Category: ENTERPRISE PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT

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Webinar Replay: How to Navigate SAP BPC’s Changing Solution Roadmap – BPC 11 Announcement

Join Akili February 28 at 10am CST for a live demo on SAP's BPC v11

Register Now

Are you looking for a new planning solution and considering SAP Business Planning and Consolidations (BPC) solution? Are you an existing BPC User considering your upgrade options?

If so, you have probably heard that SAP recently introduced BPC V11. BPC V11 is a significant step in the evolution of SAP's cornerstone Enterprise Performance Management solution. This solution runs on BW4/HANA to leverage the new simplified structures, streamlined data modeling, and enhanced performance capabilities. This is a great opportunity to learn more about this exciting new solution from SAP.

Watch our BPC 11 webinar to learn about:

  • BPC new features and capabilities
  • What is BW4/HANA and why is it important to BPC 11
  • Upgrade options based upon SAP current roadmap
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Akili’s Oil and Gas Client Concho Resources to speak at SAP Oil and Gas Best Practices conference

Concho Resources to speak at SAP Oil and Gas Conference Oct. 7. Concho will discuss choosing Akili and implementing SAP Business Planning and Consolidation (BPC) for Reporting (Project Phase 1) and Budgeting and Forecasting (Phase 2).

 

About the Best Practices for Oil & Gas Conference
The Best Practices for Oil & Gas conference has emerged as a leading forum for upstream, midstream, downstream, and oil field services professionals to collaborate across the value chain. The event features first-hand knowledge on how SAP solutions have been successfully implemented and managed at oil and gas organizations with eight tracks of content. The program offers essential expertise from the industry’s top leaders, innovators, SAP experts, and ASUG members with keynote presentations, ASUG-led roundtables, and interactive workshops. The exhibit floor features leading technology and service partners, and provides a closer look at their solutions and services. A collaboration of SAP, ASUG, and The Eventful Group, Best Practices for Oil & Gas will take place October 6-9, 2013, in Dallas, Texas.

For more information and to register visit www.sap-oil-and-gas.com.

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SunEdison leverages SAP BPC across Global Accounting organization

SunEdison Streamlines Consolidation and Planning processes with SAP BPC v10 NetWeaver

“Leveraging BPC for Cash Flow has allowed us to reduce the cycle time for Cash Flow preparation and roll out the process to our Global Accounting organization. Global sites have taken ownership of their cash flow preparation we are able view and analyze consolidated cash flow results much more quickly with BPC.”  ~ Andrew Fresenburg, Manager of Financial Reporting, SunEdison

This is just a sample of what SunEdison will be sharing on Nov. 6 at the SAP EPM Conference in Dallas, TX.

View the conference website here: http://us.tacook.com/events/conferences/details/sap-enterprise-performance-management-conference-epm-2013/conference-highlights.html

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Concho Resources spoke at SAP Oil & Gas Best Practices conference

Concho Resources spoke at the SAP Oil & Gas Best Practices conference on Oct. 7.

Concho Resources discussed choosing Akili and implementing SAP Business Planning and Consolidation (BPC) for Reporting (Project Phase 1) and Budgeting and Forecasting (Phase 2).

Thank you, Jeff Berglund and Willson Beebe!

If you missed the conference, join Akili and SAP for our Oct. 24 Webcast BPC Demonstration and to hear how Concho Resources Maximizes Cash Flow.

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Akili and Anaplan Announce Partnership in Enterprise Performance Management

Akili joins Anaplan’s growing partner ecosystem as a Team Partner focused on implementing EPM business planning and execution for finance, sales and operations.

Dallas, TX – July 28, 2014 – Akili today announced a partnership with Anaplan, to deliver Anaplan’s re-architected cloud-based enterprise business modeling and planning technology
platform for operations, finance, and sales. By joining forces with Anaplan, Akili will be able to offer clients a combination of industry-leading technology and deep expertise in enterprise performance management (EPM) for finance, sales and operations.

Akili, one of the fastest growing privately held companies in the Dallas, Texas area, joins Anaplan’s partner ecosystem to help identify sales opportunities and implement Anaplan.

“Anaplan is a premier cloud-based planning solution, offering organizations the ability to rapidly deploy financial models linked to a continuous stream of operational data so that they can monitor and optimize critical drivers across the enterprise,” said Sheik Shah, Akili CEO. “The power of the Anaplan platform combined with Akili’s line of business (LOB) implementation delivery services for business transformation – including complex integration modules, data warehouses and business intelligence applications – enables our joint clients to compete like never before.”

