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SAP Analytics
Thought Leadership

[TECH ALERT] How to fix the top 10 issues for BPC Microsoft Environments

Posted by Column5 Consulting on Mon, Mar 13, 2023 @ 18:03 PM

Over the past 6 months, we’ve seen a lot of our clients experience stubborn errors and issues that have surfaced in BPC for Microsoft environments. It’s important to understand that these issues are mostly related to user errors or updates not being performed correctly.

The Technical Team at Column5 has performed in-depth troubleshooting and continues to provide various technical solutions for our customers. Today, we have compiled a list of the top 10 issues including root cause and a simple solution. Continue reading to discover how you can tackle these issues and improve your performance!

Topics: Performance, Microsoft, BPC (Business Planning & Consolidation), Technical, User Experience

6 Housekeeping Hacks To Enhance Your SAP BPC Performance for NetWeaver

Posted by Column5 Consulting on Fri, Feb 03, 2023 @ 11:02 AM

Bad performance can make even a well-designed EPM system unusable, and if you’ve got more aggressive expectations like those required for an xP&A solution...even suboptimal performance can be a total block to realizing your goals. Performance issues have got to be attacked quickly and decisively.

Many users feel a poorly performing system is a fatal condition and they blame the software, as if the system is working as expected when the user experience is slowed. This is not only a false belief, but it can also be a very costly one. If there’s nothing that can be done to improve an unworkable software product, then replacing it is the only option. However, poor performance is an indicator of your solution working, but it must not be tolerated. That’s right, more users adding more data to an expanding EPM or xP&A solution will eventually create poor performance. The trouble begins when you don’t know what to do about this eventuality. Don’t react rashly, instead follow the practical steps below to get a grip on the root cause of the degraded performance...in this case, for SAP BPC for NetWeaver.

If you're a support team member or power user of SAP BPC for NetWeaver, you probably know there are many standard SAP BW layer housekeeping jobs that are provided by SAP.  Most of these generate system information required for analyzing SAP BPC performance, system/error logs retention, completed job logs, etc. and are run at their default frequency. These can be scheduled in SM36, though you can't stop here. 

Keep reading to find out how to avoid poor performance by following the 6 steps below.

Topics: NetWeaver, Performance, sap bpc, Performance Tuning

The Top 5 Critical Success Factors for Your EPM Project

Posted by Column5 Consulting on Tue, Jan 31, 2023 @ 12:01 PM

How do you ensure your Enterprise Performance Management (EPM), Business Planning & Consolidation (BPC) or Business Intelligence (BI) project will start out positioned for success? You've gone through the RFP process, completed the vendor evaluation, and have decided on the technology. But before diving into requirements and design, you also need to spend time in the project initiation phase--ensuring the project's critical success factors (CSFs) are defined and socialized, and that a plan for implementation is developed. Be sure there is a common understanding of the importance of the CSFs and how they differ from project objectives and success criteria.

Topics: Best Practices, Enterprise Performance Management (EPM), Project Management, Performance, BPC (Business Planning & Consolidation)

BPC 11, version for BW/4HANA: FAQs

Posted by Steve Sussman on Sun, Jan 08, 2023 @ 11:01 AM
On the surface, BPC 11, version for BW/4HANA appears to have many of the same features as the previous version, BPC 10.1.  However, the most meaningful upgrade in BPC 11 lies in the database platform, BW/4HANA.

To appreciate the new foundation for BPC 11, we have to explore the underlying database platform.  BW/4HANA may share a similar name with its predecessor, however, this all-new platform represents SAP’s rearchitected, next-generation data warehouse.

Let’s explore this new platform by directly addressing five key commonly asked questions:

Topics: Product Focused, BPC 11, Version for BW/4HANA

The Top 5 Things to Consider When Selecting a Consulting Partner

Posted by Column5 Consulting on Sat, Dec 10, 2022 @ 08:12 AM

As with most specialized software programs, it is usually not suggested to implement SAP BPC without the assistance of a consulting partner.  Many projects require expertise that most EPM administrators do not have, and so it is recommended to find a partner that can ensure success.  Choosing this partner is an important decision.  Here are a few of the top things a company should look at when deciding on an appropriate organization. 

Topics: Best Practices, Thought Leadership, Enterprise Performance Management (EPM), Project Management, Training, Implementation, BPC (Business Planning & Consolidation)

EPM Project Management Success: The 3 Lines of Defense to Reducing Risk on an SAP BPC EPM Project

Posted by Column5 Consulting on Wed, Nov 02, 2022 @ 13:11 PM

A risk is the possibility of an event or a condition that could negatively impact a project. There are many events or conditions in any EPM BPC implementation that can derail the project, because BPC is a complex tool that touches many areas of your organization. This article is intended to help mitigate risk.

