by Laura Herkalo
SAP is generating some great innovation this year and has delivered some long-awaited features in their latest release of Business ByDesign (ByD) 2105. Hats off to SAP’s leadership, Product Managers, and Developers on another awesome release! This release includes many exciting features, but we’re going to focus on a few key enhancements in this blog. If you have any questions about items that are not mentioned in this blog, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us.
This feature is proof that the voting community pays off. With almost 100 votes over the past few years, development has taken on, and delivered, this challenging (and much needed) feature which continues to set ByD apart from the competition when it comes to supply chain management.
For those who do not deal with supply chain, consignment inventory is stock that may sit in your customer’s physical location, but you own it and need to recognize it on your books until the inventory is consumed or sold. Think of examples such as FBA (Fulfilled By Amazon) or a medical device company who stocks tools or materials in hospitals until they are used in surgery.
The challenge with this process is tracking where your inventory is, who it is consigned to and how much they have left, all while trying to keep this inventory separated from your true stocked inventory. Until the 2105 Business ByDesign release, there were various ways our customers have managed this stock; most choosing to set up virtual warehouses, which introduces its own set of challenges depending on the number of consigned customers.
Now, ByD introduces a new item type for consignment stock which enables users to manage the process of ‘filling up’ stock at the consignee just like a regular sales order. When the usage notification comes back from the customer, a simple consumption process will reduce the inventory and signal billing. This is a great feature coming right in the nick of time, as it gives the consigner an advantage to offer a program with minimal business disruption, especially during these times where every dollar counts
This has been another long-awaited feature for Business ByDesign. This feature was released in 2102 and continues to be enhanced. For companies who have a hybrid approach to field work, this is such a
great addition to the platform. When we refer to hybrid, we mean that, in some cases, companies are tackling break-fix jobs which may be done in a few hours or a few days, as opposed to longer term projects using multiple resources that require traditional project management.
For companies in this situation, you now have a one-stop shop time entry process for resources who may overlap between field service jobs and project work. This new feature can remove the need for an external time-tracking tool and make importing to payroll providers much more seamless. Stay tuned for more enhancements on resource management for field services to come in future releases!
With businesses being increasingly reliant on virtual environments we have a greater need for business-critical functions to be mobile. In the 2105 Business ByDesign release, a few updates to mobile features will be great as traveling warriors start getting back on the road.
The first is the addition of time entry and manager time approvals to the ByD mobile app. Most other approval types are already enabled, and this is the cherry on top for those traveling project managers to keep track of billable hours, employee timesheets, and more… all while on the go! Along with this feature, push notifications have now been enabled for missing time entries and open approval tasks.
The second enhancement is around the intelligent invoice scanning feature which was introduced in the 1808 release. The machine learning (ML) model has been changed to input any reviewed values into the model, which will result in much greater accuracy. Credit memos have now been added as an optional document type selection. Lastly, the requirement to manually sync master data to the ML model has been changed to a nightly automated job.
Another area that sets ByD apart from the competition and reinforces SAP’s dedication to the Intelligent Enterprise (IE), is that users can now take a snapshot of their travel receipts and the system will extract the data directly from the receipt and populate it into your expense entry. Think of all the clicks you can save!
When looking at the roadmap, there are definitely some other IE topics coming down the pipeline. Check out future releases for both Intelligent lead capture and Intelligent order capture.
For all of the techies out there, a new API has been introduced which should really knock your socks off. You can now export any KPI data from ByD into any 3rd party app: think about areas like Manufacturing, Warehousing, and Customer Service which now have ‘big boards’ to display up to the minute metrics. This can make that dream an easier possibility!
Last, but certainly not least, is the latest in a long line of improvements to in-flight production orders. In past releases, we have seen some great enhancements such as date changes to in-process production orders, which helps to keep our supply chain nice and tidy with real time updates. Additionally, we now can change quantities or cancel production orders that have been released.
The latest enhancement provides the ability to add new input components to started production orders. All of these new options make manufacturing even more flexible in ByD and we can’t wait to see how SAP’s team continues to improve the ability to change production resources in future releases.
There are many more great things that are making life easier in the Business ByDesign 2105 release. If you are interested in checking out what’s on the horizon, please check out these resources:
SAP’s 2105 release did not disappoint! We’re all looking forward to the countdown to the 2108 release and seeing what’s in store for users this August. Stay tuned!
