SAP PBF vs. BPC

[Private_Member_78463]

Hello,

Can someone please explain to me the fundamental differences between PBF and BPC? There is also documentation on a SAP Budgeting & Planning RDS so I'm confused on what the primary differences are between the solutions. My guess is that PBF has more robust functionality for budgeting specifically (e.g. forms development), while BPC include consolidation functionality between multiple entities. However, BPC also includes Budgeting, so that's where I'm mainly getting lost.

Which solution do I propose to a prospective client based on their requirements?

Any help or documentation is helpful.

Thanks,

Nick

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Hi,

I was at a conference last year and asked this question in several occasions (around peers, in breakout sessions) but never got a straightforward answer. I did get a few points:

1. PBF was developed specifically for public sector

2. BPC was initially developed for private sectors

3. PBF is more geared toward IT people while BPC is more user frendly

4. For the reason of point 3., SAP came up with BPC RDS, in which there is a preconfigured public sector version.

One thing I do know is PBF has extensive form handling capability. In our organization, budget preparation does involve many, many form processes.

I would not feel comfortable to propose any solution to the business if I have not had any hands-on experiences on the pertantial solutions. I would definitly first ask SAP to do a demo for the customer. You will be surprised how many intelligent questions your customer will ask SAP during the demo.

Regards,

Ming

[former_member204457]

Hi,

I don't mean to hijack this conversation but I'm also very interested to understand the fundamental differences between BPC and PBF. Although in BPC RDS there is lots of talks about public sector 'planning', there is no mention of 'budgeting' which for me is different ball park specially when you look into various budget processes. PBF provides budgeting and you can basically do everything you do in budget workbench (FMBB) and more in PBF. There is also PEP component that's significant in term of personal cost planning. I worked for a City in Canada (I wasn't the PBF analyst) and they chose PBF over BPC because of budgeting capability, PEP based on position, budget forms specially for capital budget approval and rather seamless integration with FM-BCS in term of flowing back the budget data from PBF to ERP.

[Private_Member_78463]

Hello,

I have a better understanding after speaking with the PBF team at SAP.

In regards to Ming's response, there are some truths and some inaccuracies. BPC RDS is not content at all, rather it is pure technology that allows BPC to interface with ECC, which PBF has out of the box. Also, PBF is designed for business users, specifically the budget analysts, not IT people. This is an important point because budget analysts are too dependent on Excel, which is a helpful tool, bit will not achieve the end-to-end budgeting formulation that these business users need in the public sector.

Regarding your post, it is right. PBF has very rich budgeting functionality and PEP. BPC has strong functionality, but PBF is also strong in its areas. They may have some similar functional areas, but they don't do the same thing.

I believe as these two solutions mature, SAP may integrate BPC's functionality into PBF for the public sector.

Hope this helps

[sjajodia]

Nick,

PBF is a system that was custom-designed for managing the budgeting process in public sector. It not only includes the BW-based Integrated Planning (BW-IP) engine but also Personnel Expenditure Planning - complete personnel cost projection tool which uses position and employee data to project payroll costs by fund, fund center, etc. It uses a Visual Composer user interface to create budget entry forms with ability to provide extensive detailed text, field-validation logic and an approval workflow. Reporting of budget requests is provided through BW reporting tools. A fair amount of the set up can be performed by a functional consultant with training.

As mentioned earlier BW-IP is the planning engine underlying PBF. Without the PBF application, you can create planning layouts (spreadsheet-like screens), planning formulas (copy, adjust by %, etc.) and a rudimentary stage notification process. Implementation always requires a BW-IP developer. BW-IP does not have extensive text-handling so it is difficult to maintain budget narratives using this tool.

BPC is a separate planning engine that SAP acquired through its acquisition of OutlookSoft. It has been ported from its origins in Microsoft products to a NetWeaver platform and can do all that BW-IP can do. As you noted, it will eventually replace BW-IP.

Thanks

Shyam