This was an ASUG webcast this week; you can watch the replay here. If you are attending ASUG Annual Conference, be sure to attend this Analytics Hub session in person.  More upcoming webcasts can be found here.Source: SAP

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