SAP Analytics Cloud (SAC), SAP offers a solution for reporting, analysis and integrated business planning in the cloud. The cloud approach centralizes reporting, analysis and planning in the organization. Access to the data and applications is possible from any (mobile) device. The solution is particularly interesting for application areas in corporate and management reporting. Why exactly?
The cloud architecture itself paves the way for customers from several different software solutions to a central platform in the corporate organization. The designed platform is provided by the parent company and those responsible in the group companies and business units simply access the components in the cloud that are relevant to them.
The SAP Analytics Cloud enables the connection of S/4-Hana and BW/4-Hana systems as well as data sources from other manufacturers, for example to determine and report financial indicators and KPIs. The data is linked together in order to be able to centrally provide decision-relevant final values at an aggregated management level. For example, values (planned and actual figures) for financial consolidation can be obtained from both S/4-Hana Finance for Group Reporting and from the classic consolidation solution SAP SEM-BCS with the reporting tools SAP Analytics Cloud (Real-time) data will be displayed. This also includes the transfer of closing figures, for example, for further processing as part of a [process/analysis/etc.]. Corporate-Integrating the planning process into the SAC is possible.
For homogeneous group and management reporting, it must be assessed on a case-by-case basis whether there is a physical data storage of financial statements in the SAP Analytics Cloud is required. This essentially depends on how homogeneous or heterogeneous the “substructure of the numbers” is and how extensive a mapping would have to be to standardize the data in the cloud, but also whether further processing of the numbers is necessary. For example, for corporate planning, depending on the planning approach, operational target figures (bottom-up) could be provided for the purpose of adjustment at the (top) management level or actual values (middle-up approach) as baseline values for corporate planning. Based on these values, the planned values can then be further processed by the management units directly in the SAP Analytics Cloud. A number of planning functions are available to support this. With the integrated planning components, planning models can also be easily defined directly in the SAP Analytics Cloud. Providing planning layouts to decentralized units and accessing them is not a challenge due to the cloud approach. On the contrary, this is a major advantage of the solution.
The toolbox of the planning functions is also supplemented by a simulation and forecast function, with which the Controlling department can carry out ad hoc evaluations and determine values for various scenarios, as well as a comment function.
The high-quality graphical processing and presentation of financial statements meets the requirements of modern management reporting. A major advantage of the solution is the ease with which a customized reporting dashboard can be defined. The user interface is so intuitive that the Group Accounting and... CorporateControlling in the front end can operate very independently, and reports can be customized entirely to meet individual requirements. With the reporting application, managers can, for example, create ad-hoc reports and what-if analyses in real time, identify influencing factors and deviations – simply by dragging and dropping the respective elements. The user determines the level of detail required for planning and reporting. The underlying data model for these tasks is defined directly in the cloud. The following illustration shows, among other things, an excerpt of the key performance indicator "Total Revenue" in the context of the regions.
Reporting and analysis of the data can be performed in real-time mode. In general, it is important that the reporting is primarily designed for high-quality graphical representations and analyzes at management level. For reasons of architecture and performance, ad-hoc and in-depth analysis reporting should be carried out directly in the source system, e.g. based on SAP Analysis for Office. It remains of great importance that when examining the possible uses of the solution, a closer look at the company-specific processes is to be taken in order to design the tool accordingly.
Another component of the SAP Analytics Cloud is the Digital Boardroom - a cockpit for the system-integrated preparation of financial statements that is used for presentation purposes. Using the Digital Boardroom eliminates the need for time-consuming preparation of presentations. Especially when the figures are updated again, very short-term corrections to the documents are often necessary, which often brings beads of sweat to the employee's forehead. The tool is therefore a further building block towards a paperless process. The actual presentation is created within the SAP Digital Boardroom, the necessary data is integrated into the presentation and visualized in real time. However, it is also possible to disconnect the real-time function, for example in order to show a previously prepared and agreed result for a specific presentation date, which may also be presented in parallel in other media. How exactly the numbers are output can of course be defined for each company. By defining your own “story”, different people responsible can be assigned different parts of the presentation in order to ensure a professional and structured process, for example of committee meetings, and to support it digitally.
For more information, please visit www.sapanalytics.cloud