Anaplan’s cloud-based platform is built on the patented, in-memory HyperBlock™ data engine delivering unparalleled immediacy, flexibility and scale. Anaplan unifies data from across the organization in a secure cloud/SaaS platform and interconnects plans to deliver unprecedented trust and visibility into the planning process.

“As our partner ecosystem rapidly grows, we welcome the addition of an organization such as Akili, which brings more than 20 years of successful LOB software delivery expertise to the table,” said Fred Laluyaux, CEO, Anaplan. “Anaplan’s core values closely align with Akili’s and we look forward to working alongside them to offer a seamless experience that maximizes the power of our platform and ensures the success of our joint clients.”

Akili plans to implement the Anaplan platform to accelerate cloud-based planning across finance, sales and operations functions, including:

For Finance:
◾Balance sheet and cash planning
◾Budgeting, forecasting and reporting
◾Capital expenditures
◾Financial consolidations
◾Profitability analysis
◾Strategic planning
◾Workforce planning

For Sales:
◾Commissions calculations
◾Price and quote optimization
◾Quota planning
◾Sales capacity planning
◾Sales forecasting
◾Territory planning

For Operations:
◾Demand planning
◾Project planning
◾Site/plot planning
◾Trade and promotion planning

About Akili Inc.
Akili (pronounced (uh • kē’ • lē) meaning “knowledge” in Swahili) is an information technology consulting firm founded in 1992. Akili is headquartered in the Dallas suburb of Irving, TX, with locations in Houston, TX and Denver, CO. Akili delivers solutions for Fortune 1000 companies in the areas of Enterprise Resource Planning, Enterprise Performance Management, and Business Analytics. Akili’s 100% success rate spans 20+ years of precision of implementation design and trusted delivery of the best combination of technology and consulting. For more information on Akili’s solutions and services, please visit www.akili.com or email info@akili.com. Join us on twitter @Akili_Inc.

About Anaplan
Anaplan is disrupting the world of business planning and execution. We built our platform from the ground up to empower companies to plan, collaborate and act—in real time. Stay ahead of critical business events, rapidly model potential impacts and course correct on the fly. With Anaplan’s cloud-based platform, you can continuously align your people, plans and spend to your market opportunities. Anaplan is a privately held company, headquartered in San Francisco, CA with global offices on four continents. To learn more, visit anaplan.com. Join us on twitter: @anaplan

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Planning and Analytics Solutions for the Office of the CFO

Planning and Analytics Solutions for the Office of the CFO Including SAP BPC & BW on HANA with Akili Inc.

Interested in learning more?  Contact us today!

Business Value

Akili’s solution helps CFOs:

  • Run instant complex scenario analysis with Akili’s Planning & Analytics solution on HANA.
  • Develop a robust driver based model to evaluate multiple assumptions or scenarios.
  • Quickly assess new opportunities.
  • Flow these changes through driver based models to quickly assess the impact on profitability, debt and cash flow.
  • Top down and bottom up planning to and from detailed level through allocations and hierarchies.
  • Set top down strategic sales, growth, and volume targets.
  • Reduce time and improve accuracy through automated sales and costs calculations by using drivers and assumptions for costs and volume.
  • Analyze impact on profitability by updating calculations in real time upon driver update from a sales and cost perspective.
  • Cohesive, tight and automated data integration across ECC, BW, and BPC all leveraging the power of HANA.
  • Flexible reporting views allowing slicing and dicing of data to better understand profitability by region, products and segments.

Akili Offerings

Akili provides proven best practices and rapidly configurable applications across numerous industries (e.g. MFG, Retail, CPG, etc.) and use cases.

Half Day Workshop

  • Outline current Enterprise Performance Management (EPM) solutions
  • Discuss issues with the current environment and how BPC can be applied to these issues
  • Plan for a Roadmap Workshop

 

Roadmap

  • 2 Weeks
  • Analyze the current state of financial planning, reporting and analysis in your organization
  • Define specific goals and objectives
  • Develop Business Case
  • Create a roadmap to achieve your goals

 

Implementation

  • 12+ weeks
  • Akili Methodology from Blueprint through Deploy
  • Training
  • Organizational Change Management

 

Solution Includes

  • SAP:  S/4HANA Finance, Simple Finance, BPC, BW, Fiori applications
  • Akili Inc.: Implementation services with Agile ASAP methodology, implementation

Customer Successes

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Retail Grocer improves Sales Forecasting utilizing daily actuals in a weekly view

SAP BPC solution provided accurate forecasting based on Week over Week Sales Trends utilizing Comparable/Non-Comparable and Identical/Non-Identical store analysis.

