SAP Analytics Cloud
What is SAP Analytics Cloud?
Integrated business-user-friendly platform for enterprise planning and BI with embedded capabilities for augmented analytics and application design. Comprehensive capabilities for implementing custom planning applications with supporting workflow and collaboration functionality.
About SAP Analytics Cloud
Self-description of the vendor
SAP Analytics Cloud BARC Review & Rating
Provider and product description
SAP was founded in 1972 as a business applications company. Today, with revenues of over €31 billion and more than 107,000 employees, SAP is one of the world’s largest providers of business software.
SAP’s data and analytics portfolio is built on the SAP Business Technology Platform (BTP), which provides cloud-based data, analytics, application integration and extension services for all SAP products. It includes solutions for BI, analytics, enterprise planning and performance management. Strategically, SAP is investing heavily in cloud innovation while continuing to support and develop its on-premises solutions. SAP’s data, analytics and EPM solutions are spread across several product lines. While SAP Analytics Cloud (SAC) is the core offering for planning and budgeting, SAP S/4HANA Finance for Group Reporting is the strategic product for financial consolidation and close. For data management, SAP Datasphere and SAP HANA Cloud are the foundation of SAP’s strategic offerings.
SAP Analytics Cloud plays a central role in SAP’s data and analytics portfolio, combining comprehensive BI, augmented and predictive analytics, and enterprise planning capabilities in an integrated cloud platform. The product is continuously being enriched with features such as application and dashboard design, conversational analytics and intelligent data exploration, planning and predictive capabilities, and prebuilt business content from SAP and partners (e.g., solutions for finance, sales and marketing, HR and various industries). SAP Analytics Cloud is fully web-based with a modern web client and a Microsoft Office 365 add-in, built on SAP HANA in-memory technology. It has a modern UI for business users and provides flexible modeling capabilities and functionality for all individual planning activities, including strategic, financial and operational planning, simulation, forecasting, collaboration and workflow support. In addition, SAP Analytics Cloud provides comprehensive data exploration capabilities with guided insights into data using natural language (“Just Ask”) as well as automated insights via Smart Predict, Smart Insights and Smart Discovery.
SAP Analytics Cloud connects to various SAP and non-SAP data sources and can be used with its own data sets or to query selected SAP data sources directly (e.g., SAP S/4HANA, SAP BW/4HANA, SAP HANA, SAP Datasphere, SAP Integrated Business Planning (IBP), etc.). Customers can take advantage of this live connection to implement hybrid cloud scenarios without moving, caching or persisting data to the cloud. SAP is continuously improving the integration and connectivity of SAP Analytics Cloud with SAP and non-SAP sources and is currently prioritizing the integration of SAP Analytics Cloud with SAP Datasphere. This new deployment option, called Seamless Planning, enables customers to deploy newly created SAP Analytics Cloud models to SAP Datasphere, persisting planning facts and master data and creating a common data foundation for plan and actual data consumption.
SAP’s strategic financial consolidation and close offering is SAP S/4HANA Finance for Group Reporting. It integrates directly with SAP S/4HANA for Central Finance and is available in the cloud, on premises or in hybrid deployments. SAP S/4HANA Finance for Group Reporting provides consolidated financial statements and group reporting capabilities, including data entry, data validation, currency translation, intercompany reconciliation, postings and more. Integrations with SAP Analytics Cloud and SAP Disclosure Management support data analysis, consolidated results publishing and plan data consolidation.
Strengths and challenges of SAP Analytics Cloud
BARC’s viewpoint on the product’s strengths and challenges.
Strengths
- Integrated, business-friendly enterprise planning and BI functionality with embedded capabilities for augmented analytics and application design in SAP Analytics Cloud. Comprehensive capabilities for implementing custom planning applications with supporting workflow and collaboration capabilities.
- Augmented analytics and generative AI capabilities in SAP Analytics Cloud help users quickly query, predict and drill into data sets (e.g., Smart Predict, Smart Insights, Smart Discovery, Just Ask).
