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SAP Reporting Tools – SAP Analytics Cloud and S/4HANA Group Reporting

SAP reporting tools

Reporting tools are becoming more and more relevant, the larger the amounts of data that need to be managed with them. If not all processes are covered by the features of the tools, reporting can turn into time-consuming and error-prone work. This quickly leads to a bottleneck in the flow of information within the company. 

Therefore, reporting tools have become indispensable in many business areas. They allow relevant information to flow instantly through all levels of the organization. In addition, the data is no longer static, but shows the current state of the company's values. They help with data management, analysis and visualization to make it easier for the user to make decisions.

In the following sections, we will tell you which core tasks SAP reporting tools perform and how they can improve companies in the long term. We clarify which tools can be used for which goals.

What are the tasks of reporting tools?

A reporting tool or reporting software is a system that collects data from various sources and presents it in tables, charts and other representations to make the information easier to understand. The visualization of the data is crucial to quickly understand the meaning of the reports and analyzes and to be able to draw conclusions from them. After all, numerical values ​​whose meaning is not represented correctly are of little use.

The core task of reporting tools is to generate a clear and up-to-date picture of the market situation in your company for employees. They allow users to always interact with the data that is relevant to them. This is a great advantage, especially for important business decisions. In this way, the individual departments can work better together and become more effective by using real-time data. 

Reporting tools also fulfill other tasks. In addition to summarizing and presenting all cross-departmental information, strategies for more competitiveness or "what-if" scenarios can also be created. 

How do different areas of the company benefit from reporting tools?

Reporting tools can be used in all areas of the company. For example, in marketing, there are tools that make it easier to create, manage, publish, and track online marketing campaigns. Others evaluate data in inbound marketing and show which strategies work best. 

In controlling, reporting tools make it possible, among other things, to analyze the financial situation and cash flow. They offer an overview of the liquidity situation on interactive dashboards and suggest improvements for optimization. With the help of modern sales analytics, you can easily monitor key sales figures relevant to success and improve sales performance in a data-driven and sustainable manner. Modern dashboards offer different application options, tailored to the needs of the company. 

In management, reporting tools evaluate data and, for example, compare sales with targets or evaluate acquisition costs. But there are also those that inform investors about total and return on equity and calculate the price/earnings ratio. In customer service, data about the solutions to the problems or effort can be evaluated, with reporting tools then suggesting improvements and solutions.

What makes a good reporting tool?

A professional reporting tool should enable you to create interactive data visualizations and dashboard reports in a few minutes, which contain all relevant key figures. It should be possible to monitor all important company processes at any time and to be able to make quick and data-driven decisions based on them.

Depending on the business field, different information can be relevant or other features can be useful. It is therefore important to pay attention to the needs of your company in terms of a reporting tool. You should only have a tool integrated and set up according to this criterion. Otherwise errors in the information flow could occur.

What options are there for reporting with SAP?

The SAP Analytics Cloud combines business intelligence (BI), predictive analytics and planning in one tool. It visualizes data, handles budget planning and can carry out future analyses. The main function is the creation of reports from core data. Internal or external business activities, budget forecast data or even MS Excel spreadsheets can be used and formatted for this purpose. This software solution is intuitive and easy to use. It allows you to create reports of varying complexity completely independently. 

Business Intelligence first collects information, either directly from the database or through manual import. This enables data preparation with additional functions, such as adding indicators and formulas or changing values. Then you can use data visualization to present the data in graphs, tables or other visualizations. 

The Planning area of ​​SAC, on the other hand, enables the combination of financial and operating statements in a single tool. Here, too, a complete and easily understandable overview of your current status is generated.

In order to highlight relevant key figures or predict future results, SAP has introduced innovations in the field of artificial intelligence. Some use cases for these innovations include automated content creation via smart discovery, identifying influential characteristics, and identifying off-trend data sets.

Also offers SAP for Group Reporting even more advantages. Corporations can carry out consolidation and planning activities in a single application and in real time, having a detailed overview of the business at any point in the period. This speeds up the closing process, leaving more time to analyze the results and make business decisions based on them. Group Reporting also offers fully functional drill-down reporting down to the individual line items. This is done using all the details of the underlying Universal Journal. High data accuracy and a clear roadmap for integrating SAP Disclosure Management help here.

What are the advantages of SAP compared to other providers?

The SAP Analytics Cloud enables companies to make the best possible use of data. The information can be analyzed and visualized according to your requirements. The “Boardroom” function creates interactive dashboards with key figures and charts to facilitate data exchange. The user interface is easy to use thanks to the “what you see is what you get” approach. The integrated use of machine learning systems makes it possible to automatically create forecasts for regressions, time series and classifications. 

Smart Discovery allows influences on business goals to be filtered and displayed. The extensive planning mode includes aspects:

  • versioning
  • resource localization
  • value driver trees
  • automated transformation processes

Group reporting primarily focuses on formal, external and financial data. At SAC, on the other hand, internal decision-making is more important. SAC can be used in all possible areas of a company, from HR to sales to management.

Advantages of introducing SAP reporting tools at INSIRE

"We efficiently develop your internal reporting with meaningful information for controlling your company and present you with key figure models and value drivers linked in terms of content and transparently", Boris Purer Senior Manager. 

We help from beginning to end, end-to-end, and have both professional and technical know-how to find the best solution for your company. First, we design a reporting strategy in connection with cloud applications, mobile reporting and on-premise dashboarding as well as for handling reorganizations and retrospective reporting. Then a key figure reporting system for the internal control of organizational units is created to lay the foundation. At this point we establish the reporting processes and help to select the appropriate reporting tools. We then carry out the systematic implementation.

Your advantages with us as a partner:

  • As an experienced SAP partner, we support you in setting up your internal (integrated) reporting, tailored to the software solution! 
  • We manage the linking of decentralized reporting events and generate a "single point of truth".
  • We take over the examination and alignment of your business intelligence strategy with an actual recording of existing reporting processes and identify areas for optimization.

Please do not hesitate to contact us!

SAP consultant Dmitrij Rempel

Dmitry Rempel

SAP S/4HANA Group Reporting
Contact Person

dmitrij.rempel@insire.de

+49 (0) 173 - 231 - 902 - 4

More information about the SAP Analytics Cloud software: https://www.insire.de/sap-analytics-cloud/

More information on S/4HANA Group Reporting: https://www.insire.de/s-4-hana-group-reporting/