Planning in SAC Puts Control in Hands of User

This highlights the fifth in a six-part podcast series on SAC from 2020-2021 and featuring Mustansir Saifuddin and Hau Ngo.

For decades SAP has been providing software solutions that allow organizations to effectively do financial planning and long-term forecasting and budgeting. Whether it was Business Planning (BPS) or Business Planning & Consolidation (BPC), SAP has continued to update and provide the latest tools for you to effectively create planning solutions. SAP Analytics Cloud (SAC) expands on this expertise.

Mustansir Saifuddin first highlighted the value of planning in SAC in our SAC Podcast Series in 2021. It is a powerful addition to the SAP portfolio, especially if a company is looking for a planning solution that is easy to use and can be quickly adopted by the business users.

By simplifying data imports, SAC is putting the control in the hands of the end users.

Take the NHL. Yes, THAT NHL, the National Hockey League, which implemented a coaching insights app that allows coaches to get real-time data. Yep, isn’t that cool? 

Previously, users needed a technically focused IT team to help create a planning solution. Although BPC and BPS had great built-in functionality and were easy to adopt, the inner workings could be difficult for end-users to understand.

With SAC, end-users can:

• Set up the budget
• Set up the forecast
• Create their own versions of the model data

These are just some of the key pieces of planning. Due to this ease of functionality, end-users find it easy to adopt SAC for their planning needs,  especially when it includes great features such as distribution functions and allocations.

Cloud-based and Built for Speed

As a cloud-based platform, SAC is built for speed while being easy for users to understand and leverage.

Although users may love using their Excel worksheets for planning, once they are introduced to next-generation tools like SAC they see the power of switching over.

SAC planning features make these tasks easier and allow for collaboration:

• Monthly forecasts
• Annual budges
• Five-year strategy plan

Key Features of SAC

SAC offers many key features. For instance:

Calendar integration: This feature allows for you to set up a calendar of action items for members across an organization. You can create tasks, assign the tasks to users, and set due dates. You call these data actions within your stories.

It ultimately allows for finance teams and other parts of the business to work towards a common goal while eliminating the usual back and forth email communication that is part of any planning or budgeting project.

Table functions: Teams can have multiple versions or scenarios of their  planning or forecast.  In addition, they  have prebuilt content that can be leveraged.

Predictive analytics: This feature helps users understand the what and why behind the business, enabling more accurate and accurate insights for the future.

 Because such functionalities are out of the box, it makes it easier to get started with SAC. This simpler, more robust way of planning combines dashboarding, planning, forecasting, and modeling which ultimately speeds up the process and saves precious time.