What needs improvement with SAP Analytics Cloud?

I am not happy with the predictive analytics features and smart features offered by the product, making them areas where improvements are required. Even the search to insights and smart insights and smart discovery in SAP Analytics Cloud are areas where what exactly the variants say is something that is hard to understand, even for a SAP consultant like myself. In some cases, the tool works fine, but it doesn't do so in all cases. The aforementioned area can be considered for improvement in the product.

The connection works only for importing data. Currently, there is no real-time integration between SAP Analytics Cloud and CRM. There are some features present in the classic but not in the optimized version. If I need to create something specific, I often have to switch the versions. It would be more convenient to have a single product that incorporates all the necessary features.

However, there are areas of improvement, particularly in terms of visualization. The front-end interface of SAP Analytics Cloud is not as impressive as Tableau and Power BI. The charts in other solutions have a more visually appealing and customizable look, while in SAP Analytics Cloud, there's a lack of alignment between numbers and charts. This graphical aspect, especially concerning charts, is not as satisfactory in SAP Analytics Cloud compared to its counterparts.

I expect more integration from SAP Analytics Cloud.

SAP Analytics Cloud should improve the dashboard.

Live Data Models are very slow and the setup can be improved, with tools such as Cloud Connector being inbuilt into SAP Analytics Cloud. Likewise, we need to write application code from scratch, rather than tweaking existing code, as we might with Excel macros. Moreover, when using responsive pages, the widgets get adjusted according to the mobile screen. As a result, when I place two or three KPI tiles, they can only be viewed tile-by-tile. We want to see the full dashboard on the mobile screen and zoom in to click on a particular section of the dashboard and go further into that. But displaying tile-by-tile makes it very annoying and the upper management using this dashboard might not be aware there are any more tiles to view.

It is time for the solution to move to SDP because it is sometimes a challenge to connect to SQL or different prompts. The solution requires a license to view reports but other solutions like Power BI allow you to view reports for free. Sometimes there are speed issues with big deletion data. The solution can be very slow in retrieving information depending on how huge the data is or how you design the model. You have to check constantly to see if there is garbage in sections that you need to clean up.

SAP has always had one problem with its products, they make them very closed systems that are difficult to integrate. This is not only a problem with SAP Analytics but also with other products, like middleware systems. These systems, such as GRC, reside in the second level of defense, rather than the first. All these analytical systems normally require a huge integration, because they are not working independently. They are dependent on the backend systems. In any analytical system, we don't have data. Basically, we fetch the data or we try to take the data from any recording system such as an ERP recording system, CRM recording system, or any recording system. We perform the analysis in the analytical layer, which is our analytical tool, such as frauds, business integrated screening, SAP GRC, or even the SAC, SAP Analytics for Cloud. All of these require a huge integration. The problem I faced with SAP Analytics was the ease of integration and the cost. SAP Analytics for Cloud is not cost-friendly. we encounter the same issue with all SAP tools. Although SAP has a very beautiful and seamless integration within their system, it is not as easy to integrate them with non-SAP tools, as our Enterprise system does not have all SAP systems. They instead have multiple systems, including Oracle and Microsoft systems. Even though SAP has very beautiful plugins, which we can utilize and get benefit from that, it is not as friendly compared to other tools. In 2012 or 2013, SAP's interfaces were a big challenge because they were very engineering-oriented and dry, making them difficult for business users to understand. Fiori was introduced as a solution to this problem, and it has been successful in doing so. However, I believe that SAP still needs to work on the integration aspect. SAC is not the number one tool for analytics. However, if an organization has SAP backend products, then SAC falls within the system of analytics. The system of analytics requires a system of recording, which is the ERP system, CRM, or any other backend system that automates business processes. I believe that a little work is required in that aspect by SAP to improve.

Sometimes there are a few problems. For example, the direct model has two kinds of models to connect your data. There is the import data and the direct connection data. If I want to create some calculated dimensions, it is not possible to do it when we work on the direct model. You have to import the data into the cloud in order to create some calculated dimensions. However, when we work with SAP Analytics Cloud, we can't create the calculated dimensions. In the live connection model, we can't create calculated dimensions, however, in the import model we can create them. I would like to have this functionality in the SAP Analytics Cloud live model, also.

SAP could add more templates to the platform.

There is something about SAP Analytics that is complicated and more technical, certainly in comparison to a solution like Power BI which is more intuitive and where it's easier to find data. Power BI has the added advantage that many people work with Excel.

I think the editing can be improved. When you import and export the data you edit the report in Power Editor. However, it needs more flexibility and formulas. You have to use DAX and not everyone knows DAX. I think it would be easier if there was another module created to retrieve only data. When you enter the data, you need a connector to take the data and transform it into your reporting tools.

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.

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.

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.

What could be improved in SAP Analytics Cloud is integration, particularly in terms of extracting data from the source system. Currently, its data extraction mechanism doesn't have good integration and needs improvement.

