What’s New in SAP Analytics Cloud Release 2023.14

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 2023.14 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 1.0.379 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

• Administration and Service Management
  • Content Network API Updates – Downloading or Uploading Packages
• Dashboard and Story Design
  • Change Default Settings for Thresholds
  • Display Dimension Totals in Bar Charts
  • Rank and Sort on Percentages of Absolute Variance in Charts
  • Configure dimension text presentation (short, medium and long) in Charts
  • Geo Choropleth Support for Optimized Design Experience
  • Use Keyboard to Navigate Input Controls
• Data Exploration
  • Data analyzer – Option to Turn on a Cascading Filter Effect
  • Data analyzer – Opening from a Story Chart Visualization
• Data Integration
  • Data Import API – Support for Currency Rates
• Data Modeling
  • Flexible Modification of Source Data Settings for Import Jobs
  • Improved Handling of Currency Conversion Tables
  • Property Currency Property Management
• Enterprise Planning
  • Multi Actions – Increased Step Count Support
  • Multi Actions -Parameter Support with an External API step
  • Plan Entry – pasting to Multiple Cells
• Microsoft Office Integration
  • Automatic Refresh at Data-Action Execution
  • New Ribbon Style
  • Restore Named Range
• User Collaboration
  • Sender address customization for e-mail notification delivery from SAP Analytics Cloud

 

Administration and Service Management

 

Content Network API Updates – Downloading or Uploading Packages

New API to support download or upload of content network packages into *.package file

For more details, see the ACN API documentation on the SAP Help Portal.

 

 

Dashboard and Story Design

 

Change Default Settings for Thresholds

In the optimized design mode, story designers can now configure the default set of thresholds that can be consumed within a theme:

• Provide a set of 5 pre-defined semantic states that can be customized (color and shape) on a per theme basis
• Has the option to select between one of the pre-defined semantic types or a custom semantic type
• Custom thresholds will not respect the theme settings
• Updating the name of a threshold range will allow it to continue to participate in the theme preferences
• All existing defined thresholds will be converted to custom thresholds

Please note that this is not supported to Model Defined Thresholds, as it is considered as a custom threshold and will not be overwritten by the Themes that are set.

 

 

Display Dimension Totals in Bar Charts

In the optimized design mode, story designers now have the option to show the total values of groups:

• The position of totals can be arranged to first or last
• Totals can be enabled on multiple dimensions
• Supported chart type: Bar Column, Stacked Bar, Marimekko

 

Rank and Sort on Percentage or Absolute Variance in Charts

In the optimized story experience, story designers and viewers have the option to sort variance charts based on the absolute or percentage variance by High to Low or Low to High:

• Similar to measure sort, we can only define one sort at a time
• We have removed the option to Group or Ungroup color dimension when you have version bound to color to ensure that the sort is correctly applied.
• Works on all variance display types (Bar, Data Label, Integrated)

This is not supported for:

• Sorting on multiple variances
• Sorting on dimension and variance

 

Configure dimension text presentation (short, medium and long) in Charts

In the optimized design experience, story designer have the option to choose between Short/Medium/Long for dimensions in SAP BW models:

• The default of description format is based on what is defined as part of the SAP BW model
• The options available under the description format will vary depending on what is defined in the BW data model
• Respect text presentations that are defined at the BW Query Level MUST be enabled at the System Setting

This is limited to SAP BW models.

It is not available to time and date dimensions

 

Geo Choropleth Support for Optimized Design Experience

Choropleth Layer is now supported in the optimized design experience. It is supported for the New Model Type (includes Enrichment of Public Dimension). Users will be able to convert existing classic stories to the optimized design experience. This closes feature parity between Classic Stories and Optimized Stories.

For data models with Multiple Account Hierarchies (MAH) we will only consume the default hierarchy as it’s a limitation with Geo Visualizations.

 

Use Keyboard to Navigate Input Controls

In the optimized design mode, story designs can now navigate through all filters using keyboard shortcuts. This is supported for input controls and advanced filters.

Commands	Shortcuts
Move down a section	F6
Move up a section	Shift + F6
Move forward within a section	Tab
Move back within a section	Shift + Tab
Close dialog boxes or open menus	Esc
Select focused object	Enter (Return)
Select focused object	Space
Open context menu	Shift + F10
Scroll down on page	Page Down
Scroll up on page	Page Up
Go to beginning of a row within a table	Home
Go to end of a row within a table	End
Navigate within a table or a list	Arrow keys
Expand object	Plus (+)
Collapse object	Minus (-)

 

Please note the following limitations:

• Not supported for Classic Design Experience and Analytic Applications
• Not support for Edit mode in Optimized Experience
• Not available to Mobile
• Not available to Add Story Filter Workflow (excludes Advanced Filter)
• Not supported for Horizontal Filter Bar
• Not supported for Components Owned by Common Controls (i.e. Vertical Filter Panel & See More Filters)

 

Data Exploration

 

Data analyzer – Option to Turn on a Cascading Filter Effect

In data analyzer users can now use the cascading filter effect for dimensions in the following ways: (SAP Road Map Explorer)

• Turn on cascading effect in the dimension member dialog for the list of available filter members of a single dimension
• Turn on the cascading effect on the filter line for all dimensions added to the filter line. This overwrites the settings of all filter tokens in the filter line but can be turned back to the default dimension setting.

