The premier event for SAP® financial accounting, control, planning

This education program has been approved for 34 CPE creditsAdvance your career and keep your certification current. Earn credits by attending sessions offered at Financials 2014.

This education program has been approved for American Payroll Certification (APA). Logo use is not an endorsement of the quality of the program by APA, but an indication that it meets the requirements to be pre-approved for the certification.

March 18–21 • Orlando

The premier event for SAP® financial accounting, control, planning, consolidation, closings, and reporting

www.Financials2014.comSAPinsider events @InsiderFIN | #FINANCIALS2014

REGISTER BEFORE March 16, 2014

SAVE up to

$200PER PERSON

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Now that growth has returned to most economies, companies are once again intent on growing their revenues and ensuring that an increase in sales also delivers a commensurate increase in profits. Finance has a major contribution to make in helping shape and execute strategy, tracking performance to ensure that the financial commitments made to stakeholders are achieved and in managing resources so that emergent growth opportunities receive sufficient funding to develop into meaningful cash flows.

Becoming a business partner will involve Finance becoming something of a “juggler” who is adept at managing multiple roles and new responsibilities because we can be sure that the pressures for more effective compliance and risk management will continue to grow — and there is the ever-present need to run financial operations and accounting functions as efficiently and cost-effectively

as possible. Being successful in these roles requires a Finance function that is attuned to opportunities and changes in the business; provides business partners with instant analysis and insightful recommendations — and recognizes that users increasingly expect to be able to access and act on information instantly no matter where they happen to be. Already companies are investing in the newer technologies such as “Big data,” cloud computing, real-time analytics, and mobility that allow Finance to transition from a juggler to a ring-master who can confidently orchestrate achieving financial objectives with successfully managing risk, and compliance and the smooth running of financial operations.

At Financials 2014 and GRC 2014, our aim is to help you navigate these challenges and new technologies by showcasing best practices from your peers and industry thought-leaders and by giving you deep and practical insight into SAP’s growing portfolio of finance, risk and compliance, and analytics solutions. You will leave with a rich understanding of SAP’s vision and roadmaps spanning accounting and financial management, business intelligence, treasury and financial risk management, travel and expense management, invoice-to-pay, receivables management, enterprise performance management, and governance, risk, and compliance processes.

This event is your opportunity to network with colleagues who face the same challenges you are facing and to directly access SAP solutions experts to help you understand how you can meet your specific business goals. I hope that you will join me, your peers, and the SAP community of experts in Orlando to engage in a rich debate and ensure that you are equipped for success.

Sincerely,

James FisherVice President MarketingAnalytics and Finance, SAP

Join us

SchedulePre-conference

March 17 Conference, March 18–21

Monday, March 17

7:30 am Registration opens

9:00 am Pre-conference workshop sessions

12:00 pm Lunch

2:00 pm Pre-conference workshop sessions

5:00 pm Registration closes

Tuesday, March 18

7:00 am Registration opens and Continental breakfast

8:30 am Keynote address

10:00 am Refreshment break

10:30 am Breakout sessions

11:45 am Lunch

1:00 pm Breakout sessions

2:15 pm Refreshment break




5:15 pm Welcome reception

5:30 pm Ask-the-Experts

6:15 pm Day concludes

Wednesday, March 19







12:45 pm Lunch




5:15 pm Cocktail reception

5:45 pm Ask-the-Experts


Thursday, March 20





11:30 am Lunch


2:00 pm Exhibitor Meet and Greet







Friday, March 21







12:45 pm Conference concludes

For more information and to register, visit www.financials2014.com or call SAPinsider at +1-781-751-8700

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Pre-conference Workshops, Monday, March 17

Track 1 Financial accounting (FI)

SAP Financial Accounting (FI) process improvements and enhancementsSAP General Ledger (FI-GL)Asset accounting (FI-AA)

Page 8

Track 2 Controlling (CO) and managerial accounting Page 13

Track 3 SAP Business Planning and Consolidation Page 15

Track 4 Planning, budgeting, and forecasting Page 18

Track 5 Financial closes and consolidations Page 21

Track 6 Financial reports, analyses, and business intelligence Page 23

Track 7 Enterprise performance management Page 26

Track 8 Accounts payable Page 28

Track 9 Receivables management Page 30

Track 10 Cash, treasury, and liquidity management Page 32

Track 11 Emerging technologies for finance Page 34

Track 12 Legal and regulatory updates affecting finance Page 36

Track 13 GRC for finance teams Page 38

Special three-hour, pre-conference sessions hosted on this day offer you the opportunity to fortify your understanding of key SAP concepts and technologies, explore new trends and strategies, and enhance your learning experience at the main conference. Advance sign-up is required.

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Sanjay Poonen, President of Solutions Go-to-Market, SAP AG

Advance your career and keep your certification current. Earn 34 CPE credits by attending sessions offered at Financials 2014 and GRC 2014. No prerequisites or advanced preparation required. *Sessions are presented via a Group Live format. The National Association of State Boards of Accountancy (NASBA) awards CPE credits in:

Accounting

Accounting (Government)

Auditing

Business Management and Organization

Management Advisory Services

Finance

Computer Science

*Attendees must have a basic knowledge of an SAP system, and an understanding of the Financials function in an organization. SAPinsider is registered with the National Association of State Boards of Accountancy (NASBA) as a sponsor of continuing professional education on the National Registry of CPE Sponsors. State boards of accountancy have final authority on the acceptance of individual courses for CPE credit. Complaints regarding registered sponsors may be submitted to the National Registry of CPE Sponsors through its website: www.learningmarket.org. If you have any concerns or complaints, please contact customer service at +1-781-751-8700. Visit our Registration page to sign up for the event.

Overview

Conference, March 18-21 • 13 comprehensive tracks


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More than 175 educational sessions and forumsExpand your skills and knowledge by learning from the top experts at SAP, independent consultants, and your industry counterparts.

Pre-conference WorkshopsSpecial three-hour, pre-conference sessions hosted on this day offer you the opportunity to fortify your understanding of key SAP concepts and technologies, explore new trends and strategies, and enhance your learning experience at the main conference. Advance sign-up is required.

Live solution demonstrationsSee demonstrations and hear directly from SAP and leading vendors about Financials innovations and their impact on SAP applications you want to extend, develop, or introduce to your employees and customers.

Speed networkingYou’ve heard of speed dating, now try speed networking! Participants will have 5 minutes to make their initial introductions and converse before moving on to meet another contact. An emcee will provide instructions and keep things moving. Speed networking will take place on Wednesday, March 19 from 7:30 am - 8:15 am. Please sign up at the registration desk upon check-in if you’d like to participate.

Luncheon roundtablesSit with your colleagues by topic area, industry, or job function and discuss solutions to your most difficult problems. Learn about the projects your colleagues are tackling, what strategies they’re using, and why.

Co-located events Financials 2014 is hosted with GRC 2014. Registration at one conference admits you to both events. It’s a perfect opportunity to educate your entire team.

Ask-the-ExpertsPull up a chair in the Ask-the-Experts area of the Exhibit Hall during our Tuesday and Wednesday evening receptions and spend one-on-one time with the top experts. Learn from their real-world expertise and get specific insights on topics and questions that matter to you most.

Solutions showcase theatersStop by the exhibit hall throughout the event to see solution demonstrations, participate in interactive discussions with speakers, and attend microforums.

Customer-led case studiesTake away best practices and methodologies taught by the companies that practice them. Learn from highly experienced SAP customers to solidify your own strategies and tactics.

Exhibit hall receptionsInteract with the best and the brightest minds working with SAP software. Build a lasting network of peers and meet with leading product and service vendors.

SAPexperts LIVEThis popular forum offers attendees the opportunity to meet leading authors from the SAPexperts Financials hub and discuss topics from recent articles. Follow the framework of the article as the author guides you through the most important parts. You’re not just a reader — you’re a participant.

Distinguished facultySpeakers at this conference are the world’s foremost Financials experts. Cutting-edge technologies, university professors, industry executives, and product experts will be on hand to provide the very best instruction.

Interactive Discussion ForumsThese forums are informal, interactive get-togethers where SAP customers with similar interests, projects, and challenges can gather to talk about specific topics. Each topic will be facilitated by a subject-matter expert. You do not need to sign up in advance to attend, and there is no formal agenda. Just have a great discussion with people who share your concerns and interests.

Educational and networking opportunities


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Pre-conference Workshops Sessions

Morning sessions • 9:00 am – 12:00 pm

Get the most out of financial accounting in SAP: Proven tips and techniques to better manage core processes page 6

SAP Business Planning and Consolidation 10.0: Tricks, tips, and lessons learned page 6

A step-by-step guide to execute a faster financial close and disclose process: Tasks and tools every finance team should know

page 6

Lunch • 12:00 pm – 2:00 pm

Afternoon sessions • 2:00 pm – 5:00 pm

How to improve your existing CO solution and achieve more efficient managerial accounting page 7

Hands-on Lab: Leveraging SAP Business Planning and Consolidation 10.0, version for SAP NetWeaver® powered by SAP HANA®, to derive maximum value during planning, budgeting, forecasting, and consolidations

page 7

How to accelerate financial and managerial accounting processes using SAP HANA page 7

Pre-conference Workshops continued on next page

Pre-conference workshops are in-depth, 3-hour sessions designed to help build a solid foundation of knowledge in critical topics. Through a combination of demos, lecture, discussions, and Q&A, you’ll develop a comprehensive understanding of important topics quickly.

Our instructors have vast experience in their respective fields. The tips, insights, and best practices that they’ll share with you come from practical, in-the-trenches experiences, not just books and theory. They are also accessible and open to answering questions about your most pressing challenges.

Your workshop registration fee gives you access to two information-packed sessions; one in the morning and one in the afternoon. You’ll leave both sessions with all the presentation materials, demos, handouts, and any other resources that are prepared by the instructor.

You’ll also leave with greater knowledge and confidence, and you’ll be ready to go further in-depth on these topics throughout the rest of the event.

Join us for Pre-conference Workshops Monday, March 17

Pre-conference Workshops


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Get the most out of financial accounting in SAP: Proven tips and techniques to better manage core processesPaul Ovigele, Ovigele Consulting

This three-hour session provides lessons to identify and exploit frequently overlooked financials functionality and will help even the most experienced finance teams streamline core financial accounting processes in SAP. Drawing on real-world examples, the speaker will illustrate how to:

y Implement little-known settings to vastly improve the format and usability of reports — no custom programming required!

y Maintain and control master data objects in order to improve hierarchical maintenance of general ledger accounts and safeguard sensitive fields in the customer and vendor master

y Enable the entry of multiple account assignment objects on a purchase order line item

y Set up SAP General Ledger accounts for retroactive Line Item Display and Open Item Management by using standard transactions

y Use worklists to help reduce the time and effort needed to process financial transactions

SAP Business Planning and Consolidation 10.0: Tricks, tips, and lessons learnedScott Cairncross and David Dixon, TruQua Enterprises

Whether you are looking to upgrade to SAP Business Planning and Consolidation 10.0 from a previous version, are deploying it out of the box, or have been using the tool for some time, this comprehensive three-hour session provides insights and best practices derived from multiple SAP Business Planning and Consolidation 10.0 projects. You will:

y Learn how to determine the sequence of installation, upgrade, or integration steps for SAP Business Planning and Consolidation while taking into account your existing SAP environment

y Understand the upgrade and implementation alternatives for a stand-alone deployment, an add-on approach, and support pack options

y Get tips for migrating from the 7.0 and 7.5 releases to 10.0, including what areas will require the most effort — such as transitioning your data

y Get advice on how to strategically phase out unsupported, or unneeded, solutions

y Get details on the SAP HANA migration path from SAP NetWeaver BW and SAP NetWeaver BW Accelerator and how it compares to a traditional database migration effort

A step-by-step guide to execute a faster financial close and disclose process: Tasks and tools every finance team should knowStefan Karl, SAP AG and Jason Reid, Pete Graham, and Kirk Anderson, SAP

Is your financial close slower than it was five years ago? What if you could shave days off the time it takes to close your books? Attend this comprehensive session to learn what steps your organization can take today to speed up the process. Attendees will:

y Learn the most common barriers to a fast financial close — such as data quality and collection errors, intercompany reconciliation problems, and poor performance from reporting applications — and strategies to overcome them

y Get tips for preparing a checklist for the financial close, which contains task, task owners, and deadlines

y Understand trends in managing disclosures and why bringing this process in-house rather than outsourcing it provides greater control

y Find out which closing steps should be shifted into the pre-closing period and which can be delayed until later in the process

y Find out how automating procedures such as currency translation, eliminations, and cash flow calculations can help speed up the close

y Get an overview of what new SAP functionality is available to help accelerate the process

Morning sessions • 9:00 am – 12:00 pm


Pre-conference Workshops continued on next page


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Afternoon sessions • 2:00 pm – 5:00 pm

Hands-on labLeveraging SAP Business Planning and Consolidation 10.0, version for SAP NetWeaver powered by SAP HANA, to derive maximum value during planning, budgeting, forecasting, and consolidationsBruno Ranchy, SAP Labs and Damien Fribourg, SAP

This hands-on session provides step-by-step instruction to set up and use SAP Business Planning and Consolidation 10.0, version for SAP NetWeaver powered by SAP HANA

y Learn how to use standard reporting and formatting functionality, including the new Web client

y Practice leveraging the new SAP enterprise performance management (EPM) 10.0 Microsoft Excel and Web reporting functionality

y Explore the best ways to create and use input schedules, data import capabilities, and drill through to BEx and Business Process Flows (BPFs)

y Extend planning activities by taking advantage of recent optimizations delivered by the SAP HANA platform

y Practice using new, enhanced financial consolidation functionality, including the consolidation monitor, journals, ownership management, and controls

y Step through the creation of SAP BusinessObjects™ Dashboards (formerly Xcelsius®) leveraging BPC data for greater financial analysis and data visualization

