SAP® Integrated Business Planning

for Supply Chain Solution

The 2019 Annual Customer Report
© 2020 SAP SE or an SAP affiliate company. All rights reserved.

1 / 17
Table of Contents

3 A Note from Thomas Klemm

5 Customers by the Numbers in 2019

6 Customer Engagement

7 Events

8 Customer Influence

9 Product Updates and Highlights

13 Integration and Next Steps in 2020

14 Tips and Tricks for Greater Productivity

15 Customer Stories

17 Looking Forward

2 / 17

© 2020 SAP SE or an SAP affiliate company. All rights reserved.

A Note from Thomas Klemm

Dear SAP Integrated Business

Planning Community,

First of all, I would like to thank you all

for a fantastic year 2019, a year with
more than 200 new customers and
four releases packed with innovations.
We launched the new demand-driven
replenishment (DDMRP) module and
further strengthened our planning
capabilities with driver-based planning
and the Web-based planning app,
including business collaboration with
external partners.

My personal highlights are always

the open and honest discussions
with you, our customers, and your New customers
success stories that are powered successfully
by the SAP® Integrated Business
Planning for Supply Chain solution. implemented the
SAP Integrated
We saw very successful implementations, go-lives, and Business Planning
rollouts last year, including our first DDMRP go-live in
SAP Integrated Business Planning, offering a very promising for Supply Chain
25% total stock reduction with a 5% increase in the cus- solution in 2019 and
tomer service level,1 and I love that early adopters are going reported, for example,
above and beyond with SAP Integrated Business Planning,
continuing to roll out, and are running huge business up to 30% inventory
volumes on our global platform. reduction, working
capital reduction by
20%, or a reduction
of the planning cycles
from 5 days to only
1 day.2

1., 2. SAP Performance Benchmarking.

3 / 17

© 2020 SAP SE or an SAP affiliate company. All rights reserved.

We are now off to make 2020 equally successful for our
customers and are looking forward to another year of trust
and collaboration. Our development teams will, apart from
our continuous innovation cycles, be focusing on some
key areas within SAP Integrated Business Planning.
We will:
• Further strengthen the operational supply
planning capabilities with a constrained
deployment optimization considering
network costs as well as interoperabil-
ity with production planning
• Enable the intelligent visibility with
the SAP Supply Chain Control
Tower solution, making sure that
you gain visibility across your
supply chain solutions. We have
recently recorded a video to
explain the concept in more
detail.
• Add greater support for multi-
echelon inventory optimization
(MEIO) calculation and analysis
of inventory finance KPIs for
better alignment between supply
chain and financial planning
teams
• Support multilanguage configura-
tion for key figure and attribute
descriptions to allow multiple users
with different language backgrounds to
better understand the planning setup
when working, for example, in planning views

I sincerely hope that you enjoy our annual news­

letter, packed with key information, best practices,
upcoming events, and customer stories.

Sincerely,
Thomas Klemm
Senior Vice President and Head of Supply Chain Planning
SAP SE

4 / 17

© 2020 SAP SE or an SAP affiliate company. All rights reserved.

 Customers by the Numbers in 2019
WHERE ARE OUR CUSTOMERS?

50
27
Countries
40% 35% 15% 10%
Europe, North Latin Asia Pacific
Middle East, America America Japan
and Africa (APJ)
(EMEA)
Industries

REFERENCE CUSTOMERS

~100
 ustomers in the Global Customer
C
Reference Program
2x
More customers
compared to 2018

CUSTOMER SUCCESS DAYS

15 315 135
Customer success
day events
Attendees Companies

MEET-THE-EXPERT SESSIONS

30 500+ Sessions total Participants (on average)

30,000 11,000
Presentations downloaded Recordings downloaded

CUSTOMER INFLUENCE PROGRAM

700 5,000 ~100

Requests submitted Votes Enhancements delivered

5 / 17

© 2020 SAP SE or an SAP affiliate company. All rights reserved.