For SAP BW data sources, the default is the respective setting in the SAP BW query.

For SAP HANA data sources, the default setting is “booked”

 

Data analyzer – Opening from a Story Chart Visualization

Story designers can now enable data analyzer on a per chart widget basis in the Chart builder panel (by checking the property “Enable Data Analyzer”). Once enabled, the user can open data analyzer via the chart context menu. (SAP Road Map Explorer)

SAP S/4HANA users who have embedded analytics, will be happy to hear that this new enhancement allows them to jump from a chart in a story to a table in data analyzer.

This is an enhancement of Open Data Analyzer from Story Chart Visualization that was released as part of Q2 2023 QRC. Previously, the story designer had to enable all supported table and chart widgets under the story level settings.

 

Data Integration

 

Data Import API – Support for Currency Rates

Users can now import currency data from a wider range of SAP products and 3^rd party tools through the Data Import API. This allows delta loading of data on currency rate tables and combined with the currency data export API, it creates a powerful bi-directional workflow of currency data. This is supported for Cloud Foundry tenants only and supports the JSON data format. (SAP Road Map Explorer)

 

Data Modeling

 

Flexible Modification of Source Data Settings for Import Jobs

Users can now replace the data source of an exiting data import job with any other supported data sources. Excising settings in the job (ex: mapping and transformation steps will be preserved whenever possible. Additionally, the edit-query dialog is enhanced to support adding and removing columns.

This enhancement should also help adapting changes to the external data source from which data needs to be brought into the model. This increased flexibility allows to adjust existing import jobs to changes both in the model, and in the external data source, while preserving the import job settings. This reduces the effort to create new import jobs from scratch.

This is available for new models (measure models), and only available for Cloud Foundry customers. (SAP Road Map Explorer)

 

Improved Handling of Currency Conversion Tables

Currency conversion workflows have been enhanced thanks to a redesign of the toolbar and a new drop-down menu to help you switch between your rate table and a list of conversion errors. Currency tables are now easier to maintain, navigation has been refined, and a brand-new wizard now helps you add missing rates to your currency conversion tables quicker than before. This is available for Cloud Foundry customers. (SAP Road Map Explorer)

For more details, check out this blog post by Amanda Murphy.

 

Property Currency Property Management

To offer a consistent user experience, the option Enable Currency has been removed from the properties section in the modeler’s side panel. Instead, users can create a property of type Currency in the Create Property dialog.

 

Enterprise Planning

 

Multi Actions – Increased Step Count Support

The step limit count within a given multi action has been increased from 20 to 50. This enables planning users to orchestrate complex workflows containing many steps. (SAP Road Map Explorer)

 

Multi Actions – Parameter Support with an External API step

When adding an API step to multi actions, user can now insert parameters in the request body. This allows user to set the parameter value when user trigger the public API of remote application via multi actions. With the ability to pass parameters to the API steps, users can easily set the values directly in SAP Analytics Cloud, rather than having to navigate to an external system. A more robust and flexible API steps brings greater convenience when calling the remote system and a wider range of application scenario are catered for. (SAP Road Map Explorer)

Create the parameter in-line as part of the API step

Reference the parameter in the body:

• Enclose it in brace backets {}
• Preface that with a $
• Example: ${ParameterName}

 

Plan Entry – Pasting to Multiple Cells

When working in a table, users can now copy a single cell (or value) and paste it to multiple cells at once. This simplifies and speeds up data entry for planning workflows as users no longer have to paste all different target cells separately. (SAP Road Map Explorer)

 

Microsoft Office Integration

 

Automatic Refresh at Data-Action Execution

We have added an automatic refresh option for data actions, so that the table automatically refreshes after executing the data option. This is similar to the behavior to SAP Analytics Cloud stories. (SAP Road Map Explorer)

This feature is available as of June 28, 2023.

 

New Ribbon Style

We have made UI updates to the ribbon, including new icons, giving it a closer look and feel of Microsoft Excel. (SAP Road Map Explorer)

This feature is available as of June 28, 2023.

 

Restore Named Range

Int the case of any mistakenly corrupted workbooks (examples: deleting sheet while offline, changing named ranged in name editor), the new Restore Named Range feature will ask the user to re-link the named range and table, or remove it completely to repair the corrupt workbook.

This feature is available as of June 28, 2023.

 

User Collaboration

 

Sender address customization for e-mail notification delivery from SAP Analytics Cloud

When configuring the default SAP Analytics Cloud SMTP server, administrator now have the option to change the default email address to another valid email address. After which, all notifications and emails from SAP Analytics Cloud will have this new email address as the header sender address. (SAP Road Map Explorer)

 

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.