As global supply chains continue to struggle due to ongoing disruptions, the need for process automation with SAP® supply chain processes has never been more pressing.
We recently sponsored a research study from SAPinsider, Process Automation in Supply Chain Benchmark Research Report, that sought to provide new insights and trends on how process automation can help to build robust supply chain capabilities required for today’s complex supply chain.
In this webinar, we will review this research report and discuss the top priorities for automation and the challenges it presents. Based on these results we will also discuss how Precisely Automate can address many of these challenges and help you achieve results in today’s challenging business environment.
Specifically, we will talk about:
· The current state of automation in supply chain
· The importance of resiliency and agility in managing dynamic supply chains
· Top strategic areas for process automation in supply chain
· How Precisely Automate drives automation success in SAP® supply chain processes
5. The global leader
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Suite
6. Agenda
• What’s happening in the broader market
• New research on SAP supply chain automation
• Supply chain challenges in complex SAP-centric processes
• Precisely Automate Evolve for supply chain automation
• Case Study: Energy Drinks company
• Wrap up
8. KPMG’s 2019 CEO Outlook
“Acting with agility is the
new currency of business;
if we are too slow, we will
be bankrupt.”
67% of global
CEOs agree with
this statement:
9. Accelerating digital transformation
Data is the fuel for decision-making today
$1.3 trillion spent
on digital
transformation
last year
80% of CEOs
accelerating digital
transformation
85% of supply chain
leaders struggled with
insufficient technology
67% spending
more on technology
than people
11. Considerable focus on process automation
11
How important do you think is process automation in supply chain ?
67%
22%
9% 2%
Very Important Important Moderately important
Slightly important
Source: Process Automation in Supply Chain. SAPinsider Research, September 2022.
12. 51%
47%
25%
Need for supply chain
resiliency
Need for supply chain
agility
Need for supply chain
visibility
Supply chain agility and resiliency are key drivers
Top business drivers for process automation in supply chain
12
Source: Process Automation in Supply Chain. SAPinsider Research, September 2022.
13. 48%
41%
36%
Process standardization Process visibility Collaboration and visibility
Strategies to address business drivers
Top strategies for process automation in supply chain
13
Source: Process Automation in Supply Chain. SAPinsider Research, September 2022.
14. Requirements to help execute strategies
Top strategies for process automation in supply chain
14
82%
79%
77%
75%
72%
End-to-end
process visibility
Increased
process
efficiency
Defining and
documenting
standardization
Integrated
processes
across end-to-
end supply
chain
Building internal
skill set
Source: Process Automation in Supply Chain. SAPinsider Research, September 2022.
16. Data
Process
Tackle process and data together
• Product data management
• Supply Chain
• Vendor onboarding &
management
• Materials
• Customer onboarding &
management
• Financial master data
and more…
21. Start in the middle
Upstream
Process
components
• Materials
• Vendors
• Production
Planning
• Manufacturing
Operations
• Other systems
Downstream
Process
components
• Sales and
Distribution
• Customers
• Other Systems
22. Common product challenges
• Many raw and semi-
finished materials
• Multiple vendors and
suppliers
• Complex data objects
• Complex processes
• Manual data management
& spreadsheets
• Often multiple plants
• Frequent changes
• Complex customer
environment
• Tight margins
• Seasonal exceptions
• Promotional packaging
• Sales alignment
• Multiple systems
involved
• SAP in the middle of it
all
24. Upstream process components
Plus other, non-SAP systems
Vendors
Procurement
Product
Development
Controlling Finance Materials
Production
Planning
Warehouse
Manufacturing
Operations
25. Upstream reference & conditional
data
Bill of
Materials
(BoM)
Raw
materials
(ROH)
Vendor
Master
Routings
& PV
Purchase
info
record
(PIR)
Costing
(Mark &
Release)
Material
extension
s
Source
list
Material
status
update
Semi-
finished
materials
(HALB)
Finished
products
materials
(FERT)
Packaging
materials
(VERP)
Master
recipes
Trading
goods
materials
(HAWA)
Pricing
28. A complete automation platform
Excel to SAP
Exchange data with SAP
quickly and easily using
Excel
Form &
Workflow
Automate and accelerate
SAP business processes
with integrated forms and
workflows
Excel Workflow
Automate and accelerate
SAP business processes
through Excel file
management workflows
Process
Automation
Data
Automation
29. Automate Evolve
The right combination of
capabilities to automate data-
intensive processes.
