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Greenfield Implementation of SAP BDC and SAP S/4HANA with SAP-Managed Data Products and Insight Apps

Introduction​

Customers using SAP S/4HANA 2021 or later can provision a connection to SAP Business Data Cloud (BDC). The Unified Customer Landscape (UCL) Services will be utilized to create the SAP BDC formation, integrating the SAP S/4HANA system with SAP Business Data Cloud automatically. This enables metadata from Data Products to be shared with the SAP BDC Cockpit, the Datasphere Catalog, and Business Accelerator Hub, facilitating data transfer from SAP S/4HANA to SAP BDC's Foundation Services layer. SAP BDC Foundation Services, managed by SAP, includes an Object Store and other technical services to transform and publish data products from SAP systems.

This architecture pattern focuses on installing and consuming SAP-managed data products within SAP Analytics Cloud as Insight Applications pre-delivered by SAP.

Installing, Activating, and Visualizing a Standard SAP S/4HANA Data Product​

Producing a Data Product in SAP S/4HANA Private Cloud Edition (PCE)​

A data product is a curated, self-contained collection of tables and business data, accessible for consumption by external applications or services via standardized APIs. In SAP S/4HANA, data products are created by exposing relevant datasets through APIs and enriching them with comprehensive metadata. This metadata is structured as an Open Resource Discovery (ORD) document, detailing the data product's purpose, structure, and access mechanisms.

Installing and Activating a Data Product in SAP Datasphere​

Installation involves fully activating associated data products and installing content within SAP Datasphere and SAP Analytics Cloud, enabling direct consumption of dashboards. SAP Datasphere provides robust data warehouse capabilities, advanced data integration tools, and seamless support for both native and derived data products. It simplifies the consumption, management, and publication of data products across the organization.

  1. Review and Install the Data Product: Evaluate the data product’s summary, sample data, included objects, terms of use, and supporting documentation to ensure it meets analytical requirements. Preview a sample dataset for validation or directly install the data product into a designated SAP Datasphere space for further modeling and analysis.

  2. Activate Data Packages: Activation makes baseline data and relevant data products of a data package available. Data and models reside within the foundation services, and data products can be discovered and installed via the catalog.

Visualizing a Data Product in SAP Analytics Cloud (SAC)​

For advanced visualization and planning, SAP Analytics Cloud (SAC) is the recommended solution for both embedded and standalone analytics scenarios. SAC integrates seamlessly with SAP Datasphere, enabling users to transform data products into actionable insights through interactive dashboards and reports. The embedded (OEM) version of SAC enhances performance with a streamlined viewer and offers cost efficiencies via a shared application tenant.

Visualization Steps:

  1. Establish Connectivity: Ensure SAP Analytics Cloud is connected to the SAP Datasphere environment where the data product resides.
  2. Model the Data: Consume analytical models in Datasphere based on the deployed data product, leveraging its semantic richness for accurate analysis.
  3. Develop Dashboards: Design and publish dashboards and reports in SAC to visualize key metrics, trends, and business outcomes.

By following this streamlined approach, organizations can efficiently produce, deploy, and visualize standard SAP S/4HANA data products, unlocking faster, more reliable insights and maximizing the value of their SAP data landscape.

SAP BDC Insight Apps​

Insight Apps represent the highest level of abstraction in SAP BDC's data product hierarchy, packaging multiple data products into comprehensive, purpose-built analytical solutions.

SAP Business Data Cloud Insight Apps are SaaS components that provide business users with intelligent insights derived from their data. These ready-to-use apps leverage SAP data products and offer pre-built analytical models, dashboards, and workflows for various industries and functions. Integrated with SAP Business AI, they enable timely decisions based on real-time signals. SAP manages these apps, ensuring automatic data connection, accuracy, and faster insights. The Insight Apps - Design Guidelines guide the creation of no-code insight apps in SAP Analytics Cloud.

An Insight Package is a SAP-managed collection of analytical resources and functionalities delivering analytical, process, or domain insights. It comprises data products, semantic models, dashboards, planning templates, and future AI and KPI watchlist features.

Insight Packages combine data products, data models, and SAP Analytics Cloud content, along with search and SAP-managed KPIs. The SAP Analytics Cloud content demonstrates the use of underlying data products for specific analytics scenarios. Customers can adapt the data products for their needs, using the front-end as a no-code template. The combined value of data products, the semantic model, and templates is key.

A Pro Insight App is a SAP-managed, pro-code application built on SAP BTP that utilizes data products and semantic models from Insight Packages. Both Insight Packages and Pro Insight Apps can be built by SAP or partners.

