Start with the end in mind.

The first step in your SAP S/4HANA implementation project – is understanding your business objectives and clearly defining expected outcomes. Your leaders have objectives – profit, market share, customer engagement, innovation, use of resources, or increased productivity –  and technology should align to support and enable that vision. Perhaps your leaders have aligned on fixing a specific weakness that will enable these goals or on innovation to accelerate success above and beyond your competitors.

Whatever the purpose of the technology engagement, leadership alignment at the outset, not only on the objectives but also on the priority and weight of each objective, guides implementation project decisions. Throughout your project, you, your technical team, and your business leaders should return to this often, especially when changes to scope are proposed, questions arise, or decisions are needed. The outcomes you all agree to should guide difficult choices and decisions that will be needed throughout your project.

A successful SAP S/4HANA implementation:

1. meets the business requirements,
2. is delivered on schedule,
3. is maintained within the allocated budget, and
4. provides a return on investment (ROI)

ROI is only achievable with an understanding of expected outcomes and clear adherence to business goals.

Define your fashion or retail industry challenge: What’s holding you back?

Many users will go into a project like an SAP S/4AHANA implementation with specific requests in mind:  “I need better reporting, so give me SAP Analytics Cloud,” for example. As a business analyst, my first question to every user was, “what is the business problem you are trying to solve?” because simply applying technology won’t solve all your challenges.

Consumer Industry experts who really understand fashion and retail processes and know SAP will be crucial to your success.  Conversations about your unique challenges – your pain points, benefits, competitors’ successes, and future vision – lead to a greater understanding when you and your consulting team are “speaking the same fashion/retail language.”

What are your fashion and retail competitors doing?

Considering your business case, project plan, and defined outcomes, it might help to look at other customer success stories. In fashion and retail especially, it pays to have a healthy understanding of your competition – including how they optimized their technology.

Success with SAP S/4HANA for Fashion and Retail

Case #1: Simplification enables the agility to support responsiveness to customers.

Goal: Achieve leadership’s aggressive growth strategy.

What held them back: A complex legal structure strangled the efficient movement of goods. The legacy ERP was unable to handle this kind of complexity.

Solution:

• The company’s complex legal structure was setup using standard out-of-the-box capability in SAP S/4HANA
• Innovation by Rizing provided a seamless and transparent process by automating the flash transfer process
• S/4HANA functionality enabled a relatively simple process for statutory reporting required for the complex legal set-up

Carhartt managed rapid growth and marketplace disruption with flexible omnichannel capabilities. Read more.

Case #2: Retail inventory audit and tracking contains expenses.

Goal:  Increase profitability and eliminate waste.

What held them back: The inability to track and trace or audit inventory discrepancies in stores resulted in differences between stores and warehouses that had to be written off.

• Significant inventory discrepancies in the retail stores
• No ability to track and trace inventory or audit inventory discrepancies in stores
• At the end of the day, inventory between the warehouse and stores would be overlayed as the new inventory – any differences would have to be written off without an audit

Solution:

• SAP’s suite of FIORI applications for store operations provided the customer with the capability to perform inventory operations in stores in real-time
• The store operations apps, along with SAP CAR (Customer Active Repository) provided the customer with the capability to have real-time visibility of inventory in the stores
• Rizing-developed enhancements enabled the capability to audit discrepancies due to over and under-deliveries from the warehouse

Maxport Improved FI month-end closing lead times with real-time logistics movements. Read their story.

Case #3: Increase customer satisfaction with real-time inventory evaluation

Goal:  Prioritize key customers and manage backorders in the proper sequence.

What held them back: Outdated ERP platform needs to provide real-time data.

Solution:

• SAP S/4HANA® out-of-the-box functionality solved supply assignments
• Rizing delivered Advanced Available to Prioritize (aATP) functionality to manage last-minute order changes and unanticipated production problems, ensuring top customers’ orders are fulfilled in priority order
• Back Order Processing (BOP) with aATP in SAP S/4HANA provided the capability to run availability checks and reconfirm the entire order book

Nice Apparel applied industry best practices across the organization with SAP S/4HANA’s digital core providing the ability to extend and expand as business requirements evolve. Read more. 