29
Enterprise-
grade
workflow &
automation
Robust data
Stewardship
Deep SAP
integration
No-code,
low-code
software
30. Automate
Evolve
Includes Automate Studio—
our market leading Excel-
to-SAP automation
platform
30
Automate and streamline SAP
business processes using
workflows
• Advanced form and workflow
capabilities
• Advanced data stewardship capabilities
via web forms
• Detailed process analytics
Exchange data with SAP
quickly and easily
using Excel
• Data creation and maintenance
• Data migration
• Operational reporting
• Data stewardship
Share, manage, & control
Precisely solutions across
the enterprise
• Centralized content management
• Granular control of licenses, users &
policies
• Extensive audit and ROI reporting
• Server-side job execution
Automate Studio
31. Reduce cycle
times &
improve
compliance
Enterprise-grade workflow
capabilities
• Create parallel or sequential tasks
• Create workflow loops
• Setup task, approval, and past due,
reminder, and escalation email
notifications
• Utilize bulk task reassignment and
out-of-office functions
• Collect supporting documents
31
Parallel tasks
Workflow Loops
Email Notifications
33. Get more
visibility
Process dashboards &
reporting
• Develop dashboards and
reports for process participants
and management with your tool
of choice
• View status of in-process
projects to keep projects on
track
• View historical data to
continuously improve processes
33
34. Automate
Evolve
Portals
Secure internet access
for your SAP data
• Create custom portals for
customer, vendor, partner and
employee self-service data
management
• Streamline master data
processes
• Simplified portal development
experience
• Internal portals for Winshuttle
form users
35. Adding
external
portals
Custom web portals
for external (and
internal)
stakeholders
EXAMPLE USE CASES:
• External vendor or customer
portals for managing SAP data
• Internal portals with custom landing
pages
SAP ERP
WFM
Deployed
Portal
Portal users
Hosted on
Azure
Automate
Evolve
Private Cloud
or On-Premise
36. Evolve Portals
Example use cases
Vendors/suppliers
1. Onboarding
2. Change requests
3. Profile management
4. Cost price updates
5. Etc.
Customer
1. Onboarding
2. Change requests
3. Profile management
4. Etc.
Distribution/partners/m&a
1. Onboarding
2. Joint Product Launch
3. Wholesale alliance
4. Cost price updates
5. Etc.
37. APIs
Connected SAP data
management and process
automation
• RESTful API’s for automating
end-to-end processes
• Efficiently integrate systems to
processes and eliminate
manual data management
• Connect multiple systems and
cloud services with SAP
• Streamlined master data
processes
38. Set of RESTful APIs for
SAP data & process
automation
SAP Data API
REST API that enables direct
integration with SAP for scenarios that
don’t require data enrichment. Applies
to Studio Manager and Evolve. Easy
Inbox upgrade.
Digital Access API
REST based API that enables external
software to kick start or update an
Evolve workflow for users to
contribute data before it is ultimately
posted to SAP.
3rd-party API
support
Connecting to other REST APIs that
enables an Evolve process to connect
to different system of records to read
or update data.
