are the business volume base. With this app, you can view an itemization of the business volume for selected condition contract settlement documents. The sales billing documents relevant for royalties are the business volume base.

Picture 8: Gain full transparency for royalty settlement clerks on transactional business volume related to condition contract settlement documents.

Key Features

This app provides the following key features:

• Use the selection criteria to determine what is displayed in the statement, for example, select the settlement document number of the condition contract in the field Document Number.


• Verify the settlement amounts calculated by the system when condition contracts are settled by providing you with a complete list of the items which are included in these calculations.


• Important fields are available like, for example, Settlement Document, Settlement Date, Contract Type, Settled Quantity, Supplier or Bus Volume Doc Net Amount Per Item.

 

Settlement Management: Ability to track condition contract settlement dates

This release enables you to display a list of settlement dates together with their condition contracts. You can filter the list of settlement dates by selecting different filter criteria, such as settlement date, settlement date type, condition contract, supplier, customer, sales organization, purchasing organization, or settlement status.

With this new Display Settlement Dates app that displays settlement dates related to condition contracts, you can:

• Search for settlement dates that are due or overdue for settlement


• Identify due settlement dates quickly using a dynamic KPI tile in SAP Fiori


• Identify settlement dates that require the user to take action


• View prefiltered due and overdue settlement dates when opening the Display Settlement Dates app

Picture 9: Improved tracking of settlement dates related to condition contracts.

 

Royalties Settlement for Sales: Schedule condition contracts for settlement using scheduling worklists

With this release, you can get an overview of all settlement management scheduling worklists relevant to your role. You can easily create scheduling worklists for condition contract settlement, manage and monitor your scheduling worklists, and get a detailed view of a selected scheduling worklist including processing statuses and error information of assigned work items.

Picture 10: Efficiently monitor which settlement dates caused issues and quickly reschedule them for settlement.

Key Features

This app provides the following key features:

• Create, manage, and monitor your scheduling worklists


• Assign relevant settlement management documents or contracts as work items to your scheduling worklists


• Schedule your scheduling worklists easily


• Check the status of your scheduling worklists


• Select a scheduling worklist to view additional information such as the assigned work items and their processing statuses


• Reschedule your scheduling worklist in case of processing errors

 

Thanks for reading this blog post. Stay tuned!

If you are also interested in other Line of Business, I would like to draw your attention to my link collection blog – The Link Collection

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For more information on SAP S/4HANA Cloud and SAP S/4HANA 2021, check out the following links: 

• SAP S/4HANA release info: sap.com/s4hana


• SAP S/4HANA Community here


• The Link Collection for Product Compliance here


• SAP S/4HANA PSCC Digital Enablement Wheel here


• Inside SAP S/4HANA Podcast here


• Join the SAP S/4HANA Movement


• Best practices for SAP S/4HANA here


• Help Portal Product Page here


• Feature Scope Description here


• What’s New here

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