Customer Engagement

As always, our primary focus last year was to TESTING

help drive better outcomes for customers using As SAP remains focused on high-quality
the SAP® Integrated Business Planning for upgrades, we continue to enhance and prioritize
Supply Chain solution. Highlights included our automated testing, resulting in 25,000
the following. regression tests daily throughout the year. These
tests focused on integration, root-cause analysis,
CUSTOMER FIRST PROGRAM and testing using customer data. Prior to upgrad-
In 2019, we saw the growth of the Customer First ing to new releases of SAP Integrated Business
program for the SAP Digital Supply Chain organi- Planning, some customers even worked directly
zation. Implemented globally, this program gives with SAP to test their own data before going live.
customers a proactive, end-to-end engagement Other customers accelerated their own testing
experience, with a dedicated customer engage- efforts with services and consulting offered
ment executive who helps keep the focus on pos- through the SAP Digital Business Services
itive business outcomes. Our goal with Customer organization.
First is to deliver the best customer experience in
the software industry. To move forward with testing and other services
for your company, e-mail us at your convenience.
SAP PREFERRED SUCCESS SERVICE
Introduced in 2019, the SAP Preferred
Success service is a support offering
for SAP Integrated Business Planning
and other cloud offerings from SAP.
Augmenting SAP Enterprise Support
services, it provides additional ser-
vices such as tailored training pro-
grams, outcome-focused success
checks, release reviews, a designated
customer success manager, and
faster support response times for
priority incidents.

6 / 17

© 2020 SAP SE or an SAP affiliate company. All rights reserved.

Events

SAP Integrated Business Planning had a pres- Moving forward, SAP also intends to hold more
ence at dozens of events in 2019. These included virtual customer success roundtables – online
the SAPPHIRE NOW® conference, SAP Insider events that were piloted in 2019 to serve supply
conferences, and analyst events around the chain professionals from specific industries and
world. In 2019, we also continued to focus our with specific business process experience. In
efforts to build a community of users around 2020, we plan to hold 16 of these roundtables –
SAP Integrated Business Planning through with themes that focus on specific industries,
in-person events such as customer success functional areas, best practices, and even one
days and online Webinars. roundtable for French speakers.

CUSTOMER SUCCESS DAYS WEBINARS

Customer success days were held in cities We also held numerous Webinars in 2019.
around the world, providing an opportunity for Meet-the-expert sessions, for example, continue
in-person discussions regarding SAP Integrated to be a big hit – with customers all over the world
Business Planning and supply chain planning expressing how helpful they are. Hosted by an
best practices. Attendees networked with indus- SAP product team member, these Webinars dive
try peers and SAP team members regarding deep into specific topic areas of SAP integrated
supply chain projects, goals, and challenges Business Planning and address questions
with a focus on solution adoption and change directly of concern to the attending participants.
management. They also explored new features, In all, we held 30 meet-the-expert Webinars in
assessed product road maps, and provided 2019, attracting 500 participants on average.
candid feedback to SAP, which is being used The presentations for these sessions were
to drive ongoing product improvement efforts. downloaded more than 30,000 times.

In 2019, we held 15 customer success days in Other Webinars included those focused on
cities such as New York, Tokyo, São Paulo, and sharing best practices and communicating
Dubai. These events were attended by 315 people feature updates for quarterly releases. Top
from 135 different companies. Our goal for 2020 Webinars of 2019 in these areas focused on
is to expand to 24 customer success days. what’s new in SAP Integrated Business Planning,
operations supply planning, and tips and tricks
for Microsoft Excel.

7 / 17

© 2020 SAP SE or an SAP affiliate company. All rights reserved.

