Product Information
SAP Analysis for Microsoft Office – Standard vs. SAP Analytics Cloud edition
SAP Analysis for Microsoft Office (aka AO or AFO) is designed for financial analysts who require analytical capabilities in Microsoft Excel on SAP data sources like SAP BW, SAP S/4HANA and SAP Business Planning & Consolidation. It can also be used with SAP HANA or SAP Data Warehouse Cloud.
There are two editions available for SAP Analysis for Microsoft Office:
- The standard edition is part of the SAP BusinessObjects Enterprise and SAP BusinessObjects Planning & Consolidation license
- The edition for SAP Analytics Cloud is included with the subscription to SAP Analytics Cloud Business Intelligence or Planning
As more and more customers have SAP Analytics Cloud purchased, a switch of the edition can be interesting from a cost perspective (or to replace BEx Analyzer). Therefore, this blog series focuses on the differences between the SAP Analysis for Microsoft Office standard edition and the edition for SAP Analytics Cloud, followed by two additional blogs for the replacement of data source connections (link) and the storage of workbooks (blog planned for Q2 2023).
Note: SAP Analytics Cloud, add-in for Microsoft Office (more info) sounds similar and is also included in the subscription of SAP Analytics Cloud, but it is a different product and not to be confused with the two editions of SAP Analysis for Microsoft Office.
Differences between Standard edition and Edition for SAP Analytics Cloud
In case no further capabilities of the SAP Business Intelligence Platform like the scheduling of workbooks are needed, a switch towards the Analysis for Office Edition for SAP Analytics Cloud should not be an issue. Since 2.8 SP9 both editions provide the same capabilities when accessing data sources. On-premise data sources like SAP BW, S/4HANA and BPC can be accessed for reporting and planning. Additionally, connections to SAP S/4HANA Cloud and SAP Data Warehouse Cloud can be established with the latest SP. The biggest differentiator is that the standard edition has capabilities for pre-calculation of workbooks on the BI Platform. Also, the EPM, Microsoft PowerPoint and Business Process Flow add-ins are only contained in the installation of the standard edition.
Analysis for Office capabilities
Connect to SAP Analytics Cloud
Another difference is that in the Edition for SAP Analytics Cloud the user is forced for a logon to SAP Analytics Cloud before a connection to any data source is established. With SP17 (February 2023) the setting UseExternalBrowserForSacLogon will become default which opens an external window of the installed default browser to log on to an SAP Analytics Cloud tenant. Later this year additional changes are planned to make the SAP Analytics Cloud logon less strict.
Connect to SAP Analytics Cloud
To roll-out the SAP Analytics Cloud tenant URL to all users, the URL needs to be added to the BocSystems.xml file in %appdata%\SAP AG\SAP BusinessObjects Advanced Analysis and distributed to the users machine with the installation. To pre-select a default tenant or hide the pop-up the two settings LastSelectedSacSystem and AutoConnectToLastSelectedSacSystem are useful.
This are already the differences between both editions. After installing the Edition for SAP Analytics Cloud existing workbooks can be used as before.
Additional links for Edition for SAP Analytics Cloud:
Within the next blog the focus will be on the replacement of BI OLAP connections towards direct BW or SAC Live connections.
SAP Analysis for Microsoft Office wold become really power full if it wold have capabilities to generate charts with its own charting engine and have the option to make it fully IBCS compliance.
Below are two example from ZebraBI that already offers similar functionality:
https://zebrabi.com/excel-add-in/
https://zebrabi.com/powerpoint-add-in/
Hi Steffen Heine,
First of all, great blog (series)! One question though: In the capabilities overview we see a 'not planned' for BI platform services as scheduling/pre-calculation. That is logical for the Edition for SAP Analytics Cloud'. However, what is the current status to deliver scheduling and storing AO workbooks on SAC? For instance: 260246 - SAP Analytics Cloud - Analysis for Office Repository
Kind regards,
Martijn van Foeken | Interdobs
Hi Martijn,
storing AO workbooks on SAC will come this year. We are actively working on it.
Nevertheless together with Product Management we decided that scheduling of AO workbooks on SAC is not planned.
Regards
Steffen
Hi Steffen Heine,
Thanks for the clarification. I think that the statement that scheduling AO workbooks on SAC is not planned will not be taken well by customers to solely have a BO instance running for this specific use case. I personally don't see that much added value if workbooks can only be stored without delivering scheduling capabilities. Any comments on that from Product Management perspective? What would be the long(er) term solution for customers that use SAC but also rely on AO workbooks that are precalculated for performance reasons?
Kind regards,
Martijn van Foeken | Interdobs
Hi Martijn,
understood the precalculation ask. From AO side we will support the storing of workbooks on SAC as an additional option to BW or BI platform so that an AO workbook can be shown in the SAC repo or catalog together with SAC artefacts.
Regards,
Steffen
Hi Steffens,
thanks for this blog.
but I see a major issue as explained below, is there any plan to address this issue
AO version doesn’t support the new account model of SAC. For SAC, New model is the recommended one. Hence don’t see much use of AO VERSION for SAC usage.
Hi Shubhranshu,
for SAC related topics e.g. Planning and Reporting on the New Model the new SAP Analytics Cloud, add-in for Microsoft Office (more info) is the recommended solution.
To use it in Analysis for Office, you need to replicate the New Model data into SAP BW or SAP DWC via the SAC model APIs. In future SAC and DWC will get closer together, so then a live connection on the SAC New Model via DWC might be possible also for Analysis for Office. But that is still under discussion and no timeline yet.
Regards,
Steffen
Hi Steffen,
with regard to the two settings LastSelectedSacSystem and AutoConnectToLastSelectedSacSystem, the following setting LastSelectedSacSystem remains empty although the setting is set to UserRoaming and the and the connection via the SAC to the query was successful. Are there known problems or does this only work with AO 2.8 SP 17?
Kind regards,
Matthias
Hi Matthias,
the LastSelectedSacSystem only plays a role for the initial SAC authentication in the Analysis for Office SAC edition. When the following screen is confirmed with OK the setting is set:
For SAC live connections this is not considered.
Regards,
Steffen
Hi Steffen Heine ,
Given that there is a standalone "SAP Analytics Cloud add-in for Microsoft Office" product, what is the purpose of "SAP Analysis for Microsoft Office - edition for SAP Analytics Cloud"? Especially since apparently it is also possible to connect to SAC models via the standard edition of SAP Analysis for Microsoft Office.
Thanks,
Hugh