Pros and cons Demand Planning in APO or ECC

Hello,
is there a paper/pdf out there describing the pros and cons of DP in APO and ECC. We are planning to implement demand planning and are in an evaluation face whether to go with an APO solution or not. The financial aspect is not an issue. We already have the licensing in place for APO and ECC.
Which solution provides better flexibility and usability? Have any of you guys got experience with implementing demand planning in a non-manufacturing orgnisation. That is we are looking for a tool to forecast/plan external and internal procurement.
Any suggestions are welcome.

Hi ,
Definitely APO DP have many advantage over ECC.
=> More Flexibility than ECC demand management
=> Complex statistical tool can be used for forecasting
=> Complex macros can be build as per the business need
=> Easy visilbility & maintenance of the data
=> Advance Demand planning functionalities like Promotional planning, LCM, Management decisions, etc can be incorporated easily.
Also refer the details provided in the below thread for more details:
General Discussion - Why to choose APO over R/3 for planning?
Re: General Discussion - Why to choose APO over R/3 for planning?
Hope this helps,
Nawanit

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Using CLOB data type - Pros and Cons

Dear Gurus,
We are designing a database that will be receiving comments from external data source. These comments are stored as CLOB in the external database. We found that only 1% of incoming data will be larger than 4000 characters and are now evaluating the Pros and Cons of storing only 4000 characters of incoming comments in VARCHAR2 data type or using CLOB data type.
Some of the concerns brought up during discussion were:
- having to store CLOBs in separate tablespace;
- applications, such Toad require changing defaults settings to display CLOBs in the grid. Default value is not to display them;
- applications that build web page with CLOBs will be struggling to fit 18 thousand chararcters of which 17 thousand are blank lines;
- cashing CLOBs in memory will consume big chunk of data buffers which will affect performance;
- to manipulate CLOBs you need PL/SQL anonymous block or procedure;
- bind variables cannot be assigned CLOB value;
- dynamic SQL cannot use CLOBs;
- temp tables don't work very well with CLOBs;
- fuzzy logic search on CLOBs is ineffective;
- not all ODBC drivers support Oracle CLOBs
- UNION, MINUS, INTERSECT don't work with CLOBs
I have not delt with CLOB data type in the past, so I am hoping to hear from you of any possible issues/hastles we may encounter?

848428 wrote:
Dear Gurus,
We are designing a database that will be receiving comments from external data source. These comments are stored as CLOB in the external database. We found that only 1% of incoming data will be larger than 4000 characters and are now evaluating the Pros and Cons of storing only 4000 characters of incoming comments in VARCHAR2 data type or using CLOB data type.
Some of the concerns brought up during discussion were:
- having to store CLOBs in separate tablespace;They can be stored inline too. Depends on requirements.
- applications, such Toad require changing defaults settings to display CLOBs in the grid. Default value is not to display them;Toad is a developer tool so that shouldn't matter. What should matter is how you display the data to end users etc. but that will depend on the interface. Some can handle CLOBs and others not. Again, it depends on the requirements.
- applications that build web page with CLOBs will be struggling to fit 18 thousand chararcters of which 17 thousand are blank lines;Why would they struggle? 18,000 characters is only around 18k in file size, that's not that big to a web page.
- cashing CLOBs in memory will consume big chunk of data buffers which will affect performance;Who's caching them in memory? What are you planning on doing with these CLOBs? There's no real reason they should impact performance any more than anything else, but it depends on your requirements as to how you plan to use them.
- to manipulate CLOBs you need PL/SQL anonymous block or procedure;You can manipulate CLOBs in SQL too, using the DBMS_LOB package.
- bind variables cannot be assigned CLOB value;Are you sure?
- dynamic SQL cannot use CLOBs;Yes it can. 11g supports CLOBs for EXECUTE IMMEDIATE statements and pre 11g you can use the DBMS_SQL package with CLOB's split into a VARCHAR2S structure.
- temp tables don't work very well with CLOBs;What do you mean "don't work well"?
- fuzzy logic search on CLOBs is ineffective;Seems like you're pulling information from various sources without context. Again, it depends on your requirements as to how you are going to use the CLOB's
- not all ODBC drivers support Oracle CLOBs not all, but there are some. Again, it depends what you want to achieve.
- UNION, MINUS, INTERSECT don't work with CLOBsTrue.
I have not delt with CLOB data type in the past, so I am hoping to hear from you of any possible issues/hastles we may encounter?You may have more hassle if you "need" to accept more than 4000 characters and you are splitting it into seperate columns or rows, when a CLOB would do it easily.
It seems as though you are trying to find all the negative aspects of CLOBs and ignoring all the positive aspects, and also ignoring the negative aspects of not using CLOB's.
Without context you're assumptions are just that, assumptions, so nobody can tell you if it will be right or wrong to use them. CLOB's do have their uses, just as XMLTYPE's have their uses etc. If you're using them for the right reasons then great, but if you're ignoring them for the wrong reasons then you'll suffer.