Customer Influence

As part of our efforts to continuously produce • Customer Influence site – which is designed
software and solutions that meet the specific for the continuous collection and delivery of
needs of our customers, SAP has developed the ideas for growth products
Customer Influence program, which is designed
to give our customers a voice. With the Customer Influence program, custom-
ers get a direct link to project spaces dedicated
The pillars of this program include the following: to product innovation management. There, they
• Customer working groups – which bring devel- can participate in influence sessions and submit
opment teams into contact with customers and improvement requests. Top requests are then
partners to discuss planned functionality voted on by the community for inclusion in
• SAP Beta Testing program – which enables upcoming releases. This input from customers
customers to validate and test soon-to-be- has helped continue to drive the success of the
released products from SAP and provide Customer Influence program throughout 2019.
feedback

8 / 17

© 2020 SAP SE or an SAP affiliate company. All rights reserved.

Product Updates and Highlights

Throughout 2019, we maintained our commit- • Quickly create business drivers using sample
ment to updating SAP Integrated Business modeling and best-practice content
Planning with the features and functionality • Build a structured overview of the drivers
customers want most. One outcome of this impacting the business plan
commitment to ongoing improvement is greater • Work collaboratively to evaluate risks and
recognition from the analyst community. For opportunities based on criteria such as proba-
example, SAP was named a leader in Gartner’s bility of success, budget considerations, or
Magic Quadrant for Sales and Operations impact on revenue
Planning Systems of Differentiation.3 • Analyze and include relevant drivers to the
supply chain plan
Here are some product update highlights from • Access summary views representing consoli-
2019. dated business drivers across time ranges and
planning-level attributes; and mass-edit drivers
DRIVER-BASED PLANNING and key figures based on their impact
In May 2019, SAP released version 1905 of • Access detailed views for a spreadsheet-like
SAP Integrated Business Planning (see Figure 1). interface to make plan adjustments based on
This release featured new functionality for bring- the impact potential of each driver
ing specific business drivers, such as assump- • Switch between views, change underlying
tions, risks, and opportunities, into the formal figures, and drill down for further analysis
sales and operations planning process. With this • Use embedded analytics and dashboards that
functionality, customers can now: display critical KPIs such as top five opportuni-
ties or risks above threshold (release 1911)

Figure 1: Driver-Based Planning with SAP® Integrated Business Planning

3.  “SAP Named a Leader by Gartner in Its Magic Quadrant for Sales and Operations Planning Systems of Differentiation,”
SAP News, May 2019.

9 / 17

© 2020 SAP SE or an SAP affiliate company. All rights reserved.

 WEB-BASED PLANNING • Simulate the impact of data changes on depen-
In 2019, SAP introduced a dent key figures and evaluate different planning
Web-based planning inter- scenarios
face for SAP Integrated • Freeze columns to keep relevant attributes visi-
Business Planning that supports inter- and intra- ble and filter columns to focus on desired data
enterprise collaboration. Web-based planning • Access a full-screen-mode function to maximize
enables all supply chain participants to work browser space on PCs, laptops, or tablets
together according to an end-to-end process
for managing the complexity of globalized COLLABORATIVE ENTERPRISE PLANNING
operations. In 2019, SAP continued to push the envelope for
its support of collaborative enterprise planning
Today, manufacturers can work directly with processes by providing bidirectional system
customers and other business partners to integration and business content for the
improve forecasts, enhance customer service, SAP Analytics Cloud solution and SAP Integrated
and reduce working capital. New features enable Business Planning. These solutions integrate to
customers to: provide the financial planning and visibility across
• Share forecasts, promotional plans, and market your organization through SAP Digital Boardroom
intelligence to reach an accurate consensus to complete the collaborative enterprise planning
demand plan process (see Figure 2).
• Define planning views to suit different business
needs and share these views to support
collaboration

Figure 2: Collaborative Enterprise Planning with SAP® Integrated Business Planning and
SAP Analytics Cloud

10 / 17

© 2020 SAP SE or an SAP affiliate company. All rights reserved.

