https://blogs.sap.

com/2017/05/22/future-of-apo-and-its-migration/
Future of APO and its migration
There were many questions and blogs on the future of APO. It was highlighted in one of my previous
blogs on the expected merger of SCM application in S/4HANA as in
URL https://blogs.sap.com/2015/11/05/hana-journey-and-features-of-scm-products-in-s4-hana-
simple-logistics/.
SAP has now released an OSS note 2456834 Transition Guide for SAP APO stating that SAP
APO is partially succeeded by two products: SAP S/4 HANA and SAP Integrated Business Planning
(SAP IBP).
APO has mainly 4 sub-modules DP. SNP. GATP and PPDS. Below figure shows the high-level
functionalities of each sub-module and SAPs roadmap for these functionalities to the successor
products. DP and SNP will be succeeded by IBP, GATP & PPDS will be succeeded by similar
functionalities in S/4HANA.

IBP is a cloud application and AATP is a new name for functionalities of GATP in
S/4HANA. Architecture, configurations, user interface for IBP and AATP are very different w.r.t
APO .Hence, transition to successor products should be through new configurations i.e existing APO
configurations can not be reused for IBP and AATP in S/4HANA. SAP has also clearly stated in the
note that An automated migration from SAP APO to the successor products is not possible.
It is also now apparent that the future SAP landscape for customers using APO DP and SNP will
need to be Hybrid i.e a mix of On-premise (Core ERP or S/4HANA) and Cloud (IBP).

IBP has been launched few years and many customers have started using it or migrated to it. PPDS
has been merged in 1610 release of S/4HANA.Some parts of APO GATP have been made available
in 1610 release of S/4HANA and SAP has also provided a road map for AATP as depicted in below
figure.
Rule-based ATP (RBA) with substitution functionality of GATP is used by several customers,
however, that is not yet available in AATP of S/4HANA. The first version of RBA is expected in 1808
release of S/4HANA.

As of now, APO functionalities are partially available in its successor products S/4HANA and IBP. We
need to wait and watch when APO can be fully migrated to S/4HANA and IBP. However, it is very
clear now that SAP is recommending to plan for transition from APO to its successor products IBP
and S/4HANA.

SAP S/4 HANA Simple logistics expected to combine features of multiple

SCM applications

SAP ERP is well known in the market for its capability of integration of different business functions
(like posting of a logistic transaction also triggers financial posting immediately and automatically). It
has different modules (SD, PS, MM, LE, FI, CO etc) integrated with the same system . SAP is a
product making company and their main revenue comes for selling of licenses for these products.
Over the years , when most of the customers have implemented ERP , they launched new products
(rather individual systems / applications) for almost every module of ERP (SD with CRM , PP with
APO , MM with SRM , PS with cProjects & xRPM , WM with EWM , Distribution to TM etc) with
advanced features in those applications and also obviously with strong integration capability with
ERP. Today, SAP has several products offering similar functionalities like SRM, SNC, CLM, Ariba in
procurement space. It is very difficult for the customer (and also for consultants ) which product to
recommend to implement or continue. SAP also does not clarify / confirm in many such cases.
However, we (as consultants) need to keep a close watch in which direction SAP is moving and that
too with the latest launch of S/4 HANA.

SAPs naming also creates confusion in many cases . HANA was initially launched as High-
Performance Analytic Appliance with tag on Analytics. Today, it is not an acronym and it is a name .
SAP also confused whether S in S/4 should stand for smart or simple , later it settled with Simple.
Early adopters of HANA was mainly in the BW space , but there debates whether BW is really
needed as HANA can provide real-time analytics in an OLTP tool / application. HANA is now being
applied in all future SAP products due to its sheer capability of processing high volume of data in real
time and that is the USP for S/4 HANA.

MRP , ATP , BOP (Backorder processing) , Closing cockpit (for financial period end closing activities) are
some of the business processes which are very resource heavy and used to be run in batches in night (or
off-peak hours) . MRP on HANA now runs much faster , can be run more frequently in a day (rather once
in 24 hours) and hence the results are more dynamic (with respect to previously static data) . BOP used
to take around 7-8 hours for a high volume plant for a customer, today with APO running on HANA it takes
less than an hour.
Simple logistic is a part of S/4 HANA and is expected to be released in Q42015. As it appears (from
documents / demos in Open SAP and other SAP documents in
URL http://www.sapafricaforum.co.za/sap/downloads/S4HANA_Roadmap_Customer.pdf) SAP is
now trying to combine features of many SAP applications in one single system like
1. PPDS & GATP of APO : HANA has the capability of crunching complex algorithms as APO does
using live cache and probably that is the rationale for providing APO features like PPDS (Production
planning & detailed scheduling) and GATP (Global ATP) as a part of simple logistics running on
HANA. Multi-level explosion (MATP) , Location & material substitution, advanced BOP are some of
the key features of GATP. Document on Simple logistics released by SAP says that it will have
substitution functionality, advanced BOP but not clear (as yet) whether it will have all the salient
features of GATP. There are also plans of APOs DP (Demand planning) and SNP (Supply network
planning) to be available in SAPs new IBP (Integrated business planning) also running on HANA .
Then the question comes , what will be the future of APO?
2. EWM : SAP launched EWM (Extended warehouse management) as a decentralised application
for high volume warehouses with operational complexity and value added service. EWM can also be
run on HANA and as it appears (from SAPs roadmap for S/4 HANA) , EWM will be integral part of
SAP S/4HANA

offering advanced warehouse process enablement.As of now (and SAP also recommends that) , a
customer can run some of their warehouse in ECC WM & some other warehouse in EWM and the
choice of ECC WM or EWM sheerly depends on volume of transaction and complexity of operations
for the specific warehouse. It needs to be seen what is the future for ECC WM ?
3. TM: Transportation management (TM) is a separate application designed for LSPs (Logistic
service providers) as well as Shippers for advanced transportation planning, tendering capabilities
etc. Functionalities of TM also appear to be in the roadmap of S4 HANA.

S4 HANA will not only have Simple finance and simple logistics, it is also expected to combine PLM
and other applications (to be watched) in one single system S4 HANA. ERP ECC is the backbone
when it interacts with other systems like APO , EWM & TM . It is always a challenge to keep the
systems consistent with respect to master data and transaction data while interfacing with each
other . Also APO does not have integration with TM and sometimes scheduling becomes a problem if
the client uses both APO GATP and TM . Hope S4 HANA will reduce these challenges with
integration by combining different applications in a single system . We also need to watch SAPs
plan with other application like EM , GTS etc with S4 HANA . Like TM has good interfaces with EM ,
GTS , GIS etc .So, if TM is integral part of S4 HANA , then those applications like EM , GTS also
need to be combined in S4 HANA for their vision of merging different applications in one single
system. Picture will be clearer as we go along, but it is quite clear that SAP is trying to merge
different applications in a single system S4 HANA.

https://blogs.sap.com/2015/11/15/principles-features-directions-methodology-and-market-trend-with-
sap-s4-hana-1511-update/
 S_4HANA on
Premise Edition Scope Guide 12_2015.pdf