Advantages of SAP IBP - S&OP Over SCM APO

1. More Accurate Planning Through Real-Time Analytics and Simulations

SAP Fiori-based UI combined with a Microsoft Excel add-on lets you quickly and easily create and
compare best, worst and realistic case scenarios with different sets of master and transaction data.

2. SAP IBP is built around advanced analytics and dashboard capabilities. Ensure end-to-end
visibility across the supply chain – from production to purchasing and finance metrics all the way
down to customers and suppliers.
3. No more data warehouses: SAP IBP is based on the SAP HANA cloud platform, which eliminates
the need to store large amounts of data in data warehouses.

Features in S4/IBP – Production Planning

1. Sales order promising based on machine capacity.
2. Detailed production planning based on the customer requirement dates.
3. Optimization of production order sequences based on the machine capacity.

SCM APO Clients Managing?

By maintain the APO system either standalone or embed with existing ECC system is in place. SAP has
changed the architecture of APO – PPDS & GATP to move into S/4 HANA with advanced inbuilt analytics
capabilities, FIORI based web application.
Difference between Power BI & SAP Analytical Cloud
1. Data Connection:

Power BI: Connection with Microsoft technologies such as Azure and Microsoft SQL Server also
have connector to SAP HANA Database.

Power BI offers a connection type called DirectQuery, which stores the data into Power BI's
own SQL database, such as column names.

SAC: Best suitable for data connections to SAP products such as the SAP Business Warehouse
(BW), the SAP HANA database or the ERP system SAP S/4HANA, SAP Success Factors.

With SAC live connections no data is stored in the cloud, but is retrieved from the data source
exclusively at the time of report execution and displayed in the dashboard. The actual data thus
remains in the source system behind the company's firewall.

2. Data Modelling:

 Definition of categories
 Definition of hierarchical relationships and expansion around these hierarchies
 Definition / modelling of key figures and dimensions
 Definition of units and currencies
 Create and add your own formulas

Power BI:
Microsoft Power BI lacks important features such as currency conversion and numerical
formatting.

Aggregation is also incorrect when dealing with different currencies or units of

measurement: These are not taken over by Power BI. For example, values from USD, EUR
and CHF are added, aggregated and displayed unspecified - without any indication that they
are different currencies.

The application of hierarchies is also difficult: Microsoft Power BI can only process one
hierarchy per dimension. In addition, neither time-dependent hierarchies nor those of
multiple versions can be used. With SAP Analytics Cloud (SAC) however, several hierarchies
can exist for each characteristic and be individually selected by users.

3. SAP SAC only has Planning & Predictive Tool:

Tool that produces reporting around your business and finance planning processes, with
predictive analytics for ex: Plan, Budget and Forecast data, comparable to traditional
SAP Planning Applications like SAP BI Integrated Planning or SAP BPC.
 4. Reporting, Dashboarding and Visualization:

SAP SAC: Two tools

a. Self-service analytics- Where the business users can create their own dashboards and
reports.
b. Application Designer - Allows the IT developers to create complex dashboards, cockpits or
planning applications with JavaScript.
 SAP Analytics Cloud also offers many visualizations for reporting, but compared to
Power BI, this is limited.
 Embedded IBCS functionality for creating Visualizations adhering to the IBCS
Principles.
 Industry specific BI Content that can be installed and used.
 Advanced Analytics features like Smart Predict, Smart Insights, and Smart
Discovery that allows the Business User to analyze, explore and make forecasts
without the need of any Programming code.

Summary:

SAP Analytics Cloud would be the perfect fit for existing SAP customers, who already have multiple SAP
Systems in place like S4HANA, SAP BW, SAP BPC and so on, because SAC has strong and seamless
integration with these products, more focus on self-service and IBCS visualization as some of the
advantages.

Power BI is best suited for existing Azure as well as MS SQL Customers; it is also the better tool, when
the customer has more NON-SAP Systems in place.