Pro Insight Apps, requiring SAP Business Data Cloud, are full business applications implementing specific business processes. Built with a pro-code approach using CAP, they follow standard product lifecycles, roadmaps, and SLAs with regular updates. Typically including strong analytical components alongside transactional or operational features, these "second-layer" apps integrate data from multiple "first-layer" applications (like SAP S/4HANA). They can also generate new data for other applications.

Architecture​

With the current release of SAP BDC and Insight Applications, customers can either use the pre-delivered content as-is or customize the analytical model of the pre-delivered content to develop custom Insight Applications.

Insight packages include data products, base and analytical models, and pre-defined SAC visualizations, planning templates, search-driven insights, and KPI watchlists. In SAP-managed Insight Apps, data products reside in the SAP Foundation Services Layer, base models and analytic models are housed in SAP Datasphere, and visualizations are managed in SAP SAC/BTP.

High-Level Setup Steps Prior to Installing and Using SAP Insight Apps​

  1. Provision required systems (SAP Datasphere Tenant, SAC Tenant, SAP S/4HANA PCE, optional: SAP Databricks). The SAP BDC Cockpit will be available once the formation is created in SAP BTP.
  2. Install relevant components in SAP S/4HANA.
  3. Set up communication arrangements (inbound/outbound) in SAP S/4HANA.
  4. Configure the Cloud Connector.
  5. Create the formation.

SAP-Delivered Insight App​

SAP-managed data products are installed, and end users utilize the standard Insight Applications via SAP Analytics Cloud. Insight Apps are pre-built analytical applications within SAP BDC that help uncover hidden insights and enable faster decision-making. These apps are fully managed by SAP, built on curated SAP BDC data products, Datasphere models, and SAC stories, and include predefined metrics, AI models, and planning tools.

SAP-Managed Data Products:

  • Fully managed by SAP throughout their lifecycle.
  • Data is stored within the Foundation Service (FOS) HDLFS, which is not directly accessible to customers.

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Solution Diagram Resources
You can download the Solution Diagram as a .drawio file for offline use. Alternatively, you may view and edit the Solution Diagram directly on draw.io.
Please note that any changes made online will need to be saved locally if you wish to keep them.
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Customization of SAP-Delivered Insight App​

Organizations can copy and customize the underlying SAP Datasphere analytical models and SAP Analytics Cloud stories, leveraging SAP-managed data products.

image of solution diagram
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Solution Diagram Resources
You can download the Solution Diagram as a .drawio file for offline use. Alternatively, you may view and edit the Solution Diagram directly on draw.io.
Please note that any changes made online will need to be saved locally if you wish to keep them.
DownloadEdit

Services and Components​

  • SAP BDC Cockpit: Centralized management interface for SAP BDC.
  • SAP Datasphere: Centralized data management platform supporting self-service, semantic onboarding, and integration with data marketplaces.
  • SAP Analytics Cloud (SAC): Provides advanced analytics and visualization capabilities.
  • Data Products: Standardized datasets for AI/ML and cross-domain analytics. Exposed for consumption outside the producing application via APIs, described by high-quality metadata, and semantically aligned for access through the Data Product Directory.
  • Data Packages: Logical grouping of data products, used as foundations for modeling in SAP Datasphere or for AI/ML scenarios in SAP Databricks.
  • Insight Apps: Pre-built applications for actionable intelligence. Low-code apps composed of data products, data models, and SAC content. SAC content demonstrates the underlying data products to fulfill specific analytics use cases. Customers can extend the analytical layer to meet specific requirements.

Examples in an SAP Context​

SAP will publish Insight Apps across all application pillars, such as Core Enterprise Analytics, People Analytics, Spend Analytics, Customer Analytics, Supply Chain Analytics, and Partner Ecosystem Apps.

Note

Not all examples listed below are generally available (GA) at this time.

  • Core Enterprise Analytics: Enables companies to optimize current assets and maintain sufficient cash flow for short-term goals and obligations. Insight Apps provide details on trends like working capital over past periods and average payment periods for accounts payable. Examples: Working Capital, Sales Analysis.
  • People Analytics: Helps customers understand their workforce composition and organizational structure. Examples: Employee Central, Learning.
  • Spend Analytics: Provides a comprehensive overview of spend across multiple applications, uncovering hidden linkages between suppliers. Examples: Spend Control Tower, Procurement Analysis.

Similar Insight Apps will be available across Customer and Supply Chain Analytics in the future.

Resources​

SAP Business Data Cloud - FAQ

Conclusion​

Using SAP's pre-built data products and Insight Apps provides a comprehensive view of critical business processes across all SAP applications. This ensures consistency and business context with SAP-managed data sets and semantics. Adopting SAP data products offers comprehensive lifecycle management, eliminating the overhead of building a trusted data foundation.