Providing a Solution Overview

SAP S/4HANA Cloud for retail, fashion, and vertical business is SAP's public ERP cloud solution providing end-to-end processes along the retail value chain, based on best practice scenarios. The Cloud ERP represents the digital core of an intelligent enterprise architecture with open APIs for seamless process integration. The pre-configured solution processes cover master data management, procurement, demand and supply chain, inventory and valuation as well as store merchandise management and POS connectivity for both B2C (business-to-consumer) and B2B (business-to-business) operations within a retail company. The current focus segments are grocery and drug stores, hardlines, specialty, and fashion retail. Target customers have a strong cloud mindset and are looking for SaaS offerings with easy onboarding and deployment, benefitting from industry best practices for quick time to value at low TCO. Cloud Mindset Assessment_External.pptx (SAP Customer) This course introduces the applications of this solution along the solution processes defined for the Retail Industry. For simplification reasons, the solution is referred to as SAP Retail in our IRTC2 course.

The preconfigured best practice processes are the starting point for a customer implementation in order to speed up the implementation project significantly:

The best practice processes are delivered as so-called solution processes (sometimes also referred to as scope items). They contain the pre-configuration, demo data, a process description, business benefits, a process flow diagram, a detailed test script and in some cases also additional setup instructions.

With SAP S/4HANA Cloud for retail, fashion and vertical business 2402, the following retail specific best practice processes have been delivered:

Sites for Retail (3I3): This solution process describes how a retail location, which is called site, can be maintained. There are two variations of sites: distribution centers and stores. Like other organizational data, sites are maintained via Central Business Configuration (CBC).

Product Taxonomies (5FJ): This solution process describes how related articles can be grouped together in merchandise categories with their hierarchies. This is used to assign for example reference articles for easier maintenance. In most process steps it is possible to select all articles belonging to one or several merchandise categories or hierarchy levels to increase efficiency and convenience.

Product (3I1): This solution process describes the management of the retail articles. The article (=product) is the central object for a retailer, touching all steps of the supply chain, starting with the procurement from an external supplier, to distribution center handling, through selling in the store to customers. The following article categories are covered:

• Single Articles
• Generic Articles with their variants (using characteristic values such as colors, sizes, to define the variants)
• Sales sets (components are defined using a bill of material)
• Display (a number of articles assigned to a bill of material, which are bought together and sold individually)

Reference and defaulting mechanisms are provided to allow for efficient maintenance of a high number of articles, including mass maintenance and creation via SOAP services.

Assortments (3I5): Assortments are a collection of articles. They define which articles are relevant for which sites. With this, it can be controlled whether an article can be procured by a site. Also, only articles which are relevant for a store are sent to the store via Point of Sale outbound communication. When a article-site relationship is defined by the user, then the listing process is automatically executed together with mater data generation.

Sales Pricing for Retail (3I4): This solution process describes how retailers can plan and execute strategies for sales prices, for example suggesting consumer prices based on planned mark-ups on the procurement price. It is also possible to apply price point rounding rules to define "psychological" prices, for example prices ending with ".99".

Retail promotions (637): This solution process describes how promotions can be planned, and how necessary operational processes can be triggered, such as price activation or allocation table generation, for which then follow-on documents like purchase orders or stock transfer orders can be generated.

Replenishment Planning for DC (3I8): This solution process is about how a distribution center triggers procurement of articles from suppliers at the right point in time and in the right quantity. Demand is determined by forecasting algorithms on historical consumption data. Material requirements planning (MRP) is used to calculate the optimal quantities. Typically, retailers use time phased planning, specifying certain weekdays for ordering and delivery. The result of the MRP execution is then handed over to the operational procurement via purchase requisitions.

Replenishment Planning for Stores (3I7): This is about triggering the procurement of articles for stores. The merchandise is then either shipped from distribution centers, or from external suppliers at the optimal point in time and quantity.

Merchandise Allocation (5FL): This solution process covers how the push process of articles to stores can be planned, monitored, and executed.

