Hello All,
I have been lucky enough to be a part of many discussions on S/4HANA Embedded Analytics, both with Internal Stakeholders(within SAP) and External Customers.
I am starting a series of blogs here, wherein I have tried to document some of the FAQ’s, which has come out of such discussions.
PART 1 can be found here: https://blogs.sap.com/2017/08/30/s4hana-embedded-analytics-faq-part-1/
PART 3 can be found here --> https://blogs.sap.com/2017/08/30/s4hana-embedded-analytics-faq-part-3/
Hope this would be useful for your reference.
I understand that many of you are already working on the S/4HANA area. In case if you feel any discrepancy with any of the points/remarks mentioned in this blog,
Please feel free to add your comments here.
The official SAP document on SAP S/4HANA Embedded Analytics(November 2015 edition) can be found in the following link:
https://www.sap.com/documents/2015/11/7e25a80f-507c-0010-82c7-eda71af511fa.html
<<<<<Important Disclaimer: All the points mentioned here in this document are purely my observations and learnings from various stake holders. This should never be considered as an SAP official document >>>>>
I will try to update this blog series on a regular basis,so that the same can be used as a Live reusable document.
11) What are the connectivity options between S/4HANA and BW (when both are different Box)?
Remarks:
a) Via ODP-ABAP CDS Source Systems.
Please note that the many of the SAP Extractors would still be available using the ODP – SAP(Extractors) option (as shown in the above screen). But it would be a good practice to look into various notes (like https://launchpad.support.sap.com/#/notes/2270133), which talks about the deprecated data sources.
NOTE: The above statement is related with On-premise scenario’s only.
12) Will SAP be delivering an alternate CDS View for every HANA Live view available till date.
Remarks: The Road map for SoH or S4H teams are quite different and there is no assurance from SAP that we will have an alternate CDS view for all HANA views.
Having said that, there are cases like “DAYSSALESOUTSTANDING”, where in you will see both HANA view and CDS view, but there might be chances of change in fields or functional area, which can further be understood from the screenshot below:
NOTE: It is worthwhile to note that the on-prem customers can ofcourse create their own Calculation Views on the HANA in S/4HANA. It is just that the Hana Live content packages will not work on the simplified S/4 backend.
13) Is there a convertor or a tool to convert HANA Live view to CDS View
Remarks: As of today, there is no conversion tool available to customer as such.
NOTE: It is worthwhile to note that the on-prem customers can ofcourse create their own Calculation Views on the HANA in S/4HANA. It is just that the Hana Live content packages will not work on the simplified S/4 backend.
14) Is there a possibility to bring in HANA Views inside a CDS view
Remarks: As of today, there is no readymade solution available as such.
But, one of the work around to do that would be to leverage the “External View” concept.
NOTE: It is worthwhile to note that the on-prem customers can ofcourse create their own Calculation Views on the HANA in S/4HANA. It is just that the Hana Live content packages will not work on the simplified S/4 backend.
15) Is there a possibility to bring in CDS Views inside a HANA view
Remarks: Every CDS View when activated, creates a ABAP view and the SQL View.
This SQL view would be available in the _SYS_BIC Schema. From that schema, you could drag in the view to a HANA information view (may be to a Projection node).
Please see the below screen shots:
(Picture courtesy: Koen Wilhelm’s presentation on S/4HANA Analytics)
Note here --> ABAP CDS View name is C_CUSTOMERPROJECT
SQL View Name is CCUSTOMERPROJECT
NOTE: It is worthwhile to note that the on-prem customers can ofcourse create their own Calculation Views on the HANA in S/4HANA. It is just that the Hana Live content packages will not work on the simplified S/4 backend.
16) Can we see CDS Views in a SOH system
Remarks: CDS views and HANA views can be seen residing together in systems like SoH which has a Simple Finance add-on that.
Generally, SAP delivers CDS views with S/4HANA System and HANA views with SOH system.
17) Can we consume CDS views in Cloud for Analytics (C4A) (aka Business Objects Cloud) (aka SAP Analytics cloud)
Remarks: The integration between S/4HANA Cloud and BOC can be done through the following option. Again the approach of 2C* convention remains the same.
18) My customer is now on SOH, wherein they had utilized 10 HANA Live views and created 5 custom views. Now they decided to migrate their system from SOH to S4H using system conversion, what would happen to the already created HANA views as we know that it will not be automatically converted to CDS view.
Remarks: After System conversion, the system level changes like (Change in Table, Structure, innovation, Lines of code) would be available in the target system.
The latest S/4HANA 1610 simplification document states the following:
From the above screen, its clear that we have the following 2 options:
:a) HANA Live calculation views will not work on changed structure, such content has to be adjusted manually to the changed DB table structure.
b) The new requirements (going forward) should be built with CDS as the source.
Also, its worth to note that in case the customer had installed the SAP HANA Live packages, these will be available in the converted system. It is simply impossible to deploy the SAP HANA Live tools/packages on an SAP S/4HANA system.
NOTE: It is worthwhile to note that the on-prem customers can ofcourse create their own Calculation Views on the HANA in S/4HANA. It is just that the Hana Live content packages will not work on the simplified S/4 backend.
19) Will BO Platform/Tools will come inbuilt in S/4HANA Analytics.
Remarks: BO Platform/ tools will be a separate License.
20) From which On premise Version onwards, customers can use Embedded Analytics.
Remarks: These embedded analytics tools are only available since S/4 HANA 1511.
The latest version (SAP S/4HANA 1709) will be available soon.
Hope you found this blog series useful.
