Imagine the following situation: Shortly before your lunch break, your supervisor comes to you and wants to know the company turnover for the current year. He needs the data for an important appointment in the early afternoon. What will you do? Probably cancel your lunch break in order to find out said turnover, because extract this data from ERP takes time. In addition, you will unfortunately have to work overtime, because the day's business also has to be done. If you had an appointment during the lunch break or wanted to finish work earlier, it is even more annoying. But how about having the sales figures at your fingertips - not only for the current year, but for any period of time, per division, distributed to customers, and in a nice graphical representation? This is actually possible - with only one Fiori group "Sales Analysis".
Sales reporting in GUI: a major challenge
Unfortunately, there is no ready-to-use standard tool for analytical functions of the turnover in an ECC system. Many users either do with a query or with the various transactions, with which the self-defined information structures first had to be maintained. However, many companies use external tools to calculate sales.
Sales Turnover Visualization at the touch of a button
This is now changing with Fiori. It is not an exaggeration to say that sales can be accessed at the push of a button: Fiori apps access the VDM: the multi-tier Virtual Data Model is the foundation for visualization of persistent data. The virtual data model provides all necessary data collected from all business areas in real time with ABAP Core Data Service View. Whether sales for the current year, sales per customer or sales in relation to credit notes - countless standard KPIs are available and can be used for evaluation. The output of the turnover can be done in different dimensions: As a number or graphical representation in bar or pie charts.
These apps are the solution
Sales can be analyzed in many different dimensions, depending on the sales reporting requirements. In our example, we go to the SAP Standard Fiori group "Sales Analysis" with the included apps "Sales - Detailed Analysis", "Sales - Check Open Sales", "Sales - Contribution Margin" and "Sales - Credit Note". Already on the overview, the user is shown values such as turnover per year or turnover in relation to credit note without having to call up the app. This type of KPI can be changed according to the user's wishes. As can already be seen from the app names, each of these apps shows sales from its own angle.
Sales volume
This app allows you to analyze your sales turnover, i.e. the total invoiced sales revenue in a given period, from different perspectives. You can define a step-by-step analysis path that helps you visualize the detailed information behind the fluctuations in sales. However, in order to use this app, a so-called analysis path must first be created here - the actual analysis. In doing so, the user has various parameters at his disposal, which he needs to set up the evaluation.
The app is interactive and displays various additional information in the form of numbers and diagrams. The relations of various values, such as sales revenue per customer, are displayed in a very user-friendly way with Fiori, as they become much more comprehensible in graphical representations than in the form of an Excel spreadsheet. Meetings using Fiori analytics should therefore also be less tiring and more participant-friendly.
The app "Sales Volume" is interactive to further processes and Analysis Apps. From here, a jump to further functional apps of the tile group "Sales - analytical functions" is given:
Profit Margin
In this app, the user gets an overview of the contribution margin according to various selection criteria, such as by client or by year. By clicking on this tile, the user performs a so-called drill-down, which provides detailed information on the key figure. This is a generic drill-down app from SAP Smart Business, meaning you can review revenue by sales organization, specific products, or customer groups to gain further insight. If you want more information, please refer to Fiori Library.
Here, too, each bar conceals further drill-down functions that provide the user with a more detailed display:
Check open Sales
This app allows you to get an overview of all open sales, including back orders, open deliveries and invoices, so that the sales manager can make a comparison with previous months to identify the problems during the O2C process and increase sales. Again, the drill-down function displays more information, which the user can filter by various parameters.
Credit Memo
Anyone who wants to look into the question of cancellations and corresponding credit memos when calculating sales in order to analyze them in detail will find the right tool for this in the "Sales - Credit Memo" app. The diverse selection criteria, the drill-down function and various graphical displays are also used in this app.
With Fiori tile group "Sales Volume" it is easier than ever to determine sales and analyze them according to various aspects: The data is available at the push of a button and is supported by graphical representations.
Summary
With Fiori tile group "Sales Volume" it is easier than ever to determine sales and analyze them according to various aspects: The data is available at the push of a button and is supported by graphical representations. A deeper analysis of the data is possible directly from the respective app via drill-down function. Those who have already worked with Fiori will quickly find their way around the tile group. For those who are just getting to know Fiori, it is advisable to try out and test various functionalities of the application, because they offer many selection and analysis functions that can make the daily work of a sales employee much easier.
