Finance Assignment On Emergence Of SAP In This Competitive Business Environment

Question

Task: SAP S/4HANA Finance allows an enterprise to create a consolidated view of all operational and financial data to offer flexible and easy reporting along with automation of processes. It also offers real-time analytics, simulations and forecasting with a great user experience. Benefits of SAP S/4HANA include but is not limited to ‘single source of truth, faster forecasting and planning, ‘on the fly capacities’, new reporting and analytic support, global regulatory and compliance abilities across all languages, currencies and industries, faster month closing, integrated with Fiori etc.

Discuss these statements using case study examples (from literature searches) to demonstrate the benefits of SAP S/4HANA Finance.

Your paper should include the following areas :

• A brief historical overview of SAP S/4HANA Finance
• The difference between SAP S/4HANA Finance and current SAP ERP FICO
• What are the benefits of SAP S/4HANA Finance for businesses
• Case Studies of companies and the issues they faced migrating to SAP S/4HANA Finance. (Minimum 2)
• Illustrations, frameworks, figures and tables as necessary to demonstrate the understanding of the above aspects.

Your task is produce a 3000 - 4000 word research paper which discusses the issues relating to the above. The paper should demonstrate a depth and breadth of reading and should be appropriately referenced. The paper should be referenced using the Harvard referencing standards and formatted according to the approved style guide.

Answer

Introduction
The current study of finance assignment explores the concept of SAP which refers to the phenomenon of Systems, Applications, and Products in the domains of data processing. It is considered the fourth-largest enterprise software company across the globe. The primary area in which the company tends to provide technical support is that the software is used for enterprise resource planning (ERP). SAP is especially well known for its appropriation in ERP and data management programs. However, in the present day scenario, it has been found that, due to the advent of the digital age, it is essential to be able to understand the specific perspectives that are associated with the use of SAP in effectively continuing ERP. The role of SAP/HANA processes remains in the appropriate application of the business models with the growing rapid use of digital processes. Therefore, the primary aim of this study is to be able to understand the extent to which the system will be able to facilitate this evolvement of the competitive business environment. Historical overview of the system F

It cannot be denied that the use of the system tends to play an essential role in carrying out necessary business processes and procedures. It is to be noted that, the system Finance tends to Ok allow significant Enterprise that helps the creation of rotation associated with operational and financial data. It also helps in the flexible and straightforward report of process automation. Contrarily, the system Finance manages to offer real-time analytics and includes simulation and forecasting that helps in the excellent user experience. In addition to this, SAP customers are evaluating the active implementation of the system Finance to understand the extent to which it affects the business (Fuchs et al. 2019).

Fig: Adoption strategy of the system by firms
(Source: Burns, 2018)

Furthermore, the notions of information gathering mentioned in this finance assignment help in the building up of a business case that helps in the proper association and evaluation of an action. On the other hand, the decision to move an enterprise to determine the ERP strategy and the extent to which the business processes tend to drive business processes (Burns, 2018). It is to be noted that, the system includes various features that include universal journal and real-time analytics. The FI-AA or the SAP Asset Accouting module is an instance of a model that helps in enhancing the efficiencies of the processes across life cycles of a significant financial asset. It is imperative to note that the ERP processes of SAP named at version 6.0 suites is completely compatible with the database and is enabled with SAP/HANA. It was in the year 2010 that the system Finance was set up, and SAP applications like SAP EREP or SAP Business Suite have managed to run the system database. It has the most significant SAP update and represents a transformational shift regarding the functionality as well as availability and piercing that helps in raising a question of the changing business environment (Kulkarni, 2019).