Pros and cons of EPM and Classic Application.

Hi All Experts,
can any one tell me what are the pros and cons if create EPM Application
and pros and cons if we create Classic Planning Application
this is really urgent we have to submit this to our client as soon as possible

Hi,
The main difference between using of classic and EPMA is I think hidden in the first letter of EPMA. EPMA is for Enterprises where multiple performance management applications are considered applicable. When you have an HFM application, a planning application, a performance scorecard application, a couple of essbase cubes around and lots of reports pulling data from all these, sharing data and metadata becomes crucially important. And no mistake, classic planning is as good as EPMA planning and easier to handle, however, if your company or client is thinking of having a total EPM solution in place, then EPMA is the right choice. However, since you can always convert your classic app to EPMA but you've got only one bullet to fire, it might be wise to stick with classic application until your client/company starts imagining that sort of ambitious goal.
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Alp

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Its planned to install productive printers which are very critical, so we would like to devise the best approach.
By installing the SAPSPRINT would avoid the bottlenecks if the printers are installed locally?
Thanks!

Hi Markus, nice to see you.
I agree with the fact that a central print server you can have a better administration of your printers.
My concern is that based on Note 19706 - Tuning the Spooler, productive printers must never be defined with access type U or S, and all printers created on that print server are type U, which is the recommended access method for remote printers.
Group 1 (Productive printer):
All printers with the shortest possible response time.
For example: Goods receipt/issue sheets, delivery notes, patient entry sheets,...
Printers with a fast response (Group 1):
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So why this note recommends to put printers locally in order avoid network issues and so on, but SAP also recommends a SAPSPRINT as printing solution?
Does SAPSPRINT overrule any recommendation to local printers and is a definite solution way better than local printing?
Thanks Markus again

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Hi
I am planning to use dblink in my current project to acess external database .But is there any other alternative to this ? What are the pros and cons of using Oracle DB Links ? Can anybody help me on this ?
Thanks in advance .
Pradipta

Well, it depends on where you want to access the other database from. If you want to access tables in database B from a stored procedure in database A, then you have to use a dblink to do it. If your front-end application sometimes needs data from database A and sometimes needs data from database B, then you could establish two connections, one to each database, in your front-end, and use the appropriate connection for the different queries.
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I have a client with 120Employees.
They have plans to grow to 600 and cap at 800.
Every year they go before a Board to request for budget and approval for FTE and Jobs or positions new positions.
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Hi There,
You can purchase an upgrade license of Captivate 8 by paying US $ 399.00 only if you own Captivate 7.
You cannot purchase an upgrade of captivate 8 if you are using Captivate 6. You can either purchase Captivate 8 full version ( by paying US $ 999 ) or its annual subscription.
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We are planning to upgrade oracle from 10.2.0.2 to 11g, could any one please let us know the pros and cons of 11g over 10g
Thanks,
Ravi

Sure:
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PRO: it provides many new features, e.g. compression for tables, indexes, backups
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Advantages of Implementing Demand Planning in APO

Hi All:
One of our company's business units is exploring the possibility of implementing their Demand Planning in APO. Since their business closely resembles retail, they do not run MRP in ECC to replenish. Instead they do Kanban for replenishment. Hence they do not need Independent requirement in ECC.
The as-is forecast model is a simple spreadsheet that they use that is used for financial forecasting. They have a lots of SKUs and with spreadsheet aggregation and disaggregation is a night mare. Hence they have products sitting in their inventory, worth millions of dollars that has not been sold yet for a year. In essense the top-level forecast data has too many errors. They also use this to forecast how much of components they have to procure. Again, they have millions of dollars work of components sitting in our inventory.
So, they are looking to implement their DP in some other software. Since we have APO, APO could be a choice. But we have to justify the cost involved.
They will not need APO to send back IR back to ECC.
Followiing are the benefits we see:
1. Highly integrated with ECC and hence forecasting will be based on their Sales and invoice history.
2. Since their products are seasonal, APO can offer advanced forecast methods to forecast SKUs as accurately as possible.
3. Ease of use.
4. Right now, the spreadsheet is accessible to one user at a time and been shared thru emails. This will change with APO
5. They could use DP-BOM to forecast component and help reduce components inventory
6. An integrated system that will sent forecast to CO-PA on a monthly basis.
Can you guys help me with anything else that will benefit the business? Any input will be of great benefit.