BR
Prabhith
I have been lucky enough to be a part of many discussions on S/4HANA Embedded Analytics, both with Internal Stakeholders(within SAP) and External Customers.
I am starting a series of blogs here, wherein I have tried to document some of the FAQ’s, which has come out of such discussions.
PART 1 can be found here: https://blogs.sap.com/2017/08/30/s4hana-embedded-analytics-faq-part-1/
PART 3 can be found here --> https://blogs.sap.com/2017/08/30/s4hana-embedded-analytics-faq-part-3/
Hope this would be useful for your reference.
I understand that many of you are already working on the S/4HANA area. In case if you feel any discrepancy with any of the points/remarks mentioned in this blog,
Please feel free to add your comments here.
The official SAP document on SAP S/4HANA Embedded Analytics(November 2015 edition) can be found in the following link:
https://www.sap.com/documents/2015/11/7e25a80f-507c-0010-82c7-eda71af511fa.html
<<<<<Important Disclaimer: All the points mentioned here in this document are purely my observations and learnings from various stake holders. This should never be considered as an SAP official document >>>>>
I will try to update this blog series on a regular basis,so that the same can be used as a Live reusable document.
11) What are the connectivity options between S/4HANA and BW (when both are different Box)?
Remarks:
a) Via ODP-ABAP CDS Source Systems.
Please note that the many of the SAP Extractors would still be available using the ODP – SAP(Extractors) option (as shown in the above screen). But it would be a good practice to look into various notes (like https://launchpad.support.sap.com/#/notes/2270133), which talks about the deprecated data sources.
NOTE: The above statement is related with On-premise scenario’s only.
12) Will SAP be delivering an alternate CDS View for every HANA Live view available till date.
Remarks: The Road map for SoH or S4H teams are quite different and there is no assurance from SAP that we will have an alternate CDS view for all HANA views.
Having said that, there are cases like “DAYSSALESOUTSTANDING”, where in you will see both HANA view and CDS view, but there might be chances of change in fields or functional area, which can further be understood from the screenshot below:
NOTE: It is worthwhile to note that the on-prem customers can ofcourse create their own Calculation Views on the HANA in S/4HANA. It is just that the Hana Live content packages will not work on the simplified S/4 backend.
13) Is there a convertor or a tool to convert HANA Live view to CDS View
Remarks: As of today, there is no conversion tool available to customer as such.
NOTE: It is worthwhile to note that the on-prem customers can ofcourse create their own Calculation Views on the HANA in S/4HANA. It is just that the Hana Live content packages will not work on the simplified S/4 backend.
14) Is there a possibility to bring in HANA Views inside a CDS view
Remarks: As of today, there is no readymade solution available as such.
But, one of the work around to do that would be to leverage the “External View” concept.
NOTE: It is worthwhile to note that the on-prem customers can ofcourse create their own Calculation Views on the HANA in S/4HANA. It is just that the Hana Live content packages will not work on the simplified S/4 backend.
15) Is there a possibility to bring in CDS Views inside a HANA view
Remarks: Every CDS View when activated, creates a ABAP view and the SQL View.
This SQL view would be available in the _SYS_BIC Schema. From that schema, you could drag in the view to a HANA information view (may be to a Projection node).
Please see the below screen shots:
(Picture courtesy: Koen Wilhelm’s presentation on S/4HANA Analytics)
Note here --> ABAP CDS View name is C_CUSTOMERPROJECT
SQL View Name is CCUSTOMERPROJECT
NOTE: It is worthwhile to note that the on-prem customers can ofcourse create their own Calculation Views on the HANA in S/4HANA. It is just that the Hana Live content packages will not work on the simplified S/4 backend.
16) Can we see CDS Views in a SOH system
Remarks: CDS views and HANA views can be seen residing together in systems like SoH which has a Simple Finance add-on that.
Generally, SAP delivers CDS views with S/4HANA System and HANA views with SOH system.
17) Can we consume CDS views in Cloud for Analytics (C4A) (aka Business Objects Cloud) (aka SAP Analytics cloud)
Remarks: The integration between S/4HANA Cloud and BOC can be done through the following option. Again the approach of 2C* convention remains the same.
18) My customer is now on SOH, wherein they had utilized 10 HANA Live views and created 5 custom views. Now they decided to migrate their system from SOH to S4H using system conversion, what would happen to the already created HANA views as we know that it will not be automatically converted to CDS view.
Remarks: After System conversion, the system level changes like (Change in Table, Structure, innovation, Lines of code) would be available in the target system.
The latest S/4HANA 1610 simplification document states the following:
From the above screen, its clear that we have the following 2 options:
:a) HANA Live calculation views will not work on changed structure, such content has to be adjusted manually to the changed DB table structure.
b) The new requirements (going forward) should be built with CDS as the source.
Also, its worth to note that in case the customer had installed the SAP HANA Live packages, these will be available in the converted system. It is simply impossible to deploy the SAP HANA Live tools/packages on an SAP S/4HANA system.
NOTE: It is worthwhile to note that the on-prem customers can ofcourse create their own Calculation Views on the HANA in S/4HANA. It is just that the Hana Live content packages will not work on the simplified S/4 backend.
19) Will BO Platform/Tools will come inbuilt in S/4HANA Analytics.
Remarks: BO Platform/ tools will be a separate License.
20) From which On premise Version onwards, customers can use Embedded Analytics.
Remarks: These embedded analytics tools are only available since S/4 HANA 1511.
The latest version (SAP S/4HANA 1709) will be available soon.
Hope you found this blog series useful.
BR
Prabhith
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