Procurement for Retail (5FM): This covers the operational procurement process steps from external suppliers through purchase orders.

Invoice Verification (5FN): This solution process is the last step of the procurement process: We pay for the goods sent by the external suppliers.

Returns to Supplier (5FO): This solution process covers how merchandise can be returned to the external supplier using advanced returns management.

Returns from Store (5FR): This solution process covers how a store can return merchandise to a distribution center belonging to the same company code.

Store ordering from DC (5FX): This solution process covers procurement for stores from distribution centers belonging to the same, or different company codes. Typically, the demand of the store is determined automatically by the rapid replenishment planning functionality. As a result, a stock transfer requisition gets created. The conversion from a stock transfer requisition to a stock transport order can either be done manually (in case adoptions are necessary), or automatically.

Inventory management (5FQ): This covers different types of goods movements and analytical reports on inventory.

Physical Inventory (5FS): This solution process covers physical inventory in distribution centers, including triggering the count, entering the quantities counted, and, if necessary, the adjustments of stock quantities and financial accounts.

Sales Price Valuation (5FT): This solution process describes how valuation of stock at cost and at sales prices can be managed in parallel.

Inbound Logistics (5FU): This solution process describes how merchandise is received at the distribution center.

Outbound Logistics (5FV): This solution process covers the outbound processing of merchandise from a distribution center (DC) to stores.

Retail Logistics with Embedded Warehouse Management (69L): This solution process covers logistic processes in a distribution center using embedded warehouse management (cloud warehouse management).

Retail Logistics with Third-Party Warehouse Management (69M): This solution process covers logistic processes in a distribution center using a third-party warehouse management solution.

Merchandise Distribution and Collective Purchase Orders (71O): This solution process allows you, through collective purchase order processing, to consolidate procurement for stores for efficient processing by an external supplier. Merchandise distribution manages the quantities planned for the stores with necessary adjustments and efficiently executes the logistics processes in the distribution center.

Supplier Consignment for Retail (71P): This solution process describes the consignment process in which the supplier keeps legal ownership of the inventory until it is sold from the retailer, or until the goods leave the distribution center.

The solution processes in the area of store commerce contain easy-to-use apps for all important tasks of in-store merchandise management. Most of the apps are optimized for use on mobile devices.

My Store Management (5FW): This solution process covers a dashboard that contains the most important KPIs for efficient day-to-day operations in a store. It also contains apps to maintain staff and picking sequence for click and collect processes.

In-store Inventory Management (3HR): This solution process contains inventory related capabilities like transferring articles from one store to another or to a distribution center, management of physical inventory (planned counting, ad-hoc counting), and stock adjustments due to different reasons (shrinkage, damage, or spoilage).

In-store Merchandise Management (3HQ): This solution process covers the look-up of products regarding availability in the current store, near-by stores, or in the DC, lookup of prices, promotions, and so on. It also covers printing of shelf labels.

In-store Purchase Order Management (5FY): This solution process describes how centrally created order proposals can be reviewed and adjusted by the store employees. It also covers ad-hoc manual ordering in the store based on information such sales history, current stock, and open order quantity. Once the articles arrive at the store, a store associate triggers receiving to update the inventory.

In-store Customer Order Management (3HU): In the typical in-store process, the customer gathers the products from the shelf, and pays at the cash-register. For specific purposes, it can be required that a sales order is created for the customer. For example, in case the product isn't available in the store and must be ordered for the customer. Another reason can be the need to document the sale, for example for warranty purposes, or to gather the serial number of a high-value article.

The store connectivity processes Point-of-sale (POS) Inbound and POS Outbound contain a fully automated connectivity to a POS system in the store:

Store Connectivity - Inbound (3HV): Business transactions originating from point-of-sale (POS) solutions in the stores are regularly transferred and trigger the posting of relevant documents. Relevant transactions include sales, returns, customer order payments, and pure financial transactions. Based on this, documents for goods movements and billing are created, as well as the respective financial postings.

