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Author's profile photo Eaksiri Sontisirikul

Beginner’s Guide to SAP Analytics Cloud for SuccessFactors

Introduction

As you guys may know, there’s a new direction for reporting in SuccessFactors that was recently announced. Sooner or later, SAP Analytics Cloud (SAC) will replace most of current reporting tools—ORD, Adhoc, BIRT, YouCalc. So let keep yourself up-to-date!

*Updated on Oct 4, 2018

Going for forward, the connection between SAC and SF will use the SuccessFactors live connection for more tightly coupled live data retrieval and better query experience. It will also be included in the standard SF license at no additional cost.

 

Prerequisites

  • SAP Analytics Cloud account (trial account is fine)
  • SuccessFactors system access with necessary permissions
  • SuccessFactors API user

 

Configuration: SuccessFactors

OAuth2 Authentication for API Access

Logon into a SuccessFactors system and go to “Manage OAuth2 Client Applications”.

To register a new application, click on “Register Client Application”.

Input a preferred application name and enter your SAP Analytics Cloud instance in the application URL. Then, click on “Generate X.509 Certificate” to generate a new certificate.

Put your SAP Analytics Cloud instance in the Common Name (CN) field and then press “Generate”.

On the following screen, click the “Download” button to save the private key file (Certificate.pem). Then click on the “Register” button.

After that, you will be taken back to the prior screen. Click “View” to get the API key.

Note down the API key. It’ll be used later in the subsequent step.

 

Configuration: SAP Analytics Cloud

Create a new SuccessFactors connection

From the menu, select “Connection”.

Add a new data connection from SuccessFactors.

Enter the required information.

  • Private key: Use the Certificate.pem file that you downloaded earlier
  • Company ID: Your SuccessFactors Company ID

Create a new model

Now the SuccesFactors connection is ready. Go back to the main screen and select Create–>Model to create a new data model.

Select “Get data from an app” and then choose “SAP SuccessFactors” on the right-hand side.

Select the newly created connection and choose Create a new query.

Enter a query name. And you can either choose to build a query from scratch or select a template query.

For this blog, I’ll start with the Headcount template query.

Predefined data selection is presented and you can add, modify, or delete the selected data as required. Then click “Create”.

Once the model has been created, data can be viewed, put in some formulas, adjust formatting, etc.

Data is visualized on any column you click. For example, when I click on the column “Job Title”, I see how many FTEs per position.

Create a story

If you reach the above step, it means you already have data in your hands. Now you can make it more attractive for presentation.

From the main screen, select Create–>Story.

There are several templates to choose from. I select the “Report” template as an example dashboard.

The dashboard gets data from the model you created earlier. Now you can make your data more meaningful through data visualization.

More details can be found on https://www.sapanalytics.cloud/help-library/.

Conclusion

After spending some time with SAP Analytics Cloud, I think it’s a good platform to visualize data with its simple user interface. Eventually, I believe that, SAP Analytics Cloud will become one reporting platform for SuccessFactors reporting. So let’s start learning now!

 

 

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      16 Comments
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      Author's profile photo Terry Eisenmenger
      Terry Eisenmenger

      How do we secure this trial account?

      • SAP Analytics Cloud account (trial account is fine)
      Author's profile photo Eaksiri Sontisirikul
      Eaksiri Sontisirikul
      Blog Post Author

      You can get a trial account from the following link: https://discover.sapanalytics.cloud/trialrequest-auto-1.

       

      Author's profile photo Kathiravan MD
      Kathiravan MD

      Thanks Eaksiri Sontisirikul,  this blog would really help beginners.

      I have tried login with free trial account and am getting 500 HTTP error request? Any help would really appreciate on this.

      Author's profile photo Eaksiri Sontisirikul
      Eaksiri Sontisirikul
      Blog Post Author

      It's also happened to me once.

      I believe that the trial account is running on shared and limited SAC resources. So once in a while we could not access to its application.

      Therefore we have no choice but need to wait for the application to be up and running again.

       

      Author's profile photo Chris Wilpert
      Chris Wilpert

      Great post! I will link it in the next review in my article. https://www.ixerv.com/sap-analytics-cloud-successfactors-future-reporting/

      Author's profile photo Eaksiri Sontisirikul
      Eaksiri Sontisirikul
      Blog Post Author

      Thanks!

      Author's profile photo Hemsagar Elugu
      Hemsagar Elugu

      Fantastic blog ! @Eaksiri Sontisirikul

      Author's profile photo Luke Marson
      Luke Marson

      Great blog Eaksiri.

      Readers might be interested in reading more about SAP Analytics Cloud here: https://www.ixerv.com/sap-analytics-cloud-successfactors/

      Author's profile photo Ashok Kumar M
      Ashok Kumar M

      Hi Eaksiri Sontisirikul,

      I see that SAC can work using a live connection with SF.

      Can you please tell me if there are prepackaged contents with regard to SF data within SAC?

      Thanks & Best Regards,

      Ashok.

      Author's profile photo Henry Banks
      Henry Banks

      Hi Ashok,

      Happy to discuss internally with you, please ask in the SAC Jam group for SAP employees.

      Yes, I can confirm we(SAP) package a few "Business Content templates" built on SFSF HR data, but these are using the "Import From.." data acquisition workflow   and NOT "Live" data.

       

      that is explained in the supporting documentation, and uses the odata API discussed above.

       

      regards,

      H

      Author's profile photo Deepraj Rai
      Deepraj Rai

      HI Eaksiri, Thank you for the blog.

      I am trying to set up a connection between a SF Sales Demo instance in DC4 and a SAC trial account. However, when I Create the connection in SAC, an error below appears.

      I have double checked all the details which I am entering

      Application URL - https://AANNN.eu1.sapanalytics.cloud

      API Key - as generated

      Service URL - https://api4preview.sapsf.com (tried the other options as well)

      Could you please let me know if I am missing something?

       

      Thank you,

      Deepraj

       

      Author's profile photo Deepraj Rai
      Deepraj Rai

      Hi, This has been resolved, thank you, Deepraj

      Author's profile photo Cong Chen
      Cong Chen

      I am experiencing the same issue, would you mind sharing with me how you resovle the issue?

      Author's profile photo Jonas Costa
      Jonas Costa

      Thank you for your explanation!

       

      A simple form to explanation the core configuration.

      Thanks regard!

       

      Jonas Costa.

      Author's profile photo Achmad Muchdofir
      Achmad Muchdofir
      Hai, 
      I use SAC to make report employee data movements.
      My SAC is direct connection with sf, can you please inform whether I can add a period data filter? I need to know the number of active employees each year

       

      Author's profile photo Avinash Eppar
      Avinash Eppar

      Very Helpful blog.

       

      I need a help in SAC planning . Wanted to do workforce planning with the help of SF data .

       

      As I am new to this technology looking for help.

       

      Thanks & Regards,

      Avinash