SAP Analytics Cloud Reviews

The tool's most valuable features are the BI and planning functionalities. I value being able to integrate smart planning with BI for analysis. The solution is user-friendly. 

It seems like there's a problem with the tool's licenses. If there are a lot of users, like 200, who only use the solution once a year, paying for a full-year license for each user is expensive. There's no option for users who only use the solution occasionally.

It's like having a watch user option. I want to license users for just two months instead of a year. For example, I have 200 users, but they only need the solution for two months during a process. Even though they only use it briefly, having to pay for a full year for each user can be a problem. 

I have been using the product for seven years. 

I use the tool daily in my work with various processes and customer implementations. The solution is very scalable because it's a cloud-based service. When we need to add more users, I contact IT and request more. There are no issues with scaling up.

The tool's technical support responds in a few hours. 

Neutral

A consultant company helped us with the deployment. We relied on three consultants to help us. 

I've worked with alternatives like Oracle in the past. When comparing solutions, I've learned that using the same platform as the actual data source is better. For example, if you're using SAP ERP, it's better to use SAP Analytics Cloud. Similarly, if you're using Oracle ERP, using Hyperion for analytics is better. The challenge often lies in integration rather than the usability of the solutions. I rate it a ten out of ten. 

I advise new users to design the business processes before starting the implementation. If you clearly understand the business processes beforehand, you will not face problems during implementation. Issues typically arise when there is a lack of clarity or understanding of these processes within the department.

The solution is primarily used for dashboarding and planning. My clients come from various industries, including chemical energy, fertilizers, cement, real estate, and telecommunications.

The solution has improved decision-making through its predictive analytics capabilities and effective dashboarding features. It supports better business forecasting and planning.

The product's most valuable features are reporting and planning, driverless planning, business vertical-wise planning, dashboarding, forecasting tools, and business forecasting. 

Real-time reporting is one area that needs improvement for the product. Currently, it operates on a batch-based system, and it would be beneficial if it could update in real-time directly from SAP S4HANA without batch jobs or file uploads.

I have been using SAP Analytics Cloud for three years.

I rate the platform's stability an eight.

I rate the product scalability an eight. 

The technical support services are good. However, the response times need improvement.

The initial setup process has moderate complexity. 

The product is expensive. 

Overall, I rate SAP Analytics Cloud a nine out of ten. 

We use the product for story building. 

I have found that the feature to drag and drop widgets based on the data source, and import them into stories to be valuable. This way it helps the end user to create stories themselves.

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.

I have been using this solution for two years at the minimum, and I continue to use it.

Since the performance of the Live Data Model is slow, I would give the solution a three out of ten.

The only issue with scalability is the speed of the Live Data Model. We thought we would not need the Business Warehouse tool and we could directly extract data as per HANA, but that has not been the case.

Otherwise, we haven’t tried scalability much, we only have two or three dashboards.

We have raised a couple of queries and received responses to all of them.

Neutral

We haven’t used any similar solutions for interactive dashboard building, we are currently looking for alternatives such as Power BI and Tableau.

The setup was okay, but Cloud Connector was required. The deployment would have taken a couple of hours or less, and it was handled by a user acquainted with Basis. I would rate the setup a six out of ten.

I would rate the solution four out of ten, but we are still analyzing other our alternatives, which could affect the rating.

All the same, I would not recommend SAP Analytics Cloud.

SAP used to provide two tools, SAP BI and SAP BPC. The SAP BI tool provided analytics, while the SAP BPC tool provided budgeting and planning functionality. However, We later consolidated these two tools into one tool, SAP Analytics for Cloud. This tool provides both budgeting and analytics functionality.

I have seen a lot of benefits from using SAP Analytics, but I think people have not yet fully realized its potential. I believe the system is still in its revolutionary stage because it has a lot of capabilities that have yet to be fully explored. In order to take advantage of these capabilities, we need to have a business story and our own analytics or business analytics requirements. I myself have only used SAP Analytics for a very small use case, but I can see how it could be used for enterprise-level planning, reporting, and dashboarding.

The most valuable feature of the tool is machine learning. The machine learning algorithms are inbuilt and strong. I really like that feature because we don't need to do any coding. Normally, we used to do coding in Jupyter notes or Anaconda. It's another tool for analytics or for data science. We used to write Python code, and then try to fetch the data from the backend system, and perform the analysis, based on the batch. SAP Analytics is more real-time analytics and the use case which I use the tool for, with S/4HANA itself. SAP Analytics makes it much easier for me to have the data directly in real-time, to perform this machine learning. I have also seen some good automation features for budgeting and budgeting processes. This combined feature gives a very good flavor to perform the analytics.

