How do you ensure an efficient SAP Profitability and Performance Management (PaPM) setup? While we focus on PaPM in this post, these pre-planning methodologies are great for any type of economic transformation push in an enterprise. Planning serves as a basis for all development. Planning is crucial because it helps the business anticipate hurdles and pre-emptively deal with them. From managing budgets to expectations, companies should dedicate significant time to their planning before execution. So what does successful digital financial transformation require to operate efficiently and effectively?
Aligning Corporate Governance Interests
At its heart, successful digital financial transformation relies on disparate departments willing and able to work alongside each other for a common goal. Unfortunately, corporate governance is notoriously tricky to navigate. How do you ensure those departments are aligned in what they want to accomplish? It starts with streamlining the process. We want departments such as financial reporting, financial management, IT, information security, digital finance, and capital projects to align. Using SAP PaPM means finding an alternative solution to SAP Profitability and Cost Management (PCM) which was decommissioned. The answer, therefore, would be an alternative cost allocation engine that fits each department’s needs. By ensuring each stakeholder had an input into the choice of this engine, no one felt as though they were pressured into a solution.
Getting Started in SAP PaPM
SAP PaPM is a relatively new application, and with it come the teething concerns of getting staff trained in using it. However, it’s a superior system to the old SAP PCM system, and training staff in its use will bring benefits in time and money saved during the transformation. In addition to training, a business should also prepare hardware sizing testing and memory allocation exercises to deal with the application once it goes live. SAP PaPM also works alongside SAP Business Warehouse (BW). SAP PCM can be used as a function unit directory, allowing PaPM to build its functions off the existing ones. Object configuration will be needed to help the system display objects in SAP HANA.
Information Security
SAP PaPM also comes with a stunning array of security features. Vital roles and custom roles with customizable access limits and levels make for a flexible yet robust security system. Planning should take into account what offices should fulfill which roles. PaPM offers a variety of built-in roles that can be configured to the organization’s needs. Each role works with the information security group to ensure they can access the data they need. These roles can then be further tested within the development environment, and any problems with access are checked and rectified.
Running in Parallel
The final step in the planning process is setting up SAP PaPM to run alongside the existing system for a pre-determined period. Ideally, this should be a significant enough period to catch any problems as they occur. Running the system in tandem creates redundancy in case there is a need to revamp whole portions of the system. It also allows the organization to test and validate live data alongside SAP PCM. If there are discrepancies, the issues can be pinpointed and repaired before pushing the system live.