How to accelerate financial and managerial accounting processes using SAP HANABirgit Starmanns, SAP and Carsten Hilker, SAP America

Attend this session and learn how the latest breakthrough in-memory technology provided by SAP HANA can now be seamlessly integrated into your existing SAP ERP system architecture for more efficient accounting. During this session, you will:

y Learn what steps you can take to speed up and extend your current SAP ERP managerial accounting, financial reporting, and critical period-end close processes

y Learn how to complete a non-disruptive adoption of ERP applications, using examples like profitability analysis (CO-PA), overhead management (CO-OM), material ledger (CO-PC-ACT), and general ledger (FI-GL)

y Find out what advantages and benefits can be realized as a result of using SAP HANA as a secondary database

How to improve your existing CO solution and achieve more efficient managerial accountingPaul Ovigele, Ovigele Consulting

Learn how to make the most of your investment in SAP functionality for managerial accounting and controlling. This session walks you through proven tips and techniques that you can use to increase the value of your CO landscape, without the need for any new functionality or external consulting assistance. Hear firsthand practical tips to:

y Reduce the clutter in your cost estimate screens

y Transfer financial accounting documents retroactively into your profitability analysis functionality

y Execute enhanced reports that help you to reconcile your inventory balances

y Analyze what has happened in the material ledger during the month by using the material price analysis transaction

y Run product drill-down reports without configuration

y Create CO product groups that allow you to define your own hierarchy

y Pinpoint new functionality in SAP enhancement package 6 that’s now available to help streamline profit center and segment reorganization



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SAP Financial Accounting (FI) process improvements and enhancements

How to successfully manage a group currency conversion in a live SAP systemMitresh Kundalia, Quality Systems & SoftwareAs more and more companies expand globally, it can be challenging to modify currency settings in a live SAP system. Attend this session for detailed instruction on how to master the area of parallel curren-cies in SAP ERP Financials. By attending, you will learn:

y Different parallel currencies — such as group currency, functional currency, hard currency, index currency, and global currency — and different valua-tions, such as legal valuation and group valuation

y Crucial criteria on how best to plan the scope and strategy of your currency conversion project

y Why group currency is so powerful and what reporting advantages it brings, such as the ability to provide cross-enterprise reporting in a single currency

y Tips on when and how to activate group currency during an SAP General Ledger migration

Designing a chart of accounts that supports fast closes and smoother reportingKyle Lindquist, PwCExamine critical success factors for more effectively designing and maintaining your chart of accounts (COA). By attending this session, you will learn how to:

y Tailor the SAP chart of accounts design to meet the challenges of multiple financial reporting regulations

y Develop a well-governed structure to manage bank accounts, tax and regula-tory reporting, globalization, SAP system requirements, and manage-ment reporting

y Utilize simple and basic logic in your COA design

Come away with proven COA techniques to improve reporting and accelerate the finan-cial close process.

Case study

McKesson’s SAP ERP deployment strategy: How McKesson deployed a new instance of its existing SAP ERP Financials environment leveraging a global templateRoss Wilson, McKessonThis session offers real-world insights into how McKesson overcame the challenge of delivering a large, multi-faceted finan-cial rollout to its diverse user base. Attend this session and hear firsthand how the company:

y Created its global template, which could then be used to ease subsequent SAP ERP Financial rollouts

y Identified requirements, defined the appropriate project scope, and gathered ideas for getting stakeholder buy-in for the implementation project

y Successfully completed each step of the template design process

Take home a checklist of the core finan-cial components to include when building a template based on McKesson’s project experiences.

Track 1

Financial Accounting (FI)

Keynote AddressLeading your organization to financial brillianceChristian Rodatus

Financial Excellence. Transforming Finance. Finance Innovation. You’ve seen these themes – perhaps too many times. Nearly every finance organization is pushing to achieve higher objectives. And lead-ers are continually driving for strategic change. But you can’t overlook today’s obligations: regulatory reporting, operations, compliance and more. In this

keynote, Christian Rodatus welcomes a panel of thought leaders that will share their points-of-view on how to manage today’s requirements while meeting tomorrow’s objectives. Attend this informative keynote to learn how SAP solu-tions for finance can help turn today’s vision into tomorrow’s realities.

Track 1 continued on next page


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Track 1: Financial Accounting (FI)

Simplify postings of business transactions with expert automatic account determination techniques Paul Ovigele, Ovigele ConsultingHear detailed instruction to set up account determination tables that link business transaction objects to your SAP General Ledger accounts and enable you to post transactions from other modules to the general ledger with ease. During this session you will:

y Understand the main tables and master data that accounts are assigned to and how to trace any errors or inconsisten-cies back to the originating source

y Walk through common mistakes that are made when configuring account assignments, such as using the wrong cost element category on a revenue-related account, which should be passed to CO-PA

y Get tips to create and assign new general modifiers and account keys in the materials management and sales and distribution modules

View a demo that illustrates how to run a report that clearly shows where accounts have been automatically assigned.

Improve integration processes between finance, materials management, sales and distribution, human capital management, and project systemsDon Sobczak, Andrew Moot, and Rahul Wagh, KPMGArm yourself with tips and tricks to ensure that the finance processes in your organi-zation are adequately integrated with sales and distribution (SD), materials manage-ment (MM), human capital management (HCM), and project systems (PS) in SAP. You will:

y Hear industry best practices to maintain consistent data across multiple modules for smoother finan-cial processes, such as order-to-cash, purchase-to-pay, and hire-to-retire

y Examine key configuration activities that drive integration, such as automatic postings from other modules

y Identify ways to use the SAP General Ledger to improve end-to-end processes

y Learn to use various key fields from other SAP modules to integrate revenue recognition and reconciliation account determination

Take home a list of detailed configuration steps to ensure proper integration across modules.

Innovative ways to streamline travel and expense managementNeil Krefsky, SAP According to many industry experts, finance organizations are increasingly viewing cloud-based solutions as a viable option. Learn how the new SAP Cloud for Travel and Expense solution enables a more collab-orative and strategic approach to travel and expense management. By attending, you will:

y Get a detailed overview of SAP Cloud for Travel and Expense, a financial solution that’s designed to help manage processes such as planning, booking, travel receipt capture, and expense reimbursement

y See how its integrated analytics delivers strategic insights to everyone across the business

y Find out how the tool allows organiza-tions to analyze expenses across multiple dimensions for better decision making and cost control

How to improve transfer pricing in SAP: A strategic approach using SAP BusinessObjects BI Prabhukumar Chinnakonda, KPMG Attend this session and learn how to successfully achieve optimal transfer pricing and inter-company profitability across the complex supply chains of multiple financial systems.

y Get tips on how to more efficiently monitor product level price changes against established profit level indica-tors (PLI) in near real-time basis

y Learn what SAP technology compo-nents for automation combined with SAP BusinessObjects BI exist and how to use them as an effective tool for tax and finance organizations

y Walk through practical advice on how to avoid complex, time consuming and manual generation of transfer price compliance reports

y Find out what steps to take to eliminate the need for year and quarter end large transfer pricing adjustments



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SAP General Ledger (FI-GL)Case study

How Baldor Electric Company prepared for and executed a successful SAP General Ledger migration Gregory Morgan, Baldor Electric CompanyThis session examines Baldor Electric Company’s recent migration to the latest release of the SAP General Ledger, including critical preparation steps that helped ensure a smooth go-live. Hear firsthand how the company:

y Identified key stakeholders and pre-project tasks, including a critical blueprint process that identified document types and company codes that required reconfiguration

y Developed test plans that accounted for customer-specific business processes

y Prepared for post-go-live consider-ations, such as correcting document splitting, that may not work as intended

y Gain insight into how the company completed a group currency conver-sion and profit center reorganization in addition to the actual SAP General Ledger migration.

Lessons and tips to reduce the complexity surrounding SAP General Ledger configurationsRohana Gunawardena, Quality Systems & SoftwareThis session provides little-known tips that will help you become more proficient when configuring the latest version of the SAP General Ledger. Learn how to:

y Trace hidden SAP configurations, clean up bad configurations after go-live with high data volumes, and detect and correct lost FI documents

y Properly convert an SAP General Ledger account to open item management

y Use the SAP detection program for FI update terminations

y Improve the tracing of clearing documents

y Take home lists that outline details of various SAP correction reports and their uses, useful SAP Notes, and supplementary magazine articles.

A step-by-step guide to leveraging inter- and intra-company processing in SAP General LedgerManish Dharnidharka, PwCExamine the intricacies and business requirements associated with recording inter- and intra-company transactions in the SAP General Ledger. Through lecture and demo, this session arms you with:

y A guide to the settings in SAP General Ledger that enable inter- and intra-company transaction processing — including options available with SAP enhance-ment package 6

y Lessons to process intercompany trans-actions in your financial and managerial accounting applications

y Master data configuration techniques for more accurate management reports

y Advice to configure and process inter-company transactions within your purchasing and sales and distribution processes

Critical steps for successfully migrating to the latest version of SAP General LedgerMitresh Kundalia, Quality Systems & SoftwareThis session provides an in-depth guide to help you successfully migrate to the latest version of the SAP General Ledger available with SAP ERP. Attend this unique session to:

y Understand the key differences between the latest version of SAP General Ledger and the classic version of the SAP General Ledger in SAP R/3

y Learn the key decisions and consider-ations involved in implementing or migrating to the new version of the SAP General Ledger, such as how to classify prepare balanced books for any dimension

y Gain a deep understanding of the different challenges that migrations versus new implementations present

y Take home a glossary of some of the most commonly misunderstood terms associated with the SAP General Ledger




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A detailed guide to the new features and functions in SAP General Ledger Pete Graham, SAPThis session shows you how to leverage the latest capabilities in the SAP General Ledger to support unified financial and manage-ment accounting. Attendees will learn how to exploit key capabilities in the latest release of SAP General Ledger to:

y Add industry- or customer-specific dimensions to standard accounting

y Support parallel accounting through the use of parallel ledgers and parallel accounts

y Automate and more easily shift struc-tures and responsibilities

y Support corporate governance through enhanced transparency among entries

A step-by-step guide to reconciling CO-PA to the SAP General LedgerPaul Ovigele, Ovigele ConsultingObtain strategies to overcome one of the most common pain points associated with costing-based profitability analysis (CO-PA) – reconciling it with the SAP General Ledger. By attending this session, you gain:

y A complete overview of costing and accounting-based CO-PA

y A deeper understanding of how to match the cost of sales general ledger account with its corresponding value field

y A key list of options for fixing reconcili-ation issues between CO-PA and the general ledger

Come away armed with the ability to easily analyze and fix reconciliation issues when they occur.

Interactive discussion forum

Lessons for building a project plan for your SAP General Ledger migration projectWilliam Miller, MI6 Solutions GroupAttend this interactive session to find out how your peers have scoped and prepared an SAP General Ledger migration project plan, pose your own questions, and share your successes and ideas. Attend to:

y Identify project scope and complexi-ties, key project dates, and internal resource requirements

y Pinpoint key risks and issues that are problematic to migration projects, such as currency setup or open item inconsistencies

y Get tips on how to ensure proper staffing and resource planning with appropriate skill sets




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Asset accounting (FI-AA)

Leading practices to simplify a fixed asset migration project Diego Pinasco, CapgeminiReconciling legacy asset records to conform to SAP standards can be a challenge, specif-ically when changing over from a year-end to a mid-year conversion. Attend this session to get detailed tips to efficiently transform your legacy asset records and learn:

y What steps you should take before migrating your asset data, including running your asset load in test mode before creating any data, and other ways to prepare your system

y Which tools you should use when migrating your master records and transactional data and the importance of testing in this process

y How to better determine data require-ments that must be met prior to the migration

y How to prepare your SAP system’s environment and reconcile your migra-tion to the SAP General Ledger

Case study

Lessons learned at The Dow Chemical Company: Managing fixed assets more effectively Maria Meyer and Katie Paul, The Dow Chemical CompanyFind out how Dow Chemical adapted the SAP asset accounting (FI-AA) module, which serves as a subsidiary module to interface and communicate with the SAP General Ledger, to meet the requirements of multiple accounting standards and to enable automatic postings and adjustment updates to all relevant transactions in the SAP General Ledger. Hear firsthand how Dow Chemical:

y Configured multiple depreciation areas to address multiple currencies require-ments — for both corporate consolidation and legal reporting

y Automated the monthly currency translation adjustment of fixed-assets-related balances per US GAAP standards

y Captured country localizations in the SAP General Ledger configuration and limited it to specific depreciation areas

Walk away with best practices to improve reporting and obtain the best management and financial data possible while preventing financial and operational mistakes.

