SAP HANA Live & S/4HANA Embedded Analytics

[Former Member]

What is the difference between SAP HANA Live and S/4HANA Embedded Analytics?

Both are standard SAP delivered content for real-time operational Reporting, but use different technology. While SAP HANA Live uses native SAP HANA SQL views, SAP HANA S/4HANA Embedded Analytics is based on ABAP®-managed core data services (CDS) of the ABAP layer of SAP. S/4HANA. CDS views can be maintained in ABAP for Eclipse, while native HANA SQL views are maintained in HANA Studio.

Both, SAP HANA Live and SAP S/4HANA Embeded Analytics can be utilized for the Fiori UX.

In General one could say that SAP HANA Live is content for the SAP Business Suite on HANA, while S/4HANA Embedded Analytics is content for the new simplified data models in S/4HANA. Please see this YouTube Video for background information on the simplified data model.

First content of S/4HANA Embedded Analytics has been shipped with S/4HANA 1511 in the areas of FI, SD, Inventory Management PP and Procurement.

Getting Started with S/4 HANA Embedded Analytics

Journey of Data:From Tables to Tiles - A sneak peek into the S/4 HANA Embedded Analytics Architectur...

From the FAQ:

SAP HANA Live offerings will continue to be supported as an important native capability of the SAP HANA platform. New data models of SAP HANA Live for SAP Business Suite were released in April 2015, and the next release is planned for Q1/2016. For the latest SAP HANA Live release notes, please see the SAP Help Portal SAP HANA Live – SAP Help Portal Page - Please note that the link in the FAQ document is invalid.

Existing content in SAP HANA Live will remain valid with no changes required – until a customer decides to move to SAP S/4HANA. At that time, it is possible to either modify existing SAP HANA Live models to the new data structures of SAP S/4HANA or migrate to the new technology using CDS.

The SAP Business Warehouse (SAP BW) application powered by SAP HANA is our strategic solution for enterprise data warehousing. There is significant ongoing investment in and development for SAP BW and SAP BW powered by SAP HANA, and new features are introduced with each new release. Check out the latest road map and release information at http://service.sap.com /roadmap .

Source: SAPInsider: A Deeper Look into SAP S/4HANA Embedded Analytics

SAP Best Practices for Analytics with SAP S/4HANA on SAP Service Market Place allows download of configuration guides

Technical Setup for S/4 HANA Embedded Analytics

Analytical Report for S/4 HANA: Other Report Types (BGF) pre-configured reports

Analysis Report for S/4 HANA: Core Finance (BHB)

Analysis Report for S/4 HANA: Procure-to-Pay (BHG)

Analysis Report for S/4 HANA: Order-to-Cash (BHJ)

Integration Between BI Platform and Fiori Launchpad (BHC)

Integration Scenarios Between SAP S/4HANA and SAP BW

and technical content

What is SAP HANA Live?

Real-Time operational reporting directly on your Suite on HANA and S/4HANA system without any redundancy or latency. Alternatively, SAP HANA Live can be used in a sidecar scenario next to your existing SAP Business Suite deployment on AnyDB.

SAP HANA Live provides SAP-delivered content (similar in concept like SAP BW content), in form of SAP HANA calculation views for real-time operational reporting. The content is represented as a VDM - virtual data model, which is based on the transactional and master data tables of the SAP Business Suite. The SAP HANA Studio is the SAP HANA application where the calculation views for these VDM are developed and maintained.

SAPInsider presentation:

http://scn.sap.com/community/embedded-analytics/blog/2013/09/02/hana-live-webcast-summary

slides:  http://wcc.on24.com/event/67/02/32/rt/1/documents/slidepdf/sap_hana_live_insider_20130828_final2.pdf

How can SAP HANA Live be used together with SAP NetWeaver BW?

SAP HANA Live is complementary to the SAP Enterprise Data Warehouse application SAP NetWeaver BW, and can be co-deployed with BW and combined in mixed scenarios:Mixed scenarios: BW on HANA and HANA datamart

Go Hybrid - SAP HANA Live & SAP BW Data Integration!

SAP HANA Live - and BW integration

With sFin the embedded BW has gained new importance, thorstenster's blog Embedded BW is the new reality explains new and old features.

Release Notes:

SAP HANA Live for SAP Business Suite 1.0 – SAP Help Portal Page

Which tables and fields are used in the SAP HANA Live delivered views?

In the help documentation below details like table names and  filtes used arelisted, for example

SD Delivery

(tried to paste the direct link in here, but either SCN technology or policies do not allow for that, sorry for that will try later again)

Documentation for

Virtual Data Models for SAP ERP ECC 6.0 EHP 6.0

http://help.sap.com/saphelp_hba/helpdata/en/36/bfedf01b0941d4924d902b361aa2e7/frameset.htm

Virtual Data Models for SAP ECC 6.0 ERP EHP 4.0

http://help.sap.com/saphelp_hba/helpdata/en/d5/bf8f06004c4aa1b26c3b45002f9ad4/frameset.htm

Virtual Data Models for SAP HANA Live for SAP CRM

http://help.sap.com/saphelp_hba/helpdata/en/1e/be2d517ae6fc74e10000000a423f68/content.htm?frameset=/...

