Fortunately, over time, it is not only the Customer expectationsbut also the possibilities available to a company. Modern business intelligence offers a decisive advantage in terms of competitiveness: with the help of in-memory and cloud systems, it is possible to react much faster to changes - ultimately even in real time. Find out what this can look like in concrete terms and to what extent an SAP migration in particular opens up great potential in the following interview part one with Dr. Jörn Döring.
"Are you still searching or are you already steering?" - Interview with Dr. Jörn Döring
Hello Dr. Döring, what does modern Business Intelligence (BI) look like?
In a modern BI they have from all over the world Access to the data you need to manage your company: Cash flow, profit, turnover, risk and plan/actual comparison - in real time. Imagine that your production in South America can be restricted due to adverse weather conditions to such an extent that a customer in South East Asia cannot be supplied on time and is highly likely to drop out in the end. And that is one of your most important customers! When do you want to know when this will happen? As early as possible, of course, so that you can take countermeasures in good time. You can do this, for example, by switching to production in Central America because a very similar product is also manufactured there that will also satisfy the customer. At the same time, I reduce the risk of downtime in South America - because I know exactly when I have to order the spare parts. And that's just one simple example of the far-reaching difference BI systems can make.
What basis do companies need to create in order to be able to use these opportunities through business intelligence?
To make something like this a reality, you need to be able to access the data generated during operational work directly. We are talking here about the Single Source of Truth. To ensure that all relevant data comes together at the right time, you need to automate the data flows. The virtualization of data across system boundaries is becoming increasingly important. At the latest when you want to use artificial intelligence algorithms. And you need this to be able to meaningfully evaluate the data that your machines have sent around the world, for example, or data for benchmarking or price forecasting. This only works with a cloud approach - in other words, the data is bundled via the Internet. Initially, it doesn't matter whether it is a private or public cloud. The important thing is that the Data protection and data security are complied with. And believe me, they will. Otherwise, the business concept of all cloud providers is invalid. And without wanting to offend you or your employees: These providers can handle the technology better than your company's IT department.
To ensure that the employees in the company can make such a change accept and contribute toa clear baseline is required. How would you define this?
Ultimately, you need to be able to rely on the fact that the data you use for your decisions is correct and up-to-date, i.e. that you can trust it. If necessary, you want to adapt and change a report for your purposes in order to gain a new view of the data and thus add value. All of these things are only possible if a BI solution creates transparency and a so-called Self Service allows.
In fact, transparency also means that the definition of key figures must be simple, comprehensible and accepted throughout the company. Sounds simple, but unfortunately it is not in practice. Or when I think of how companies store their knowledge in ever new document structures and still can't find anything in the end. The search fails simply because everything starts to fall apart again after three weeks and everyone searches differently anyway. This doesn't happen with a semantic search. So everyone benefits from this reorganization of business processes - every single employee as well as the management level in every respect.
SAP features help to conveniently simplify business processes
This should be obvious to everyone. Let's get back to the application: What does this actually look like in the SAP environment?
By switching to the HANA in-memory database, SAP has not only accelerated data access immensely. It has also simplified the data models and thus all the evaluation options. Previously, a separate business warehouse (BW) system was needed to aggregate data and precalculate results. Otherwise, the response times required by end users could not be achieved. Today, on the other hand, entire companies can be easily integrated into a single SAP S/4 HANA map all your business processes. Now you can use the tools of the so-called Embedded Analytics evaluate the data on site, where it is generated - which brings us back to the Single Source of Truth would be. This is important in order to support operational processes during the transaction with key figures. It is also possible for you to jump directly to master data maintenance within a data analysis and enter or change values there immediately, for example the changed address of a business partner.
What if a company still wants to work with several systems?
In this case, you need a central point "where the truth lies within the company". Here you can use an SAP BW/4 HANA system to form a bracket around all these systems and make the data available centrally. We then speak of a Single Point of Truth.
You can also use the SAP Data Hub to access external systems or the Internet. If you do not want to fill up your HANA storage due to license fees, you can also use the Data Hub to transfer data that is no longer or rarely used due to its age to a Hadoop-environment. SAP calls this the Temperature Concept. Data is then hot, warm or cold.
For the Visualization of the data SAP offers the SAP Analytics Cloud solution in smart dashboards. You can navigate and filter there to perform data analyses. And you can also display everything on mobile devices. The keyword here is Web responsive design. As there are still some customers who are reluctant to put their data in the cloud, connecting the SAP Analytics Cloud to your systems can be done with a so-called Live Connection be connected. This means that the data only remains in the system. When the report is opened in the SAP Analytics Cloud solution, the application is opened in the cloud, but the data remains in the system due to the reverse proxy-connection within your company network and are only displayed in the browser on your computer. This is possible on both the S/4 and the BW/4 system.
Even then you can continue to process the data. For example, if you want to bring additional attributes from your business partner master data or a completely new view into the sales figures using an Excel spreadsheet, you can do this very easily in future with the SAP Data Warehouse Cloud. This is connected to your S/4 HANA or BW/4 HANA as well as to the SAP Analytics Cloud. It couldn't be more convenient.
SAP offers a simple Software as a Service rental model for the two cloud solutions (SaaS). This is calculated per user and month for the SAP Analytics Cloud and the allocated memory for the SAP Data Warehouse Cloud.
Thank you very much, Dr. Döring, for the interesting Explanations of the opportunities that SAP opens up for companies in conjunction with modern business intelligence - whether as a complete BI solution or in combination with other systems! We will continue the conversation in part two, which will focus on the key success criteria for setting up modern business intelligence. We are looking forward to it!
The interview with Dr. Jörn Döring was conducted by the TCI editorial team.
Also read part two of the interview: "Building modern business intelligence: Benefits, stumbling blocks and potentials"!
(Cover image: © Sergey Nivens | stock.adobe.com)
