How SAP Analytics Cloud and BPC come together?
How SAP Analytics Cloud and BPC come together?
In a SAP BPC standard environment, the main interface to input data is MS Excel. In order to communicate with your SAP BPC model, the BPC EPM Add-in needs to be installed. In some cases, it would be an advantage to avoid this installation on all BPC users’ laptops. Here are some reasons:
- For some companies, it is a time-consuming task leading to unexpected issues as it is not always easy to guarantee a full harmonization of the laptop’s park.
- For most users, the use of the BPC functionalities is limited to a Refresh and a Save button and an installation of the BPC EPM Add-in is not really needed.
- For big companies with decentralized IT, we would like to offer a hybrid planning solution with local planning models feeding your corporate model.
SAP has released a full integration scenario between SAP Analytics Cloud and SAP BPC Standard (as of version 10.x). This scenario gives the opportunity to avoid installing the EPM Add-in for each user. Next to your BPC input forms, you can create SAC input forms available via your internet browser and communicating with your SAP BPC model.
Scenario implementation:
Implementing this scenario is quite straightforward and should respect 3 main steps:
- Create your BPC Import Data Connection
After enabling the communication between your BPC system and SAC in the SAP Cloud connector you can create a new SAP BPC connection.
When creating your connection, you will need to enter your BPC server address and port. The BPC user entered here will be used to transfer and import data.
This scenario is until now available for BPC Standard model only. An integration with BPC embedded is planned in the future SAC releases.
- Import your BPC model
Once your connection is created, you need to import your model from BPC:
In order to be able to input data in SAC and publish them to BPC, you should select the option below :
Before Importing the model, you need to set the dimension mapping between your Source BPC dimensions and your SAC target dimensions. As BPC Standard is an account-based model, you need to identify a dimension type for each dimension (Account, Generic, Organization, Version and Time). This mapping is very important as you cannot change it easily afterwards.
- Synchronize Data
Once your model is imported and saved, an initial synchronization will be executed. Your BPC model is now ready to be used in SAC:
Conclusion:
With the help of Sap Analytics Cloud planning functionalities, we have Today a solution to input data in BPC in an easy and efficient way via your internet browser and without the need of an extra installation on your laptop.
Furthermore, SAC offered you planning functions like allocation and distributions that can fulfill most of the planning requirements.
