Item: SAP Analytics Cloud
Rating: 8
Author: Verified User

Overall Satisfaction with SAP Analytics Cloud

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We started using SAP Analytics Cloud primarily for its planning capabilities, but its business intelligence side is also becoming more and more useful. As a BI consulting company, we have already worked with multiple clients to implement this tool. Generally, the customers who decide to use SAP Analytics Cloud are looking for a planning tool that can be integrated with their existing systems, but the other capabilities (such as BI) are a nice bonus.

Pros and Cons

Pros

Well-developed planning functions, with the possibility to make automatic and manual changes to a plan
Easy to use dashboard functionality
Many new features added during each update. Updates are done either every two weeks or every quarter (depending on the arrangement).

Cons

SAP Analytics Cloud has improved as a reporting tool but still lacks a lot in comparison to other BI tools.
Often, when there is a non-standard use case, it is hard to work around the logic that SAP has prepared in data actions. More versatility is welcome.
Documentation is often lacking or hard to find, particularly for new features.

Alternatives Considered

Quantrix

For planning, I've also used Quantrix Modeler. Quantrix is a lot closer to Excel (which makes adaptation quicker), and it has great ad-hoc capabilities. There is a lot of freedom in the way the data layout is created, and what data can be entered.

SAP Analytics Cloud is a lot more restrictive in that sense. (For instance, you can only enter numbers in data cells, which requires some workarounds.) However, it is a lot more powerful (because it uses cloud computing), it has better planning-specific capabilities (such as spreading and data actions), and it can be used as a BI tool. The basic version of Quantrix is also not as good in terms of collaborative planning, as users cannot work simultaneously.

Data Integration

SAP Analytics Cloud is, of course, well-integrated with SAP systems, and is, therefore, a great choice if you're using SAP stack. Other options are available but are somewhat limited. Most of the non-SAP options are either SQL databases, file servers, or cloud storage (e.g. Dropbox or OneDrive). Direct connection to other vendors' systems is not possible, and an intermediary step is necessary.

Live connections are possible but are limited in capabilities compared to direct queries.

Collaboration and Sharing

It's easy for multiple people to collaborate on a planning version, to work simultaneously and to leave comments for the future. Data read and write rights can be given individually or to a team of users, and these can be set up to any dimension of data. Models, stories, and other objects can also be shared to users or teams.

There are a lot of user permission options, and custom user roles can also be created. Rights can be given not only at object type level (e.g. the right to edit all models) but at object level (e.g. the right to edit a specific model). That said, the naming for the permission types is rather confusing.

One irritating thing about data access control is that if a user has read, but not write rights, they can overwrite the data privately, but will only receive a warning when they try to publish it.

Other Software Used

Quantrix

Likelihood to Recommend

SAP Analytics Cloud is great for collaborative planning. It allows users to work together on plans, discuss specific adjustments, and to create planning processes for other users to follow. Its BI capabilities also make it stand out among the competition, and it's possible to create a very customized, user-friendly planning experience.

SAP Analytics Cloud Feature Ratings

Comments

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A planning tool with BI capabilities