It is a new year and with a new year follows our very new SAP S/4HANA Cloud 2202 release. As always, we bring a large variety of new innovations to our valued cloud customers. These innovations will support your intelligent enterprise and help you to run your business better every day.

In this blog post, I will walk you through a few of my highlights of the new SAP S/4HANA Cloud 2202 release. Have a look at our video to get an overview of the innovations this release brings to you.

Manufacturing

Planning strategies are key for manufacturing companies and represent the business procedures for the planning of production and procurement quantities. With our SAP S/4HANA Cloud 2202 release we enable new planning strategies for products together with a selection guide. The new selection guide is available in the ‘Manage Product Master Data’ app under ‘Plants’ –> ‘MRP Data’ –> ‘Strategy Group’.

The planning strategies are listed as predefined content in the configuration environment. The new selection guide makes it easy for your business to choose and understand the delivered planning strategies. A set of questions guide you step-by-step to find the appropriate planning strategy group.

More in Gerhard Welker’s product release video and Blog Post.

Figure 1: The new selection guide makes it easy for your business to choose and understand the delivered planning strategies

Finance

With the advanced valuation processes we deliver into our SAP S/4HANA Cloud 2202 Release, time consuming and cumbersome period-end closing tasks for valuations of invoices now belong in the past. You carry out the processes in the form of jobs. All jobs and their results have a single point of entry via the ‘Schedule General Ledger Jobs’ app. You can start and schedule them here and you can also access the results using this app.

New and existing customers will now benefit from a new generation of advanced valuations that simplify and enhance the work while providing insights and the ability to comply with the latest international accounting standards. The new advanced valuation processes in finance offer you a range of capabilities that you need to not only accelerate period-end closing activities, but also to complete them in a much smarter way.

More in Ulrich Hauke’s Blog Post and product release video.

Figure 2: The new advanced valuation processes accelerate period-end closing activities

Environment, Health, and Safety

For Environment, Health, and Safety our SAP S/4HANA Cloud 2202 release includes the ‘Greenhouse Gas Report’ template with formatting and additional functions. With this feature, our customers can specify the location and data classifiers that apply to a greenhouse gas report before generating the report file. They also can also edit the unit of measures used for the report or convert values of different units to respond to specific requirements. The system supports the conversion and helps to convert the data automatically. This innovation tremendously improves the look and feel of the report and enhances the filtering and refinement for the data selection for the report.

Staying in the context of Sustainability, it’s important to mention some already existing highlights running on the SAP Business Technology Platform, which is tightly connected to our SAP S/4HANA Cloud core:

• SAP Product Footprint Management, is your solution to get insights into the environmental impact of products, as it allows for calculation of product footprints.
• SAP Responsible Design and Production which helps to design products sustainably and build a regenerative business in a circular economy.
• SAP Sustainability Control Tower which enables organizations to holistically steer, report and perform in order to succeed in their sustainable business ambitions.

 More in Talal Syed Hussain’s product release video and Blog Post.

Figure 3: The new ‘Greenhouse Gas Report’ template includes new formatting and additional functions that enhance the report

Supply Chain Management

With SAP S/4HANA Cloud 2202, we introduce a new end-to-end process as part of Supply Chain. Using manual planning with freight booking documents in the transportation cockpit, businesses are enabled to perform manual transportation planning even for ocean freight. This extension increases the business scope in the area of maritime transportation and adds a freight booking scenario that gives companies the opportunity to subcontract to freight forwarders.

Furthermore, from now on it is possible to create sales orders and freight units according to freight unit building rules (FUB rules). Companies can now directly assign freight units to a freight booking and distribute to the selected containers. The new release also includes a dangerous goods check for marine.

More in Markus Oertelt’s product release video and Gerhard Welker’s Blog Post.

Figure 4: Perform manual transportation planning with freight booking documents

Service

Service Order Management extends the capability by integrating the service process with agent desktop in SAP Service Cloud. This pre-integrated solution enables service agents to launch processes in SAP S/4HANA Cloud directly from the agent console, eliminating the need to switch applications.

Additionally, this innovation simplifies project implementation, as core processes stay in SAP S/4HANA Cloud and surface in SAP Service Cloud contextually through mashups. All together our SAP products are connected as one pre-integrated solution that presents a true front to back-office story. We also add a timeline microservice in SAP Service Cloud which captures key events of service orders such as create and status change with configurable events.

More in Young Hwae Koo’s product release video and Blog Post.

Figure 5: This demo shows the service process integration with agent desktop in SAP Service Cloud

Governance, Risk, and Compliance

Another integration scenario we release with Governance, Risk, and Compliance is SAP Cloud Identity Access Governance with SAP S/4HANA Cloud for advanced financial closing. This integration supports managing user access and ensuring access compliance. User assignments can be provisioned through access requests and access risk analysis can be performed.

