SME Magazine: Evaluate company data to plan for the future

The demands of the management level

Reporting should provide managers with all the information they need about the company. Compressed and up-to-date key financial figures from the individual departments are used to prepare, plan and control decisions. Ideally, employees with the appropriate authorisation can simply pull the required reports from the system. At the very least, however, it should be easy to distribute the reports to those responsible. It should be possible to create the required reports as efficiently as possible, the collected data should be selectable according to various criteria and the results should be clearly presentable. Today, automated processes and algorithms can also be used to create future forecasts or run through various scenarios on the basis of the analyses created.
Most companies compile data to monitor key figures. A smart analysis tool massively facilitates the collection, evaluation and visualisation of data. In addition, it is possible today to draw conclusions regarding future events with so-called predictive analytics.

Our proposed solution

SAP Analytics Cloud With SAP Analytics Cloud, users can create analyses and evaluations themselves. The visualisation is based on dashboards. The evaluations can be displayed from a wide variety of angles, and charts with filters and deviations can be inserted and edited. SAC contains a comment function and collaboration elements. This turns the dashboard into a team analytics tool and is the basis for discussions in the specialist departments. Thanks to an interface between the reporting and source systems, the data from a wide variety of sources can be merged and condensed in a semantically correct way. The use of so-called in-memory technology enables real-time data collection and a computing power that classic relational database systems cannot provide.

Reporting solution with the SAP Analytics Cloud

THE REQUIREMENTS

Targeted merging of data from different sources

Mobile solutions for reporting

Reports and BI for specialist departments

Factors influencing data points - Smart Insights e.g. identify data-specific success factors of successful branches

Factors influencing KPIs - Smart Discovery e.g. which raw materials have to be purchased when

Key figures at a glance

Visualisation of the standards - Management Information Design

THE POSSIBILITIES

Creating visualisations

Performing ad hoc analyses

Rapid recognition and evaluation of important key figures

Simple integration and use of further data

Create profit centre / cost centre levels

Drill-down / drill-up by cost centre and cost type

Self-service BI for responsible persons

Visualisation suitable for the target group

Role concept, access of the responsible persons

Selection of evaluations depending on authorisation

Plan / actual data comparisons, selectable by plan version

Notation concept IBCS®

Access to tables always possible even with visualisation

Access to on-premise and cloud data

Highlights of the most important information Smart Insight - influencing factors on your data points

Smart Discovery - Forecast function

Advantages of a reporting tool from the cloud

Authorised persons can access the data at any time from anywhere. Data availability and flexibility increase, the effort of the IT department decreases - this benefits SMEs in particular. Outsourcing the applications to the cloud also eliminates the costs for investments in local hardware and software and for ongoing operations. Of course, a hybrid solution is also conceivable. If an SME wants to keep sensitive data in-house, SAC from the cloud can easily be combined with it.