- Exclusive connectivity (e.g., live access and direct write-back) and prebuilt content available for SAP’s own data sources and applications (e.g., SAP Analytics Cloud with SAP S/4HANA or SAP Datasphere).
- For organizations that prefer on-premises deployments, SAP BusinessObjects BI (for reporting, analysis, dashboarding and custom application design) and SAP Business Planning and Consolidation (BPC, for planning and financial consolidation) continue to be available and supported.
Challenges
- The strong focus on cloud products, such as SAP Analytics Cloud, leads to reduced investment in the on-premises EPM and analytics product portfolio (e.g., SAP BPC, SAP BusinessObjects BI).
- In addition to using SAP Analytics Cloud with its own data models in the cloud, it can also be used as a front end for other SAP data sources (‘live data connection’). However, only a limited set of functions is available (e.g., not all ‘Smart’ functions). For the future, SAP is investing in a common architecture layer for live connectivity, which should lead to greater functional parity over time, regardless of the underlying data source.
- SAP Analytics Cloud is primarily used by SAP customers and in conjunction with SAP data sources. While the product easily integrates with all major SAP enterprise applications, there are fewer native connectors available for non-SAP data sources, especially for competing business applications. However, SAP Analytics Cloud provides open REST APIs for importing and exporting data to and from non-SAP source systems, and future roadmap investments related to live SQL data query capability and tighter coupling with SAP Datasphere are focused on expanding connectivity for both live and remote sources.
- Customer feedback in The Planning Survey, as well as BARC’s experience in consulting projects, shows that several customers have expressed concerns about the price-performance ratio of SAP Analytics Cloud. Survey data also suggests a lack of satisfaction with the business benefits achieved in SAP Analytics Cloud projects, as well as its predelivered planning content, planning functionality and vendor support. However, customer quotes in BARC’s surveys confirm that the solution continues to mature and that SAP Analytics Cloud is an evolving product.
SAP Analytics Cloud User Reviews & Experiences
The information contained in this section is based on user feedback and actual experience with SAP Analytics Cloud.
The information and figures are largely drawn from BARC’s The BI & Analytics Survey, The Planning Survey, The Financial Consolidation Survey and The Data Management Survey. You can find out more about these surveys by clicking on the relevant links.
Why users buy SAP Analytics Cloud and what problems they have using it
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Full user reviews and KPI results for SAP Analytics Cloud
All key figures for SAP Analytics Cloud at a glance.
- Get independent information on software solutions, market developments and trends in data, analytics, business intelligence, data science and corporate performance management.
- Make data & analytics decisions based on numbers, data, facts and expert knowledge
- Access to all premium articles and all our research, including all software comparison studies, scores and surveys.
- Unlimited access to the BARC media library
- Consume unlimited content anywhere
Individual user reviews for SAP Analytics Cloud
Number of employees
Industry
Source
What do you like best?
The software easily integrates with existing SAP S/4, SAP ECC, SAP BW, and others. The product has evolved and matured well in the past few years. I also like the user interface; it is easy to use, but powerful.
What do you like least/what could be improved?
The export to Excel needs some improvement.
What key advice would you give to other companies looking to introduce/use the product?
Take a closer look and don't ignore the usage simplicity as an important factor to your TCO.
How would you sum up your experience?
It is a good product and continues heading in the right direction.
Number of employees
Industry
Source
What do you like best?
Integration von mehreren Planungsmodellen und Self-Service für den Fachbereich (Dashboards, Storys).
What do you like least/what could be improved?
Starrer Aufbau der Reports/Grafiken mit wenig Flexibilität.
What key advice would you give to other companies looking to introduce/use the product?