Client Profile

Location: Austin, TX
Industry: Retail Grocer
Products and Services: Natural and organic products
Stores: 435+
Revenue: $15.4B
Employees: 85,000+
Solution: SAP BPC 7.5 MS
Implementation Partner: Akili

Situation and Challenges

  • The desire to load, perform analysis, and report against Actuals data at a Daily level, and leverage this data to build a Sales Forecast at a Weekly level presented process and technical challenges, especially in an environment in which data volumes and subsequent system performance are an ongoing consideration. imported into the Weekly Sales Forecasting Tool.
  • The various client’s regions each have a unique weekly forecasting process/model, so care had to be taken in the design of a solution that allowed flexibility while minimizing ongoing maintenance.

Project Objective

  • Create a Weekly Sales Forecasting Tool that leverages the current BPC architecture, modeling, and processes while maintaining acceptable performance.
  • Allow for direct forecasting of revenue elements across product and geographical groupings.
  • Modify existing Comparable and Identical store sales analysis process to be performed across the new Weekly Sales model.

Solution Benefits

  • The resulting solution provided accurate forecasting based on Week over Week Sales Trends utilizing Comparable/Non-Comparable and Identical/Non-Identical store analysis.
  • This weekly sales forecast is seamlessly summarized into a Monthly aggregated view for Finance and Planning applications.
  • The solution was optimized in a way that allows for consistent system performance.

Why Akili

  • With strong technical and functional capabilities, including deep experience in the Retail industry, Akili has the tools to implement the ideal BPC planning model with an awareness of the potential pitfalls.
  • Akili also brings expertise in building highly dynamic and data-intensive models across numerous other industries, and was able to bring a richer background to the table in order to implement a model that addressed the client’s potential performance concerns.
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An Introduction to the SAP GUI for BPC Users

An Introduction to the SAP GUI for BPC Users using BPC v10 Netweaver

What

  • 8 hour hands-on training course
  • Price: $750 per attendee
  • Breakfast and lunch provided

Akili is offering this course to provide an introduction for people who would like to gain experience with:

  • BW Infocubes and Infoobjects
  • Modeling staging cubes in BW
  • Commonly used tcodes
  • Commonly used ABAP programs
  • Transport management in BW for BPC
  • UJBR backup and recovery tool
  • Drill through to BW and ECC
  • Script Logic Debugging in NW

When

  • Friday, Sept. 23, 2016
  • Classes are regularly offered so check back for additional dates
  • Class will make with a minimum of 3 registrants

Where

  • Akili’s Irving office – 400 Las Colinas Blvd. East, Suite 450 Irving, Texas 75039
  • Free parking

Key Learning Points

  1. Introduction to BPC & BW architecture and terminology both with and without HANA
  2. Introduction to Integration, including Process chains, Package links, Delta extraction
  3. Adding automated Emailing of BPC result logs following data loads
  4. Optimization Best Practices

 

Contact info@akili.com with questions about this event and to register.

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Akili offers 8 hour SAP EPM Report Writing Course

Akili’s SAP EPM Report Writing Course

Certified Public Accountants (CPAs) can receive 8 continuing professional education credits (CPE) from attending Akili’s SAP EPM Report Writing Course*.

What

  • Live classroom program – a laptop is needed by each attendee
  • 8 CPE Credits
  • No prerequisite required
  • Class will make with a minimum of 3 registrants
  • Price: $750 per attendee

When

  • Friday, November 18, 2016
  • Classes are regularly offered so check back for additional dates
  • Free parking
  • Breakfast and lunch provided

Where

  • Akili’s Irving office – 400 Las Colinas Blvd. East, Suite 450 Irving, Texas 75039

Key Learning Points

  1. Learn about the differences between SAP EPM v10 and SAP EPM v7.5
  2. Create an “Actual Data Report” report in BPC using the SAP EPM add-in
  3. Create a local member and update formatting using the report built in a Lab environment
  4. Use EPM functions & features for Excel to customize your reports/input forms making them more user friendly and functional

Contact info@akili.com with questions about this event and to register.

*Akili Inc. is registered with the Texas State Board of Public Accountancy as a CPE sponsor. This registration does not constitute an endorsement by the Board as to the quality of our CPE program.