SAP S/4hana Embedded Analytics: Experiences in the Field

ISBN-13: 9781484270165 / Angielski / Miękka / 2021 / 287 str.

Freek Keijzer

Opis

Intermediate-Advanced user level

Spis treści

Chapter 1: Before the Work Starts

Chapter Goal: Miscellaneous intro topics.

No of pages:   40

Sub -Topics

1.     Business Intelligence: the art of enriching data

2.     HANA changing the OLTP versus OLAP game

3.     Cloud flavors: SaaS versus IaaS

4.     The latest thing: CDS-views

5.     Frontend: Fiori and UI5

6.     SAP’s BI portfolio

7.     S/4HANA and Embedded Analytics

Chapter 2:  No Work: Use What is Delivered

Chapter Goal: S/4HANA comes with rich analytical apps that can be used immediately. This chapter focuses on the content delivered by SAP.

No of pages:   20

Sub - Topics  

1.     Discover analytical apps

2.     Activate them

3.     Use them

Chapter 3: Some Work: Smart Business Service

Chapter Goal: S/4HANA has built-in functions for codeless creation of simple analytical apps. Target group of these functions are power users, but in practice functional (non-BI) consultants are most suitable to use this functionality.

Functions are made available as a group of Fiori-tiles under the product name “Smart Business Service”.

No of pages :  30

Sub - Topics: 

1.     Tiles “KPI Design”

2.     Tiles “Report Design”

3.    Tile “Analysis Path Framework Modeling”

4.     The end-result: again tiles

Chapter 4: More Work: Building Analytical Queries Using Tiles

Chapter Goal: S/4HANA comes with tiles to create so-called “Analytical Queries” starting from SAP-delivered CDS-views. Analytical Queries are not static reports, but versatile, interactive queries on real-time data.

For the SaaS version of S/4HANA, this is the only option to create Analytical Queries.

No of pages:   40

Sub - Topics:

1.     Discovery of SAP-delivered CDS-views with tile “View Browser”

2.     Enriching CDS-views with tiles “Custom CDS Views”

3.     Building an Analytical Query with tile “Custom Analytical Query”

4.     Running the query with tile “Query Browser”

5.     How to navigate within an Analytical Query.

6.     Creating a dedicated tile for the query

 Chapter 5: Most Work: Building Analytical Queries in a Development Environment

Chapter Goal: Starting from real-life business requirements, often the conclusion is reached that SAP-delivered CDS-views won’t do the trick. For a SaaS version of S/4HANA, the process following this conclusion is called “managing expectations”. For an on-premise version, a development environment can be applied. And then … the sky is the limit! Development can start not only from SAP-delivered CDS-views but also from tables.

No of pages:   60

Sub - Topics:

1.     Layered approach towards the analytical query

2.     Data-integration

3.     “Cube-view”

4.     Analytical query

5.     Examples transaction data

6.     Examples master data

7.     Example: Replacing custom ABAP-report by analytical query

8.     Performance considerations; balance between performance and support-friendliness

9.     Access and data authorization

Chapter 6: Extensibility, OData and Beyond

Chapter Goal: Miscellaneous outro topics related to Embedded Analytics

No of pages:   20

Sub - Topics:

1.     S/4HANA Extensibility

2.     OData and APIs

3.     Agile development and Devops

4.     Ideal skill-set for an Embedded Analytics expert

O autorze

Freek Keijzer has a background in science (physics), industry (manufacturing, process industry) and ICT (SAP system integration), holding various project management, people management, and specialist positions. He holds degrees in natural sciences (PhD) and information management (MIM). In 1996, he became involved in an SAP implementation, initially as an R/3 key user, later as internal project leader, interim manager of the support organization, and (international) information manager. Since 2001, he has focused on SAP BI consultancy, working for three consultancy firms and more than 50 clients. His responsibilities as a consultant include product development, team competence development, sales support, and resourcing. Freek's specialties (technical) include SAP Business Intelligence, Hana, NetWeaver, and ERP integration. His roles include project leader, lead consultant, business consultant, (interim) manager, and scrum master.   

Since 2015, Freek has been a brewer/owner of the Rubelijn craft beer brand.

Blurb

Imagine you are a business user, consultant, or developer about to enter an SAP S/4HANA implementation project. You are well-versed with SAP’s product portfolio and you know that the preferred reporting option in S/4HANA is embedded analytics. But what exactly is embedded analytics? And how can it be implemented? And who can do it: a business user, a functional consultant specialized in financial or logistics processes? Or does a business intelligence expert or a programmer need to be involved? Good questions!

This book will answer these questions, one by one. It will also take you on the same journey that the implementation team needs to follow for every reporting requirement that pops up: start with assessing a more standard option and only move on to a less standard option if the requirement cannot be fulfilled. In consecutive chapters, analytical apps delivered by SAP, apps created using Smart Business Services, and Analytical Queries developed either using tiles or in a development environment are explained in detail with practical examples. The book also explains which option is preferred in which situation. The book covers topics such as in-memory computing, cloud, UX, OData, agile development, and more.

Author Freek Keijzer writes from the perspective of an implementation consultant, focusing on functionality that has proven itself useful in the field. Practical examples are abundant, ranging from “codeless” to “hardcore coding.”

You will:

• Know the difference between static reporting and interactive querying on real-time data
• Understand which options are available for analytics in SAP S/4HANA
• Understand which option to choose in which situation
• Know how to implement these options