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SAP Analytics
Thought Leadership

Comparing SAP Analytics Cloud (SAC) to SAP Business Planning and Consolidation (BPC)

Posted by Hunter Moore on Mon, Jul 15, 2024 @ 08:07 AM

Choosing the right Enterprise Performance Management (EPM) tool is crucial for organizations aiming to optimize their planning, reporting, and analytics processes. SAP Business Planning and Consolidation (BPC) and SAP Analytics Cloud (SAC) are two leading solutions from SAP, each offering unique capabilities tailored to different business needs. Let's examine some key considerations and comparisons regarding how well SAC can meet the evolving needs of businesses accustomed to BPC. We will focus on four key areas: Technical, Administration, User Interface, and AI capabilities. 

Topics: BPC (Business Planning & Consolidation), SAC, SAP Analytics Cloud, Extended Planning & Analysis (xP&A)

6 Commonly Asked Questions About the EPM Add-in Excel Client

Posted by Steve Sussman on Wed, Jul 10, 2024 @ 08:07 AM

The EPM Add-in client is a hot topic among our customers and a subject we receive plenty of questions about. Questions usually arise during migration from the SAP BusinessObjects Planning and Consolidation (BPC) 7.x version for the Microsoft platform to SAP BPC 10.0 or 10.1, version for the Microsoft platform. This blog will cover questions about the EPM Add-in client during system upgrades. 

Topics: Excel, Technical, EPM Add-in

Using SAP Analytics Cloud as a Client to BPC

Posted by Steve Sussman on Mon, Jun 03, 2024 @ 00:06 AM

SAP Analytics Cloud (SAC) is delivered as a SaaS (Software as a Service) solution on the SAP HANA Cloud Platform.  SAC combines multiple EPM, BI and Analytics features/benefits into one product.  This allows users to plan with robust collaboration features while using Predictive Analytics as well as Business Intelligence, and robust, state of the art Analytics. Currently, SAP BPC remains the default approach for Enterprise-wide Planning, Forecasting and Consolidations, while SAP Analytics Cloud fulfills relatively straightforward requirements from a planning and forecasting perspective.  

Topics: HANA, Analytics, Cloud, BPC, SAP HANA, Analytics Cloud, SaaS, SAC

Comparing Consolidation Solutions: SAP BPC vs Group Reporting - Why You Need to Move from SAP BPC to Group Reporting

Posted by Column5 Consulting on Mon, Jun 26, 2023 @ 13:06 PM

In 2007, OutlookSoft bought BPC and ten years later, SAP group reporting was released. Several versions of BPC have been released since its first debut in May 2017 including: Standard, Embedded, Optimized, and a Microsoft version. This article will compare the functionalities of BPC Standard (the most frequently used version) to the 2022 version of Group Reporting on-premise and will discuss some of the main aspects of the consolidation process.

Topics: BPC, sap bpc, group reporting

Discover the Value Formula to evaluate and implement EPM and xP&A solutions for success!

Posted by David Den Boer on Sun, May 14, 2023 @ 10:05 AM

It is said that there is no accounting for taste. Meaning, there is no mathematical formula that can define and score what individuals prefer. This is because each person has their own “taste” or set of subjective preferences they find appealing, and attempting to distill this highly variable process of selecting what one finds attractive, tasteful, even beautiful to a digital formula for universal criteria is considered impossible.

For some reason, this same subjectivity has reigned in the world of Enterprise Performance Management (EPM) solutions for too long, as I will argue. With the advent of xP&A (Extended Planning & Analysis), which can be thought of as high-intensity EPM, deciding which solution to buy is more critical than ever.

Topics: Enterprise Performance Management (EPM), Performance, sap, xp&a

Choosing the Ideal EPM Implementation Partner, Part 2

Posted by David Den Boer on Wed, Apr 05, 2023 @ 16:04 PM

thinking

In Choosing the Ideal EPM Implementation Partner, Part 1 , I discussed the three components for an effective enterprise performance management capability: the process state of your company, technological capabilities, and your implementation partner. Today, let's dig into the 8 essential qualities to look for in an implementation partner to best assist your internal team in achieving your objectives.

