Carsten Hilker is the global solution owner for Central Finance. He is the emcee and host of the annual SAP Financial Excellence Forum, an annual event for SAP customers to network and interact with domain experts and thought leaders in finance and management accounting. He has been working in the field of financial and management accounting for 20+ years in various roles including development, consulting, and product management.

Apply best practices for operations and master data management

· ... Preface ... 19

· ... Target Audience ... 19

· ... Objective ... 20

· ... Structure of this Book ... 20

· ... Acknowledgments ... 23

· Part I ... Getting Started with Central Finance ... 27

· 1 ... The Basics: What Is Central Finance? ... 29

· 1.1 ... A Centralized Finance System ... 29

· 1.2 ... Central Finance with SAP S/4HANA ... 35

· 1.3 ... Central Finance Components ... 40

· 1.4 ... Central Finance Outcomes ... 49

· 1.5 ... Central Finance Boundaries and Restrictions ... 51

· 1.6 ... Common Central Finance Misconceptions ... 53

· 1.7 ... Summary ... 55

· 2 ... The Mechanics: How Does Central Finance Work? ... 57

· 2.1 ... Functional Foundation ... 57

· 2.2 ... Central Finance Capabilities ... 60

· 2.3 ... Summary ... 72

· 3 ... The Motivation: Why Central Finance and Why Now? ... 73

· 3.1 ... Central Finance as a Silver Bullet ... 73

· 3.2 ... Innovation Acceleration ... 79

· 3.3 ... Process Transformation ... 83

· 3.4 ... Business Model Evolution ... 85

· 3.5 ... Technology Transformation ... 88

· 3.6 ... SAP S/4HANA Adoption ... 92

· 3.7 ... Summary ... 95

· 4 ... Reporting: What Can I Learn About My Data? ... 97

· 4.1 ... Advanced Reporting ... 97

· 4.2 ... Extended Dimensional Reporting ... 108

· 4.3 ... Entity Reporting ... 113

· 4.4 ... Group Reporting ... 116

· 4.5 ... Summary ... 120

· 5 ... Finance Processes: What Can Central Finance Improve? ... 121

· 5.1 ... Digital Debt ... 121

· 5.2 ... Planning, Reporting, and Compliance ... 128

· 5.3 ... Finance Operations and Shared Services ... 136

· 5.4 ... Central Closing ... 158

· 5.5 ... Summary ... 174

· 6 ... Finance Data Harmonization: How Does Central Finance Standardize Data? ... 175

· 6.1 ... Why Harmonize Data? ... 175

· 6.2 ... Transactional Data Loads ... 180

· 6.3 ... Master Data Processes ... 185

· 6.4 ... Master Data Objects and Hierarchies ... 191

· 6.5 ... Ongoing Transaction Replication ... 200

· 6.6 ... Governance ... 205

· 6.7 ... Summary ... 212

· 7 ... Deployment Options: How Do I Implement Central Finance? ... 213

· 7.1 ... Getting Started ... 214

· 7.2 ... On-Premise ... 216

· 7.3 ... Cloud ... 225

· 7.4 ... Two-Tier Strategy ... 237

· 7.5 ... Summary ... 238

· Part II ... Deploying Central Finance ... 241

· 8 ... System Architecture ... 243

· 8.1 ... Technical Architecture ... 243

· 8.2 ... Central Finance Landscape ... 249

· 8.3 ... SAP Landscape Transformation Replication Server ... 254

· 8.4 ... SAP Application Interface Framework ... 257

· 8.5 ... Frontend Tools and Central Finance ... 261

· 8.6 ... Summary ... 267

· 9 ... Implementing Central Finance ... 269

· 9.1 ... Rollout ... 269

· 9.2 ... Roadmap ... 273

· 9.3 ... System Setup ... 274

· 9.4 ... Data Integration Framework ... 298

· 9.5 ... Replication Setup ... 319

· 9.6 ... Business Mapping ... 332

· 9.7 ... Consistency Check Reports ... 336

· 9.8 ... Initial Data Load ... 340

· 9.9 ... Summary ... 365

· 10 ... Implementation Project and Operations ... 367

· 10.1 ... Establishing a Governance Framework ... 368

· 10.2 ... Project Methodology ... 378

· 10.3 ... Discover and Prepare Phases ... 383

· 10.4 ... Explore Phase ... 385

· 10.5 ... Realization Phase ... 387

· 10.6 ... Deploy Phase ... 390

· 10.7 ... Run Phase ... 396

· 10.8 ... Mergers, Acquisitions, and Divestitures ... 402

· 10.9 ... Summary ... 404

· 11 ... Master Data Management ... 405

· 11.1 ... Master Data Integration Technology Options ... 406

· 11.2 ... SAP Master Data Governance ... 451

· 11.3 ... Summary ... 474

· Part III ... Next Steps with Central Finance ... 477

· 12 ... Mergers and Integrations ... 479

· 12.1 ... Integration Catalyst ... 479

· 12.2 ... Mergers and Acquisitions ... 482

· 12.3 ... Postmerger Integration ... 491

· 12.4 ... Summary ... 496

· 13 ... Central Finance as a Stepping Stone to SAP S/4HANA ... 497

· 13.1 ... Charting Your Journey ... 498

· 13.2 ... Choosing Your Route ... 503

· 13.3 ... Planning the Process ... 506

· 13.4 ... Central Finance and the SAP S/4HANA Movement Program ... 515

· 13.5 ... Summary ... 517

· 14 ... Finance Transformation ... 519

· 14.1 ... Strategy Management ... 520

· 14.2 ... Value Management ... 526

· 14.3 ... Risk Management ... 529

· 14.4 ... Business Process Management ... 537

· 14.5 ... Organizational Change Management ... 540

· 14.6 ... Summary ... 550

· 15 ... Platform Transformation ... 551

· 15.1 ... Platform Transformation Strategy ... 552

· 15.2 ... System and Application Consolidation ... 555

· 15.3 ... Digitization ... 563

· 15.4 ... Readiness for Services Consumption in the Cloud ... 565

· 15.5 ... Summary ... 568

· 16 ... Central Finance Business Case Development ... 571

· 16.1 ... Identifying Stakeholders ... 572

· 16.2 ... Evaluating the Status Quo ... 574

· 16.3 ... Determining Key Value Drivers ... 577

· 16.4 ... Assessing the Cost ... 583

· 16.5 ... Return on Investment ... 586

· 16.6 ... Summary ... 588

· ... The Authors ... 589

· ... Contributors ... 590

· ... Index ... 593