Name: Introducing International Business Communication Standards in SAP Analytics Cloud Stories
Uploaded: 2025-1-16
Duration: 280 s
Description: In this video, we will introduce you to International Business Communication Standards (ICBS) in SAP Analytics Cloud stories. SAP Analytics Cloud is an IBCS-certified software and the standards can be used in reporting. In this initial video, we provide an overview to IBCS and create a story with basic IBCS-compliant formatting.

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Working with IBCS Standards in SAP Analytics Cloud

<div id="content"><div class="parentsection"><div class="section"><p tabindex="0">International Business Communication Standards, or IBCS, provides practical guidelines for the standard visualization for business reporting, meaning the consistent design of reports, presentations, dashboards, and the charts and tables they contain.</p><p tabindex="0">For example, in a chart, IBCS requires the use of solid bars for actuals, outlined bars for budgets, and hatched for forecasts. This means that every report using IBCS is clearly defined and comparable in different scenarios.</p><p tabindex="0">SAP Analytics Cloud is an IBCS-certified software for creating such reports. IBCS templates can be selected for new stories or applied to existing stories.</p><img style="max-width:900px;max-height:none" class="image 1_1_landscape" title="SAP Analytics Cloud story using IBCS." alt="SAP Analytics Cloud story using IBCS." src="/service/media/SACS21_42_en-US_media/SACS21_42_en-US_images/SS_IBCS_Story.png" tabindex="0"><div class="imageCaption"></div></div></div><div class="parentsection"><div class="section"><div tabindex="0"><h3>Introducing International Business Communication Standards in SAP Analytics Cloud Stories</h3></div><p tabindex="0">In this video, we introduce the topic of IBCS and apply basic standards to a planning story.</p><div class="kalturaVideoLessonWrapper"><div aria-label="" class="kalturaVideoLessonContainer" data-testid="video" id="1_o9e7igj1"></div></div></div></div><div class="parentsection"><div class="section"><div tabindex="0"><h3>Setting Up Comparisons in a Story Using IBCS</h3></div><p tabindex="0">In this video, we work with a planning story to show how IBCS can be applied to it.</p><div class="kalturaVideoLessonWrapper"><div aria-label="" class="kalturaVideoLessonContainer" data-testid="video" id="1_zbls24mu"></div></div></div></div><div class="parentsection"><div class="section"><div tabindex="0"><h3>Applying Additional IBCS Features and Formatting to an SAP Analytics Cloud Story</h3></div><p tabindex="0">In this final video, we work to add reference lines and scaling to make the SAP Analytics Cloud story IBCS-complaint.</p><div class="kalturaVideoLessonWrapper"><div aria-label="" class="kalturaVideoLessonContainer" data-testid="video" id="1_lalxeg50"></div></div></div></div><div class="parentsection"><div class="section"><div tabindex="0"><h3>Additional Information</h3></div><p tabindex="0">View the standards in detail on the IBCS <a target="_blank" href="https://www.ibcs.com/ibcs-standards-1-2/">website</a>.</p></div></div></div>

International Business Communication Standards (IBCS)

Designing Stories in SAP Analytics Cloud

<div>In this video, we will introduce you to International Business Communication Standards (ICBS) in SAP Analytics Cloud stories. SAP Analytics Cloud is an IBCS-certified software and the standards can be used in reporting. In this initial video, we provide an overview to IBCS and create a story with basic IBCS-compliant formatting. </div>

Introducing International Business Communication Standards in SAP Analytics Cloud Stories

Hello! In this video, we are going to talk about implementing IBCS rules with SAP Analytics Cloud. International Business Communication Standards, or IBCS in short, is a common notation for business reporting. Like as in the notes for music or maps in navigation, we are proposing standard notation, standard visualization for business reporting. For example, every solid bar is for actuals, outline for budgets, and hatched for forecasts. Similarly, every green shows something positive while every red shows something negative for us. Every graph starts from zero and every element is as simple as possible. Applicable to finance, human resources, sustainability reporting, valid for every domain. That way, every report is easy to grasp, comparable to different scenarios and clearly defined. SAP Analytics Cloud is an IBCS-certified software for creating such reports. Let's go through a short demonstration on how to create IBCS style visuals on SAC. I have prepared a summary data which shows a net sales amount for fictious company Alpha Corporation. We have four scenarios, actual, previous year, plan, and forecasts. The main idea is to compare those scenarios and try to understand net sales performance. Let's create a column chart to see the data a little bit better. I'll be adding all the scenarios here. We have net sales for four scenarios. So, all of them. And here we are.  As a dimension, I want to see how things are going month by month. So, I'm choosing month here as dimension. As you see, we have all, because we have a hierarchy on date column. We can actually change the hierarchy view. For example, here I can choose year and month and apply it. Then, I can also go to the levels and select the last level as the level three here. And now, I'm able to see all the data on one graph. Now, we have different scenarios. In IBCS, we are showing each scenario in a specific way. Actually, for previous year, we are using, let me just press change the color schema to a gray one. And then, for previous year, I will choose a gray color. For plan, I will be changing the pattern to outline. For actual, this is okay to have a dark gray here. So, for forecast I'll be using a hatched pattern. So, solid, outlined, hatched - those are how we are showing the scenarios. Now, we have lots of columns as separate series. Let's put them as a as layered series. I'll go to actual and choose layered bars front. As you see, we have previous year. Here is the order. Previous year, plan, actual, and forecast. And this is correct because, you know, first of all the previous year comes and then we make a plan, then actual data comes and for the remaining months, reporting forecast. So, historically, it's the correct order. And I go there and I put actual as a front bar and then it automatically created layered bars. If we have that much of series, we put one of them in triangle form. Here, for example, we can put previous year on triangle form. Here, we have lots of numbers. We can change the look to millions in styling section. Let's choose the data labels and on scale part, we can put it into million. Now, we have millions here but we also have decimals. I don't think that we need them so let's put the decimals to zero. Now, we're able to see the data labels, the amounts directly, and I think it's easier to analyze. Actually, here, if we select the access labels, we can also change colors here. And if, for example, we select data labels again, we can change how the data labels can be look. So, step by step, we are looking a bit more and more IBCS. And by that, we have put all the data on the graph. In the next video, we're going to improve it with more IBCS rules.

