SAP Accounting Powered by SAP HANA - FAQ

Originally published by Janet Salmon on ERPCorp SAP FICO Blog. Here's an excerpt:

"I’ve spent the last six months working with the first accounting customers to validate and implement SAP Accounting powered by SAP HANA. I’ve talked with even more customers about the possibilities of the new solution. In this blog, I explain how the new solution differs from earlier software versions and discuss some of my learning".

Is SAP Accounting powered by SAP HANA as simple as Hasso Plattner promises?

If you’ve been following the blogs written by Hasso Plattner, one of SAP’s founders, you’ll know that he has declared war on aggregates. The rationale is simple: aggregates are yesterday’s technology. In the past we needed them to provide aggregated data quickly in a report or during a process that operates on that data, such as an allocation or settlement. With SAP HANA such data can be aggregated from the line item tables on the fly.

Is SAP Accounting powered by SAP HANA just a newer version of the general ledger?

Some of the arguments for SAP Accounting powered by SAP HANA are not new. I’ve been talking about a “single version of the truth” for at least sixteen years. In the context of new General Ledger, this meant the ability to report not just by company code and business area but also by profit center, functional area, and trading partner. 

What are the deployment options for SAP Accounting powered by SAP HANA?

If you want to move to SAP Accounting powered by SAP HANA you have two main options. The first is to migrate to SAP HANA (unless you’re already running SAP Business Suite powered by SAP HANA) and then run an application migration to remove the aggregate tables, link the FI and CO line items, and so on. If this sounds like a step too far, another option is to deploy SAP Accounting powered by SAP HANA on a dedicated HANA system and then feed data into this box from your existing systems. Before you embark on such a journey, read the documentation. [Click here to continue reading...]