SAP Analytics Cloud Reviews

I used SAP Analytics Cloud to create a functionality called Digital Boardroom, which is mainly an executive KPI form of presentation for board meetings. In Columbia in 2019, there weren't more than five implementations of this solution. All of them were made by SAP directly. 

The key solution is the implementation I made for a company with over 16,000 employees and about ten lines of business. We consolidated all the information for ten lines of businesses in the SAP Digital Boardroom.

I like the product's capabilities. The clarity and scenarios are the main features that allow us to forecast using machine learning algorithms and make decisions.

The price, integration, and modeling capabilities could be better. I have to use an integration engine to integrate our products and databases. SAP Analytics Cloud is made specifically for KPIs and business intelligence. The modeling capabilities are kind of poor. You always have to model the data and then present it visually in SAP Analytics Cloud.

In the next release, I would like to have a lite version for planning to create scenarios quickly. For me personally, planning is the most complicated feature of SAP Analytics Cloud.

I have been working with SAP Analytics Cloud for about six years. 

SAP Analytics Cloud is very stable. For all these years, I didn't have any issues.

SAP Analytics Cloud is scalable. If you can collect data from third-party devices, then you can model the data, and it's fully scalable.

Technical support is good.

On a scale from one to five, I would give technical support a four.

Positive

The initial setup isn't too difficult, but it requires specific knowledge. You need at least three people to set up and maintain this solution for medium-sized projects. You need two people for data construction and one person for data management and integration.

On a scale from one to five, I would give the initial setup a four.

SAP Analytics Cloud is expensive. The price is a big issue if you compare it with other solutions from different vendors.

I would tell potential users to focus on the data, the source of the data, and the modeling capabilities. If you model well, you can present anything you want.

On a scale from one to ten, I would give SAP Analytics Cloud an eight.

I won't give it a ten just because of the solution's modeling capabilities and the price compared to other solutions in the market.

We use this solution for financial planning and analysis. We definitely plan to expand our usage of this solution. 

This solution brings our team together easily through its collaboration abilities. 

The ability to collaborate and plan together is great. In fact, the collaboration capabilities across the board are very good. Also, integration-wise, it's very good. 

I would like to know how Analytics Cloud plays with other products like SAP Data Warehouse Cloud and SAP HANA Cloud. SAP Data Warehouse Cloud is now integrated with SAP Analytics Cloud, but I would like to know how they strategically work together; what is the strategy? How do they work together and how is SAP planning to implement self-service? Currently, it's not very clear — particularly regarding Data Warehouse Cloud which is now part of SAP Analytics Cloud. It's quite difficult to navigate because SAP has many products.

Figuring out how to navigate all of the products around Data Warehouse Cloud and SAP Analytics Cloud and BW for HANA is quite difficult. The strategy of all the individual products and the roadmap itself, if you take it separately, it all looks good. There is a transformation navigator, but I don't think it's useful. It's not very easy to use; it's more technical than it is on the business side. In short, the roadmap and integration with other SAP Analytics products like Data Warehouse Cloud need to be improved. It's not clear and I can't find any information from SAP addressing the subject.

I have been using SAP Analytics Cloud for one year. 

This solution is quite stable. 

We don't require that much support; it's all in the cloud and it's been pretty good. It's well supported I would say.

We used Power BI and Tableau, but they both do not offer the native integration and business content that SAP provides. SAP provides a lot of business content and templates which is quite handy when it comes to complex projects.

The initial setup was very straightforward. 

A team of consultants helped us with deployment — they were very helpful. As far as deployment is concerned, we followed an agile implementation model.

Deployment time varies depending on the project size and complexity. SAP has features like analytics, planning, predictive capabilities, simulation, and analytical application. All of these features are very good. They're all combined into one platform where everything can interact together.

Compute and storage features should be sold separately. 

Typically, compute and storage is sold separately because there are a lot of use cases. A lot of people ask for it because other competitive products offer it. If they could provide that, it would be very helpful.

If you're interested in using this solution, you have to be aware of the frequent changes and product improvement that occurs. Every month there's a new update. You need to be aware of that but at the same time, don't get carried away with all the new features. Keep track of the roadmap and what new updates are coming. It won't cause any problems, but as it updates so often, it's good to keep track of what new features will be available and which features you should implement.

SAP Analytics can be used as an all-in-one source. It can bring everything together: BI, predictive, planning, simulation — it can combine all of this into a single user interface. Other products have also done this, but SAP has done it very nicely. It's quite good, it's quite stable — I like it.

Overall, on a scale from one to ten, I would give this solution a rating of eight. It combines all features into a single user interface, including planning, prediction, simulation, analytics application, and analytics or data dash boarding and reporting — I like it.

We're using the solution for a client who wanted to see live dashboards from backend data in the S/4HANA system, to be transferred into SAP Analytics Cloud.

The most useful feature of SAP Analytics Cloud is planning because it helps users with making predictions and forecasts. Clients can forecast, make data allocations, and other actions. The solution is useful for planning.