Topics: Process Improvement, Thought Leadership, Enterprise Performance Management (EPM), Project Management, BPC (Business Planning & Consolidation)

S/4HANA Group Reporting – Bringing Transaction Processing and Group Reporting together to “bridge the gap”

Posted by Column5 Consulting on Sat, Sep 10, 2022 @ 14:09 PM

For 30 years there has been a divergent view as to the best approach to using technology to support the key finance process of consolidation and reporting, generally known today as the “record to report process”.

To deliver excellence in the record to report process SAP now offers S/4HANA Group Reporting.  Read on to see if it's the best technology for you:

Topics: sap bpc, User Experience, group reporting

3 Reasons to Be Skeptical of Best of Breed Cloud EPM Vendors Claims to Support xP&A

Posted by David Den Boer on Tue, Aug 16, 2022 @ 14:08 PM

EPM as a solution category has arguably been around for more than two decades. Before the turn of the century, a long line of solutions starting with Hyperion was developed to alleviate specific pain points caused by Excel-based financial planning and analysis (FP&A) processes. 

In the first significant redefinition of EPM technology requisites, Gartner has just coined xP&A for Extended Planning & Analysis. While Gartner did not necessarily define an advanced performance management process to go along with these new platform technology requirements…xP&A does make possible some highly valuable advancements that are, in our humble opinion, worth serious consideration. 

Two key themes underpin xP&A:

  • Alignment of Operational and Financial planning and analysis
  • Incorporation of AI features such as Predictive Analytics

Of course, astute users of EPM might observe that using EPM tools to cover operational planning and analysis is not new, nor is predictive analytics. What is new is aligning these capabilities as a unified platform and assigning it a label. 

Let's face it, Gartner is influential. Redefining this category has had a ripple effect almost immediately on the market. Vendors formerly identifying as EPM technology developers snapped in alignment to rebrand their product portfolio as supporting xP&A. Customers are sure to follow Gartner's classification and articulate requirements for new analytics solutions using the fresh xP&A framework. 

How do longstanding vendors support these newly defined requirements? Prospective customers seeking the benefits of xP&A are right to be skeptical. Let's discuss three key ways technology vendors offering cloud EPM solutions may be overplaying their capabilities when they claim their solutions support xP&A. 

Topics: EPM ROI, EPM, xp&a

Moving Towards xP&A: How to Re-imagine the EPM Process

Posted by David Den Boer on Fri, Jun 17, 2022 @ 10:06 AM

Most organizations think about defining and improving the business case for expected ROI from EPM models only at the time of technology purchase - if these concepts are considered at all. But this is a mistake. Instead, the best practice is to measure the ROI of the system frequently in as many meaningful dimensions as can be evaluated. For example, solution and cycle performance times, analytic value, accessibility/reach are all crucial dimensions where metrics should be defined and consistently monitored for optimization opportunities. Doing so will help to bring about a significant shift in Performance Management capabilities.

The current trend is to start from scratch and re-implement performance management (EPM or xP&A) solutions to address challenges with the status quo solution effectiveness. Unfortunately, this extreme step is very costly and not likely to produce high-value results.

Topics: EPM ROI, Performance, EPM, xp&a

Improve Performance of your SAP BPC Solution by 80% or more!

Posted by Column5 Consulting on Thu, Apr 21, 2022 @ 16:04 PM

Over the last decade, Column5 has been very involved in supporting SAP BPC Solutions, and a common theme for our customers has been the performance and stability of their system. With this in mind, we set out to address this challenge by developing the Darwin program.

Darwin has evolved (pun intended) to become a comprehensive platform of advanced features and pre-defined processes helping organizations maximize the value of SAP Analytics investments.

This blog focuses on how customers leverage Darwin’s advanced calculation capabilities to address common performance challenges specifically.

Topics: Performance, sap, Darwin EPM, DarCE, xp&a

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To Enhance Your EPM Performance:

 1.Get Your Ultimate Guide to Improving SAP EPM Performance

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 Learn what could be contributing to your poor performance and how to diagnose common problems. Get tips that will empower you and your team to improve the  performance  of your system in order to get the most out of your SAP EPM Investment.

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2.  Test Your BPC Performance 

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Get a BPC performance report card and custom report to identify performance issues you may not even know you have.

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  3. Get Your EPM Assessment  

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Our assessment delivers a complete, best practice roadmap for you to follow.  We’ll work together to assess what you need to pivot your financial forecasting, planning, reporting and analysis to handle the compressed requirements from the volatile COVID-19 environment. 

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