1902 Release

This release mainly focused on small updates to the existing SAP S/4 HANA structure.

Advanced Financial Closing

This addition to the roster of features includes options to execute, monitor and plan the financial closing tasks for group entities. It also helps to analyze those tasks to better plan for the next batch. The objective here is that the users will close their books faster and with greater accuracy. At the same time, the burden on company resources will be reduced.

Better Quality Management

Stock and inventory are riddled with quality control problems. These can result from stocking before the quality inspection. This can lead to redundant stock movements and substandard inventory. The new features integrated with the latest SAP S/4 HANA release help to perform better quality management.

Time-Based Revenue Recognition

According to the International Financial Reporting Standard (IFRS15), the latest release allows users to perform time-based revenue recognition. This covers multiple-element arrangements of provider contracts. This includes contracting invoicing and accounting. Hence, revenue can be projected over a certain period relating to the duration of a service contract.

Transport and Services Management

This feature set builds upon the older 1811 release and allows users to view charge details. This calculates transportation charges. It also relates them to the freight agreements between the user’s company, purchasing organizations, and carriers. This way the cost is broken down per delivery, per batch and per product. This helps to cut costs, improve efficiency, and thus, profits.

As far as service management is concerned a better API has been introduced to synchronize service orders and confirmations. This ensures that better functionality is provided for the execution of field services. All data is stored in a central universal journal as well.

1908 Release

Release 1908 features more options for integration and data analytics, with a specific focus on making companies smarter.

Intelligent RPA Integration

One of the main foci of SAP S/4 HANA is making existing tools more intelligent. The integration of RPA into SAP has allowed for automation to be integrated into major processes within enterprises. This includes processes like bank statement reprocessing, predictive manufacturing resource planning (MRP) and purchase order confirmation for procurement.

There is also an option called “My Situations” which allows for notifications to be sent to users for needed actions. For instance, once the SAP protocols find an issue in the system, the necessary actions needed are automatically conveyed.

SAP Analytics Cloud Integration

Build 1908 focused on the integration of SAP Analytics Cloud with enterprise systems. The built-in analytics advances include responsiveness, proactive, support, and better transfer of information between apps. Finance data models and projections benefit from this advancement. This helps to plan sale prices and improve upon the sales simulations and projections.

SuccessFactors Integration

The 1908 build of the ERP improves upon various factors that encourage robust integration. All of this is in the pursuit of increased automation. The 1908 build provides integration between SAP S/4 HANA Cloud and the SAP SuccessFactors solutions. These help to deliver dashboards for a combined HR and finance insights setup. This will help to gain clearer insights into workforce diversity and performance.

1911 Release

This is the last significant release of the SAP ERP for 2019. It mainly has a lot of small improvements that focus on automation.

Predictive Analytics

This profoundly impacts finance. It includes the addition of Agile Decision Making with SAP S/4 HANA Cloud Embedded Analytics. This is powered by SAP Fiori and SAP Analytics Cloud and provides insights that constantly save costs.

The constant data at your disposal allows you to take advantage of the analytics options included. This helps enterprises have a full view of their important KPIs so that they can benefit. These can be categorized into custom stories that can be linked as tiles in SAP Fiori Launchpad. While this may seem like a cosmetic UI based decision, it also helps with centering the most important information.

Ariba Network Enabled Lean Service Integration

Lean Service Integration is all about streamlining service procurement. A lean service request or purchase order is directly sent to the supplier in the Ariba network. This is done through the cloud system in SAP S/4 HANA. The supplier then accesses the purchase order from the supplier portal and can create a service entry.

This seamlessness of information transfer helps to immediately respond to incoming requests. Documents can also be sent automatically to the Ariba network where suppliers can begin creating invoices.

Manage Sales Orders with Fiori

This application has been created specifically to manage sales orders better. For occasional usage, there is a Fast Entry application built-in. However, for consistent, complex orders, there is a ”Create Sales Orders” application. However, “Manage Sales Orders” takes that one step beyond. This application can be used to create a lot of filter options when categorizing sales orders. This will not only help in categorizing orders but also in analyzing them better. Therefore, the process of inventory and be improved.

These are some of the best improvements that have been brought to SAP S/4 HANA in 2019. With SAP’s track record, even more, improvements are on the way.