An additional feature that needs to be added to SAP Analytics Cloud is exporting because right now, you can only export to PDF and PowerPoint. It would be good to have multiple export options, for example, to Excel and other apps.

Pricing is an area for improvement in SAP Analytics Cloud, apart from exporting.

I've been using SAP Analytics Cloud for nearly three years.

SAP Analytics Cloud has good stability.

Scaling up SAP Analytics Cloud is easy. It has good scalability.

I had a couple of requests and the support team for SAP Analytics Cloud was good. On a scale of one to five, I'm rating support as four out of five.

The initial setup for SAP Analytics Cloud is straightforward. How long the deployment takes depends on the client, for example, the solution was already implemented when my team started working with the client, so it was just a matter of transferring existing reports to the SAP Analytics Cloud environment.

The implementation was done by a consultant with good knowledge of SAP Analytics Cloud.

I don't have the exact price for SAP Analytics Cloud, but it could be improved and made cheaper, especially when compared to Power BI.

I evaluated Power BI, and it's fairly good, especially in terms of pricing. It's also easier to use, apart from being cheaper than SAP Analytics Cloud, but both are good products.

My company has more than one hundred users of SAP Analytics Cloud, particularly people in project planning and business intelligence departments. The solution requires only two to three people for deployment and maintenance.

My company has plans to increase usage of SAP Analytics Cloud, and there's been some internal training and knowledge sharing going on.

My advice to others who want to use SAP Analytics Cloud is that it's a good tool, especially if you were using older SAP analytics tools. Currently, SAP Analytics Cloud is the most advanced tool, and it helps you with your plans and strategies.

I would rate SAP Analytics Cloud eight out of ten.

I like the connectivity the solution provides with other products. One can see different data sources, such as SAP ERP and the in-house hub which they provide. It allows one to create a business warehouse and then get the data import from there as well. So too, the solution is multi-dimensional, meaning the person can use a flat file and collect data from different sources. 

When importing data from a different source, the solution should also act as an ETL tool to allow for the task permissions with the live data. 

The solution could be more stable. I rate its stability as a seven out of ten. 

I rate the scalability as a seven out of ten, as the solution occasionally falls to pieces and requires us to tweak our scripting. Scalability definitely needs to be improved. 

The solution should include other scripting languages as well, such as Python. Also, I am curious to see if they will include AI and ML capabilities going forward. 

I have much experience working with SAP Analytics Cloud, as I have been doing so for two-and-a-half years. 

The solution could be more stable. I rate its stability as a seven out of ten. 

I rate the scalability as a seven out of ten, as the solution occasionally falls to pieces and requires us to tweak our scripting. Scalability definitely needs to be improved.

The initial setup is straightforward. We are talking about a complete package which is supplied by SAP itself. So, once the person has the package online, he can simply use it on the spot. There is no setup required. 

If someone is using an SAP environment in their businesses, it's good to adapt SAP Analytical Cloud. But, if the person is using another ERP software, say, QuickBooks, there are other market options to opt for. The solution works well if one is using the SAP package. 

I rate SAP Analytics Cloud as an eight out of ten. 

SAP Analytics Cloud is very easy to use, and you don't require much technology. It has a very good library and analytics. It is easy to configure and offers good visualization. 

I expect more integration from SAP Analytics Cloud. 

I have been working with the solution for three years. 

The tool is very stable. 

SAP Analytics Cloud is scalable. 

The tool's deployment is very easy. 

The tool's pricing is medium, and licensing costs are yearly. 

I rate SAP Analytics Cloud an eight out of ten. I wouldn't recommend it to non-SAP customers. 

We use SAP Analytics Cloud for creating dashboards for higher management. Our managers use this for business planning purposes, viewing monthly and quarterly reports, particularly sales, finance, and planned maintenance reports.

The features that are most valuable in SAP Analytics Cloud are the planning feature and the predictive analytics feature, though the planning feature needs to be more efficient.

An area for improvement in SAP Analytics Cloud is its planning feature because it's not that efficient when compared to BPC.

Another area for improvement in the solution is the difficulty in building reports or dashboards, particularly if you don't have proper knowledge of the BI system.

SAP Analytics Cloud technical support also needs improvement.

I've been using SAP Analytics Cloud for around three years now.

SAP Analytics Cloud is a stable solution. In terms of stability, it's pretty good.

SAP Analytics Cloud has good scalability.

The technical support for SAP Analytics Cloud is not good. If you have a ticket, you won't get a solution to it immediately. If you're facing any issue with the solution, you have to wait for a few days, or at least one week to get it resolved. Support for SAP Analytics Cloud could be faster and could be improved.

We didn't switch from Power BI to SAP Analytics Cloud. We use them in parallel where the systems are being developed in Power BI and reports are being developed in SAP Analytics Cloud.

The initial setup for SAP Analytics Cloud was not that straightforward because it depends on your source system. If you have an SAP source system, the setup is quite straightforward, but if you're using a non-SAP system or a third-party system, setting up SAP Analytics Cloud would be quite complex. My company used the Agile implementation strategy.