Experience matters. Get the Right Solution with the Right Fashion and Retail Industry Expertise

When it comes to what you need to make your business excel, you are the experts. You know your business best. We’re here to help you reimagine the solutions to your real-world challenges. We’ve been there in your world, we speak your language, and we’re driven to solve the smallest or most complex challenges in fashion and retail.

The post Measuring Outcomes for a Perfect Fit: SAP S/4HANA for Fashion and Retail appeared first on Rizing.

You probably wouldn’t want us to design the latest runway style. We do, however, know SAP S/4HANA for the fashion and retail industry, so let’s talk about that.

Reimagine Fashion and Retail with SAP, Rizing, and S/4HANA

SAP S/4HANA for Fashion and Vertical is an end-to-end solution that supports companies with retail, wholesale, and manufacturing processes across the supply chain. Rizing works with you to take SAP S/4HANA from assessment through design, implementation, and post-go-live support – all with the understanding of someone who has worked in your industry because we have.

An important component of the design is establishing your digital core to support your business wherever it goes. Jumpstart your blueprint and make future development simple with a template built on best practices by fashion experts: Rizing’s Future Reference Solution. And, as a partner certified with advanced competency in SAP’s Business Technology Platform, we can help you design your solution to automate processes, integrate discrete applications, create custom user interfaces, and improve analytics and forecasting.

Imagine your brand supported by

·      Unified systems and processes

·      Accelerated innovation and time to market with the SAP Business Technology Platform

·      Flexible and dependable eCommerce that supports purchasing decisions by your target audience

·      Integrated, real-time merchandising management

·      Omnichannel shopping journeys to take the customer from online to in store

·      Promotional planning integrated across platforms

·      Competitive, intelligent pricing

·      Real-time customer and sales insights – harmonized across multi-channel customer experiences

·      A consistent brand image visible to and embraced by both customers and employees

Reassess the paradigms of your organization,
define your company to meet the future demands of a shifting economy and changing buyer behavior, and become the leader who wins in the digital era. 

Design to Optimize Resources and Outcomes

We know time is critical in fashion and retail, and – while there’s a lot that goes into the design of SAP S/4HANA – we can help accelerate your implementation timeline with the right technical resources combined with real-world experience in your industry. Our Future Reference Solution helps to design your SAP S/4HANA experience in a way that shortens timelines and minimizes risk. This is especially critical with global business plans.

Fast is good.

Risk-free is great.

But outcomes mean even more. At Rizing, we are focused on helping you win.

Carhartt Inc., an apparel brand for workwear, outdoor gear, hunting accessories, and – more recently – streetwear, achieved outcomes by minimizing custom code modifications and reducing web page loads to milliseconds. SAP S/4HANA is the foundation for future innovation and agile responses to disruption.

Getting the SAP S/4HANA Digital Core Right

SAP S/4HANA will form the digital core of your enterprise. The digital core enables your end-to-end business strategy and is the foundation that enables your organization to scale, to adopt innovative technical solutions, and to advance with real-time insights. It’s imperative to get the design right. Everything else – all of your future innovation – builds upon that. And innovation is what it takes to thrive in this rapidly-evolving digital market.

Learn how others have gone from imagination to design to build of SAP S/4HANA  in our customer case studies.

Case Study | Global Sportswear Brand Accelerates Business Transformation with SAP S/4HANA Fashion

Carhartt Implements SAP S/4HANA to Support Customer Demand

Maxport’s Digital Transformation Starts with SAP S/4HANA Fashion Manufacturing

Nice Apparel Group Transforms it Business with SAP S/4HANA Fashion Manufacturing

The post SAP S/4HANA Design for Fashion and Retail: A Mix of Imagination and Planning appeared first on Rizing.

Here’s how I see it.

There are benefits to SAP S/4HANA public cloud

Cloud security and system response time are better than most on-premise models. Why? Because the infrastructure, security protocols, and processes are the bread and butter of a public cloud company. I worked for a major corporation where at least half of my time was spent ensuring our data was secure and compliant — and I was on the functional side of IT.  A whole other set of people managed server availability, virus prevention, and more. As resources have dwindled in major organizations thanks to an aging workforce, COVID-downsizing, and “quiet quitting,” it’s harder to find people to be dedicated to infrastructure and security when that’s not how your firm sells ads or legal services (to relate to one industry).