Store Connectivity - Outbound (3I2): This solution process describes how Point-of-sale (POS) systems in the stores are provided with the data necessary to enable selling articles to consumers, such as sales prices and article master data.

Sales from Distribution Center (3HS): The solution process includes the creation of a customer's standard sales order in the distribution center (intra-company or intercompany). This is mainly used for B2B use cases which also many retail customers have in addition to the B2C use cases. It also covers follow-up steps like the creation of a delivery, picking, posting of goods issue, creation of billing document, creation of debit/credit memo.

Omnichannel Order Fulfillment for Retail (5FZ): This solution process describes how the fulfillment of orders placed online is supported in the stores. Consumers order articles via e-commerce and pick them up at a store of their choice. This process is also known as BOPIS (buy online pick-up in store) or Click & Collect. Also, click and reserve processes are supported.

Empties Management (5FK): This solution process covers the use case that a retailer sells articles to which deposit-relevant packaging articles are assigned (e.g. beverages). Consumers buy the packaging article with the main article and pay a deposit price for it. This packaging article can later be returned by the consumer and the deposit is refunded.

Seasons for Retail (6DI): Season management forms an important aspect in the product lifecycle for the retail and fashion industry. This solution process describes how to set up the season data and assign seasons to products. It explains how the season data is processed for various documents individually.

This course currently introduces some of these solution processes in detail, and will be enhanced over time.

Before going into functional details, in this lesson you can learn how to access, use, and personalize the system as a business user.

We use the SAP Fiori Launchpad URL to log on to the system. After specifying your user and password (or no password in case of a single-sign-on scenario), you see the Home screen of the SAP Fiori Launchpad.

Organized by user roles, the SAP Fiori Launchpad is the central entry point to the SAP Fiori apps, where users access the apps via tiles on mobile and desktop devices. It gives users the relevant information that they need at a glance and centers on their needs and how they work.

Within the launchpad, there are services for navigation, personalization, single sign-on, and search. You can use the search in the SAP Fiori Launchpad to search for business objects and for apps. The launchpad and the tiles are flexible and can be adapted to your needs.

My Home is the standard entry page, and is divided into different sections. On this page, you can view your To Dos, Pages, Apps, and Insights (as Tiles and Cards). Following the "Make it Mine" approach, you can personalize the entry page to hide or display specific sections as well as the content maintained within these sections.

In the To Dos section, a counter shows you the number of tasks or situations that need your attention. To view a maximum of 100 tasks or situations (depending on your screen size), you can expand the section by clicking Show More. You can also refresh your tasks and situations by using the refresh icon that is available in this section.

The Insights section is divided into two parts, Tiles and Cards. Both display dynamic content, where you can monitor valuable KPIs at a glance. To edit these subsections, you can click Manage Tiles or Manage Cards. You can also view all the tiles and cards in an expanded mode by clicking Show More, which is available in each section, if not all the added tiles and are visible on the entry page.

You can change the layout of the entry page by using the My Home Settings dialog that can be accessed using the User Actions Menu. You can then choose to display or hide the sections based on your needs. You can also reposition the sections to display in the order of your choice. Drag and drop the sections until they match the order you wish to see.

The User Actions Menu as shown in above figure, User Specific Settings, allows you to edit the pages to, for example, adjust the arrangement of sections, and also offers the Settings menu. Here, for example, the user can adjust the appearance by choosing the desired theme. The SAP standard theme is SAP Morning Horizon. The App Finder allows you to search for apps in specific business catalogs. Other settings include the preferred date and time formats, and maintaining default values. To open the User Actions Menu, click the circle showing the user initials in the top right corner.

In many cases, setting user-specific default values makes the daily work easier. The system defaults these values in the relevant applications, so you doesn't have to key in those values every time. This is particularly useful for organizational data in various business areas. For example, in purchasing, the purchasing organization and purchasing group could be defaulted, or in finance, the company code can be pre-set for the user.

