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New features of SAP IBP 2405

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Five selected features of the 2405 upgrade of SAP IBP

Published

30 May 2024

In May 2024, SAP released the 2405 upgrade of SAP Integrated Business Planning (IBP). As for the previous releases, we have compiled a staff-picked list of five features of the IBP 2405 upgrade that we think you might find interesting.

Five selected features of the 2405 upgrade of SAP

Demand planning improvements

Automatic outlier correction

There is a new king in town for outlier correction. The 2405 SAP IBP release comes with a new outlier correction algorithm that applies machine learning/a set of statistical methods to determine whether a data point is an outlier. Each statistical method will determine a data point as either an outlier or not, and a voting mechanism is applied. If the majority of the methods vote outlier, a correction will happen using the smoothing method. If you do not agree with the verdict, you can create an Outlier Marking key figure that tells the system how to treat a combination based on values of 1, 2 or Nulls.

Applying several models and a voting mechanism will for sure help to determine whether a data point is an outlier, statistically speaking, and create a more robust outlier detection process to improve forecast accuracy. The downside to this is loss of transparency in the identification process, as this is very much a “black box” calculation, which could ultimately lead to wrong cleanings of the data. On the other hand, we might identify outliers that we would not have caught with the traditional methods. Statistical models should never stand alone – always treat them as a supporting process and validate the outputs.

Forecasting

With the new release, we also see improvements in the forecasting algorithms:

Possibility to consider short-term forecast (next four weeks) in two additional forecasting algorithms: Extreme Gradient Boosting for statistical forecasting and Demand Sensing with Gradient Boosting for Demand Sensing. You do this by enabling “Consider Trend” in the Manage Forecast Models app.
Improvements to curve-based forecasting, including increased control via the app where you can now decide on which specific curve clustering profile to use, as well as an extended horizon.

Planner Workspaces: contextual navigation

Planner Workspaces has gotten another upgrade. This time, the upgrade provides some much-needed flexibility that can be used in a wide array of day-to-day planning activities. It is called “Contextual Navigations”, and it is basically a way to create paths and drilldowns that make it easier to plan and investigate your data in the app. The navigations will carry over the filters of your selection in a way that you can define yourself, which enables you to do easy drilldowns into both key figure and master data.

You can define three different types of paths: analytics, planning views and master data.

Analytics provides a quick overview of your data in cases where you do not always want analytics in the workplace.

A navigation to an analytics chart that shows the forecast accuracy for the selected combination.

Planning views are useful when you want to do a drilldown or see other key figures in a separate view. A good use case is to define the contextual navigation to a more granular level or to zoom in on other parts of the flow, e.g. the sales history vs forecast because of different time horizons (past vs future).

A navigation to the sales history for a forecast in a planning view.

Master data refers to the master data workbooks for Planner Workspaces that came with the 2402 release. Here, you can define a path straight to the master data entries of your choosing and select the attributes you want to be visible.

A navigation to a customer product master data sheet, e.g. to investigate the segmentations or value.

This really improves the usability of Planner Workspaces as it addresses some of the issues that Planner Workspaces has previously had related to space and flexibility. You can now define your most-used paths and quickly navigate there by right-clicking, both when you require an overview and when you want to do drilldowns. Well done!

Five Excel add-in enhancements that will make our life easier

These updates primarily focus on streamlining master data management in Excel workbooks, offering users greater flexibility and efficiency in handling various data types. Here are five interesting improvements that could definitely make life easier for the users when using the Master Data Workbooks:

1. Selection of attributes to be displayed

You can now select attributes of related master data types on the Attributes tab when you create or edit master data worksheets if the respective attributes are assigned to the planning area. For example, for Location Product, you can now display master data attributes that belong to the Product or Location master data types. You can also filter for such attributes on the Filter tab using the simple filtering mode if the attributes are assigned to at least one planning level.

An example of the attributes’ selection for the Location Product master type.