<div>In this video, we will work in an SAP Analytics Cloud story to compare actuals, plan, and previous year to work towards making the story IBCS-compliant.  </div>

Setting Up Comparisons in a Story Using IBCS

In this video, we're going to talk about comparisons. Let's start. Here, as I said, we are always putting in a solid outline. So, each time, we don't have to add this legend. So, to simplify it I can just remove it. I'm trying to compare things. I'm trying to compare actuals with plan and previous year. I'm trying to understand if I'm better than I have planned or if I'm better than the previous year. I can just go to chart add-ons. Here, I can add a comparison. I'll be comparing actuals to, for example, plan. Am I good when compared to plan? And you see, I'm good at some points and I'm not that good at other amounts. We can just name it. As we do in IBCS, we can use the delta symbol here. We can go to others and symbols, and then, here, we have a delta. Then, as this is a comparison to plan, I will put it plan. Actually, we have several different comparisons. We can put it as a bar, we can put data labels on top of actuals., we can also do it as a waterfall, for example. Here, is the good thing. You know, I said that in some months, we are better than plan and some other months are worse than planned. So, what is the total? If we look at it year to month, how is it going? You know, if the line, the axis is here, the comparison axis, and we are above it, then we are going good in terms of year to date. And if we are below, then it means we are not that good. So, if we create this type of waterfall variance, it helps us to understand how things are going. But you know, here something is missing. Even if we don't have actual values, we can compare the plan with the forecasted amount. We don't have such calculation here. I will create a new measure to make this comparison a bit easier. I'll go here, make a calculated account. I will say that it is actual plus forecast. And here I'll say actual plus  forecast. Yeah, I can go back to variants. I will edit it. And I will not choose actual, but I will choose actual plus forecast as a comparison point. And, of course, I will remove this. In this way, I'm able to see how the year will end. But we don't see the year-to-date value. We don't see the whole difference. We can just go to Month and Year and add Totals. In this case, we're able to see the difference, here. This is plus 232. But now we have lost something else. As the scale is now a bit bigger, we are not to see clearly how things are going on a monthly basis. So, let's make it a bit better. I'll be creating a copy of it. I will use the total in this graph so I will go here and I will change the hierarchy level and I will put it on the level 2. Now I'm able to show both the yearly amount and also the monthly amounts. But the scale is not correct. Let me just remove the title. And also, as it's not scaled, I will be just changing the variance to only data label variance and I will be showing actual and forecast all together, because that was what I was trying to show and I will put that one to hatched and this one will be the front. Now, I need to change this one too. And now we are able to show both monthly and yearly results. But we are not scaled properly. And now our chart looks way better, but in the next video, we're going to make a bit more touch-ups.

<div><div>In this video, we will work with dynamic reference lines, apply scaling, and show scaling in reference between two graphs using IBCS. We will format the charts to make them more IBCS compliant.</div></div>

Applying Additional IBCS Features and Formatting to an SAP Analytics Cloud Story

And now, let's try to understand what can be done more. We are able to show both monthly and yearly results, but they are not scaled properly. What we can do about this? Actually, there is something that we called reference line. Let's add a reference line and try to understand what does it stand for. I'll go chart add-ons and I will choose a reference line. I'll create a dynamic reference line. Oh, okay. In dynamic reference line, actually, I want to show monthly averages. In this way, I can see the monthly average here, and I can also add monthly average here on this chart, and I will be able to see how the scales are different between these two graphs. I need something called monthly averages, but I don't have it in the data. Let me create a new one at calculation. It will be an aggregation, and I will call it average sales. It will be average and it will take the average of actual plus forecast and the aggregation will be on month and years. While it summarized the amount, it will take the average of each month to show the results. So, it will help me a lot. Now, I can go to reference line. I can create a dynamic reference line, choosing average sales. Now, I have one. As label I can again go to others choose symbol. Okay, and now I'm able to do the same thing for this one - reference line, dynamic, it will be average sales, and voila! Now, we have the same thing the same thing, the same line, for each graph so it helps us to understand the scale difference between two graphs. So here I'll again add some more. And here, if we want to show the scale in difference between these two graphs, we are putting a blue shade below the reference line. So let's do that. We can go to edit. Below. Okay, here. I can go to  here and choose blue for the low part. So, what we understand is, okay, for this graph, this amount of blue is equal to this amount of length in the other graph. So, we are able to calibrate our scale perception here via the blue parts, the reference lines. Of course, we can do a bit more improvements here. We can say that this is Net Sales in million dollars and we can just remove the subtitle. And, we can just add Year here and we put Measures in bold. Actually, for the variances in IBCS we are using a bit different coloring so if you want to change this, you can go to Theme Preferences, and this little pen, then we will be able to go to charts and change the colors for positive we are putting 140, 180, and zero. And for red,  I will set it up like this. And here it is a bit more IBCS compliant now. There are lots of things that we can do in an IBCS compliant way on SAP Analytics Cloud. And I hope that this demonstration gives you an idea. Take care.