Fachliche Planungsprozesse mit Vorlauf neu ausprägen, idealerweise mit einem (erfahrenen, herstellerunabhängigen) Beratungsunternehmen. Das Projekt sollte mit Change-Management begleitet und Änderungen im Mindset unterstützt werden. Andernfalls besteht die Gefahr, dass bisherige Prozesse 1:1 in das neue Tool übertragen werden, was dazu führt, dass Mehrwerte nicht realisiert werden und Unzufriedenheit bei den Anwendern entsteht. Wenn Warten eine Option ist, sollten weitere Releasestände abgewartet werden, die signifikante Features/Mehrwerte bringen dürften.
How would you sum up your experience?
Wir gehen davon aus, dass die SAC - in Kombination mit einem ERP unter S/4HANA in der Cloud - zu verbesserten Planungsergebnissen führt (höhere Qualität, kürzere Zyklen, Aufwandsreduzierung).
Number of employees
Industry
Source
What do you like best?
Visualisierungoptionen, Integration in SAP Stack.
What do you like least/what could be improved?
Performance bei der Live-Datenverbindung zum SAP BW.
What key advice would you give to other companies looking to introduce/use the product?
Direkt auf Clouddatenmodelle setzen.
How would you sum up your experience?
Für Live Reporting auf dem SAP BW sehr gut geeignet, im Vergleich zu anderen Tools noch Potential nach oben.
Number of employees
Industry
Source
What do you like best?
Transparenz über Datenänderungen.
What do you like least/what could be improved?
Editierbarkeit von Import- und Exportjobs.
What key advice would you give to other companies looking to introduce/use the product?
Passen Sie Ihren Prozess an die SAC an, nicht andersherum.
How would you sum up your experience?
Wir lernen noch immer viel dazu und passen unseren Prozess stetig weiter an.
Number of employees
Industry
Source
What do you like best?
The level of flexibility and adaptability is high, making it easy to customize planning applications to business users' needs.
What do you like least/what could be improved?
Adding a co-pilot to assist in creating applications is highly desired. It's on the roadmap, but there is a risk of disappointment regarding the level of support and guidance the co-pilot will be able to deliver.
What key advice would you give to other companies looking to introduce/use the product?
Start simple and begin as soon as possible to gain experience. Be sure to get a SAC version, including seamless planning using SAP Datasphere to host the data model.
How would you sum up your experience?
It's a solid planning and analytics/BI tool, ensuring well-orchestrated integration of these two disciplines. With the upcoming integration to Datasphere and the enhanced integration opportunities, even for business users, SAC is well-suited for the current needs and expectations. Adding a co-pilot (Joule) to assist in both developing planning/analytics solutions and supporting the actual analysis will be expected as an in-built feature in a modern FP&A platform, and this is on the roadmap. It is needed soon to keep up with other leading FP&A solutions.
Number of employees
Industry
Source
What do you like best?
Vertrautes Umfeld in SAP.
What do you like least/what could be improved?
Anbindung von Nicht-SAP-Datenquellen sind eine Herausforderung.
What key advice would you give to other companies looking to introduce/use the product?
Achtung bei den Lizenzkosten, da unterschiedliche Modelle möglich.
How would you sum up your experience?
Im Allgemeinen eine gute Lösung, insbesondere wenn man bereits Erfahrungen mit anderen SAP-Systemen hat.
Number of employees
Industry
Source
What do you like best?
Die zunehmenden Möglichkeiten.
What do you like least/what could be improved?
Hoher Implementierungsaufwand, wenig Self-Service für die einzelnen Mitarbeitenden.
What key advice would you give to other companies looking to introduce/use the product?
Genügend Zeit einplanen, Implementierungs- und Entwicklungspartner suchen – nicht versuchen, es selbst zu machen, damit auch mit einem anderen Blickwinkel darauf geschaut wird.
How would you sum up your experience?
Wenn es sauber aufgebaut ist eine Bereicherung für das Unternehmen.
Number of employees
Industry
Source
What do you like best?
Integration with other software from the SAP ecosphere.
What do you like least/what could be improved?
Sometimes it is too rigid, and implementing ad-hoc solutions is expensive. The availability of data for download via API can be improved.
What key advice would you give to other companies looking to introduce/use the product?
