SAP Analytics Cloud

What is SAP Analytics Cloud?

Integrated, business-friendly functionality for enterprise planning, BI, augmented and predictive analytics, and application design in SAP Analytics Cloud. Comprehensive capabilities for implementing custom planning applications for strategic, financial and operational use cases with supporting workflow and collaboration capabilities.

Customer Satisfaction
7.6
Rated 7.6 out of 10
User Experience
7.2
Rated 7.2 out of 10
Functionality
6.9
Rated 6.9 out of 10
Business Value
6.9
Rated 6.9 out of 10

Self-description of SAP Analytics Cloud

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SAP Analytics Cloud BARC Review & Rating

Provider and product description

SAP was founded in 1972 as a business applications company. Today, with revenues of €36.8 billion and more than 110,000 employees, SAP is one of the world’s largest providers of business software.

SAP’s data and analytics solution is now Business Data Cloud (BDC), a fully managed SaaS platform launched in 2025. SAP BDC is SAP’s new end-to-end data platform for SAP and non-SAP data. It forms the central hub and data management platform for all SAP business applications and includes data management services such as SAP Datasphere, SAP BW, the planning and analytics front end SAP Analytics Cloud (SAC), the AI assistant Joule, and prebuilt content as well as intelligent applications. SAP BDC plays a crucial role in SAP’s strategy by building the foundation for AI usage and providing an integrated view of data across the SAP Business Suite.

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. SAP BDC, including SAP Datasphere, forms the foundation of SAP’s strategic data management offerings. The company’s EPM strategy focuses on planning, managing, and monitoring business performance across the enterprise. This strategy spans three core integrated processes: planning and forecasting, intercompany close and consolidation, and execution and monitoring, ensuring continuous alignment between group strategy and operations.

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 built on SAP HANA in-memory technology. It has a modern UI for business users and provides flexible, multidimensional 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. In addition to the web client, Microsoft Office 365 add-ins for Excel and PowerPoint as well as a mobile client can be used. 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.

Integrating SAP’s AI assistant, Joule, with SAP Analytics Cloud, as well as extending user assistance with AI agents, generative AI, and classic AI, are important investment priorities for SAP in 2026. SAP BDC provides the solid data foundation for these strategic developments.

Strengths and challenges of SAP Analytics Cloud

BARC’s viewpoint on the product’s strengths and challenges.

Strengths
  • Integrated, business-friendly functionality for enterprise planning, BI, augmented and predictive analytics, and application design in SAP Analytics Cloud. Comprehensive capabilities for implementing custom planning applications for strategic, financial, and operational use cases with supporting workflow and collaboration capabilities.
  • Augmented analytics and generative and agentic 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 in SAP BDC).
  • For organizations that prefer on-premises deployments, SAP Business Planning and Consolidation (BPC) continues to be available and supported for planning and financial consolidation.
Challenges
  • SAP’s EPM products are primarily used by SAP customers with SAP data sources. These products integrate easily with all major SAP enterprise applications. For example, SAP Analytics Cloud users can analyze and plan using SAP data alongside third-party data by leveraging the new BDC Connect capability. This feature enables bi-directional, zero-copy data and metadata sharing between BDC and leading data cloud platforms. However, organizations that do not use other SAP enterprise applications rarely use SAP’s EPM products.
  • 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 integration with SAP Datasphere and SAP BDC as a common architecture layer, which should lead to greater functional parity over time, regardless of the underlying data source.
  • BARC’s customer feedback surveys and experience in consulting projects reveal that several customers have expressed concerns about the price-performance ratio of SAP Analytics Cloud, and that rising costs are a major concern.
  • The Planning Survey 26 results indicate moderate satisfaction with the functional capabilities of SAP Analytics Cloud, such as predefined data connectivity, planning content, and simulation functionality. However, the solution is still maturing and customers highlight its integration with all major SAP enterprise applications.
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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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Individual user reviews for SAP Analytics Cloud

Role
Head of a separate BI/analytics organization unit
Number of employees
More than 2.500
Industry
Manufacturing
Source
BARC Panel, The BI & Analytics Survey 26, 03/2025
What do you like best?

Nahtlose Integration mit SAP BW/4HANA (Live Connection) als Single Source of Truth, volle Flexibilität bei der Bericht-/Dashboard-Erstellung. Self-Service Business Intelligence kann mit SAC vollständig umgesetzt werden.

What do you like least/what could be improved?

Performance eher mäßig.

What key advice would you give to other companies looking to introduce/use the product?

Wenn eine Data-Warehouse-Lösung vorhanden ist, dann Daten nicht redundant in SAC speichern, sondern die Live-Connection gegen das globale Data Warehouse nutzen. Für Performance-Optimierung spezielle Slim Queries als Datenmodell verwenden.

How would you sum up your experience?

Gut bis sehr gut.

Role
Head of business department
Number of employees
More than 2.500
Industry
Retail
Source
BARC Panel, The BI & Analytics Survey 26, 05/2025
What do you like best?

Flexibilität der Fachabteilung, ohne IT Dashboards und Analysen zu erstellen.

What do you like least/what could be improved?

