Describing Intelligent Applications

Intelligent applications are AI-powered, data-rich dashboards that provide insights on real-time data and make recommendations to the business user. They are delivered and fully managed by SAP and are ready to use out-of-the-box with a simple, automated installation.

Intelligent applications are built using SAP Analytics Cloud stories that consume data models from SAP Datasphere. The data models of SAP Datasphere connect to the data products of SAP BDC.

Working Capital Insights is an intelligent application delivered and managed by SAP to provide insights into all aspects of the working capital of an organization. The data is sourced from the data products provided by SAP S/4HANA.

The Working Capital Insights intelligent application includes the following pages:

• Overview of working capital : provides a clear snapshot of key financial metrics that reflect the company’s working capital and resource efficiency. It combines essential data points to give a comprehensive view of financial health and liquidity, highlighting relationships between capital, sales, and cash flow. This page helps quickly assess performance and identify areas for improvement, supporting strategic decision-making.
• Liquidity & Cash: offers a detailed view of the company’s cash position and liquidity management. It focuses on key metrics that assess the effectiveness of cash flow generation, the company’s ability to meet short-term obligations, and overall financial stability. By examining various ratios and asset values, this page enables users to evaluate the company’s cash health and liquidity position, supporting informed decisions about capital allocation, risk management, and financial planning.
• Accounts Receivable: provides insights into the company’s receivables management and collection efficiency. It highlights key metrics that measure the average time taken to collect outstanding sales and the status of overdue versus future receivables. The page also breaks down outstanding receivables based on the Net Due Arrears Days, offering a clearer view of the aging of receivables.
• Accounts Payable: offers a comprehensive view of the company’s payables management and payment efficiency. It includes key metrics such as the average time to settle payables (DPO) and a breakdown of payables based on Net Due Arrears Days. The page also provides insights into realized discounts, utilization rate, and on-time payment rate, helping users assess the company’s ability to optimize payment terms, manage supplier relationships, and enhance cash flow management.
• Inventory: provides an analysis of the company’s inventory management and efficiency. It includes key metrics such as Days Inventory Outstanding (DIO), inventory turnover ratio, gross margin, and average inventory. These insights help users evaluate how effectively inventory is managed, identify potential inefficiencies, and assess the impact of inventory on profitability and cash flow. This page supports decision-making around inventory levels, stock rotation, and cost optimization.

A key feature of an intelligent application is the built-in AI co-pilot known as Just Ask. Just Ask supports the business user who asks questions using natural language. For example, a business user asks the question: "List the regions that showed the best growth for e-scooter sales since last year". The AI co-pilot quickly returns results and provides additional insights using graphics and text to illustrate the insights.

Working Capital Insights is just one example of an SAP-provided intelligent application. Many more are available and SAP continually develops and releases intelligent applications covering all line of business (LoB) applications and industries. SAP partners will also deliver intelligent applications with a focus on industry content.

Intelligent applications are delivered by SAP in Intelligent Packages.

Here are some examples of Intelligent Packages:

• Cloud ERP Intelligence
• People Intelligence
• Supply Chain Intelligence
• Spend Intelligence
• Travel and Expense Intelligence
• Retail Intelligence
• Consumer Products Intelligence
• Revenue Intelligence

The Working Capital Insights intelligent application is included with the Cloud ERP Intelligence Intelligent Package.

Intelligent Packages are the commercial wrappers for intelligent applications. Customers subscribe to individual Intelligent Packages so that they are entitled to install the individual intelligent applications of those Intelligent Packages.

To support the discovery of intelligent applications, SAP provides search tools in the SAP BDC Cockpit. The SAP BDC Cockpit lists the intelligent applications that are available based on the connected source systems and commercial entitlement.

Once an intelligent application has been identified, it can be installed with just a few clicks. The installation tasks are fully automated and are carried out in the background. During installation the entire data pipeline is built all the way from the application's source tables to the dashboard of the intelligent application. The SAP BDC data products required by the intelligent application are automatically installed.

Once the intelligent application is installed, the administrator assigns data permissions to the business users. The intelligent application is then ready to use by the business user.

Customers can extend the SAP-delivered intelligent applications. For example, additional data sources can be added to the intelligent application from non-SAP data. Additional charts and widgets could be added to provide more insights.