In previous versions of SAP Business One,
with pervasive analytics, we were able to create forecasting dashboards using queries. In SAP Business One 9.0, version for SAP HANA,
we now have the powerful ability to create your own dashboards using HANA modeling, so
what is HANA modeling? Modeling refers to an activity of refining
or slicing data in database tables, by creating views to depict business scenarios, and these
views can be used for reporting and decision making. The modeling process involves the simulation
of entities such as a customer, product and sales and the relationships between them. In SAP Business One 9.0, version for SAP HANA,
these views are known as information views. Information views use various combinations
of content data in semantic layers to model a business use case. Data content can be classified as any attribute,
which is descriptive data such as a customer ID, city or a country.
And then there is measurable or quantifiable
data such as revenue, quantity saw, and counters. We are now going to show you how to create
a simple sales forecast, using prebuilt HANA models in SAP Business One. So let’s now open up our dashboard designer
in SAP Business One. Now in our dashboard designer, we have got
the ability to select our base data source. We can select our data source based on system
queries, or in SAP Business One 9.0, version for SAP HANA, we now have the ability to create
the following type of information views.
We have analytical views, which are based
on dimensional models, and then we have got calculation views, which are based on advanced
calculation models. We can now see a number of prebuilt HANA models
that we can use that will help us create a sales revenue forecast. To create these information views using queries
would require really complex and lengthy SQL code. These HANA models are also used in interactive
analysis with Excel, and here is the range of interactive analysis reports based on the
same HANA models. For our sales revenue forecast we are going
to select the sales revenue analytical view, and now we are going to design our dashboard. This is going to be a sales forecast, therefore
we need to change the strategy type from none, to forecast.
And we also have the ability to select an
appropriate chart type, but we are going to leave our chart type as a column chart. We now need to select a measure for our forecast,
which in this example, will be the gross profit, and we can drag our measure across into our
target measure box here. Now we need to select the dimensions of our
forecast, which will be based on the due date by year. So we can select our due date dimension, and
then we have got the ability to select our dimension by year, quarter or month. Under advanced settings, we have a few options
to play with for our forecast. The Alpha, Beta and Gamma options are all
factors used in the forecasting calculation, and we are going to leave these factors with
their default settings.
The forecasting base cycle is a cycle used
for forecasting and you can base this on your business cycles, for example, if I have a
seasonal cycle of six months, and I define the smallest display unit as being monthly
as opposed to yearly, I can then define the base cycle as a six, and then the forecast
will be calculated on a six month cyclical basis. In this case, our smallest display unit is
year, and the forecast will be calculated over a three year cycle basis. The forecasting period allows you to define
the period length of your forecast, which is displayed in red. So I can change my forecast period for example,
from four to three, if I just want to display three years of forecast ahead. So now that we have created our simple dashboard,
we now need to save it. So by pressing save as, we can define a dashboard
name and now we can add a link to this forecast
dashboard to business partner master data for example, and link the appropriate dimensions. So by clicking on add links, we can select
what we would like to link to, so we can link to a sales order, a particular sales invoice,
item master data and in this example we are going to link to a particular master data.
And then we can select the actual dimension
that we want to link to, which in this case, will be the business partner code. So now we have created a very simple forecast
dashboard, and we have linked this to our business partner master data. So if I am now on the road and about the visit
my customer, Earthshaker Corporation, on my iPad, using the SAP Business One 9.0, version
for SAP HANA app, I can now easily pull up the business partner and review the forecast
revenue report under the pervasive analytics dashboards that we have created. So the first thing that I need to do is navigate
to business partners, I select Earthshaker Corporation, under my business partner information
I have my pervasive analytics dashboards, and all I need to do is navigate to the dashboard
that we have just created.
As you can see, we can now view our sales
forecast dashboard for the customer Earthshaker based on the HANA model for sales revenue. So check out the prebuilt HANA models in SAP
Business One 9.0 version for SAP HANA, providing you with the ability to create pretty powerful
dashboard information views..
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