SAP Analytics Cloud Tutorial

SAP Analytics Cloud Introduction

SAP Analytics Cloud is an all-in-one analytics platform that has gained immense popularity in recent years. It allows businesses to collect, analyze, and visualize data in real time, providing valuable insights that help businesses make informed decisions. According to recent statistics, the demand for SAP Analytics Cloud is increasing rapidly, with more and more businesses adopting this platform to streamline their operations and improve their decision-making processes. If you are new to SAP Analytics Cloud, you are in the right place. In this SAP Analytics Cloud Tutorial, we will provide an in-depth overview of the platform and show you how to use it to collect, analyze, and visualize data.

Before we dive in, it is worth noting that SAP Analytics Cloud is built on top of SAP UI5, a UI development toolkit for HTML5. The current versions of SAP UI5 include 1.87 and 1.88, both of which provide a seamless user experience across devices and browsers. With SAP UI5 as its foundation, SAP Analytics Cloud offers a modern and intuitive interface that allows users to easily navigate and interact with their data. Here are the latest updates of SAP Analytics Cloud for you to review in Q1 2023.

SAP Analytics Cloud Tutorial - Table of Contents

What is SAP Analytics Cloud? What is the use of SAP Analytics Cloud? SAP Analytics Cloud Architecture SAP Analytics Cloud Fundamentals Core Applications and Features How can I get the SAP Analytics Cloud License? Registration (Trial Version) SAP Analytics Cloud Import Excel Data FAQs

What is SAP Analytics Cloud?

SAP Analytics Cloud is a software-as-a-service (SaaS) enterprise analytics solution. It combines business intelligence, augmented and predictive analytics, and planning capabilities to help you understand your data to make better business decisions. Furthermore, you can ask, analyze, predict, plan, and report all in one end-to-end workflow.

1) Business Intelligence:

SAP Analytics Cloud offers built-in self-service Business Intelligence (BI) features to help you explore, analyze, and visualize data to get insights for decisions; data visualizations such as charts, tables, Geo maps, and other visual formats to display data in a way that can be quickly and easily understood.

2) Augmented Analytics:

SAP Analytics Cloud Augmented Analytics can help users make more confident decisions faster with automated insights powered by machine learning and artificial intelligence. Spend less time analyzing data manually by utilizing these capabilities to automatically reveal top contributors, influencers, hidden patterns, and outliers in your data. 

3) Planning:

SAP Analytics Cloud for Planning lets you analyze, predict, and plan in one application. It enables real-time Extended Planning and Analysis to link and align all plans and people across your organization. 

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What is the use of SAP Analytics Cloud?

The main function of the SAP Analytics cloud is to create data reports. The data used for feeding those reports are derived from different resources. It includes real-time data from your business activities and tasks, budget forecast data, etc. It allows everyone in the organization to produce complete autonomous reports without the help of any data scientists.

 

SAP Analytics Cloud Architecture

Let's understand the various components of Cloud Architecture.

1) Stories

Stories are where data and visualizations come together to tell the story of your business or organization and help you discover insights hidden within your data. A story can also be referred to as a dashboard.

2) Analytic Applications

Analytic applications are consolidated information presented in a guided analytic path with analytical capabilities for end users. The primary role of analytic applications is to deal with trends and KPIs.

3) Models 

A model is a representation of large amounts of business data from source systems. It defines measures and dimensions that are used to build visualizations, filters, and calculations in stories. 

4) Planning

There are many planning tools for collaboratively creating and updating model data to carry out planning tasks. In simple words, planning involves typing values directly into table cells in planning models.

5) Smart Capabilities

There are many smart features for improving business decisions and analysis workflow.

6) Datasets

A dataset is a simple collection of data, usually presented in a table. Datasets are used to complement models and are more suitable for ad-hoc analysis.

7) SAP Digital Boardroom

SAP Digital Boardroom is an interactive and real-time presentation tool. Users can take content from your stories and turn it into a real-time, interactive boardroom agenda or dashboard.

8) Mobile App

With Mobile App, users can access their analytics anywhere and anytime. They can use the mobile app to connect to the SAP Analytics Cloud solution.

SAP Analytics Cloud Fundamentals

The next phase in SAP Analytics Cloud Tutorial is the fundamental components of SAP Analytics Cloud, including data, models, stories, etc. Let us dive deeper and understand them in detail:

1) Data:

When you think of analytics, data visualizations probably come to mind first. These visualizations represent your business data in various chart types, which makes it easy to understand your business briefly. The data that is collected by your business then has to be stored somewhere. You can choose to store simple information in a spreadsheet or, when it comes to big data, in a more complex database.