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.

I have been using the tool for several years.

The tool is stable.

I give the scalability a nine out of ten.

Most of the organizations I work for have a maximum attention licensing agreement with SAP, so the support service is amazing. We've never faced any delays with that.

If we have more backend systems using SAP, it's really easy to set up SAP Analytics, but if that is not the case it becomes very difficult to integrate.

SAP Analytics can be very costly to license, which can make it difficult for organizations to implement.

I evaluated SPSS and Alteryx.

I give the tool a seven out of ten.

I was looking for a tool that could help me add value-added services to my department, such as predictive analytics from the audit perspective. I wanted a tool that could analyze text, mostly based on natural language processing. There are other heavy tools that could be applied to the audit lifecycle to improve the process. I was looking for a data analysis tool that would help me roll out the fifth generation of our internal audit department. I considered several options, including SPSS, Alteryx, and SAP Analytics. There is a generation of auditors and assurance professionals called 4.0 or 5.0 who are turning from performing basic analytics to using advanced analytics tools with AI to enhance their audit processes. They are becoming more proactive and using bottom-up analytics. This is a little bit technical for some people. In the same way that we have fourth-generation audit insurance, we have the fourth industrial revolution in the generic industry, we have a revolution in the audit department, a fourth-generation revolution, where we apply AI tools, RPA, robotic process, and advanced analytics to improve our processors. This allows us to perform more audits, 15-20 instead of 10, and to do so using a complete database rather than samples. As an auditor, we will no longer be providing reasonable assurance that we cannot provide everything, we will be able to provide assurance on the entire database. The analytics will automate this process for us, so I'm launching that strategy. In my strategy, I have, for example, some contracts I want to automate instead of reviewing them manually. Each and every contract, for example, comes to the audit department. Instead of reviewing the contract manually, and spending hours, converting this from the OCR text, and then applying the NLP on it, trying to identify the risks and the threats within this contract, and trying to audit based on that risk template, I can automate this process. I'm a certified professional in GRC and ECC. I've been working in this field for a long time. I've seen predictive analytics in action, and I've tried to compare the effectiveness of different tools, like SPSS and Alteryx, with SAP Analytics. I'm doing this because I want to see how much these tools can help me with my overall strategy. But I know that no single tool can guarantee success. We need a bunch of tools. For example, we have this SAP Celonis, which can help us understand business processes and do business process re-engineering and analysis. This SAP Celonis will help automate the process of understanding business processes, instead of having manual meetings with the business and trying to understand everyone's understanding of the process. We can rely on the data to tell us the truth. The central truth is the data. SAP Celonis will take the event log and try to analyze the process on our behalf, and try to give us the anomalies in our business process. The strategy has a different flavor, different tools, and different aspects. SAP Analytics would be more helpful in the audit execution process, and reporting stage. There is another tool that helps with fraud management. It's called business integrity screening. This tool basically fetches data and tests it for us. The tool also gathers information from SAP Analytics for Cloud and performs predictive analytics with strong machine learning algorithms. SAP Analytics is not the only thing I use to achieve my goals. It is a part of my strategy, and it helps me automate certain aspects of my plan.

An organization that has its backend systems as SAP would be making a smart move to go with SAP Analytics, but if they have a mix of SAP or non-SAP systems, I never advise organizations to go with SAP Analytics. An organization that does not have SAP in the backend and still wished to use SAP Analytics should perform a proper requirement analysis first.

We primarily use the solution to create financial dashboards. 

It is a good tool with a friendly interface. It is not really complicated.

The solution can scale.

Technical support is helpful. 

It's easy to set up.

We find the product to be reliable. 

The pricing is pretty good.  

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.

I've been working on the solution for three months. 

The stability is excellent. I would rate the reliability nine or ten out of ten. 

It is scalable. There are no problems. When we work on the import mode, all is good.

I'd rate the scalability eight out of ten. 

There are around 40 people using the solution, between business intelligence and EPM. 

Technical support is good. I've never had a problem with them. 

Positive

I have used other tools, however, only in the capacity of academic research. I've used many solutions. For example, I was working with Microsoft Business Intelligence, SSCS, SSIS, and Power BI. And I was working on Alteryx, as well as SAP BW 4HANA and Tableau.

