Preface

13

Target Audience

13

Book Structure

14

Acknowledgments

14

1 The Intelligent Enterprise

19

1.1 Digital Transformation

19

1.1.1 The Digital Transformation Imperative

19

1.1.2 What Does Digitalization Mean for Your Company?

21

1.1.3 SAP’s Role in Your Digital Transformation

22

1.2 SAP S/4HANA: The Intelligent ERP System

23

1.2.1 Business Needs for the Intelligent ERP System

23

1.2.2 The Evolution of ERP Systems

24

1.2.3 Technologies

25

1.2.4 Key Principles

26

1.3 SAP S/4HANA Business Requirements

30

1.3.1 ERP in the Cloud: Software as a Service

31

1.3.2 Integrating the Intelligent ERP System

33

1.3.3 Real-Time Data

33

1.4 Summary

34

2 Analytics in the Digital Economy

35

2.1 Embedded Analytics versus Standalone Analytics

35

2.2 Combining Transactions and Analytics

39

2.2.1 On a Single Platform

40

2.2.2 Within the Business Process

40

2.2.3 Within a Single User Interface

43

2.3 Summary

44

3 Architecture

45

3.1 Architecture Overview

45

3.1.1 Stack Overview: Journey of Data from Tables to Tiles

46

3.1.2 Building Blocks

51

3.2 Virtual Data Models in Core Data Services

60

3.2.1 Core Data Services

60

3.2.2 Virtual Data Models

72

3.3 Authorization and Security

81

3.3.1 Authorizations

81

3.3.2 Roles in Frontend Server

86

3.4 SAP Fiori Programming Model: Access and Visualization

88

3.4.1 Service Enablement

90

3.4.2 Data Access Protocol

90

3.4.3 SAP Fiori Catalog and Navigation Targets

93

3.5 Summary

95

4 Analytics for the Business User

99

4.1 Operational Insight-to-Action Using the Analytical List Page

99

4.1.1 Typical Usage

100

4.1.2 Features and Personalization Options

103

4.2 KPI Reporting and Analysis Using SAP Smart Business KPIs

109

4.2.1 Typical Usage

110

4.2.2 Features and Personalization Options

112

4.3 Multidimensional Reporting

123

4.3.1 Typical Usage

123

4.3.2 Features and Personalization Options

125

4.4 SAP Fiori Overview Pages

135

4.4.1 Typical Usage

135

4.4.2 Features and Personalization Options

139

4.5 Embedded SAP Analytics Cloud Stories

143

4.5.1 Typical Usage

144

4.5.2 Features and Personalization Options

146

4.6 Additional Functions

155

4.6.1 Query Browser

155

4.6.2 App Catalog

157

4.6.3 Enterprise Search and App Search

159

4.6.4 Notifications Area

160

4.6.5 User Assistance

163

4.7 Summary

165

5 Predefined Analytics Content

167

5.1 Content Delivered with SAP S/4HANA

167

5.2 Analytics Content and SAP Best Practices

174

5.3 Line-of-Business-Specific SAP Best Practices

181

5.3.1 Procurement Analytics Content

182

5.3.2 Financial Planning and Analysis Content

185

5.3.3 Manufacturing Analytics Content

188

5.4 Business Content for SAP Analytics Cloud, Embedded Edition

191

5.4.1 Dashboard for Sourcing and Procurement

192

5.4.2 Dashboard for Sales

196

5.4.3 Dashboard for Finance

199

5.5 Integration SAP Best Practices

202

5.5.1 SAP BW and SAP B/4HANA Integration

203

5.5.2 SAP BusinessObjects BI Platform Integration

207

5.5.3 SAP Cloud Platform Integration

208

5.6 Summary

209

6 Analytics for the Analytics Specialist

211

6.1 The Analytics Specialist Role

211

6.1.1 Process Overview

212

6.1.2 Technical Details and Process Mapping

