SAP Analysis for Microsoft Office - Standard vs. SAP Analytics Cloud edition

[steffen_heine]

SAP Analysis for Microsoft Office (aka AO or AFO) is designed for financial analysts who require analytical capabilities in Microsoft Excel on SAP data sources like SAP BW, SAP S/4HANA and SAP Business Planning & Consolidation. It can also be used with SAP HANA or SAP Data Warehouse Cloud.

There are two editions available for SAP Analysis for Microsoft Office:

• The standard edition is part of the SAP BusinessObjects Enterprise and SAP BusinessObjects Planning & Consolidation license


• The edition for SAP Analytics Cloud is included with the subscription to SAP Analytics Cloud Business Intelligence or Planning

As more and more customers have SAP Analytics Cloud purchased, a switch of the edition can be interesting from a cost perspective (or to replace BEx Analyzer). Therefore, this blog series focuses on the differences between the SAP Analysis for Microsoft Office standard edition and the edition for SAP Analytics Cloud, followed by two additional blogs for the replacement of data source connections (link) and the storage of workbooks (link).

Note: SAP Analytics Cloud, add-in for Microsoft Office (more info) sounds similar and is also included in the subscription of SAP Analytics Cloud, but it is a different Microsoft Excel add-in and not to be confused with the two editions of SAP Analysis for Microsoft Office. A high-level comparison also at the end of this blog added.

 

Differences between Standard edition and Edition for SAP Analytics Cloud

In case no further capabilities of the SAP Business Intelligence Platform like the scheduling of workbooks are needed, a switch towards the Analysis for Office Edition for SAP Analytics Cloud should not be an issue. Since 2.8 SP9 both editions provide the same capabilities when accessing data sources. On-premise data sources like SAP BW, S/4HANA and BPC can be accessed for reporting and planning. Additionally, connections to SAP S/4HANA Cloud and SAP Data Warehouse Cloud can be established with the latest SP. The biggest differentiator is that the standard edition has capabilities for pre-calculation of workbooks on the BI Platform. Also, the EPM, Microsoft PowerPoint and Business Process Flow add-ins are only contained in the installation of the standard edition.

Analysis for Office capabilities

 

Connect to SAP Analytics Cloud

Another difference is that in the Edition for SAP Analytics Cloud the user is forced for a logon to SAP Analytics Cloud before a connection to any data source is established. With SP17 (February 2023) the setting UseExternalBrowserForSacLogon will become default which opens an external window of the installed default browser to log on to an SAP Analytics Cloud tenant. Later this year additional changes are planned to make the SAP Analytics Cloud logon less strict.

SAC Authentication - SAP Note 3346842

To roll-out the SAP Analytics Cloud tenant URL to all users, the URL needs to be added to the BocSystems.xml file in %appdata%\SAP AG\SAP BusinessObjects Advanced Analysis and distributed to the users machine with the installation. To pre-select a default tenant or hide the pop-up the two settings LastSelectedSacSystem and AutoConnectToLastSelectedSacSystem are useful.

This are already the differences between both editions. After installing the Edition for SAP Analytics Cloud existing workbooks can be used as before.

Additional links for Edition for SAP Analytics Cloud:

• SAP Help


• Product Availability Matrix (PAM)


• Download

Within the next blog the focus will be on the replacement of BI OLAP connections towards direct BW or SAC Live connections.

 

Update from March 2023:

High-level comparison between SAP Analytics Cloud, add-in for Microsoft Office vs. SAP Analysis for Microsoft Office, edition for SAP Analytics Cloud:

High-level comparison

[mfoeken]

Hi steffen.heine,

First of all, great blog (series)! One question though: In the capabilities overview we see a 'not planned' for BI platform services as scheduling/pre-calculation. That is logical for the Edition for SAP Analytics Cloud'. However, what is the current status to deliver scheduling and storing AO workbooks on SAC? For instance: 260246 - SAP Analytics Cloud - Analysis for Office Repository

Kind regards,

Martijn van Foeken | Interdobs

[steffen_heine]

Hi Martijn,

storing AO workbooks on SAC will come this year. We are actively working on it.
Nevertheless together with Product Management we decided that scheduling of AO workbooks on SAC is not planned.

