Exploring SAP Analytics Cloud Smart Predict

To help you make better business decisions, SAP have integrated automated predictive features into SAP Analytics Cloud.

Smart Predict allows you to:

• make trusted and actionable predictions. Instead of asking how you will obtain predictions, you can focus on what it is that you want to predict.
• transform the way you analyze data and make plans with machine learning-driven predictions, add results to a story, and share them with the business.

Often, business users and business analysts have no skills in data science, so Smart Predict makes machine learning algorithms accessible by everyone, and predicts potential outcomes and forecasts with the push of a button. Smart Predicts offers:

• Simple visual experience
• Typical guided workflow for classification and regression models
• No technical terminology
• No coding
• Business oriented questions

A predictive scenario is a pre-configured workspace that you can use to create predictive models and reports to address a business question requiring the prediction of future events or trends. You choose the one that is relevant to the type of predictive insights that you are looking to create.

Create sorted lists based on expected probability (classification models), or estimates about future or unknown values (regressions models), or forecasts (time series forecasting models). These predictive models are just a means to an end - to generate future, hidden, or unknown data.

Smart Predict can be used on various acquired sources (and on HANA Live source), to help users to answer precise questions. There are three main predictive techniques that cover business use cases and are covered in this course:

1. Classification models are used to anticipate the behavior of a customer, their propensity to buy, and the risk of churn. "Give me the sorted list of prospects to focus on for this product."
2. Regression models are used to predict numeric values and identify their influencers. "Give me the estimates of revenue for each customer in the next 6 months."
3. Time series forecasting models are used to generate time series forecasts with individual forecasts generated for each value of a dimension. "Forecast the revenue for each product and each point of sales daily for the next 30 days."

While there are many Smart features in SAP Analytics Cloud, Smart Predict is the focus for this learning journey. All lessons focus on the Smart Predict functionality in building, training, and applying predictive scenarios.