SAP AFS – FICO Enhancements !!

By S.Suren

Generally, it is widely regarded that SAP FICO is standard and there are very few special industry specific scenarios that the FICO module needs to cater to, as more often than not the available functionality in SAP’s vast FICO Module always has something that can be tweaked to support the industry specific requirement.

With SAP AFS IS, the main special functionalities that have a distinct impact with accounting in an AFS Environment would be the “Split Valuation Costing” and the “COPA- SD/MM/PP Integration” with relation to grid wise analysis.

Here is an easy way to check out the IMG Activities that are specific to the SAP AFS IS – FICO:

1. Access T-Code “HIER”

2. Go to “Industry Specific Component Apparel & Footwear’

3. Double click on the component “IS-AFS-COV”

4. In the succeeding screen click on the “Where-Used” button

5. All IMG Activities, Development Class Assignments & Comp Structures can be viewed in here.

Have fun exploring…all the best !!

suren@erparena.com

Time is right for Short stints !!

By S.Suren 

Global IT spending spiraling downwards, enterprises’ disposal incomes at its lowest levels, bailout marathons and so much more…all these keep reminding us the mess the global economy is in and why we need to be on our toes.

Given the global economy going through its worst recession in over decades, its only rational to understand that the spending on support infrastructure is going to be looking downwards and IT products and services is definitely one that most entrepreneurs would like to label as a support infrastructure. It apparent that during this time, it going to be very hard or almost impossible for ERP Vendors to be able to strike large projects than span over a year, so this is then the best time to go for the short stint ones.  These projects should ideally be small enough to strike a deal, and large enough to bring in some revenue to keep things moving.

So then, how do we crack these projects?? Some of the most common selling tools would be to educate the potential clients, about the rapid implementation of the system, the benefits it could give them during this downturn, how organized information available at the right time will help them make the right decisions and so on, because given the context of the world economy this is not the time to make “trial and error” decisions.

In one of my previous article, I had mentioned how the large ERPs were targeting growing economies with their small to medium size suites, well this still stays the same, and only difference being  is that now more effort is being put into these regions.  Sure, these projects are going to take a lot out of the consultants, but that how it’s going to be, encourage the consultants to go for it and go for glory, the rewards will come. 

This year is going to be interesting so make sure you keep watch over developments in all related industries and strike when there is the smallest hint of an opportunity to do a short stint…!!

All the best..Have a nice day!!

ssurenlk@msn.com

Note to Email Subscribers !!

Dear Subcribers,

This is inform you that the email subscription service on my website will be inactive temporarily due to a technical glitch.I shall put it back up once its sorted.

Thanks

S.Suren

Currency fields in SAP FICO !!

In this post I thought I'll share with you all some technical information relating to the currency fields in SAP FICO. As I have been getting request to share some technical information on SAP AFS, I thought I'll expand the contents of www.erparena.com with some SAP technical info as well.

Currency Fields in SAP

The field in which the document and index currency is stored in SAP differs based on the document currency entered.

The logic below is mainly for Financial Accounting documents:

The below logic will help you get a better understanding of the best way to keep provide the appropriate fields when writing functional specifications that need to capture values in Document and the Index Currency:

• If Document Currency =  Company Code Currency (Currency Type =10)

For Company Code Currency Value:

Then take field: BSEG: WRBTR.

• If Document Currency ≠  Company Code Currency (Currency Type =10)

For Foreign Currency Value:

Then take field: BSEG: WRBTR.

For Company Code Currency Value:

Then take field: BSEG: DMBTR.

Note : When writing specs remember to take into consideration any exchange variations that could arise between the actual transaction date and the initial dates.

All the best !!

ssurenlk@msn.com

Jargons that work!!!

By S.Suren

Generally, given the nature of the ERP (Jargon!) Industry and the technicalities inherent in it, there are more than many jargons used throughout in this industry, some sound cool to use like SaaSy (Software as a Service, the Y is to make it rhyme with other similar words) and then you have the not so saasy ones like, WYSIWYG (I’ll leave the pronunciation up to you) which stands for “What You See Is What You Get”, 

Given all this, it only likely that sometime or later you use these with your clients, while they looked bemused with already what you have told them without the jargon. This is what I am getting to, the proper jargons to use while marketing your product in this industry.

As usual the golden rule in using jargons is to use it appropriately based on the audience present. While doing presentation on ERP Solutions, in general, first you need to make an impression with the industry solution or particular niche that you are presenting on, therefore industry (solution) specific jargons can be used however use it sparingly and avoid bombarding the recipient with too many. Some of the jargons that go with the ERP Industry that come in handy when making presentations would be:

TCO – Total Cost of Ownership: Use when asked about the cost of the product, hosting solution etc.

ROI – Return On Investment: Use together with the above, in the same sentence if possible. People like to hear it this way.

AIM – Application Implementation Methodology: Use sparingly when asked about the details of how the implementation would go about.

