Business Flows meets SAP's One Process Acceleration Layer

Russell Gomersall

After SAP acquired Signavio and announced the One Process Acceleration Layer for SAP solutions and the corresponding beta program, we were thrilled about the opportunities this may have in store for us.

The One Process Acceleration Layer is a practice for better and faster transformations and represents the collective knowledge from thousands of transformation projects SAP delivered over time. This knowledge is conveyed to organizations in the form of value accelerators such as reference business and solution architectures, solution best-practices, business metrics, and thought leadership papers.

At bpExperts our core competence is to support companies in building a process repository including all relevant artifacts and establishing a process driven approach including methodology, required roles, and governance to support the business transformation life cycle.

On its end, SAP’s One Process Acceleration Layer practice will also be driving more organizations to adopt a process driven transformation approach delivering value accelerators which can be explored and consumed centrally, via the SAP Signavio Process Explorer.

From a bpExperts perspective we were anxious about how our Business Flows fits into the equation and can work in conjunction with SAP’s One Process Acceleration Layer practices. Will Business Flows become obsolete with the provision of SAP’s reference content, will it be perceived as a competition or is there a clear added value to be addressed in using both?

After deeply diving into the content and meta-model, we are happy to announce that it is the latter:

We believe Business Flows adds considerable value to customers on their Business Transformation journey and especially in combination with SAP’s content.

Business Flows content has been mapped to One Process Acceleration Layer best-practices so that companies exploring both can find consistency, synergies and added value from a combined use.

Fig. 1 Mapping concept

Fig. 1 shows how we map Business Flows objects to SAP’s content. Let me explain which key elements our framework provides and how they link:

Strategy Framework and Capabilities

Our current strategic framework is based on the idea that companies should identify their core objectives based on SCOR performance metrics (Business Drivers) and link these to the relevant Business Capabilities, as well as their scoped E2E scenarios. Our framework supports this exercise because we have already mapped the Business Drivers to our E2E scenarios and a set of Business Capabilities.

SAP’s content that is now in beta offers insights into the various solution capabilities. We have therefore re-mapped SAP’s Business Capabilities to our Business Drivers and where possible directly to the E2E scenarios. This allows the users to identify which SAP capabilities and solutions best help them achieve their goals and create a high-level solution architecture. With the January 2023 release, SAP will also be delivering its own business drivers, connected to business capabilities, including metrics and best practice content to deliver top to bottom, strategy to execution.

E2E process reference architecture and content

Business Flows offers a comprehensive set of E2E scenarios based on a process library. The scope of the processes covers the typical use cases within industrial companies. All scenarios are organized according to their E2E - Domain (i.e., Order-to-Cash, Procure-to-Pay) as well as a scenario cluster which is a collection of scenarios of a specific topic (i.e., consignment, replenishment etc.). Each scenario consists of a value chain of business processes and interfaces to other scenarios. The whole content is consistent and can be used to scope and rapidly set up a company specific repository. The granularity of our business processes is aligned with SAP's libraries, therefore they fit very well to the value chains provided by SAP's industry content. The industry content is organized into collections such as 'AMG' for Automotive Manufacturing or 'OTC' for the Chemicals Order-to-Cash scenarios. We have created and included a scenario cluster for each of these groups and within the cluster we list each scenario with a link to the original content (see Fig. 2). This allows users to discover the industry specific content and include it in their scope, if suitable. Of course, taking an SAP scenario into scope requires transferring the relevant content into the customer repository and re-establishing the process repository’s consistency. Rebuilding a consistent Business Process library is anyhow a necessary task after scoping and a standard step within our approach.

Fig. 2 Plan to Produce End-to-End scenarios with reference to SAP HCO content

SAP Best Practices

As part of the content provided by the One Process Acceleration Layer, the scope of the solution (e.g., SAP S/4HANA) can be defined with so-called Best Practices (Scope Items). We believe that these Best Practices as defined by SAP have a great value during the process design phase. They help identify Best Practices which can be included into the solution. In Business Flows we have mapped the Best Practices to our repository. The nature of Best Practices, especially the variance on granularity, resulted in a mapping on various levels but mainly on Process Group or E2E scenario level.