Get and retain in-house talent resources, as there is too much turnover.
How would you sum up your experience?
Good, does the job.
Number of employees
Industry
Source
What do you like best?
Visualization.
What do you like least/what could be improved?
Predictive models.
What key advice would you give to other companies looking to introduce/use the product?
Overall, it's a decent product and has good integration with SAP-based ERP.
How would you sum up your experience?
Overall, it's a decent product.
Number of employees
Industry
Source
What do you like best?
Perfekte Integration mit SAP BW via Live Connection.
What do you like least/what could be improved?
Aktuelles Filter-Konzept in der Story, viele verschiedene und für Endanwender verwirrendes Konzept, da an vielen verschiedenen Stellen gefiltert werden kann. Nicht immer transparent, wo jetzt welcher Filter gesetzt ist. Widgetfilter, Storyfilter, Seitenfilter, verknüpfte Analyse-Filter usw. Schwierigkeit mit den Koexistenzen von klassischer und optimierter Versionen z.B. bei Story oder Data-Analyzer Objekten. Berichtsentwickler und Anwender müssen zwischen den Welten / Funktionen wechseln können und sich nicht verwirren lassen. Teilweise ist der Umstieg auf optimierte, neue Version nicht durchgängig möglich, weil geliebte Funktionen (noch) nicht verfügbar sind.
What key advice would you give to other companies looking to introduce/use the product?
Der Umstieg von BEx WAD auf SAC ist einfacher möglich also von Business Objects auf SAC. Auch der WOW-Effekt ist um einiges höher.
How would you sum up your experience?
Super Tool mit kleinen Schwächen, die hoffentlich kontinuierlich von Quartal zu Quartal verbessert werden.
Number of employees
Industry
Source
What do you like best?
Konnektivität zu SAP-Quellsystemen (inkl. SAP BW, SAP R/3).
What do you like least/what could be improved?
Self-Service Reporting Funktionalitäten.
What key advice would you give to other companies looking to introduce/use the product?
Versuchen Sie, so viel wie möglich intern zu erarbeiten, anstatt sich zu stark auf die Unterstützung externer Beratungsunternehmen zu stützen.
How would you sum up your experience?
-
Number of employees
Industry
Source
What do you like best?
Zugriff auf BW, Live Connection im Design-Modus.
What do you like least/what could be improved?
Limitierungen, langsame Roadmap.
What key advice would you give to other companies looking to introduce/use the product?
PoC machen.
How would you sum up your experience?
Nach dem Reinfall mit Lumira Designer war SAC sehr positiv.
Number of employees
Industry
Source
What do you like best?
Integration von Reporting in Planung. Datenkonnektivität. Detailliertere Anforderungen durch Skripting erweiterbar. Workflow Funktionen.
What do you like least/what could be improved?
Initiale Ladezeiten. Erweiterung der Predictive Analytics Funktionen.
What key advice would you give to other companies looking to introduce/use the product?
Tool-fit definieren. Langfristigen Einführungs-/Umsetzungsplam aufsetzen.
How would you sum up your experience?
-
Number of employees
Industry
Source
What do you like best?
Das UI und IBCS standardisierte Charts.
What do you like least/what could be improved?
Gesamt-Performance ist zu schlecht.
What key advice would you give to other companies looking to introduce/use the product?
Fokus auf eine gute Administration der SAP Analytics Cloud mit Blick auf Schnittstellen zu Datenquellen etc.
How would you sum up your experience?
Viel gelernt in den letzten 2 Jahren hinsichtlich Skalierung von BI mit SAP Analytics Cloud.
Number of employees
Industry
Source
What do you like best?
Das Measure/Dimension Modell und die guten Tools für Tabellen und Charts, sowie die Governance.
What do you like least/what could be improved?
Performance und Sicherheit vor Verlust der Arbeit, wenn mal wieder was auf den Servern nicht klappt.
What key advice would you give to other companies looking to introduce/use the product?
-
How would you sum up your experience?
Man muss damit warm werden.
