Using Analytics and Dashboards

SAP Integrated Business Planning (SAP IBP) enables you to analyze and visualize your data in the form of charts, and to collect the charts that you are interested in on a dashboard so that they are always at hand.

With the Analytics – Advanced app, you can create charts, such as bar charts, pie charts, or heat maps, as well as create drill-downs to explore data more deeply. You can save your charts so that you can easily add them to a dashboard, as well as share them with other users. You can also view charts created in other apps, such as custom alert charts.

Key Features:

• Create analytics charts

• Drill-down into data sets

• Share charts

• Manage lists of your charts and charts shared with you

Supported Device Types:

• Desktop

• Tablet

• Smartphone

Additional restrictions with analytics:

• You can share charts that you have created with other users, and optionally inform them by e-mail that you've shared the chart.

• By default, charts in the list are sorted in alphabetical order by name.

• You cannot delete charts that are shared with you, you can only delete your own charts.

• You can change ownership of analytics using the Content Administration app.

• By default, as you modify your selections for the chart (for example, add key figures or choose a chart type), the chart refreshes. If you are changing many elements, it can take some time for each refresh to complete. If you do not want the chart to automatically refresh when you change elements, you can pause the auto-refresh feature.

• You can export the data from an analytics chart to Microsoft Excel, but for this feature to work properly, you must be using the add-in for Microsoft Excel that corresponds to your current release. This feature does not support descriptive attributes.

Drill-downs are relationships between charts that allow you to further analyze data at a more granular level. You can create relationships between your charts, which allow you to drill down further into your data. When you click a level in your chart, that level becomes the filter for the next chart. For example, if your chart shows the Consensus Demand Plan Quantity for customers 1 and 2, you can drill down into customer 1 to show the Consensus Demand Plan Quantity or any other key figure by location for that customer.

Different sets of data are suited to specific analytics chart types.

The following list is a subset of the types of charts available for selection. New chart types are added regularly.

• Bar:

  A chart that illustrates comparisons along individual items. Categories are organized along the vertical axis, and values along the horizontal axis. Use this chart when you have one or more data series to plot; data contains positive, negative, and zero values; you want to compare data for multiple categories. The displayed values are durations.

• Column:

  Column charts compare values across categories. In a column chart, the categories are typically organized along the vertical axis, and the values along the horizontal axis.

• Dual X-Axis Bar:

  Allows you to compare data sets that have different units of measure. This chart type is used for comparing trends or relationships between two variables (for example, key figures), which may have different magnitudes and scales of measurement.

• Dual Y-Axis Column:

  Allows you to compare related sets of values when they are associated with different magnitudes and scales of measurement.

• Heat Map:

  A graphical representation of data where the individual values contained in a matrix are represented as colors. Fractal maps and tree maps both often use a similar system of color coding to represent the values taken by a variable in a hierarchy.

• Table:

  An ordered arrangement of data in rows and columns, used for displaying multiple records.

• Line:

  A line chart displays data as a series of points connected by a line. This type of chart is best suited for showing data for many groups (for example, total sales over the past several weeks).

• Dual Y-Axis Line:

  Used for comparing trends or relationships between two variables (for example, key figures) that may have different magnitudes and scales of measurement. This chart type is useful when you have limited real estate and you want to quickly establish the relationship between two variables.

• Combination:

  This chart combines the features of the bar chart and the line chart. The combination chart displays the data using various bars and/or lines, each of which represent a particular category. A combination of bars and lines in the same visualization can be useful when comparing values in different categories, since the combination gives a clear view of which category is higher or lower.

• Dual Y-Axis Combination:

  The combination chart is a visualization that combines the features of the bar chart and the line chart. The combination chart displays the data using various bars and/or lines, each of which represent a particular category. A combination of bars and lines in the same visualization can be useful when comparing values in different categories, since the combination gives a clear view of which category is higher or lower. An example of this can be seen when using the combination chart to compare the projected sales with the actual sales for different time periods.

• Dual X-Axis Combination:

  The combination chart is a visualization that combines the features of the bar chart and the line chart. The combination chart displays the data using a number of bars and/or lines, each of which represent a particular category. A combination of bars and lines in the same visualization can be useful when comparing values in different categories, since the combination gives a clear view of which category is higher or lower. An example of this can be seen when using the combination chart to compare the projected sales with the actual sales for different time periods.

• Pie/Donut:

  A pie chart displays data as a pie, split and filled with colors or patterns. Pie charts are typically used for one group of data (for example, the percentage of consumption for an asset). However, you have the option to choose multiple pie charts for multiple groups of data.

  A donut chart is like a pie chart, displaying data as sections of a donut shape.

• Stacked Column/Stacked Bar:

  A stacked bar chart displays data as a series of vertical bars. This type of chart is best suited for representing two or more series of data, each series represented by a color stacked in a single bar.

• Scatter:

  A chart that displays values for a set of data. The data is displayed as a collection of points, each having the value of one variable determining the position on the horizontal axis and the value of the other variable determining the position on the vertical axis.

• Choropleth:

  A world map where data is represented by location, as circles or bubbles. This chart is not enabled if there are no latitudes and longitudes associated with your master data location.

• Waterfall Chart with Time Dimension:

  A waterfall chart with time period is a new chart type that can show you how an initial value is impacted by intermediate values — either positive or negative — and results in a final value.

The Dashboards – Advanced app enables you to view consolidated status data about your business at a glance. You can create, manage, and view dashboards. A dashboard shows all the charts that you are most interested in. You can flexibly add charts, customize the layout of your dashboard, and share it with other users or user groups.

Key features include the ability to:

• Create dashboards

• Display dashboards

• Display charts of different categories

• Execute drill-downs

• Share dashboards

• Manage lists of your dashboards and dashboards shared with you

Supported device types are:

• Desktop

• Tablet

• Smartphone

Additional features of dashboards:

• You can delete any dashboard that you created, even if you have shared the dashboard with other users or user groups.

• You can use categories to group your dashboards. It is useful to group dashboards for different purposes like demand planning dashboards or supply planning dashboards. Categories must first be created in the Manage Categories app. Another way of grouping your dashboards is by marking the dashboards favorites.

• In the View Settings menu, you can sort your dashboards by the columns shown in the list in ascending or descending order.

• If you want to remove a dashboard that has been shared with you from the Dashboard List, you can opt out of it to do so. If you opt out of a dashboard that was shared with you, you cannot be able to access it and you will need to ask your colleague to share it with again to add it back to your list.

• You can share your dashboard with other SAP Integrated Business Planning users or user groups that have been created by your system administrator.