The SAP Business Consolidation (SEM-BCS) solution for group consolidation continues to form the basis of numerous powerful applications for preparing consolidated financial statements and group planning. SAP's maintenance commitment for SEM-BCS until December 31, 2025 (see https://launchpad.support.sap.com/#/pam; registration required) ensures long-term investment security in SEM-BCS.
Expansion of the functional scope of SEM-BCS through enhancement packages
SEM-BCS 6.0 was launched in September 2005, and since then the functional scope of SEM-BCS has been continuously extended by enhancement packages. To date, eight enhancement packages have been released, of which enhancement packages 2 to 8 have comprehensively extended the functionalities of SEM-BCS.
Details on the functional enhancements of SEM-BCS can be found in the following sources, for example:
- SAP Help Portal:
https://help.sap.com/ERP2005_EHP_08/helpdata/EN/d5/36a5d419f046398815696290d03b88/frameset.htm - SAP ONE Support Launchpad (registration required):
https://launchpad.support.sap.com/#/notes/1171344 - Summary of the new features in SAP SEM-BCS (EHP1-EHP8).
Key benefits of enhancement packages
The use of enhancement packages for SEM-BCS can offer numerous advantages. Depending on the functionality, the following benefits can be derived from the enhancement packages:- Extension of SEM-BCS to include regulatory requirements of HGB, IFRS and US-GAAP (e.g. subsequent adjustment of initial consolidation entries).
- Provision of new functionalities with regard to consolidation logic (e.g. validations, reclassifications and IC eliminations).
- Increasing performance and therefore end user satisfaction (e.g. performance when calling up the consolidation monitor).
- Improving the administration and maintainability of the application (e.g. archiving of logs, extended where-used list).
- Increasing the integration of SEM-BCS with other SAP components (e.g. HDB Reporting Connector to increase the speed of reporting when using SEM-BCS on a HANA database).
- Returning customer-specific developments to the SAP standard (e.g. by extending the validation functionality).
- Support for compliance and auditability (e.g. through automatically calculated check digits).
Conclusion
SAP uses enhancement packages to provide functional enhancements for SEM-BCS at irregular intervals as part of continuous product maintenance. The Enhancement Packages are available to all customers with a valid maintenance contract, i.e. without additional license costs.As explained above, Enhancement Packages can also offer considerable added value for existing SEM-BCS applications. However, the extent to which certain functionalities are useful must be determined on a case-by-case basis. The starting point for this can be, for example, the above references to the SAP Help Portal with further information.