The key benefits for SAP S/4HANA Cloud for advanced financial closing are automated access management using auditable access requests and improved risk management that comes with role-level user access risk analysis and cross-system risk analysis.

More info in Katrin Deissner’s product release video and Blog Post.

Figure 6: The integration helps managing user access and ensuring access compliance

Enterprise Portfolio and Project Management

Until today, only internal employees could record their time on enterprise projects in the SAP Fiori app ‘Manage My Timesheet’. With the new enhancement, we enable service performers to book their time on the activities of enterprise projects by using the same application. With that, we deliver a true single access point for time bookings for all employees across your organization’s projects.

As the time bookings are posted further in Finance, these bookings will be available in your standard finance monitoring and reporting capabilities, which generates additional transparency.

More in Corina Kinzel’s product release video and Blog Post.

Figure 7: Enabling Service Performers to book their time

Professional Services

As part of our project billing capabilities, we enable process extensibility through the timesheet to project billing request and invoice. This feature enables administrators to create a new custom field across multiple business contexts so that the information can flow end-to-end in the Professional Services scenario. Our customers can now leverage in-app extensibility for more flexibility in introducing critical custom fields in the end-to-end billing processes. The innovations of this release will enhance end-user productivity, increase efficiency during project billing and ease the transfer of custom fields detail from the time of the recording to the billing document output.

More in Katharina Stopf’s Blog Post and product release video.

Figure 8: Process extensibility through the timesheet to project billing request and invoice is enabled

Sales

For every sales business unit we enable the triggering of mass changes to sales documents across document categories. For example, you can make changes to multiple sales orders and sales quotations at the same time and in only one step. We also add user-friendly capabilities to filter and prepare the changes, and we allow for transparent job monitoring and efficient postprocessing. Furthermore, the ‘Mass Change of Sales Documents’ app now supports consumption of multiple addresses for a customer for all the sales document categories.

More in Christian Vogler’s product release video and Blog Post.

Figure 9: Make changes to multiple sales orders and sales quotations at the same time in only one step

Sourcing and Procurement

Our SAP Central Invoice Management, inbound processing module, complements SAP Central Invoice Management visibility capabilities with supplier invoice inbound processing. Deployed on our SAP Business Technology Platform (SAP BTP) and tightly integrated to SAP S/4HANA Cloud, it enables our customers to manually upload and edit draft invoices. Additionally, it automatically reads the invoice content through a document information extraction service using optical character recognition (OCR) and provides seamless integration to SAP S/4HANA Cloud for further processing. It is an application designed particularly for accounts payable accountants working centrally in an organization, e.g., shared services center.

More in Harish Mangtani’s Blog Post.

Figure 10: Manually upload and edit draft invoices with SAP Central Invoice Management, inbound processing module

Asset Management

For Asset Management, our SAP S/4HANA Cloud 2202 release enables external collaboration with service providers and subcontractors. The new ‘Manage Components and Services’ app allows you to view and manage all externally-procured materials and lean services that are required to execute your maintenance orders, in a single place.

You can filter for externally procured components and services by one or more maintenance planning buckets, pending procurement activities, and other criteria. Furthermore, the system displays all non-stock components and lean services that match the selected filter criteria.

More in Gerhard Welker’s product release video and Blog Post.

Figure 11: Enabling external collaboration with service providers and subcontractors

Product Compliance

As for Product Compliance, our release features the new SAP Fiori app ‘Manage Poison Centre Notifications’. This innovation supports poison centers in identifying a mixture in question and providing the best possible assistance to save people’s lives. With this feature, you can add the compliance pattern ‘Poison Centre Notification’ for unpackaged products and raw materials. Moreover, our customers are now able to assess products and indicate whether European poison center notification is applicable and assign unique formula identifiers to unpackaged products.

More in Talal Syed Hussain’s product release video and Christian Vogler’s Blog Post.

Figure 12: Using the new SAP Fiori app ‘Manage Poison Centre Notifications’ you can add the compliance pattern ‘Poison Centre Notification’ for unpackaged products and raw materials

SAP User Experience in SAP S/4HANA Cloud

With SAP S/4HANA Cloud 2202, SAP is introducing a preview of the new product homepage in SAP S/4HANA Cloud.

