SAP has updated its suite of on-premise and cloud editions included in its Business Suite 4 SAP HANA range, which it promised will simplify processes in a range of functions and lines of business.

The announcement of improvements to its SAP S/4HANA Enterprise Management system was made at SAP TechEd in Barcelona.

SAP claimed it has invented new, simpler and faster ways of using its systems in eight major areas that affect users working in finance, sales, service, marketing, commerce, procurement and sourcing, manufacturing, supply chain, asset management, research and development and human resources.

Finance, sales and purchasing staff will benefit from a new method of optimized working capital with new accounts payable and receivable cockpits. In the supply chain, workers can benefit from a new system with fewer stock buffers and a simplified data model for inventory management. This, says SAP, will speed things up by catering for more real-time, high-volume processing. In other departments, procurement, sourcing and supply chain management professionals will benefit from new levels of instant insight into stock and material flow.

Meanwhile, in other part of the enterprise, cloud users in Production Departments will benefit from shorter manufacturing cycles, as a result of streamlined material flow for internal requirements and for material requirements planning. Project managers and supervisors will become more productive, claims SAP, thanks to its new augmented reactivity with real-time monitoring of production orders for flow and critical issues.

Operations managers, on the other hand, will make better operational decisions with easier simulation of supply alternatives. Buyers will be able to lower their procurement costs as a result of the advances on standard integration to the Ariba Network. Meanwhile, at the shop floor, enterprises will be able to offer better customer service thanks to a new sales order fulfilment cockpit that could identify and clear bottlenecks instantly.

These line of business improvements will be found across the SAP portfolio in applications such as SAP Cash Management, SAP SuccessFactor, the Ariba Network in procurement and SAP hybris systems for marketing and commerce.

“We worked together closely to identify where digitized operations can provide the most value,” said Bernd Leukert, member of the Executive Board of SAP SE, Products & Innovation.