The Latest Business Intelligence Features in #SAP Analytics Cloud Q4 2020 + 2021 Preview Webcast Summary

This was an SAP webcast held last week on Thanksgiving Day.

Source: SAP

Below shows where everyone was joining from:

Source: SAP

The disclaimer

Figure 3 Source SAP
Point story to a different model, available with QRC 4 release
Target model has to be based on source model
Acquired models only

Figure 4 Source SAP
Quickly simulate scenarios from models uploaded in Excel

Figure 5 Source SAP
For tables and charts
Simplify so users see only important information

Figure 6 Source SAP
Enhance story calculations using statistical aggregates

Figure 7 Source SAP
Create copies of calculations

Figure 8 Source SAP
Ability to reorder dimensions facets in Explorer mode

Figure 9 Source SAP
Auto formatting for decimal places for charts
Adapt best decimal number for granularity

Preview for QRC 1 2021

Figure 10 Source SAP
New tool bar – collapsed, simplify navigation

Figure 11 Source SAP
Independent rank and sort
For example, rank top 5 sales then sort alphabetically

Figure 12 Source SAP
Exploration as part of the story
Can do this as part of the story

Today can only do this as part of the chart

Figure 13 Source SAP
Pagination in reporting
Paginate table so content is not lost

Figure 14 Source SAP
Export to PDF and PPT

Smart Assist

Figure 15 Source SAP
Natural language
Improved autocompletion for questions
Ranked on frequency

Figure 16 Source SAP
In results view, can now interact with chart – filter, export search results to Excel

Figure 17 Source SAP
Specify an entity

Figure 18 Source SAP
Customizations on top contributor for results
You may have certain dimensions but may not be relevant
As part of settings story wide, for story designer, make results more useful

Preview

Figure 19 Source SAP
Coming in Q1 QRC
Sneak preview
2 features to give automatic suggestions and visualization
Ensure those are the best visualizations to draw conclusions, based on best practices, overall readability – sorted, data labels in best format

Figure 20 Source SAP
Recommending alternative charts at bottom of chart

Mobile

Figure 21 Source SAP
New view on mobile iOS
Optimized view for faster loading times
Now available for iOS

Mobile Preview

Figure 22 Source SAP
Voice search to insight
Exciting feature

Q&A

Q: What data sources are supported with search to insight today?
A: Support all, live sources need to be enabled in the model

Q: Zero suppression – Where supported – tables, calculations?
A: BW, HANA, and acquired data models, for charts and tables and any measure

Q: Is there a way for customers to bring in multiple data sources in a data story?
A: Available today
Can blend
One measure from model A, dimension from model B, some limits and system requirements – see Help

Q: Paginated export for table, can you repeat the table header?
A: Not possible today, but planned, check road map for features

Q: How to influence product to make it better
A: Go to help inside SAC, and click submit ideas

Link webcast to replay https://event.on24.com/wcc/r/2794536/8B5825BB644CB63512C4FF5DF15DEFC0

Link to webcast slides: https://on24static.akamaized.net/event/27/94/53/6/rt/1/documents/resourceList1582649443622/latestbifeaturesqrc4202011606505469114.pdf

Thanks to SAP’s Sofiya Muzychko and Christina Obry for this webcast; you can catch them next week at SAP TechEd (unfortunately their session is already full)

Voice to search is an interesting preview; what are your take-aways?