2. Remove unnecessary attributes from the workbook

You can remove required attributes from the list of selected attributes and still review or change existing master data entries but not create new master data entries. Key attributes and the version, if available, are still mandatory and cannot be deselected when you create a master data workbook. Perfect for someone who likes to keep their sheets organised!

3. Attributes for planning objects

You can display attributes that are assigned to the planning level also for planning objects, not just the root attributes. Additionally, you can define the order in which the attributes are displayed. Time to say goodbye to those tedious V-LOOKUPs!

Planning Objects on Customer-Product level with Descriptions added.

4. Display time-independent key figures

You can display and change planning objects of time-independent key figures when you create or edit planning object worksheets. The layout of the worksheet differs from time-dependent planning levels, as the key figures are displayed on the column axis.

5. Work offline with master data workbooks

Have you ever experienced the frustration of going for lunch only to return to find that your master data changes were lost because the session expired and you forgot to save the updates? Now you can enjoy your coffee after lunch without worry. Master data workbooks that you create with Excel add-in version 2405.2.0 or higher are recognised when you log on to the Excel add-in after having been offline. The master data workbook is also recognised when you are working online and open a master data workbook that you have previously saved locally on your hard drive.

A small note regarding the add-in: remember that the new minimum required version of the SAP Integrated Business Planning add-in for Microsoft Excel is 2211.2.0. Business users must make sure to upgrade their Excel add-in version to at least 2211.2.0 before the upgrade to SAP IBP 2405. Do not let the past affect your future work!

Analytics Stories Improvements

The latest upgrade also introduces several exciting enhancements to the Manage Analytics Stories app:

New calculated measure functions

You can now use additional functions such as GrandTotal(), %GrandTotal(), NOT() and ISNULL() when creating calculated measures for your charts.
Data Analyzer for ad hoc analysis

The Data Analyzer allows you to perform ad hoc analyses without altering your analytics story. You can explore data by setting filters and variable prompts and adding measures, dimensions and calculations.

Sounds great, right? But how do you use these features?

A user in view mode can open the Data Analyzer from a table or various supported chart types via the actions menu item Open Data Analyzer. By default, the data is displayed in a table, but you can switch to chart view as well. The toolbar includes options such as Export, Edit Prompts (if your data source supports prompts), Show Filter (or Hide Filter) and a builder panel that allows you to add or remove dimensions and measures and switch between table and chart visualisations.

To enable the Open Data Analyzer feature, you must first activate the Data Analyzer property on a table or chart via the builder panel by checking the Enable Data Analyzer property.
Faster load time
Lastly, SAP has promised faster load times for newly created or modified analytics stories in view mode after the upgrade.

Two enhanced order-based planning features

This section explores features exclusive to Order-Based Planning in SAP IBP. While updates to contextual navigation and the Excel UI also apply here, let us focus on these two enhancements:

Enhanced version copying
This powerful new feature allows copying all data between versions. Essentially, you can create an exact copy of your baseline plan and move it to a separate version. This functionality offers several benefits:
- Historical version tracking
  Store data from previous Sales & Operations Planning (S&OP) cycles in dedicated versions. This allows users to review and compare past plans with the current one.
- Scenario simulation
  Create a fully disconnected version from the baseline by copying it. This isolated environment lets users manipulate master data, generate new master data and adjust converted orders, among many other things. This facilitates simulating complicated business scenarios and analysing potential impacts on the supply plan and demand fulfilment.
Improved Supply Chain Network app
The Supply Chain Network app can be used to visually represent the supply chain network. The app can now visually differentiate between blocked transportation lanes and open transportation lanes. This provides a quick visual representation of the viable network for specific SKUs (Stock Keeping Units). This enhanced functionality is valuable for:
- Demand flow visualisation
  Gain a clear understanding of how demand flows through your network.
- Transportation lane blockage identification
  Quickly identify potential disruptions by seeing if there are no viable transportation lanes to supply a product.

Transportation lane blocked from location 1310 to 2120 for product PFG103.

These enhancements empower order-based planning users to streamline data management, gain deeper supply chain insights and make more informed decisions.