SAP Analytics Cloud Reviews

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. 

We have our data stored in SAP BW. SAP Analytics Cloud is now the main Reporting Tool from SAP. We are gradually shifting the reporting from BO Webi / BO Lumira / BEx Wad to SAC.

It improves the buy-in from business for SAP technology.

Its user-friendliness is very valuable for end-users. It allows them to create dashboards without very experienced IT knowledge (compared to BO Lumira).

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.

We were amidst the first adaptors of SAC and have seen it growing to a more mature level.

It is quite stable. We had very limited downtime in the past years. The continuous upgrades (cloud) can deliver sometimes moments of surprise, certainly when the layout is impacted.

It is very scalable.

Their technical support is not perfect and could be better. SAP Analytics Cloud is still lacking a lot of functionalities as compared to its competitors, and when we address these questions to SAP, it takes a lot of time to have these functionalities implemented.

Yes, multiple tools: WAD, BO xCelcius, Lumira. 

It is the future vision of SAP (for now).

The initial setup of SAP Analytics Cloud is easy because it is a cloud product. You can start using the environment very soon after the decision to do so is taken.

In house with a little help during startup from SAP.

Its pricing is fair when compared to its competitors.

Tableau, Power BI. From a user perspective, much more flexible and functional, but lacking the proper integration with SAP BW.

If your data is stored in the SAP environment, it is still the best tool in the market. Microsoft Power BI and Tableau are very nice in functionality and layout, but they lack functionality when you link them to an SAP database.

My suggestion would be to use the tools from the same vendor. The reporting tool should be from the same vendor whose backend system you are using. I advised the same in our company because we have a lot of tools. If you have an SAP data warehouse, then use tools from SAP on top of this data warehouse. If you have SQL Database, then Microsoft Power BI is more suitable.

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

We have been using this solution for story development on the cloud.

This is a very easy solution to learn. It took us only one month to grasp all of the SAC concepts.

The new Application Design option offers lots of customization options by being able to script in TypeScript (similar to JavaScript).

It provides easy predictive capabilities with a large number of options to choose from, including date handling.

The what-if analysis sets it apart from other reporting tools like Qlik and Power BI!

The most valuable features of this solution are:

• It is Cloud based.
• Predictive analysis
• Application design/analytic application.
• The "what-if" analysis.
• Easy date handling including options for ytd, lytd, etc.
• There are lots of table features including adding comments.
• Responsive pages.
• Smart Insights.
• Smart discovery.

The next release could include features like:

1. A community that creates custom charts.
2. Table cell size formatting.
3. Formatting options for Data Labels.
4. Allowing comments within small teams.
5. There should be more features for the time series charts.
6. Rebuild models without affecting any chart.

SAC is already working on some of these!

My impression is that the stability of this solution is very high.

This is a highly scalable solution.

This solution has excellent support and customer service. It is the best compared to other vendors that I have dealt with until now.

I have used Qlik and Power BI, but after learning SAC I felt that it was better to move to this solution. The main reasons for changing are its ease of use and better capabilities.

Extremely easy setup, since it is cloud-based. Only in the rarest cases is there a failure.

We performed the implementation in-house.

We have realized ROI through improved Business Intelligence and Analytics.

It is a bit expensive, but really worth it, especially if you are already using other SAP tools.

We evaluated several options including QlikView, QlikSense, and Power BI.

My only suggestion is that people try SAC, and start using it.

We are in the experimental stage. We are still using other business intelligence tools. However, we are experimenting with the SAP Analytics Cloud as a possible replacement or alternative.

The storytelling is great.

It is scalable.

The solution is reliable and stable.

Before the implementation, I read a lot about SAP Analytics Cloud. However, I am sad to say other functions or functionalities were not included in our version right now.

We are not using it regularly yet. Maybe more testing on our part is needed before talking about a lack of features.

As I use the SAP Analytics Cloud, I'm using only data, so I am grabbing data and putting it onto the SAP Analytics Cloud. Our boss wants to connect the data directly to the SAP database. That is one of the things they would like to do before we totally use it as our business intelligence solution.

