Our 3rd news update of SAP Analytics Cloud again offers highlights of extensions, innovations and improvements from different areas of the SAC. Read along with us!
Innovations in the SAC add-in for Microsoft Office
New options for refreshing the report data
An especially practical upgrade for the “Add-In for Microsoft Office” relates to the data refresh. Until recently, it was only possible to enter the corresponding variable values using the variable pop-up at the beginning, i.e. at the time of calling the command. After that, it was only possible to either trigger a data refresh within the completed report (but without changes to the variable values), or it was necessary to restart the report.
In the new version of the Add-In (2022.08), an additional button is available which can activate the variable image within the completed report. Here, it is also possible to select whether this only needs to start for a certain object, i.e. a specific query, or for the entire workbook.
We are already used to this, or something similar, from the Analysis Office plug-in variant for SAP Business Objects.
New developments in the Story Environment
Transfer to the Data Analyzer
As a Story user, you can now open the Data Analyzer from a table using the Open Data Analyzer option in the pull-down menu.
To be able to use this option in the pull-down menu, it has to be activated first via one of the following options:
- Activate the Data Analyzer for a table via the Builder area.
- Or activate the Data Analyzer for all tables via the Story Details dialogue box (which is in the Edit menu).
This feature is especially helpful if the table which is displayed only occupies a relatively small amount of space, making an optimum data analysis difficult. With the help of the Data Analyzer, the table opens in full-screen mode, where it also offers all of the available analysis functions.
Planning
Upgrade to the data acquisition in the “mass data entry” mode
As a planner, it is often necessary to enter several values in a table. Doing this can be pretty time-consuming as data processing is triggered with each entry. To avoid this, SAC provides an edit mode that allows multiple values to be entered (mass data entry) before the data updates are processed.
Even if a time-consuming updating of the entered data in the backend is not required, it can make sense to update the individually-inserted row or column calculations before the actual mass data processing.
This new extension includes all calculations created via “Add column” or “Add row” and modelled via the formula bar.
At the same time, formulas such as (sum, abs, rank, etc.) are also supported in addition to the standard mathematical operators (+, -, *, /).
This results in the following advantages for the planner:
- Rapid data entry with a colour-coded display of the newly entered values
- Correct display of local row or column calculations.
Administration
Corporate Design: Interchangeable Logo
There is also a small but nevertheless noteworthy innovation in the area of the system administration. The logo can now be replaced individually, which therefore makes it possible to follow the corporate design.
Other highlights and conclusion
Further highlights which we don’t discuss in further detail here, but which are certainly worth mentioning:
- Saving of BW query variants
- Export improvements in the case of Stories to PDF or publications directly in a catalogue
- Optimisations in the mobile area
- Now also supports iOS15, iPadOS 15 and Android 12
- Performance tips in design mode
- Performance improvements when obtaining data from S/4HANA
And these are only a few examples. There remains a lot of potential, for example, in the areas of the
- Content Management
- Augmented Analytics
- Integration of Data
and much more.
The extent to which SAP is committed to the “SAP Analytics Cloud” product and its further development becomes clear once again at this point.
You can also access all of the innovations via the “Help” menu in the SAC – it’s worthwhile!
We will continue to update you when important innovations in SAC happen!