Number of employees
Industry
Source
What do you like best?
Anbindung zur SAP-Welt.
What do you like least/what could be improved?
Schwache Anbindung an relevante non-SAP Quellen.
What key advice would you give to other companies looking to introduce/use the product?
Versuchen Sie, so gut es geht im SAP-Ökosystem zu bleiben.
How would you sum up your experience?
Gut.
Number of employees
Industry
Source
What do you like best?
User Experience in Bezug auf die Oberfläche.
What do you like least/what could be improved?
Die Predictive Funktionen sind nicht ausgerichtet auf eine produktive regelmäßige Anwendung. Im Rahmen der Exploration nutzbar.
What key advice would you give to other companies looking to introduce/use the product?
Self Service ernst meinen.
How would you sum up your experience?
Gut.
Number of employees
Industry
Source
What do you like best?
Regelmäßige Updates mit Funktions-Erweiterungen und ständige Verbesserung des Produkts.
What do you like least/what could be improved?
Manchmal ist die Performance nicht so gut, wie man es sich wünschen würde. In der Regel ist das aber kein Problem.
What key advice would you give to other companies looking to introduce/use the product?
Das Tool von Anfang an korrekt aufbauen, auf saubere Ordnerstrukturen und Namenskonventionen achten und Berechtigungen so anlegen, dass sie mit den Aufgaben mitwachsen können.
How would you sum up your experience?
Insgesamt positiv.
Number of employees
Industry
Source
What do you like best?
Planung, Reporting und Predictive in einem Tool. Gute SAP-Anbindung.
What do you like least/what could be improved?
Komplexität.
What key advice would you give to other companies looking to introduce/use the product?
Immer erfahrene SAC-Berater frühzeitig einbinden.
How would you sum up your experience?
Gutes Tool, das sich stetig weiter entwickelt.
Number of employees
Industry
Source
What do you like best?
Depth of integration with other SAP technology.
What do you like least/what could be improved?
Adoption journey.
What key advice would you give to other companies looking to introduce/use the product?
Complement it with SAP Datasphere.
How would you sum up your experience?
-
Number of employees
Industry
Source
What do you like best?
Visualisierung der Daten. Übersichtliche Dashboards.
What do you like least/what could be improved?
Höhere Flexibilität.
What key advice would you give to other companies looking to introduce/use the product?
Nutzer von Anfang an in das Design einbinden und gut trainieren.
How would you sum up your experience?
Überwiegend positiv.
Number of employees
Industry
Source
What do you like best?
Eine recht moderne Oberfläche für SAP-Verhältnisse.
What do you like least/what could be improved?
Manche Reporting-Ansätze nur über Umwege möglich.
What key advice would you give to other companies looking to introduce/use the product?
–
How would you sum up your experience?
Die Erfahrungen mit der SAC Cloud sind positiv, auch wenn die Lösungen teilweise ihre Grenzen haben.
Number of employees
Industry
Source
What do you like best?
Cloudbasiert, häufige Updates, relativ schnelle Zugriffszeiten.
What do you like least/what could be improved?
Teilweise starrer Standard, Abweichungsanalysen z. T. unzureichend.
What key advice would you give to other companies looking to introduce/use the product?
–
How would you sum up your experience?
Ein gutes Tool, das sich allerdings noch das eine oder andere von der Konkurrenz abschauen kann - v. a. hinsichtlich der Flexibilität.
Number of employees
Industry
Source
What do you like best?
Kombination aus Predictive Analytics und Planungsszenarien.
What do you like least/what could be improved?
Die Preisgestaltung (Lizenzen).
What key advice would you give to other companies looking to introduce/use the product?
Die Zeit nicht unterschätzen.
How would you sum up your experience?
Derzeit noch im Einführungsstadium. Aber die nächsten Schritte sind vielversprechend.
Number of employees
Industry
Source
What do you like best?