The budget management could be better. I forget the exact term. However, the finance department will use the functionality for budget management across all the departments within the company.

There is a feature where all reports will be centralized in one, and it will be shown on one big monitor. If you put it on a monitor with touch capability, it would be perfect. It would really look good for reporting.

The predictive analysis should be stronger.

I started using the solution in 2020. However, I am not using it yet on a regular basis. 

I tried it before implementation and based on my experience, that's why our company got licensed for the SAP Analytics Cloud.

The solution is stable and reliable. There are no bugs or glitches. It doesn’t crash or freeze.

The product is scalable. So far, we’ve been happy with it. That said, said, we are in the stage of testing it right now. We are not yet entirely using it as our main DA.

I have not yet experienced technical support.

I’m not the one implementing it right now. Maybe our SAP basis team would have a better account of how the implementation went. I was more on the functional side. The technicality of setting it up is outside of my capabilities right now.

You only need a small team for deployment and maintenance.

We have consultants assisting us with the implementation.

The costs and licensing are outside my level of knowledge. I don’t deal with it directly.

That said, there may be additional costs involved. Some functionalities of the SAP Analytics Cloud are not yet included in our version.

We are end-users.

We are not using it in the cloud. We are in the on-premise platform at this moment. It’s a hybrid, currently.

I’m not sure which version of the solution we’re using.

My current job is in SAP production support, so I am the one handling incident reports or incident tickets and problem management for all the SAP-related tickets. I’m somewhere between a user and a consultant. I’m not a reseller.

I’d advise potential users that it's better to connect it directly to the database so that it will have data harmony from your ERP if you are using SAP as well as this SAP Analytics Cloud. That way, you can create reports and extract data anytime you like. Right now, we are just pulling data in SAP and then into the SAP database and putting it on SAP Analytics Cloud to create a story or a report itself.

I’d rate the solution nine out of ten. This is mostly due to the business intelligence functionality only, as I have not yet really tried out the other functions.

I primarily use the solution for reporting. We talk to people in all different roles and in all different types of companies and organizations. It's just to get a more well-rounded scope.

We use it to build a human capital dashboard and I use it to report on workforce data, hires and exits, movements, and items of that nature.

I like the forecasting capabilities. 

There is a really nice insight feature that I enjoy using. It automatically adds input, which is quite helpful. 

The initial setup was super simple. 

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.

I'm a new-ish user; I just started this year. I would say I've used it for less than a year.

The product seems very secure. It seems very stable. I've had no issues. There are no bugs or glitches. It does not crash or freeze.

The scalability is very good. I am not using it to its current potential, however, this is one of the benefits of the program, as is it can be scaled out for the whole organization, due to the ability for it to connect directly to the cloud data and right to the SAP.

Different business units are using the solution, including HR, long-term care, and transportation. I'm not sure how many users are leveraging it, however. We are a city-wide organization and different government areas use it.

It is not widely used right now, as we are still in the demo stage. That said, I can say that the organization is planning on committing to it.

I've never had to use technical support except to go to my own IT staff for help, and therefore I can't comment very well on SAP's level of assistance.

I'm also familiar with Tableau.

We were using Excel and Tableau, and we stopped using Excel due to the fact that there's no scalability there. It's just very slow and cumbersome. That was Microsoft, actually. With Tableau, we are also using it for other things. Due to the nature of this software, it's good for some projects, and Tableau is better for others. This one's more suited towards data that is coming directly from a live system. Tableau works really well with flat files.

For me, the implementation was very simple.

Our IT department provided me with the access rights and provided me with the appropriate links, as well as all of the training materials that SAP has on their website.

My deployment was small and quick. For the whole organization, it takes much longer. I am using it with a flat-file, inserting data into the cloud to connect with it, and therefore, my scope is very small compared to the whole organization. It did not take me long at all.

I handle the maintenance myself. It doesn't require much maintenance. I do work with IT when I need to.