Planners create a financial plan in SAP Analytics • Drive replenishment at strategic decoupling
Cloud and translate forward-looking goals points from actual demand, not forecasts
and objectives into an operational plan in • Achieve visibility and demand-driven prioritiza-
SAP Integrated Business Planning. Then, they tion of supply based on buffer status at decou-
return to SAP Analytics Cloud to perform finan- pling points
cial planning and consolidation (budget analysis,
cost assumptions, capacity investments, and so The SAP Integrated Business Planning applica-
on) using simulations to determine the best way tion for demand-driven replenishment helps to:
forward to create overall value for the company. • Smooth material and information flow, breaking
the whip-like effect in the supply chain and
The result is an actionable plan that respects calming supply chain nervousness
real-world constraints – with the requisite visibility • Calculate decoupled inventory buffers, using
for stakeholders to understand the basis for past material consumption and future forecasts
decisions made. to determine the size of inventory buffer zones
• Replenish the supply chain based on actual
DEMAND-DRIVEN REPLENISHMENT demand, minimizing the impact of incorrect
In 2019, we augmented SAP Integrated Business forecasts on the replenishment strategy
Planning with new features for demand-driven • Accommodate supply chain uncertainty by
replenishment that support a methodology buffering supply and demand through decou-
known as demand-driven materials requirement pling points across the supply chain
planning, or simply DDMRP. DDMRP is designed • Track buffer levels and measure performance
to promote the flow of information and materials.
It is also the process for generating orders and In addition to helping ensure on-time delivery,
managing them in a demand-driven supply chain. SAP customers can also reduce inventory levels
by as much as 30%.4 The results are a reduction
DDMRP is based on the following core principles: in inventory investment, improved customer
• Dampen the effect of demand and supply varia- service level, and lower total supply chain costs,
tions on the supply chain by establishing buf- with greater abilities to quickly respond to shifts
fers at strategic decoupling points in demand.

4. SAP Performance Benchmarking.

11 / 17

© 2020 SAP SE or an SAP affiliate company. All rights reserved.

 OPERATIONAL integration and further steps to address the
SUPPLY PLANNING topic of real-time integration with the SAP ERP
Operational supply application and SAP S/4HANA®.
planning translates
customer demand SIMPLIFIED CALCULATIONS WITH THE
from sales orders and forecasts into a plan for SAP FIORI® USER EXPERIENCE
synchronized production, transportation, and In 2019, SAP introduced new functionality for cre-
purchasing operations. It was a big year for the ating planning areas (see Figure 3). Based on the
development of features that focus specifically SAP Fiori® user experience, this new functionality
on operational supply planning processes. is more intuitive and robust than its predecessor
configuration functionality. It also enables addi-
For example, in 2019 SAP put together new teams tional powerful functionality such as:
that delivered new functionalities to support the • One-step attribute assignment creation for
“inbound quota” process, multiple additional multiple planning levels
supply planning capabilities, and integration from • Free grouping of key figures through freely
multiple source systems into one planning area. defined tags
• Intuitive search and filter options based on any
In 2020, the focus will be on key areas such as key figure characteristics
deployment planning, subcontracting, and order • Quick setup of key figure configurations with
visibility and drill-down. Integration will focus standard capabilities for unit-of-measure and
on first steps toward synchronized production currency conversions

Figure 3: Creating Planning Areas

12 / 17

© 2020 SAP SE or an SAP affiliate company. All rights reserved.