Topics: Process Improvement, Training, Innovation, Implementation

Choosing the Ideal EPM Implementation Partner, Part 1

Posted by Column5 Consulting on Wed, Apr 05, 2023 @ 11:04 AM

choices

With the current state of the economy, there can be little debate about the importance of having effective enterprise performance management (EPM) systems to nimbly react and plan for the future. There are three components to having an effective EPM capability:

Topics: Process Improvement, Enterprise Performance Management (EPM), Implementation

[TECH ALERT] How to fix the top 10 issues for BPC Microsoft Environments

Posted by Column5 Consulting on Mon, Mar 13, 2023 @ 18:03 PM

Over the past 6 months, we’ve seen a lot of our clients experience stubborn errors and issues that have surfaced in BPC for Microsoft environments. It’s important to understand that these issues are mostly related to user errors or updates not being performed correctly.

The Technical Team at Column5 has performed in-depth troubleshooting and continues to provide various technical solutions for our customers. Today, we have compiled a list of the top 10 issues including root cause and a simple solution. Continue reading to discover how you can tackle these issues and improve your performance!

Topics: Performance, Microsoft, BPC (Business Planning & Consolidation), Technical, User Experience

6 Housekeeping Hacks To Enhance Your SAP BPC Performance for NetWeaver

Posted by Column5 Consulting on Fri, Feb 03, 2023 @ 11:02 AM

Bad performance can make even a well-designed EPM system unusable, and if you’ve got more aggressive expectations like those required for an xP&A solution...even suboptimal performance can be a total block to realizing your goals. Performance issues have got to be attacked quickly and decisively.

Many users feel a poorly performing system is a fatal condition and they blame the software, as if the system is working as expected when the user experience is slowed. This is not only a false belief, but it can also be a very costly one. If there’s nothing that can be done to improve an unworkable software product, then replacing it is the only option. However, poor performance is an indicator of your solution working, but it must not be tolerated. That’s right, more users adding more data to an expanding EPM or xP&A solution will eventually create poor performance. The trouble begins when you don’t know what to do about this eventuality. Don’t react rashly, instead follow the practical steps below to get a grip on the root cause of the degraded performance...in this case, for SAP BPC for NetWeaver.

If you're a support team member or power user of SAP BPC for NetWeaver, you probably know there are many standard SAP BW layer housekeeping jobs that are provided by SAP.  Most of these generate system information required for analyzing SAP BPC performance, system/error logs retention, completed job logs, etc. and are run at their default frequency. These can be scheduled in SM36, though you can't stop here. 

Keep reading to find out how to avoid poor performance by following the 6 steps below.

Topics: NetWeaver, Performance, sap bpc, Performance Tuning

The Top 5 Critical Success Factors for Your EPM Project

Posted by Column5 Consulting on Tue, Jan 31, 2023 @ 12:01 PM

How do you ensure your Enterprise Performance Management (EPM), Business Planning & Consolidation (BPC) or Business Intelligence (BI) project will start out positioned for success? You've gone through the RFP process, completed the vendor evaluation, and have decided on the technology. But before diving into requirements and design, you also need to spend time in the project initiation phase--ensuring the project's critical success factors (CSFs) are defined and socialized, and that a plan for implementation is developed. Be sure there is a common understanding of the importance of the CSFs and how they differ from project objectives and success criteria.

Topics: Best Practices, Enterprise Performance Management (EPM), Project Management, Performance, BPC (Business Planning & Consolidation)

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To Enhance Your EPM Performance:

 1.Get Your Ultimate Guide to Improving SAP EPM Performance

ebook 2

 Learn what could be contributing to your poor performance and how to diagnose common problems. Get tips that will empower you and your team to improve the  performance  of your system in order to get the most out of your SAP EPM Investment.

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2.  Test Your BPC Performance 

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Get a BPC performance report card and custom report to identify performance issues you may not even know you have.

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  3. Get Your EPM Assessment  

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Our assessment delivers a complete, best practice roadmap for you to follow.  We’ll work together to assess what you need to pivot your financial forecasting, planning, reporting and analysis to handle the compressed requirements from the volatile COVID-19 environment. 

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