Solve critical asset management challenges utilizing standard SAP integration techniquesPrasad Boddupalli, PwCAttend this session for a comprehensive understanding of the various fixed asset capitalization methods in SAP.

y Walk through key Asset Under Construction (AuC) capitalization procedures, which can be completed using only the SAP fixed assets module

y Explore various subsequent capitaliza-tion methods using features of the Plant Maintenance module, such as workflow functions and order settlements

y Learn the various components of costs, such as freight, insurance, and borrowing costs, that are required to be capitalized and how SAP captures and capitalizes these costs as required by US Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP)

y Understand the internal and external settlements of cost objects, options available for settlement of costs, and the SAP General Ledger and fixed assets integration for the external settlement of AuC costs from various cost objects



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Maximize the value of your product costing functionality and its integration within SAP ERPJanet Salmon, SAP AGGain strategies to get the most value from product costing functionality and its integra-tion points with other SAP components in your landscape, including sales and distribu-tion, materials management, manufacturing, controlling, profitability analysis, and core accounting.

y Learn how to better evaluate and reconcile financial results between legal and management accounting

y Understand how the month-end general ledger meets legal require-ments through month-end close processes

y Walk step by step through a make-to-stock manufacturing process and see how t-accounts are used to make FI and CO entries both in the general ledger and in controlling objects

Leading practices to manage transfer pricing in SAP with and without the SAP Material LedgerSundeep Gupta, PwCExamine the intricacies and business requirements associated with transfer pricing in SAP. Through lecture and demo, this session provides you with:

y Tips on how to better utilize the standard functionality in CO, including profit center accounting and profit-ability analysis

y A description of the material ledger settings and functionalities that can be used as an alternative solution based on SAP enhancement packages 5 and 6

y Implications on sales and purchasing processes

y A comparison of both methods and recommendations for each

Case study

Lessons learned from Babcock & Wilcox’s implementation of the CO allocation enhancement functionsBobby Schudler, Babcock & Wilcox Attend this session and hear firsthand how Babcock & Wilcox streamlined its closing processes by implementing the new CO allocation enhancement functionality in SAP. By attending, you will learn:

y How the company takes advantage of automated overhead costing sheet postings and document date-driven activity postings via CATS and CO

y How it aligns overhead and activity posting document details

y What implementation challenges the company faced with regards to the timing of implementing this new feature, the effects it had on multiple and diverse business uses of SAP CO, and implementation lessons learned

Leading practices for forecasting in an actual costing environment David Brown, EYAttend this session for an in-depth look at how to use standard SAP actual costing functionality to better meet your forecast requirements. Learn how SAP supports actual costing using the material ledger and explore:

y How to incorporate the latest market information, such as commodity price changes and material costs in forecasts

y What steps and data are required to improve accuracy of SKU-level forecasts, including revised material pricing, volumes, and budgets

y How to smooth out variances that are the result of build-up and other seasonal differences in quarterly or yearly results

y That latest system functionality in SAP enhancement package 5 that supports calculation of actual costs across multiple company codes

How to solve overhead cost allocation challenges without the need for enhancements or custom codingSundeep Gupta, PwCBusinesses have long required the allocation of overhead costs to inbound logistic transac-tions, such as goods receipts for regular and subcontracting purchases. Learn how to use the purchase info records in product costing and inventory transactions to meet this requirement, without any enhancement or custom coding, and get practical advice to:

y Configure purchase info records to allow for the allocation of overhead costs for raw materials and subcon-tracting materials

y Configure purchasing info records to capture vendor prices, standard costs, and overheads as three separate conditions

y Set up your system so it displays goods receipt accounts postings, showing material overhead absorption

Take home a document that guides you through a quick setup explaining how to use the purchasing info record to allocate overhead cost for raw material.

Where is your SAP controlling data hiding? Tips and techniques for identifying and analyzing CO dataRohana Gunawardena, Quality Systems & SoftwareThis session provides critical insight to help you identify and interpret key SAP control-ling (CO) master data and transaction data tables. Take home the knowledge to:

y Link data behind the scenes in the SAP database to data that your end users can display

y Write data specifications for custom report development using report writer, ABAP™, or SAP NetWeaver BW

y Troubleshoot complex CO processes by analyzing raw data using SE16 and SE17

y Use a CO object number to trace data

Track 2

Controlling (CO) and managerial accounting



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Gain better visibility into profitability using SAP HANA and CO-PA acceleratorsMitresh Kundalia, Quality Systems & SoftwareExplore how SAP HANA can be leveraged alongside profitability functionality (CO-PA) for accelerated allocation and data analysis. By attending, you will learn about:

y Technical considerations and prerequi-sites for establishing SAP HANA as a secondary database for CO-PA

y Tips for using CO-PA with SAP HANA for better insight into large, unabridged data sets — without the need for IT-initiated data aggregation levels

y The most common challenges customers face while fully utilizing CO-PA and how SAP HANA can help

y What SAP HANA-based CO-PA accelera-tors exist and how to set up for optimal usage

y Untapped benefits of performing allocations and top-down distributions and gain instant access to many detailed reporting functionalities

A practical guide to navigating your controlling options in SAPRohana Gunawardena, Quality Systems & Software With more than a dozen controlling options available in SAP, choosing the best solution to meet your needs can be challenging. Attend this session for insight into:

y Various sub-modules in SAP controlling functionality, including cost center accounting, internal orders, profitability analysis, profit center accounting, and the material ledger

y Key criteria that will affect your choice of sub-module, including how your organization currently stores data, reporting, and training requirements

y Which sub-modules to use to optimize reporting speed, database size, and transaction processing speed

Take home a matrix with complete details on each sub-module, its functionality, and how and in what scenarios it works best.






How to transform the finance function using the profit center reorganization tool in SAPMikhail Ostrov, EYLearn what steps to take when embarking on a major finance transformation program, utilizing the profit center reorganization tool in SAP. During this session, you will examine:

y Business drivers for changing SAP’s profit center structure in live system; technical and project management considerations before starting the project

y What steps need to be taken to reorga-nize SAP’s profit center structures within a live system, utilizing the profit center reorganization tool

y What areas of profit center reorganiza-tion are not covered by existing functionality as well as practical advice for finding a workaround

y Tips and tricks for minimizing the impact on critical logistics functions during a profit center reorganization project


The latest product cost calculation and quotation costing functionality from SAPCarsten Hilker, SAP America and Julien Delvat, Alta Via ConsultingJoin SAP and selected co-innovation customers to find out more about the recent advances in product cost calculation and quotation costing functionality in SAP. During this discussion, you will find out:

y How interactive modeling and simula-tion capabilities for bill of materials and routing outside of SAP ERP can replace Microsoft Excel-based calculation processes

y How to integrate new product costing technologies into your costing environ-ment for continuous improvement

SAPexperts LIVERefresh the look of the master data in cost center accounting with a new business functionJanet Salmon, SAP AGDon’t miss this opportunity to personally meet Janet Salmon, an SAPexperts Finan-cials advisor and a product Manager at SAP. Engage in an in-depth discussion about one of her most widely read articles from the Financials hub of the SAPexperts knowl-edgebase — the leading publication and knowledgebase for organizations that leverage SAP solutions for finance. Learn how to activate an alternative set of Web applications to maintain the master data in SAP Managerial Accounting (CO). Get tips to configure these applications to meet your organization’s needs, showing only the fields you actually use and positioning the various screen parts so that users can focus on what’s important. You’ll receive a copy of the article — free of charge — and engage with peers who have the same interests and priorities.

Track 2: Controlling (CO) and managerial accounting


15

2014 guide to SAP Business Planning and Consolidation 10.1Pras Chatterjee, SAP Attend this session for a thorough under-standing of what’s new in the latest release (10.1) of SAP Business Planning and Consoli-dation for SAP NetWeaver.

y See how leveraging the in-memory computing capabilities of SAP HANA in conjunction with SAP Business Planning and Consolidation transforms planning and budgeting processes and increases organizational agility

y Find out how the new version provides a more unified planning model that is based on SAP NetWeaver BW metadata for enterprise-wide planning and consolidation scenarios

y Learn how new functionality will help support more integrated business planning, dynamic modeling, and simulation

y See firsthand the new Web user inter-face in SAP Business Planning and Consolidation 10.1

Enable real-time financial planning with SAP Business Planning and Consolidation powered by SAP HANADavid Roberts, SAPThis session describes the way in which planning and budgeting processes may be transformed by combining the in-memory computing capabilities of SAP HANA with planning algorithms. By attending, you will learn how to:

y Leverage SAP Business Planning and Consolidation powered by SAP HANA to improve the decision-making process by running more planning scenarios simultaneously

y Comply with corporate and regulatory reporting requirements

y Improve planning accuracy and reduce planning cycle time

Hear directly from SAP about its real-time enterprise planning roadmap, including planned enhancements to SAP Business Planning and Consolidation on SAP HANA.

Creating a single version of truth: Leading practices for integrating SAP Business Planning and Consolidation with multiple back-end sources Valstan Thomas, PwCAttend this session for leading practices for creating a single version of truth for your planning, forecasting, budgeting, and consolidation processes. Learn how to properly integrate data between planning and consolidation models within SAP Business Planning and Consolidation 10.0 with SAP ERP, SAP NetWeaver BW, and SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence solutions.

y Get tips for adding drill-through and drill-down reporting as well compara-tive analysis using data from SAP NetWeaver BW, SAP Business Planning and Consolidation, and SAP ERP

y Examine the most effective method for setting up organizational structure alignments between SAP Business Planning and Consolidation and SAP ERP

Case study

How New Balance Athletic Shoe continues to leverage BPC to meet financial and management reporting needsTodd Paulauskas, New Balance Athletic ShoeDiscover how New Balance Athletic Shoe continues to challenge its paradigm to drive financial efficiencies, generate process improvements, and ultimately bring more value to the financial community and execu-tive management teams using SAP Business Planning and Consolidation 7.5 for Micro-soft. Attend to learn how the company:

y Reduced the duration of its worldwide monthly financial close process

y Increased user adoption by leveraging BPC functionality to share knowledge and information

y Improved management reporting by enabling global transparency across the organization

Live demo

A guided tour of SAP Business Planning and Consolidation 10.1 functionality for both the Microsoft and SAP NetWeaver versionsDavid Roberts, SAPAttend this product demo for a firsthand look at the functionality available in SAP Business Planning and Consolidation 10.1.

y See for yourself how this application can help to streamline the planning, budgeting, and forecasting process and can enable a faster close

y Find out how SAP Business Planning and Consolidation 10.1 is built and designed to be owned and managed by business users

Mastering business rules and financial consolidation activities in SAP Business Planning and ConsolidationDavid Hutton, TruQua EnterprisesMany companies that leverage SAP Business Planning and Consolidation for consolida-tions use only a fraction of the powerful features, such as business rules, that are available to automate and accelerate the close process. Attend this session to:

y Understand how to build business rules in SAP Business Planning and Consoli-dation to maintain compliance with core accounting principles

y Learn how master data, hierarchies, and ownership data are used by business rules in SAP Business Planning and Consolidation

y Evaluate the different options for building rules in SAP Business Planning and Consolidation and how to deter-mine which is the best fit for your organization

Track 3

SAP Business Planning and Consolidation



16

Best practices for deploying a global planning solutionMichael Svolos, TekLink InternationalLearn best practices you’ll want to use to launch a global planning solution using SAP Business Planning and Consolidation. Gain actionable advice for setting and commu-nicating your company’s operational and financial strategies across the organization and learn:

y Tips for setting up planning cycles, including annual budgets, monthly and quarterly forecasts, rolling forecasts, and more

y How to align financial plans with your costing and pricing tools, such as CO-PA or SAP Profitability and Cost Management

y What different reporting tools are avail-able to help your organization get timely, actionable information to the right decision makers

Generating more accurate cash flow statements in SAP Business Planning and Consolidation Ilan Gil, EYAttend this session for an up-close look at how to automate your cash flow reporting in SAP Business Planning and Consolidation to improve report quality and reduce your time–to-close. This session will walk you through four methods, including detailed examples and an evaluation of the pros and cons of each.

y Learn about the unique challenges in generating a statement of cash flows in a financial reporting system

y Discover what SAP Business Planning and Consolidation functionality already exists to support more accurate and efficient cash flow calculations

y Explore what technical implementation approach will provide the best solution for your organization

Case study

Consolidation process improvements at Bank of America using SAP Business Planning and ConsolidationSatish Chalasani and Darena Villalobos, Bank of AmericaExamine how Bank of America successfully consolidated its transactional and master data from SAP and non-SAP sources by migrating to SAP Business Planning and Consolidation 10.0. By attending, you will learn:

y How the financial institution created an end-to-end process for managing core closing activities such as currency conversions, allocations, intercompany eliminations, and legal and manage-ment reporting

y The company’s reconciliation approach, which was rolled out during the project design phase to avoid costly mistakes of data movement errors

y How Bank of America utilizes enhanced reporting features in SAP solutions for EPM 10.0 to generate financial state-ments and reports, such as cash flow, income statements, and balance sheets


How to avoid common missteps in an SAP Business Planning and Consolidation implementationMichael Svolos and Seth Rudin, TekLink InternationalBring your questions to this interactive roundtable session and meet with consul-tants and other SAP Business Planning and Consolidation, SAP BusinessObjects BI, and SAP solutions for EPM customers to find out how to best deal with critical performance issues, including:

y Key challenges when upgrading to SAP Business Planning and Consolidation 10.0

y How to best leverage SAP HANA and SAP BusinessObjects BI in conjunction with SAP Business Planning and Consolidation

y Tips on how to avoid seemingly random error messages and pinpoint key risks and issues that can slow performance

Keys to a successful SAP Business Planning and Consolidation implementation projectPaul Davis, Optimal SolutionsIs your company evaluating or in the midst of an SAP Business Planning and Consolida-tion implementation? Attend this session for expert advice and practical tips to help guarantee high ROI and a successful deploy-ment. By attending, you will:

y Gather the required details to build a business case for implementing SAP Business Planning and Consolidation

y Walk through the steps of a typical implementation cycle as the key milestones, timelines, and resources required during each phase are outlined

y Gain a solid understanding of the SAP Business Planning and Consolidation architecture as the different deploy-ment options are discussed

y Learn answers to the 10 most frequently asked questions surrounding SAP Business Planning and Consolidation implementations

Case study

Building and delivering on the business case for SAP Business Planning and Consolidation 10.0: Strategies from WoodwardSydnie McConnell, WoodwardIdentify the business drivers that sparked Woodward’s decision to move its planning, budgeting, and forecasting processes to SAP Business Planning and Consolidation 10.0. Hear firsthand as the company details:

y What steps it took to internally build the business case to gain management support for a more comprehensive approach to its planning, budgeting, and forecasting processes

y The structure of its implementation project team, including strategies for effective communication between the business and IT

y How it mitigated the project’s impact on ongoing accounting, reporting, and closing activities

y The timeline and phased implementa-tion approach, from planning to go-live

Track 3: SAP Business Planning and Consolidation



17

Planning, budgeting, and forecasting: How to improve planning accuracy and shorten planning cycles through driver-based planning in BPCDavid Dixon, TruQua EnterprisesAttend this session and learn how adopting a driver-based planning approach in SAP Business Planning and Consolidation can enable more “real-time” budgeting and forecasting, whether you are leveraging SAP HANA or not.

y Learn what steps need to be taken to accurately define your financial planning drivers and guidelines

y Examine how driver-based planning provides finance with a much more effective way to help organizations manage in a dynamically changing world

y Walk through an example that illus-trates how to implement a driver-based model to power your rolling reforecasts

Take home an integration framework for pushing planning results out in real-time to other financial applications.