Similar to the approach mentioned above, we only transfer the selected Best Practices into the customer repository and ensure a consistent repository. This consistency is especially important when the content is synchronized to the Solution Manager for the sake of solution documentation, test management or using focused build.

Process Driven SAP Cookbook

Walking the talk of SAP Activate and leveraging the content of SAP’s reference content in a Business Transformation initiative does not only require building up a process repository with the artifacts mentioned above. To ensure the 'process driven' approach, it requires coordinating many activities to refine and use the content in a consistent manner across the whole lifecycle.

To guide customers through this process we have created a Process Driven SAP “Cookbook”. In itself, this is a model in SAP Signavio (Fig. 3) which contains all work packages related to the SAP Activate Phase and Stream. They include descriptions of the key activities, involved roles, outcomes and especially guidance on which artifacts of the process repository are used or created.

Fig. 3 Business Flows Cookbook ‘Process driven SAP’

Conclusion

Our current investigation is based on the beta version, and we know that the general availability for SAP Signavio Process Explorer and the related One Process Acceleration Layer practices is actually planned for January 2023 with more content and value accelerators such as performance-driven scenarios being delivered. Nevertheless, even in its current beta state, the SAP’s approach with One Process Acceleration layer providing reference and best-practices content is a great step forward in fostering a process-driven transformation approach and it really lives up to its claim to ‘accelerate’ a business transformation. We also believe that our offering in Business Flows - a comprehensive business transformation framework with process repository and transformation cookbook – adds further value to it.

Call for Action

Please reach out if you want to have a demo on Business Flows in combination with SAP Signavio.

For questions regarding the SAP’s One Process Acceleration Layer visit the SAP Signavio website (https://www.signavio.com/one-process-acceleration-layer/).

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Request Demo Business Flows meets SAP OPAL

Business Flows Release 3: Introducing Value Flow

From Value Creation to Finance & Controlling - Aligning the separated views on your business

- Ikemefuna Allen

The situation

When talking to professionals from purchasing, production planning, and sales & distribution, they often seem not aware how their business operations impact accounting. By the same token, accounting departments are repeatedly left in the dark about business operations during process design phases of major transformation initiatives. This misalignment can be very costly, causing gaps from process design through to business rule definition, and Key Performance Indicator (KPI) interpretation.

Business processes are essential building blocks for organisational change and change can only be brought about when the stakeholders share a common goal; aligning on what needs to be done, how it is to be done, and what the implications are, once the work is done.

It is widely believed that thinking about business processes from an End to End (E2E) perspective fosters operational excellence since the key process flows, business rules, business roles and expected business outcomes are considered at all levels within the organisation. But Accounting too has its share of rules, legal requirements, roles, and expected outcomes, and often depend on input from upstream processes to ensure optimal service delivery. Keeping this in mind, one clearly sees the potential risks associated with a misalignment between business operations and accounting.

The solution approach

To foster holistic organisational transformation, it is essential that all business areas are in sync at the earliest stage of process design. The Value Flow approach facilitates the marriage between value creating processes and their Finance & Controlling requirements. This shall be demonstrated in the following examples.

1. Perform goods issue for sales from stock

Based on a customer order, goods are issued from stock, triggering a delivery to the customer. When this occurs, the relevant accounting entries are made namely, a posting to Cost of Goods Sold (COGS) and posting of the inventory reduction. The illustrated BPMN model below visualises this business transaction and the corresponding accounting impacts. In this model, the accounting postings are presented in a separate pool.

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2. Create Customer Invoice

Once goods have been issued and a delivery is triggered, we expect the customer to be billed accordingly. The creation of a customer invoice will result in the recording of a receivable on the customer’s account, and the posting of the revenue which is derived from the business transaction as shown below.