39. Connecting to more systems of record
Use Evolve to manage end-to-end processes
Example use cases
• Collecting data from multiple
systems
• Multi-system data governance
• Multi-system master data
governance
• Complex process automation
SAP ERP
AFM
Data
Process and Data
management
Automate
Evolve
40. Be more
resilient and
agile
Flexible, extensible solutions
architecture
• Support different process and data needs in one
solution
• Make adjustments to supplier and materials
quickly and easily
• Enable suppliers to securely access and change
critical supply chain data
• Modify solutions quickly and easily without
technical IT resources or expensive SI
engagements
40
41. Dynamic
process linking
Choice of forms or
Excel front end
Smart, tailored,
role-based forms
Flexible, extensible
solution architecture
Granular user &
policy management
SmartTables
Live SAP data
validation
Automated data
exchange with
SAP
Audit trails for
process & data
Process
dashboards &
reports
Look for a complete set of
capabilities
42. Make an impact
across your SAP landscape
Financial
Accounting
FI
Controlling
CO
Sales and
Distribution
SD
Materials
Management
MM
Plant
Maintenance
PM
Asset
Management
AM
Project
Systems
PS
Production
Planning
PP
Quality
Management
QM
Human
Resources
HR
54. “The pace of change
has never been this
fast, but it will never
be this slow again.”
Justin Trudeau
Prime Minister of Canada
55. Wrap up
• Agility and resilience are the keys to supply chain success
• Supply chain automation success depends on adopting flexible technology
platforms
• Complex, SAP-centric supply chain processes are challenging to automate …
but there is light at the end of the tunnel
• Self-service portals can drive further efficiencies to automated processes
• End-to-end process automation requires multiple API types
• The future supply chain is going to be automated, agile and resilient
56. Let’s continue the
conversation…
Contact us
Set up a 30-minute
personalized demo
+1-877-700-0970
“Get in touch” on
www.precisely.com
www.precisely.com
Demos
White Papers
Case Studies
What are we going to talk about today…
Agenda: (Note to sales: You will likely modify this to fit your specific customer meeting needs)
[General finance and accounting audiences - Can be used to intro your audience specific impact slide]
As enterprises become more and more reliant on data and the volume of data we use to manage our businesses grows exponentially, it is more important than ever for companies to be able to react and move quickly.
And CEO’s are acknowledging this need to be more agile and able to quickly respond to changes in the business climate.
Gartner
KPMG
KPMG
McKinsey
Reference and Conditional data
[This slide can be used and adapted for many different scenarios to explain where Precisely Automate fits into a customer landscape.]
[This slide can be used and adapted for many different scenarios to explain where Precisely Automate fits into a customer landscape.]
When you choose the Winshuttle Platform for your SAP finance and accounting processes you enable your business to develop solutions as needed across the entire platform.
From the powerful desktop capabilities of Winshuttle Studio that automate mass data processes such as G/L account maintenance and period end journal entries.
Capabilities which we will discuss throughout this presentation:
Finance data creation and maintenance
Data migration
Financial reporting
Data stewardship capabilities
To advanced workflow automation with Winshuttle Foundation that can manage data files like Excel with full governance and compliance
Capabilities which we will discuss throughout this presentation:
Advanced routing and governance capabilities
Server-based file management
Flexible, conditional routing
And Web forms that can simplify complex data management tasks and workflows.
Capabilities which we will discuss throughout this presentation:
Advanced, user-friendly web form and workflow capabilities
Server-based execution
Process analytics
Advanced data stewardship capabilities (via web forms)
Whatever capabilities your team needs to apply in the business, Winshuttle offers a solution.
[Note to sales:] The blocks pieces are the top-level capabilities that make us unique in the marketplace. There is a slide on each of these in the first section of the slide library.
Here are some points you might want to weave in that positions what Automate Evolve does compared to business process automation (BPA) platforms (like K2, Nintex, Pegasystems, etc.) and master data management (MDM) platforms like SAP MDG:
Traditional business process automation platforms streamline processes but do little or nothing to improve data quality. They’re also not designed to handle complex, strategic SAP data processes.
Master data management platforms are great at improving the quality of a few core data attributes but are not designed to automate complex business processes that span data objects and business functions.
