Blog Series: SAP Business Data Cloud
Every day millions of us make decisions. We do this by calling on the knowledge we already have, assessing it in the context of the decision we need to make and then deciphering if it is sufficient to answer the question at hand. Only when we are confident that we have the insight to act do we make that decision – and hope it’s the right one.
In a business context, this process of identifying “actionable insights” is often even harder in practice.
Just getting hold of data can be hard, and then you need to turn raw data into useful information. Typically, the raw data needs to be transformed before it’s suitable for analysis. Not only that but you may need to clean it up, improve the quality and add extra contextual information to make it truly useful to you.
Only then can you slice and dice, manipulate, engineer, explore, and analyse this information until it gives up its secrets and shows you the insights you are looking for.
Because this process can be challenging, some companies don’t find themselves moving beyond the most simple types of analytics, which are grounded in the past – Descriptive and Diagnostic.
But let’s be honest. Even the more accessible types of Analysis can be challenging to get right.
Even with highly capable tools like SAP BW, they still need to be combined with developers (IT or Business-side) who have a good understanding of the systems they are working with and the data within them. And these same developers also need to have a great understanding of their business processes work and what the business is wanting to achieve.
Only then can you design solutions that turn transactional data into useful analytics, allowing you to look and understand what’s happened in the past and, more importantly, be confident about your decision.
With Predictive Analytics, if you can narrow down the number of options you have to consider when making a decision, or quantify the possibility of something happening then again, then it makes sense to base your decisions on this extra information as you’ll be better informed.
Looking further still, if you can use your data to build models that help automate the decision-making process then you can start to move into the realm of Prescriptive Analytics. For example, by using your data to build dynamic pricing models to match demand to supply and optimise your margins; or automated routing algorithms which include factors like weather and traffic to optimise your delivery schedule in real time.
Predictive and Prescriptive analytics are not new ideas; and it’s been possible for a long time but the reality was it was hard to do well.
What we find with many organizations is that they are actively focused on Diagnostic and Descriptive analytics and, whilst many of them do this well, it can still be challenging – however mature the techniques and technologies may be.
And these challenges only continue when you move along the continuum to Predictive and Prescriptive Analytics.
And so many companies are missing out on the potential benefits of actual Predictive and Prescriptive analytics solutions because of the real or perceived challenges – even if alternative is to continue doing it manually.
So we know what our objective is – to turn data into actionable insights and to use the full range of Analytics to help us uncover the value in our data – from Diagnostic and Descriptive through to Predictive and Prescriptive.
And we know that there a myriad of challenges between us and our goal – especially when it comes to SAP data which often represents the most valuable data sets in an organisation’s data landscape.
Its value comes from the integral part that SAP solutions play in organisations and as such so many decisions are understandably therefore based on SAP data and how we can best interact and interpret it.
SAP have looked at these challenges and the objectives and Business Data Cloud is how they intend to address them.
Firstly, Business Data Cloud is intended to help with the most fundamental issues that we’ve talked about with Analytics – accessing and transforming your data into actionable insights.
It does this by owning the problem, so you don’t have to. With Business Data Cloud, SAP have committed to providing a service to you – a service that takes the data you need from the SAP systems you use and makes it available to us and – most importantly – in a useable, user-friendly and useful format known as Data Products.
SAP Foundation Services will interface with your SAP Line of Business systems and replicate the key transactional and master Data Products that you need to understand your business. SAP handles the replication of these sets and make them available to you to use as you wish.
Not only that, but it will take that raw, replicated data (Data Products) and transform it into the information you need. Out of the box it provides data models that sit on top of the raw data, and which enable you to analyse and explore your SAP information however you want – or extend them and create your own if you wish.
It also provides you with ready-made reports and dashboards to get you started but also allows you to extend them or build your own.
And it does all this with the same tools that you are likely using or planning to use right now – SAP Datasphere and SAP Analytics Cloud. So, it builds on any original investment you may have in these tools – including SAP BW –and still take advantage of the new capabilities that Business Data Cloud offers.
So with this Foundation Services offering, SAP are facilitating the first two types of Analytics – Diagnostic and Descriptive – by addressing some of the perennial issues that customers face when accessing and working with data; and allowing them to focus on making the decisions, not worrying about the process of getting there.
The second way in which Business Data Cloud can help is because of what it offers for Predictive and Prescriptive Analytics.
Firstly, SAP have improved its Machine Learning and Data Science capabilities to help organisations embrace the potential of Predictive Analytics.
By including SAP DataBricks within the Business Data Cloud landscape, you now have access to a highly respected, widely used data science platform that is already familiar to thousands of organisations who are working on their Data Science initiatives.
SAP DataBricks benefits from the proximity to high-quality SAP data and models and can reduces time-to-value by offering ways to help embed the models into your business processes more easily so you start unlocking value and seeing results quicker.
With respect to Prescriptive Analytics, we can see that this is closely related to SAP’s well-publicised strategic commitment to embedding AI throughout its suite of applications – be that Agentic, Generative or other specialised forms. SAP see the use of AI as essential if customers want to gain significant competitive advantage by automating tasks, enhancing decision-making, and improving customer interactions.
Business Data Cloud is seen as central to enabling this – not only in terms of the data foundation it can provide via the Data Products and curated data models but also via the capabilities that are available within Business Data Cloud which allow you to work with your data in the most effective way possible.
Together, these are used in conjunction with curated, trustworthy SAP data to give a holistic view of your organisation and its operations. By modeling the organisational relationships of your data across your SAP systems it provides unique context and enables you to have better insights about your organisation that makes the difference when you are looking to power your AI ambitions throughout the SAP application landscape.
Business Data Cloud is therefore uniquely positioned to permit these ambitions and SAP has made it clear that Business Data Cloud will be essential if customers want to take advantage of this next wave of business productivity, insight and value generation.
We believe that SAP Business Data Cloud offers organisations a unique opportunity to move closer to becoming truly data driven.
SAP have recognised the need to help with the challenges that all organisations deal with every day in all forms of Analytics. It offers new approaches and new capabilities that help organisations deal with the very real, practical difficulties that need to be overcome if they are to unlock the hidden value in their data.
We are working with customers right now who are looking to implement SAP Business Data Cloud and start to unlock this value – either as part of green-field initiatives or as an integral part of the existing investments.
If you are interested in understanding the part that SAP Business Data Cloud can play within your organisation then please contact us and book in a session with our team of experts.
