Excel Add-In for APO Demand Planning

[john_lewis5]

We recently upgraded our SCM landscape to SCM7 EhP3, and want to start testing the APO Demand Planning Add-In for Excel.  I've followed the Installation & Configuration Guide, but can't get a connection from Excel back to our APO system.  I've verified that the sap/scmapo/rest/epm/demand_plan_srv is active in SICF.  I've also verified the host and port settings.  One interesting thing I have noticed is the the 'test service' function in sicf fails for the demand_plan_srv service - is this normal?  When I try to create the Excel > APO connection, the only error I get is a generic "EPM Connection Failed" popup box, with no additional details.

Has anyone else had any success in using the Excel Add-In with SCM7 EhP3?

Thanks,

John

[Former Member]

Hi,

you should be aware there still lots of bugs using the excel, we are testing it for 3 months, and already SAP created 2 notes as  a results of our incidents, and there is still 1 more to come, from what i understand a new version should be release, hopefully with less bugs.

when it will be stable it looks very good tool.

[john_lewis5]

We're finally able to connect from the Add-In back to our SCM7 EhP3 system, and can 'see' the planning books and versions, and are able to select the one we want to test with.  Unfortunately, nothing seems to be downloaded from APO to Excel.  What are we missing here - shouldn't this be fairly simple?

John L

[former_member584840]

Check if there is anything complicated about the planning book. We had planning books with popups and certain Open macros that did not work. Created a stripped down basic planning book and all worked. Also one business division worked and another did not, and I never went back to figure out why, so try a few different DP simpler books. eg create a new one with just one key figure. Also you need to NAME the report when you create it, and also Drag eg KEY FIGURES to rowthen go INTO KEY FIGURES and DRAG OVER a few. Then drag DATES to eg column, then GO INTO DATES and manually select with ticks a few, then pick a characteristics eg product, and then GO INTO THIS OBJECT within the report and specifically select a few products. There is some annoying characteristic already there in objects that I dont really understand, but just ignore this. I think it is selecting the first one. Just ignore, and add the ones that you want as well, and try that.

[Former Member]

Hi John,

We are facing exactly the same issue with the APO Demand Planning Add-In. We get the generic error "EPM Connection failed". Our system environment is same as yours.

Can you please explain me how you manage to solve the issue.?

The mentioned OSS 2096807 didn´t solve our problem.

Jan

[john_lewis5]

One of our problems was that I was testing the connection with my userid (Basis Admin) instead of an APO-DP user.  Once I started using a 'test' APO-DP user, the connection worked.  That being said, the connection is now broken, we're trying to determine why.  When we did have this working, we did have .NET 4.0 loaded on our pc's.  Now, our pc folks have updated .NET to 4.5 - I'm wondering if we should have stayed with .NET 4.0??

I do see one patch available for the plug-in, but it seems to deal with other problems.

John

[clay-t]

John,

We updated from 4.0 to 4.5 back in May and had no issues in terms of the connection.

We did, though, apply an Add-In patch when it was released back in April time period ... perhaps check that bit as well.  I believe that patch may have been included in an OSS note if not directly on the download site.

Regards,

Clay

PS ... I went ahead and looked up the OSS note that has the patch from April 2015 --

2150292 - Demand planning add-in for Excel Patch 1 based on EPM 10
SP20 Patch 1

[Former Member]

Hello John,

To use this functionality minimum requirement is  SAP SCM 7.0 EHP 3 SP04. So please check your SP Number.

[former_member584840]

We got it to work in a later support pack in EP2 ie SAPKY70212

One of the keys for us was to make sure we followed the order/sequence in the guide.

ie I tried to load the software on a laptop before we had the latest pack and that laptop never worked.

But after upgrading to this support pack and setting up all the settings within APO via the guide, and THEN loading the software onto the laptop (a differnet laptop!) then it worked.

[Former Member]

We also upgraded our SCM landscape to SCM7 EhP2, and want to conduct a POC for the business. But the Demand Planning tab is not even showing up after installing the client. I've followed the Installation & Configuration Guide

[Former Member]

Hi,

   Can someone please help me with regards to APO DP Excel add-in. I successfully downloaded the client and also connected to our sandbox. I connected via the Excel add-in, how do I fetch data from an existing planning book. The DP ribbon is showing up in Excel, how do I load the data into the worksheet. Besides the connection,  am missing any piece. Should I configure anything in EPM. Is the data being pulled directed from Planning area, or from EPM.

[former_member584840]

Will try and upload these images. Config guide. Make sure have right support pack and set up the setting in APO. Then once APO setting and then all the pieces to get Excel addin, then it should show you a LIST of the planning books. DP only. Not SNP. And log in to specific planning book within test system after login.

and

Good luck. Also note that you will likely need a new simple planning book as the Addin cannot deal with some fancy planning book settings. eg Popups or certain drill downs.

[Former Member]

John,

        Thanks for all the help. I am now passed the stage of loading data from APO to the report. I made changes in APO and after refreshing I can see the latest data in the report. Now my question is, when I make changes in the report, what do I need to do in order for the data to be uploaded in APO. The upload tab is not active, it's grayed out and I made changes in the report and saved it on my hard drive. Do I need to save it somewhere specific, how do I upload the data to APO.

Hassan

[former_member584840]

Need to set the option of USE AS DATA INPUT which then opens up options to upload.

Then the UPLOAD DATA button goes from grey to instead able to upload data.

j

[Former Member]

John,

        Thank you very much. I have another question. I am able to add comments on excel but somehow the comments are not making it to APO DP, do I need to configure anything?

Hassan

[former_member195424]

Hello,

please, check if SAP Note  2096807 is applicable to your system as per SP level.

I believe that this should solve this connection problem.

Thanks and best regards,

Douglas Oliveira

[john_lewis5]

I just applied the OSS note, but it didn't fix the problem.  Additional details are in the OSS incident.

Thanks,

John

[p_klimke]

Hello John,

some weeks ago we upgraded our playground system to the lastest version SCM7 EhP3 to start testing the APO Demand Planning Add-In for Excel.

In the beginning we faced some minor problems with the connection but now it works.

He had some minor issues with the error "InfoObject 0TCAACTVT does not exist in version A (termination: RABAX_STATE)" and we had to define at least one active planning area and planning book
.

Regards

Peter

[simos_spathis3]

Hello John,

I have the same issue as yours. Seems that the SICF service has some issues. In any case we should no receive the bad connection as service is reachable by http. Something goes wrong with the functionality I suppose....

Thanks

Simos and Stephan H.