There’s an imperative to be agile and responsive in today’s rapidly-changing business climate. Moving to the cloud is just the beginning. Cloud technology delivers all kinds of advantages to businesses, including reduced downtime for releases, reduced manpower to manage servers and infrastructure, and continual development of industry best practices delivered to you automatically – you just need to stay informed and know what’s coming to take advantage of innovation opportunities.

Moving to the cloud forces standardization and simplification across business processes – which has far-reaching benefits to your organization.  And – yes – that can be a  painful process. But you can follow the journeys that others have taken (see ours below) and learn how to optimize change.  The changes we have seen in business operations over the last several years, including mergers and acquisitions, have left many firms coping with processes and systems that are likely outdated or could be done better. (We never want to admit that our processes aren’t the best – but in reality, there’s always room for improvement.)

You get fast, real-time data with greater efficiency and affordability. That’s something not everyone can say. SAP S/4HANA ERP is optimized for SAP’s in-memory database. What that means for your business is a shift from simply capturing transactions to giving your end-users decision-making support in real time. Of course, this real-time data magic is available with SAP S/4HANA on-premise or private cloud editions. The public cloud edition, managed on SAP Servers, gains its efficiency through highly standardized business processes covering select lines of business scenarios.

The user experience is far better.  Simple customizations for your end users can be made through SAP Fiori apps. SAP Business Technology Platform extension suites are available and easily integrated into SAP S/4HANA Cloud.

The bottom cloud line

Older software was designed for business models that didn’t live through rapidly changing demands driven by things like a pandemic and bitcoin. Many of us are tied to those old business models and will find a leap to SAP S/4HANA Public Cloud too far to go. In fact, SAP currently has a limited number of industry models available on the Public Cloud edition. If you’re mid-market or a new customer and ready to start your ERP journey with a clean system, the SAP S/4HANA Public Cloud edition may be ready for you.

If not Public Cloud, then SAP S/4HANA Private Cloud may be the right solution.

What’s the difference?

SAP S/4HANA Public Cloud is a complete ERP system with a public cloud infrastructure managed by SAP. This is a multi-tenant environment where multiple applications share one environment. Customization of SAP S/4HANA Public Cloud is very limited. Return on investment is higher, and the total cost of ownership is the lowest with the Public Cloud.

SAP S/4HANA – the Private Edition – offers a dedicated cloud infrastructure built within SAP’s data center or using one of the Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IAAS) providers – AWS, Azure, GCP, Alibaba Cloud. You will reap the advantages of the SAP S/4HANA database, enhanced user experience, real-time data, and more. You will have a cost advantage over on-premise because of the outsourced infrastructure. You will have more ability to customize in the Private Cloud than in the Public Cloud edition.

Read more about the differences on our SAP S/4HANA Public Cloud page.

Should you take the leap to public cloud?

In my past experience, connecting with SAP customers, adopting SAP S/4HANA Public Cloud was a risky business – but no riskier than any other system change. It worked really well for mid-sized businesses and professional services firms, helping them achieve a sound financial platform to support growth. The hard part was being willing to change, standardize, and simplify.  These are business discussions that need to be had. Weigh the pros and cons for you. It’s your own journey. Make it a good one.

Our Journey

Learn about Rizing’s own experience with SAP S/4HANA Public Cloud in these podcasts:

Inside SAP S/4HANA Episode 34: Implementing ERP at Rizing

Inside SAP S/4HANA Episode 72: Learn from Rizing How to Acclimate Your Company to the Cloud

The post Why SAP S/4HANA Public Cloud? appeared first on Rizing.

If you are responsible for some of that spend on cloud-based software, you’ll want to make sure your projects are successful.

A recent SAP® podcast featured Rizing’s Jodi Hayes-Roth, CEO of Human Capital Management, and Len Harms, Chief Experience Officer, who shared lessons learned from Rizing’s own adoption of SAP S/4HANA®.

Eating Your Own Dog Food

Ever heard the phrase “eating your own dog food?”

You can thank Clement L. Hirsch for that.

Hirsch was the creator and President of Kal Kan dog food. The company got its start by providing food for WWII service animals.