Automate Evolve provides the right combination capabilities and enables enterprise organizations to create and maintain strategic data assets faster—data like materials, customers, suppliers, and equipment—while ensuring that data adheres to business rules and company and regulatory procedures.
Note to sales:
This slide is made to point out that Automate Evolve includes Automate Studio, but that customers can still use as a standalone solution to get some quick wins while they are developing workflow solutions in Automate Evolve.
Note that the slide has a couple of builds in it to help you get the point across easier.
Note to sales:
Use this slide to highlight some of the key features of our workflow capabilities and how we can enable customers to dramatically reduce cycle times and improve compliance.
Note to sales:
Use this slide to explain our key data stewardship capabilities for both web form and Excel front ends. This is a great way to set up or summarize a demo.
Note to sales:
Getting more visibility into these strategic data processes is one of the key reasons customers are looking for an automation solution. If customers are tackling these processes with spreadsheets and email it’s really tough and time consuming to find out where a request is in the process.
Note to sales:
Automate Evolve is built with a modern, intuitive user interface to speed up solution development.
Why Portals?
A common request we have received from customers is to extend vendor/customer onboarding scenarios to stakeholders outside the organization. With Evolve Portals, you can build your own supplier self-service and customer self-service portals.
And you will also be able to use this for internal portals, to build specific landing pages for specific groups of users.
This extends Evolve use cases and opens up new opportunities for you to deliver more and better service for your customers and suppliers. External Portal deployment is available as an add-on to Evolve 20.2 and later. Talk to your sales rep about pricing for external portals based on your needs.
You can also develop and deploy portals for internal audiences at no cost.
In our conversations with Gartner, it’s been evident that this is an area that is still largely unsolved for a lot of customers. Companies are left trying piece together their own solutions. With Evolve Portals we are providing the fastest path to a custom portal.
Here are some of the use cases that we planning to address with the initial release of Evolve Portals.
Onboarding, change requests, data updates and more can be accomplished through the portals.
With the 20.2 release of Winshuttle Evolve, the platform now includes a set of RESTful APIs that enable Evolve to manage and automate broader, end-to-end processes by connecting multiple systems and cloud services with SAP.
These API's help solution developers efficiently integrate systems to and processes to eliminate manual data management that often leads to poor data quality and ungoverned process tracking.
For teams creating seamless, end-to-end solutions, Evolve automates business processes that require complex SAP data interactions with other, third-party systems like Salesforce, or that use the ODATA protocol. Traditionally, processes like these required inflexible, custom solutions that do not easily adjust to dynamic business environments. Evolve gives you the agility and flexibility you need to compete and thrive in today's business landscape.
With Evolve 20.2 we are including access to three RESTful API’s that will further enhance your digital transformation and automation efforts. They are:
SAP Data API: REST API that enables direct integration with SAP for scenarios that don’t require data enrichment. It acts as the last-mile into SAP for other applications and combines eliminates the need for RPA bots to screen-scrape the UI to deliver faster, more stable process automation.
Evolve Digital Access API: This RESTful API allows you to seamlessly launch Evolve workflow processes for either human-assisted workflows or completely automated sequences with your SAP ERP system.
Evolve 3rd-party API support: This RESTful API enables Evolve solution developers to easily integrate with other systems of record that have RESTful APIs, such as Salesforce or SAP’s ODATA service. You can query data from these third-party systems into your process or send
This combination of API’s available with Evolve 20.2 delivers a significant benefit to SAP teams looking to be part of larger, more complex digital transformation and automation efforts.
This slide shows how these other system of records may start or update an Evolve workflow (so both Process and Data are involved in this workflow interaction).
Similarly, the workflow may connect with these systems to store or retrieve information as part of the workflow execution.
[Note to sales:] The main point we want to get across in this slide is that our flexible, extensible architecture enables organizations to become more agile—a key requirement in today’s fast-paced marketplace. Being able to create and modify automation solutions quickly and without big IT budgets is one of the main reasons customers replace homegrown or inflexible third-party solutions.