2) Models:

A model is a clean and defined version of your raw data, and it will be the basis of your analysis. The process of creating a model is called modeling. In Analytics Cloud, more complex models are created using the Modeler. This is because it's a more advanced tool and will take some time to learn for those unfamiliar with data modeling.

3) Stories:

Stories are used for exploring and visualizing your data for reporting, planning, and analysis. There are two areas within stories that can be used for these purposes. These are data views and pages.

4) Data View:

If you've imported data directly to your story, you'll start the process in data view. Here, you will check your data, clean up any errors, and add any further definitions to your model. On the other hand, each story can have one or multiple pages, which can be set up as a canvas or a grid. Here, the process gets completed.

 

Core Applications and Features

Let's move on to the core applications and features in this part of the Sap Analytics Cloud Tutorial:

• Data Discovery
• Machine Learning capabilities
• Integrated Financial and Business Planning
• Predictive Analysis
• Automated data cleansing
• Data exploration and visualization
• Role-Based customization for different users
• Use of custom widgets
• Applications Integration with on-premise sources
• Mobile extension to connect with colleagues via iPhone/iPad

 

How can I get the SAP Analytics Cloud License?

The Free version is for 30 days. You can get started with your SAP Analytics Cloud here. It can also get extended up to 90 days. You can purchase an SAP Analytics Cloud for business intelligence license as a User License. It will ensure that the assigned user can always access the application, regardless of how many other users are logged on. We recommend that administrators be given user licenses. Please note that when some licenses are removed from a customer account, content created from those licenses will be restricted for other end users, even those with administrator roles:

Registration (Trial Version)

SAP was providing the trial system to get to know their SaaS application, and as a step towards the same, SAP has extended its trial account expiration to 1 year from 30 days. Here is how you can register an account on the trial version.

Step 1 - Navigate to SAP Cloud Platform Cockpit. Sign In if you already have an SAP account.

Step 2 - If not, register for the new account with your email and provide the necessary information.

Step 3 - Click Trial Home. Accept the terms and conditions, and then select enter your trial account.

Step 4 - After registration, SAP will send a welcome email to the registered email address, which provides you with a quick guide for administration and setting up the environment.

Step 5 - After this, you will receive one more email from SAP. Welcome to SAP Analytics Cloud to activate your account. Once you activate your account, you can land on the home page of the SAP Analytics Cloud tool.

SAP Analytics Cloud Import Excel Data

Here is how you can Import Excel Data in SAP:

Step 1 - Click on the Menu option, then more options, and then Dataset

Step 2 - Select the "From CSV or Excel File" option to import your Excel dataset   

Step 3 - Once you select the Excel dataset, it will show the file name on the window. Then click on the Import option.

Step 4 - Import you need to select the location/folder where you want to save the data set; you can also create your own folder.

Step 5 - Once you saved the file on location, its analytics Cloud will start importing your excel data into the cloud.

 

SAP Analytics Cloud FAQs

1) Is SAP Analytics Cloud easy to learn?

Ans: Yes. If you follow all the steps properly, SAP Analytics is easy to learn. 

2) What is SAP Analytics Cloud used for?

Ans: Creating data reports is the main function of SAP Analytics Cloud. 

3) What is the SAP Analytics Cloud tutorial?

Ans: SAP Analytics Cloud tutorial is a go-to tool for business users for analytical and ad-hoc reporting. Business users can create a basic, medium, and complex dashboard from transactional data in the database to meet business requirements. 

4) How do I get started with SAP Analytics Cloud?

Ans: Here is how you can get started with SAP Analytics Cloud:

Step 1 - Get to know SAP Analytics Cloud - Go through the basics of SAP Analytics Cloud and register for a Trial Account

Step 2 - Explore the SAP Analytics Cloud Sample Story - Go through the feature of interacting with story widgets and employ the power of Smart Features offered with SAP Analytics Cloud, such as Smart Insights and Search to Insight.

Step 3 - Create your First SAP Analytics Cloud Story - Create your first story by importing a mock dataset and visualizing your data with charts, tables, geo maps, etc.

5) Is coding required for SAP Analytics Cloud?

Ans: Yes. SAP runs on Java programming language.

 

Conclusion:

SAP Analytics Cloud is a powerful analytics platform that has the potential to revolutionize the way businesses operate. As technology continues to evolve, SAP Analytics Cloud will play an increasingly important role in the business world. The platform offers a wide range of features that help businesses to make better decisions, improve their operations, and stay ahead of the competition. Whether you are a business owner, a data analyst, or an IT professional, learning SAP Analytics Cloud can greatly benefit your career. By understanding how to use this platform, you can help your organization grow and succeed in today's competitive market.