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3. Cross-company Business

Though the above presented examples may seem simplistic, Value Flow visualisation becomes more complex when considering business transactions among companies from one corporate group. A cross-company sales scenario typically involves a customer, the company selling to the customer (selling entity), and at least one other company belonging to the same corporate group as the seller (delivering entity). Showing the Value Flow for the transfer of ownership of goods, and the invoice creation can be equally challenging and enlightening when considering aspects of materials transfer, cross-company billing, commission agreements, and accounting requirements for balance sheet and P&L account consolidation. The illustrated BPMN model visualises the transfer of ownership of goods during a cross-company business transaction. 

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4. Product Costing

When calculating the product cost for manufactured goods, it is necessary to keep detailed track of all incurring direct and indirect costs. To do so, controlling functions must ensure that related costs are recorded and allocated accordingly within the relevant accounting period. Value Flow can be used to visualise the material and time consumption related to manufacturing processes. This provides useful information when aligning the policies and computation method for product costing. The BPMN model shows the accounting impacts when materials are used in the production process. 

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The way forward

Value Flow representation enriches process documentation by establishing cross references between key Value Flow topics within a business such as COGS and inventory postings, and the various instances and related E2E scenarios. These should be defined at the same point in time as process design with an early involvement of accounting departments. Value Flow therefore offers a framework to ensure alignment between Operations, and Financial and Managerial Accounting in business transformation initiatives. 

In the next release of Business Flows, we will provide reference models with Value Flow representation for all core business processes. These can be used as a template to refine according to the scope and concepts of your business transformation initiative. 

For inquiries on the concept and how to establish value flows in your environment please feel free to contact me.  

Webinar: Business Flows - Best Practice Referenzmodell in Signavio am 31.01.2017

- Russell Gomersall

Webinar Business Flows — Best Practice Referenzmodell in Signavio

Cloud basierte BPM Tools wie Signavio bieten den Vorteil, dass Unternehmen sich schnell in BPM Initiativen 'stürzen' können, ohne sich in Bezug auf die Selektion eines Tools und die Planung einer BPM Roadmap zur Berechnung des ROI langfristig Gedanken machen zu müssen.

Bei der Projektinitiierung, spätestens aber in der Design-/Modellierungsphase stehen dann viele Kunden vor folgenden Fragestellungen: 

• Wie strukturiere ich meine Prozesse am besten?  

• Wie modelliere ich am besten?  

• Wie komme ich schnell zu guten Prozessmodellen?

Damit der gewonnene Schwung nicht verloren geht, bietet sich die Verwendung des Business Flows Referenzmodells an.

In Business Flows fließt jahrelange Projekterfahrung ein und es bietet folgende Kerneigenschaften:

• Industrie Best Practice und SAP konforme Prozessmodelle

• Granularität und Konventionen der BPMN Modelle passend für große Business Transformationen und Standardisierungsinitiativen

• Architektur und Ebenenkonzept zur klaren Strukturierung des Scopes und Etablierung einer End-to-end Prozessorganisation

Der Inhalt von Business Flows kann direkt in Signavio zur Verfügung gestellt werden. Damit müssen Prozessinitiativen zukünftig nicht auf der grünen Wiese beginnen und umständlich alles neu modellieren, sie können vielmehr effizient Modelle auswählen, ergänzen und justieren. Mit der Sicherheit, ein valides und nachhaltiges Ergebnis zu erzeugen.

In unserem kostenlosen 45-minütigem Webinar in Kooperation mit Signavio am Dienstag, 31. Januar um 15.00 MEZ, wird das Referenzmodell Business Flows vorgestellt und anhand von konkreten Anwendungsfällen dargestellt, wie Sie es erfolgreich im Rahmen Ihrer Prozessinitiative oder Ihres Transformationsprojektes einsetzen können.