A HANDBOOK OF SAP ANALYTICS CLOUD FOR PLANNING

SAP Analytics Cloud is one simple cloud solution for BI, Planning and Predictive. It connects people, information, and ideas to enable fast and confident decision making.

While configuring SAP Analytics Cloud to suit your business needs, if you have any questions such as how do I connect my data sources to SAP Analytics Cloud, how do I procure a test tenant to test my configuration before I deploy it to my productive tenant, how do I preview the upcoming product updates, where do I get information about product roadmap, what are the best practices regarding SAP Analytics Cloud for my industry, can I make use of available business content to jump start my implementation etc. then there are many resources available to you where these and such other questions are answered. The objective of this blog to provide you a single place where you can get directed to the right source for the answers. SAP Analytics Cloud releases customer updates once every quarter and you may see corresponding updates to this blog every quarter. The topics in this handbook are organized based on relevance and queries received from customers and partners.

1   Training and Enablement

There are many training resources available to a partner. These include webinars organized by SAP and ASUG, periodic product updates and training courses organized by SAP Education.

1.1  FREE OpenSAP Course for SAC Planning:

Free online course to learn about the planning capabilities of SAP Analytics Cloud. Topics will include advanced planning, managing the planning process, predictive planning, and building custom planning applications. The course also includes hands-on exercises to help you get practical experience with SAP Analytics Cloud. You can access this course at: Planning with SAP Analytics Cloud | openSAP

1.2   Webinars, blogs, video tutorials:

• For the webinars organized by SAP, you can register for webinars and watch the recordings at: https://www.sap.com/products/cloud-analytics/events.html?sort=events_upcoming&tab=live-events
• For the webcasts and other events organized by ASUG, you can get more information at: https://www.asug.com/events
• For blogs, tips and tricks and video tutorials, you can go to: https://community.sap.com/topics/cloud-analytics/planning

1.3    New features in the Product:

• You can find information about new releases and product updates at: SAP Analytics Cloud Release Notes | SAP Blogs
• You can learn about the new product features at: https://www.sap.com/training-certification.html?sort=latest_desc
• You can find a short video about Planning, Analysis, and Execution in One Financial Management System (S4 + SACP) at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c7B_y2ZX7W0

1.4   Predictive Planning capabilities:

You can learn about the new Predictive Planning capabilities in SAP Analytics Cloud at:  https://blogs.sap.com/2020/07/02/hands-on-tutorial-predictive-planning/

1.5   SAP Education:

• You can get information about courses pertaining to SAP Analytics Cloud at: Training for SAP Analytics Cloud in SAP Analytics Cloud for Analytics

1.6  PartnerEdge Resources:

• You can get Partner Edge top assets at: https://partneredge.sap.com/en/library/education/products/analytics/cfa/about/e_ep_sca_planning.html

2  Support for SAC Planning

If you need additional support for SAP Analytics Cloud for Planning, you can post your questions to the SAP Analytics Cloud community or chat with an SAP Support Expert or report an incident.

2.1  SAP Analytics Cloud Community

You can post your question and see the already answered questions at SAP analytics Cloud Community at: https://www.sap.com/community/tag.html?id=819703369010316911100650199149950

2.2  Chat with SAP Support Expert

You can chat with SAP Product Expert at: https://launchpad.support.sap.com/#/expertchat/entry

2.3  Report an incident

You can report an incident at: https://support.sap.com/en/index.html

2.4  Escalate an incident

You can escalate an incident by calling our customer interaction center at (800) 677-7271. The items that you should have ready when you call include: ticket number, reason for escalation, dollar impact and point of contact for escalation.

3  Best Practices and How-to Guides

There are many resources available regarding the best practices and how-to guides for SAP analytics Cloud

3.1  Best practices for SAP Analytics Cloud

• You can access the best practices regarding performance of SAP analytics Cloud at: https://blogs.sap.com/2021/10/04/best-practices-for-performance/
• You can get more information about best practices pertaining to life cycle management of SAP Analytics Cloud at: https://blogs.sap.com/2018/11/05/lifecycle-management-sap-analytics-cloud-concepts-and-workflows-webcast-recap-with-qa/
• You can access the tips for performance regarding data actions in SAC at: https://help.sap.com/viewer/00f68c2e08b941f081002fd3691d86a7/release/en-US/fa558b0ff273475c8f3cfa0053a5d89e.html?q=best%20practices
• There are also some best practices regarding analytics designer available at:
  • For switching between chart and table: https://help.sap.com/viewer/00f68c2e08b941f081002fd3691d86a7/release/en-US/b9b58a72342845cd91c14fd2c2b9a06c.html?q=best%20practices
  • For filtering table and chart through checkboxes: https://help.sap.com/viewer/00f68c2e08b941f081002fd3691d86a7/release/en-US/a17ef3c8fa6c406a969d17cda854e678.html?q=best%20practices
  • For filtering tables and charts through dropdowns: https://help.sap.com/viewer/00f68c2e08b941f081002fd3691d86a7/release/en-US/4dafe941002e45e7a9f5d0e4bf14151a.html?q=best%20practices

