Activity-Based Management (SAP Library - BW Business Planning and Simulation)

Activity-Based Management

Use

You use this function to create simulations with the help of process cost models. These simulations judge the achievements of the enterprise and decisions are then made for strategic planning on the basis of these results. Activity-based management helps you to answer questions such as for example:

Which cost saving potential is on offer on the basis of changed production processes?
What effect will an increase of the production numbers have on the outgoing structure of the enterprise?
What are the consequences of changing the distribution channel from direct sales to the retail sector?

First you generate a model for activity-based costing in order to gain a process-based view of the activities carried out in an enterprise and to determine whether or not these activities contribute to increasing the enterprise value. You maintain attributes for each activity and these attributes help you to ascertain if a specific activity conforms to the overall enterprise strategy. Activities that do not fulfill the requirements can be revised as part of activity-based costing and transferred in the SEM-BPS data basis.

Integration

Plan data that is changed with the activity-based planning function, is written into the SEM-BPS data basis. The plan data is available for other planning functions as well as for SEM applications that access the same data basis – in particular the applications of the SEM-CPM component.

Prerequisites

In order to use the activity-based management function, you must have the Oros ABCplus program installed on your PC.

Note

Oros ABCplus is not contained in the SAP SEM scope of supply and also cannot be purchased from SAP. SEM-BPS merely offers a defined interface to integrate Oros ABCplus into the planning environment and to access the SEM-BPS common dataset.

Features

The scope of the activity-based management function can be divided into two areas:

Executing simulations and calculating scenarios with an Oros ABCplus model.
Integrating the models in SEM-BPS and the mutual comparison of data between models and the SEM-BPS data basis

Simulations and Calculating Scenarios with an Oros ABCplus Model

In the modeling phase, you model your enterprise using the following elements in activity-based costing:

Resources

Here you define a hierarchy of resource centers (the cost centers or other areas where responsibility for costs is assigned), resource accounts (to which specific types of resources are assigned), and cost components (to which the cost element and the costs themselves are assigned).

Activities

Here you define – similar to the resource hierarchy – a hierarchy for activities. Then you assign the resources that are consumed by each activity to these activities.

Cost objects

Here you define business factors that are to be taken into account in activity-based costing, for example, product, customer, sales channel. The objective is to allocate the performed activities proportionally to these cost objects.

In the simulation phase, you carry out various scenarios with the elements created in the modeling phase: for example, you can investigate the effects that a changed product mix or new sales channels might have on profitability or on the utilization of production capacities.

Note

You can inform yourself about the specific steps that you execute for modeling and simulation in the end user documentation that is contained in the Oros ABCplus scope of supply.

Integrating the Models in SEM-BPS and the Mutual Comparison of Data Between Models and the SEM-BPS Data Basis

You can create new models or import models that already exist which you have generated without a link to SEM-BPS. The models that you generate with the activity-based management function, are saved in the SEM-BPS data basis with all the data belonging to them. In this way they are available centrally for all those with the correct authorization. This way you profit simultaneously from the advantages of central data retention that SEM-BPS offers, and the possibility for displaying and processing models decentrally (for example, for customer presentations).

You map characteristics and key figures of SEM-BPS to the corresponding elements of an Oros ABCplus model: resources, activities, and cost objects. In this way you establish the link in content between the Oros ABCplus and SEM-BPS data models. You can exchange and process master and transaction data – including master data hierarchies - and add new ones, within the structures that are reconciled to each other. Though you cannot delete any master data or hierarchies from the SEM data basis by removing them from a model.

Further Information on the Integration of Oros ABCplus

You should note the following special features when using this function:

Deviating from the general SEM-BPS Saving Concept, newly created or changed characteristic values (master data) are saved directly in the data basis. On the other hand in the case of changing key figures (transaction data) the general multi-level saving concept applies.

Changes to the attributes of a characteristic cannot be posted. If you require such changes, then you must make them directly in the SAP BW Administrator Workbench.

Likewise, newly created or changed hierarchies of characteristics are saved directly in the data basis and also activated immediately. Already existing aggregates of the InfoCube that they are based on are deactivated at the same time.

The values that are available for a characteristic are always defined by the current selection in the planning package. This also applies when a hierarchy was selected for a characteristic that contains further values in addition to that.

Oros ABCplus has no possibility of carrying out currency translation. Therefore, it is necessary that you restrict the currency-bearing characteristic in the planning package or level to one individual value.