#askSAP: SAP 2018 Strategy and Roadmap for Business Intelligence Webcast Recap
Source: SAP
This is part of the SAP quarterly call series, held today
Nic Smith, SAP, said they have received questions based on some announcements from last week.
Source: SAP
Legal disclaimer applies that future items are subject to change
Source: SAP
Former Member will cover strategy
Blair Wheadon covers SAP Lumira and roadmap
Adrian Westmoreland will cover hybrid strategy
Source: SAP
Digital is changing the way, analytics remains top CIO priority to drive insights
SAP is investing in digital transformation
Source: SAP
Above shows “One platform for all analytics” with laser focus on hybrid, allowing you to embed analytics in your application
Provide intelligence including machine learning, and bringing into analytics processes
There are five areas of focus for the SAP Analytics product strategy:
All analytics on one cloud-based platform
One common & simple user experience
Hybrid (laser focus)
Embedded in apps
Deeper & more meaningful logic & context-driven insights – Source: SAP
Source: SAP
Embed analytics into the business processes – hybris, Ariba, SF, S/4HANA
SAP provides analytics that are designed for apps across the entire business network from sales & marketing to supply chain, HR, and Finance – Source: SAP
Source: SAP
BI, planning, predictive to grow and run the business
BW/4HANA = redeveloped for modern data warehouse
SAP Analytics Cloud bringing BI, predictive and planning together on SAP Cloud Platform
Digital Boardroom from shop floor to the top floor; call center operations, 360 view
In 2017 SAP launched Analytics Hub; a key part of hybrid strategy
Source: SAP
SAP said they heard “too many tools” years ago; been on a journey to simplify portfolio; enable you to deliver use cases today
Simplification & convergence plan: 1) converge uses cases not features/functions 2) BI 4.x content will continue to work & be maintained 3) no forced migration – Source: SAP
Source: SAP
SAP Analytics has “lowest cost of ownership”
Key findings from Forrester study on ROI of SAP Analytics- Source: SAP
In between speakers, Nic took questions.
Q: BI on Demand, Lumira Cloud – how is it different this time with Analytics Cloud?
A: Before taken on premise solution to cloud; helpful but not transformative
Now power of BI, planning and predictive
Source: SAP
Drill down into Data Discovery use case – Analytics Cloud and Lumira Discovery
SAP Analytics Cloud is becoming a default solution for cloud solutions
Connects to on-premise data
Strong focus on a single solution will benefit
Adjusting Lumira roadmap to focus on quality, performance; ratchet back innovation on Lumira Discovery
Focus on hybrid use cases
Hybrid solution to bring together best of cloud and on-premise software
“We take a use-case approach to all of our portfolio decisions.” Source: SAP
In the second half of year SAP plans to have a hybrid license for BusinessObjects Enterprise and SAP Analytics Cloud
Source: SAP
Lumira Designer remains SAP’s primary solution for app design w/ continued innovation & investment; simultaneously adding application design use case to the SAP Analytics Cloud roadmap 1H 2018 – Source: SAP
Source: SAP
Hybrid license roadmap is shown above
Source: SAP
Explorer use case covered by SAP Analytics Cloud and will add full text search to SAC in Q2
RoamBI team in San Diego is building SAP Analytics Cloud mobile app
Q: Will there still be innovations with Web Intelligence?
A: On premise is not going into maintenance mode. Strategy is hybrid. BI4.2 SP6 will drop in middle of year, SP7 end of year. Will have important innovations; strong roadmap for Web Intelligence, including a native time dimension; enhanced universe query connector for SAP Analytics Cloud; Full bi directional interop between SAC and Web Intelligence
Source: SAP
We have mixed landscapes now
We’re moving into a world where we see the path forward is hybrid – Source: SAP
Source: SAP
There are a number of areas that we’re focusing on to allow you to run a true hybrid approach – SAP
Analytics Hub is a key component going forward for hybrid strategy; single view of all analytics applications; it is an agnostic front end
Hybrid is holistic; embrace not just technology but licensing as well; a single, seamless license going forward
SAP Analytics Cloud will have natural language generation, Smart BI
Source: SAP
“Seamless experience” with SAP Analytics Hub
Source: SAP
“Leave data on premise” with SAP Analytics Cloud – BusinessObjects BI + SAP Analytics Cloud “better together”
SAP’s vision & strategy for analytics is a seamless experience so users don’t have to think about where data or content resides- SAP
Source: SAP
App building is planned for SAP Analytics Cloud – more scripting capabilities
Source: SAP
What a hybrid landscape will look like going forward – SAP
Source: SAP
Analytics Hub acts as a pointer to content
Not the same as Data Hub – Timo Elliott said on twitter:
Both Data Hub and Analytics Hub enable data access across different sources but at very different levels. Data Hub is about deep data orchestration (e.g. Hadoop & ERP), Analytics Hub is about easy portal access to multiple reports, analyses, etc.