SAPexperts LIVEDriving forecast accuracy: SAP BPC on SAP HANA with predictive analyticsDmitry Faybysh and Graylin Johnson, Optimal Solutions Don’t miss this opportunity to personally meet Dmitry Faybysh, Vice President, and Graylin Johnson, EPM Practice Principal, Optimal Solutions. Engage in an in-depth discussion related to a popular webinar presented in the Financials hub of the SAPexperts knowledgebase — the leading publication and knowledgebase for organi-zations that leverage SAP solutions for finance. Learn how to harness big data to develop predictive forecasts using SAP’s HANA Studio Predictive Analytical Library (PAL) with SAP BPC 10.1 and SAP BPC 10.0.

Case study

How Hunt Consolidated deployed SAP Business Planning and Consolidation on SAP HANA to reduce the time it takes to perform planning and forecasting activitiesJohn Gooch, Hunt ConsolidatedAttend this session for an overview of Hunt Consolidated’s implementation of SAP Business Planning and Consolidation on SAP HANA. Get details on:

y The key areas where the company was able to reduce process times while utilizing SAP Business Planning and Consolidation on SAP HANA

y How the company can now perform a more detailed analysis of actual data versus plan data at a lower level of granularity

y The company’s future roadmap for SAP HANA and SAP Business Planning and Consolidation, including plans to roll it out to additional areas and integrate it with additional business units

Leveraging the SAP Business Planning and Consolidation 10.0 starter kit for US GAAP reportingDavid Hutton, TruQua EnterprisesAttend this session for an in-depth review of the SAP Business Planning and Consol-idation 10.0 starter kit for US GAAP. Take a guided tour through the starter kit and learn:

y How to change and customize the preconfigured US GAAP chart of accounts to suit your company requirements

y How preconfigured input documents, rules, control reports, and financial statements will assist in the performing, validating, and publishing of statutory consolidation reports in accordance with US GAAP

y Tips and tricks for making the most of this free, unified planning, budgeting, and consolidation application from SAP

Track 3: SAP Business Planning and Consolidation


18

Leading practices for forecasting in an actual costing environment David Brown, EYAttend this session for an in-depth look at how to use standard SAP actual costing functionality to better meet your forecast requirements. Learn how SAP supports actual costing using the material ledger and explore:

y How to incorporate the latest market information, such as commodity price changes and material costs in forecasts

y What steps and data are required to improve accuracy of SKU-level forecasts, including revised material pricing, volumes, and budgets

y How to smooth out variances that are the result of build-up and other seasonal differences in quarterly or yearly results

y That latest system functionality in SAP enhancement package 5 that supports calculation of actual costs across multiple company codes

Planning, budgeting, and forecasting: How to improve planning accuracy and shorten planning cycles through driver-based planning in BPCDavid Dixon, TruQua EnterprisesAttend this session and learn how adopting a driver-based planning approach in SAP Business Planning and Consolidation can enable more “real-time” budgeting and forecasting, whether you are leveraging SAP HANA or not.

y Learn what steps need to be taken to accurately define your financial planning drivers and guidelines

y Examine how driver-based planning provides finance with a much more effective way to help organizations manage in a dynamically changing world

y Walk through an example that illus-trates how to implement a driver-based model to power your rolling reforecasts

Take home an integration framework for pushing planning results out in real-time to other financial applications.

Case study

How Hunt Consolidated deployed SAP Business Planning and Consolidation on SAP HANA to reduce the time it takes to perform planning and forecasting activitiesJohn Gooch, Hunt ConsolidatedAttend this session for an overview of Hunt Consolidated’s implementation of SAP Business Planning and Consolidation on SAP HANA. Get details on:

y The key areas where the company was able to reduce process times while utilizing SAP Business Planning and Consolidation on SAP HANA

y How the company can now perform a more detailed analysis of actual data versus plan data at a lower level of granularity

y The company’s future roadmap for SAP HANA and SAP Business Planning and Consolidation, including plans to roll it out to additional areas and integrate it with additional business units

How to create a more integrated business planning process using SAP solutionsMuthu Ranganathan and Pras Chatterjee, SAPOne of the leading goals of CFOs today is to create a more integrated business planning approach that provides a complete view of both financial and operational planning activities, helping them to develop more realistic and dynamic forecasts. Attend this session for practical advice to:

y Implement an end-to-end integrated planning, forecasting, and budgeting process

y Streamline the planning and budgeting process so that, in addition to finance, sales, and operations, it also helps to drive plans and forecasts

y Leverage tools such as SAP Business Planning and Consolidation in conjunc-tion with SAP sales and operational planning functionality, both powered by SAP HANA, to obtain a 360-degree view of the financial landscape

View detailed demonstrations for performing common planning scenarios utilizing both SAP Business Planning and Consolidation and sales and operations planning tools.

2014 guide to SAP Business Planning and Consolidation 10.1Pras Chatterjee, SAP Attend this session for a thorough under-standing of what’s new in the latest release (10.1) of SAP Business Planning and Consoli-dation for SAP NetWeaver.

y See how leveraging the in-memory computing capabilities of SAP HANA in conjunction with SAP Business Planning and Consolidation transforms planning and budgeting processes and increases organizational agility

y Find out how the new version provides a more unified planning model that is based on SAP NetWeaver BW metadata for enterprise-wide planning and consolidation scenarios

y Learn how new functionality will help support more integrated business planning, dynamic modeling, and simulation

y See firsthand the new Web user inter-face in SAP Business Planning and Consolidation 10.1

Enable real-time financial planning with SAP Business Planning and Consolidation powered by SAP HANADavid Roberts, SAPThis session describes the way in which planning and budgeting processes may be transformed by combining the in-memory computing capabilities of SAP HANA with planning algorithms. By attending, you will learn how to:

y Leverage SAP Business Planning and Consolidation powered by SAP HANA to improve the decision-making process by running more planning scenarios simultaneously

y Comply with corporate and regulatory reporting requirements

y Improve planning accuracy and reduce planning cycle time

Hear directly from SAP about its real-time enterprise planning roadmap, including planned enhancements to SAP Business Planning and Consolidation on SAP HANA.

Track 4

Planning, budgeting, and forecasting



19

Strategies for achieving more accurate cash flow forecasting and working capitalMoussa Soukal, Hanse Orga InternationalBest practice shows that by knowing exactly where the cash is, companies can keep liquidity risks in check and invest cash reserves intelligently for the benefit of the company. Examine how optimizing cash flow forecasting can put a business on solid financial ground and learn:

y How to achieve a group-wide overview and control over cash and liquidity

y Strategies for making optimal use of working capital

y Proven tactics for reducing credit risk and executing performance monitoring of its cash position

Achieve excellence with end-to-end financial planning and analytic solutionsMalcolm Faulkner, SAPWith the SAP 360 financial planning and analysis portfolio, finance organizations can deploy a suite of integrated, end-to-end solutions that will help them achieve real-time insight into their financial functions and enable them to be more proactive, strategic, and forward-looking.

y Walk through a complete overview of an end-to-end financial planning lifecycle that begins with strategic planning, moves through detailed planning, budgeting, and forecasting, and, finally, delves down into profit-ability and cost analysis

y Understand how internal monitoring and maintaining compliance with external reporting requirements falls into each phase of the lifecycle

y Examine how three core solutions from SAP — SAP Strategy Management, SAP Business Planning and Consolidation, and SAP Profitability and Cost Manage-ment — combined with SAP analytic tools for reporting and monitoring, enable this process





SAPexperts LIVE

Driving forecast accuracy: SAP BPC on SAP HANA with predictive analyticsDmitry Faybysh and Graylin Johnson, Optimal Solutions Don’t miss this opportunity to personally meet Dmitry Faybysh, Vice President, and Graylin Johnson, EPM Practice Principal, Optimal Solutions. Engage in an in-depth discussion related to a popular webinar presented in the Financials hub of the SAPexperts knowledgebase — the leading publication and knowledgebase for organi-zations that leverage SAP solutions for finance. Learn how to harness big data to develop predictive forecasts using SAP’s HANA Studio Predictive Analytical Library (PAL) with SAP BPC 10.1 and SAP BPC 10.0.





Track 4: Planning, budgeting, and forecasting



20

Track 4: Planning, budgeting, and forecasting

Creating business forecasts using SAP predictive analytics technologiesDavid Dixon, TruQua EnterprisesThrough use case examples and live demon-stration, this session outlines functionality and algorithms for sales forecasting using R programming language vis-à-vis Predic-tive Analysis Library (PAL) functions. Learn how to integrate predictive functionality into planning tools such as SAP Business Planning and Consolidation, SAP NetWeaver BW integrated planning, and the next generation of planning via the Planning Application Kit, and understand:

y The relevant functionality and algorithms for forecasting

y How to integrate predictive models and insights into your business processes

y The data and algorithms used behind the analysis and the challenges and limitations of predictive model

y Different forecasting techniques and how SAP HANA, SAP NetWeaver BW integrated planning, and SAP Business Planning and Consolidation support them

How to more accurately forecast and predict profitable outcomes in SAPMalcolm Faulkner, SAPEvery day more diverse and sophisticated business intelligence tools to assist in the analysis of large data sets are becoming available. Predicting outcomes is one thing, but in order to add value this must be combined with profitability and cost analysis to ensure any strategic redirection is economically viable. Attend this session and learn how:

y Companies can perform predictive analysis with profitability and cost management tools to combine both of these disciplines within a coherent framework

y SAP Profitability and Cost Management expands and compliments SAP Business Planning and Consolidation

y To enhance your SAP Business Planning and Consolidation solution with predic-tive analytics capabilities


21

How to improve your close and disclosure processes with SAP enterprise performance management solutionsJason Reid, SAPAttend this session and get leading practices for achieving a faster, more accurate finan-cial close using the financial closing and disclosure management tools from SAP.

y Find out what steps can be taken to automate workflows, making the assignment of responsibilities and sharing of information across finance teams for more efficient and timely

y Hear firsthand how to simplify the creation, filing, and publication of financial statements

y Examine new ways to gain great visibility into your company’s finances and produce financial statements that instill stakeholder confidence

Case study

Consolidation process improvements at Bank of America using SAP Business Planning and ConsolidationSatish Chalasani and Darena Villalobos, Bank of AmericaExamine how Bank of America successfully consolidated its transactional and master data from SAP and non-SAP sources by migrating to SAP Business Planning and Consolidation 10.0. By attending, you will learn:

y How the financial institution created an end-to-end process for managing core closing activities such as currency conversions, allocations, intercompany eliminations, and legal and manage-ment reporting

y The company’s reconciliation approach, which was rolled out during the project design phase to avoid costly mistakes of data movement errors

y How Bank of America utilizes enhanced reporting features in SAP solutions for EPM 10.0 to generate financial state-ments and reports, such as cash flow, income statements, and balance sheets

Best practices for streamlining the account reconciliation process for a faster closeBob Davenport, BlackLine Systems and Stefan Karl, SAP AGExplore best practices for optimizing the account reconciliation process, whether operating in an SAP-only environment or using multiple ERP/general ledger systems. Learn how to eliminate spreadsheets (and the manual errors that often come with them) from the process and gain:

y Proven tactics for better visibility into and control over the status, progress, exceptions, and risk points around the financial close

y New ways to improve the accuracy and timeliness of compliance reporting, even when managing multiple locations worldwide

y Methods to use standardized templates to help improve quality and consis-tency, and learn how to implement a set of company-wide policies and procedures surrounding the financial close process

How to optimize your SAP design to reduce time–to-closeSiamak Razmazma, ProtivitiAttend this session for real-world advice and step-by-step guidance to accelerate your financial close using process redesign techniques. You will learn how to:

y Accurately assess the current state of the financial close process — including areas of constraints, internal and external factors, and closing sequences and steps — and what dependencies exist in each step

y Better determine what automation opportunities exist during the closing process, especially by leveraging standard SAP functionality

y Realign your closing tasks by optimizing automated controls, closing sequences, dependencies, and deliverables

Lessons to automate intercompany reconciliation to master the period-end closeEric Bramley, DeloitteLearn to automate and simplify inter-company reconciliations and accelerate period-end closes using the intercom-pany reconciliation (ICR) feature in SAP ERP. Attendees will:

y Walk through the basics of intercom-pany transactional processing, including the various methods compa-nies use to record intercompany transactions

y Discover the user exits and enhance-ment spots that can be leveraged to augment the reference data recorded on intercompany transactions

y Explore what additional custom enhancements can be made to augment ICR and facilitate intercom-pany settlement