Integration and Next Steps in 2020

Throughout 2019, our development teams for data services to test data flows in an end-
remained committed to further improving inte- to-end fashion. In doing so, we showed no
gration for SAP Integrated Business Planning. performance impacts or errors. These positive
Focus areas included: test results led us to upgrade our cluster
• Time-series integration: Add-on capabilities servers for SAP Cloud Platform Integration
for time-series integration were enhanced, and for data services, and all of our customers
new mapping templates for SAP Cloud Platform now run on this and even higher releases.
Integration for data services were shipped. These
developments are particularly helpful to new In 2020, we plan to run boot camps for consul-
customers, because they help to accelerate the tants. These are designed to transfer knowledge
adoption of SAP Integrated Business Planning. of best practices regarding time-series integra-
• Data extraction: The powerful concept of value- tion using SAP Cloud Platform Integration for
based filtering in SAP Cloud Platform Integration data services.
for data services was introduced with the 1908
release of SAP Integrated Business Planning. Furthermore, we invite partners to the integration
Now users’ administrators can query data based challenge event for SAP Integrated Business
on key figure values (for instance, extracting all Planning. The objective of this event is to showcase
SKUs with a consensus demand greater than 1). reliable, high-performance interfaces that can
This development helps minimize the data vol- import and extract data to and from SAP Integrated
umes that are loaded by SAP Cloud Platform Business Planning and non-SAP tools. This might
Integration for data services. include how-to guides and custom coding or
• Beta integration testing: Some customers in configuration. Winners will be part of valuable
2019 participated in a new type of beta integra- co-marketing opportunities and get media
tion testing whereby SAP replicated their live exposure with the award process. Please contact
environments for SAP Integrated Business Michael Mack for more information.
Planning and SAP Cloud Platform Integration

13 / 17

© 2020 SAP SE or an SAP affiliate company. All rights reserved.

Tips and Tricks for Greater Productivity

Because customers use SAP Integrated Business Planning

day in and day out, the simplest tips for how to use the solu-
tion can make a big difference in their productivity. Below is
a list of resources to help customers get more done faster.

ADD-IN FOR MICROSOFT EXCEL

• Improve solution performance when working
with the SAP Integrated Business Planning,
add-in for Microsoft Excel. Learn more here.
• Go deep on the features for the add-in. Learn
more here.

SUPPLY PLANNING
• Learn about system configuration strategies
and how to split data to optimize performance.
Learn more here.
• Improve performance for large, continuous
models. Learn more here.

INTEGRATION
• Get tips on extracting data from SAP Integrated
Business Planning. Learn more here.
• Avoid errors when loading master data with an
attribute of “KF” (key figure). Learn more here.
• Learn how to efficiently extract key figures
on a different planning level. Learn more here.

14 / 17

© 2020 SAP SE or an SAP affiliate company. All rights reserved.

Customer Stories
To break down planning silos and improve collaboration, many SAP customers have started with
the sales and operations process in SAP Integrated Business Planning. In 2019, however, many
customers have moved beyond this starting point, expanding into new areas that offer numerous
new opportunities to improve planning performance. Here are some examples.

LENNOX INTERNATIONAL INC.

A global manufacturer of heating and cooling systems, Lennox International Inc.
started its transformation journey with the SAP Integrated Business Planning
application for demand. The result was up to 80% better forecast accuracy
and 20% improved working capital. Continuing along its journey, Lennox imple-
mented the SAP Integrated Business Planning application for response and
supply. This has helped the company reduce operating cost and better use
production capacity.

“We needed a solution to meet our global demand planning requirements

right away. SAP Integrated Business Planning for demand . . . allowed us
to serve our fast-moving markets and gain transparency across our
supply chain.”
Mani Suresh, Business Solutions Lead Architect Supply Chain Management, Lennox International Inc.

BSH HOME APPLIANCES GROUP

BSH Home Appliances Group is a European-based home appliance manufacturer with revenues of
€13.4 billion that follows a demand-driven replenishment methodology in more than 40 factories and
120 warehouses across 70 markets. To better execute with this methodology, BSH introduced the
SAP Integrated Business Planning application for demand-driven replenishment. This has helped the
company improve forecast accuracy, increase customer satisfaction, and optimize inventory levels.

“SAP Integrated Business Planning and the CAMELOT team

helped us shape our future digital supply chain based on a
state-of-the-art planning application. We’re closing in on
our goal to become and stay the first choice for consumers
worldwide.”
Dietmar Baumann, Head of the Supply Chain Factory (IT), BSH Home Appliances Group

15 / 17

© 2020 SAP SE or an SAP affiliate company. All rights reserved.