Fig: The system Finance module
(Source: Kulkarni, 2019)

It is also essential to understand the functional and core component of the the system is that of the fact that, it effectively provides varied financial capabilities and enhancements. These components include SAP Net Weaver 7.4, SAP ERP Central Component (ECC) 6.0 Enhancement Package 7, and the system version 1.0. It is considered to be a migration or up-gradation of the transactional tables that helps in carrying out meaningful digital solutions (Kulkarni, 2019). The purpose of the system Finance is to cover the day-to-day processes that are associated with the integration of functions from a significant line of operations of the business and that of the trends across the industry. Hence, when it comes to the notions of carrying out financial processes in business, it is essential to be able to carry out the initiation of SAP S/4HANA, which would facilitate the accounting transformation dramatically.

Fig: the system framework
(Source: Kulkarni, 2019)

It provides the opportunity to correct the poor transfiguration that helps in the centralizing of the integration of processes carried out by this software. The ability to link ERP with business benefits mentioned in this finance assignment have enabled them to be able to garner support that helps in focusing on technology upgrades. It was in the year 2015 that over 300 firms purchased the the system and confirmed a positive growth. By the end of the year 2018, the customer base for the system managed to reach over 8,000 customers. Hence, from this point of view, it is evident that the suite of this the system Finance helps in boosting up the digital technology solution to the companies that allows them in competing in a competitive business environment (Kulkarni, 2019).

Distinction between ERP FICO of SAP and Finance units of the system
The notions of SAP ERP FICO mentioned in this finance assignment refer to the core functional components that are present in SAP ERP. It allows a significant organization to be able to manage all of their confidential and financial data that they perceive as a part of these business processes. On the other hand, another significant aspect of the SAP ERP FICO is that it helps most of the companies to be able to generate and effectively manage the financial statements for analysis to help effective business planning in an effective manner (Islam, 2019). The decision-making processes carried out by SAP ERP FICO helps in the facilitation of significant methods and procedures.

On the other hand, the notions of the system primarily refer to the integrated ERP system that eventually runs in an in-memory database. It helps in addressing industry-specific requirements and is proven the best practice for the enabling of the new business models that are being propagated by the companies. Therefore, it is considered a technical module as it serves as a reporting tool in SAP. These activities are associated with the integration of different modules that include the notions of accountability and finance. Another dissimilarity among SAP ERP FICO and the system Finance and is that the processes of are considered an add-on to SAP ERP. However, it is a standard product developed to work on top of SAP ERP effectively. However, the prevalence of the system is more redound in the context of finance and accountability in comparison to the SAP ERP FICO (Burns, 2018).

Benefits for businesses the system Finance
After understanding the significant aspects associated with the presence of the the system Finance, it is essential to be able to understand the meaningful ways with the help of which the companies are benefited from it. There are varied business benefits that are associated with the system Simple Finance. These benefits tend to act as a manifestation of the overall business processes and procedures that need to be taken into account (Nieuwenhuis et al. 2018). Hence, the following benefits illustrated in this finance assignment can be taken into account for understanding the beneficial aspect of this software solution, and are as follows:

• As a core component of initiating proper ERP system procedures, the notions of the system Finance helps in the provision of varied financial benefits and enhancement. It happens by upgrading the software that needs to have SAP Net Weaver 7.4 or the system version 1.0. The use of Fiori screens helps the companies to be able to react with the core component with the help of SAP Fiori based GUI component.
• The enhanced reporting components and upgraded APP content help in enabling the real-time reporting process effectively. It would help the company to embrace the digital technology that this has to offer.
• The initiation of a universal journal in the system eventually leads to the start of the storehouse of single accounting transactions in order to carry out significant methods and processes. However, in terms of operational activities, it helps in the generation of reduced data and that of replications that are to be present reports the financial modules in an effective manner.
• It is to be noted that this tends to use a simplified data process that is SAP Diori based clear interface. It helps in oversimplifying the over data flow that gets stored into the financial modules. The system gets updated every single transaction that was the overall time required to consume. The use of this has managed to effectively reduce the notions of data complexity that are available over the system (Buttkus and Eberenz, 2019).