BPP – Best Process Practices / Business Process Procedures – Use when asked about what the new system would add to the company. Don’t overdo it though, it could sound desperate.

JIT – Just in time – Can be used effective in manufacturing environments, and use it in reference with functionalities available in the system that support this.

SOA – Service Oriented Architecture – Use only if there are technically sound personals in the audience who are in a position to understand and explain its meaning to others in the same room.

CRM – Customer Relationship Management – Use as applicable to the context of the clients business in dealing with end customers.

And the list can go on… but most importantly, whichever you decide to use just make sure that it is used in the proper context.

Will keep posting more on jargons in the future as well….

Have a nice day!!

ssurenlk@msn.com

Process or Practice !!

By S.Suren

In this article I thought I’ll discuss about how various organizations have their own definitions for the terms “Process” and “Practice”.  Given the nature of the consulting industry these words are used interchangeably. In the present world what consultant like to talk about is processes, when they enter the customer site, they want to analyze the existing processes, then the next phase is to identify the pros and cons in the process and then identify the changing business needs and change the processes accordingly. 

However, one thing that is generally overlooked though this phase is whether these processes were in fact practices early on, or were they genuine business processes that were put into action after having brainstormed upon and tested for its feasibility and efficiency. 

If you are consulting for a very mature company, which has been in operations for quite some time, the chances are if you were to ask your clients about how these processes were designed and on what condition, the probable answer would go something like “Well, when I first joined, my senior taught me to do it this way…”, and this would indicate that these processes are indeed practices that have come about from adhoc operations and events that were come across during the beginning and growth stages of the company. 

If this were the case, it’s likely that there are many disconnections in the process chain and perhaps some duplication of efforts too, since practicing is more focused on individual’s areas and responsibilities than the overall big picture of connecting operations. So then, in this situation it’s going to be more important to identify a process with an overall view of the connecting points, and introduce the best practices (ways of doing things) within the sub-components of the process. This is what founded the ideology of “Best in class practices”.

Therefore, keep in mind that practices may lead to processes in the long run, but these could be disconnected due to its individualistic occurrence, but the simple idea is to have best practices built into the connecting components of a process, this makes the entire process chain efficient.

As one of my clients once said “This company is more than a century old, we are like deadwood, practices have been drilled deep into us, changing us now is going to take another 100 years”….just to clear any doubts, the same company is now running completely new processes after implementing a renowned ERP Package.

Hope you found this post informative. Your comments and suggestions are welcomed at :

ssurenlk@msn.com

Have a nice day !!

Happenings in the Arena !!!

By S.Suren

In this posts I thought I'll mention some of the important events that have taken places during the last couple of months in the ERP Arena !!

The Satyam Saga

Satyam, one of India's largest IT Companies providing outsourcing services for more than 500 customers, had a tough time during the last few months, mainly due to the mismanagement of funds and hence the bogus values shown on their financial statements. The issue came to light when the CEO of the company tried to influence the company to purchase his son's contruction company and thereby fill in the fictious assets reported in the financial statements with real ones. All this led to the CEO being imprisoned and new a board of directors being appointed by the indian government to look into the operations of the company, more like a bail out but with personnels involved.

From an ERP Industry's point of view, Satyam is supposed to be the 2nd largest firm providing services for SAP, with involvement with most of SAP's most profitable and in demand industry solutions. It was also reported, that SAP could perhaps take over Satyam, since this would be the best time given its weak stocks and also considering Satyam's importance to SAP. I shall keep this blog updated with whatever ensues on this.

HCL gets AXON

After all the prolonged negatiations that took place between HCL and AXON, a London court had finally given the go ahead for HCL to acquire AXON. The acquisition was valued at GBP 441.1 million (468.3 million Euro), making it the largest acquisition in tech space by any Indian company. Infosys too was interested in acquiring AXON but HCL overbid them. This acquisition makes HCL one of the largest SAP Implementation companies in the world.

Alloy Out

Its finally been revealed on what SAP and IBM were working on with their new project. Alloy, is the name given to the jointly developed product by SAP and IBM, which combines IBM Lotus Notes software with SAP Business Suite. With the large market share that both these companies have in their respective areas, this product could very well be marketed very aggressively. As of now, its been reported that both these companies will sell this product.

SAP General Update

SAP, now has 25 Industry Solutions and have over 76000 customers (including the customers after the BO buy),and now SAP operates in over 120 countries and is listed on the NYSE and the Frankfurt stock exchange.

Hope you found this post informative. Have a nice day !!

ssurenlk@msn.com

Seeing through the Crystal Ball !!

By .S.Suren

There has been enough debate and discussion on many blogs on how the downturn is likely to affect the ERP Industry and so on. However what can we expect in this industry once the global economy begins to look up again, everything needs to change sometime and so will this.