I used our IT staff, however, they have been working with representatives from the company in order to deploy the product organization-wide.

I can't speak to the licensing or costs. I'm not involved in that aspect just yet.

There seem to be three different levels of licenses, including one for a viewer, and one for a designer and one is for analytics.

This is currently the solution we are evaluating.

My advice would be to all-out purchase the analytics application, as some of the features are in just the designer mode, and they are not going to be sufficient. You're going to need some of the features that are contained in the third option, the analytics application.

Users need to be very familiar with what they have called the data modeler and should spend some time modeling and rendering data in their data modeler or just importing data into something called the dataset. With the dataset, users have more flexibility, however, the data modeling, that's something I didn't know starting out. Had I done it differently, I might have used the data modeler.

I'd rate the solution at a seven out of ten.

I am a consultant and SAP Analytics Cloud is one of the solutions that I work with.

We created our queries in SAP BW and then we use them in Analytics Cloud. We have modules like MFI and reports.

All of the modules that we used to have separately in our on-premises solution are now integrated into one platform.

The quality of reports for the users is very good.

The Application Designer is a good tool.

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.

I have been using this solution for two to three months.

This solution is mostly stable.

We have two or three people using this solution, although they are not using it full time. We have given them training, but they are taking some time to get acquainted.

I would rate the scalability a seven out of ten. I have not used all the features and not used the application designer yet.

I have not been in contact with technical support.

Prior to this solution, we were using Business Objects. We were more acquainted with the WEBI tool and Crystal Reports, and have now moved to the Analytics Cloud.

We switched because, in the future, SAP Cloud is going to support export to HANA.

The initial setup of this solution was quite simple.

I did face a little bit of complexity when I was connecting the Analytics Cloud to BW, but everything else was fine.

We performed the implementation in-house.

We thought about going with Tableau Cloud. We attended some sessions on SAP Analytics Cloud and learned about the integration with HANA, and we felt that it would be very good so we chose it.

My advice to anybody who is thinking about moving out of their standalone system is to implement this solution. 

I would rate this solution a ten out of ten.

I am a developer and I work mostly on the technical side.

The most valuable features are on the application side, where you can design applications into your analytics on the platform.

There are many scripting capabilities with a language that is close to JavaScript. It's not exactly JavaScript but it's a spin-off of it.

It has a rich number of templates included that you can enhance.

It's easier to get going on, compared to other solutions. 

Many of my clients are apprehensive when you have to deploy the solution. They ask you if the data could be transferred to visualization software.

It's cloud-based, and what's good about the cloud is that it doesn't need to store any data. It can read your data and generate it from the NetApp file. It can generate your model or how your model is going to look like. You don't need to transfer your data set to the cloud to report on.

It's quite flexible.

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.

I have been working with SAP Analytics Cloud for a year and a half.

It's quite stable.

It's a scalable product.

We work with medium-sized enterprise companies, but mostly large-sized clients use SAP. Pharmaceuticals can be used as an example.

It has good technical support.

Previously, I have tried Tableau but not project wise in terms of deployment. I have a lab where I can do some trials.

Also, I have worked with PowerBI a little bit but not in-depth.

It's quite expensive and costs a lot to maintain, especially with licensing.

If the client is SAP-based then I would say it's quite okay to implement this product. 

It's stable, provided they have the budget for the licensing which is, I think most of the time, the bottleneck. Also, they have to consider other supply systems, their internal users. What is the diversity, how many of them work on strictly SAP solutions, and what are the compatibility issues where you cannot be stuck with one product?

I think it's pretty much okay provided you can scale and then it depends on how technical the people are. So, we have two variants of it in SAP. 

There is the SAP Analytics Cloud Discovery, which is just mainly for discovery analytics. You basically create SAP reports, nothing advanced. Then you have the Designer, which enables you to do a little bit more scripting and other advanced features. Depending on the end-user population, you can train down towards the pure basic reporting or really develop an application on it.

I would rate this solution a seven out of ten.