Item: SAP BPC (Business Planning and Consolidation)
Rating: 9
Author: Travis Lehn

Ease of Integration

Without a data integration team, it can be difficult to add from non-SAP sources automatically to BPC. However, if you are looking for a solution that quickly links in data through Excel reports that is very flexible. You can load BPC data through EPM and just link to your external data through normal Excel functions.

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

SAP Business Planning and Consolidation (BPC) is being used as both a planning and reporting system at our organization. It allows us to have control over the financials and allows for systematic driven results. Users like the flexibility of the tool and that it's built right into Microsoft Excel. It lowers the risk of reporting errors and increases the quality of our financials. We can work through many scenarios of [our] annual plan and/or monthly forecast to make sure we achieve the results we want in the business.

Pros and Cons

Automation of financial processes using a systematic solution.
User-friendly Excel Interface to allow for various reporting requirements.
Data Integration with your current SAP ERP solution.

The new 10.1 web interface is a little slow when trying to manage a lot of dimensions compared to previous 10.0 web interface.
Training tutorials or application demos for various levels of user engagement.
Business process flows are really nice to have to organize the flow of a process, but they are more of a maintenance than a help.

Return on Investment

Decrease the time takes to produce monthly actual reporting, monthly forecast, and annual financial budget.
Gained user acceptance for reporting models and standard reporting.
Allows users to analyze the business results, which produces better financial performance for the business.

Other Software Used

Domo

Likelihood to Recommend

If you have a large complex number of businesses that you have to consolidate to total corporate then BPC makes that very easy. You wouldn't want to do this just in Excel with linking all the data together. You need a systematic solution to consolidate with low risk of errors and a very fast turn-around for the users. BPC allows the users to submit each of their respective data and the system will automatically roll-up to the total business level. The ease of use through BPC templates and logic can make this process very easy for the users.

SAP Business Planning and Consolidation is worth every cent!

Software Version

Overall Satisfaction with SAP Business Planning and Consolidation