Exploring the analytics features within SAP Sales Cloud and SAP Service Cloud. This journey will equip you with the skills to understand the analytic capabilities, as well as embedded SAP Analytics Cloud activation and best practices.
Exploring SAP Analytics
Objective
After completing this lesson, you will be able to apply best practices for SAP Analytics Cloud (SAC) reporting—such as defining clear goals, cleaning data, and leveraging built-in templates—and effectively use the integrated analytics features within SAP Sales Cloud and SAP Service Cloud to create and configure reports.
Prelude
SAP Analytics
SAP Analytics is one of the key drivers of user adoption and deserves focused attention.
Analytics should be planned from the very beginning—it cannot be treated as an afterthought. We recommend defining a company-wide, standardized set of reports, dashboards, and KPIs aligned with business needs. All reports and dashboards should be created based on clear business specifications, with formal sign-off from key stakeholders.
In the following sections, we will explore the available analytical options. Users are encouraged to determine which reports belong on their dashboards and which should be included in supporting reports. Additionally, it is highly recommended to first look into report navigation.
Business Benefits:
- Data Visualization: Data can be visualized as reports, allowing you to create ad-hoc reports.
- Self-Service Data Analysis: Easily slice and dice data and save customised views without requiring support from the IT/admin team.
To learn more about all features, we recommend reading through this guide: Report.
Interactive Dashboards
A dashboard emphasizes visual over textual representation. The meaning or the qualitative implications of graphics can often be captured more efficiently (e.g., value comparison by column heights) and also transport more semantics (e.g., alerts by colors). To achieve the desired effects, dashboards typically need to be designed thoroughly, including the choice of layout, chart types, and other controls.
Business Benefits:
- Enable users to perform advanced analysis by combining business intelligence (BI), planning, and augmented analytics in a single platform.
- Provide the ability to view and analyze related data from multiple sources in a single, cohesive interface.
- Allow you to pass filters from one report to another using a feature called Linked Analysis.
- Offer robust drill-down functionality, allowing you to analyze data from a high-level summary, such as a chart, all the way down to the individual record level.
- Utilize primarily charting with clustered drill down capabilities, e.g., Pipeline, Service Tickets, etc.
For more information about this feature, check this article: Dashboards.
Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
Key Performance Indicators are specific metrics derived from reports, refined through defined selections, and linked to reference and target values with set thresholds.
Organizations use KPIs to measure progress toward strategic goals. To assess improvement, KPI results are typically compared against reference or target values. However, depending on business needs, a KPI can still provide valuable insights even without defined targets or benchmarks.
Business Benefits:
- Helps you track performance with respect to target and reference points.
- Drills down from high-level KPIs to detailed reports and dashboards for in-depth analysis.
- Enables drill down to multiple reports by using the Linked Analysis feature within a story.
- Configures alert and warning points, known as thresholds, to provide visual indicators of performance against targets.
For more information about this feature, check this article: Create and Edit a KPI.
Best Practices
In this section, you will learn the recommended best practices for each feature to help you maximize the value and efficiency of the SAP Sales Cloud and SAP Service Cloud solution.
KPI:
- Business unit management should define and align on the KPIs applicable to users within their respective units.
- Individual users should not be responsible for determining or calculating their own versions of performance metrics.
Reports:
- Organize dashboards and reports into business-relevant categories to help users easily navigate and locate information (e.g., Pipeline, Forecast, Opportunity Data). Establish a company-wide standard for these categories to ensure consistency across the organization.
- Create dedicated dashboards for each topic to maintain clarity and focus. Reports should serve as a single source of truth, supporting company-wide decision-making. Allowing users to generate their own reports can be valuable, but these should complement—not replace—corporate-standard reports to avoid data inconsistencies and misinformed decisions.
- Avoid adding long-running or unaggregated reports to dashboards. If such reports are necessary, make them available within the Analysis Work Center, and clearly distinguish between data extracts and analytical reports. Reports containing thousands of line items often provide limited actionable insight.
- Ensure that dashboards are intuitive and easily consumable, keeping mobile accessibility in mind to support users across devices.
Home Page:
- Limit the Home Page to KPI tiles wherever possible, with a recommended maximum of 15 tiles. Include only reports that load quickly to maintain optimal performance.
- The Home Page is intended to provide a high-level overview rather than detailed data views; therefore, restrict the number of reports to those that are essential and business-critical.
Other:
- Consider using the Excel Add-In for reporting.
- Use the Broadcasting feature for longer-running reports or dashboards.
- Do not use older or unsupported versions of browsers.
- Design reports considering the Org Model, Territory Hierarchy, and Business Role approach (including access restrictions) to avoid duplication of report design and to make maintenance easier.
Embedded SAP Analytics
SAP Analytics is integrated into SAP Sales Cloud and SAP Service Cloud to support and monitor business processes, helping you make informed decisions. To take advantage of this feature and enable it in your solution, follow the step-by-step instructions below:
- SAC tenants aren't provisioned automatically, therefore, you first need to request its activation by raising a case in SAP for Me against the AP-RC-ANA-SAC component.
- In the Business Configuration work center, select your implementation project and click "Edit Project Scope".
- In the questions step, go to Built-in Services and Support System Management Analytics.
- Under Analytics Integration, select the checkbox next to the question: "Do you want to use embedded SAP Analytics Cloud (SAC) features in SAP Sales and Service Cloud?".
For more information on the integration process, we recommend reading this article and watching the following video:
Conclusion
The "Analytics" module in SAP Sales Cloud and SAP Service Cloud equips you with essential skills to use multiple analytics leveraging best practices for data-driven decision-making. Additionally, adhering to best practices in KPI definition, report organization, dashboard design, and system performance ensures that analytics remain effective, user-friendly, and aligned with corporate standards.
By enabling embedded SAP Analytics features and following structured implementation steps, you can harness these powerful analytics tools to monitor and optimize business processes.