Ideal financial consolidation extension for SAP Analytics Cloud and a migration path from SAP Financial Consolidation (SAP BO FC) and SAP BPC.
While SAP Group Reporting remains the preferred legal consolidation solution for companies utilizing SAP S/4HANA as their principal ERP solution, many companies are seeking a more flexible option that either fits their hybrid ERP landscape, follows a holistic EPM (Enterprise Performance Management) approach, or they simply favour a stand-alone EPM solution, decoupled from the ERP systems.
In this post, I would like to introduce NDC Financial Consolidation, a solution developed by NDC Group Swiss AG to address this need.
NDC Financial Consolidation – Overview
NDC Financial Consolidation provides end-to-end legal consolidation functions, ranging from data collection to external and internal reporting of the consolidated results (thus supporting the entire close-to-disclose process).
Besides the legal (statutory) consolidation functions, the solution also provides support for managerial consolidation for internal stakeholders (based on the internal accounting rules), as well as consolidation of plans and non-financial indicators (e.g. data for ESG reporting).
The tool is very easy to set up and manage thanks to its no-code comprehensive user interface exposing all the needed functions directly to the financial teams, reducing the dependency on IT or implementation partners in the long run.
Functionality-wise, NDC Financial Consolidation provides a similar concept known from SAP FC (SAP BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation) and it supports even the advanced consolidation requirements such as transaction-level intercompany eliminations, journal-based adjustments, complex currency conversions, or support of ongoing scope changes during the accounting period.
Migration from SAP FC and SAP BPC
Besides the well-known consolidation concept, NDC Financial Consolidation offers partially automated migration mechanisms from SAP FC (SAP BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation) and SAP BPC.
Combination of these makes the solution very suitable for current SAP FC and SAP BPC users as a simple and hassle-free cloud migration option, unlocking the potential of the other SAP cloud tools and solutions, while retaining a similar and known consolidation logic if required.
This approach not only shortens the implementation time (typically ranging between 6-12 months) but also allows easy replication of the currently operational consolidation process with the elimination of re-engineering and significant unwanted redesign (option to fully update and redesign the consolidation processes as part of the migration of course still stays available).
Similar option is also available for companies currently using SEM-BCS where typically the migration mechanism can easily convert the used dimensions and data model setup, chart of accounts and other mappings, journal carry-forwards, and basic pre-sets of consolidation rules.
Standalone or as a SAP Analytics Cloud extension
The solution is built on top of SAP Business Technology Platform thanks to which it can not only be deployed as a standalone consolidation tool, but also as an SAP Analytics Cloud extension granting a seamless user experience and data integration.
The combination with SAP Analytics Cloud therefore extends the standard functionalities of SAP Analytics Cloud, offering the option to implement a holistic EPM (Enterprise Performance management) platform supporting planning, forecasting, analysis, reporting, and consolidation functions and processes.
Open data integration and data submission concept
The open and flexible design philosophy of the solution makes it independent on the ERP landscape and thus very well suits companies with mixed SAP and non-SAP ERP systems (as well as a mixture of on-premise and cloud ERP systems such as SAP R/3 and SAP S/4HANA).
Following this philosophy, the solution offers three main ways of data submission:
- Automated interfaces to SAP and non-SAP systems,
- Excel imports/exports based on the automatically generated templates for each consolidation statement,
- Web input forms (masks) which allow direct entry through the solution’s user interface.
These data submission options can be individually combined and tailored for each reporting unit (company’s entity) to address the individual needs and abilities.
Key advantages
Compared to the other consolidation solutions in the market, NDC Financial Consolidation therefore offers the following advantages:
- End-end support of the consolidation process, incl. advanced consolidation functions such as invoice-based intercompany elimination, ongoing scope changes, or custom FX rates,
- Consolidation of budgets, plans, and forecasts (on top of consolidation of actuals), enhancing the existing SAC consolidation functionality by additional controls and detailed processing logic,
- Incorporation of detailed disclosures and notes, providing further details and explanations of the consolidated statements.
- Open integration concept suitable for companies with mixed ERP landscape (SAP and non-SAP),
- User-friendliness and no-code implementation and maintenance (requiring no coding or scripting skills),
- Seamless extension with reporting, planning, and analytics thanks to SAC seamless integration (user interface AND data integration),
- An unlimited number of custom dimensions and data attributes (editable through the user interface).
Positioning
As introduced at the beginning of this blog, SAP Group Reporting remains the preferred technology for the groups with a strong S/4HANA ERP landscape, which can utilize the Group Reporting’s tight integration to S/4HANA and all advantages it offers such as real-time availability of the restatements and possibility to drill-down from consolidated statements up to the level of individual transactions.
While both solutions offer a vast range of benefits and functionalities (such as automation functions, full consolidation overview and workflows, complex validations, etc.), the positioning of the two solutions can be therefore summed up as:
Group reporting
- Preferred consolidation tool for S/4HANA-based companies,
- Tight integration to S/4HANA data model with all the advantages,
- Near real-time data collection and propagation of changes.
NDC Financial Consolidation
- Open integration and data model concept, making it suitable for companies with hybrid ERP landscape,
- Easy consolidation extension with additional notes, disclosures, and non-financial data (e.g. ESG indicators),
- Lightweight and simple user interface, making it easy to set up and manage directly by the financial teams,
- Looking to implement a holistic EPM platform.
Supported by global partners
NDC Financial consolidation is currently supported and provided by more than 10 global SAP partners, who offer a range of services, including full configuration and deployment works and ongoing support and maintenance.
This makes the solution not only independent of NDC Group but also allows everyone to select the preferred partner for the delivery and associated services of the solution.
Conclusion
NDC Financial Consolidation is a welcome addition to the SAP-based solution portfolio, highly suitable for companies seeking a simple, open, yet powerful consolidation solution, which can be additionally embedded into SAP Analytics Cloud to provide a holistic unified planning, forecasting, analysis, reporting and consolidation platform.
Utilising the SAP Business Technology platform makes the solution not only fast and robust but also easily maintainable, extensible, and connectible to other SAP Cloud tools and solutions.