Mastering business rules and financial consolidation activities in SAP Business Planning and ConsolidationDavid Hutton, TruQua EnterprisesMany companies that leverage SAP Business Planning and Consolidation for consolida-tions use only a fraction of the powerful features, such as business rules, that are available to automate and accelerate the close process. Attend this session to:

y Understand how to build business rules in SAP Business Planning and Consoli-dation to maintain compliance with core accounting principles

y Learn how master data, hierarchies, and ownership data are used by business rules in SAP Business Planning and Consolidation

y Evaluate the different options for building rules in SAP Business Planning and Consolidation and how to deter-mine which is the best fit for your organization

Track 5

Financial closes and consolidations



22

Live demo

SAP solutions to speed up the accounting and financial closeJason Reid, SAPAttend this session for an end-to-end product demo. Learn ways to increase speed, efficiency, and quality in closing the books for your company using both SAP ERP and SAP EPM solutions and explore:

y How to accelerate and reduce the effort of intercompany reconciliations

y The experience of real-time insight into the financial close progress and finan-cial results on your mobile device

y Methods to improve financial state-ment production and management reporting

Leverage new and improved SAP solutions to accelerate your entity closeStefan Karl, SAP AGEnsure that all stakeholders have confidence in your corporate financial reports and receive them on time utilizing SAP’s entity close solutions. Attend this session to learn how to:

y Effectively and efficiently plan, execute, monitor, and analyze your entity close

y Achieve real-time intercompany recon-ciliation and move it off the critical path in your close

y Streamline account reconciliation for SAP or non-SAP ERP systems

Close your books faster? Learn how with SAP financial close solutions powered by SAP HANAKirk Anderson, SAPGet a comprehensive overview of the SAP solutions powered by SAP HANA that help to speed up period-end closing and finan-cial reporting. This session will provide:

y Lessons on utilizing SAP ERP powered by SAP HANA for faster period-end processes and reporting

y Insight into customer cases for improving intercompany and other reconciliations with SAP HANA

y Experiences of leveraging SAP HANA in the consolidation process

y A detailed review of new solutions for financial insight and close monitoring on mobile devices

Expert techniques for making the most of the SAP Financial Closing cockpitGenco Odevci, EYExplore best practices to successfully imple-ment the SAP Financial Closing cockpit to increase the quality and speed of your finan-cial closing processes using automation and task flow functionality. By attending, you will walk through:

y Key business drivers for implementing the SAP Financial Closing cockpit, including the ability to establish a shared, uniform interface where all periodic activities can be documented and made transparent and available to the business, focusing on SAP Closing Cockpit in SAP ERP 6.0

y A review of the functionality within the SAP Closing Cockpit in SAP ERP 6.0 with a focus on how to approach the initial design and key decision points regarding close hierarchy, multiple versus single templates and template maintenance ownership

y Tips for managing the SAP Closing Cockpit deployment when it’s part of a larger scoped SAP engagement

y Tips to more efficiently monitor your entire closing status and to drill down into your organization’s important financial closing details during close period

y A list of next generation closing cockpit features found in the SAP Financial Closing Cockpit 2.0 add-on

Case study

How General Motors utilizes SAP Financial Closing cockpit to ensure a complete and comprehensive regional closeChristine Chronowski, General MotorsManaging a regional financial close can be challenging, especially for an organization as large as General Motors. Learn how General Motors tackled this challenge and designed a more controlled close process using the SAP Financial Closing cockpit and explore how the company:

y Evaluated the legacy processes within its financial close to find a solution that would meet the business requirements while minimizing custom development

y Utilized the SAP Financial Closing cockpit tool to track all month-end tasks and ensure a comprehensive and complete close

y Created a design that included custom control tables to identify required monthly entries, which facilitated the update of SAP Financial Closing cockpit task statuses

Track 5: Financial closes and consolidations


23

Designing a chart of accounts that supports fast closes and smoother reportingKyle Lindquist, PwCExamine critical success factors for more effectively designing and maintaining your chart of accounts (COA). By attending this session, you will learn how to:

y Tailor the SAP chart of accounts design to meet the challenges of multiple financial reporting regulations

y Develop a well-governed structure to manage bank accounts, tax and regula-tory reporting, globalization, SAP system requirements, and manage-ment reporting

y Utilize simple and basic logic in your COA design

Come away with proven COA techniques to improve reporting and accelerate the finan-cial close process.

Uncover new business insights by combining SAP HANA with analytic solutions Henner Schliebs, SAPExplore how you can leverage SAP HANA in combination with SAP’s analytics solutions to help finance teams derive meaningful insights, in real time, and to predict trends and act decisively. By attending, you will:

y Understand the key capabilities of SAP’s applied analytics solutions, such as SAP Net Margin Analysis, and SAP HANA Sentiment Intelligence, to help you quickly leverage new innovations in analytics

y Step through use case examples to see how integration of unstructured data, such as social media or big data, with internal business data using SAP HANA and SAP’s analytics solutions helps deliver new insights to better model and predict business outcomes

y Understand how to leverage SAP’s innovations in analytics to identify new business strategies and opportunities

Understanding the impact of SAP HANA on SAP ERP Financials solutions Carsten Hilker, SAP AmericaAttend this session and find out how in-memory technology from SAP is driving significant enhancements within SAP ERP Financials systems. You will:

y Get an overview of SAP HANA solution offerings for finance and best practices for leveraging them to accelerate critical financial activities

y Learn how to centralize accounting and cash management processes while avoiding costly ERP back-end consoli-dations using SAP HANA

y Explore key decisions and success factors from numerous customer implementations of SAP HANA acceler-ators for SAP FI and CO

y Get a better understanding of the prerequisites and migration paths to build an SAP HANA adoption roadmap for finance

Case study

How New Balance Athletic Shoe continues to leverage BPC to meet financial and management reporting needsTodd Paulauskas, New Balance Athletic ShoeDiscover how New Balance Athletic Shoe continues to challenge its paradigm to drive financial efficiencies, generate process improvements, and ultimately bring more value to the financial community and execu-tive management teams using SAP Business Planning and Consolidation 7.5 for Micro-soft. Attend to learn how the company:

y Reduced the duration of its worldwide monthly financial close process

y Increased user adoption by leveraging BPC functionality to share knowledge and information


Generating more accurate cash flow statements in SAP Business Planning and Consolidation Ilan Gil, EYAttend this session for an up-close look at how to automate your cash flow reporting in SAP Business Planning and Consolidation to improve report quality and reduce your time-to-close. This session will walk you through four methods, including detailed examples and an evaluation of the pros and cons of each.




Guidelines for using SAP Net Margin Analysis for interactive, graphical analysis of profit and margins Henner Schliebs, SAPThis session provides a comprehensive introduction to SAP Net Margin Analysis, a newly released analytics solution from SAP. By attending, you will learn:

y What new capabilities are available to bring together revenue and direct costs from CO-PA with indirect or cost-to-serve costs from SAP Profitability and Cost Management, cost center accounting or external systems

y How to identify profit-generating and profit-destroying customers, products, and activities using the interactive, graphical analysis and simulation tools

y About the solution and its capabilities, and see for yourself how SAP Net Margin Analysis can be easily employed at your own organization

Track 6

Financial reports, analyses, and business intelligence



24

Where is your SAP controlling data hiding? Tips and techniques for identifying and analyzing CO dataRohana Gunawardena, Quality Systems & SoftwareThis session provides critical insight to help you identify and interpret key SAP control-ling (CO) master data and transaction data tables. Take home the knowledge to:

y Link data behind the scenes in the SAP database to data that your end users can display

y Write data specifications for custom report development using report writer, ABAP, or SAP NetWeaver BW

y Troubleshoot complex CO processes by analyzing raw data using SE16 and SE17

y Use a CO object number to trace data

How to leverage document splitting to enable full financial statement reporting Eric Bramley, DeloitteLearn how the SAP General Ledger document splitter in SAP ECC 6.0 can enhance financial reporting by enabling fully balanced financial statements by business segment and profit center.

y Step through the basic document split-ting concepts, including an overview of document splitter, with examples of different transactions – such as accounts receivable invoices, accounts payable invoices, and cash applications

y Learn the mechanics of the document splitter, specifically different methods that are employed to split documents

y Learn how to enable document splitter through configuration steps, including use of the new configuration wizard

y See how profit center organizational design can influence document split-ting requirements and what the best practices for profit center design are in order to maximize the capabilities of the document splitter






Case study

How Shell International B.V. achieved faster financial closes and enhanced cross-divisional financial and management reporting Ian Millea and Menno van Vechgel, Shell International B.V.Discover how Shell International B.V. delivers a standardized, organizationally aligned, and vertically integrated financial consoli-dation and management reporting solution for over 1,500 users globally. Attend to learn how the company:

y Reduced the duration of its worldwide monthly financial close process with an integrated SAP Financial Consolidation 10.0 and SAP BusinessObjects BI 4.0 environment

y Integrated both SAP NetWeaver BW and non-SAP datasets with the SAP solutions for EPM suite


Leave this session with key insights into custom solutions delivered to Shell by SAP that will soon be made available to all customers in future support packs.

Case study

How McKesson implemented CO-PA on SAP HANA for improved financial reportingRoss Wilson, McKessonAttend this session for an overview of McKesson’s implementation of CO-PA on SAP HANA. Learn why the company used the CO-PA rapid deployment solution to introduce SAP HANA technology via an accelerated implementation approach and hear firsthand:

y Specific financial reporting scenarios at McKesson being supported by CO-PA on SAP HANA

y Project challenges with the initial CO-PA on SAP HANA pilot and how the project was enhanced to provide real business value to McKesson

y Why McKesson decided to leverage SAP BusinessObjects reporting directly on SAP HANA

y Insight into McKesson’s roadmap for SAP HANA, including plans to roll it out to additional functional areas and leverage it as a primary data warehouse in place of SAP NetWeaver BW

Leveraging the SAP Business Planning and Consolidation 10.0 starter kit for US GAAP reportingDavid Hutton, TruQua EnterprisesAttend this session for an in-depth review of the SAP Business Planning and Consol-idation 10.0 starter kit for US GAAP. Take a guided tour through the starter kit and learn:

y How to change and customize the preconfigured US GAAP chart of accounts to suit your company requirements

y How preconfigured input documents, rules, control reports, and financial statements will assist in the performing, validating, and publishing of statutory consolidation reports in accordance with US GAAP

y Tips and tricks for making the most of this free, unified planning, budgeting, and consolidation application from SAP

Track 6: Financial reports, analyses, and business intelligence



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Critical reporting strategies that every finance team should knowCarsten Hilker, SAP AmericaFinancial reporting in SAP was easy to comprehend when it was primarily included in individual SAP applications. Since then, numerous reporting functionality changes have taken place, from the data warehouse to pre-formatted reporting and dashboard business intelligence tools. Attend this session and delve into the following reporting options for your SAP data:

y Standard reporting and pre-defined analytics

y Embedded analytics

y Mobile reporting

y SAP BusinessObjects BI reporting capabilities

Come away from this session with critical tips and techniques to smoothly and productively execute your next financials reporting project.

How to improve transfer pricing in SAP: A strategic approach using SAP BusinessObjects BI Prabhukumar Chinnakonda, KPMG Attend this session and learn how to successfully achieve optimal transfer pricing and inter-company profitability across the complex supply chains of multiple financial systems.

y Get tips on how to more efficiently monitor product level price changes against established profit level indica-tors (PLI) in near real-time basis

y Learn what SAP technology compo-nents for automation combined with SAP BusinessObjects BI exist and how to use them as an effective tool for tax and finance organizations

y Walk through practical advice on how to avoid complex, time consuming and manual generation of transfer price compliance reports

y Find out what steps to take to eliminate the need for year and quarter end large transfer pricing adjustments

Leading practices for preparing FERC-compliant reportsDavid Cohen, EYThis session will review several options in SAP which can be used to comply with FERC financial reporting requirements.

y Find out why FERC financial reporting requirements remain a challenge to customers as they often involve a more complex legal structure

y Walk through the initial and basic SAP ECC solution offered as part of IS-Utili-ties (US) module and learn how reports can be generated using SAP’s special ledger and month-end allocations

y See what capabilities exist for integrating SAP Business Planning and Consolidation with the SAP General Ledger to more efficiently monitor and improve reporting results that are focused on operations

y Examine the recent SAP enhancement package and how it allows for the capture of cost for service and mainte-nance at an operations level, eliminating the need for custom fields

Creating business forecasts using SAP predictive analytics technologiesDavid Dixon, TruQua EnterprisesThrough use case examples and live demon-stration, this session outlines functionality and algorithms for sales forecasting using R programming language vis-à-vis Predic-tive Analysis Library (PAL) functions. Learn how to integrate predictive functionality into planning tools such as SAP Business Planning and Consolidation, SAP NetWeaver BW integrated planning, and the next generation of planning via the Planning Application Kit, and understand:

y The relevant functionality and algorithms for forecasting

y How to integrate predictive models and insights into your business processes

y The data and algorithms used behind the analysis and the challenges and limitations of predictive model

y Different forecasting techniques and how SAP HANA, SAP NetWeaver BW integrated planning, and SAP Business Planning and Consolidation support them