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.

What should be improved in SAP Analytics Cloud is the speed of importing information and data from SAP S/4HANA, because it's what we're using. We noticed that gathering the data from the main database takes a bit of time. Another way to improve the product is for them to let others access some information without being part of our SAP company system. If I want a customer to check information directly using SAP Analytics Cloud that would be good, because currently, it doesn't seem to me that this is possible directly in the product. Of course, there's another path to take to reach that goal, but a direct connection for external people who may want to check some information could be useful.

The business intelligence features should be improved because there is a lack of functionality regarding that part.

I would like to have more tabular reporting capabilities, like page reports.

Technical support could be more helpful and responsive.

The customizations need to be better. In order to do some basic functions, in order to create certain basic functions in input control, you need to know a couple of basic programming languages. It would be better if these input controls were easier to create or to get working. For example, in Tableau, it's so easy. You just add these controls. However, in this product, for certain basic functions like dropdown boxes, it's more difficult for the basic business user. If you're not in IT, it's not as easy as Tableau. The product needs to offer more options for navigation. There need to be dropdown filtering op boxes. Right now, when you filter, what you have filtered is not presented - the selection isn't on the screen. If you're looking at it, you don't know if you've got the right number unless you hover over it. Some of the functionalities that do not use any IT or business language, such as BIAL, which is a subset of JavaScript, and something called CSS, need to be incorporated. The analytics app is designed for programmers. You need to know programming languages in order to use the solution effectively, and some users aren't programmers. Unfortunately, if you want something that should be simple to do, that's not available as you need to have that programming language.

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.

Though it's the best placed product when working with an SAP BW backend, it still lacks a lot of functionalities when compared to other tools such as Power BI or Tableau. The technical support of SAP is not perfect and could be much better. It takes a lot of time to have lacking functionalities implemented. The integration with the BW backend can still be improved. Though both solutions are from the same vendor and the tool is positioned as "the" reporting tool on top of a BW environment, the integration between both still lacks a smooth integration. For example, authorization management is still not synchronized out of the box.

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.

It should have the flexibility for scoping the story and models. When you use it in a three-layer architecture, you struggle with the fact that you usually have just one SAP Analytics Cloud tenant, and you have to switch the connections, which might be an issue for bigger developments. For the development role, there should be an option to switch between development and production scenarios.

I would like to have some functionality when they have a live connection with our BW. Some of the functionalities SAP promotes, like integration, aren't available to me. I would also like to have more advanced features for predictive analytics.

In terms of what could be improved, I would say their positioning. Effectively there are too many parts from SAP in the planning and consolidation space. If they want to position SAP Analytics Cloud for this space, they need to position it properly and make sure that the other products are also positioned alongside it in such a way that the customer doesn't get confused. That's one more supportive thing. Other than that, the scalability, stability and all that, need to be improved. They need a better scalability rate. Additionally, SAP ERP could have more competitive pricing, more openness, more accessibility, more standard products, and more planned releases to the new features.

With the R Visualization, the coding is somewhat complex. SAP Analytics Cloud requires a lot of coding and I would like the coding to be somewhat minimal. When I use other tools, they don't require a lot of coding. There is coding for columns and that is fine, that is minimal.

The pricing could be improved. It's quite expensive. I don't know how usable it is for other platforms. In terms of connectivity, if you want to report on live data you have to use what is called the calculation view. It's a graphical view of SAP HANNA, but it's quite limiting as a structure. They need support for more languages, Python for example. I know that Tableau does this quite well. If you can integrate more features from the programming side, it would enhance analytics especially the languages that are more analytics-based such as R. I think SAP Analytics Cloud supports a measure of R but could be enhanced. I may have a narrow view of its usage, but I think that it is quite dependent on SAP environments. I have not encountered any clients who are using it for Oracle ERP or an Oracle database and are reporting are using SAP cloud. It's quite, vendor narrow. For an analytics platform, it's quiet, vendor restrictive.

SAP Analytics Cloud can connect to any server architect, database server, or application server. There are many models for implementation to the Cloud or on-premises. The implementation process for SAP Analytics Cloud could be improved, as there are many application servers, in the company. Also, there are many applications. This implies there are many KPIs to connect with other applications. Connection and integration with other applications have a lot of restrictions at the moment. As a result, the implementation process is complicated. SAP Cloud connect is easier to implement on-premises. Future releases could include a provision to remove some of those restrictions.

The security, authorization, and live connection to the back-office system features can be improved. A business analyst colleague who creates complex financial management reports has mentioned that he wants to see more fact and visualization features. It would be helpful to have more visualization features to be able to prepare more stories or reports for executives. For example, Tableau has some visualization features that are not present in this solution.

