This is not the first book to be written on the topic of SAP S/4HANA embedded analytics, and it will probably not be the last. The difference from other books on the topic is captured in the subtitle: Experiences in the Field. The book was written from a practical implementation perspective, and it focuses on functions that have proven themselves useful in the field.

The target audience of the book is broad—business users, consultants, developers—but that does not mean every chapter is equally interesting to every member of the target audience. Chapters 1 and 7 cover miscellaneous topics of interest to all readers. Chapters 2 to 6 are characterized by an increasing amount of work to obtain the presented analytics functions and also require an increasing level of technical expertise from the reader. Chapter 6 may well be the highlight of the book for developers, while at the same time can be skipped by business users.

As mentioned, Chapter 1, “Before the Work Starts,” covers miscellaneous introductory topics, preparing readers for the details of SAP S/4HANA embedded analytics. The chapter also introduces data modeling, different forms of cloud deployment, the Fiori user interface, SAP’s business intelligence product portfolio, and of course CDS views, which are the building blocks of SAP S/4HANA embedded analytics.

Chapter 2, “No Work: Use What Is Delivered,” does a deep-dive into the standard analytical content delivered with the SAP S/4HANA software. It starts off with an explanation of a certain aspect of Fiori: which tiles are shown to a user and how they are grouped. After that, the chapter focuses on finding, activating, and using SAP-delivered analytical apps. The chapter ends with my contribution to the never-ending battle against the “Excelification” of analytics.

Chapter 3, “Some Work: Smart Business Service,” presents a demo of SAP Smart Business Service, which is a KPI-based framework for the development of analytical apps. It has a codeless, menu-driven user interface, and it is targeted at business users and functional consultants.

The real thing in S/4HANA Embedded Analytics are objects named analytical queries. Chapter 4, “More Work: Building Analytical Queries Using Tiles,” describes how to build these objects in a software-as-a-service environment. The starting point for this type of development is creating SAP-delivered CDS views that can be explored using the Query Browser and View Browser tiles. For the development, you can apply the Custom CDS Views and Custom Analytical Queries tiles.

Chapter 5, “Most Work (Basic): Building Analytical Queries in an IDE,” and Chapter 6, “Most Work (Advanced): Building Analytical Queries in an IDE,” are an even deeper dive into the creation of analytical queries, but this time in an integrated development environment (IDE) connected to an on-premise S/4HANA system. Chapter 5 covers the basics such as connectivity between S/4HANA and the IDE, naming conventions, documentation including data lineage, and ABAP CDS. It also includes a real-life case study, where requirements and the data model are discussed, and all required layers of the data model are built from the bottom to the top including basic views, data integration, cube view, and query view. Chapter 6 covers diverse, more advanced topics such as custom master data views, complex logic, use of parameters and session variables, compatibility views, how to make data “less real time,” multilingual descriptions of field names, “jump to” functionality, how to create a dedicated tile for a query, data authorization, query performance, issues with transporting CDS-views, and Analysis for Office.

Finally, in Chapter 7, “Extensibility, OData, and Beyond,” other types of S/4HANA extensibility are addressed in case Embedded Analytics is not sufficient. The chapter also covers OData services, as well as Agile Development and DevOps in the context of analytics. The final section of the book outlines the ideal skillset for an embedded analytics expert.

Please note that I alone am responsible for the content of this book. Software vendor SAP and client Dutch Railways cooperated by providing graphs and allowing me to take system screenshots, but this much appreciated cooperation does not mean these companies are in any way responsible for what I have written.