... Preface ... 13

... Objective of This Book ... 13

... Target Audience ... 14

... Structure of This Book ... 14

... Additional Resources ... 15

... Acknowledgments ... 16

1 ... Introduction ... 17

1.1 ... What Is Analytics? ... 17

1.2 ... SAP's Unified Data and Analytics Strategy ... 19

1.3 ... Overview of SAP Analytics Cloud ... 22

1.4 ... Architecture ... 43

1.5 ... Standalone and Embedded Versions of SAP Analytics Cloud ... 44

1.6 ... Summary ... 45

2 ... Data Integration ... 47

2.1 ... Data Sources Supported by SAP Analytics Cloud ... 47

2.2 ... Connection Types ... 59

2.3 ... Integration Scenarios for Live Connections ... 68

2.4 ... Integration Scenarios for Import Connections ... 78

2.5 ... Summary ... 82

3 ... Navigation and Administration ... 83

3.1 ... Navigating the Home Screen and Main Menu ... 84

3.2 ... First Steps for Administrators ... 88

3.3 ... Administration Tools ... 95

3.4 ... Creating Connections ... 119

3.5 ... Summary ... 122

4 ... Data Modeling ... 123

4.1 ... Why Use Data Models? ... 124

4.2 ... Types of Data Models ... 127

4.3 ... Creating Models by Importing Data ... 134

4.4 ... Creating Models from Live Data Sources ... 151

4.5 ... Editing Models in the Modeler ... 159

4.6 ... Summary ... 171

5 ... Business Intelligence: Visualizations and Dashboards ... 173

5.1 ... What Are Stories? ... 174

5.2 ... Creating Stories ... 176

5.3 ... Creating, Editing, and Formatting Charts ... 189

5.4 ... Creating, Editing, and Formatting Tables ... 209

5.5 ... Geo Maps ... 214

5.6 ... Texts, RSS Readers, and Other Elements ... 217

5.7 ... How Viewers Interact with Stories ... 220

5.8 ... Calculations ... 236

5.9 ... Story Design ... 243

5.10 ... Sharing and Publishing Stories ... 245

5.11 ... Additional Story Functionalities ... 255

5.12 ... Optimized Story View Mode ... 260

5.13 ... Summary ... 262

6 ... Planning ... 263

6.1 ... Planning in SAP Analytics Cloud ... 263

6.2 ... Creating and Setting Up a Planning Model ... 271

6.3 ... Planning-Specific Functionality ... 289

6.4 ... Summary ... 315

7 ... Predictive Analytics ... 317

7.1 ... What Is Predictive Analytics? ... 318

7.2 ... Smart Assist ... 322

7.3 ... Smart Predict: Predictive Scenarios ... 337

7.4 ... Summary ... 344

8 ... Analytics Designer ... 345

8.1 ... Differences between Stories and Applications ... 345

8.2 ... Creating Applications ... 347

8.3 ... Custom Widgets ... 366

8.4 ... Summary ... 371

9 ... SAP Digital Boardroom ... 373

9.1 ... What Is SAP Digital Boardroom? ... 373

9.2 ... Creating Boardrooms ... 379

9.3 ... Hardware Recommendations ... 393

9.4 ... Summary ... 393

10 ... SAP Analytics Hub and the Analytics Catalog for SAP Analytics Cloud ... 395

10.1 ... What Is SAP Analytics Hub? ... 396

10.2 ... Setup and Content Creation ... 398

10.3 ... The Analytics Catalog ... 407

10.4 ... Summary ... 410

... The Author ... 413

... Index ... 415

What's new with BI? In this complete guide, you'll learn to configure SAP Analytics Cloud and connect to key data sources. Then, you'll build data models, create stories and dashboards, generate financial planning models, and use the analytics designer to develop custom widgets and applications. Explore new functionalities, like tunnel connection integration and the new planning model. With updated screenshots featuring the latest UI, this new edition has everything you need to make the most of your business's data!

Highlights include:
1) Data modeling
2) Stories
3) Visualizations
4) Dashboards
5) Financial planning
6) Predictive analytics
7) Analytics designer
8) SAP Digital Boardroom
9) SAP Analytics Hub
10) Data integration
11) Configuration
12) SAP Business Technology Platform (SAP BTP)

Sidiq, AbassinAbassin Sidiq is a product manager of analytics at SAP. He has worked at SAP since 2012 and has been a part of product management for various analytics solutions since 2015. He has been part of SAP Analytics Cloud development since the product's inception.Abassin regularly represents SAP at conferences such as the DSAG Annual Congress, DSAG Technology Days, and SAP TechEd, where he hosts sessions about analytics and associated topics. He studied economics and business informatics at the Universität Mannheim and the Technische Universität (TU) Darmstadt. Before working in product management, he was a part of marketing and sales teams.