The cost is an area that could be improved. I also think that Ofice 365 should be incorporated. People would find it to be more user-friendly with Office 365 integrated. Flat file integration can be a distinguishing factor. Custom visuals is another area of improvement. There are also some mobile features that are missing. There are features that aren't available on the mobile. There should also be better connectivity tools for HANA and Success Factors. They have minimal visualization relations and they have the third-party add-ins.

I think what could be improved is a lot of those intelligent features that I mentioned, the AI and predictive functions within the tool work really well with data that you import into the platform, but it doesn't work as well with SAP live connections. If they could make those predictive features available to any source, whether it's SAP or non SAP, it would be a really, really compelling product. I'd like to see formatted reporting as an additional feature, such as pixel perfect style formatted reporting. I'd also like to see the product on parity when you compare acquired data and live data models, to know that the features are identical.

Pricing is fine for the BI license, but when it comes to client license, that fee is a bit high.

Improvement could be made in the pricing of the product which is very expensive, more than Oracle and Power BI and similar solutions. Currently, only one data modeler can work at a time. If you're working on a project and you have five data modelers, for example, if person A corrects or makes a change, person B won't see it. It makes it difficult because if you have three or four modelers working on the project, everybody should be able to work seamlessly without having to disturb one another. That's my only negative about SAP Analytics. In the next release, I think they need to have voice-driven analytics, rather than just clicking and texting as it is now. A voice to text solution would make it funkier and more amazing. A move to include Android mobile platforms, would also be good, currently, it only works with iPhones and other Apple products. The number of people using Android is huge, so if they can extend the mobile platform to Android it'll be great.

Now, improvements are coming quarterly whereas previously it was on a monthly basis. Even with this, it is still a market leader.

In terms of improvement, planning can sometimes not work the way we expect it would or should. Most of our customers are from VPC. They want to typically assimilate the scene and reflect what they are using. We sometimes have a hard time assimilating the same information on VPC. I do understand that each and every product has its limitations. We are able to retrieve the information the customer is looking for, but whatever they are doing in VPC is what they want to be able to do in SAP, so SAP really needs to focus on that area to ensure that whatever they are doing in VPC is also in SAP. For additional features, I have to say that so far they satisfy the requirements. I haven't worked on the planning models or the predictive models, but when it comes to planning there is a concern about the ability to match the exact requirements of the customer with what the product offers.

There is no direct connector from SAP to Redshift, so we are required to use a third-party product that was recommended by SAP. Going forward, we would like to use connectors that are developed by SAP directly and do not require us to pay any additional licensing fees. In general, this solution should support as many databases and data warehouses, including cloud-based deployments, as possible. There are a couple of complex reports that we cannot generate using a live connection. With the full data option, however, it is possible. Hierarchies are not supported as of now, so it would be great if there were support for two or three-level hierarchies. It is helpful when we can drill down further into the hierarchy. I would like to see more enhancement in terms of AI and ML. Currently, they have R visualization support in the product using a direct plugin. We need to have support for Python scripting, as well.

Improvement-wise, it would be great if there were more analytics features in the time series. Having an accessible, easier time series or trying to incorporate more analytics products like ARIMA would be a good addition. Statistical analysis should be a bit more profound than it is. The ability to clean the data up would be helpful. You have to create your own data sources and that's when you have to connect to SAP. If we could go through an SAP source, then design what kind of data we want to pick for an audit in SAP, that would be ideal. I don't want to need to audit the user creator. It would be better if we had the ability to have one person go in and say, okay, I want this data from these different tables. Then, in the backend, it could create it. That would be a vast improvement. I'm not sure how many databases can really connect to the solution. I've just used Oracle and HANA. They need to ensure the amount of data sources they can connect to is high so that they can compete with a solution like Tableau.

It would be helpful if it had multiple PowerPoint marks built-in so that it could be shown in PowerPoint presentations. It would also be helpful if you could download this external content onto the Flash File.

We are currently working on connectivity with S/4HANA, but we would like to have better connectivity with our legacy systems. If they improve third-party connectivity then it would be great for us. No company has SAP alone; they have multiple databases and multiple technologies. The ability to connect to all of these other systems is important. More functionality has to be added in terms of additional tools and reporting. In our on-premises, BusinessObjects solution, the reports have more crisp and precise visuals. The reports are very cleanly done, and we would like this same functionality in the cloud.

Some of the standard visualizations, such as a speedometer or a goal chart, are not there and should be added. These are available in other solutions like R, but with SAP you need to have R code written for them. This can be time-consuming.

I would like to see reporting to the Analytics cloud directly. As it is now, we can integrate text reports in Analytics Cloud, but every time we create a model then we have to design the reports. It is taking a long time because we have fifty to sixty reports.

The next release could include features like: * A community that creates custom charts. * Table cell size formatting. * Formatting options for Data Labels. * Allowing comments within small teams. * There should be more features for the time series charts. * Rebuild models without affecting any chart. SAC is already working on some of these!