Analytic Models are the analytical foundation to make data ready for consumption in SAP Analytics Cloud. They enable users to create and define multidimensional and multi-fact models, serving data for analytical purposes and answering different business questions. Predefined measures, hierarchies, filters, parameters, and associations provide a flexible and easily-used navigation through the underlying data.
Here are some values and benefits of the Analytic Model:
- More analytical capabilities and calculations answer more and complex business questions.
- Maximized re-use of source object reduces the effort and the number of objects to maintain.
- Better control of output due to model and hierarchy pruning optimizes performance.
- Optimized integration of existing SAP BW artifacts secures existing investments.
- Analytical preview fosters model quality.
- Supporting data democratization and self-service analytics strategies as business oriented user can easily create models.
The Analytic Model is now the object for building stories in SAP Analytics Cloud.
The analytic model replaces Analytical Dataset which is exposed for consumption. Analytical Datasets are still available but you should now use the analytic model.
The Analytic Model offers more calculations and greater functionality. You can remove what you want to expose in your object, avoiding unnecessary calculations and, as a result, achieving better performance. It also offers calculated measures, restricted measures, and an analytical preview.
Although Analytical Datasets are still available, new features are only developed for the Analytic Model. You can easily create an Analytic Model on top of Analytical Datasets.
The sources for analytic models are facts (or analytical datasets). These facts can contain dimensions, texts, and hierarchies.
Procedure
- To open the editor, from the side navigation, choose Data Builder, select a space (if necessary), and choose New Analytic Model.
- Add a source.
- To select or deselect any measures, associated dimensions, or attributes in the properties panel on the right, choose your fact source on the canvas.
- To edit the properties of the analytic model, choose the background of the canvas, showing the analytic model's properties in the side panel.
- To edit the properties of a the fact source, choose the fact source on the canvas, showing its properties in the side panel.
- To edit the properties of a dimension, choose the dimension on the canvas, showing its properties in the side panel.
- When you click on a dimension or the fact source on the canvas, you can change the alias of this item. The alias is the name that is shown in the story in SAP Analytics Cloud.
- Choose Preview to check that the data appears as expected. There are two options: there is the simple preview which is available via the context menu in the editor at the analytic model.