So, how are the relevant apps assigned to each Business User? First of all, a business user is a person who can log on to the SAP S/4HANA Cloud system, and who needs to complete the relevant business tasks. This person needs access to data to fulfill their tasks - but, speaking of authorizations - only to the data required for these specific tasks. Naturally, a business user in purchasing needs different applications compared to a business user in the sales department. The correct assignment for each user is obtained by the Business Role and Business Catalog concept.

Business Users: these are replicated from your central HR system. In the SAP Retail system, specific user data can then be changed, such as the user name, or date and time format.

Admin User: the initial admin user is provided by SAP to the customer for the first system setup tasks. This user has access to apps for identity and access management, and for communication management. The initial admin user also has access to more apps used to create business partners based on the persons who are the basis for creating business users.

Technical User: a technical user (of the software or service provider, or of the customer) corresponds to a local or remote process. This process is typically part of the cloud management process, for example, system provisioning and support, or intrinsic system processes, such as the periodic clean-up of logs. There are SAP technical users for operating systems, print users for the connection between print queues maintained in SAP S/4HANA Cloud and local printers, Communication users for the communication between SAP S/4HANA Cloud and integrated systems, as well as support users used by SAP for customer support.

To grant users access to applications, you assign the respective business roles to them.

With the Maintain Business Roles app, you define business roles by combining predefined business catalogs and, if necessary, define value help, read and write access by maintaining the allowed values for fields. You use business roles to control the access to your applications. The predefined catalogs contain the actual authorizations that allow users to access apps and to define instance-based restrictions where necessary. Business Catalogs bundle authorizations for a specific business area. They are the smallest entities that define the apps you want to assign to your users for selection and authorization. Once you have created a business role, you can assign it to multiple business users who perform similar business tasks.

In SAP S/4HANA Cloud, apps and systems can be accessed by business users or technical users. Authorizations for business users are based on business roles, while authorizations for technical users are based on communication scenarios.

In a cloud-based system like SAP S/4HANA Cloud, it is very important that only authorized users have access to your data. Therefore, SAP S/4HANA Cloud provides an authorization concept that allows you to define precisely which workers and tools have access to which data.

A user can use SAP Fiori Launchpad features such as App Finder or SAP Fiori Search to find and select any app from any catalog that they have been authorized to use. Conversely, to access all of the apps in the catalog, a security administrator can use catalogs to generate and assign the necessary authorizations to a security role.

Example: The business user IRTC1 is set up for the Distribution Center Replenishment Process (solution process 3I8). This means, the six business roles specified for that solution process are assigned to this user in the Manage Workforce (F6097) app.

As an example, we pick the SAP_BR_RPLNMT_SPCLST_DC_RFM Replenishment Specialist - Distribution Center (Retail) business role, which is shown as the last one in the previous figure, Role Assignment. In the Maintain Business Roles (F1492) app, two business catalogs were assigned: SAP_RFM_BC_DC_REPLNMT_DSP_PC RFM - Retail Replenishment - DC Replenishment Display, and SAP_RFM_BC_DC_REPLNMT_PC RFM - Retail Replenishment - DC Replenishment Execution. The first of these two business catalogs has the Monitor Stock / Requirements List (MD04) app assigned, which you can see as the highlighted tile in the following figure, SAP Fiori Launchpad - Structure. The other apps on this screen were assigned to the other business catalog of that role. This means that the other five roles are required for further activity and authorization purposes, for example, to maintain customizing, or to display or maintain purchasing documents.

Due to the assigned business roles (and therefore assigned business catalogs), the Home view in the SAP Fiori launchpad contains the Distribution Center ReplenishmentSpace, among others. Spaces are the top-level navigation tab pages in the header area. As an example, the Distribution Center Replenishment Space is displayed in green in the figure below, SAP Fiori Launchpad - Structure.

A Space has one or more Pages. In our example, Distribution Center Replenishment is both a Space (top-level navigation tab), and a (single) Page. However, other Spaces have several Pages each, which you can tell from the dropdown triangle next to each of these Spaces. You open (click) the dropdown triangle to choose which page you want to access. A Page contains the apps necessary for a self-contained work-context.

