SAP Introduces Cloud Finance App

SAP SE has introduced SAP RealSpend, a new mobile app that provides visibility and access to up-to-the-minute budget and spending information.

Based on SAP HANA Cloud Platform, the app uses cloud technology to pull data from core financial reporting systems, allowing line managers to perform ad hoc spend analysis and other “on-the-fly” calculations enabling live business processing. For many line managers outside the corporate finance function, visibility into budget and spending is often cumbersome. Spreadsheets with weeks-old data and predefined reporting dimensions from central controlling do not meet immediate needs for real-time decision making amid changing business conditions. SAP RealSpend recognizes the value of better-informed cost center managers.

Developed at SAP Labs Berlin/Potsdam, Germany, using design thinking principles and input from finance professionals and other SAP end users and managers, SAP RealSpend treats line managers as members of the extended finance function, allowing them to monitor and actively manage budgets and actual spend with a powerful, easy-to-use tool.

“SAP is known for providing leading-edge tools for the CFO and corporate finance function to manage spending and budget as effectively as possible,” said Thack Brown, general manager and global head of LoB Finance, SAP. “This app uses the cloud to innovate on top of our finance core and provides line managers and others with budget accountability the tools they need to make sound spending management a real-time activity across the entire enterprise.”

Enabling the “Extended” Finance Team

SAP RealSpend is a comprehensive tool with detailed drill-down features that make it possible to perform a fine-grained analysis of actual and future spends, as well as related forecast and budget plans. Managers can simulate the influence of certain decisions into budget factors including sales, marketing, travel, hiring and equipment investment. Augmenting financial data through specific tagging features enables flexible grouping and reporting beyond the classical ERP data model.

“Every company has to manage expenses to be successful,” said Greg Smith, chief financial officer, ASR Group International, a Florida Crystals corporate affiliate. “SAP RealSpend enables our company to employ expense management in a real-time environment — all enabled by our adoption of SAP HANA and S/4HANA Finance.”

SAP RealSpend is one of the first apps that connects to the SAP S/4HANA Finance solution in real time without having to replicate data, thus realizing the benefits of SAP HANA Cloud Platform and its ability to support hybrid cloud and on-premise environments. SAP RealSpend also works with other data from SAP and third-party sources. The easy-to-navigate and tablet-enabled app can be implemented in a few easy steps, including a test-drive and end-user configuration.

Showcasing the flexibility of SAP HANA Cloud Platform in extending customers’ core applications, this is an early example of planned innovative applications from SAP and its partners leading to faster, broader delivery of value and greater adoption. SAP RealSpend enables users to proactively manage their spending now and for the future and get the maximum out of a given budget.