Company case studies explore in this finance assignment facing issues with the use of the system Finance
The use of the system enables the use of meaningful technical solutions, which help in the facilitation of the positive ways with the help of which organisational strategy is mainly carried out. However, this transition is not an easy process, for it includes various methods and procedures that are to be carried out. Hence, to understand the problems or course of actions that are being faced often by the companies, two significant case studies have been selected. These case studies tend to act as a manifestation of the meaningful ways with the help of which, it becomes easy to understand the migration to this Finance (Poschadel, 2019).

Case study 1: Moderna Therapeutics delivering mRNA Drugs faster using the AWS
At present, Moderna Therapeutics has over 550 people employed in their organisation, who are responsible for effectively carrying out meaningful financial solutions and services. The company has managed to deliver their medical services by the provision of the messenger RNA (mRNA) science (Lähteenmäki et al. 2018). It helps in the creation of novel medicines that are associated with unmet patient needs and requirements. The company, in the year 2010, had the goal of delivering the mRNA science, which would help them to create conditions for unmet patient needs and facilitation.

On the other hand, the focus area of the company tends to include the presence of infectious diseases as well as cardiometabolic illness and that of the liver and pulmonary diseases. At present, Moderna has over 16 mRNA drugs available in the development pipeline of the company. It includes the initiation of nine prophylactic vaccines, along with two therapeutic vaccines and five therapeutics (Lindgren, 2019).

The primary challenge mentioned in this finance assignment that Moderna tends to face at present is that the bringing out of new drugs to the market would take to gain awareness. It might also take a decade to be generated and would eventually cost $1 billion. From a traditional and pharmaceutical point of view, it can be propagated that bringing new drugs to the market is a very challenging perspective when it comes to health and social care sector. The reason behind such a long delay of the time frame is because these medicines and their preparation include high costs and also consists of a long experimental cycle that would eventually help in designing the custom facilities that this individual drug is to produce. Another major obstacle that is being faced by Moderna is that of the requirement to effectively comply with the complex Good Laboratory Practices (GLP) as well as with the Good Manufacturing Processes (GMP), which would help the company to abide by the development of the drugs that are being made by them with the use of mRNA science. Hence, from this definite point of view it can be propagated in the finance assignment that, the company, to maximise the potentiality of the mRNA based drugs, it is essential for them to be able to initiate or instead incorporate a proper IT infrastructure. This infrastructure would support the company with a powerful as well as scalable computing process, which would be responsible for enterprise-wide data integration and automation (Suwinski et al. 2019).

Therefore, keeping their goals in mind, Moderna Therapeutics started using the Amazon Web Services (AWS), which is considered a core component for effectively powering drug research of companies that are associated with research and development. In the AWS cloud, it has been found that the ecosystem or rather the software that is being used in AWS is that of SAP S/4HANA, which helps in the accomplishment of IT strategies. These specific It based strategies are based on the computation and data integration. The power analytics and automation of lab processes and manufacturing procedures eventually would help, Moderna to be able to gain compliance following the laws and rules. Furthermore, as per the notions of the scenario, it has been found that the DDS application manages to submit computer jobs that are responsible for the formation of a cluster of micro services. It tends to use the Amazon Relational Database Services, which helps Moderna to carry out their significant working processes. However, to produce a sufficient amount of clinical-grade mRNA therapeutics, it is essential to create a GMP facility, which is set to be operational by the year 2018. A GxP IT environment primarily drives the supply chain and logistics of the company's Good Manufacturing Practices. It helps in enabling an integrated platform that helps in using AWS services and helps in connecting with the manufacturing instruments. The cornerstone of the ecosystem of the GMP facility also has the provision of this Finance that tend to use AWS services to connect with robotics and other integral systems that are also associated with financial perspective (aws.amazon.com, 2019).