Bessere Export- und Verteilmöglichkeiten für mobiles Reporting.

What key advice would you give to other companies looking to introduce/use the product?

How would you sum up your experience?

Der Einsatz einer vernetzten Power- und Key-User-Struktur sowie strikte Vorgaben (Design/Governance) sind elementare Bausteine für den Erfolg.

Role
Consultant
Number of employees
More than 2.500
Industry
Consulting
Source
BARC Panel, The BI & Analytics Survey 26, 03/2025
What do you like best?

Das Design ist einheitlich und die Datenmodellierung ergibt Sinn. Es gibt viele Optionen.

What do you like least/what could be improved?

Performance und UX sind wirklich anstrengend.

What key advice would you give to other companies looking to introduce/use the product?

Erst überlegen, ob die Abteilung das auch akzeptiert.

How would you sum up your experience?

Teilweise frustrierend.

Role
Employee of a cross-departmental BI/analytics team
Number of employees
100 - 2.500
Industry
Process industry
Source
BARC Panel, The BI & Analytics Survey 26, 03/2025
What do you like best?

What do you like least/what could be improved?

Entwicklungsgeschwindigkeit: Viele Möglichkeiten, die es in Business Objects bereits gab, sind nach fünf Jahren noch nicht verfügbar.

What key advice would you give to other companies looking to introduce/use the product?

Genaue Definition, wofür das System genutzt werden soll, und Prüfung, ob dies möglich ist.

How would you sum up your experience?

Der Beta-Test wurde überstürzt auf den Markt gebracht, und wir hoffen bei jedem Update-Zyklus, dass wichtige Funktionen implementiert werden.

Role
Consultant
Number of employees
100 - 2.500
Industry
Manufacturing
Source
BARC Panel, The BI & Analytics Survey 26, 06/2025
What do you like best?

Schnelle Erstellung einfacher Reports möglich. Viele built-in Business-Logiken und Semantiken wie Währungsumrechnung, Parent-Child-Hierarchie, Drill-down. SAP-Integration, SAP-Strategie.

What do you like least/what could be improved?

Performance, insbesondere bei Live-Verbindung und Datenanbindung an Non-SAP-Datenquellen. Planung ohne Funktionen, nur mit Formeln (Live).

What key advice would you give to other companies looking to introduce/use the product?

Sich der Stärken und Schwächen der SAC bewusst sein und diese dementsprechend nutzen.

How would you sum up your experience?

Eines der bisher besseren BI-Tools von SAP.

Role
Head of a separate BI/analytics organization unit
Number of employees
More than 2.500
Industry
Retail
Source
BARC Panel, The BI & Analytics Survey 26, 05/2025
What do you like best?

SAP Integration.

What do you like least/what could be improved?

Flexibilität.

What key advice would you give to other companies looking to introduce/use the product?

Use Cases im Rahmen der Ausschreibung machen.

How would you sum up your experience?

Gut.

Role
Consultant
Number of employees
Less than 100
Industry
Consulting
Source
BARC Panel, The BI & Analytics Survey 26, 05/2025
What do you like best?

Der Planning Teil.

What do you like least/what could be improved?

Der Integrationsaufwand.

What key advice would you give to other companies looking to introduce/use the product?

Konzeptionell viel Vorarbeit leisten.

How would you sum up your experience?

Eine sehr gute Lösung, wenn es mal implementiert ist.

Role
Employee of a cross-departmental BI/analytics team
Number of employees
More than 2.500
Industry
Process industry
Source
BARC Panel, The BI & Analytics Survey 26, 03/2025
What do you like best?

Planungsfunktionalität.

What do you like least/what could be improved?

Keine Filtersets, die man auf verschiedene Stories anwenden könnte. Composites sollen als Mini-Stories ein zentrales Management von wiederverwendbaren Dashboard-Komponenten ermöglichen, funktionieren aber so nur teilweise. Es fehlen noch einige Lifecycle-Management-Features.

What key advice would you give to other companies looking to introduce/use the product?

Business Intelligence-Standard-Reporting auf Live Connections basieren lassen, um Access Management zu vereinfachen.

How would you sum up your experience?

Role
Project manager for BI/analytics from IT
Number of employees
100 - 2.500
Industry
Transportation and logistics
Source
BARC Panel, The BI & Analytics Survey 26, 03/2025
What do you like best?

Ease of use, Single Sign-On, connectivity to other SAP systems.

What do you like least/what could be improved?

Lack of role-based connectivity to BW4.

What key advice would you give to other companies looking to introduce/use the product?

How would you sum up your experience?

Very good tool, works well, can do everything that BOBJ BI used to do for us.

Role
Project manager for BI/analytics from IT
Number of employees
More than 2.500
Industry
Manufacturing
Source
BARC Panel, The BI & Analytics Survey 26, 04/2025
What do you like best?

Kombination von Planung, Analytics und Reporting in einem Tool.

What do you like least/what could be improved?

Self-Service eher für erfahrene End User.

What key advice would you give to other companies looking to introduce/use the product?

Frühzeitige Einbindung der SAP ins Projekt.

