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Process Automation as a Strategic Tool in the SAP S/4HANA Environment
Business processes form the backbone of how enterprises run and their level of efficiency. Efficiently managing these processes has many different aspects, and these aspects include improving process efficiency, quality, and design. The advent of process automation tools, which often encompass all three key aspects mentioned above, are increasingly popular and becoming an integral part of the portfolio of digital transformation tools that organizations leverage.
Process Automation as a Strategic Tool in the SAP S/4HANA Environment
Business processes form the backbone of how enterprises run and their level of efficiency. Efficiently managing these processes has many different aspects, and these aspects include improving process efficiency, quality, and design. The advent of process automation tools, which often encompass all three key aspects mentioned above, are increasingly popular and becoming an integral part of the portfolio of digital transformation tools that organizations leverage.
What Is Process Automation?
At a high level, process automation combines data mining, process intelligence, workflow automation, and advanced analytics to discover, validate, and improve business process workflows and tasks. Combining these into a process automation platform, companies mine log data from their systems and leverage analytics on this data to understand their processes, identify process bottlenecks, and generate additional insights. This latter part is process intelligence. Business applications, like ERP, generate an audit log of processes within their various modules. Process mining leverages these logs to build a model or flow of the process. This model can then be analyzed further for insights. Best-of-breed tools have algorithms and visualizations that not only allow users to see what happened, but also provide the tools to optimize these processes.
Criticality of SAP S/4HANA Investment
One top of mind question of technology executives, irrespective of where they are in their SAP S/4HANA journey, is how to maximize the value from their SAP S/4HANA investment? This value aspect has several components, ranging from seamless migration to post-implementation adoption and optimal usage. A key aspect of all of these components, however, is the underlying business processes. SAPinsider S/4HANA Migration Benchmark Report 2021 highlights that 48% of respondents believe that adopting best-practice business process models is the most important strategy to address drivers for SAP S/4HANA migration.
How Tools Like Process Mining and Intelligence Can Help in SAP S/4HANA Migration
The key to any successful transformation always starts with understanding the current state. And process mining solutions start playing their role at this stage, allowing you to gain a detailed understanding of the current state of your IT systems.
These insights can help organizations not only decrease their SAP S/4HANA implementation cycle, but also help manage their processes in a more optimal way post-implementation. Overall, they help minimize implementation risks as well. Benefits that these solutions generate within the SAP S/4HANA migration context include:
- Generate an accurate business value assessment for SAP S/4HANA migration through 360-degree process visibility and often artificial intelligence-enabled fit-gap analysis.
- Mitigate project risk and cost by supporting the SAP S/4HANA migration journey across all phases. This includes safeguarding the transformation post-migration through continuous process improvement.
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Automation of a Planning Area Backup to an InfoCube via a Process ChainJan 5, 2017 — Learn the process flow for automating the extraction of data from a planning area to backup cubes via a process chain in an SAP Advanced Planning and Optimization (SAP APO) database. This is an extension of the SCM Expert article “How to Carry Out Data Extraction from a Planning Area in SAP APO.” Follow a […]
15 minute read
Leverage Automation and Simplification for Better Journal Entry TransparencyOct 25, 2016 —
While digital transformation has been a revolutionizing force for many aspects of the organization, this isn’t always the case for the journal entry process. Routings and approvals are still often handled manually through emails, spreadsheets, and physical signatures, which can cause delays and a lack of transparency into financial close processes. And when it is time for an audit, the finance team must scramble to find all the missing pieces to the journal entry puzzle.
During a recent SAPinsider Online Q&A session, Dolphin’s Chief Strategy Officer Brian Shannon and Chief Technology Officer Vishal Awasthi answered live questions from attendees on the journal entry process, including best practices for achieving a single view across the enterprise, opportunities for simplification and automation, tips for efficient compliance and reporting, and how the Dolphin Journal Entry solution can help organizations achieve a faster, more secure financial close. The following is an abridged version of the questions answered by Brian and Vishal during the Q&A session. The full transcript is available on SAPinsider Online at bit.ly/DolphinQandA.
5 minute read
Whirlpool Corporation Achieves Ultra Clean Business Processes with Automation SoftwareOct 24, 2016 —
For over a century, Whirlpool Corporation has been manufacturing home appliances. The organization has built up an abundance of different brands and offerings over the years and, in doing so, has also acquired an abundance of data – so much so that the needs for processes for inputting, extracting, and maintaining that data quickly grew. Learn how Whirlpool implemented Process Runner by Innowera in its SAP environment to dramatically decrease process effort hours, increase data accuracy, and bring greater efficiency to the organization.
12 minute read
Automated Account Reconciliations Take Root at Scotts Miracle-GroAug 2, 2016 —
Scotts Miracle-Gro, a household name for lawn and garden products, took a hard look at how to best improve its account reconciliation process. Exceptions, discrepancies, and manual, spreadsheet-based processes were cropping up across its SAP landscape, making reconciliation difficult and time consuming for preparers, approvers, and internal auditors alike. It was time for the company to weed out inefficiencies and plant best practices to revive its account reconciliation process. Find out how Scotts Miracle-Gro automated account reconciliation, certification, and monitoring of account activity while providing end-to-end visibility throughout the company.
9 minute read
Managing Modern Business ProcessesJan 14, 2016 —
In a climate of continuous change, organizations need to ensure that their business processes are not only executing optimally, but that they can adapt at a moment’s notice to take advantage of opportunities and meet unique requirements. This article introduces a new concept — process-driven architecture (PDA) — that enables you to build sophisticated business processes that are efficient and agile enough to meet modern business needs.
8 minute read