SAP Analytics Cloud is the tool that we use for dashboarding, so I can't compare it to the SSCS, SSIS, or Alteryx. It is comparable to Tableau and Power BI. All three tools are scalable and they are not difficult to use.

There is just a little problem with SAP Analytics Cloud when we are working on the live models. Otherwise, all is good.

I'd rate the initial setup eight out of ten. It's a very good tool that is easy to set up. It has a user-friendly interface which makes it pretty easy.

I work on the SAP Analytics Cloud Business Intelligence license.

There is another license for the EPM, enterprise performance management. I'm working only on the Business Intelligence license, not on the EPM license.

I'm not sure of the exact pricing, however, my understanding is that it is pretty good. 

We are SAP partners. 

I am certified in SAP Analytics Cloud. I got the certification last year.

I'd recommend the tool to others. 

In the other reporting tools, we don't find, for example, the EPM or the smart data functionality or the machine learning functionality. In SAP Analytics Cloud, it's not only a tool for creating a dashboard and a report. We can also create some machine learning applications and some EPM dashboarding. I recommend others to use itas it is a very rich tool and it is updated often. Every two or three months there is a new update.

I'd rate the solution nine out of ten. The only issue we've had is working with the live connection. Other than that, it's great. 

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. 

I am using it for the reporting features.

The financial reports are very easy to read at the end of the month. You can see your profits. The reporting tools and graphs versus sending a report in Excel are great. When it comes to visualization, reading a report visually instead of a number is excellent because it is going to stick with you.

The reporting, dashboards, KPIs, and visualization are the most valuable.

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. 

I have been using SAP Analytics Cloud for the past ten years.

The stability of SAP Analytics Cloud is very good.

The more you train people and give them good information, the more they want to put their trust in new solutions. People are used to getting an excel file for review.  It takes time and publicity to help train people about additional options that are available.

Technical support is only an online chat option.  They need a phone number to talk to someone and they need to increase the support available.  When I had some questions it was not as helpful as it could be. It will tell you where to go on the online chat, but that has its limitations.

Neutral

I was using Crystal. I switched because I had a lot of processes before I could get to the visualization option. When using SAP Analytics Cloud I just import in Excel and I have the visualization options right there. It is much easier.

The initial setup is straightforward and did not take long to deploy.

I did the installation myself with some customization from the Azure team.

I have seen a return on investment. The value is there instantly because you can make a decision fast when using this report. You can see right away where you want to be. Everybody will invest in this point.

The pricing is based on a monthly or yearly basis.  There are only two options. The free option does not have many capabilities. The premium option is very expensive at five thousand dollars. I use the nine hundred and ninety-nine dollar option. There are no other additional costs involved.

I looked at Tableau however it has limited options in comparison to SAP Analytics Cloud.

I would highly recommend SAP Analytics Cloud.  I would rate it a ten out of ten.

My company uses SAP Analytics Cloud to create reports for clients. I use the solution to develop reports for clients. The clients would be based out of different locations and do analytics, so I create those reports for clients through SAP Analytics Cloud.

SAP Analytics Cloud is a very good tool. The feature that's most useful for me is the reporting as it can be done via Google Chrome. The solution is also very nice, user-friendly, and easy to build. It's very easy to use the features of SAP Analytics Cloud.

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.

I've been working with SAP Analytics Cloud for two years now.

SAP Analytics Cloud is a stable tool.

SAP Analytics Cloud is a scalable tool.

I find the technical support for SAP Analytics Cloud helpful.

SAP Analytics Cloud is easy to set up and the deployment took five to six months.

We do the deployment in-house, but clients would still need a resource who can do support and monitoring activities. The client would not be able to handle it himself and would need an IT resource to help, but one or two resources would be enough. One or two resources are enough to maintain SAP Analytics Cloud.

I'm a software engineer and I'm working with SAP Analytics Cloud. I'm using the latest version of the solution which was released this quarter: 2022.07.

SAP Analytics Cloud is deployed on a public cloud, but I don't know the cloud provider, so SAP must have tied up with a data center.

In my company, people who are using the tool have the role of developing it and developing reports, and currently, one hundred people are using SAP Analytics Cloud.

I would recommend SAP Analytics Cloud to others who are currently not using it because it is a very good, easy-to-use tool. It's quite user-friendly and that's the most important factor.

My rating for SAP Analytics Cloud is eight out of ten.

I'm not a customer, but a partner of SAP Analytics Cloud.