Hirsch was so insistent on the quality of his product that, once a year, while standing at the podium of the annual shareholder’s meeting, he would open a can and eat it.

Rizing’s Diet

Rizing’s Jodi Hayes-Roth, CEO of Human Capital Management, and Len Harms, Chief Experience Officer, recently appeared on an episode of the OpenSAP Podcast. They shared the following “dog-fooding lessons” learned from Rizing’s own adoption of SAP S/4HANA®.

SuccessFactors First

Hayes-Roth and Harms felt that SAP SuccessFactors was a good place for companies to start with cloud software adoption.

“We started our whole journey of implementing SAP cloud software with SuccessFactors, specifically Employee Central,” says Len Harms. “It made sense because SAP was just starting to develop cloud solutions for a company our size. Then as we moved forward, it was based on SAP solutions becoming much more purpose-fit for the size of our company.”

“It’s a good starting point because HR gives every employee a taste of what it’s like to work in the cloud,” says Hayes-Roth.

Standardize Your Data

The Rizing duo also agreed on the importance of standardizing data formats.

“Moving to the cloud involves getting your data cleansed and standardized,” says Hayes-Roth. “HR is a controlled area where you can start that standardization.”

“Postal codes are a good example,” adds Harms. “In the US, we have a standard five-digit zip code, then occasionally have a dash and four more digits. You have to decide if you will allow five or ten digits, then enforce that. Good master data depends on formalizing rules.”

Start at the End

“Start with the end in mind,” says Hayes-Roth, “So that you’re thinking about it holistically and that the entire data model will work together.”

Hire to Retire is the Bridge

Hayes-Roth agreed that Hire to Retire was the best bridge between SuccessFactors and S/4HANA.

“That’s where I would start,” she said. “That’s the base process from an HR standpoint, and then you can add the other modules in a phased approach.”

“From there, the next step would be Finance,” added Harms. “Finance is fundamental, and with the S4 solution, it’s the most logical choice.”

Organizational Readiness is Critical

Harms and Hayes-Roth reminded listeners that software implementation projects could hit snags due more to human factors than technical ones.

“Change readiness often gets forgotten,” says Hayes-Roth. “You must address it upfront and prepare people for the upcoming changes.”

“When we did our HR implementation, it was more easily embraced because we were able to update data once in SuccessFactors that used take edits to five different spreadsheets,” Harms says. “In finance, it was tougher because the changes were more dramatic. We didn’t fully appreciate the impact it would have on our people. That was one of the things that we could have done better.”

Full show

Listen to the complete podcast episode.

Need Help?

If you need help implementing SAP on the cloud, feel free to contact us. We can create a roadmap to ensure your project is successful.

Oh, and?

Dog food-eating Clement L. Hirsch?

Eventually made millions by selling out to Mars.

Then started selling chili.

Makes you wonder.

The post How to Acclimate Your Company to the Cloud appeared first on Rizing.

The path to this new reality hasn’t been an easy one. Let’s look at how we got here.

Traditional Databases

Previous versions of SAP’s Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system like R/3 and ECC had underlying databases optimized for OLTP (Online Transaction Processing) meaning inserts, updates, or deletions of large volumes of data across multiple tables.

R/3 and ECC sat on top of a traditional disk-based RDBMS (relational database management system) like Oracle, SQL Server, or IBM DB2.

A separate OLAP (Online Analytical Processing) tool like SAP Business Warehouse (BW) optimized the reporting and analysis process.

Challenges of this design:

1. Extra costs from storing the same data in multiple places.
2. Data latency from waiting for scheduled batch jobs to load data into the data warehouse.
3. Different versions of the truth; one table or cube might have a different total than another table or cube.
4. No single source for the dimensions you want to analyze your data.

It was hard to know what tables or cubes were the best source for financial reports.

Example: Profitability Data

At a previous employer, we needed profitability data. The SAP COPA (Profitability Analysis) cube seemed like the logical source. But not all accounts were marked as COPA-relevant. As a result, the data in the COPA cube was different from the General Ledger (GL) cube.

If we wanted to see Profit and Loss (P&L) data, we could use the Profit Center Accounting cube, but if we wanted to see profitability down to the individual customer, that data wasn’t there.

