One SAP Analytics Hub: Tools, Catalogs, and Use Cases

We all like challenges now and then, don’t we? But some can be pretty hard to overcome, like the challenge to win over your analytics end users. Specifically, analytics managers want to offer their end-users one consistent and comprehensive place for any analytical insights that may be offered within their enterprise. Whether information comes from on-premise analytics, cloud analytics, non-SAP analytics tools, or whatever—managers require a single place for their end users to search and access everything.

That place is now available through the newly launched SAP Analytics Hub . SAP Analytics Hub is a fully customizable catalog allowing you to provide users with a single place for all insights. Using typical assets such as search, favorites, most viewed, filtering and taxonomy, the end user gets the easiest way of searching for insights.

You may wonder, but didn’t SAP already offer that with the Launchpad portal? No, the Launchpad portal is authored—meaning it only offers on premise SAP analytics that you are entitled to see. It also is limited to typical business intelligence components. SAP Analytics Hub shows all content so a user can never overlook something. Depending on authorizations, the user can open a document, or not. On top of all that, there is no limitation to either on premise, cloud analytics, and even documents—links and many others can be made available. Rumor has it that data sets can be made available in the future too :-).

SAP Analytics Hub—an Essential Catalog

SAP Analytics Hub is, in essence, a catalog that allows your users to browse any analytical assets made available through your enterprise. SAP Analytics Hub is part of the SAP Analytics Cloud platform that leverages content defined by the administrators and editors of SAP Analytics Hub. A user can search anything using suggested wording and visuals. The accompanying taxonomy is fully configurable, including facet values.

For every asset made available through SAP Analytics Hub, key-metadata like descriptions, thumbnails, data sources, refresh frequency, contacts, request-authorization, and so on can be added, so end users can use that info. The search feature takes this metadata into account.

Use Cases: Some Examples

There are plenty of use cases for SAP Analytics Hub, but the absolute number one benefit is in adoption rate, or “winning your end users.” It’s about the challenge we discussed above; it’s about making it easy, simple and crystal clear to your end users what analytical insights are available; it’s about giving them a single-click-to-access capability; and it’s about providing them with crucial, searchable metadata that explains what is what and where does it come from.

Some more specific use cases for SAP Analytics Hub are:

• Running both on-premise analytics as cloud analytics in your enterprise. In case you run on premise and consider SAP Analytics Cloud, but have worries about the two platforms, SAP Analytics Hub is the solution.
• Having multiple BI vendors covering various domains of insights and requiring a one-stop-shop for insights for your end users. They aren’t interested in separate environments just for the sake of the vendors, are they?
• Wanting to combine analytics insights based upon reports, cubes, or dashboards with insights that are stored in documents, web services, or anything else.
• Having end users that criticize the lack of descriptive information on the various reports, dashboard, or storyboard. The metadata facility of SAP Analytics Hub is very strong—and allows you to provide end users with key info they need before even accessing a BI component.
• Wanting to promote certain insights, require feedback on insights, or obtain better understanding of insight usage. SAP Analytics Hub delivers this to your enterprise.

I am lucky enough to work with great analytics tools every single day. For me, SAP Analytics Hub fills a gap nobody in the market had covered till now. It’s a really great asset that focuses on the challenge we all have: Winning Over Your End User. In addition, you need to consider for yourself how much real effort you must put into your enterprise to decently organize your current analytics in all its flavors. It’s expected that a typical enterprise will quickly save at least one full-time equivalent (FTE) by using SAP Analytics Hub.

Pretty well done, SAP!

Learn More

Check out my video demo of SAP Analytics Hub for more details. And see the SAP Analytics Hub FAQ sheet for answers to common questions.