With SAP Solution Manager 7.1 support package 14 another puzzle piece has been added towards a complete "Business Process Improvement Suite" as I would call it. While we provided Business Process Analytics as the root cause analysis tool in 2010 (meanwhile also available in an ad-hoc version and as native iPad app) and added a dashboard layer on top in 2011, we now shipped a new SAPUI5 application called "Dependency Diagrams".
As we ship such a vast KPI content out-of-the-box with close to 1.000 KPIs, customers can easily lose the overview on what is measured and tracked in what way and for what purpose. With the help of the Dependency Diagrams you can build kind of KPI trees where you bring the different KPIs into some logical, hierarchical order. You can visualize the dependency chains of KPIs and get the "picture" updated with your live data.
When you access the application you can select one diagram that must have been defined beforehand, e.g. looking at a diagram about the typical financial business KPI "Days Sales Outstanding (DSO).
After selecting the diagram you get to see the root level (here Days Sales Outstanding itself) and the dependent level 1 KPIs. In our example all five level 1 KPIs are collected via Business Process Analytics, i.e. why you see an Analyze-hyperlink which allows a direct forward navigation into Business Process Analytics. The backend data from your SAP BusinessSuite or SAP S/4 HANA system can be shown as count of documents/items (e.g. 241 deliveries or 310 SD invoices) or as one accumulated monetary value (e.g. 2,7 million Euro or 311,3 million USD).
The tiles that you see could be
- populated by Business Process Analytics data
- populated by Business Process Monitoring data
- populated via query from a connected SAP BW system
- not populated with any data and just used for modeling/visualizing
Below SD Orders not billed and Open customer items we see a '+' icon, so we can further expand the tree in those areas.
As we know that the majority of billing documents is created via billing run, we put another KPI below the SD Orders not billed. This additional KPI looks specifically at all error messages that were raised during billing due runs. One of the most typical error messages is the problem of incomplete sales order items and hence you can further expand to see Missing fields in SD documents.
So with the help of this application you can
- Bring business BW reporting and operational Business Process Analytics data for root cause analysis together in one view
- Structure your KPIs in meaningful dependency diagrams, so that every manager and subject matter experts understands the leverage that one low level KPI might have on any (business) KPI on top, like DSO.
- Set threshold values so that the numbers in the tiles get a green, amber or red rating
- Decide if you put your focus on document numbers or monetary values (and which target currency)
- Use the forward navigation to get from this overview into the actual root cause analysis with Business Process Analytics.
This application can be used on any device and any screen resolution, because of the SAPUI5 user interface.
Configuration
There are no diagram templates shipped with this application. Instead you have to model everything yourself. The configuration has some similarities to the configuration of Business Process Operations dashboards in SAP Solution Manager. So you have to create Analytical Key Figure Instances (AKFIs) first, where you define which data should be displayed from which source and define potential thresholds. Then you model the respective Dependency Diagram / KPI Hierarchy and bring the AKFIs into some logical order.
There is always just on root. After this you always just specify which AKFI is child of which other AKFI (identified by technical name not description). You can always have more than one child for every parent tile. Based on these parent/child relationships the application calculates the hierarchy level automatically and arranges the tiles from top to bottom.
So if yo have Business Process Analytics already up and running in your SAP Solution Manager 7.1 with support package 14, then you should be only a few clicks away from creating your own Dependency Diagram and show it to your management in order to get the budget for your desired business process improvement activities.
Further reading
You can find all necessary information about Business Process Analytics in this document. More information on Business Process Improvement for SAP solutions can be found here.
Frequently Asked Questions about Business Process Monitoring and Business Process Analytics are answered under http://wiki.sdn.sap.com/wiki/display/SM/FAQ+Business+Process+Monitoring and
http://wiki.sdn.sap.com/wiki/display/SM/FAQ+Business+Process+Analytics respectively.
The following blogs (in chronological order) provide further details about Business Process Analytics and Business Process Monitoring functionalities within the SAP Solution Manager.
- New Business Process Monitoring functionalities in SAP Solution Manager – ALE / IDoc Monitoring
- New Business Process Monitoring functionalities in SAP Solution Manager – qRFC Monitoring
- Best Practice: Business Process Monitoring for Manufacturing
- Best Practice: Business Process Monitoring for Procure to Pay
- Best Practice: Business Process Monitoring for Order to Cash
- Typical Use Cases for Business Process Monitoring in SAP Solution Manager
- New key figure catalog for Business Process Monitoring available
- Why SAP offers different tools for Business Process Monitoring & Business Process Optimization
- Create your own auto-reaction messages in Business Process Monitoring via BAdI exit
- Protect your SAP ERP investment & improve your core business processes
- Create your own customer-specific key figure for Business Process Monitoring within 5 minutes
- Best Practice: BW Process Chain monitoring with SAP Solution Manager - Part 1
- New key figures for Business Process Monitoring in SAP Solution Manager, especially for CRM Marketing
- New functionality "Business Process Analytics" - how to improve your business processes
- New key figures for Business Process Monitoring in SAP Solution Manager, especially Lead Time measurements
- Traditional Business KPI approach vs Business Process Monitoring
- Systematic errors vs real exceptions or improving efficiency vs effectiveness
- Before you get started with SAP HANA...you should also consider cleaning-up your backend system first
- Best Practice: Business Process Monitoring for CRM Sales
- Business Process Operations dashboards - ALL AT A GLANCE
- Customer testimonials on Business Process Analytics
- Customer Exit: Create your own key figure for BPMon AND Business Process Analytics
- Heads-up: Setup environment of BPMon & Analytics changes with SolMan 7.1 SP5
- New key figures for BPMon & BP Analytics, especially for working capital improvement
- New Business Process Monitoring functionalities in SAP Solution Manager - BPMon Alert Reporting Analysis
- New Business Process Analytics features with SAP SolMan 7.1 SP5
- New Business Process Analytics - The filter sequence makes the difference
- New key figures: Analyzing/Monitoring exceptions during delivery due processing
- New key figure: Analyzing/Monitoring exceptions during billing due processing
- Enhanced key figures: Analyzing/monitoring SD invoices not transferred to FI
- New key figures: Analyzing/monitoring exceptions in CRM Sales or Service documents, Business Activities or Tasks
- New keyfigures: Analyzing/monitoring exceptions from APO planning runs
- New key figures for BPMon & BP Analytics - new exception and automation rate key figures for ERP plus new content for FSCM, APO and CRM
- New key figures: Analyzing/monitoring exceptions during Period End Closing
- New key figures: Analyzing/monitoring exceptions in Controlling (CO-PC)
- Enhanced key figures: Bridging the organizational gap between SD and FI-AR
- Business Process Analytics: Types of key figures and their respective use cases
- Business Process Analytics: Types of functions and their respective features & purposes
- New key figures for BPMon & BP Analytics - new content for Travel & Expense Management, Banking and Utilities
- SAP Business Process Analytics" available for download in Apple's App Store
- Discrete manufacturing: Mapping BP Analytics key figures to system status
- New key figures for BPMon & Analytics - new content for vendor invoice processing (e.g. Shared Service Center scenarios) and new delta throughput for Order to Cash
- Business Process Analytics: ad-hoc and real time with or without SAP HANA
- New landing page for "Business Process Improvement for SAP solutions"
- New KPI Catalog available in the cloud - Part 1
- New KPI Catalog available in the cloud - Part 2