3.2  How-to guides and detailed documentation

Below are the resources available to get guided playlists of various features of SAP Analytics Cloud, training videos and detailed documentation

• Guided playlists are available at: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLs5htBIwERYUP18tIpnzKFWZrVuKSZ5Dd
• Training videos: https://help.sap.com/viewer/00f68c2e08b941f081002fd3691d86a7/release/en-US/2e581e3f3a7340ada6aa0cfa677945f9.html
• Detailed documentation about advanced formulas and data actions at: https://help.sap.com/viewer/00f68c2e08b941f081002fd3691d86a7/release/en-US/2850221adef14958a4554ad2860ff412.html?q=data%20action
• Analytics designer API reference is available at: https://help.sap.com/doc/958d4c11261f42e992e8d01a4c0dde25/release/en-US/index.html

• If you want to create Microsoft Excel workbooks with Analysis for SAP Analytics Cloud then you can get the help for the same including a link to download the user guide at: https://help.sap.com/viewer/product/SAP_ANALYSIS_OFFICE_CLOUD/2.8.2.0/en-US

4  Data Integration

SAP Analytics Cloud can connect to data sources with two types of connections. One is Live Data connection where the data can be accessed real time without any physical data transfer and without data leaving the customer’s firewall. The other type of data connection is import data connection which can be used to acquire data into SAP Analytics Cloud.

At present SAP Analytics Cloud requires data to be acquired for planning purposes; however, data that is needed for analytics purposes only can be accessed with live data connection. Furthermore, you can create blended analytics on data from live and import data connections. You can get more information about live and import data connections to various data sources including the necessary pre-requisites for data connections at:  https://help.sap.com/viewer/2d7115b0e0aa4f78bfd9c06fdc1fe4f6/release/en-US.

5  Demo Scripts and Planning Scenarios

• As a partner, you can access the following demo scripts, scenarios and many other useful assets within the partner edge portal at: https://partneredge.sap.com/en/library/education/products/analytics/cfa/sell/e_ta_cfa_demo.html
• Information about SAP Partner Demo Environment can be found at : https://blogs.sap.com/2020/08/25/sap-partner-demo-environment-shared-option-what-our-partners-are-saying/
• SAP Partner demo store is available at: https://sapdemostore.com/sap/bc/ui5_ui5/sap/yunifiedstore/index.html#/searchview/user/keywords:1210148228716

6  Search known issues and limitations

You can refer to the following for the known limitations in features of SAP analytics Cloud and data connections:

• Known Limitations to Analytics Designer
• Limitations to SAP Universe Live Data Connections
• Limitations to SAP HANA and SAPCP Live Data Connections
• Data volume limitations

7  Enhancement Requests

You can submit enhancement requests or requests for new features at: https://www.sap.com/about/customer-involvement/influence-adopt.html

8  Roadmaps, What’s New, Release Schedule

• The customer facing roadmap is available at: https://roadmaps.sap.com/board?PRODUCT=67838200100800006884&range=CURRENT-LAST#Q1%202022
• You can know more about quarterly release schedule of SAP Analytics Cloud at: https://blogs.sap.com/2022/01/17/sap-analytics-cloud-tenants-on-quarterly-release-cycle-qrc-updates-in-2022
• You can know more about SAP’s strategy for Enterprise Planning at: https://blogs.sap.com/2019/05/08/deep-dive-into-saps-strategy-for-enterprise-planning/
• You can get general information about Collaborative Enterprise Planning at: https://www.sap.com/products/erp-financial-management/financial-planning-analysis-fpa.html?btp=c12e52f3-1590-4d80-af0d-834c1df5d6fe

