CONTAX Logo

Knowledge Center



Blogs

Videos

Case Studies

White Papers

FEATURE TOPICS

SAP Licensing

S/4HANA Migration

SAP on AWS

EDI for SAP



S/4HANA & SAP Analytics Cloud

2023-04-11
by Rick Kromkamp

Introduction

In today's business world, data is power, and companies need to have effective tools to gather, analyze, and visualize data. SAP, a market leader in enterprise resource planning software, offers Business Intelligence (BI) and Analytics Cloud (SAC) tools to help companies make better-informed decisions based on data insights. In this article, we will discuss how SAP's BI and SAC tools can help businesses to make sense of their data.

Reporting Scenarios by Requirement

SAP offers different reporting scenarios to meet various reporting requirements. S/4HANA and SAC are two BI tools in the SAP portfolio that cater to different reporting scenarios. S/4HANA offers KPI tiles and reports, standard Fiori Apps, and standard SAP Fiori Analytical Overview Pages to meet reporting needs. On the other hand, SAC offers stories and analytical applications to meet reporting requirements.

Reporting

Reporting is the process of extracting and presenting data from various sources in a meaningful format to aid decision-making. Some of the reporting options available in S/4HANA are: KPI Tiles/Reports, Fiori Applications, as well as many of the traditional reporting options in SAP (e.g. ALV Reports, SQL Queries, etc). In SAC, formatted reports are accommodated through the use of Stories. There are features in SAC that allow users to paginate Story content, should the user wish to make the report printable.

Dashboarding

Dashboarding is the process of creating visual representations of data, often in the form of charts, graphs, and other data visualizations, to provide a quick and easy-to-understand overview of key performance indicators (KPIs) or other important metrics. Dashboards are often used in business contexts to provide stakeholders with a quick snapshot of how a particular department or project is performing. S/4HANA offers standard SAP Fiori Apps and custom Fiori for dashboarding. In contrast, SAC offers stories, which provide detailed visualization of data, multiple layout options, and a complex design process. It keeps all the information on one page, providing easy access to data insights.

Ad-Hoc Analysis:

Ad-hoc analysis is data analysis performed by a user to create customizable reports that meet specific business requirements. SAP offers different reporting tools to support ad-hoc analysis, such as Data Analyzer and Analysis for Office in SAC and Custom Fiori Multidimensional Analysis Report in S/4HANA. These tools provide quick and easy analysis for non-technical users, speeds up the decision-making process, and helps businesses discover actionable insights in real-time.

How do we determine which tool best fits the requirements of our business?

With all the available reporting, dashboarding and reporting needs identified and options available from SAP, it may seem daunting to determine which tool too use for which requirement. Here, we try to make that decision making process simpler.

Who Consumes the Content?

Different user types consume the content produced by BI tools such as Ad-hoc Analysis and Dashboards. Super Users, Business Analysts, and Executives are the primary users who consume the content produced by BI tools. SAC provides Data Analyzer, Analysis for Office, Stories, and Analytical Application for Business Analysts and Executives to consume data. In contrast, S/4HANA offers standard SAP Fiori Apps and Custom Fiori Multidimensional Analysis Report for Super Users to consume data. The following table summarizes a typical reporting strategy for many SAP S/4HANA customers.
Typical strategy by user and reporting type 
User Type                                                   
Ad-Hoc Analysis
Dashboards
Reporting
Individual Contributor • S/4 - Standard SAP Fiori Apps
• S/4 – Custom Fiori Multidimensional Analysis Report 		• S/4 - Standard SAP Fiori Apps
• S/4 – Standard SAP Fiori Analytical Overview Pages 		• S/4 - Standard SAP Fiori Apps
• S/4 - Fiori KPI Tile/Report
Business Analyst • SAC - Data Analyzer
• SAC - Analysis for Office
• S/4 – Custom Fiori Multidimensional Analysis Report 		• SAC - Story
• SAC - Analytical Application 		• SAC – Story
• S/4 - Fiori KPI Tile/Report
• S/4 - Standard SAP Fiori Apps
Executive • SAC - Story
• SAC - Analytical Application 		• SAC - Story
• SAC - Analytical Application 		• SAC – Story

A primary assumption in the above depiction, is that the organization wishes to have most end users restricted to standard reports from SAP. A sub-set of users, including Business Analysts, Managers, Executives, etc., would benefit from the additional reporting features provided by SAC.
Some organizations will expose SAC stories within Fiori to all users, however this comes at additional expense.

Who Creates the Content?

SAP BI tools provide different reporting scenarios and reporting tools for different user types to create content. Super users can create content using SAC's Data Analyzer, Analysis for Office, and Stories, while Developers can create content using Custom Fiori Multidimensional Analysis Report in S/4HANA. The table below shows the typical use case for content creation by user type for a typical S/4HANA customer.
Typical strategy by content creator and reporting type 
User Type                                                   
Ad-Hoc Analysis
Dashboards
Formatted Report
Super User • SAC - Data Analyzer
• SAC - Analysis for Office 		• SAC - Story • SAC - Story
• S/4 - Fiori KPI Tile/Report
Developer • S/4 – Custom Fiori Multidimensional Analysis Report • SAC - Analytical Application • N/A
The above chart depicts who would create the front-end report only. The assumption is that an S/4HANA data modeler would always be accountable for the underlying data model in S/4HANA.

Conclusion

SAP S/4HANA and SAC tools help businesses to gather, analyze, and visualize data effectively. The reporting scenarios, dashboarding, ad-hoc analysis, and reporting tools cater to different business requirements and provide quick and easy analysis for non-technical users. The different user types, including Super Users, Business Analysts, and Executives, consume content produced by SAP BI tools. The tools' user-friendly interface allows different user types to create content, catering to different business requirements. By using SAP S/4HANA and SAC tools, companies can make better-informed decisions based on their business-specific data insights.

About the author: Rick Kromkamp

Rick is a Business Intelligence evangelist and practitioner in the art of data modelling.