Track 6: Financial reports, analyses, and business intelligence


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Achieve more predictable financial performance with a sound enterprise performance management strategy Bob Paladino, Bob Paladino & AssociatesCorporate and business unit leaders often rely on lagging indicators to make forward-looking strategic and operational decisions using imperfect data. Attend this session, and listen in as Bob Paladino, a global best-selling author shares a framework for building a balanced performance manage-ment approach across financial, customer, partner, process, technology, and people dimensions. By attending, you will learn:

y The most effective ways to identify the KPIs and measures that provide deeper insight into business performance

y Best practices for utilizing predictive analytics to help guide decision making

y Leading approaches other companies have taken to better manage value drivers, create accurate forecasts, and support scenario planning

The 2014 guide to SAP enterprise performance management (EPM) solutionsDavid Williams, SAPThis session provides an overview and roadmap for SAP enterprise performance management (EPM) solutions — including strategy management, planning and consolidation, and profitability and cost management capabilities. Attend to learn how:

y To manage financial performance with strategy management, planning, and profitability and cost management capabilities

y To leverage mobile, cloud computing, and in-memory technology to trans-form EPM processes to deliver measurable business benefits, such as more visibility into planning and profit-ability activities

y SAP EPM solutions fit into your existing landscape, whether it includes SAP ERP, SAP NetWeaver BW, or SAP Business-Objects Business Intelligence solutions

Extending key performance management processes with SAP BusinessObjects BI 4.0Sean Johnson, SAPEvaluate strategies to extend and integrate SAP enterprise performance manage-ment (EPM) solutions, such as SAP Business Planning and Consolidation and SAP Profit-ability and Cost Management with SAP BusinessObjects BI 4.1. During this session, you will:

y Explore the features, functionality, and integration points of the recently released Feature Pack 3 for SAP BusinessObjects BI 4.1 and see how it has been optimized to enhance the performance of your EPM applications

y Examine tools and strategies for devel-oping an optimal reporting and analytics strategy using a combination of the tools

y Explore the benefits of a combined analysis, planning, and performance management solution, from increased reporting flexibility and enhanced performance to reduced risk of data entry errors

How to visualize your forecast data using EPM and mobile technologyScott Cairncross, TruQua EnterprisesAttend this session for detailed review of the available options for visualizing your SAP Business Planning and Consolidation data on a mobile device. Attend this session to:

y Learn what various options are avail-able to SAP customers within the EPM mobile space for forecasting data

y See firsthand how SAP EPM Unwired, an SAP mobile application, connects directly to SAP Business Planning and Consolidation

y Walk through a decision tree to under-stand when it makes the most sense to use EPM Unwired versus SAP Busines-sObjects Mobile App or a custom solution to visualize your EPM data on a mobile devices

How to improve your close and disclosure processes with SAP enterprise performance management solutionsJason Reid, SAPAttend this session and get leading practices for achieving a faster, more accurate finan-cial close using the financial closing and disclosure management tools from SAP.

y Find out what steps can be taken to automate workflows, making the assignment of responsibilities and sharing of information across finance teams for more efficient and timely

y Hear firsthand how to simplify the creation, filing, and publication of financial statements

y Examine new ways to gain great visibility into your company’s finances and produce financial statements that instill stakeholder confidence

Track 7

Enterprise performance management



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EPM and mobility: Capabilities, integration points, and process decisionsKaruna Mukherjea, SAPThis session provides guidance for lever-aging SAP Enterprise Performance Management (EPM) capabilities to drive mobile performance management within your organization. Attend to:

y Understand the key benefits of having financial processes available on a mobile device to create a more agile and productive finance organization

y Learn what SAP mobile solutions for enterprise performance management are available today

y Get tips on how to successfully leverage SAP BusinessObjects Mobile during your SAP Enterprise Perfor-mance Management deployment to enhance the reporting and analytical capabilities on a mobile deviceLive demo

Live Demo

Mobile performance management with SAP EPM Unwired 3.0Sean Johnson, SAPAttend this session for an end-to-end product demo. Learn ways to manage and analyze your enterprise performance data anywhere and anytime and explore how to:

y View, analyze, and input planning and consolidation data on the iPad

y More easily view strategy management reports

y Display data and analyze key metrics from the SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence platform

Track 7: Enterprise performance management


28

Best practices to design and implement solutions for evolving trends in accounts payable and accounts receivableBrian Shannon, DolphinExplore your options for designing a successful global near-cash platform and take an in-depth look at how to plan, launch, and track your SAP working capital initiatives. Hear best practices from the field to tackle the challenges of a global process solution and learn:

y How to manage the evolution of inbound documents in your SAP system for accounts payable (AP) and accounts receivable (AR), while addressing cash management and control needs

y A harmonized approach for optimizing AP and AR that delivers significant benefits which span the categories of cost containment, cash flow optimiza-tion, and risk mitigation

y How to leverage automated capture technologies, workflow models, and document storage options that don’t deviate from organizational standards

Key factors that can make or break your accounts payable automation projectBlake Evans, ReadSoftLearn what every process owner on the business and IT side should know when embarking on an accounts payable automation project. Don’t miss this candid discussion of key project considerations that can either catapult your project to success or drive it to a screeching halt. In this session, you will:

y Examine critical considerations when it comes to your solution architecture

y Learn everything you need to know about your implementation options

y Gather advice on how to be in the best shape to go live with your solution

y Explore what levels of consulting services and support you may need, and how to make the most of your relationship with your automation vendor

Case study

How Johnson Controls built a more sustainable accounts payable processSreenadh Kundurthy, Johnson ControlsLearn how Johnson Controls’ global shared services organization tackled standardiza-tion issues presented by multiple business divisions in multiple industries using multiple ERP systems. Hear firsthand:

y What deficiencies and gaps its outsourced accounts payable and reporting solution created and the in-house process that was developed to resolve such issues

y How it created an efficient centralized global shared services process

y The process it now uses to address invoice receipt, workflow initiation, approvals and exceptions, posting, payments, and analytics

Take away a listing of the key pain points Johnson Controls experienced with its accounts payable processes and how it overcame them.

Transform your accounts payable function with a more streamlined invoice-to-pay processBernhard Fischer, SAP AGAccounts payable managers need to ensure consistency and drive process efficiency across the payables function. Learn how to transform the more tactical business functions of your accounts payable process into a competitive advantage and explore:

y Key tactics to ensure consistency and drive process efficiency across the payables function

y How to digitize the invoice-to-pay process for both purchase order and non-purchase order invoices using the Ariba Network

y Tips to eliminate labor-intensive invoice receipt and reconciliation, freeing your staff to focus on more value-add functions

y Critical success factors when embarking on an invoice automation project and the key benefits

Track 8

Accounts payable



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Creating controls to monitor purchasing and accounts payable processes in SAPGordon Roland, PwCInternal mistakes, fraud, and vendor incon-sistencies all can wreak havoc on your accounts payable and purchasing activi-ties. Understand how to implement both standard ERP and SAP GRC functionality to solve these common problems within the purchase-to-payables process. Attend this session and learn:

y What different options exist in SAP ERP standard configuration, SAP Process Control, and SAP Fraud Management to help combat these areas of financial loss

y The key steps you’ll need to take to implement each and how they can be integrated to build a well-rounded efficient improper payment mitigation program

y Critical success factors from real-world projects implemented to combat these issues and the ROI that has since been achieved

Case study

How Great-West Financial optimizes its accounts payable processes with limited purchasing integrationSusan Topping, Great-West FinancialAttend this session and hear how Great-West Financial’s, an international financial company optimized its accounts payable processes. Learn how the company manages more complex accounting entries from a spreadsheet and stream-lines the approval, reminder, and escalation processes, delivering greater benefits to the business.

y Gain insights into the best practices of Great-West Financials accounts payable process, which now include data capture, processing and analytical elements

y Learn how the company automated its manual approval management processes to speed postings

y Hear firsthand what continuous improvement activities Great-West Financial is continuing to undertake

Track 8: Accounts Payable


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Accelerate your order-to-cash cycle with SAP receivables managementMartin Naraschewsk, SAP AGLearn about the new innovations and capabilities in the area of receivables management that will help you accelerate your order-to-cash cycle, including the newly developed mobile applications, SAP Receivables Manager, SAP Customer Finan-cial Fact Sheet, and SAP Working Capital Analytics. Receive an overview of SAP Collections and Dispute Management, SAP Credit Management, and SAP Biller Direct, and learn how to more efficiently:

y Reduce days sales outstanding (DSO) and bad debt write-offs

y Improve customer relationship management

y Increase data quality and transparency

y Mobilize back-office operations directly to your customers

Take charge of collections management: How to better manage your financial supply chainJeffrey Arnold, DeloitteThis session provides valuable insight on how to streamline your debt collections processes, reduce avoidable write-offs and payment delays, and achieve a more proac-tive customer follow-up. Gain insight to:

y Set up an effective collection strategy, collection organization, and collection hierarchy

y Understand the new functionalities for collections management available as part of enhancement pack 5

y Quickly and smoothly track customer receivables throughout its lifecycle and learn how to set up an installment plan and use promise-to-pay to help expedite cash application

View a demo of the new functionalities of promise-to-pay, integrated customer corre-spondence, integrated dunning and ability to enter notes at the invoice level from SAP Collections and Dispute Management.

Electronic invoicing: Top 10 misconceptions and issues facing SAP teamsSteve Sprague, Invoiceware InternationalIn this session, a leading expert will break down the key issues and challenges of e-invoicing that many SAP teams face. Leave this session with a full understanding of:

y Current use cases for e-invoicing:

– The US and European model

– Latin America: Brazil and Mexico

– Accounts Receivable versus Accounts Payable

y The strengths and weaknesses of e-invoicing with regard to supplier networks, accounts payable, supplier management, and the financial supply chain

y Strategies to combat the top 10 most common issues around e-invoicing — from coping with legal requirements to managing digital signatures

How to enhance user visibility and accountability for efficient customer deduction resolution utilizing SAP Collections and Dispute ManagementJeffrey Arnold, DeloitteGain valuable tips on how to harness customer account receivables deduction balances using SAP Collections and Dispute Management. Find out how to:

y Utilize key features of SAP Collections and Dispute Management to identify, resolve, and analyze customer deductions

y Automatically create and assign dispute cases based on customer short pay reason

y Analyze customer deduction reporting to understand root cause and identify short payment abuse behaviors

Take home a worksheet that will guide you through the setup of building a deduction resolution process based on each deduc-tion reason type within SAP Collections and Dispute Management.

Case study

How State Industrial streamlined the order-to-cash process while automating receivables management functionsBill Rady, State IndustrialExamine State Industrial’s implementa-tion of an integrated, on-demand payment processing and tokenization approach to streamline its order-to-cash process. Come away with a clear understanding of:

y How the company got it right — the first time — by aligning and mapping business process design with configu-ration requirements of SAP receivables management functionality

y Critical technical innovations that State Industrial deployed and how moving its accounts receivable processes to the cloud cut costs associated with PCI compliance

y How the company achieved its end goal of decreased payment costs, reduced PCI compliance costs, automated account receivables, and improved customer service

Track 9

Receivables management



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Track 9: Receivables management

A comprehensive guide to analyzing and improving your accounts receivables processesMallika Ramamurthy, KPMGThis session arms you with field tested advice from real-world accounts receivable projects. Get tips to overcome common roadblocks associated with inefficient and fragmented credit, collections, and dispute processes . During this session:

y Understand the full range of SAP accounts receivables management functionality that supports these activi-ties and know the steps required to implement it

y Receive best practices for automatically creating and closing dispute cases, and hear examples that will help your organization add extremely valuable process tracking attributes to your dispute management reports

y What new features will be in included in receivables management with functionality with SAP enhancement package 6

Case study

Yaskawa Electric America reduces days sales outstanding and reduces bad debt write-offs with improved collections and dispute resolution processesElizabeth Chamorro and Sarita Doddi, Yaskawa Electric America Hear firsthand Yaskawa Electric America’s experiences with the implementation of SAP Collections and Dispute Management to streamline the collections process and reduce dispute resolution time. During this session:

y Examine the organization’s rationale for selecting SAP Collections and Dispute Management to support these processes, including its system flexi-bility and ease of use for collections and disputes staff and flexible configu-ration options

y Find out how the company is now able to avoid bad debt write-offs by identi-fying dispute and payment issues earlier in the collections process

y Get practical advice from the company’s experiences in standardizing its collec-tions processes to dramatically optimize the credit-to-cash process and accelerate cash flows


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Transform your procure-to-pay process with Ariba and SAP Invoice Management Tom Walker, OpenText, Bernhard Fischer, SAP AGThis session will review how to utilize the cloud-based Ariba Network and, in turn, integrate it with on-premise SAP Invoice Management to enable seamless capture and processing of vendor invoices in a global environment. Come away with a clear understanding of:

y How to enhance vendor inquires and to improve cash management through dynamic discounting

y Methods to best utilize the vendor network channel in Ariba

y How your corporation can utilize these SAP-centric solutions to eliminate technology clutter while driving profit increases to the bottom line

View a live demonstration that details how to process a purchase-order-based invoice and a non-purchase-order-based invoice through out-of-the-box integrated Ariba Network and SAP Invoice Management.