A Page is usually subdivided into Sections for a better overview of the assigned apps. That is, a section structures the content of a page semantically. In our example, the Distribution Center Replenishment page has a Quick Access, an Insights, and an MRP Administration section.

Tiles are assigned to sections. A tile allows you to quickly access a business application (app) to complete a specific task. In some cases, tiles can display live status indicators, such as the number of open tasks. Also, a URL can be embedded as a tile.

You can also access an individual app directly by using the Search function. Enter the name or technical ID of the app in the Search field, which is framed in blue in the figure above, SAP Fiori Launchpad. The system checks the authorization of the user, so only allowed apps can be accessed.

SAP Fiori apps

SAP Fiori apps are platform-independent web apps, built with SAPUI5 for mobile and desktop devices. They run in the SAP Fiori launchpad. Fiori apps connect to the backend through OData services. SAP Fiori apps are available for different lines of business, industries, and SAP products, and also for different SAP roles.

In addition to SAP Fiori apps using SAPUI5 as the UI technology, there are classic applications using different UI technologies, such as Web Dynpro or WebGUI. These classic applications do not fulfill all of the criteria of SAP Fiori apps. They can be called from the SAP Fiori Launchpad, and must be configured specifically.

Types of Apps

There are three different types of native SAP Fiori applications, each distinguished by their focus and infrastructure requirements. The following figure, SAP Fiori Apps Overview, shows the transactional app, Manage Purchase Orders, the Retail Promotion fact sheet, and the analytical Procurement Overview app.

Transactional apps: These apps allow you to perform transactional tasks, such as creating a purchase order. Native transactional SAP Fiori apps represent simplified views and interaction with existing business processes and solutions. Examples of native, retail-specific transactional apps are the Store Operations apps.

Additionally, classic WebGUI applications are available. They can be embedded in the SAP Fiori Launchpad as (non-native) transactional apps using the WebGUI technology, for example, the Create -, Maintain -, and Display Article apps (App ID: MM41, MM42, MM43).

Fact sheets: These apps display contextual information and key facts about central objects used in your business operations.

From a fact sheet area (tile), you can drill down into its details. You can navigate from one fact sheet to its related fact sheets and transactional apps. For example, you can navigate from a document to the related business partner or to the master data.

Analytical apps: These apps provide a role-based insight into real-time operations of your business by collecting and displaying key figures directly in your browser. They provide real-time information on large volume data in a simplified front end for enterprise control. With analytical apps, you can closely monitor your most important key performance indicators (KPIs) in real time and react immediately on changes in market conditions or operations. Examples are the Goods Movement Analysis, or the Material Documents Overview apps.

Note

For detailed information on the SAP Fiori Launchpad for SAP S/4HANA Cloud, visit https://help.sap.com/docs/SAP_S4HANA_CLOUD/4fc8d03390c342da8a60f8ee387bca1a/f951b50a07ce41deb08ced62711fe8b5.html?version=2308.503 .

The above figure, Transactional Apps - Example, shows the native Manage Product Master Data SAP Fiori app, and the WebGUI based Maintain Article app. Both apps can be used to edit Retail Article master data.

In most non-native transactional apps, you can use the F1 key to display explanations for fields, menus, functions, and messages. The F1 Help also displays technical information on the current field.

Note

In one of the apps, you may need to choose the Performance Assistant first by choosing Help → Settings → F1 Help. In the same window, you can also make settings for the F4 Help.

In a native SAP Fiori app, you can use the F1 key to open the Help Topics area. For example, in the Manage Product Master Data app, it contains a link to the Application Help for this app.

There are input fields for free text entry, for example, to enter a name or description, and input fields with predetermined values. For example, in the article display function, the article number field has predetermined values. For these fields, the F4 Help displays information on the possible values (that is, existing articles). You can call the F4 Help by using the F4 keyboard key after positioning the cursor on the input field, or by choosing the button which appears next to the selected field. Alternatively, you can open a dropdown menu with a right mouse click on the field. You can then choose to open the F1 or F4 help, among other options.