It was a given that there are certain industry solution of leading ERPs that will continue to be in high demand for the next few years at least, however that was before the global turmoil that caused the recession of the century, so now where do these industry solutions stand. As the “Only thing that is certain in this world is change itself” – as Mgt Guru Tom Peters says, we can expect that these industry would pick up again for the lost time, however there will be many changes that will be forced upon these industry when it comes out of its bad patch, and ERP Vendors should by then have realized the best way to cope with this change in terms of, the implementation methodology of projects after this period of lullness, ERP Selection patterns of potential customers, etc. Trying to follow the same approach of an ERP Implementation would not be bringing in any change, it’s probably too early for anyone to forecast what this change should be, but by keeping options open you could just be a step above the rest.

By now you are probably wondering what these industries we are talking about could be? Let me give you a heads up. Related industries to areas such as Transportation, Energy, Consumer Durables and Banking and Financial Services are likely to be those that will be the main hunting grounds for IT Service Providers.

It is important that with all that is happening around the ERP Industry, we shouldn’t get carried away and lose track of optimizing software architecture and service methods such as SOA and SaaS. Since these would definitely form the platform on which future solutions will be designed on.

Given all of the above, some of the other important areas that need to addressed when the economy picks up again would be such things as middle ware and tools deployable within the industry concentration, support for openness and standards with integrated systems, industry applications strategy would be very vital and last but not the least the mid market strategy, on how best to approach this segment, it’s not necessarily going to be the big firms that are going to be looking for new system but rather the middle market ones, that was how the trend was before the global economic meltdown and that’s how it will be again on the other side as well.

Hope you found this post informative and interesting. I shall update more on this topic and focus on how individual consultants new to the ERP Consulting field should prepare themselves for the time to come.

Have a nice day!!

Any suggestions, comments and questions can be sent to ssurenlk@msn.com.

Getting ready for an Enterprise Resource Planning System?

By S.Suren

This is my second posts on this subject. My first post on this subject highlighted some important dos and don’ts when going for an ERP System; in this posts I will be highlighting a few more. Most of what I write on this blog comes from my ERP Implementation experiences with many different companies, if you have anything to add, do contribute.

Think beyond the limits -

Being a Financial Consultant, generally when I come across requirement gatherings, the clients often discuss about generating Financial Statements and the various inputs that need to go into it, but any system can generate financial statements. I would feel more time should be spent on analyzing cost specific activities in the last years, check out their trends and devise measures to reduce those, look for reports to highlight profitability based on product, customers, sales persons etc. Check out these trends and compare with competitors figures (guesstimates) and thereby assist with decision making at the higher management level. You may want to use financial ratios to measure your company’s performance against your competitors.

Identify your business life blood and those that are not –

It is a common practice by the business team to bring in all the processes in the business when preparing the RFP. In this process what generally happens is there is a lot of discussion within the business team and brain storming would be done on as many of the processes possible. However in this stage there is tendency for the business team to concentrate in their core area and discuss about specific issues that does not have a direct impact on the overall business process. However as with ERPs, all modules are integrated and the best results are achieved only when the integration is smooth. Therefore, it is very important to keep in mind the entire business process and the critical issues that need to be eliminated, when preparing an RFP.

Integration is Important -

Integration is key and it very important that you always consider the integration facilities your ERP is to have with the other systems operating in your business, this could help in you have a tight control of various process that span across different systems. Its best to link all functions internally and linking to customers, suppliers, and other business partners externally can dramatically reduce lead times and waste throughout the supply chain.

You can streamline operations and gain a competitive edge by integrating supply chain, customer relationship management and human resource management applications. When evaluating ERP systems, always check to see how seamlessly they integrate with other system as I mentioned earlier. Remember tight integration will save you time, enhance better controls, promote greater efficiencies, and add value to your business.

More to follow soon; hope you found this post informative and interesting. Feel free to contact me on ssurenlk@msn.com.

Have a nice day!!

AXON takes central stage !!

By S.Suren,

AXON, a London headquartered SAP Consulting company is being sought after by 2 large Indian IT Firms as a possible take over candidate. HCL and Infosys are the 2 companies biding for AXON, and it has been suggested that this take-over could very well build up into a bidding war. As of the now the initial bid proposed by Infosys is for 600 pence p.s saw a counter offer from HCL for 650 pence p.s. Together with these 2 large firms, it estimated that other European and Japanese firms are also having second thoughts of getting into the bidding game, no details have been exposed as yet.

In one my previous article I had mentioned how the subcontinent was being termed the big boy's backyard and how major ERP Vendors experiencing the talent crunch at present is looking to this region to satisfy their needs. Of whats happening right now with the take-over bid and the increasing amount of SAP Partner companies emerging in the subcontinent it very well goes on to prove that this could be the hot bed for other ERP Companies to follow suit very soon.

I hope you found this post informative and interesting. I shall update more on the whats happening on the above as and when things materialise.

Have a nice day !!

ssurenlk@msn.com