5 reasons why you should be upgrading your SAP BPC.
May 11, 2021
James Allen, Technical Manager
Decision Inc. UK
The SAP Business Planning and Consolidation (BPC) application delivers planning, Budgeting, Forecasting and Financial Consolidation capabilities for thousands of companies worldwide. The latest version, 11.1 was released in 2019. It is now built on the BW4/HANA 2.0 platform, which is a significant improvement from the earlier versions.
So, why should a company like yours consider upgrading to this latest version?
At Decision Inc. we feel there are 5 main reasons to upgrade:
1. You have come to the end of your maintenance period
Once your maintenance plan comes to an end your options are to invest in SAP extended maintenance or upgrade. Rather than purchasing the extended maintenance, why not put that budget towards a much better system that will then be in the plan for years to come. Living without maintenance is not really an option as you would be left without new service packs, bug fixes, expanded platform support and very limited support capability.
If you are wondering when your current version comes to the end of maintenance, have a look at this table:
2. You want to integrate easily with SAP Analytics Cloud
BPC 11.1 onwards offers integration with SAP Analytics Cloud and Digital Boardroom out-of-the-box. This enables your planning capabilities to automatically be connected to state-of-the-art BI and augmented/predictive analytics. You would be able to simulate the impact of decisions on your company in real-time – especially helpful during the volatile period that we are in currently.
3. You want better performance
Because BPC 11.1 is built on BW4/HANA 2.0, calculations are pushed to the HANA database. This leads to faster loading times and simplified data integration. If you are not getting the performance you need out of our current system then you should consider an upgrade.
4. You want a modernised interface
BPC 11.1 onwards uses the SAP Fiori-based web interface, providing role and acti-vity-based functionality. You also get great graphical data warehouse monitoring and modelling tools.
5. You want more hosting options
A cloud deployment of BPC 11.1 allows you to choose from all the major players: Amazon, Microsoft Azure, SAP HEC, or even other third-party certified hosts. It keeps your options open.
These are all great reasons to upgrade from your current version. Upgrading will lead to the following benefits:
Benefits
Simplified Modern Application
- A reduced number of BW data model layers and less data duplication, meaning fewer loading steps and so improved performance.
- Simplified back-end repositories utilising a reduced set of HANA optimised objects
- Modern HTML5 interface with a more intuitive look and feel, that can be customised your home screen.
Improved Performance & Flexibility
- Even more processing has been moved to the HANA database for improved performance, opening up the possibility of extended operational-level planning on large datasets.
- Data temperature storage management to ensure that performance is balanced with cost.
Increased Agility & Scope
- Deep integration with SAP Analytics Cloud (SAC) is a huge benefit. Reporting, hybrid planning and predictive analytics are all supported.
- The latest version also gives you an out-of-the-box cloud deployment leading to a reduced total cost of ownership. And because this has been built using the latest SAP technology, you can be confident that it will be SAP’s priority for future feature enhancements.
If you would like to explore why your business should upgrade to BPC 11.1 please contact us at decisioninc.uk