 LAMB WESTON
A world-leading brand supplying frozen potato products, Lamb Weston
sought a simplified, modern planning solution for its 100 account managers
and planners – one that would support the company’s corporate strategy
and ambitions for innovation and growth. Implementing the SAP Integrated
Business Planning for inventory, Lamb Weston was able to use automatic
calculation and advanced planning models to reduce safety stock by 18%.

“SAP Integrated Business Planning helps us analyze

future demand and increase profitability. The payback time of introducing
the SAP Integrated Business Planning application for inventory was
six months.”
Walco Verbiest, Customer Supply Manager, Lamb Weston/Meijer V.O.F.

CONTINENTAL AG RÉMY COINTREAU

In the automotive industry, global giant GROUP
Continental AG uses SAP Integrated Business SAP Integrated Business
Planning to stay ahead. Today, the company Planning not only serves
can react faster to its expanding customer multinationals but also
base with real-time capacity calculation midsize companies. Spirit
and planning. maker Rémy Cointreau
Group implemented
“SAP Integrated Business SAP Integrated Business Planning for better
global sales forecasting. The solution has
Planning helped us resolve helped the company improve accuracy and
short, temporary, and long- speed decision-making.
term equipment capacity
planning issues and save costs “SAP Integrated Business
at the same time.” Planning helped us improve
André Kunz, In-House Consultant SAP, Continental AG forecast valuation process
speed and frequency, including
the decrease in manual work-
load and increase in valuation
accuracy. It’s bridging the gap
between supply and financial
communities.”
Julien Lecacheur, Applications Manager, Rémy Cointreau Group

16 / 17

© 2020 SAP SE or an SAP affiliate company. All rights reserved.

Looking Forward

With an extremely positive 2019 behind us, SAP is now

focused on SAP Integrated Business Planning in 2020.
In the coming year, expect the same commitment to
innovation – only more. Expect the same focus on customer
service – only more. Expect 2020 to be a great year in
your digital transformation – a year that leads you closer
to becoming an intelligent enterprise.

To learn more, visit us online.

17 / 17

© 2020 SAP SE or an SAP affiliate company. All rights reserved.

Follow us

www.sap.com/contactsap

Studio SAP | 65995enUS (20/03)

© 2020 SAP SE or an SAP affiliate company. All rights reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form

or for any purpose without the express permission of SAP SE or an SAP
affiliate company.

The information contained herein may be changed without prior notice.

Some software products marketed by SAP SE and its distributors contain
proprietary software components of other software vendors. National
product specifications may vary.

These materials are provided by SAP SE or an SAP affiliate company for

informational purposes only, without representation or warranty of any
kind, and SAP or its affiliated companies shall not be liable for errors or
omissions with respect to the materials. The only warranties for SAP or
SAP affiliate company products and services are those that are set forth
in the express warranty statements accompanying such products and
services, if any. Nothing herein should be construed as constituting an
additional warranty.

In particular, SAP SE or its affiliated companies have no obligation to

pursue any course of business outlined in this document or any related
presentation, or to develop or release any functionality mentioned therein.
This document, or any related presentation, and SAP SE’s or its affiliated
companies’ strategy and possible future developments, products, and/or
platforms, directions, and functionality are all subject to change and
may be changed by SAP SE or its affiliated companies at any time for
any reason without notice. The information in this document is not a
commitment, promise, or legal obligation to deliver any material, code, or
functionality. All forward-looking statements are subject to various risks
and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from
expectations. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these
forward-looking statements, and they should not be relied upon in making
purchasing decisions.

SAP and other SAP products and services mentioned herein as well
as their respective logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of
SAP SE (or an SAP affiliate company) in Germany and other countries.
All other product and service names mentioned are the trademarks of
their respective companies.

See www.sap.com/copyright for additional trademark information

and notices.