Authored by: Akhilesh Pandey

The SAP IBP 2005 release

SAP Integrated Business Planning helps businesses across industries to integrate their supply chain processes for real-time visibility to make informed decisions.

With the latest release of SAP IBP 2005 (Integrated Business Planning) it is time to take a sneak peek at some great stability enhancements it brings with integrity checks for configuration, performance improvements and simplification.

In this blog we shall explore the new capabilities & benefits brought by SAP IBP 2005 across 6 major applications relevant to business and technical users.

1. Demand Planning

Here the Demand Planners will be able to leverage the improvements in the setup of Forecast Models that include multiple linear regression and Auto-ARIMAX/SARIMAX algorithms to achieve accurate forecasts. The planners can use a new global configuration parameter to specify how many of the most recent change points should be considered by these algorithms.

New Capabilities:

• Product Lifecycle Management allows to define product references and forecast dates on an aggregated product level
• Change point detection in forecast automation: the system automatically recognizes changes in change history and adjusts the forecasts automatically

Benefits:

• Reduced manual planning effort in forecasting using product lifecycle
• With the new capability in forecast automation, it further reduces manual work on the demand planner’s part and at the same time generates more accurate forecast signal

2. Inventory Optimization

The SAP IBP 2005 release adds the Echelon ID (an echelon is an Inventory layer within a supply chain) to help identify the segments of the network from the point of view of Inventory Optimization. This helps to streamline the navigation of the results of the Inventory Optimization along with better understanding of the internal service drivers and safety stock drivers.

New Capabilities:

• Introduction of frozen window in inventory planning

Benefits:

• The dynamic nature of inventory optimization within IBP that enabled optimal inventory & high service level now enables stable signal for Master Production Scheduling

3. Supply and Response

New Capabilities:

• Deployment optimization
• Web-based planning for order data

Benefits:

• Enables the critical capability of push, pull and mixed deployment using optimizer that was there in APO but missing in IBP
• With the order data visibility in the web-based planning this truly is the step in the direction of enabling higher order sense and respond capability in the supply chain

4. Control Tower

The intelligent visibility app inside the supply chain control tower allows to view impacted customer orders, root causes for the impact and carry out navigation to the connected S/4 System into a relevant document type presenting details for an order and make changes in the S/4 System

New Capabilities:

• Intelligent visibility

Benefits:

• Now the control tower has been enhanced to not only visualize order data on a map but also drill-down to root causes of supply chain problems in the entire end-to-end supply chain. Again a step in the direction of increasing visibility and enhancing sense and respond capabilities in the supply chain

5. Excel UI

As of 2005, the SAP IBP Excel add-in is technically independent of SAP EPM-based add-ins. User can now share a planning view with others who don’t have the SAP IBP Excel add-in installed. Without the SAP IBP Excel add-in, the user can work in the offline planning view. They can also create new planning calendars using the Planning Calendars app to achieve more accurate planning by defining exceptional days. It can be used as inbound calendars in time-series-based supply planning.

If one decides to upgrade to the 2005 version of the Excel add-in, they should make sure that all users within the organization are upgraded.

New Capabilities:

• Ability to change planning view settings without coming out of the view

Benefits:

• Great usability feature that makes the planner’s life simpler

6. Identity & Access Management

A new app for an administrator allows overview of user-centric authorizations. In the 2005 release, SAP has enabled multi-lingual support allowing IBP to handle supported modeling object types in multiple languages, which is a game changer for global organizations using different languages

New Capabilities:

• New FIORI app for centrally managing user permissions
• Multi-lingual support via user login

Benefits:

• Simplifies the life of IT administrator managing business roles & authorizations
• For multinational companies, the business users can use the same planning area but still see details in their local languages

How can Krypt help?

Krypt is an SAP preferred partner and has assisted in the success of global businesses through integration & implementation of SAP IBP, SAP GTS, SAP TM & SAP EWM.

If you are a global products company looking for successful IBP deployment, and wish to explore more about our products/services, please request a DEMO or do contact us.

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