Product Information
Overview of Latest BI Features in SAP Cloud Analytics #ASUG Webcast Recap
SAP’s Christina Obry gave this ASUG webcast last week. Don’t forget to register for these upcoming webcasts:
April 2 BI: A Beginner’s Guide to Use SAP Analytics Cloud for Business Planning
April 3 BI: Smart Predict Update
April 4 BI: Tips & Tricks for Optimizing Story Performance in SAP Analytics Cloud
April 9 BI: Data Protection & Privacy with BW/4HANA
April 10 BI: What’s New with Application Design in SAP Analytics Cloud
April 16 BI: What’s New in Transitioning from SAP BW to SAP BW/4HANA
April 25 BI: Preview of Business Intelligence and Analytics Sessions at ASUG Annual Conference
You can watch/register for the replay here.
Source: SAP
Source: SAP
The disclaimer applies. You may not yet see all features yet in your tenant.
Data Acquisition
Source: SAP
Excel and CSV files stored in Google Drive are not supported
Source: SAP
Ability to pivot information; if spreadsheet you upload is not quite the way you want you can pivot.
Source: SAP
Data that has multiple time hierarchies – ability to calculate between times
Source: SAP
Note:
Country-level is required for geo enrichment, whether it is coming from the data itself or as an input from the designer
BI Core Features
Source: SAP
Can export to Google Slides
Source: SAP
Sort your charts to analyze the most relevant information
Source: SAP
Absolute value used for variance and difference from
Source: SAP
Dynamic time filters for story and page filters
Good for planning scenarios
Source: SAP
Ability to get combined PDF
Usability and Productivity
Source: SAP
- Filter(s) will be applied to sub-topics by default
- Existing Boardroom will stay with old behavior until designer changes the setting (source: SAP)
Source: SAP
More intuitive, reducing maximum lanes
Source: SAP
Descriptions in calculation editor in story/modeler
Source: SAP
Input control selection more intuitive
Source: SAP
Share private bookmarks, global bookmarks
Source: SAP
- Deselecting members from the list may result in exclude query
- Cascaded filters in BW are not supported
- Supports page, topic, and story filters based on flat dimensions
- For mobile, only the first 4,000 members will be available for user selected
Flexible Formatting
Source: SAP
For dynamic text in table title: subtitle, scale, unit, etc. are not supported
Source: SAP
More readable in last releases; an additional option to color subtotals
Source: SAP
Helpful if you don’t have access to the Model
Smart Assist
Source: SAP
Search to insight is natural language query
Search for fiscal year
Source: SAP
Search using greater or less parameter; search structure should follow this format: Show (measure) by (dimension) where (measure) + is + (range)
Commas are not understood by Search to Insight at this point (i.e., if you intend to use “1,000”, “1000” should be typed in in the search bar)
Mobile
Source: SAP
Interact with Geo on mobile, see shapes, drill down, support different base maps
Enable Remote Sources
Source: SAP
Prerequisites for remote are at the bottom of the slide
Source: SAP
Browser based blending for BW Live/HANA Live, acquired
Q4 – blending between remote / acquired data source – set up Smart Data Integration
Data size limit
Source: SAP
Closing gaps between acquired and live BW, includes Waterfall capabiltiies
Source: SAP
Closing gaps between HANA and acquired data; scale and currency formatting
Performance
Source: SAP
Allows you to access and view stories faster – story metadata on browser
Source: SAP
Optimize queries sent to back end
The dimension member count will no longer be displayed next to the dimension name if the story designer selects “All Members” (source: SAP)
Source: SAP
Depends on logon, remote data source, can dramatically improve story opening
Source: SAP
Improve filter across models
Question & Answer
A: slides are posted in the resources area with a direct link here:
A: It will come; going in iterative state;
Q: Is it possible to change the number Format for BW live connection data? Currently it is 1,000,000.00 and need to have 1.000.000,00 for our customers.
with scaling – you may need to have a BW note installed.
A: Is it possible to blend BW live connection data in one graph for example? (e.g. Budget data in one model, sales in another –> Show both in one graph)
today you can blend BW live with acquired.
Q: why not cache the input controls as well ?
A: if have input control as a designer – fixed – cached. Once you say all members, needs to be dynamic
Q: Why does the GeoMap work only for US in our SAC. Do we have to do something to enable other countries?
A: It should work for all the other countries too.
Q:Can we export the story in pdf and send to users by EMail on basis of schedule kind of thing ?
A: not possible today
Q: Is there any documentation on the new GEO regarding what we can enter into countries, regions and sub-regions.
A: there is an older video for the enrichment at https://help.sap.com/doc/00f68c2e08b941f081002fd3691d86a7/2019.7/en-US/f07c799fd820429e8f1d626a4a0e5ae4.html?css. Note this doesn’t cover the new enhancement of being able to enrich outside the US. We will work on updating these.
Q: Is SAC capable of handling large volumes of data, specifically spend data at the transactional level, which can range from the 10’s of thousands to 100’s of thousands lines of data per month?
A: Yes SAC is able to handle large volume, though some limitations exist. In general for large data volume one may want to consider live data sources so the data doesn’t have to be transferred.
Q: what will happen when you blend acquired and live data ? which functionality takes place as there are differences between the two
A: I am actually not sure what the question is here.
Q: can we consume Fiori tiles for SAC
A: No
Q: are there any new features when it comes to formatting the reports(tablular) – more Webi-like ?
A: Please refer to the public product plan
Q: Is predictive scenario available in Trial version ?
A: Smart BI features are part of the trial version, smart predict features which belong to the predictive license are not part of the trial version.
Q: More and more features coming to HANA 2.0 connection is interesting. But is there documentation on how to connect from SAC to HANA 2.0? The site shows only documentation on 1.0…
A: the steps to connect to Live HANA are the same regardless whether you’re connecting to HANA 1.0 or HANA 2.0.
Q: Will city level as become available in the future or will it stay with country and region level
A: Not in short term at this point but please refer to the public product plan for updates
Q: is there any possibilities to get an overview of what we can enter into the new GEO – countries, regions and sub-regions
A: We will work on updating these.
Q: CAn we make the input controls run off their own HANA views, not necessarily directly off the dataset ?
A: Yes, but they would have to be linked to another HANA view that contains the data for your charts, otherwise the data wouldn’t be filtered.
Q: Maximum Cells says it is 30 Million on an acquired model and that this feature is NOT currently available… what is the current limit and when will 30 Milllion be the limit.
A: 30 Million cell should be the limit today
As we had several questions about BW, please see this link for BW recordings of past webcasts