BPS vs SEM

Question

If you go to t-code BPS0 then your are in BPS. Is there a transaction for SEM or is SEM/BPS the same thing except for the SEM add on's such as consolidations?
Any help explaining will be rewarded.
Thanks

Answer 1

Richard,
It helps if you do a search.  I answered this questions several times before and I think Marc had too.
SEM is strategic Enterprise Management which includes BPS,
CPM (Balanced Scorecard and management cockpit),
BCS (consolidation)
and some not really used submodule SRM, etc.
SEM have a different release cycle than BW but since it sits on top of BW, there are definite relationships/requirements.
SEM 3.1 on BW 3.0
SEM 3.2 or SEM 3.5 on BW 3.1 (or with BW 3.2 or 3.3addon)
SEM 4.0 on BW 3.5
BW-BPS 3.5 is SEM-BPS (SEM 4.0 on BW 3.5) BPS0, UPSPL, UPSPM, etc) without about 10 planning functions since allocation, time lag, etc are so heavily tied to BCS and some complex configuration tables that it was difficult to move it. 
If you want to use any other SEM modeule i.e CPM, BCS, you are on the SEM track and need SEM 4.0 on BW 3.5 - no choice.  If you are using BPS on BW 3.5, you have the choice in BW-BPS 3.5 or SEM-BPS 4.0 by installing the add-on but please beware that the add-on cannot be uninstalled so you are always on the SEM-BPS track for upgrades. 
You might have also heard about BI Integrated Planning and it is in Netweaver 2004S that is in rampup currently and is sometimes referred to BI 7.0 (renaming BW version since Portal is currently on 6.0 so next version need to be 7.0).
Hope this helps,
Mary