BW could combine data from different cubes into multi-cubes, but it was still hard to know what objects were common and at the same granularity in the base cubes to allow for the combination to happen and the result to make sense.

Example: Plant Profitability Report

Our IT department received a request for a plant profitability report. It combined actual, forecast, and budget revenue, cogs and gross margin, month and year beginning and ending inventory, and other data. It was impossible to achieve with a multi-cube.

As a work-around, we exported data from different cubes in BEx Analyzer and imported it into a SQL Server database. We then generated the plant profitability report from that database.

SAP Steps In

When SAP acquired Business Objects, Data Services addressed some of these challenges.

Analysts could combine data from different tables. We were able to produce the plant profitability report without human intervention. We used Data Services to extract, transform and load the data into one table and then used SAP Business Objects Web Intelligence (WebI) to render a user-friendly, formatted report.

Stale Data

This was a better process, but “stale” data was still a problem. The lack of real-time data was painful-especially during month-end close when it was vital to get the most up-to-date picture of actuals versus budget and forecast.

SAP’s latest ERP, S/4HANA, sits on top of SAP’s proprietary in-memory database SAP HANA, optimized for OLTP and OLAP.

Moving from a traditional database backend to SAP HANA can significantly reduce the data footprint by eliminating tables and replacing them with compatibility views of the same name. Programs that use those tables won’t see a difference.

Financials Data

In S/4HANA, financial actuals data resides entirely in the new Universal Journal table – ACDOCA. The ACDOCA table is the single source of truth. It combines:

• General ledger
• Profitability
• Management accounting
• Asset accounting
• Material ledger dimensions and measures

Key Takeaway

With financial data all in one source table, analysts will enjoy consistent, real-time results without compromising the performance of the ERP system.

That’s a win-win.

The post The Search for Easily-Findable Financial Data in SAP is Over appeared first on Rizing.

I am taking Journal Entry Analyzer (SAP S/4HANA) – Design Studio as an example. You can find the app in the SAP Fiori Apps Library. I am using SAP S/4HANA 1909 FPS02 version. Sample data looks like this:

How to Find the Underlying Bex Query and CDS View of a Fiori App

• Go to the SAP Fiori apps library at this link.

• Scroll down to configuration in the implementation info:

• Under configuration, scroll all the way down, and you would see the BEX query:

• Notice the 2C at the starting. This is a Transient provider. Copy the BEX Query tech name and logon to SAP S/4HANA, and go to RSRT T code.
• In RSRT, once you give the query tech name (and hit enter), click on Technical Information:

• Under Technical Information, you would find DDL Source, which is the CDS view Tech name. Notice the Data Targets 2CIFIGLLITMCUBE, which has TRPR. This is the Transient Info Provider.

• Take the DDL Source and go to ABAP Perspective in HANA Studio to find the CDS view definition: You can either go through the root package and find the CDS view, or an easier way is to push CNTL+SHIFT+A and paste the DDL here.

Keep Going

Now that you’ve gone through this step-by-step guide to find the underlying Bex Query and CDS View of a Fiori App, you can trace the origin of your Fiori Apps to backend development.

The post SAP Fiori Tips: Find the Underlying Bex Query and CDS View of a Fiori App appeared first on Rizing.

How to Extend a CDS View with ABAP

• Logon to ABAP ADT perspective in Eclipse

• Locate your existing CDS view. In my example, I already have a simple CDS view YKD_EKPO.

Create an Extension view

• Create a new Data Definition.

• Tech name of CDS view is YKD_EXPO_EXT.

• Click Next and Select Extend View and hit finish.

• Give a meaningful – YKDEKPOEXT name for SQL view and give the base view – YKD_EKPO which needs to be extended.

• Remove the syntax- base_data_source_name.element_name.
  • And hit Control+Space.
  • In my case, I am selecting field BUKRS- Company Code and ELIKZ- “Delivery Completed” Indicator.

• Ensure to add the below annotation to this extension CDS view. This would show the text for the Append in next step:
  • @AbapCatalog.compiler.compareFilter: true
  • Activate the view and you are all set.

• Validate the Base SQL view in SE11 T- code.

