SAP Analytics Hub – A first look
In my previous post on the new names for the SAP BI products, the list (in the tweet) also included a new product: SAP Analytics Hub. Unfortunately I don’t have access yet, and there is also not that much material available on this product, but enough to at least get an idea of the purpose and direction. So let’s have a look.
It is common for an organization to have multiple places or platforms to host reports. Even within SAP-only environments we see this: BI Launchpad, Fiori Launchpad, Analytics Cloud, BEx Web. For the end-user this is of course an awful experience, as he has to switch between different platforms to get to all his reports, and needs to ‘learn’ where to find what.
The SAP Analytics Hub is advertised as the single platform and entry point for users, where they can find all their reports. At my current project we positioned and setup the BI Launchpad for this, but we had to use a bunch of workarounds and have to live with all the limitations of the tool.
Looking at the roadmap and FAQ files, I see that the initial version is basically a web-based portal that contains a bunch of links to reports. These links point either to cloud or on-premise solutions, and this can be both SAP as well as non-SAP software. Each link may contain some additional information and a preview of the report.
Within the Hub the user can find his reports via selections in structures or keywords (facets), or via text search. It is also possible to mark reports as favorites. SSO between the Hub and the source systems also seems to be there.
So it’s a pretty basic start, but the roadmap looks promising. I see a lot more customization and personalization options, better integration of the existing SAP platforms and very interestingly: a public API. This could mean that third-parties like Tableau and Microsoft are allowed to write their own add-ons for the Hub, to integrate their reporting platforms in the Hub. Or, it may allow developers to write add-ons for the Hub with additional functionality, like a news feed/billboard or a commenting module.
I’m curious how the user provision will work. Can we for example use existing setups in SAP BW and/or the BI Platform for this, or will the Hub have its own separate user management. And of course, what is this going to cost per user per year? ?
HackingSAP.com - May 30, 2017 | SAP
Tagged | SAP Analytics Hub
1 comment
Felix Schöttle
May 31, 2017HI,
as you have described the tool should be a central point of entry for business users to their analytics they need including business descriptions, at a second view this can be perfectly used as governance tool to centralise analytics across all board areas.
Looking forward to see more of this tool soon!
Kind regards
Felix
1 Trackback
[…] the state of SAP Analytics Hub was exactly as what I already figured out from the slides a few weeks ago, but at least I was able to see a live demo and talk a bit to the […]