Chris got an overview of different apps for contract reporting purposes during the first days in his new job. Now he wants to remember some theoretical background about analytics from his studies.
Chris has learned that SAP S/4HANA embedded analytics is an integrated analytics solution, including technologies and tools to analyze transactional data.
Examples for tools and apps are analytical list pages, multi-dimensional reports, analytical Fiori apps, the SAP Fiori KPI modeler and others.
All these tools are based on the SAP S/4HANA Virtual Data Model and are embedded into the business processes and the user interface of SAP S/4HANA. The SAP S/4HANA Virtual Data Model is based to the data within the SAP S/4HANA system without any replication to other systems or tools.
The transactional data from the SAP S/4HANA system can be analyzed and visualized based on the real-time access to the data. Therefore, the mentioned analytic capabilities allow real time reporting and are available for various business processes and functional areas.
The SAP S/4HANA Virtual Data Model is based on both master data tables and transactional data tables within the SAP S/4HANA system.
The data model consists of CDS views (Core Date Services). CDS views represent projections of different tables or views from the data dictionary. The CDS views are stored in the ABAP repository. Using CDS views, you can make master and transactional data available for the consumption via apps and reporting tools.
Even for finance and controlling data, the real-time reporting capabilities provide important advantages. The reporting tools can be used without any replication or duplication of the data, there is no latency about hours before the data can be analyzed.
SAP S/4HANA Embedded Analytics provides convenient reporting options using Fiori apps and reports. There are different filter and aggregation functionalities. Excel spreadsheets as workbooks can also be connected, if necessary.