Release 2402 Update SAP S/4HANA Cloud, Public Edition
The 2402 release is the 31st major release of the Public Edition of SAP S/4HANA Cloud. In the world of ERP, it is still amazing that this release will be in production for the entire customer base. With SaaS, all aspects of a Clean Core approach and full life-cycle compliance are built into the solution’s foundation to give customers a head start in adopting the latest and greatest at availability
Like in every previous release update, there is again a significant set of upgraded and new functionality added to the stack of the Public Cloud of SAP S/4HANA. The updates are not limited to SAP S/4HANA Cloud but also include SAP Industry Solutions and SAP Business Technology Platform.
For each Release Update we try to provide easy access to the updates to discover the capabilities for your own organisation. In our Knowledge Center, we have updated the following sections:
- Release Updates on Business Areas like Finance, Sales, Manufacturing, etc
- Release Updates Special Topics like AI, Sustainability, Extensibility and more
- Localization and language support
- Links to resources
High Lights 2402 release
Joule AI Co-pilot: A major addition, Joule, transforms system interaction through natural language, enhancing process efficiency and user experience.
Parallel Project Lines: Offers a secure environment for testing configuration changes and new features, ensuring that only ready elements are merged into production.
User Experience: The introduction of spaces and pages in SAP Fiori Launchpad provides a more intuitive, role-based user interface, improving daily task organization.
Sustainability in Financial Planning: SAP Analytics Cloud now integrates CO2 equivalents, allowing businesses to align environmental impact with financial strategies.
Risk Management: Enhanced integration between SAP Financial Compliance Management and SAP S/4HANA Cloud ensures comprehensive risk management and compliance.
Manufacturing and Supply Chain Integration: Improvements include a new bidirectional integration for demand forecasting and a Fiori app for serial number tracking, enhancing transparency and data consistency.
Artificial Intelligence
Unleashing the Power of Generative AI with Joule SAP's latest release, S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition 2402, marks a significant leap forward in the realm of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning within the SAP ecosystem. With the introduction of SAP Joule and significant updates to the Intelligence Scenario Lifecycle Management (ISLM), SAP is steering businesses towards a more intelligent, efficient, and data-driven future.
SAP Joule - Your AI Co-pilot
The highlight of this release is SAP Joule, a cutting-edge generative AI co-pilot designed to enhance user interaction with the SAP ecosystem. Currently available in the early adopter care program, Joule offers three conversational patterns to assist users:
Navigational: Guides users to find the right functionality within SAP.
Transactional: Streamlines task completion, making processes more efficient
Informational: Retrieves and presents data from existing documents.
Operating across SAP Business Technology Platform (BTP) environments, Joule ensures data isolation, maintaining separate data spaces for different consumers or tenants. This early-stage innovation invites users to participate in shaping its development through feedback.
Intelligence Scenario Lifecycle Management (ISLM)
Enhancements in ISLM, acting as a self-service tool for operationalizing machine learning scenarios, has received pivotal updates: Multi-Model Management: This new feature supports the activation of multiple models simultaneously, allowing businesses to apply different model versions based on specific business contexts. It enhances flexibility by aligning model activations with the values of segment fields, providing a clear view of the activation context for each model.
Pre-Delivered AI Use Cases: Among the noteworthy AI use cases for ISLM is the provision of input recommendations for sales order completion. This scenario, powered by machine learning, leverages historical data to suggest entries for completing sales orders, thereby reducing manual input, mitigating delays, and improving the overall efficiency and accuracy of the sales order creation process.
With SAP Joule and enhanced ISLM capabilities, SAP is paving the way for enterprises to transition into more intelligent, responsive, and data-driven entities.
Parallel Project Lines
The initial availability of a function Parallel Project Lines is available in early adapter model. The Parallel Project Lines allow creating larger business configuration projects in a project tenant to test configuration changes, new features, localizations, own coding and to keep it separate from the productive line and merge only when ready.
User Experiences
The SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition 2402 release encapsulates SAP's vision for a more intuitive, collaborative, and customizable user experience. With the introduction of Spaces and Pages, enhanced collaboration tools, developer-friendly customization options, and the pioneering generative AI co-pilot, Joule, SAP is paving the way for a future where technology adapts to user needs in more personalized and efficient ways.
The Spaces and Pages were introduced in 2020 already. The classical groups set up is now outdated. The Loungepad is the first impression most users have of SAP Fiori and the place where they organize their day. With spaces and pages, you will move to more of a day in the life of process-oriented, role-based approach to the Loungepad. It helps the business user identify where they need to start their tasks and perform better. The shift from the group set up to Spaces and Pages on the SAP Fiori Launchpad is a highlight, marking a mandatory transition that users must undertake manually. This change is designed to streamline the user interface, reduce app duplication, and enable customization with customer-defined content, ensuring a more organized and efficient workspace.
Innovations in Customization and Collaboration: The 2402 release introduces functionalities that cater to both end-users and developers: For End-Users: The update brings a redesigned "My Home" entry page, featuring harmonized blank states, simplified group creation, and expanded language support. An exciting addition is the Insights collaboration functionality, integrating SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition with Microsoft Teams to facilitate seamless communication and data sharing. For Developers: A new capability allows the creation of SAP UI5 adaptation projects in SAP Business Application Studio. This feature enables developers to customize apps for casual users by removing unnecessary sections or visualizing data differently, enhancing the overall user experience.
Generative AI: A major innovation is the introduction of Joule, SAP's natural language generative AI co-pilot. Part of an early adopter care program, Joule is set to revolutionize the way users interact with SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition by providing quick, natural language-based access to user enablement content. Joule demonstrates SAP's commitment to leveraging AI to improve efficiency and user satisfaction.
The SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition 2402 release encapsulates SAP's vision for a more intuitive, collaborative, and customizable user experience. With the introduction of Spaces and Pages, enhanced collaboration tools, developer-friendly customization options, and the pioneering generative AI co-pilot, Joule, SAP is paving the way for a future where technology adapts to user needs in more personalized and efficient ways.
Sustainability in Finance Planning
SAP understands the critical role that greenhouse gas emissions play in our global environment and also the impact on the climate, but also the financials. Therefore, SAP enhanced the integrated financial planning business content in SAP Analytics Cloud to incorporate CO2 equivalents and their planning seamlessly. This solution allows corporations to manage their environmental footprint strategically alongside their economic sustainability goals. It collates CO2 equivalent emissions data with traditional financial metrics, offering a comprehensive overview of a company's operations and impact. This leads not only to developing environmentally responsible strategies, but also identifies financial risks and costs that go along with greenhouse gas emissions.
Risk Management
This covers the governance risk and compliance with an integration between SAP Financial Compliance Management and SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition. As of this release, SAP Financial Compliance Management has been extended significantly with an integrated risk management. Now, the solution provides you with a comprehensive risk management framework containing the right tools to become compliant with internal controls, laws, and regulations that apply to your organization and enables you to manage potential risks for your organization.
Manufacturing and Supply Chain Integration
We have an integration for the demand forecasting scenario using our SAP Integration Suite with SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition and SAP Integrated Business Planning for the demand planning part. This bidirectional integration enables you to use both master and transactional data related to the demand planning process, technically based on the enhanced OData API for plant-independent requirements.
In Supply Chain Management, there is a new SAP Fiori app that lets you view the journey of a specific serial number. You can view all the business content and documents that contain a specific serial number and access those business documents to see the details. As an inventory manager, you can use this app to locate a missing item or to track down where possible inconsistencies occur. This increases transparency of the inventory stock and improves data consistency across all systems, processes and organizations.
