SAP Analytics Cloud and SAP Datasphere – Overview of selected SAP updates in the third quarter of 2023

In the following article, I present some updates to SAP Anatytics Cloud and SAP Datasphere, whose implementation has been announced for the third quarter of 2023. The updates are intended to make the product easier for users.

At the time of publication of this article, some of the described new features have already been implemented, and some are still waiting. Information about the updates outlined in the article comes from SAP Road Map Explorer, where, after logging in, you can see a detailed list of updates. I also want to mention that the timing of the updates is not binding.

Therefore, planned updates may be introduced at a later date.

It is invariably important for SAP Analytics Cloud and SAP Datasphere users to remain flexible and ready for possible changes in the deployment schedule. Therefore, it is worth noting that SAP is constantly monitoring and adjusting its plans to deliver the highest quality updates possible.

New updates to SAP Analytics Cloud and SAP Datasphere

SAP Analytics Cloud and Analysis for Office

SAP Analytics Cloud and Analysis for Office (AO) have been integrated with each other. From now on, files generated in AO can be immediately available in the repository and catalog. From now on, there is no need to save them additionally in SAP Analytics Cloud.

Bug fixes in optimized story

Recently, a new story was introduced that was supposed to be faster than previously available. Unfortunately, when it was added to SAP Analytics Cloud, some features did not work as they should have.
This quarter:

• Adapted the cartogram to the optimized story,
• Synchronized the outliers of biaxial charts,
• Improved the display of internal and external IDs in charts,
• Reset options for assigning color to a measure,
• Improved disambiguation of temporal elements on charts,
• Improved creation, updating and deletion of dialog boxes,
• Converting an old story type to an optimized one is done by overwriting it in the new form,
• Added merging of calculations and thresholds in mixed charts,
• Added advanced responsive layout in optimized story.

Custom widget – support for combined analysis

Until now, charts created with R or Python were not connected in any way to the other charts in the story. Because of this, if we performed any actions affecting the standard charts, they did not affect the objects created with the programming language. E.g., if we wanted to check sales only in Poland in our story, the custom chart still showed results for all countries.

A change has been announced for the third quarter, which will make it possible to use custom objects in combined analysis. This will make our story even more interactive and therefore more useful for analysis.

SAP Datasphere

There has been a lot of talk for some time about SAP Datasphere, a cloud-based data warehouse. This is a new tool that is currently being rapidly developed by SAP, which means that there are quite a few updates coming out. As such, I decided to mention a few of them in this article.

Automatic restart of shuffles
Until now, if a process failed, you had to restart it manually. The automation of processes responsible for workflow (Task Chain) and transferring data between systems (Data Transfer Process) has been scheduled for the third quarter of 2023. This will ensure that processes that had downtime or failed due to a system error will be restarted automatically.

External hierarchy supported by directories
In SAP S/4HANA and SAP BW/4HANA, hierarchies are supported by catalogs. With them, we can define hierarchies based on data. Until now, such a solution was not possible in SAP Datasphere, making it difficult to import models from on-premise to cloud. In the third quarter of 2023, it is planned to add this functionality to SAP Datasphere. With this, we will be able to create hierarchies in SAP Datasphere by adding data describing their structure to the tables defining the hierarchy. This functionality will facilitate the use and customization of hierarchies imported from SAP S/4HANA and SAP BW/4HANA.

Summary

The above article outlines the major updates planned for the third quarter of 2023 for SAP Analytics Cloud and SAP Datasphere, which aim to improve the use of these products.
It is worth noting that the above updates are intended to improve the use of SAP Analytics Cloud and SAP Datasphere, making them more effective and interactive cloud data analysis tools. However, please note that rollout dates are subject to change. So it’s worth keeping an eye on SAP’s updates and roadmap to stay on top of the news.