Question & Answer
Q: Do we need to replicate all data to analytics cloud or can Analytics cloud just read data from on-prem sources?
Q: If i have Analytics on Cloud, do I need SAP Predictive Analytics?
Q: Will Lumira Designer continue to work with SAP data sources only or is it expected to open up and enable it to work with non-sap data sources?
Q: How can I use my existing BI content with Analytics Cloud?
A: Use Analytics Hub as a unifying way; leave where they are and use Analytics Hub as the over arching view to access content going forward; Hub is the single view
Q: Does this mean that concurrent based license will be available on SAP Analytics Cloud?
A: released this in December 2017; will be used for hybrid license model (planned)
Q: In Analytics Hub can you connect to your 3rd party applications?
A: Can connect to any content – 3rd party or SAP; also supports Single-sign-on
Q: What is the roadmap for embedded analytics, for S/4HANA?
A: Plans to leverage SAP Analytics Cloud with S/4HANA and SAP will look at providing a publicly available roadmap
Q: What options do we have in terms of Blockchain analytics and SAP?
A: Look at Leonardo – bringing together industry business units on machine learning, blockchain – Public Sector – identity verification with taxes. Provide trust and transparency through supply chain
Timo also said on twitter:
Short term will be data identity/trust/transparency, but potentially can help enable new business models for sharing information outside the organization / across industry, e.g. pay per use of pool info
Q: Customer has BPC, is interested in how planning models work with SAP Analytics Cloud
A: BPC cloud works with SAP Analytics Cloud – integration is bi-directional
Q: More enhancements to mobile analytics
A: Support for Android – big investment for existing SAP Analytics Cloud; supported today on iPads and iPhones
Q: Use Mobile BI with BI4.2 – what should we expect?
A: Mobile BI – continue to make incremental enhancements; majority of innovations will happen in SAP Analytics Cloud Mobile app
Q: Hybrid/on-premise – is SAP going to invest in Universes?
A: Yes, SAP Analytics Cloud sees universes as a key source; important element of hybrid strategy and live connectivity
Will add more support for scoring stored procedures in Information Design Tool
Support for custom hierarchies is planned for Web Intelligence (next year)
Focus on BI4.2 service pack releases
Q: What are application design use cases with SAP Analytics Cloud
A: publishing a new roadmap for SAP Analytics Cloud and includes a new release for applications design – more at SAPPHIRENOW; no roadmap to replace Lumira Designer with “SAC” application design
Q: Does Analytics Cloud support BEx queries?
A: Yes, it supports it in 2 ways – acquire and now support live access to BEx queries
Benefit of live access is all authorizations are enforced at query time; pay attention to prerequisites
Q: What is the strategy of data warehousing – BW/BW/4HANA
A: For analytics, BW/4HANA is the future of SAP
Reference
SAP Insider’s BI 2018 and HANA 2018
For BI+Analytics Conference next week, SAP has “limited spots left for 1-on-1 time with an SAP Expert on your topic of choice – register while spots last: https://goo.gl/fkfC8t
Source: SAP
Exciting times. Thank you Tammy for putting this together.
I think this was long due to come up with consolidated and clear roadmap.
Hi Tammy, All,
Thank you for the summary!
I would like to ask your opinion/feelings regarding the future of Lumira Designer.
I think, after a slow start, by now Lumira Designer become a very powerful tool for the purpose. (Unlike Lumira Discovery, which I see as way behind the competition.)
If "no roadmap to replace Lumira Designer with “SAC” application design" ... does it mean that Lumira Desgner may become the tool for Analytics Cloud as well?
These two are not that far technically (both HTML5 Fiori based), and business-wise as well, it would not be logical to introduce a new tool for the same use case. (especially if simplification&convergence is in focus)
Or is it just wishful thinking? What's your opinion?
Regards,
Marton
Hello Marton - I think I will learn more in person next week on these topics at biaconference.com
I agree, Lumira Designer is a very powerful tool.
Thank you for reading and commenting on this
Tammy
Hi,
Just for the record, based on the screenshot, looks like it will be a new web based tool:
via: https://twitter.com/tpowlas/status/966713724504629249
Thanks for sharing, Tammy!
Hi Tammy, you were one of the first ones to comment on the SAP BI strategy.
Thank you for providing valuable insight into SAP's move, and the direct
help on my posting on the subject.
Regards, Christian
Very concerned with SAP moving away from on premise products to cloud based, or even a hybrid model. We CANNOT!!! use cloud based ANYTHING with our data! We need 100% on premise solutions. If this is really the path SAP is taking moving forward, they are abandoning clients that work in secure environments with legally secured data.