With the release of the Q4 Update 2023 the SAP Analytics Cloud (SAC) changes and improvements in user-friendliness. With today's article we would like to introduce you to some selected features that have been implemented with the update and make working with the SAC easier.
Administration and Service Management
Improved Help Experience:
The SAP Analytics Cloud now offers a new integrated help and user support experience with SAP Companion. Users can now:
- Explore the user interface (UI) using contextual hotspot help content
- Watch embedded video tutorials for the active view
- Complete self-directed learning with interactive tutorials
- Get a quick overview of news or changes in the latest versions
- Use direct links to delve deeper into relevant and complete help documentation in the SAP Help Portal.
The improved assistance experience streamlines the process of finding additional guidance and learning content. This means you get the right information exactly when you need it most! Now you can easily navigate through the SAP Analytics Cloud and expand your knowledge.
Story design
Advanced display of totals and net totals in stacked charts
In the latest update of SAP Analytics Cloud Improved functionality is now available to users to show or hide totals in stacked bar or column charts. This affects the following chart types:
- Combined stacked bar and line chart
- Stacked bar or column chart
- Marimekko diagrams
Additionally, the update allows net totals to be displayed in stacked bar or column charts. Users now have the option to switch between totals and negative or positive totals separately. This feature is available for the following chart types:
- Combined stacked bar and line chart
- Stacked bar or column chart
It is important to note that this functionality is limited to stacked visualizations and excludes stacked bar/column charts with the 'Show as 100%' option. This feature is exclusively available in the optimized story experience. These improvements further optimize the user-friendliness of SAP Analytics Cloud to enable users to work efficiently and obtain precise information.
Story calculation: Release MEMBERSELECT for the new model
When creating story calculations based on data from the new model (universal model), you can now use MEMBERLOOKUP and ACCOUNTLOOKUP functions in the calculations.
ACCOUNTLOOKUP and MEASURELOOKUP formulas allow users to create limited calculated measures using accounts.
- ACCOUNTLOOKUP returns a cell value based on a measure name filtered by an account member.
- MEASURELOOKUP returns a cell value based on an account member filtered by a measure name.
This feature is only available in the optimized story experience.
Widget Customization Add-On: Individual adjustments for optimized stories
Story designers now have the ability to create custom add-ons for built-in widgets. These add-ons can then be installed in SAP Analytics Cloud uploaded and added to widgets in optimized stories.
The difference between a custom widget and a widget add-on is that custom widgets are created from scratch, whereas a widget add-on creates a customization on top of an existing chart. Widget add-ons are particularly useful when you only want to customize a specific part of a widget, such as: B. Tooltips and plot areas.
Supported add-on types and chart types:
- Tooltip: Supported chart types exclude numeric points.
- Plot Area (General): Supported chart types are bars/columns, stacked bars/columns, stacked areas, and lines.
- Plot Area (numeric point): Supported plot type is numeric point.
Copying widgets between different browser tabs during design time
To fill functionality gaps and introduce new features in the optimized story experience, story designers can now copy and paste widgets, script components, and custom story pages between stories or browser tabs. Copying and pasting elements between composites or between composites and optimized stories is also supported. This feature is available in Canvas, Responsive and Reporting layouts and provides the ability to undo/redo.
Copying between Optimized Design Mode and Classic Stories is not supported; a warning message is displayed.
data integration
Import connections for SAP ERP
The SAP ERP connection can now be used with the new model and flexible model types:
Selecting data action parameters dynamically in Microsoft Excel
Improvements have been made to data actions that allow users to perform a data action dynamically based on predefined report filters. This means that if a user has a filter on a table, this will be used as a parameter to the data action and that filter will also be applied to the data action.
Support for undo and redo functions in Microsoft Excel
Users can now undo or redo the last action taken when changing a layout or the last change in the Microsoft Office for SAP Analytics Cloud add-in. The undo/redo action does not affect scheduling - it does not undo or redo scheduling entries.
Please note that there are two undo batches: Microsoft Excel and the Add-in for Microsoft Excel. This functionality applies exclusively to actions performed in the add-in for Microsoft Excel.
Prevent changes to workbooks created as templates
Allow power users to create reports and workbooks in Excel that serve as templates for end users without changing the reporting structure.
This allows you to prevent end users from doing the following:
Changes to the report definition (row and column definition) and application and modification of filters to predefined dimensions.
Support for SAP Business Warehouse (SAP BW) and SAP S/4HANA in Microsoft Excel
Providing a consistent user experience for Microsoft Excel users with the SAP BW and SAP S/4HANA applications is a key concern. This focus includes:
- The ability to connect to a live SAP BW data source via a tunnel connection and create Excel reports directly.
- The ability to connect to a live SAP S/4HANA data source via a tunnel connection and also create Excel reports.
This integration allows users to seamlessly access real-time data from SAP BW and SAP S/4HANA and create beautiful Excel reports.
