Project Forecasting BPC

[S0022314014]

Hi

We have been reviewing the forecasting options within and outside of SAP. We have high volume of projects working in integration with PS NW and massive amount of PM Work Orders directly assigned to WBS elements. (PM Orders are not linked with NW activities) 

We would like to run it at a higher level (i.e. L1 WBS) and we would like to split the cost estimations/forecasting for monthly levels. Based on these requirements, we checked couple of options including some 3rd Party products and also SAP PS Forecasting WB, and BPC. (I have reviewed this nice piece on that topic as well which is quite useful:  )

We decided to use BPC for this purpose and would like to learn more about the issues/experiences on using BPC for Projects Forecasting. I know complexity depends on the volume, type of projects etc. But we mostly are interested in the potential areas which we need to spend more time etc.

Kind regards

Savas Yazici

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Hi,

We are using BPC for project forecasting in our project. pls elaborate what kind of support or help you are looking for here

BR/ Raghu

[S0022314014 · Accepted solution]

Hi Raghu

I would like to hear more about if there are any potential difficulties/issues that we should pay more attention as we currently do not have any on-site BPC consultant who can have a detailed analysis.

What I am mostly after is, some summary highlights of the BPC Forecasting experience.

Here are some of the points which I would like to mention:

• We have some large projects by which are causing performance issues to us and that's why we ar eplanning to move the data into BPC as a sumarry form.
• Some complicated cost calculations which are case/project dependent and requires flexibility in calculations
• We have soma perant child relationships between different projects (we settle costs to other projects) and we would like these to be forecasted in both parent and child projects

Kind regards

Savas

[Paulo_Vitoriano · Accepted solution]

Hi Savas,

The main point of my blog post was about the recommendation to use ECC instead.

As a starting point you need to look at SAP standard functionality and understand it, that can be a fit with minor changes.

As a second step you can explore 3rd party tools available for ECC.

BPC can be used, but people who spent enough time trying to adopt it for the purpose do not consider as a best solution.

Regards,

Paulo

[S0022314014 · Accepted solution]

Hi Paulo

We are checking different options. Currently a 3rd Party tool is in use. But our issue with that one is flexibility: it is not design to be flexible enough for the changing requirements from the business (i.e. Not build so we can insert our enhancements in user exists etc.). PS Standard WB works fine with NW but in our case we are mostly working with PM Orders without NWs. And we would like monthly granularity as well.

My previous experience with BPC (not for forecasting) was quite positive as it is flexible to be changed for the future requirements (i.e. Complex O/H and Financial Charges) and it's excel like structure allows building formula based integrations. The data is already in BW so we believe there will not be major effort in terms of BPC.

Another issue with the 3rd Party Tool (and this is becoming major issue with PS Standard Reports as well) is performance: we have thousands of PM Order operations assigned to WBS elements although SAP set a certain recommended limitations on those. So what we are planning to do is, extract the summary level information (i.e. L1 WBS elements etc.) in BPC and let users froecast there.

Bu as I said, we haven't completed the decision making process. All of the input are aprreciated.

Regards

Savas

[Paulo_Vitoriano · Accepted solution]

Hi Savas,

For work orders you have a notion of ROP, that is max (0; Plan - Actuals - Commitments), you can see that figure aggregated at WBS level for all the work orders.  It is very much like CTC, just not phased out on a future time line.

For performance I believe there is a standard functionality in business functions for PS to handle big projects, that is regardless cost forecast as such.

If you need a flexibility with Excel like formulas in BPC you are probably right, but I would not expect any fancy calculations for cost phasing.  Standard ECC has it for some 20+ years at least.

Security management in BPC can be quite tricky and you are likely to have a challenge with system statuses changes to reflect the ECC logic correctly in BPC: like TECO, DLFL, etc.  The time gap is quite annoying.  Also structure changes in ECC when you move same order around from one WBS to another can become tricky for hierarchy maintenance in BPC.

What are the 3rd party tools you are looking if not confidential?

Thanks,

Paulo

[S0022314014 · Accepted solution]

Hi Paulo

Many thanks for the input.

About the 3rd Party tools, we are currently using NOVECO. We do not have many options, do we?

About BPC - Good points on security. We will need to go through the details of this.

Developing this in ECC - Today I had a chat with the ABAPer for getting an estimation and he was not able to give me any estimation as he needed to know whether there are any available functiona modules to extract the costing data, commitments at a summary level. Have you ever got this developed in ECC?

Regards

Savas

[Paulo_Vitoriano · Accepted solution]

Hi Savas

I would rather request a quote from your current IT partner that is a solution owner.  Normally they would have (1) best expertise and (2) own interest to improve the solution with reasonable Change Requests that can be beneficial for other clients too.

Going out to generic ABAPer in such a niche area is very challenging. It has to be a "happy marriage" between functional expert and experienced ABAPer that is very rare.

Actually the history behind a Forecast Workbench is that it was done initially as a client specific development by SAP. So, SAP is an option too.

Regards,

Paulo