Hi,
before to begin: I don't really understand what you are saying: you say the forecast is not use for planning, however your think it is the cause of overstock... how can that be?
I understand the logic for componenents, but not for finish good here
Anyway, regarding your questions:
Of course DP will help you too, and the benefits you emntioned are good.
However I suggest you to do a bigger analysis of your business needs... it looks ot me that you will need more than DP.
You could use SNP to plan your finish good and components (or use a strategy such as planning at assembly level).
If your biggest challenges in inventory level then SNP is the tool that will give you a better visibility here.
I personnally think that DP BOM should be use only is specific cases. You better have to plan your component in SNP, which will be far more flexible.
In one sentence, I think that if you do decide for a DP implementation now, you biggest benefit should be: later on you will be able to use SNP for planning.
Well that is what I think....
Good luck for your challenges!
Julien

Are there pros and cons to using TFS as compared to Sharepoint?

are there pros and cons to using TFS as compared to Sharepoint?

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Hope this helps!
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What are the pros and cons of installing a 4GB ram upgrade (if I'm going to upgrade why not get a lot, I plan to use all of the available slots)? Are there any brands to watch out for or avoid?
Thanks in advance for your responses.

Hi-
Pros are better peformance and ability to maintain more open applications. Current prices are lowest in history.
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+Avoid any memory that isn't specifically guaranteed to be Mac compatible.+
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Hi Guys,
We have a requirement where we have to deal with the employees those holds two jobs, those can be in a different country or within the same country. We have a option to go with concurrent employment or we can go towards the old functionality of managment of global employees concept. My Question here is very specific to what are the pros and cons in both the scenarios. If some one can elaborate it a little or any documentation is available to compare both the plans.
Any answers would be highly appreciated. Thanks
Regards.

Hi Hassan,
We are currently working to implement Management of Global Employees (MGE).
Check out http://help.sap.com/saphelp_erp60_sp/helpdata/en/22/e15a287d14f74c853f4bf8ab5fd4b1/frameset.htm and http://help.sap.com/saphelp_erp60_sp/helpdata/en/a8/3300b1e299cd4c9fa78c8ad4aab007/frameset.htm
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HT204053 What are the pros and cons of 1) choosing to use the SAME Apple ID for iCloud services on one side, and purchases on the iTunes Store, App Store, and iBookstore, on the other side; or 2) to have and use two separate Apple Ids for these "two sides

All is in the title, so I repeat it below with a better identation.
What are the pros and cons of
1) choosing to use the SAME
Apple ID for iCloud services on one side, and
purchases on the iTunes Store, App Store, and iBookstore, on the other side; or
2) to have and use two separate Apple Ids for these "two sides"?
P.S.
I have loads and loads of free podcasts in iTunes in my iMac, that are certainly more thant the 5 gigas the iCloud provides for free, so I don't want those to go to the cloud. But this is perhaps a different question...
Also need to mention that I have itunes on a mac, a pc and an iphone.
Sorry to look so silly with this question, but I don't get the "big picture".

You need to create a user account for your wife (or yourself depending on who has the current user account). When syncing, each of you should sign in as a separate user, login to iTunes and then sync. I had this problem when my sister got an iPhone. When we did her initial sync, everything on my iPhone showed up on hers. Apple gave me this solution.

What are the Pros and Cons while joining tables at DF and Universe level

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Could you please let me know the Pros and Cons while joining the source tables in data federator
And While joining the DF target tables in universe designer.
Regards,
Gana

Hi,
1. I have created target tables based on source tables with one to one mapping and then join all target tables in universe.
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Target tables:Target tables are same as source tables
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Here I have come-up with one more (weired?) requirement from my client.
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Dear Mahulenka
Thanks a lot for the reply. It do have helped me.
Yest it is VBAP-WERKS (typo error ).
Infact I had given the same solution for the issue.
Interstingly, they are insisting on a better solution fit for their requirement. Anyway shall 'highlight' the points again to them try to get it solved
Just wondering has anyone faced the same situation before.
Thanks again for the reply and good luck
Best Regards
Ajay Kumar Veeranki

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Yes it is a subcontract.
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Pros and cons Demand Planning in APO or ECC

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