confused

[Former Member]

Hi

BCS Guru's

I am very new to BCS, I have experience with BPS , BI , BW, FI .

My company is building new peojects in BCS and having scope of entering into new projects of BCS

my Question is: 1. will BCS stay for 4 years more?(learnt from few of the posts) / until 2013

if then When there is BPC what will happn to BCS development?

2. Please susggest me my career future.

thanks in advancve

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Products Status

SEM - BPS : Entered maintenance mode in 2005

BI-IP : Focused on customers who invested in BI-IP already. Goes into maintenance mode in 2013

with extended maintenance through 2016

SAP BPC for planning : Primary budgeting application going forward. SAP is rolling this into Busines object universe

SAP BPC for consolidation : Primary consolidation application going forward. SAP plans to keep enhancing BPC and

Business objects financial consolidation, enventually unifying them. The unified version is

expected by 2010 as a part of Financial Performance Management 8.0

Business objects financial : Has richer functionality for statutory reporting and support of XBRL. Used for complex

consolidations (Cartesis consolidation scenarios

finance)

SEM-BCS : Enhancements through 2008. In maintenance mode through 2011 with premium extended

maintenance through 2013. SAP will continue to offer SEM-BCS as a possible consolidation

offering business. It has much deeper consolidation functionality than either BPC or Business

objects

[dan_sullivan · Accepted solution]

SAPUser,

Thanks for the information. It would be most appreciated if you would please share the source of information for us to confirm this.

Thanks.

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

It seems to be from BIexpert (www.SAPexperts.com) . September 2008 Post ,Volume6.

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

This question keeps popping up - doesn't anyone use the 'search' function? - so I'll repeat what I posted, paraphrasing a discussion with a SAP sales director in Australia:

SAP SEM-BCS is supported until 2013.

but SAP now owns 3 consolidation tools, each is currently valid.

- BCS,

- BPC (from Outlooksoft) and

- Cartesis (from Business Objects) all perform consolidation,

Each has its pros and cons;

- BCS - very good consolidation engine but not so user-friendly.

- BPC - user-friendly but not so good consolidation, also has a non-SAP layout.

- Cartesis - better consolidation engine than BPC but not as good as BCS. More user-friendy than BCS but not as good as BPC, again non-SAP layout.

Although each is currently valid, there will be a combination of the best of all 3 in a new product with a SAP layout (or the same new product will be combined into a new release under the name of an existing product) at a date to be determined.

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

below is an extract from the source document: ENTERPRISE PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT FOR FINANCE STATEMENT OF DIRECTION FOR 2008u20132010 (EXECUTIVE SUMMARY)

...

Financial Consolidation

After an extensive product review, SAP decided to support the following three financial consolidation offerings in the immediate term:

u2022 SAP Business Planning and Consolidation application

u2022 BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation application (formerly a Cartesis product)

u2022 Business consolidation functionality in SAP SEM

The company determined that all three offerings have rich functionality for the

different consolidation scenarios that customers face. Until SAP can combine the rich functionality of all three into one product, the company plans to support all three products so customers can continue to benefit from the consolidation products they have already implemented. SAP is the first

vendor on the market to offer consolidation functionality for all scenarios, including

financial and management reporting with corporate, departmental, and regional requirements.

SAP Business Planning and Consolidation is a unified offering that will continue

to be provided in the future. Moving forward, the plan is to provide a single consolidation engine that leverages the unprecedented usability of SAP Business Planning and Consolidation and the strong functionality of BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation.

BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation has richer functionality for statutory reporting and support of the extensible business reporting language (XBRL). SAP understands that finance departments have complex business needs that include dealing with mergers and acquisitions, reorganizations,

divestments, multiple GAAP, and currency exposures. Because of this, SAP considers BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation an exceptional part of its portfolio for certain consolidation scenarios.

For existing consolidation customers, the support plans are as follows:

- SAP Business Planning and Consolidation and BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation: SAP plans to maintain and enhance both products in the near term. In the next-generation release

of the financial performance management applications (release 8.0 in 2010), SAP plans to unify them in order to deliver unprecedented usability and functionality.

- Business consolidation functionality in SAP SEM: SAP plans to continue maintenance per the 5-1-2 policies.

The 5-1-2 maintenance strategy encompasses five years of mainstream maintenance during the unrestricted shipment phase, one year of extended maintenance at an additional 2% fee, and two years of extended maintenance at an additional 4% fee, with customer-specific maintenance thereafter. Planned enhancement packages will continue through 2008, and any legal enhancements will continue through 2013.

The goal is to provide customers with a migration path from any of the above three financial consolidation offerings to the unified release with minimal or no disruption. If customers choose not to upgrade, they will be supported per the standard 5-1-2 policies.

In any solution category, if a customer decides to migrate, SAP will provide a license u201Ccreditu201D toward the license of the successor product. In all cases, investments are safe per the appropriate support and maintenance policy.

...

50 089 390 (08/07) ©2008 by SAP AG.Data contained in this document serves informational purposes only. National product specifications may vary.These materials are subject to change without notice. These materialsare provided by SAP AG and its affi liated companies (u201CSAP Groupu201D) for informational purposes only, without representation or warranty of any kind, and SAP Group shall not be liable for errors or omissions with respect to the materials. The only warranties for SAP Group products and services are those that are set forth in the express warranty statements accompanying such products and services, if any. Nothing herein should be construed as constituting an additional warranty.

[Former Member]

My understanding is that BCS will be replaced along with BPS; it'll move over to the new one you menthioned.