Regards

Steffen

[I354761]

Hi Steffens,

 

thanks for this blog.
but I see a major issue as explained below, is there any plan to address this issue

 

AO version doesn’t support the new account model of SAC. For SAC, New model is the recommended one. Hence don’t see much use of AO VERSION for SAC usage.

[steffen_heine]

Hi Shubhranshu,

for SAC related topics e.g. Planning and Reporting on the New Model the new SAP Analytics Cloud, add-in for Microsoft Office (more info)  is the recommended solution. There is no plan to access the New Model directly in Analysis for Office. To use it in Analysis for Office, you need to replicate the New Model data into SAP BW or SAP DWC via the SAC model APIs. 

Regards,

Steffen

[mfoeken]

Hi steffen.heine,

Thanks for the clarification. I think that the statement that scheduling AO workbooks on SAC is not planned will not be taken well by customers to solely have a BO instance running for this specific use case. I personally don't see that much added value if workbooks can only be stored without delivering scheduling capabilities. Any comments on that from Product Management perspective? What would be the long(er) term solution for customers that use SAC but also rely on AO workbooks that are precalculated for performance reasons?

Kind regards,

Martijn van Foeken | Interdobs

[mats0815]

Hi Steffen,

with regard to the two settings LastSelectedSacSystem and AutoConnectToLastSelectedSacSystem, the following setting LastSelectedSacSystem remains empty although the setting is set to UserRoaming and the and the connection via the SAC to the query was successful. Are there known problems or does this only work with AO 2.8 SP 17?

Kind regards,

Matthias

[steffen_heine]

Hi Martijn,

understood the precalculation ask. From AO side we will support the storing of workbooks on SAC as an additional option to BW or BI platform so that an AO workbook can be shown in the SAC repo or catalog together with SAC artefacts.

Regards,
Steffen

 

[steffen_heine]

Hi Matthias,

the LastSelectedSacSystem only plays a role for the initial SAC authentication in the Analysis for Office SAC edition. When the following screen is confirmed with OK the setting is set:



For SAC live connections this is not considered.

Regards,

Steffen

[hugh_gledhill]

Hi steffen.heine ,

Given that there is a standalone "SAP Analytics Cloud add-in for Microsoft Office" product, what is the purpose of "SAP Analysis for Microsoft Office - edition for SAP Analytics Cloud"? Especially since apparently it is also possible to connect to SAC models via the standard edition of SAP Analysis for Microsoft Office.

Thanks,

Hugh

[steffen_heine]

Hi Hugh,

the SAP Analysis for Microsoft Office - edition for SAP Analytics Cloud was introduced to provide Analysis for Office to new customers who didn't use the Standard edition, but had an SAC license.

In the long term the strategic SAP Analytics Cloud add-in for Microsoft Office will get also access to on premise SAP data sources and then ideally become the only Excel add-in.

Regards,

Steffen

[puneetc]

Thanks for the great blog currently we are on Analysis for office BOBJ and planning to move on analysis for office SAC , the question is will the existing AFO report run fine after change in connection from BOBJ to SAC as the AFO will point to SAC model going forward and HANA DB as the backend source.

Or the AFO reports will need to be built fresh from scratch as this is a change from one system type to another

Please suggest

[former_member75463]

Hello Steffen,

It is mentioned that SAC and AFO can run parallel to each other. We find issues whilc implementing SAC on same machine where AFO is running. it says you need uninstall AFO.

Is this true ? Are there any guidelines from SAP on this ?

 

Thanks

[ABner]

When this occurs, will the EPM add in be available?  It is challenging to maintain this when I have clients with usage of EPM which would necessitate having this add-in.  Otherwise we have to utilize a Cisco/remote PC type solution which is a bit janky.

[ABner]

I found this as well.  If you already have non-SAC AFO installed, then try to install AFO for SAC, you get the following message:

[steffen_heine]

Hi Suraj,

AFO Standard and AFO SAC edition cannot run in parallel. But you can have in parallel the SAC add-in for Office. SAP Analytics Cloud, add-in for Microsoft Office

Regards,

Steffen

[steffen_heine]

Hi Puneet,

which data source are you trying to replace. A BOBJ OLAP connection you could replace to a direct connection or SAC Live connection e.g. to BW and this should still work fine afterwards.