Below are some points to clarify the bullets
Support different process and data needs in one solution – examples:
A vendor onboarding solution that applies different workflow logic depending on the country where products will be sold
An NPI solution that supports different launch types and processes by plant or region
Start small and expand your automation footprint over time – this ties back into our dynamic process linking capabilities. You can build a solution today that involves one or a few data objects and then add on over time. The classic use case for this is NPI, but it applies across the different business areas and data domains.
Modify solutions easily without technical IT resources or expensive SI engagement – this enables organizations to keep up with changes in the business
Note to sales:
Use this slide to introduce at a high level the features that make Evolve unique. You do not need to go through each one. For deeper conversations and follow-up meetings there is content around many of these features in the Evolve slide library.
Note to sales:
Use this slide to explain that our platforms can make an impact across their SAP landscape—whether it’s master data or transactional data use cases.
Benefits of Machine Learning
Improved data entry and decision-making process through recommendations
Improved data quality through ML-based checks
Create rules that are not possible without ML
Reduced effort and complexity to implement and update hard-coded rules
Reduced time to determine business rules
Reduced time to value in solution development
I would like to share with you Monster Energy's process transformation story.
Monster Energy was using spreadsheets and emails to track their product launches (Monster calls it NPW – New Product Worksheet). Their process even required project managers of new products to invest hours each day tracking down status to report back to meetings and management – just another task that was eating up time. In their words it was “organized chaos”.
<click>
Then in 2015, Coca-Cola and Monster entered into a partnership. This gave Monster access to aspects of Coke’s global distribution network <click>
and dramatically increasing the number of new product launches (it quadrupled the number of open projects). Their current manual process simply couldn’t scale…
<click>
[Notes: To be clear Coca-Cola doesn’t own Monster – Coke has a 17% stake in the company]
and getting the data into SAP for all the global sites soon became the bottleneck holding Monster back.
So, let me share with you a little about Monster’s transformation journey.
<click>
First, we mapped out their existing process – something they had never done before – and there were some real aha moments here. This is where Precisely’s professional services team really began to shine – by looking beyond just the tools. Like any good process transformation project, we reviewed the people, process and technology. This was the beginning of the true Monster Transformation that included automation, process redesign and organizational changes needed to allow Monster to move at a faster pace.
<click>
Note to sales:
This is a key message for us. Our NPI solution can be built to handle any type of launch process from a net new finished good or line extension to a simple ingredient change or plant extension.
Out of the process workshop we identified 3 different business solutions, Point-of-Sale Materials (these are salable materials for items like T-shirts, hats and stickers), Raw materials (ingredients) and the NPI process – the overall process needed to launch a new product. The NPI solution includes more than 8 SAP product data objects, and our modular architecture allows you to dynamically link the sub processes needed for each specific launch, even calling the independent raw material process if needed.
It was obvious that Monster need to help immediately <click>
[David]
Highlevel overview – our solution can handle a lot of complexity and being able to process projects independently of plant was huge for Monster…
Total steps = 23
At the first pass they have already reduced their product launch cycle times by 50-75% depending on launch type. They now have tools and controls in place that easily allows them to collect the right data at the right time from the right people.
<click>
They have the visibility they need to effectively manage their product launches,
<click>and the governance in place to allow business teams to take true ownership of “their” data.
<click>This gives Monster trust in a repeatable process that allows them to bring new products to market faster than ever before!
<click>
What are we going to talk about today…
Agenda: (Note to sales: You will likely modify this to fit your specific customer meeting needs)
Questions?
Can you also do Vendor and Customer masters too?
I’m on S4 Hana will this work with my system?
I have custom fields in my material master, does this work for those?
We often have fields that the business is missing can you make them require even if SAP doesn’t require them?
We would love to speak to you in more detail about your product data processes and how we can help you make an impact to your business , so please feel free to reach out to us.