Users can do real-time analyses on current transactional data thanks to SAP S/4HANA Embedded Analytics, a collection of analytical functions built into the business suite. It is included in the most recent SAP S/4HANA releases and doesn’t call for any additional setup, implementation, or licenses.
Meet your BI needs with SAP S/4HANA Embedded Analytics!
In contrast to traditional landscapes, it offers real-time insights on live transactional data without data redundancy or latency, i.e., without needing batch processing or ETL. The end-user may instantly process millions of rows and tables since SAP S/4HANA Embedded Analytics is connected with S/4HANA and runs on the HANA database.
Discover the data model and system architecture and how to run analytics on real-time transactional data. Take a step-by-step tour of the dashboards, multidimensional reporting, and KPIs for SAP Smart Business. Learn how to integrate SAP S/4HANA with SAP Analytics Cloud by creating CDS views, using custom fields, and applying logic. This blog is a complete guide to SAP S/4HANA embedded analytics!
Functionality
Learn how to use the embedded analytics capabilities in SAP S/4HANA, such as graphs, dashboards, SAP Smart Business cockpits for KPIs, and preset analytics content.
Configuration
Develop your ability to maintain SAP Fiori reports and KPIs, from drill-down generation to system deployment. Create custom business objects, define date functions, and more by following the step-by-step instructions.
Integration
Examine your alternatives for data warehousing with SAP HANA, SAP BW/4HANA, and SAP Data Intelligence. See how connectivity to the SAP Analytics Cloud, machine learning tools, and more may improve embedded analytics.
SAP S/4HANA Embedded Analytics Architecture
As the name implies, SAP S/4HANA embedded analytics are used to conduct complex real-time reporting and analysis on current transactional data and are a component of the initial SAP S/4HANA installation.
The following are the main architectural elements of SAP S/4HANA embedded analytics:
- Model for virtual data
- Analytical Tools (embedded SAP BW)
- Interfaces for OData services
Backend
For embedded analytics, SAP S/4HANA often employs SAP ABAP® CDS Views as the virtual data model. The transaction and master data tables of SAP S/4HANA are the foundation on which ABAP CDS views are created. The ABAP layer of the SAP S/4HANA system is where the ABAP CDS views are created, maintained, and improved. To read out and transform the data inside the SAP HANA database layer, the system builds SQL runtime views in SAP HANA.
Front End
Fiori serves as the front-end user interface for Embedded Analytics.
However, reports can also be made using non-SAP reporting tools, SAP® BusinessObjects, and SAP Analytics Cloud. SAP Analytics Cloud is a component that can be integrated into the S/4 system with the S/4 Cloud edition and S/4 on-premise 2020 version. The SAP S/4HANA system allows you to access the stories created in the SAP Analytics Cloud system. These tales can also be used to develop applications launched from the SAP Fiori launchpad.
SQL Query Execution on CDS Views
As previously mentioned, a SQL-Runtime view is created in the database when a CDS view is activated. All fields from the CDS view’s projection list are included in this SQL view (but not the associations and other CDS-specific metadata). Therefore, additional features like associations and annotations are supplied on the ABAP side and translated into pure SQL queries to the database when we query a CDS view using standard SQL (such queries are translated one-to-one into a SQL statement on the SQL-Runtime view).
Current Key Offering for Business Users
Business users can use various analytical tools and reports included with SAP S/4HANA to examine data and take action based on the results. The following list of significant SAP S/4HANA embedded analytics offerings is current:
Multidimensional reports
Users can effectively do multidimensional analysis to work with cube-like data sets structured by various dimensions. Multiple sizes of data are grouped in this kind of report. This report has interactive features (such as filtering and drilling) that enable various data representations.
Some of the functions are listed below:
Slicing: Using a single-dimensional filter
Dicing: Multidimensional filtering
Pivoting: Substituting one thing for another.
Drill through, drill up, and down; add/remove dimensions.
Analysis-path apps and innovative business KPIs
KPIs are used in the corporate world to assess and track performance on both a strategic (observing trends or progress toward a predetermined goal) and operational (quantifiable value indicating the business performance over a shorter period) level.
The cutting-edge business KPIs in SAP S/4HANA offers users information on the SAP Fiori launchpad and the option to drill down into further analytics or transactional apps. This analytical tool provides actions within the context of drilled-down data and aids users in gaining an understanding of the business data underlying the KPI (insight-to-action paradigm).
Analytical List Page (ALP)
This report is essential for business users who must work with transactional content. The analytical list page helps these users by enabling them to dig further into a root problem and take the appropriate steps. Users can use chart visualization to identify parameters, dive into a more detailed analysis, or take appropriate action. Simply put, access to transactional features and analytical perspectives without hopping between platforms.
Overview page (OVP)
Based on the user domain or role, the overview page presents all the data on a single page. The user may concentrate on the vital work and act immediately, thanks to dividing several cards (information) into a single page. Users can more easily and elegantly visualize information when several cards are on a single page.
Best Practices for Analytics with SAP S/4HANA
To jump-start embedded analytics within SAP S/4HANA, SAP Best Practices for Analytics with SAP S/4HANA offers a complete solution with advice accompanied by pre-built content. The scope includes solutions for cloud, on-premise, and hybrid SAP S/4HANA environments. Real-time operational reporting in the SAP S/4HANA system can be swiftly enabled using these best practice components without any particular development. These materials can also be improved or expanded to fit the needs of individual customers.
Final Thoughts
As was already noted, business users may conduct transactions and obtain insights from a single source of truth in a single application thanks to SAP S/4HANA integrated analytics. These analytics components can also be integrated into essential business operations to help decision-makers make better-informed choices (such as customer segmentation, cross-sell and up-sell potential, providing suggestions, planning and forecasting, etc.). SAP S/4HANA embedded analytics may also look beyond historical facts and statistics and anticipate the future using the underlying advanced analytics capabilities in the SAP HANA platform.
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