A planning tool with BI capabilities
July 13, 2020
A planning tool with BI capabilities
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Overall Satisfaction with SAP Analytics Cloud
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.
- 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).
- 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.
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.
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.