9  Business Content (SAP and Partner)

• Business content for SAP Analytics Cloud includes content developed by SAP as well as by partners. Business content developed by SAP is aimed at providing a jump start to your SAP analytics Cloud implementation. It can be activated from within the product itself by navigating from the main menu to Browse-Files-Content Library-Business Content. You should import the content to your tenant, make a copy of it and configure it to suit your requirements. The information about the SAP developed business content can be accessed at: https://help.sap.com/viewer/42093f14b43c485fbe3adbbe81eff6c8/release/en-US
• As a partner, you can develop, publish and sell content for SAP Analytics Cloud. The information about how to publish and sell your app on SAP App Center: https://www.sap.com/partner/find/extend.html

10  Tenants (Trial, Test and Preview)

A trial tenant is not the same as a test or a preview tenant. Trial tenants are the tenants that you can have for a limited time for trying out SAP Analytics Cloud. A test tenant is a tenant that a customer can  choose to have in addition to the production tenant to test new configuration before deploying the same on the productive tenant. Preview tenants are the tenants which a customer can have to preview the upcoming product updates. You can opt to upgrade a test tenant to a preview tenant. The following links give the necessary information about test tenants, preview tenants and upgrading the test tenants to preview tenants.

• Free trial tenant: https://www.sap.com/products/cloud-analytics/trial.html
• Content for free trial tenant: https://blogs.sap.com/2020/10/23/how-to-make-the-most-of-your-sap-analytics-cloud-for-planning-free-trial/?update=publish
• Pricing of production tenants: https://www.sap.com/products/cloud-analytics/pricing.html
• To obtain a test tenant: https://help.sap.com/doc/6530443d036444749f11278722069e34/release/en-US/Documentation_SAP_SAC_LCM.pdf
• How to update test tenant to preview release: https://apps.support.sap.com/sap/support/knowledge/public/en/2652439

11  MOVE PLANNING

Our Planning and Analytics Strategy is well positioned to the current trends we are seeing in the market. To ensure that our customers get the benefits of these innovations, and to also improve our overall development operations, we need our customers to be running on the SAC platform. ​Today we have around 5,100 customers that use BPC. The objective of Move Planning program is to move these customers quickly and smoothly to SAC for their planning requirements. This move between planning systems may require a hybrid scenario initially, as customers work to adjust their planning processes. ​The following resources are available for the BPC customers to extend their planning to SAC:

• Top 10 reason to move BPC to SAC: Top 10 Reasons to move from SAP BPC
• Complement BPC with SAC: https://blogs.sap.com/2020/11/30/complement-your-sap-business-planning-and-consolidation-with-sap-analytics-cloud/
• Add a new planning process to your BPC with SAC Planning: https://blogs.sap.com/2021/02/02/add-a-new-planning-process-to-your-bpc-implementation-using-sac-planning/
• Move yor BPC applications to SAC: Move your SAP BPC applications to SAP Analytics Cloud | SAP Blogs
• Start a free trial of SAC Planning: https://www.sap.com/products/cloud-analytics/trial.html
• Visit Move Planning portal for more information: Move SAP Business Planning and Consolidation to SAP Analytics Cloud
• BPC Runtime license: https://blogs.sap.com/2022/08/23/introducing-bpc-runtime-license/
• National Vision success story: https://www.sap.com/documents/2020/10/32bf7ddf-b57d-0010-87a3-c30de2ffd8ff.html
• Callaway success story : Callaway: Aligning Plans Across the Enterprise with SAP Analytics Cloud
• Roche success story: SAP and Roche Success Story | Customer Reviews and Testimonials
• As a partner you can help by developing migration packages and pre-packaged service offerings for Extend Planning. Some examples are:
• https://www.truqua.com/what-we-do/technical-expertise/sap-analytics-cloud/sap-bpc-migration-to-sap-analytics-cloud/
• https://simplefisolutions.com/planning-and-consolidations-modernization/

12  Extended Planning and Analytics

Extended planning and analysis (xP&A) helps you bring your people and plans together to increase agility and performance, no matter what events unfold. We support xP&A with smooth integration between your plans and SAP applications.

• xP&A portal: Extended Planning and Analysis | xP&A (sap.com)
• xP&A guided experience: Extended Planning and Analysis | xP&A (sap.com)
• Workforce Planning solutions: HR Analytics and Workforce Planning | SAP SuccessFactors
• Sales Planning solutions: SAP Territory and Quota | Sales Performance Management
• xP&A success story: SAP and Freudenberg Home and Cleaning Solutions Success Story | Customer Reviews and Testimonials
• xP&A business content: Extended Planning & Analysis: Business Content | SAP Analytics Cloud | SAP Community