We implemented SAP Analytics Cloud in-house, and not via a third-party vendor.

I have no information on the licensing costs of SAP Analytics Cloud because a separate team takes care of it.

My company evaluated Power BI.

My company has around fifteen users of SAP Analytics Cloud.

My advice to anyone looking into using SAP Analytics Cloud is to first have an understanding of the BI system, based on the BI data models, and to have good analytical skills to develop reports in the solution. If you know the system, you can create reports and dashboards in SAP Analytics Cloud, but if you don't, you'll find it difficult.

I would also tell others to go for SAP Analytics Cloud over other technologies because SAP has a vast infrastructure, so you can integrate different modules and products within SAP very easily. For example, SAP has launched Data Warehouse Cloud, so you don't need a separate BI solution such as the SAP BW/4HANA system. You can directly take the data from the source and store it in the cloud, and compared to other technologies, it's quite cheap as well.

My company doesn't have any plans of increasing usage of SAP Analytics Cloud, but there's a plan to integrate it with SAP DWC.

I would rate SAP Analytics Cloud seven out of ten.

I work on the planning and price planning and I create dashboards.

It is user-friendly. 

It's easy to set up.

The solution is stable.

Technical support is helpful.

It's scalable. 

We have not found any shortcomings. It does what we need it to do. However, while most of the things have been incorporated, doing data action optimization wasn't something that we could have done. We needed data action capabilities. 

The scope is limited to a few accounts. We need to limit that data in order to get enhancement in terms of performance. There are a few little challenges there. This needs to be considered in the planning stages. For example, how to enhance or limit data and look up or delete statements. You need to consider data locking and access control.

I've been working with the solution for four or five months now. 

The stability is good. There are no bugs or glitches and it doesn't crash or freeze. It's reliable.

We have 15 to 16 people using the solution in our company currently. 

The solution is easily scalable. however, that does mean it will get more expensive. 

There are dimension restrictions. The scope is limited to only five to six accounts. That is one challenge. So we cannot have more scopes.

Technical support has been good. They are helpful and responsive. we're satisfied with the level of support on offer. 

Positive

The initial implementation is very straightforward and simple. it's not complex. 

I don't have the exact details of the pricing. It's my understanding that as you scale, the price will rise. 

We did look into other planning solutions. 

We are using the corporate edition. I'm a user and consultant. 

I'd advise new users to use it as much as possible. It helps make it more stable and scalable. It's very user-friendly and intuitive for both the management and technical team - no matter who uses it, it's not too hard to deal with.

I'd rate the solution eight out of ten. There's still from for improvement, however, I am largely happy with the product. 

The primary use case is for our client. We implemented the BI Analytics for the executive. SAP also works with the theater boardroom. There is another license policy, but there's more that's dedicated for the dashboard with the touch screen so they can use it for their executive meetings.

The solution is used on PC or mobile. It's deployed on a public SAP cloud.

SAP Analytics Cloud changed the culture of meetings with data-driven management for our client. It modernized everything.

One of the most outstanding features is being able to use the dashboard with a touch screen. The other feature is nothing special compared with BusinessObjects, but it's a cloud version and they upgrade very often with the CI/CD way. They do it automatically because it's the service, it's not like download and installation. It's different from the other BI products and it has a planning feature.

In the beginning, we had a problem with stability but it's currently fine.

SAC, which is the cloud version, lost some good features from the previous planning product, like BPC or BPS.

I have been using this solution for more than three years.

It's stable.

The cloud version is automatically scalable.

Technical support is good.

Setup was straightforward.

Some of our clients are interested in moving to cloud-based IT. In that case, we can recommend SAP, but some clients still want to use the on-premise for security purposes and their policies. In that case, we cannot recommend SAC, but we do recommend BusinessObjects or another on-premise solution like Tableau.

The amount of time it takes to deploy depends on the requirements, but normally it takes three months for the reporting. Of course, they need to prepare their data before implementing the BI.

Normally, two or three people are needed for the BI implementation. If it contains planning as well, it's more than that because planning is more complex than actual implementation.

From our customers' experience, we know that they are satisfied with the ROI.

They need to collect the data and make reports, but it's just one solution. After logging in, they input their planning and then it can be aggregated automatically for the HQ users. That is very time saving and effort saving.

The price is competitive. There is a power user license and normal user license, but the normal user license is reasonable. The power user license is a bit expensive, but our client doesn't need to buy many user licenses for that.

Previously, we used BusinessObjects. That's the previous version of SAP, but it's been changed to SAC.

These days we are comparing the modern BI products, like Click, Tableau, and Microsoft Power BI. Those are the main competitors.

I would rate this solution 7 out of 10. 

My advice is the same as BW/4HANA. For someone who wants to start using this solution, they need to refine their requirement in the beginning and analyze the available data and how it should be consumed in the dashboard or analytics. They need to design from the beginning. It can be just a sketch, but they need to think about it before they start implementing it.