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While SAP APO has been a longstanding solution since its development for the Y2K, SAP IBP represents the next generation of integrated business planning software, offering advanced capabilities and a more user-friendly interface.
What is APO or SAP IBP?
When talking about supply chain planning in the SAP environment, you will often hear about two different tools:
- SAP APO (Advanced Planning and Optimization)
- SAP IBP (Integrated Business Planning)
As the picture below shows, since the launch of IBP, SAP stopped developments in the APO system, bringing new features and functionalities (such as AI features and advanced algorithms) in the new platform.
What’s the news around SAP IBP and APO?
APO product support is ending, and SAP is encouraging its customers to transition from the Advanced Planning and Optimization (APO) suite to SAP Integrated Business Planning (SAP IBP).
Why migrate to SAP IBP?
SAP Customers should not view IBP as a forced migration solely driven by the end of the APO maintenance. Instead, it should be seen as an opportunity to modernize and optimize planning processes.
SAP’s strategic focus is on cloud solutions and continuous innovation. Customers making the switch to IBP align themselves with SAP’s long-term vision, ensuring ongoing support and development for their planning processes.
What are the most appreciated features in SAP IBP?
Integrated Planning – Holistic view of end-to-end planning
- SAP IBP provides a platform for end-to-end planning across various business functions – (overview below)
- Demand planning
- Demand sensing, time series analysis and ML-based forecasting.
- Sales and operations planning
- Process automation, collaboration and integration with Microsoft Teams.
- Inventory planning
- Multi-echelon Inventory optimization and service level prediction.
- Constrained supply planning
- Optimizer, finite heuristic, order-based confirmations anddeployment-based on TLB (Truck Load Builder).
- Demand planning
This enables businesses to have a holistic view of their operations and make informed decisions based on integrated data.
- Enhanced user experience:
- IBP offers a modern and user-friendly interface, making it more accessible and intuitive for planners and decision-makers. The improved user experience can contribute to increased efficiency and better adoption by users.
- What-if analysis – make informed decisions with real-time data.
- With SAP IBP, businesses can access real-time data and analytics, allowing for more accurate forecasting, scenario planning, and decision-making. This helps businesses to be more agile and responsive to changes in the market or internal conditions.
- SAP IBP offers robust scenario planning and what-if analysis capabilities that allow users to simulate different business scenarios, evaluate the impact of various factors, and make informed decisions based on insights derived from these analyses. This feature is more advanced and user-friendly compared to SAP APO.
- Improved collaboration – process automation
- It facilitates collaborative planning processes by enabling cross-functional teams to work together on planning activities. This improves communication, alignment, and coordination across different departments within the organization.
- By streamlining planning processes and providing automation capabilities, SAP IBP helps businesses to improve operational efficiency and reduce manual effort. This allows employees to focus on value-added activities and strategic initiatives. Integration with MS Teams ensures timely notifications and alerts on due dates.
- Integration of SAP workspace and MS teams with SAP IBP process flow helps bring all the cross-functional team to come together and complete the responsible task on time.
- Scalability and flexibility
- Integration with other SAP Solutions – SAP IBP offers improved integration capabilities with other SAP solutions, such as SAP S/4HANA, SAP ECC, SAP Ariba, and SAP SuccessFactors, enabling seamless data exchange and end-to-end business process integration.
- IBP extensions – Additionally, through the use of the Business Technology Platform (BTP), SAP can be integrated with additional extensions or non-SAP systems using standard APIs. IBP also allows the integration with Risk Management tools.
Must know.
- No direct replacements for APO solutions:
- SAP IBP does not include any replacement for the solutions provided by APO that were more closely tied to the execution layer; these functionalities have been embedded within the S/4 solution. In particular:
- Production Planning and Detailed Scheduling (PPDS) is replaced by ePPDS.
- Global Available to Promise (GATP) has its counterpart in aATP in S/4.
- Spare Parts Planning (SPP) has its counterpart in S/4 with
- Transportation Planning and Vehicle Scheduling (TP/VS) is also embedded with TM in S/4.
- SAP Extended Warehouse Management (SAP EWM) is also embedded in S/4.
- SAP IBP does not include any replacement for the solutions provided by APO that were more closely tied to the execution layer; these functionalities have been embedded within the S/4 solution. In particular:
- Interface details:
- Core Interface (CIF) has and an equivalent in SAP IBP and Real-Time Interface (RTI) which supports order-based planning. For time series-based planning there are periodic batch jobs to integrate planning data from ECC or S/4HANA.
Conclusion and next steps.
In conclusion, the transition from APO to SAP IBP is not just a system upgrade, but the possibility to change and adapt your planning processes to a quicker evolving environment; it’s an opportunity to embrace innovation and future-proof your supply chain processes. SAP IBP offers a comprehensive and advanced planning solution with features designed to meet the challenges of the modern business landscape.
As APO product support draws to a close, organizations should consider their migration plan to SAP IBP. The future of supply chain planning is here, and SAP IBP is leading the way. Don’t miss the chance to be at the forefront of innovation in supply chain management.
Contact Westernacher.
Evaluate your specific needs, explore the showcased features, and collaborate with SAP IBP experts from Westernacher for a seamless transition.