Regards,

Steffen

[ABner]

Thanks for clarifying, it shows as:  Version 1.17.0.0   Application Version 2023.15.204

Does it correspond/ receive updates in parallel with the other AFO versions that need to be downloaded from SAP?

[appel_solar_dk]

Dear Steffen

We are currently using the standard edition and also the EPM plug-in. We use BO to authenticate the users for SSO access to BW sources. We are going to substitute BO with SAC. I understand that it means that we will have to move to the SAP Analytics Cloud Edition. But what about the EPM users? What is the recommendation from SAP?

Best Regards

Kristian

[dmitrij_rempel]

Hello Steffen,

 

thank you for your helpful blog.

I am looking on AfO topic from the S/4HANA Group Reporting perspective. Some specific reports can be defined in AfO only.

As far as I understood so far, we have these 4 options:

1. Use AfO Standard Edition with direct connection to Group Reporting.


2. Use AfO SAC Edition with connection Group Reporting Querry (should be possible if we believe the community: https://answers.sap.com/questions/13712353/afo-license-standard-edition-afo-license-for-sap-a.html)


3. Use AfO SAC Edition with connection to SAC, which has a live connection to Group Reporting.


4. User SAC Addin for Mircrosoft Office with connection to SAC, which has a live connection to Group Reporting.

Now my questions:

1. Will AfO Standard Edition be developed/supported for long term?


2. Will AfO SAC Edition be developed/supported for long term? - I suppose not developed, but supoorted till 20XX?


3. What would be most future reliant solution for the customer?

Thank you in advance for your feedback.

Kind regards,

Dmitrij

[steffen_heine]

Hi Dmitrij,

There are 2 Excel clients: AFO and SAC Office add-in

1. AFO comes with 2 licenses:
   
   
   
   1. Standard: included in onPrem licenses e.g. BPC or BI Platform
   
   
   2. SAC edition: included in SAC licenses.
   
   
   
   

AFO Standard and SAC edition are the same product, just in the SAC edition are some feature not enabled e.g. BPC addin, PPT addin and EPM addin. But for Analysis addin same functionality.

In both editions you can use a direct connection e.g. via SAP Logon or a SAC Live connection to the backend system.

Both editions are not being developed further which means there will be no new features. But both editions are supported with, currently quarterly, patches for bug fixes until at least 2029. (Question 1 and 2)

 

SAC Office add-in is the new add-in shipped via MS Store which simplifies the roll out to users. The focus on SAPs Cloud sources e.g. SAC, Datasphere, S/4HANA Public edition. Major On-Premise data sources will be supported later this year e.g. SAP BW and SAP S/4 Private Cloud/on Premise. This add-in only supports connections defined on SAC as a live connection. This add-in has the full focus in development and gets monthly feature updates and patches.

 

If you need a solution today I would suggest AFO as this supports Group Reporting best. Edition depends of the licenses the customer has. From 2024 on I would suggest the SAC Office add-in as then major data sources are available and this is the long term future reliant solution (Question 3).

 

Regards,

Steffen

[steffen_heine]

Hi Kristian,

the EPM add-in is also available standalone and can be downloaded from the SAP Marketplace. But you have then to deploy to add-ins separate - Analysis SAC edition and EPM add-in.

Regards,

Steffen

[steffen_heine]

Hi Aaron, this version numbers are from the SAC Excel add-in.

AFO needs to be downloaded and installed https://launchpad.support.sap.com/#/softwarecenter/search/ANALYSISOFFICE_FOR_SAC%25202.8

Regards, Steffen

 

[axel_]

Hello Steffen,

we got a question in terms of direct connection (Local - SAP Logon Landscape) vs. SAP Analytics Cloud - Live connections.

We are about to migrate our workbooks from SAP BI Plattform (BOE) to SAC repository. When we replace now the BI-OLAP connection we have to choice of direct connection or SAC Live as you can store both types in SAC repository.

Can you elaborate pros and cons of both connection types and what is SAPs recommendation?

Thanks and best regards
Axel

[appel_solar_dk]

Thanks Steffen it works. It was a bit tricky to find the stand alone add-in but it works fine.