Automation Rate - SAP ECC
On this page, the App Store Team provides a short overview on how the Automation Rate is calculated in the SAP P2P process and how this is implemented in our standard scripts.
SAP Tables
The following tables are needed in order to calculate the Automation Rate in the SAP P2P process:
Table | Description |
|---|---|
USR02 | The standard SAP table USR02 contains information about the logon data in SAP ERP systems. For the Automation Rate we make usage of the USR02.USTYP which indicates whether a transaction was executed by a dialog user 'A' or a batch user 'B'. |
EKKO | The standard SAP table EKKO contains information about the purchasing document header in SAP ERP systems and therefore contains information about the purchase order. For the Automation Rate we make usage of the EKKO.STATU = 'B' which indicates that a purchasing document was created by batch user. |
EBAN | The standard SAP table EBAN contains information about the purchase requisition in SAP ERP systems and is linked to the purchasing order. For the Automation Rate we make usage of the EBAN.STATU = 'B' which indicates that a purchasing requisition was created by a batch user. |
EKES | The standard SAP table EKES contains information about the vendor confirmations in SAP ERP systems and is linked to the purchasing order. For the Automation Rate we make usage of the EKES.ESTKZ = 3 which indicates that a vendor confirmation was created by a batch user. |
NAST | The standard SAP table NAST contains information about the internal message status in SAP ERP systems. For the Automation Rate we make usage of the NAST.MANUE = 'X' which indicates that a transaction was executed by a dialog user. |
Calculation of the Celonis Automation Rate
User Types
Previously (and still in most cases), only the USR02.USTYP was regarded for the calculation of the Automation Rate. Unfortunately, this leads to misleading results because in many sap systems the User Type is not reliable. When the status is set to A, the activity might still be executed as a batch, since not all batch activities are registered in the USR02 table. Some activities like SAP Workflows and recurring events that can be seen as semi-automated or automated were originally initiated by a dialog user.
User Names
Standard user types in SAP:
Type (in USER_TYPE) | Description |
|---|---|
A-User | Individual, interactive system access. |
B-User | Background processing and communication within a system (such as RFC users for ALE, Workflow, TMS and CUA). |
C-User | Dialog-free communication for external RFC calls. |
L-User | Dialog user available to a larger, anonymous group of users. |
S-User | General, non-person related users that allow the assignment of additional identical authorizations. No logon is possible. |
R-User | Artificial user type provided by a Celonis transformation script to identify mass transactions triggered by a dialog user (A-User). |
User Names that may be obtained from the table responsible for the activity, mostly the case table. In general in SAP there is the distinction between different types of user:
Dialog Users, which are normal persons and interact via the GUI. (U1234, amerkel)
Interface Users, which are used by a third party tool to feed data from another system (e.g. Ariba) or Background processing and communication within a system (such as RFC users for ALE, Workflow, TMS, and CUA).
Service Users are users which are available to a larger group of users.
Examples for User Names that indicate a batch activity may be 'BatchUser', 'System', 'B', 'Generic', 'Robot' and so on.
Extending the Activity Table by adding a dedicated column for the identification of automated activities.
In Order to calculate the new Automation Rate for the P2P process, it is necessary to extend the existing transformation scripts. The activity table is extended by a field indicating automation by taking into account the previously mentioned fields and approaches:
In the creation of the activities, a top down approach using CASE WHEN statements is used in order to find the right value for this newly created field. The following example shows the procedure for the creation of a purchase order item:
Activity Master Data
In order to calculate the Automation Rate and the implications on the business case on a more granular level another table is added to the data model, the _CEL_P2P_ACTIVITY_MASTER_DATA table. This table provides information whether an activity was executed on header or item level in order to take into account the duplication of cases that occur on header level. Furthermore, the estimated activity time, which should be validated by the customer, is added.
Q&A
Q: How can I use the improved Automation Rate for my P2P process?
In order to be able to use the extended calculation of the Automation Rate KPI, you need expand the data model of your P2P process as described in this article.
Q: Is it also possible to use the improved Automation Rate for other processes?
So far only for P2P, new indicators for the calculation of the Automation Rate KPI have been added.
Q: Why don't we just compare the number of timestamps per minute for a user in order to find automatic activities?
When a dialog user saves a transaction in SAP multiple activities can be created at the same time without this transaction being a batchjob. Furthermore, semi-automatic transactions like SAP Workflows that require the execution of a dialog user can create multiple different activities at the same time.