Based on Horizon, the latest visual theme for SAP Fiori, and Spaces & Pages, that organize your apps efficiently, the new product homepage provides everything SAP S/4HANA Cloud business users need to be the most efficient at their job. It:

• Draws attention to required actions and important tasks
• Launches favorite, frequently and recently used apps with a single click
• Provides ‘Quick APP Launch’ based on the search field
• Leverages Spaces & Pages to facilitate the access to your apps
• Features company-specific and business-relevant content

Why only a preview? Because we want to include our users and incorporate their feedback into the final version. Curious? Have a look at the new product homepage here and register to the Early Adopter Care program for SAP S/4HANA Cloud 2202 customers to be amongst the first to experience the new product homepage and give early feedback.

Two-Tier ERP

As part of our Two-Tier ERP with SAP S/4HANA Cloud 2202 we make the predictive maintenance with service integration in the subsidiary-headquarter model available to our customers. Predictive maintenance enables data analytics through Internet of Things and ensures zero downtime of the equipment which enhances customer satisfaction. Additionally, it makes real-time condition monitoring possible for our customers. Our customers experience greater automation for maintenance orders in Two-Tier ERP due to seamless integration of transactional steps like the creation of service orders at the subsidiary. Overall, it reduces the data entry points from the business users and enables higher degrees of scalability thanks to process efficiency gains.

More in Shilpa Sreenivasa’s product release video and Swati Balani’s Blog Post.

Figure 13: Experience greater automation for maintenance orders in Two-Tier ERP due to seamless integration of transactional steps like the creation of service orders at the subsidiary

SAP Activate for SAP S/4HANA Cloud

We keep SAP Activate up-to-date and aligned with the product to provide our customers with the best guidance for their SAP S/4HANA Cloud implementation. In this release we have added more coverage for customers deploying Two-tier ERP, including the publication of the new white paper “Two-Tier ERP Deployment for SAP S/4HANA Cloud” that provides four-step path to public cloud.

We invite you all to download this new asset to learn about the Two-Tier ERP, business scenarios available for your organization and to understand how you can maximize your current IT investment while bringing your organization to the cloud.

More in Jan Musil’s Blog Post.

Figure 14: Download the new white paper that provides four-step path to public cloud

SAP Intelligent Robotic Process Automation

SAP Intelligent Robotic Process Automation has a new cloud studio built with a low-code/no-code approach. This helps you to build automations quickly leveraging template bots with business expertise that solve business challenges and reduce burden on IT as well as costs.

We bring great updates with this release including improvements in the bot designing experience and troubleshooting, multi-level collections in cloud studio automations, and much more. Check out the 285+ bots in our SAP iRPA Store and SAP Best Practice Explorer to find out how hundreds of bots can help you meet your automation goal.

More in Hardeep Tulsi’s Blog Post.

Figure 15: The iRPA Bot store offers hundreds of bots that help you meet your automation goal

Additional Topics

Read Anurag Nayak’s Blog Post to learn about SAP S/4HANA Test Automation Tool.

Learn about Discrete Industries in SAP S/4HANA Cloud in Markus Oertelt’s Blog Post.

In Greg Hutcheon’s Blog Post you can learn about Solution Order Management in SAP S/4HANA Cloud.

Inside SAP S/4HANA Podcast

As always, I would like to encourage you to subscribe to our podcast “Inside SAP S/4HANA”. This podcast leverages the unique knowledge and expertise of SAP S/4HANA product experts, partners, and customers to address your needs by sharing product insights and project best practice. There is no customer success without product success and project success – we help you get to the next level and make your SAP S/4HANA projects a success. Subscribe now and benefit from the shared knowledge.

Your Voice Matters!

If you want to learn more and actively engage with SAP subject matter experts on SAP S/4HANA Cloud, join our SAP S/4HANA Cloud Community – now fully integrated with SAP Community. The community brings together SAP S/4HANA Cloud customers, partners and SAP experts and has a clear mission: deliver an interactive community to engage with one another about best practices and product solutions. We invite you to explore the new SAP S/4HANA Cloud Community ‘one-stop shop’ as the central place for all resources, tools, content questions, answers and connect with experts to guide you through your SAP S/4HANA Cloud journey.

More Information on SAP S/4HANA Cloud:

• SAP S/4HANA Cloud release info here
• Latest SAP S/4HANA Cloud Release Blog Posts here and previous release highlights here
• Product videos on our SAP S/4HANA Cloud and SAP S/4HANA YouTube playlist
• SAP S/4HANA PSCC Digital Enablement Wheel here
• Early Release Webinar Series here
• Inside SAP S/4HANA Podcast here
• openSAP Microlearnings for SAP S/4HANA here
• Best practices for SAP S/4HANA Cloud here
• SAP S/4HANA Cloud Community: here
• Feature Scope Description here
• What’s New here
• Help Portal Product Page here
• Implementation Portal here

Follow us via @SAP and #S4HANA, or myself via @SDenecken