• You would notice a spiral icon on the base CDS view which represents that this view has been extended.

• Finally, Validate the new fields in SE16 for the base CDS view.

The post ABAP Tips: How to Extend a CDS View appeared first on Rizing.

STAMFORD, CONNECTICUT, UNITED STATES, November 23, 2020 – Rizing, a global SAP^® gold partner, and Syniti, an SAP partner and leading enterprise data management company, have announced a strategic collaboration to accelerate the customer journey to the intelligent enterprise, leveraging SAP S/4HANA^® and SAP^® SuccessFactors^® solutions. The inclusion of complementary software and services for data migration and data quality from Syniti is designed to make it easier for Rizing clients to digitally transform with reduced risk and increased data reliability.

“At the heart of the intelligent enterprise lies data,” said Len Harms, Rizing’s Chief Experience Officer. “With Syniti as part of our portfolio, Rizing will be helping our clients to optimize the quality of their data and their ability to harness that data for insightful decision-making.”

According to an IDC white paper, sponsored by Syniti and SAP, “The Business Value of SAP Advanced Data Migration by Syniti,” published in June 2020, projects that businesses using advanced data migration experience significant savings with a 303 percent three-year return on investment with an average eight-month payback on investment.

Rizing, an SAP ecosystem leader, empowers businesses using SAP solutions to become an intelligent enterprise with SAP software, extensive industry expertise, best-in-class consulting, implementation services, and proprietary products. As a reseller of Syniti’s software and services portfolio, Rizing will integrate the Syniti Knowledge Platform (SKP) into their enterprise data management offering to propel customers on their digital transformation journeys.

Syniti is a worldwide leader and innovator in enterprise data and an SAP platinum partner. The company’s edge comes from their advanced software – the Syniti Knowledge Platform (SKP) – a unique methodology, and expert data consultants. SAP resells SAP Advanced Data Migration by Syniti and SAP Information Steward Accelerator by Syniti as solution extensions, which are SAP-recommended for businesses moving to SAP S/4HANA.

Together, Rizing and Syniti are committed to enhancing value for businesses using SAP solutions, expanding new market opportunities and jointly leveraging the SAP ecosystem for faster growth and optimized client outcomes – and to do these better than everyone else.

For more information, press only:
Contact Sherryanne Meyer, Rizing Corporate Communications Director, Sherry.meyer@rizing.com

About Rizing

It’s the experience that matters. Rizing professionals help your business succeed at any point in your SAP journey. Rizing’s objective is to empower your business to unlock the intelligent enterprise with SAP technologies, our Geospatial solutions, and our proprietary, cutting-edge products such as Blueline, Lyra, Mercury, and Hydrogen. With real-life experiences in business areas like enterprise asset management, human capital management, and consumer industries, we know how to simplify your digital transformation so that your business can be everything you want it to be. From targeted small business needs to full-scale large enterprise resource planning solutions, our SAP-certified consultants are focused on your growth. For more information, please visit www.rizing.com or contact: Rizing, LLC at +1 (203) 517-0400, info@rizing.com.

About Syniti

Syniti was founded in 1996 to solve business’ complex data challenges, bringing synergy between data and business, and delivering confidence and progress along clients’ business transformation journey. Through a combination of unique data expertise, services, and intelligent software leveraging artificial intelligence and machine learning, we help clients manage their data journey from data conversion to data quality, data archival and replication, master data management, analytics, information governance, and data strategy. Syniti is a portfolio company of private equity firm Bridge Growth Partners LLC. Syniti is an SAP Solution Extension Partner. For more information please visit http://www.syniti.com.

# # #

Any statements in this release that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements as defined in the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. All forward-looking statements are subject to various risks and uncertainties described in SAP’s filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC), including its most recent annual report on Form 20-F, that could cause actual results to differ materially from expectations. SAP cautions readers not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements which SAP has no obligation to update and which speak only as of their dates.

SAP and other SAP products and services mentioned herein as well as their respective logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of SAP SE in Germany and other countries. Please see https://www.sap.com/copyright for additional trademark information and notices. All other product and service names mentioned are the trademarks of their respective companies.

The post Rizing and Syniti announce global strategic partnership to accelerate digital transformation with reliable data appeared first on Rizing.