What’s New in SAP Analytics Cloud Release 2023.09

SAP Analytics Cloud brings together analytics and planning with unique integration to SAP applications and seamless access to heterogenous data sources. It helps everyone in your organization make decisions without doubt with trusted insights and integrated plans.

This blog post introduces the features of the SAP Analytics Cloud 2023.09 release available for SAP Analytics Cloud FastTrack customers. For SAP Analytics Cloud Quarterly Release Cycle (QRC) customers, this release and its features will be available as part of the QRC Q3 2023 release. View the QRC release schedule here.

System Administration and Technical Requirements

Although not required, you may upgrade to the latest SAP Analytics Cloud agent version 1.0.373 to take advantage of all data acquisition types.

The agent’s minimum version remains at 1.0.75, with the following exceptions:

• Version 1.0.99 for SAP ERP/SQL Database
  Version 1.0.365 for SAP universe (UNX). The SAP Analytics Cloud agent requires additional setup steps, for more details see SAP Note 3262098
• Version 1.0.353 for SAP Business Warehouse (BW)
• Version 1.0.235 for SAP HANA View
• Version 1.0.248 for File Server

For more information, see System Requirements and Technical Prerequisites.

Regarding supported features and required updates for the integration of SAP BW with SAP Analytics Cloud, refer to SAP Note 2541557 for further details.

Regarding supported features and required updates for live universe access through SAP BusinessObjects Live Data Connect with SAP Analytics Cloud, refer to SAP Note 2771921 for further details.

Please download the latest version of the Simple Deployment Kit from Service Marketplace.

• Note: To avoid downloading older versions and potentially exposing users to a vulnerable bundling of the Cloud Connector with SAPJVM, or Apache Tomcat, only the three latest versions of the kits are available to download.

For Cloud agent version change management details, refer to SAP Note 3264839.

Release Highlights

• Augmented Analytics
  • Predictive Planning
    • Additional Model Evaluation Indicators
• Dashboard and Story Design
  • Blended Calculations and Thresholds in Blended Charts
• Enterprise Planning
  • Data Point Commenting for Unbooked Data

Augmented Analytics

Predictive Planning

Additional Model Evaluation Indicators

Smart Predict now provides more flexibility to evaluate the accuracy of time series forecasting models. Expected MAE, Expected MASE, Expected RMSE, and Expected R² are now provided in addition to Expected MAPE. When evaluating the accuracy of an entity-based time series forecasting model, the predictive user can display the Median, Third Quartile, Average, and Sum for all the provided performance indicators across all entities.

Dashboard and Story Design

Blended Calculations and Thresholds in Blended Charts

We are now supporting Blended Calculations and Thresholds in Blended Charts in Optimized View Mode. This will unblock customers during migration and continue to close gaps in the Optimized Experience. There are several improvements that we made, which includes:

• Improved error handling: Adding a blended calculation to a non-blended chart (i.e., via Measure Input Control) will not automatically blend the chart and an error will be displayed
• A warning message is provided for data inaccuracies when there is a filter across model linked analysis with a visualization that contains a blended calculation

Existing limitations from the Classic Design Experience still remain (i.e., Variances and Reference Lines)

Enterprise Planning

Data Point Commenting for Un-booked Data

Data point commenting is now support for un-booked data cells.

Please note the following limitations:

• Commenting will be rejected for unbooked data cells due to DAC
• Commenting will be rejected for unbooked data cells due to context conflicting, like restricted measure in front

This blog post only provides a high-level overview of the latest features and enhancements of SAP Analytics Cloud. You can find more details on these features in your In-App Help Guide for FastTrack customers and see this SAP Knowledge Base Article if you’d like to learn more about FastTrack and Quarterly Release Cycle releases. 

If you have any questions regarding the content in this blog post, you can comment below. If you have product specific or technical questions, post a question to our SAP Analytics Cloud Questions & Answers forum. Visit our SAP Analytics Cloud Community pages to find more product information, best practices, and more. And check out our SAP Road Map Explorer to see more upcoming features of SAP Analytics Cloud.

Are you looking to learn more about SAP Analytics Cloud?

• Experience SAP Analytics Cloud for free with the guided experience
• Take part in this free learning journey: Explore SAP Analytics Cloud with Story Design