
This webcast was from the SAP product management team based in Paris, looking after Enterprise BI and Analytics Hub. Olivier Duvelleroy presented the slides and Laura Vega presented the demos; please watch the replay link above to see the demos.
Source: SAP
This legal disclaimer explains that SAP can change out plans at any time without notice.
Source: SAP
Analytics is a priority for companies; usage is low; between 15-20% use. If you ask the users why they don’t use analytics, most of the time they don’t know which system to access, where they’ll find the analytics they need, once they find an analytic they don’t know whether they can trust it
Source: SAP
Categorize the challenges:
You have some related to the company history and organization, in large companies for instance, because of acquisitions, there are multiple data silos, and multiple BI systems. These silos create multiple versions of the truth, and make it hard to compare numbers.
On the user side, there is a lot of confusion and a lack of trust, so even if they have access to some reports, users don’t have a good description what the analytic is about, what the data source is, or the key performance indicators are calculated.
More and more, you have power users who create their own analytics, and this can is good if the data is trustworthy and they can promote their content to other users in the company. But in many cases the analytics are only visible or used within a small work group.
From an IT perspective, the goal is to encourage these self service initiatives, while still maintaining a single version of the truth. You need to add a layer of governance.
Source: SAP
SAP’s strategy is to combine on premise and cloud capabilities into hybrid solutions
SAP Analytics Cloud is an integrated solution that brings together BI, Planning and Predictive in one single interface.
create a new innovative solution in the cloud, while continuing to enhance the existing on premise solutions.
Source: SAP
The vision for SAP Analytics Hub is really to simplify access to all analytics, to enable BI governance and to increase IT efficiency.
Source: SAP
Analytics Hub provides a single point of access. It could be SAP or non-SAP.
So Analytics Hub provides is a single access point to all your analytic assets.
Users don’t need to know whether the analytics are on premise or in the cloud, in an SAP system or an external system like SharePoint, another silo BI product, or anything accessible through a URL.
Just for SAP, your analytics may be coming from BusinessObjects Enterprise BI on premise, or SAP Analytics Cloud, or S/4HANA embedded analytics, Fiori Analytical App.
The key goal of using the Analytics Hub is to keep in one place an inventory of the governed analytics, analytics that have been validated by BI experts, either in IT or in the BI community or both.
You don’t need to move the analytics assets from the multiple system, you just reference and organize the important ones in the hub.
Users have more trust in these analytics because they have been selected, documented, and validated, and that encourages them to explore what is available on the Hub. And they can discover some analytics that they may not have access to, read the documentation and decide whether they should ask to be granted access (in the source systems they wouldn’t see what they don’t have access to so they may not know to ask for authorization)
It provides a single point of access to all analytics
You can search, get information, access
Source: SAP
New – implement Fiori Design Principles
Add access from a mobile – iPhone or iPad you can connect to Analytics Hub – open in browser or in BI app
In the process of publishing a pattern book
Source: SAP
Enable BI Governance
By moderators in the community
Document, categorize, curate
It is like Wikipedia, users have different roles in the system
Most users only access the portal, search and browse the information, and access the analytics
But there are special roles that you can give to IT or power users, the role of content editors, who can add analytic links and metadata, and the role of moderators, who decide which analytics are visible to everyone.
So users contribute to the community according to their role, and the moderators can ensure that all the right information is provided before the analytics become visible.
Source: SAP
Users who have a “content validator” role need to validate the edits before an analytic asset becomes visible to everyone.
There is also a tenant operator role (from IT) to onboard the user and define the structure of the hub.
Source: SAP
Analytics Hub has refined the search
Source: SAP
The tool is easy to set up; user admin is same as SAP Analytics Cloud
Since last September there is an Admin cockpit where you can customize the configuration of the hub.
Source: SAP
It is a SaaS solution; no upgrade to manage. Only metadata is stored in cloud.
Only the metadata is stored in the cloud, the analytics and the actual data stay in the source system. The hub can be set up quickly, and obviously since it’s a cloud solution there is no extra infrastructure or upgrades to manage.
The second benefit for IT is to avoid report proliferation and duplication, and making sure that the analytics that are exposed are documented consistently using the validation workflow.
And since all analytics are accessed through the hub you can track the usage, and understand which analytics, which data sources, and which systems are getting used.
Source: SAP
Cockpit was delivered last year
Early April, provided the corporate branding
Q4 – added ability to export content
In June, import content back to hub
SAML2 was added last Fall
Q1 release added message to allow GDPR compliance
Source: SAP
The data center locations are shown above – 3 in North American, Brazil, Europe, Asia – and will expand
Source: SAP
Future directions (subject to change)
Q2 – mobile support, add visibility by team – analytics in the catalog
This summer – enhance corporate branding
With BI4.2 SP6, end of July, Analytics Hub will expose BI authorizations – know if you are authorized before you click and not authorized, ask to be authorized
Later this year – describe measures, models, link the different assets
Source: SAP
Asset Factory will allow you to do a bulk upload
Source: SAP
This is a summary of the webcast
Question & Answer
Q: How often are the releases for SAP Analytics Hub?
A: Every monthQ: Is there a trial available for SAP Analytics Hub?
A: No trial yet, but Customers can ask for a free POC to their sales contactQ: Does Analytics Hub comes as addon like SAP Digital Boardroom in SAP analytics cloud
A: yes; you need to buy 100 users; seen customers buy thousands as they want to provide access to a large group of usersQ: can we get assets from different customers ?
A: If you mean SAP and non-SAP the answer is yesQ: Can we connect Live BW4Hana & Hana System to publish reports in Analytics hub ?
A: yesQ: Is Scheduling/Publication type actions possible or in plan?
A: for the moment feature is not plannedQ: Is there a dedicated mobile app for accessing Analytics HUB contents?
A: no special app; access the URL of the HUB
When will the Asset Factory be released?
Hello - per the roadmap above, it is planned for Q3/2018 (subject to change)