6th BI Brunch Focused on S/4HANA and Cloud
On 22nd September, our annual BI Brunch took place. The 6th, to be precise. Many guests seized the opportunity to listen to interesting presentations, engage in lively discussions at the round tables, and, of course, enjoy culinary delights.
It is already an SRB tradition: on 22nd September, our annual BI Brunch took place. The sixth, to be precise. Many guests seized the opportunity to listen to interesting presentations, engage in lively discussions at the round tables, and, of course, enjoy culinary delights.
What was the focus this year? A clear emphasis was on BI in the Cloud, but let's start from the beginning.
S/4HANA Embedded Analytics
After an official welcome from Norbert Leimgruber, Head of FIA (which includes all BI professionals except Lorenz Juen), Arnold Knor began with 'S/4HANA Embedded Analytics', essentially the foundation for reporting and the possibilities already available in S/4HANA.
It started off quite technical: what are CDS Views, why are they needed, and what does the SAP concept look like? He explained clearly how it works.
"With the new table architecture in S/4HANA, a 'Single Source of Truth' for reporting emerges."
Arnold explained the available Fiori apps for reporting, and it quickly became clear that many options are available 'out of the box'. For the data foundation, which can be found with apps like the View Browser or created with Custom Analytical Queries. Additionally, there are two paths: further in Fiori or with a SAC variant (SAC OEM in the Cloud or SAC Enterprise).
Arnold Knor summarised:
"The new possibilities in this area often receive too little focus in S/4HANA transition projects."
This is unfortunate, as excellent solutions for operational live reporting could be quickly implemented, as my colleague demonstrated in the live demo.
Data Warehouse Cloud (DWC)
From S/4HANA, we moved to the Cloud, specifically to the Data Warehouse Cloud (DWC). My colleague Rudolf Ehn had prepared insights specifically on the new DWC Bridge and set up a live example. Unfortunately, he could not attend due to illness. If you think: 'More time for brunch!': that was not the case, Ingo Peter from SAP, originally a participant, stepped in at short notice and presented the SAP DWC strategy. Unfortunately, due to the short notice, without a live demo, but still with the Bridge.
What is the Bridge? A component built into DWC to take over and reuse data flows and data from an existing BW system.
"With the Data Warehouse Cloud Bridge, you can secure your existing BW investments."
What also becomes clear is that preliminary work is necessary, and some central components in BW today, such as queries, are no longer included in DWC. This naturally raised many questions. Ingo Peter suggested taking advantage of a BW Bridge Accelerator Workshop offered free of charge by SAP to clarify all questions. Existing BW customers can book the workshop, where an evaluation of what is currently used in BW (tools, source systems, release, scope, etc.) will be conducted, and an individual approach model developed. That sounds highly recommendable!
Round Tables – a novelty at the BI Brunch
The next item on the agenda was new for our BI Brunch: Round Tables. Introduced for the first time this year. Why? Quite simply: more time for discussions and questions. Attila Toth moderated the group SAP Data Warehouse Cloud & SAP BW/4HANA, and I moderated the one for SAP Analytics Cloud. It quickly became clear: there was not much to moderate, as an interesting exchange of experiences, tips, tricks, and assessments of strategy and approach developed rapidly, contributed not only by us experts but also by the participants. Clearly: we will keep this format for future BI Brunches!
SAP Analytics Cloud – Integrated Financial Planning
Our final presentation was given by Julia Arany-Toth: SAP Analytics Cloud – Integrated Financial Planning. Julia impressively demonstrated how financial planning can work in SAC, using the easily installable SAP content provided. It looked really great, and she explained:
"The financial planning is completely realised with stories. This means no programming and easy adaptability to customer needs!"
With this solution, an excellent template is available, including many parameters and settings for control. My colleague explained that, of course, a project lies behind such a realisation; the individual planning steps must be coordinated, stories adapted, and supplied with 'real' data.
The presentation was, as we noticed from the questions afterwards, highly interesting for everyone. There is great potential for future planning solutions here, and everyone agreed on that. Thus, our 6th BI Brunch concluded with a final coffee, discussing planning.
Thank you to all participants and my colleagues; it was truly a fantastic event!
