For a while now, I have been looking into artificial intelligence (AI) and the opportunities that it offers in the context of SAP. I’ve seen many trends come and go, and I was under the impression that AI would be just another hype. That it wouldn’t have such a far-reaching impact.
However, I’m slowly changing my mind about that. Especially now that I have a subscription to ChatGPT 4.0 and have been using it for a real-world assignment, I’m understanding more and more the power of AI in general and ChatGPT in particular.
ChatGPT and SAP Receivables Management
So what led me to invest real time and effort into using ChatGPT in relation to SAP? Well, I recently did an assignment where I had to delve into a part of SAP Receivables Management (formerly SAP Financial Supply Chain Management, or FSCM) very quickly. It was, more specifically, about SAP Dispute Management. SAP Dispute Management is not new to me. Back in 2010, I attended training in SAP FSCM at SAP. I’ve also come across SAP Dispute Management regularly during assignments over the past 10 years. However, while FSCM was never the main assignment, it was always involved somehow. Perhaps this is because it is a fully fledged and certainly not unimportant module that can make an important contribution to a good and more predictable incoming cash flow in a company.
I do not believe that SAP FSCM is something you do on the side. It’s a specialism within the SAP Finance field and to do it well, you need to have mastered certain knowledge and gained certain experience. Because I did not consider myself a specialist, I wanted to learn very quickly and refresh my existing knowledge so that I could deliver on this assignment.
Fortunately, I had a colleague nearby who can configure FSCM with his eyes closed, but since he was busy with another project, he wasn’t available to help me all that much.
My assignment’s timeline didn’t allow time for SAP FSCM training, either, and SAP FSCM is nowhere to be found on the SAP Learning Hub (maybe SAP will do something about this?).
Therefore, I had to come up with something to help me update my skills, and so I created my own SAP Receivables Assistant using ChatGPT. This SAP Receivables Assistant had to be able to answer all my difficult questions: from general and more conceptual questions to detailed questions about customer enhancements, BADIs, and Workflows.
The SAP Receivables Assistant in ChatGPT
I discovered that in ChatGPT 4.0, you can create your own GPTs (Generative Pre-trained Transformers, including GPTs that are specialized in a particular topic. In this case, I chose to create a GPT specialized in SAP Receivables Management.
By feeding knowledge to your GPT and then asking questions and giving feedback on those questions, the GPT learns and becomes a better interlocutor on the chosen topic.
After some experimentation, I have to say that it’s turned out to be a decent assistant. It's not quite perfect yet, but it has already helped me immensely in gaining a rapid understanding of the possibilities and limitations of SAP Receivables Management.
The very process of making this GPT also caused me to start asking myself - and ChatGPT - questions about this topic. And precisely when you are working on something in this way, the learning goes very fast.
Creating my own GPT-based SAP Receivables Assistant has therefore benefited me in several ways:
· It made me realize the power and possibilities of ChatGPT and specialized GPTs in particular.
· I now know much more about SAP FSCM, to the extent that I might dare to start calling myself a specialist.
· And now I realize even better that to learn something, you have to experience it first. Because you are put in the position of the trainer. In this case, the trainer of ChatGPT. And to judge how valuable ChatGPT's answers are, you do need to know the topic yourself first.
Want to try out the SAP Receivables Assistant GPT for yourself?
If you want to judge for yourself how good the SAP Receivables Assistant is, I’m happy to give you the link to the GPT for free. Just write “GPT” in the comments and I'll send it to you. It’s super handy for anyone who wants to work with SAP Receivables Management or is already working with this module.
(Do keep in mind that you’ll need a GPT plus subscription to access the assistant.)
Have fun!