SAP SEM-BCS
What is SAP SEM-BCS?
Solution for group consolidation, financial close and reporting, embedded in SAP BW. The latest version is based on SAP BW/4HANA as the technical platform.
About SAP SEM-BCS
Self-description of the vendor
SAP SEM-BCS BARC Review & Rating
Provider and product description
SAP was founded in 1972 as a business applications company. Today, with revenues of over €31 billion and more than 107,000 employees, SAP is one of the world’s largest providers of business software.
SAP’s data and analytics portfolio is built on the SAP Business Technology Platform (BTP), which provides cloud-based data, analytics, application integration and extension services for all SAP products. It includes solutions for BI, analytics, enterprise planning and performance management. Strategically, SAP is investing heavily in cloud innovation while continuing to support and develop its on-premises solutions. SAP’s data, analytics and EPM solutions are spread across several product lines. While SAP Analytics Cloud (SAC) is the core offering for planning and budgeting, SAP S/4HANA Finance for Group Reporting is the strategic product for financial consolidation and close. For data management, SAP Datasphere and SAP HANA Cloud are the foundation of SAP’s strategic offerings.
For financial consolidation, SAP offers different products focused on different SAP source systems. One of these tools is SAP SEM-BCS, a fully integrated solution in the SAP BW platform with a long history. SAP SEM-BCS is a powerful financial consolidation solution mainly suited to medium-sized and large corporations worldwide that use SAP BW in addition to an SAP ERP system. The newest version of SAP SEM-BCS is focused on SAP BW/4HANA and is known as SAP BCS for SAP BW/4HANA (or BCS/4HANA).
Within medium-sized and large corporations in Germany, SAP SEM-BCS is still a widely used financial consolidation product, if not the most widely used tool. SAP SEM-BCS offers comprehensive capabilities to consolidate company figures into consolidated financial statements and supports the entire consolidation process. SAP BCS/4HANA is an add-on for SAP BW/4HANA. Master data is kept synchronized with BW and the data model itself is freely definable and not limited to a specific number of dimensions. Important functions related to master data include the maintenance of consolidation units, consolidation groups and the consolidation chart of accounts hierarchy. Properties of master data are available for the definition of consolidation functions.
One specific of SAP SEM-BCS is the fact that the consolidation process relies on the use of a monitor that can be used to execute the individual consolidation functions one after the other. Each step in turn generates an action log upon execution.
Strengths and challenges of SAP SEM-BCS
BARC’s viewpoint on the product’s strengths and challenges.
Strengths
- Due to the fact that SAP SEM-BCS has been on the market since 2002, SAP BCS/4HANA (available since 2019) is technically and functionally very mature.
- The status and process monitor provides a comprehensive overview of the consolidation status and the execution of all consolidation tasks.
- SAP BCS/4HANA can be recommended to all customers who have opted for SAP BW/4HANA as part of their reporting strategy, have previously used SEM-BCS and intend to continue doing so. The advantages of full integration with S/4HANA are not the main focus here.
Challenges
- SAP BCS/4HANA is IT-oriented, and familiarization with the maintenance of the sets of rules and dependencies in customization are often too great a hurdle for the transfer of tasks to the finance department. The creation of reports is also often the responsibility of IT departments.
- Due to the fact that SAP BCS/4HANA is based on the on-premises SAP BW/4HANA platform, the solution is only available on premises.
- The product life cycle of SAP SEM-BCS is coming to an end. Due to the widespread use of SAP SEM-BCS, SAP has changed and extended its commitment to the product several times. The current status is, depending on the installation mode, that maintenance will continue until the end of 2027 at the latest. Optional extended maintenance is also available through to 2030.
SAP SEM-BCS User Reviews & Experiences
The information contained in this section is based on user feedback and actual experience with SAP SEM-BCS.
The information and figures are largely drawn from BARC’s The BI & Analytics Survey, The Planning Survey, The Financial Consolidation Survey and The Data Management Survey. You can find out more about these surveys by clicking on the relevant links.
Why users buy SAP SEM-BCS and what problems they have using it
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Full user reviews and KPI results for SAP SEM-BCS
All key figures for SAP SEM-BCS at a glance.
- Get independent information on software solutions, market developments and trends in data, analytics, business intelligence, data science and corporate performance management.
- Make data & analytics decisions based on numbers, data, facts and expert knowledge
- Access to all premium articles and all our research, including all software comparison studies, scores and surveys.
- Unlimited access to the BARC media library
- Consume unlimited content anywhere
Individual user reviews for SAP SEM-BCS
Number of employees
Industry
Source
What do you like best?
Solidly built software with a large support resources pool.
What do you like least/what could be improved?
Slow and very resource-intensive. Slow response from the vendor.
What key advice would you give to other companies looking to introduce/use the product?
Use only implementers with a proven track record (ask to speak with their customers).
How would you sum up your experience?
Ok.
Number of employees
Industry
Source
What do you like best?
Intelligente Struktur der Maßnahmen, Integration in die SAP-Welt und Stabilität.
What do you like least/what could be improved?
An manchen Stellen ist das Customizing eine Zumutung – nur mit starker VBA-Technik akzeptabel.
What key advice would you give to other companies looking to introduce/use the product?
Eigene Skills aufbauen.
How would you sum up your experience?
Eine langfristige Beziehung.
Number of employees
Industry
Source
What do you like best?
Ausgereiftes Produkt mit starker BW Integration, damit sehr flexibel.
What do you like least/what could be improved?
Silo, getrennt von den ERP Systemen.
What key advice would you give to other companies looking to introduce/use the product?
Vergleich mit S4/ Group Reporting - welches Tool passt besser.
How would you sum up your experience?
Ausgereiftes Produkt, ursprünglich in Kooperation zwischen Siemens und SAP entstanden.
Number of employees
Industry
Source
What do you like best?
Gute Funktionalitäten für die Konsolidierung und ein stringenter Prozess der Datenverarbeitung.
What do you like least/what could be improved?
Kein Customizing für den Fachbereich möglich.
What key advice would you give to other companies looking to introduce/use the product?
Eine Fachperson in der IT ist erforderlich, um eine schnelle Wartung zu gewährleisten.
How would you sum up your experience?
Teilweise herausfordernd, aber sobald die Prozesse stehen, hat man ein solides Tool.