Case study 2: the system and SAP S/4HANA- a case study of Fujitsu
The second case scenario provided in this finance assignment is based on a company named Fujitsu, who is a well-known company who effectively provides IT services and procedures. The digital transformation in the company has managed to create particular definite challenges for the company. However, it is essential to note the extent to which the company has achieved to embrace the notions of digital technology to carry out their business processes and procedures (Valovirta and Ylén, 2018). The economy and industry are essentially undergoing a digital transformation that has managed to change the processes within companies at a rapid speed. It is to be noted that, the challenges that are being faced by the company can only be mitigated with the help of the system and SAP S/4HANA, who would address the problems. It would eventually pave the way for the successful creation of the value in every possible manner and would help in the facilitation of a digital economy (Jones et al. 2018).

In addition to this, as per the notions of the scenario of Fujitsu Company explored in the present finance assignment, it can be stated that the company has been facing various problems in carrying out their business processes. Hence, the use of the system and this would help them to undergo a fundamental shift into embracing digital technology in every possible manner. The data flow of the company would eventually become more agile in nature, and they need to abide by more flexible processes and can be quickly adopted. Because of the exponential levels of It infrastructure, it so happens that, the increasing level of complexity helps in increasing the legal requirements that eventually requires the initiation of a proper IT infrastructure. This IT infrastructure would help the company Fujitsu to be able to provide a suitable response to the challenges that are being faced by the company and optimisation of the internal system environments would be managed. It helps to make it easy to free up resources that help in ensuring consistency of systems and processes, which would help them to avoid breaks (Salmon, 2018).

Conclusion
After an extensive assessment, it is essential to understand specific, definite perspectives. After analyzing the above information within this finance assignment, it is to be noted that SAP is considered to be one of the largest and most established software companies situated across the globe. The software solution tends to accelerate to remain competitive within a changing business environment. Most of the companies are expected to use digital technological solutions in order to expand on operating profit that is considered to be predictable. It eventually provides a unique customer experience that helps in contributing to value generation of most of the firms. Hence, it can be concluded that the use of this within the financial aspects of business would help the changing business environment and would effectively abide by the changing business processes. ?

Reference List
aws.amazon.com (2019) Moderna Therapeutics Delivers mRNA Drugs Faster, at Lower Cost Using AWS Available at: https://aws.amazon.com/solutions/case-studies/moderna-therapeutics/ [Accessed on 20 Sep 2019]

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Buttkus, M. and Eberenz, R. eds., 2019. Performance Management in Retail and the Consumer Goods Industry: Best Practices and Case Studies. Springer.

Fuchs, D., Haas, M., Dombrowski, J. and Göpfert, N., 2019. Opportunities for Supply Chain Processes by SAP S/4HANA. In Performance Management in Retail and the Consumer Goods Industry (pp. 425-442). Springer, Cham.

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Lähteenmäki, J., Ervasti, M., Fagerström, R., van Gils, M., Pajula, J., Ruutu, S., Sigfrids, A., Valovirta, V. and Ylén, P., 2018. Data-driven precision medicine ecosystem-stakeholder needs and opportunities.

Lindgren, G., 2019. Immune mechanisms that determine the quality of antibody responses to vaccines.

Nieuwenhuis, L.J., Ehrenhard, M.L. and Prause, L., 2018. The shift to Cloud Computing: The impact of disruptive technology on the enterprise software business ecosystem. Technological forecasting and social change, 129, pp.308-313.

Poschadel, F., 2019. SAP S/4HANA: Performance Management in Real Time?. In Performance Management in Retail and the Consumer Goods Industry (pp. 137-151). Springer, Cham.

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Suwinski, P., Ong, C., Ling, M.H., Poh, Y.M., Khan, A.M. and Ong, H.S., 2019. Advancing personalized medicine through the application of whole exome sequencing and big data analytics. Frontiers in genetics, 10, p.49.

www.fujitsu.com (2019) the system and the system – The right steps towards a digital advantage Available at: https://www.fujitsu.com/global/Images/Fujitsu_Whitepaper_SAPHANA_FINAL_English.pdf