Live demo

Better cash management using SAP Arif Esa, SAPLearn how you can use the SAP financial solutions to get greater visibility and control over your cash and liquidity management. See firsthand how to:

y Balance your operating cash flows using a single, integrated solution that leverages centralized data that’s always up to date

y Overcome common challenges associ-ated with working capital management and liquidity planning programs

Accelerate your order-to-cash cycle with SAP receivables managementMartin Naraschewsk, SAP AGLearn about the new innovations and capabilities in the area of receivables management that will help you accelerate your order-to-cash cycle, including the newly developed mobile applications, SAP Receivables Manager, SAP Customer Finan-cial Fact Sheet, and SAP Working Capital Analytics. Receive an overview of SAP Collections and Dispute Management, SAP Credit Management, and SAP Biller Direct, and learn how to more efficiently:

y Reduce days sales outstanding (DSO) and bad debt write-offs

y Improve customer relationship management

y Increase data quality and transparency

y Mobilize back-office operations directly to your customers

A comprehensive guide to improve cash management and liquidityArif Esa, SAPThis session examines the strategies, challenges, and technologies you need to master in order to streamline your cash management and liquidity activities. In this session, you will:

y Get tips on how to establish a fully integrated payment factory with centralized monitoring and tracking of all company payments

y Identify other options for easy bank connectivity to the secure and reliable infrastructure of the Society for World-wide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT) Network

y Learn how to streamline and simplify inter-unit, cross-border, and cross-currency payments

Leave this session with a sneak peek at the latest treasury innovations, such as managing cash using SAP HANA.

Increase bank payment flow transparency and reduce transaction costs Blaise Scioli, e5 Solutions GroupThis session examines best practices in bank administration and how to best utilize your existing SAP ERP Financials infrastruc-ture to support this critical control function. Attendees will:

y Get expert recommendations on how to evaluate key aspects of bank account analysis (bank fee analysis), bank structure management, account maintenance and administration, BAM vs. eBAM, Foreign Bank Account reporting, and bank relationship management

y Learn how to properly use SAP Business Workflow to automate bank administration processes

y Receive tips for obtaining, storing, and maintaining an accurate, controlled inventory of banks, branches, accounts, and signers, and techniques to maximize standard functionality or additional options that are available to extend your capabilities


Track 10

Cash, treasury, and liquidity management


33

Generating more accurate cash flow statements in SAP Business Planning and Consolidation Ilan Gil, EYAttend this session for an up-close look at how to automate your cash flow reporting in SAP Business Planning and Consolidation to improve report quality and reduce your time–to-close. This session will walk you through four methods, including detailed examples and an evaluation of the pros and cons of each.




`Manage cash flows and reduce bank costs with an integrated treasury systemPrem Ramlal, EYAn integrated treasury application is critical to effectively manage growing financial demands and volatile markets and reduce manual back-office processes. Learn how to provide your treasury department with the real-timedata and information required to make accurate and timely cash manage-ment decisions and:

y Get proven tips to identify and centralize the data sources from the following treasury applications: SAP In-House Cash, SAP Bank Communica-tion Management, and SAP Cash and Liquidity Management

y Monitor multiple bank statements (SWIFT, multi-cash, lockbox, etc.) for day-to-day reconciliations and payments while also integrating your financial system with multiple banking institutions

y Utilize SAP Cash and Liquidity Manage-ment to help forecast you organization’s cash position for the current day, next few days, or week

How to enhance the credit approval process using documented credit decision functionalityMayur Iyyanki, PwCBased on a real-life customer example, learn how to configure and enable SAP function-ality for credit management. Find out how to set up an IT framework that supports seamless communication between you and your business partner so that credit decisions can be made based on real-time information and learn:

y How to configure SAP credit manage-ment to manage multiple scenarios for SD credit updates

y Configuration and support consider-ations related to running SAP Credit Management in a global environment

y Tips to troubleshoot, analyze errors, and reorganize credit data when necessary

Walk away with a checklist that will help you configure the automatic credit management functionality step by step.

Strategies for achieving more accurate cash flow forecasting and working capitalMoussa Soukal, Hanse Orga InternationalBest practice shows that by knowing exactly where the cash is, companies can keep liquidity risks in check and invest cash reserves intelligently for the benefit of the company. Examine how optimizing cash flow forecasting can put a business on solid financial ground and learn:

y How to achieve a group-wide overview and control over cash and liquidity

y Strategies for making optimal use of working capital

y Proven tactics for reducing credit risk and executing performance monitoring of its cash position

Recent enhancements and innovations in SAP Treasury and Risk ManagementArif Esa, SAP AGDiscover the recent innovations and latest enhancements that now exist in the area of treasury and risk management, specifi-cally those surrounding SAP HANA, legal compliance enhancements, and innovations for financial risk management, including commodity risk management. During this session, examine:

y How the treasury and risk manage-ment solution leverages recent SAP HANA innovations in conjunction with a new user interface and smart business applications

y Leading methods for maintaining compliance with regulations as defined by EMIR and the Dodd Frank Act

y More effective methods for managing the volatility of the market and mitigate the risk with the information you need using SAP Commodity Management

Strategies for reducing financial spend: How to properly manage global discounting initiatives within an SAP systemMarkus Ament, TauliaLearn how to develop, implement, and execute a global discounting initia-tive within your SAP system to maximize discount amounts and lower total spend. Come away with a clear understanding of:

y How applying dynamic discounts can result in significantly improved discount capture rates for large buyers while at the same time helping suppliers to reduce working capital

y Real-world examples that detail how to better manage suppliers through the use of discounting groups

y Leading practices on discount rate thresholds and tips for managing various segmentation brackets based on specific supplier criteria and market trends

y Compliance issues that must be addressed when implementing a dynamic discounting initiative, including those surrounding Sarbanes-Oxley

Track 10: Cash, treasury, and liquidity management


34

Disruptive innovation, technology trends, and the new world of finance: What to do now to prepareJohn E. Steele, Jr., DeloitteWhen it comes to finance, change is accel-erating — and your business strategy needs to take this into account. This session walks you through specific steps you can take to leverage technology trends to add value to and support financial transformation. Attend to:

y Obtain strategies to develop a “heat map” for finance transformation initiatives

y Learn about the concept of process capabilities and how focusing on them can drive business transformation results

y Understand what role SAP HANA, mobility, and analytics play in a finance transformation project

The future of finance: SAP’s roadmap for finance solutionsMartin Naraschewski, SAP AGTake a guided tour of SAP’s portfolio of solutions for the finance line of business and hear how these enhanced solutions help to address new challenges in finance using the latest technologies, such as mobile, in-memory computing, and cloud.

y Find out what functionality is available to reduce the cost of finance and free up time for value-added activities

y Get tips to improve service levels by empowering your team with better access to information

y Step through SAP’s roadmap for solutions that support critical financial processes, including invoice-to-pay, receivables management, treasury, financial risk management, travel expense management, and the finan-cial close

Leave this session with a thorough under-standing of how SAP’s solutions can help your organization achieve best-in-class financial excellence.

How to create a more integrated business planning process using SAP solutionsMuthu Ranganathan and Pras Chatterjee, SAPOne of the leading goals of CFOs today is to create a more integrated business planning approach that provides a complete view of both financial and operational planning activities, helping them to develop more realistic and dynamic forecasts. Attend this session for practical advice to:

y Implement an end-to-end integrated planning, forecasting, and budgeting process

y Streamline the planning and budgeting process so that, in addition to finance, sales, and operations, it also helps to drive plans and forecasts

y Leverage tools such as SAP Business Planning and Consolidation in conjunc-tion with SAP sales and operational planning functionality, both powered by SAP HANA, to obtain a 360-degree view of the financial landscape

View detailed demonstrations for performing common planning scenarios utilizing both SAP Business Planning and Consolidation and sales and operations planning tools.

How to add collaboration capabilities to core financial processes using the Ariba NetworkRichard Downs, Ariba an SAP CompanyLearn how adding the collaborative technology of the Ariba Network enables companies using SAP ERP Financials to more easily connect with external trading partners to fuel better commerce. During this session, you will:

y Find out what capabilities the Ariba Network provides to finance teams

y Walk through proven strategies for incorporating a collaborative finance model into your existing financial landscape and see the cash savings opportunities that can result

y Examine the technical landscape requirements for network connectivity and what rapid deployment solutions are available

Mobilize your finance organization using SAP mobility solutionsKaruna Mukherjea, SAPMobile enterprise enablement is no longer an option — it is a necessity. Managers and users increasingly rely on mobile devices to access and share critical financial informa-tion. Explore the latest mobility applications from SAP for finance teams and learn how to:

y Extend enterprise capabilities such as transactional processes, travel expenses, and approval workflows for payments to mobile devices

y Empower managers to manage their budgets more effectively, spend strate-gically, and identify expense issues quickly using the SAP RealSpend mobile app

y Assess your customers’ financial situa-tions using the SAP Customer Financial Fact Sheet mobile app

How to evolve shared services into a top-performing global business serviceBernhard Fischer, SAP AGThis session will discuss how to transform your shared service environment in the area of SAP ERP Financials from incubation stage to service delivery excellence by lever-aging the latest shared service technologies available from SAP. Walk through a proven approach for delivering an integrated service delivery platform for all financial and adminis-trative functions and learn how to:

y Enable end-to-end process integration and automation to achieve greater productivity, efficiency, transparency, and high-quality service

y Achieve optimal levels of productivity while syndicating best practices and projecting their benefits across the entire organization

y Facilitate more effective communication between the service center and its client

y Drive significant cost savings in the financials arena by increasing its scope beyond the transaction and supporting the end-to-end delivery of services in finance


Track 11

Emerging technologies for finance


35

Panel discussion

Determining an effective and relevant strategy for your financial planning and consolidation improvement initiativesModerated by: William Miller, MI6 Solutions Group Panelists: Eric Wojcik, MI6 Solutions Group, Peter Jones, MI6 Solutions Group, Thomas Yoder, MI6 Solutions Group, Michael Wolf, MI6 Solutions GroupCreating an end-to-end business process for financial consolidations and planning using SAP involves many applications, such as SAP General Ledger, SAP NetWeaver Business Warehouse (SAP NetWeaver BW) and SAP Business Planning and Consolida-tion, and potentially others. Listen to a panel of leading experts to:

y Learn what integration capabilities exist within each of these tools to help expedite your financial planning and consolidation activities

y Explore real-world experiences and key concepts to consider when starting an implementation, upgrade, or enhancement

y Understand not only the accounting challenges involved in a financial planning and consolidation initiative, but also the challenges that surround your IT systems, processes, and people

EPM and mobility: Capabilities, integration points, and process decisionsKaruna Mukherjea, SAPThis session provides guidance for lever-aging SAP Enterprise Performance Management (EPM) capabilities to drive mobile performance management within your organization. Attend to:

y Understand the key benefits of having financial processes available on a mobile device to create a more agile and productive finance organization

y Learn what SAP mobile solutions for enterprise performance management are available today

y Get tips on how to successfully leverage SAP BusinessObjects Mobile during your SAP Enterprise Perfor-mance Management deployment to enhance the reporting and analytical capabilities on a mobile device

Achieve financial excellence: Empowering finance with real-time insightBirgit Starmanns, SAPAttend this session to see how new innova-tions, powered by SAP HANA, are delivered with SAP solutions for Finance, and how they can be used to empower finance teams with real-time insight to proactively enable strategic, forward-looking decisions. You will learn how to:

y Exploit key capabilities in the Finance portfolio to improve end-to-end compliance and predict the financial implications of strategic decisions

y Leverage customizable dashboards with key performance indicators that are calculated in real time to gain instant access to information

y Use comprehensive modeling and simulation tools with predictive capabilities to better prepare the organization to respond to anticipated market situations

Step through live demos for insight into the latest innovations in applications, analytics, cloud, mobility, and collaboration available in the Finance portfolio.

Improve employee productivity with SAP Fiori apps for finance teamsJanet Salmon, SAP AGTake an up-close look at SAP Fiori, a collection of SAP mobile apps that were developed based on the most frequently used SAP software functions, and learn how it can benefit the finance team. Through lecture and examples from organizations that have successfully rolled out SAP Fiori, you will:

y Explore SAP Fiori functionality to address the most common business functions related to finance, such as expenses, timesheets, purchase orders, and requisitions

y Get a firsthand look at how the SAP Fiori app works across multiple devices, from desktops to tablets and smartphones

y Get tips for providing cross-device support without the need for a core software upgrade

Understanding the impact of cloud on your financial technology Neil Krefsky, SAPNo department in your organization is more dependent on the integration of existing core financial solutions, complex workflows and in many cases homegrown technol-ogies, than the finance department. At the same time no other function stands to benefit as much by embracing next generation technologies. Emerging cloud technologies not only pose a significant acquisition, deployment and operations costs reduction, they also enable the finance function to scale the investments and best practices already made enterprise-wide. This session will explore

y How finance executives are exercising discipline and rigor to strike the right balance between existing and emerging technologies within their finance functions and operations

y Innovative strategies and best practices for a multi-tier SAP ERP and financial strategy that combines both on-premise and cloud solutions to enable seamless and compliant operations

A preview of the next generation accounting solution powered by SAP HANAStefan Karl, SAP AGJoin this session for an overview and demo of concepts, functionality, and user experi-ence of SAP’s next-generation accounting solution powered by SAP HANA. Attend to learn about

y Single source of truth for financial and management accounting

y Line-item based approach delivering unlimited flexibility in processing and financial reporting

y Consumer-grade UIs for business trans-actions and real-time analytic insight

y Accelerated financial close and intra-month execution

y Migration from SAP ERP 6.0 to the new solution

Track 11: Emerging technologies for finance


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Case study

How The Dow Chemical Company transformed SAP global finance operations with centralized tax managementDennis Strahl, The Dow Chemical CompanyThe Dow Chemical Company needed a new way to increase finance, IT, and tax depart-ment resource efficiency, while also reducing financial accounting discrepancies and gaining greater control over its global value-added tax and U.S. sales and use taxes. Learn how the company successfully centralized its tax management processes and:

y Find out how it optimized its approach to global finance transformation by simplifying the way it determines, calculates, and reports its transaction tax implications

y Learn how the organization success-fully facilitates the calculation of tax in challenging regions and multi-level jurisdictions

y Get tips for implementing a global indirect tax methodology to ensure that financial applications are deliv-ering payment accuracy and meeting compliance requirements

Managing emerging accounting standards for revenue recognition and leasingPete Graham, SAPMajor accounting standards, be it IFRS or US GAAP, are constantly evolving, driven by factors such as convergence of global accounting standards and the demand for even greater transparency. Attend this session and learn:

y Where the US is in terms of potential adoption, convergence, or co-endorse-ment of IFRS, and potential considerations for your SAP financial system

y Key changes to accounting standards which have recently been introduced or proposed, such as those surrounding revenue recognition and leasing

y How SAP has or is planning to address key proposed changes

Critical tax implications to account for during your SAP implementationMike Sieradski and Tracy Davis, KPMGWhen rolling out SAP, it’s imperative that companies integrate tax into the entire lifecycle to maximize the efficiency of downstream tax processes. Virtually every business transaction has tax implications, so it is very important dedicated tax resources be assigned to the implementation team to proactively integrate these tax data require-ments into the design of SAP. By attending, you learn:

y When and how to best involve the tax department in an implementation project

y How to maximize the vast capabilities of SAP in order to handle complexities of U.S. tax issues

y Key tax considerations, potential tax value drivers, and an outline of a typical tax implementation approach

Take home leading practices and a sample process for accumulating tax requirements and translating those into SAP solutions.