Excellent SAP landscape integration. Frequent new functionalities thanks to quarterly releases and investment from vendor. Currently most of the main data visualization are available, even without using custom widgets or R. Powerful top/down reporting possibilities when combined with an SAP data warehouse. Compared to previous tools in the organization, it is very easy to onboard new app/dashboard creators, reducing bottlenecks within the organization for such topics.
What do you like least/what could be improved?
The frequent addition of new features is sometimes at cost of bug fixing. A short pause for a thorough code cleanup would be useful. While using the standard planning functionality is at acceptable performance level, leveraging the advanced features seems to be impacting performance. This leads to doubts regarding the scalability of the tool for very complex scenarios. The self-service features regarding data-wrangling are still far away from the possibilities some concurrent offer.
What key advice would you give to other companies looking to introduce/use the product?
We are currently scaling-up from a planning scenario complexity perspective and it would be my advice to be able to keep the performance topic under control.
How would you sum up your experience?
In general, very good. With the proper reliability tweaks regarding performance and minor (but irritating) bugs, companies highly relying on SAP tools should be very happy with the functionalities in both dashboarding and planning.
Number of employees
Industry
Source
What do you like best?
Software as a Service (Saas), Planning and Analytics in one product.
What do you like least/what could be improved?
Data Wrangling - requires a lot of changes to make it more user-friendly and functionality working.
What key advice would you give to other companies looking to introduce/use the product?
Do not underestimate planning on SAP Analytics Cloud.
How would you sum up your experience?
Quite good - improving each quarter with the quarterly updates.
Number of employees
Industry
Source
What do you like best?
Easy interface, solid backend, compatibility with other SAP solutions.
What do you like least/what could be improved?
Cost.
What key advice would you give to other companies looking to introduce/use the product?
Plan extra time for testing, customization and training.
How would you sum up your experience?
Good.
Number of employees
Industry
Source
What do you like best?
Innovatives, einfach zu nutzendes Produkt mit sehr guter Integration Richtung anderer SAP-Produkte.
What do you like least/what could be improved?
Der SAP-Support ist sehr zäh
What key advice would you give to other companies looking to introduce/use the product?
Frontendstrategie muss stehen.
How would you sum up your experience?
Sehr gut.
Number of employees
Industry
Source
What do you like best?
User Interface, SAP-Konnektivität.
What do you like least/what could be improved?
SAP Support, Performance.
What key advice would you give to other companies looking to introduce/use the product?
Sich nicht von den SAP Marketing Folien blenden lassen und vorher mit Firmen reden, die es bereits implementiert haben.
How would you sum up your experience?
Gut.
Number of employees
Industry
Source
What do you like best?
Integration von mehreren Planungsmodellen / Self-Service für den Fachbereich (Dashboards, Storys).
What do you like least/what could be improved?
Starrer Aufbau der Reports (wenig Flexibilität).
What key advice would you give to other companies looking to introduce/use the product?
Fachliche Planungsprozesse mit Vorlauf ausprägen, am besten mit einem (erfahrenen, herstellerunabhängigen) Beratungsunternehmen. Projekt mit Change-Management begleiten und Änderungen im Mindset unterstützen - ansonsten Gefahr der Übertragung bisheriger Prozesse 1:1 in das neue Tool mit der Folge, Mehrwerte nicht zu realisieren und Unzufriedenheit bei den Anwendern zu erzeugen. Wenn Warten eine Option ist, sollten weitere Releasestände (die signifikante Features/Mehrwerte bringen dürften) abgewartet werden.
How would you sum up your experience?
Im Moment befinden wir uns in einer Umstiegsphase, in der sukzessive von der bisherigen Individualentwicklung auf die Standardsoftware SAC umgestellt wird (=> hybride Systemwelt). Deshalb fällt eine abschließende Bewertung noch schwer. Langfristig kann aber davon ausgegangen werden, dass die SAC - in Kombination mit einem ERP unter S/4HANA - zu verbesserten Planungsergebnissen (höhere Qualität, kürzere Zyklen, Aufwandsreduzierung) führen wird.
