What’s New in SAP Analytics Cloud and SAP Digital Boardroom Release 2021.14

This blog post covers some of the latest features and enhancements in SAP Analytics Cloud and SAP Digital Boardroom Release 2021.14, which will be included in the Q3 2021 Quarterly Release Cycle (QRC).

Please note that the SAP Analytics Cloud Help Portal is updated at the same time as the upgrade to this release, so the links here may not yet reflect what is described below until after the upgrade is complete.

Technical Requirements

Be sure to upgrade to the latest SAP Analytics Cloud agent version 1.0.329 to take advantage of all the data acquisition types. Here are the minimum data acquisition requirements:

• Version 1.0.99 for SAP ERP / SQL Database
• Version 1.0.91 for SAP Universe (UNX)
• Version 1.0.233 for SAP Business Warehouse (BW)
• Version 1.0.235 for SAP HANA View
• Version 1.0.248 for File Server
• Version 1.0.75 for all other data source types

For more information, check out the following System Requirements and Technical Prerequisites. Also please note that SAP Analytics Cloud fully supports Microsoft Edge and Google Chrome for all activities and areas of viewing, authoring, and administration.

Release Highlights

• Data Modeling  
  • Import Data in Fiscal Period Format to the New Model
• Dashboard and Story Design  
  • Data Visualization  
    • Apply Null and Zero Suppressions for Measure and Planning Models
    • Ignore Null Values in Table Calculations
    • Enable Optimized View Mode for Certain Live Data Models
    • Leverage Active View Port Rendering in Optimized View Mode

Data Modeling

Import Data in Fiscal Period Format to the New Model

For a new measure model that is fiscal period enabled, users can now import fact data in either calendar date format or fiscal period format.

Dashboard and Story Design

Data Visualization

Apply Null and Zero Suppressions for Measure Models and Planning Models

Users can now handle null and zero suppressions effectively through the “Show/Hide” table value settings.

Ignore Null Values in Table Calculations

When calculating cell values in tables, null values will no longer affect the results. Null shall be treated as no value (similar to Microsoft Excel) for table calculations such as A + null = A and A – null = A.

For complex range functions such as Average(A,B,C) shall be (A+B)/2, the C value is null in this case. Calculation guidelines are based on Microsoft Excel functions except for the following case:

• SAP Analytics Cloud: Average(null,null) = null
• Microsoft Excel: Average(null,null) = DivByZeroError (where “null” means an operator pointing to an empty cell)

Enable Optimized View Mode for Certain Live Data Models

Users can now enable an Optimized View Mode for live SAP HANA, HANA Cloud, Acquired Analytic, and Business Warehouse data models on a per story basis. This feature improves the usability for filters and widget interactions as well as the performance of dashboards in certain scenarios.

For additional information on the Optimized View Mode, please visit the following resources from the SAP Analytics Cloud Help Portal:

• Enabling Optimized View Mode
• Optimized View Mode Limitations 

Leverage Active View Port Rendering in Optimized View Mode

Active View Port Rendering is the new default rendering behaviour in Optimized View Mode. Only objects that are visible on-screen will be rendered while all objects outside of the view port will be paused until the user modifies the active view port by scrolling in the dashboard.

This feature overall allows users to have a consistent experience from opening a story to executing subsequent interactions as all objects within the view port are requested for at the same time. The story designer has the option to override the default rendering behaviour with the option for the story viewer to override it on a per session basis. However, reloading the story as a viewer will resume the default behaviour that is set by the story designer.

For more information about the latest features and enhancements in SAP Analytics Cloud and SAP Digital Boardroom Release 2021.14, please visit the SAP Analytics Cloud Help Portal.