Doing business in Latin America? Key regulations and everything you’ll need to know to stay compliantSteven Sprague, Invoiceware InternationalElectronic invoicing and tax policies continue to change in Latin America. Both Brazil’s SEFAZ regulations (Nota fiscal) and Mexico’s SAT have launched new legislation for 2013 that includes changes to customer and supplier invoicing. During this session you will:

y Learn the latest mandates to help simplify your day to day management of Latin America e-invoicing

y Walk through the three primary classifi-cations of Brazil’s e-invoicing mandates including Nota Fiscal, Brazil Electronic Invoice for Services (NFE-s), and Brazil Transportation Document (CT-e)

y Learn how to avoid the risk of non-compliance, which places your organization at risk for customer collec-tion issues, delayed shipments, large fines, and criminal penalties as it is considered a form of tax evasion

Foreign currency valuation and translation dos and don’ts for better FAS 52 complianceRohana Gunawardena, Quality Systems and SoftwareObtain lessons to help alleviate concerns associated with FAS 52 compliance for foreign currency translation and valuation. This session will examine:

y Differences that exist between valua-tion (FAGL_FC_VAL) and translation (FAGL_FC_TRANS) in the SAP General Ledger and how to perform each

y Key areas to be aware of in the configu-ration when using these reports, including financial statement versions, account determination, and accounting principles

y Various valuation methods and criteria to determine which option should be selected based on your organization’s accounting principle and ledgers

Leading practices for preparing FERC-compliant reportsDavid Cohen, EYThis session will review several options in SAP which can be used to comply with FERC financial reporting requirements.

y Find out why FERC financial reporting requirements remain a challenge to customers as they often involve a more complex legal structure

y Walk through the initial and basic SAP ECC solution offered as part of IS-Utili-ties (US) module and learn how reports can be generated using SAP’s special ledger and month-end allocations

y See what capabilities exist for integrating SAP Business Planning and Consolidation with the SAP General Ledger to more efficiently monitor and improve reporting results that are focused on operations

y Examine the recent SAP enhancement package and how it allows for the capture of cost for service and mainte-nance at an operations level, eliminating the need for custom fields


Track 12

Legal and regulatory updates affecting finance


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Effective methods for maintaining compliance with Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA)Roberta Wang, PwCOver the past few years, there has been a significant increase in attention to compli-ance with the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) and Anti-Bribery and Corruption Act (ABC). Compliance is difficult to achieve in a cost-efficient manner. Attend this session to:

y Develop a deeper understanding of the FCPA and the penalties that are associ-ated with breaching it

y Learn how to leverage SAP GRC to support FCPA compliance

y Get tips to reduce your FCPA compli-ance efforts

y Put into place an effective FCPA program to help adhere to ethical business practices through better detection and prevention

Aligning GRC with the revised COSO Internal Control-Integrated FrameworkChristal Metz, EY The COSO Internal Control-Integrated Framework is a standard for internal controls that many organizations have success-fully adopted and created internal control policies, procedures, and activities around. Attend this session to:

y Understand the latest developments with the COSO Internal Control-Integrated Framework

y Prepare for change by developing a deeper understanding of the frame-work gaps that need to be addressed

y Walk through strategic steps for aligning your internal control structure to the new framework

y Obtain instruction and learn how implementing SAP solutions for GRC provides the opportunity to improve alignment to this framework and strengthen your associated internal control components

Examine how PCAOB’s proposed new auditing standards will impact your organization Marsha Reppy, EY Attend this session for detailed insight into the newly proposed auditing standards from the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) and learn what effect this will have on auditing practices within your organization. During this session:

y Walk through the key proposed changes to the audit standards and understand the impact this may have on management’s assessment of internal control over financial reporting (ICFR) as well as internal and external audit activities

y Discuss key ICFR areas requiring atten-tion and relevant examples

y Learn about the impact of the updated standards on audit communications, fostering more constructive dialogue between the auditor and the audit committee

Track 12: Legal and regulatory updates affecting finance


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Where are you now and where do you want to be on the roadmap of compliance?James Roeske, Customer Advisory GroupThis session highlights and explains the many steps companies must take to stay on the right path to compliance, such as ensuring efficient security and GRC technol-ogies, staying one step ahead of fraudsters, and satisfying the requirements of auditors. Explore:

y The typical journey and evolutionary path a GRC customer goes through during the lifecycle of becoming and staying compliant

y Specific SAP solutions for GRC 10.0 functionality that will allow you to achieve short- and long-term compli-ance goals

y Real-world insight based on 160+ GRC customer implementations, including key tips to enhance ROI and boost levels of success at different stages of the GRC path

Panel discussion

How companies leverage SAP solutions for GRC to safeguard assets, prevent fraud, and comply with complex regulationsModerated by: David Cargile, KPMG Panelists: Mark Feiner, Tyson Foods, Danielle Bass, Citrix, Beth Longest, MeadWestvaco, Kent Cowsert, KPMGAttend this lively discussion to hear ideas, experiences, and perceptions — from panel members representing various business functions — regarding opportunities companies can leverage to benefit from SAP solutions for GRC. Discussion will focus on:

y Strategic and tactical decisions and alignment required for leading-class SAP solutions for GRC implementations and initiatives

y Change management tactics and tips to close the gap between diverse business units post-rollout to maximize ROI on GRC technologies

y How to use strategic enablers and tools successfully during and after a GRC technology implementation

How to keep your SAP audit approach up to date with the latest audit trends and global challengesScott Conner, KPMGWith new regulations being passed on a continual basis, paired with the challenge of more and more organizations operating on a global level, it’s important that your audit approach reflects the changing times. Attend this session to learn:

y What audit considerations need to be accounted for when operating in an outsourced, shared service, or cloud environment

y Leading tips for evolving your organiza-tional structure so that it meets the growing audit needs of your organization

y How to employ data analytics to increase the efficiency of your audit

GRC beyond financial compliance: Managing multiple compliance initiatives with the SAP solutions for GRCBruce Romney, SAP Learn how SAP solutions for GRC are evolving to provide compliance profes-sionals a platform to manage multiple compliance initiatives. This session will illustrate:

y How SAP solutions for GRC help prepare and protect customers against expensive and damaging bribery and corruption incidents

y What steps you can take to transform your organization’s approach from a manual and reactive to an automated and proactive approach

y How to manage multiple compliance initiatives in industries such as Life Sciences, Utilities, and Oil & Gas

Case study

How IHS keeps critical financial processes compliant using SAP Process ControlDiane Davis, IHS Attend this session and learn how IHS achieves greater efficiency within its finan-cial compliances processes. To maintain compliance with key US GAAP regulations, the company required a tool to automate the monitoring and tracking of numerous manual processes in SAP ERP. Learn why the company chose SAP Process Control to:

y Improve control monitoring capabilities

y Provide management confidence in the consistency of its financial statements

y Allow for review of financial process exceptions

y Provide a clearer, more transparent audit trail

Mitigate financial risks and automate the testing of financial controls using SAP Process ControlBrian Perrotto, PwCWhen thinking about financial risk and your company, it’s important to start with an inspection of the risks that are closest to your financial statements. If controls around manual journal entries, general ledger master data, and key financial configura-tions break down, then the whole system of financial controls can be jeopardized. In this session, explore strategies to:

y Prevent the most common risks present in the financial and general ledger accounting process within SAP

y Document controls which address financial risk using one central reposi-tory, allowing for the standardization and testing automation of these controls

y Achieve the benefits of continuous controls monitoring (CCM), utilizing the standard workflows available in SAP Process Control


Track 13

GRC for finance teams


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Creating controls to monitor purchasing and accounts payable processes in SAPGordon Roland, PwCInternal mistakes, fraud, and vendor incon-sistencies all can wreak havoc on your accounts payable and purchasing activi-ties. Understand how to implement both standard ERP and SAP GRC functionality to solve these common problems within the purchase-to-payables process. Attend this session and learn:

y What different options exist in SAP ERP standard configuration, SAP Process Control, and SAP Fraud Management to help combat these areas of financial loss

y The key steps you’ll need to take to implement each and how they can be integrated to build a well-rounded efficient improper payment mitigation program

y Critical success factors from real-world projects implemented to combat these issues and the ROI that has since been achieved

Enhance your financial processes with SAP solutions for GRCStephanie Gruber, SAP LabsFinance professionals continue to be under pressure to not only manage ever-changing regulatory requirements, but also to do so with fewer and fewer resources. This session will illustrate:

y How SAP solutions for GRC can help you do more with less by monitoring end-to-end business processes and alerting you to high risk areas and control exceptions — as well as suspi-cious activity

y What steps you can take to transform your organization’s approach from a manual and reactive to an automated and proactive approach

y How to gain timely insights into key areas of risk within financial processes and techniques for process improve-ment and corrective actions

Tips and tricks to a painless financial reporting auditSteve Biskie, High Water AdvisorsThis session provides insight to help project managers, implementation teams, admin-istrators, and users better prepare for a financial reporting audit of their SAP system. You will learn:

y How a financial reporting audit done by an external audit firm may differ from that of your internal audit depart-ment and why this is important

y What reports should be reviewed consistently, such as those covering general ledger master data changes, recurring entry changes, asset posting anomalies, and accounting data inconsistencies

y Tips for engaging your internal and external auditor early in the process to avoid surprises

Integrating GRC with SAP BusinessObjects BI: Practical advice for enhancing and customizing your GRC reportsJose Espin, EYLearn how to integrate SAP solutions for GRC 10.0 with SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence (BI) to better fulfill your compli-ance reporting requirements. This session walks you through:

y Developing the business case to integrate GRC and BI activities to provide organizations with a holistic view of governance, risk, and compliance

y Real examples of dashboards and reports that can be used to provide executives, managers, and analysts with key GRC information and enable continuous control monitoring

y Key points for a successful GRC and BI integration, such as SAP business content, requirements definition, dashboard design, and data modeling

Take home dashboard samples developed using SAP BusinessObjects dashboards and the actual data sources that were used to build them.

Glean greater value from your SAP audits: It’s not just about complianceJonathan Levitt, PwC Many organizations’ sole focus is to ensure that there are no issues when the auditors make their annual appearance to assess access rights — some to the extent where controls and processes are implemented to merely satisfy the audit and to achieve compliance requirements. Attend this session to:

y Gain tips and tricks to better manage the audit process and achieve more value add from your auditors

y Learn how controls can help achieve operational benefits and enhance processes rather than just maintain compliance with mandated regulations

y Walk through real-world examples which illustrate the effective implemen-tation of controls that not only leverage existing access processes and tools such as SAP Access Control, but also meet audit requirements and protect the organization from risk

Case study

How American Water utilizes GRC reports and SAP BusinessObjects BI to reduce auditing expensesCharlie Singh, American WaterExplore a firsthand account of how America Water leverages key GRC reports, emergency access management analytics, and Xcelsius dashboards to streamline the company’s entire audit process. Listen in as American Water details:

y The 10 most important t-codes that had to be monitored for its financial and Sarbanes-Oxley audit

y How it evaluated role usage and emergency access analytics using the identity analytics tool and Xcelsius dashboards

y The company’s method for efficiently and effectively removing orphaned roles to reduce maintenance and audit costs

y Lessons learned during the building of the SAP- and non-SAP-specific rule set engine

Take home sample Xcelsius reports used by American Water.


Track 13: GRC for finance teams


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Best practices for building a comprehensive risk management programBruce McCuaig, SAPAttend this session to explore key consid-erations in designing and building a comprehensive risk management program. Discover how to:

y Mitigate challenges of establishing a risk management environment that is crucial to achieve sustained performance

y Customize your industry-specific approach to risk management based on your organizational readiness, level and cadence of engagement, and collaboration techniques

y Launch and sustain a risk management practice while adhering to best practices and avoiding common pitfalls

y Take a value-based approach to imple-menting risk management initiatives and gain executive support

Examine how PCAOB’s proposed new auditing standards will impact your organization Marsha Reppy, EY Attend this session for detailed insight into the newly proposed auditing standards from the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) and learn what effect this will have on auditing practices within your organization. During this session:

y Walk through the key proposed changes to the audit standards and understand the impact this may have on management’s assessment of internal control over financial reporting (ICFR) as well as internal and external audit activities

y Discuss key ICFR areas requiring atten-tion and relevant examples

y Learn about the impact of the updated standards on audit communications, fostering more constructive dialogue between the auditor and the audit committee

Track 13: GRC for finance teams


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