SAP Jam Bridges IBP and Mobile Worlds

By Clay Thomas, Principal SCMO2

If you’re like me, you still manage your list of “to dos” on a small paper notepad. I’m still waiting for the whole speech-to-text thing to be perfected. I just do better when I write things down and cross them off.

When we talk business processes with clients, we often have to manage multiple calendars with multiple tasks. But everyone uses their own calendar, and updates often occur during a conversation in the hall, an e-mail confirmation, a text or maybe a one-on-one phone call. Managing the process cycles is particularly cumbersome when clients rigidly follow strict calendar dates, even when tasks may be concurrent or start as soon as another is done rather than waiting for a particular day in the cycle.

Jam for the New Generation

Welcome to this generation’s means of centrally modeling and managing your planning processes—SAP Jam with SAP IBP. I remember when IBP first came out, the standard refrain was “Oh, yes, clients should get Jam too.” Seemed like an afterthought, but that’s not the case anymore.

As we continue our work transitioning clients to the IBP platform, development around integrating process modeling with the Jam social collaboration platform has reached impressive levels. And it’s mobile! This is exactly what the next generation of business planners are demanding in their work life because this is how they function in their personal life.

Coordinate with Everyone

In IBP, you can now define a planning process template and link it to a Jam group or individual. And they don’t have to be internal to your company either! Generate a cycle “instance” and tasks are created within Jam. One-off tasks can be inserted to an instance for tracking as well. As tasks are checked off, process steps track completion percentage in the IBP dashboard so all participants know exactly where the process is at any given time. With dependencies defined, team members do not even have to wait for a certain day or secondary “check with me” confirmation to get started on their task.

Mobile. Cloud. Easy.

Yes! There’s an app for that. Now you can check off those tasks on the go, and because IBP is cloud-based, you can visually monitor process instance progress too. Don’t fall into the trap that it is too difficult to script and manage your planning processes digitally. SAP has gotten it right and it’s here right now.

I’m all about leveraging this integrated platform for improving the way companies manage their planning processes. Are you?