215

6.2 Browsing the Virtual Data Model

217

6.2.1 Overview

218

6.2.2 Features and Options

219

6.3 Creating and Publishing Data Sources and Queries

226

6.3.1 Custom CDS Views

226

6.3.2 Custom Analytical Queries

235

6.4 Manage KPIs and Reports

248

6.4.1 Process Overview

249

6.4.2 Creating a KPI Group and a KPI

249

6.4.3 Creating Drilldown Report

255

6.4.4 Adding Additional Views and Previewing

261

6.4.5 Add a Tile for a KPI

263

6.5 Maintaining Reports

269

6.5.1 Maintaining an Analytical List Page Report

270

6.5.2 Maintaining an SAP Analytics Cloud Data Analyzer Report

280

6.6 Maintaining SAP Analytics Cloud, Embedded Edition Stories

285

6.6.1 Header Data

285

6.6.2 Data Source and Layout

287

6.6.3 Additional Data Sources

293

6.6.4 Preview and Publish

295

6.7 Defining Date Functions

296

6.7.1 Defining Date Functions

296

6.7.2 Using Date Functions in the KPI Configuration

302

6.8 Creating SAP Fiori Launchpad Tiles for SAP Analytics Cloud Stories

304

6.9 Summary

306

7 Analytics for the IT Expert

309

7.1 The IT Expert Role

309

7.2 Creating and Consuming CDS Views

311

7.2.1 Exploring CDS Views

311

7.2.2 Consuming CDS Views with the Analytical Engine

319

7.2.3 Consuming CDS Views with OData Services

322

7.3 Summary

325

8 Additional Extensibility Options

327

8.1 Custom Business Objects

327

8.2 Custom Fields and Logic

335

8.3 Summary

343

9 Data Warehousing

347

9.1 Do You Need Additional Data Warehouses?

348

9.2 Data Management for SAP S/4HANA

351

9.3 SAP BW/4HANA

354

9.3.1 Overview

355

9.3.2 Integration

358

9.3.3 Migration Process

362

9.3.4 Extractors

364

9.3.5 What Comes First?

364

9.4 SAP HANA for SQL Data Warehousing

366

9.5 SAP Data Warehouse Cloud

369

9.6 Big Data Warehousing

371

9.6.1 Data Lakes

371

9.6.2 SAP Data Intelligence

372

9.7 Summary

373

10 Business Intelligence

375

10.1 Should You Use Additional Business Intelligence Solutions?

375

10.2 SAP Analytics Suite

376

10.2.1 Portfolio Structure

376

10.2.2 SAP BusinessObjects BI Platform and Architecture

379

10.2.3 SAP Lumira

380

10.2.4 SAP BusinessObjects Web Intelligence

380

10.2.5 SAP Analysis for Microsoft Office

381

10.2.6 Integration

383

10.3 SAP Analytics Cloud

384

10.3.1 Self-Service Business Intelligence

384

10.3.2 Hichert Standards Support

385

10.3.3 SAP Digital Boardroom

386

10.3.4 Integration

387

10.3.5 Planning

389

10.4 Summary

390

11 Predictive Analytics and Machine Learning

393

11.1 Overview

393

11.2 Approaches to Machine Learning

395

11.2.1 Embedded Machine Learning

396

11.2.2 Side-by-Side Models with SAP Cloud Platform

399

11.2.3 Side-by-Side Models with SAP Analytics Cloud

401

11.2.4 Extending and Enhancing the Machine Learning Models

405

11.3 Solution Architecture

407

11.4 Intelligent Enterprise Example

411

11.5 Summary

414

A Future Outlook

415

A.1 SAP Analytics Cloud Integration into SAP S/4HANA

415

A.2 Data Integration of SAP S/4HANA Cloud Data

416

A.3 Cross-Product Analytics

417

A.4 UX Improvements and Adoption of SAP Fiori Innovations

418

A.4.1 Spaces and Pages Concept

418

A.4.2 Improvements to the SAP Smart Business Runtime

419

B The Authors

421

Contributor

423