Data Analytics
The aim of this blog is to explain some disadvantages with S/4 HANA Embedded Analytics and to place SAP Business Objects as a solution in combination with S/4HANA.
There has been a lot of excitement recently around the topic of S/4HANA Embedded Analytics. S/4HANA is the next generation business suite and is based entirely on SAP HANA. S/4HANA offers many exciting new features, such as
S/4 HANA enables powerful real-time analysis directly in the operational system down to the individual document level without having to spend time and effort on operating and analysing/reporting in two different systems. With the predefined embedded analytics content, such as multi-dimensional reports, smart business cockpits, FIORI apps and an embedded BW, the OLAP and OLTP functionalities are executed in S/4HANA. This could completely replace the entire complex ETL process.
Embedded analytics are analysis functions that utilise data directly from traditional business applications, such as an ERP or CRM system.
Real-time reporting in S/4 HANA will be possible thanks to the simplified data structure (virtual data model). These data models based on so-called ABAP Core Data Services (CDS) reduce redundant data storage and pave the way for direct access to real-time data from the SAP system. Some front-end tools such as SAP Lumira, SAP Design Studio and Analysis for Office can access the ABAP CDS views directly. But the big question is: "Can embedded analytics cover all reporting requirements?" The answer might be no 🙁 . The aim of this blog is to explain some of the disadvantages of embedded analytics and to position SAP Business Objects as a solution in combination with S/4HANA.
S/4 HANA Embedded Analytics certainly offers exciting innovations in the analytics area, but it lacks some important analytical functionalities that are expected from a reporting system today, e.g.
The focus with Embedded Analytics is primarily on operational real-time reporting and SAP's recommendation here is to keep no more than 20% of the total external data volume in Embedded BW, otherwise use either SAP BW on HANA or BW4 HANA as a corporate data warehousing solution.
SAP Business Objects is a complete BI suite of front-end applications that enable users to view, sort and analyse business intelligence (BI) data. SAP Business Objects is an established market leader in the areas of formatted reporting, ad hoc reporting and data visualisation on different data sources. SAP BO includes the following reporting tools:
In addition to the front-end tools, with SAP BO Information Design Tool or Universe Designer, it is possible to develop your own data chart (semantic data view) and use it as a source in reporting. A major advantage with SAP BO is the very good integration with SAP applications, e.g. S/4 HANA, SAP BW. The end user always has the flexibility to access the reports with SAP BO via a web portal or a mobile device 🙂 .
There are different connection options between S/4 HANA and Business Objects. Some BI clients, e.g. Lumira, could access S/4 HANA ABAP CDS views directly and for all other BI clients (Web Intelligence, Crystal), an OLAP connection can be set up on S/4 HANA to access the CDS views and BEx queries from Embedded BW or a relational connection directly to the HANA database of S/4 to access the Calculation Views, Analytic Views. However, SAP recommends working with ABAP CDS views. In addition, it would be possible to develop a datamart with SAP BO IDT for calculated key figures or complicated calculation logic with an S/4 OLAP connection.
S/4HANA Embedded Analytics is definitely a highly exciting and future-oriented topic for digital companies, but it is not yet able to cover some complicated requirements, e.g. dynamic report publication, commenting and in this case with multiple reporting tools, data modelling options and multiple access options. SAP Business Objects would be a perfect analytics solution in combination with S/4 HANA not only from a technical perspective but also from a cost perspective.
Senior Data and Analytics Consultant
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