How would you sum up your experience?

Durchwegs positiv. Gutes Kundenfeedback.

Role
Consultant
Number of employees
More than 2.500
Industry
Healthcare
Source
BARC Panel, The Planning Survey 25, 01/2025
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.

Role
Consultant
Number of employees
More than 2.500
Industry
Healthcare
Source
BARC Panel, The Planning Survey 25, 01/2025
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.

Role
Line of business employee
Number of employees
More than 2.500
Industry
IT
Source
BARC Panel, The Planning Survey 25, 12/2024
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).

Role
Head of business department
Number of employees
More than 2.500
Industry
Retail
Source
BARC Panel, The Planning Survey 25, 11/2024
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.

Role
Member of a cross-departmental BI team
Number of employees
More than 2.500
Industry
Process industry
Source
BARC Panel, The Planning Survey 25, 11/2024
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.

Role
Project manager for planning from IT
Number of employees
More than 2.500
Industry
Utilities
Source
BARC Panel, The Planning Survey 25, 12/2024
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.

Role
Project manager for planning from IT
Number of employees
100 - 2.500
Industry
Media/Publishing
Source
BARC Panel, The Planning Survey 25, 12/2024
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.

Role
Consultant
Number of employees
Less than 100
Industry
Consulting
Source
BARC Panel, The Planning Survey 25, 12/2024
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.

Role
Project manager for BI/analytics from IT
Number of employees
More than 2.500
Industry
Manufacturing
Source
BARC Marketing, The BI & Analytics Survey 25, 04/2024
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.

Role
Consultant
Number of employees
More than 2.500
Industry
Consulting
Source
BARC Marketing, The BI & Analytics Survey 25, 04/2024
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.

Role
Consultant
Number of employees
More than 2.500
Industry
Consulting
Source
BARC Marketing, The BI & Analytics Survey 25, 04/2024
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.

Role
Consultant
Number of employees
Less than 100
Industry
Various industries
Source
BARC Marketing, The BI & Analytics Survey 25, 04/2024
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?

-

Role
Head of a separate BI/analytics organization unit
Number of employees
More than 2.500
Industry
Retail
Source
BARC Marketing, The BI & Analytics Survey 25, 05/2024
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.

Role
Head of a separate BI/analytics organization unit
Number of employees
More than 2.500
Industry
Process industry
Source
BARC Marketing, The BI & Analytics Survey 25, 05/2024
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?

-

Role
IT employee
Number of employees
More than 2.500
Industry
Media/Publishing
Source
BARC Panel, The BI & Analytics Survey 25, 04/2024
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.

Role
Consultant
Number of employees
More than 2.500
Industry
IT
Source
BARC Panel, The BI & Analytics Survey 25, 05/2024
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.

Role
CEO
Number of employees
More than 2.500
Industry
Process industry
Source
BARC Panel, The BI & Analytics Survey 25, 05/2024
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.

Role
Head of a separate BI/analytics organization unit
Number of employees
More than 2.500
Industry
Healthcare
Source
BARC Panel, The BI & Analytics Survey 25, 05/2024
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?

-

Role
Head of business department
Number of employees
Less than 100
Industry
Consulting
Source
BARC Panel, The BI & Analytics Survey 25, 05/2024
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.

Role
Consultant
Number of employees
More than 2.500
Industry
Insurance
Source
BARC Panel, The BI & Analytics Survey 25, 04/2024
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.

Role
Consultant
Number of employees
Less than 100
Industry
Consulting
Source
BARC Panel, The Planning Survey 24, 04/2024
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.

Role
Line of business employee
Number of employees
100 - 2.500
Industry
Medien/Verlagswesen
Source
BARC Panel, The Planning Survey 24, 04/2024
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.

Role
Project manager for planning from IT
Number of employees
100 - 2.500
Industry
Medien/Verlagswesen
Source
BARC Panel, The Planning Survey 24, 04/2024
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.

Role
Member of a cross-departmental BI team
Number of employees
-
Industry
Manufacturing
Source
BARC Marketing, The Planning Survey 24, 04/2024
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.

Role
Consultant
Number of employees
-
Industry
IT
Source
BARC Panel, The Planning Survey 24, 04/2024
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.

Role
Project manager for planning from IT
Number of employees
-
Industry
Retail
Source
BARC Panel, The Planning Survey 24, 04/2024
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.

Role
Consultant
Number of employees
-
Industry
Media/Publishing
Source
BARC Panel, The Planning Survey 24, 04/2024
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.

Role
IT employee
Number of employees
-
Industry
Manufacturing
Source
BARC Panel, The Planning Survey 24, 04/2024
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.

Role
Line of business employee
Number of employees
-
Industry
IT
Source
BARC Panel, The Planning Survey 24, 04/2024
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.

Survey Information
Number of reviews for SAP Analytics Cloud
85
Reviewed versions
Peer groups in the survey
Large/Enterprise-Wide Implementations, Report & Dashboard Focus, Analysis Focus, International BI Giants, Products for Planning, Budgeting & Forecasting, Integrated Products for Planning and BI & Analytics, Worldwide Implementations
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