The F4 Help displays a list of possible entries for a field. If there is a large number of possible entries, an additional selection screen is displayed first. If the results list is large, the F4 Help only displays the maximum number of entries specified by the user on the F4 Help tab under Help → Settings. The default value is 500. The F4 Help is available both in native and non-native apps.

The figure above, Further Screen Elements, shows a WebGUI application. The Navigation Buttons are as follows:

• Back: This is the arrow pointing to the left in top left corner of the SAP Fiori Header. With this button you return to the previous screen (one step back). The corresponding keyboard key is F3. If there is an error on the current screen, the system issues an error message. If you can't solve the error, choose Exit to close the application:

• Exit: This is a pushbutton in the right of the Header Toolbar. With this button you can exit the function/screen. The corresponding keyboard keys are Shift+F3.

• Save: This is a pushbutton in right of the Footer bar. In this example, it saves the changes made to the article. In some applications, the button is called Post instead of Save. The corresponding keyboard keys are Ctrl+S.
  Note

  Some native Fiori apps for example use the terms Submit or Create instead of Save, and some don't require saving at all, as in this case, the entries are saved automatically.

Additional screen elements:

• Tab pages: These group several subscreens to provide a clear layout.

• Checkboxes: If a field group contains several checkboxes, you can select several options at the same time.

• Radio buttons: If a field group contains several radio buttons, you can select one of the options.

Other screen elements include Input fields and pushbuttons. If there is a red asterisk at the description of an input field, it means that this is a required/mandatory field.

How to Customize the SAP S/4HANA Cloud System

The figure below, SAP S/4HANA Cloud Landscape, provides an overview of a typical landscape for the S/4HANA Cloud implementation. The tutorials in this course refer to the Retail specific best practice processes in a starter system, which are available out-of-the-box with configuration and master data. SAP Central Business Configuration is referenced as central configuration hub for SAP S/4HANA Cloud.

Please note: This is the current state, and may be changed by SAP at any time without notice.

S/4HC = SAP S/4HANA Cloud.

Identity Authentication Service (IAS): The SAP Identity Authentication service provides secure access to web applications. Important: Retail requires 3 Tenants, that is, we use the SAP S/4HANA Cloud 3-system landscape (3SL). This means, besides a starter system, the 3-system landscape consists of a development system, a test system, and a production system.

SAP Cloud ALM (ALM = Application Lifecycle Management): This is an out-of-the-box, native cloud solution, designed as the central entry point to manage your SAP landscape with content-driven guided implementation and highly automated operations. For details please check: https://support.sap.com/en/alm.html.

Starter System: It includes configuration and master data for your SAP S/4HANA Cloud solution for targeted enablement of the project team on SAP standard processes. It serves as the environment for the fit-to-standard workshops, and is decommissioned one month after the Production System is delivered.

Development System: The Development System is where the solution is scoped and activated, and where configuration and enhancements are implemented. Changes are transported to the Test System for testing and quality assurance.

Test System: The Test System is your quality assurance environment during implementation, and will act as a test environment during the implementation. During the upgrade, the Test System is upgraded first before the upgrade of Production and Development Systems.

Production System: Run your business on SAP S/4HANA Cloud. The Production System is the system in which your business will transact, plan, and run.

Sandbox Tenant (Optional): A subscription based tenant is isolated from the customer‘s Development, Test, and Productive systems. Its primary purpose is to help evaluate and test application configurations and extensions.

Partner Demo System (Optional): The Cloud test, demo, and development for SAP S/4HANA Cloud, one-system landscape is intended for partner organizations that resell and implement the SAP S/4HANA Cloud service to 1) demonstrate SAP S/4HANA Cloud, 2) evaluate new scope items and add-ons, 3) utilize the available key-user and developer extensibility experience, and 4) educate in-house consultants. Furthermore, this instance could be used by independent software vendors (ISVs) to configure and test the interoperability with their ISV-solutions developed on the SAP Business Technology Platform, or 3rd-party Cloud Platform and the embedded SAP S/4HANA Cloud, ABAP environment. The Partner Demo system consists of a development tenant (ZH305) and a customizing tenant. Retail scope can be activated on request, see also: Step-by-Step Guide to Onboarding and Activating the Partner Cloud Test, Demo, and Development for S/4HANA Cloud, Public Edition | SAP Blogs

SAP Business Technology Platform (SAP BTP): SAP BTP is the foundation for the Intelligent Suite, our industry cloud, as well as extensions developed by our customers or partners.

Side-by-side extensions: This means extension and integration with custom or standard business applications of the SAP Business Technology Platform (BTP).

SAP Central Business Configuration is the configuration hub for SAP S/4HANA Cloud, and allows you to configure business processes spanning different SAP products from one central location. Using this cloud service, you activate, and further fine-tune, the retail specific, ready-to-run SAP Best Practice business processes in SAP S/4HANA Cloud for retail, fashion, and vertical business. In the SAP S/4HANA Cloud 3-system landscape, SAP Central Business Configuration connects to your development system. From the development system, the configuration is then transported to the test system, as well as to the production system.

Project Experience, which is part of SAP Central Business Configuration, guides you step-by-step through the whole implementation process. It allows you to centrally manage the implementation from the scoping and organizational setup phase (phase 1), to the product-specific configuration phase (phase 2). For your new implementation, to move from the first to the second phase, you confirm that phase 1 is completed by setting the completion milestone.

To get started, SAP sends each customer an individual URL to access SAP Central Business Configuration (CBC). The first system a new customer / partner accesses is SAP CBC, where the project(s) are created, where scoping is done, and where the organizational structures, etc. are created (phase 1). Please note: SAP Support enters the scope data for your retail-specific solution processes. To initiate the scoping, you create a support ticket. Then, some time into the project, for the product-specific configuration phase, the SAP S/4HANA Cloud systems are provisioned.

You can initiate changes anytime to make additions to your scope, countries/regions, and organizational structure or make changes to your configuration settings. The Lifecycle Management in SAP Central Business Configuration ensures that your configuration settings remain in a consistent state. You can safely consume regular upgrades and updates of SAP Best Practices reference content without impact on your adapted configuration.

The SAP S/4HANA Cloud system currently provides two apps for the Business Process Configuration Expert role. The Manage Your Solution app can be used to access SAP CBC, as it points the user to the relevant SAP Central Business Configuration (CBC) URL, where, in the SAP CBC Project Experience, the configuration for the SAP S/4HANA Cloud system can be maintained. The app Implementation Activities, which is only available in an S/4HANA Cloud 3-system landscape, can be used to maintain operational, product-specific configuration settings in the IMG (implementation guide) activities view of the test and production systems. Operational settings are for example assigning a packaging material to a Store Operations application, or assigning a price point group to a merchandise category for the retail pricing application. Note: The app is for example used to maintain these settings in the test and production system, when the development system does not have all the relevant master data and other settings. Remember: Only the development system is connected to SAP CBC.

For more information about using SAP Central Business Configuration and Project Experience, see the SAP Central Business Configuration product page.

For further details regarding the 3-System-Landscape, please check this document: In the SAP Help Portal, you can also find details about the Configuration with SAP Central Business Configuration (3-System Landscape): https://help.sap.com/docs/SAP_S4HANA_CLOUD/b249d650b15e4b3d9fc2077ee921abd0/e46f235a89ec40c6a1b54a712e955d41.html?version=2402.500, and look up note 3313681 (requires authorization): 3313681 - SAP Accelerator: SAP S/4HANA Cloud Retail, Fashion and Vertical Business Set Up Instructions - SAP for Me.

You can also find this Business Driven Configuration Questionnaire - Retail.xlsx (SAP Customer), and further information in SAP Activate: Roadmap Viewer (sap.com). This Roadmap is intended to guide the implementation team through the SAP S/4HANA Cloud implementation.