Virtual Data Model for SAP HANA Live for SAP SCM - Demand Plan

http://help.sap.com/saphelp_hba/helpdata/en/9f/1fd451a1177a3ee10000000a423f68/content.htm?frameset=/...

Virtual Data Model for SAP HANA Live for SAP GRC

http://help.sap.com/saphelp_hba/helpdata/en/2a/bc7b56941047d2ada02bbfeddcb3a7/frameset.htm

Virtual Data Model for SAP HANA Live for SAP GTS - Global Trade Services

http://help.sap.com/saphelp_hba/helpdata/en/a7/16a966c9ba455ea6b70b004ecf0c54/frameset.htm

Does SAP provide RDS material for SAP HANA Live?

Yes, please see the links to SCN community the RDS http://service.sap.com/rds-shl (RDS-Analytics-HANA Live) and this SAP note , which also includes a SAP HANA Live QuickGuide

Two deployment scenarios are possible:

• SAP HANA Live as a SAP HANA side car to SAP Business Suite applications on traditional RDBMS (Pre-requisite is SAP LT Replication Server), for example together with a SAP NetWeaver BW on HANA system
  • Go Hybrid - Combined SAP HANA Live and SAP BW deployment scenarios
• SAP HANA Live on the same system as SAP Business Suite powered by SAP HANA, means the
  • SAP ERP HANA Live views on SAP ERP on powered by SAP HANA,
  • SAP CRM HANA Live views on SAP CRM powered by SAP HANA
  • SAP SCM HANA Live views on SAP SCM powered by SAP HANA

What are the leading practices for SAP HANA implementations?

SAP HANA Studio offers currently three types of views: attribute views, analytical views and calculation views, with calculation views available in two flavors: graphical  models and  or script-based models.

The SAP HANA graphical calculation views are recommended as the preferred SAP HANA Live view type. In case there are some required features are not yet available in graphical calculation views, then script-based calculation views may be used instead.

In General, SAP HANA  attribute and analytical views are not the preferred SAP HANA views for SAP HANA Live implementations.

Can we extend the delivered SAP HANA Live content?

Yes, SAP HANA Live can be adjusted to any Industry, can easily be enriched with non-SAP data and can include customizations.

Of course the Standard SAP best practices for customizations also apply to SAP HANA Live, in order to avoid overwrite during upgrades and patches. During Ramp-up extensions are only possible with support of SAP. Furthermore limitations are described in SAP Notes 1778607 and 1800631.  SAP will deliver extensions to the initial data models from different transactional areas as well as industry applications.

Please see the link for the How-to-Paper, which you an also find attached to this link below:

How to Realize Cross System Reporting Using SAP HANA Live Content

Demo How-To-Extend HANA Live Query Views:

http://www.saphana.com/community/blogs/blog/2013/08/29/create-your-own-query-views-based-on-hana-liv...

Can we modify the delivered SAP HANA Live data models?

Yes, SAP HANA Live can be adjusted to any Industry, can easily be enriched with non-SAP data and can include customizations.

Of course the Standard SAP best practices for customizations also apply to SAP HANA Live, in order to avoid overwrite during upgrades and patches. During Ramp-up extensions are only possible with support of SAP. Furthermore limitations are described in SAP Notes 1778607 and 1800631.  SAP will deliver extensions to the initial data models from different transactional areas as well as industry applications.

Please see the link for the How-to-Paper, which you an also find attached to this link below:

How to Enhance SAP HANA Live | SCN

Demo How-To-Extend HANA Live Query Views:

http://www.saphana.com/community/blogs/blog/2013/08/29/create-your-own-query-views-based-on-hana-liv...

• Query views are designed for direct consumption by an analytical application (for example based on HTML5) or a generic analytical tool (for example SAP BusinessObjects tools). They are always the top view in a hierarchy of views and are not designed for reuse in other views. However, the virtual data model also includes query views in order to support (showcase) applications based on the virtual data model. The name of a query view ends with 'Query' and provides output fields in a format consumable by UIs.
• Value Help views provide value lists for specific business entities that are used by query views. They are used by frontend tools in order to enable a value help for respective input fields for variables or parameters assigned to these business entities.
• Reuse views are the heart of the virtual data model. They expose the business data in a well-structured, consistent, comprehensible way covering all relevant business data in SAP Business Suite systems. They are designed for reuse by other views and must not be consumed directly by analytic tools.
• Private views encapsulate certain SQL transformations on one or several database tables or even other views. They are not classified as reuse views as they might not carry clear business semantics but are rather intended to be reused in other views of the virtual data model. They are comparable to subroutines or (private) methods in programming languages. A private view may be based on database tables, other private views or on reuse views.

Can we copy the delivered SAP HANA Live data models?

Can we use SAP HANA Live Content for Cross System Reporting?

Yes, please see for more details:

How to Realize Cross System Reporting Using SAP HANA Live Content

What is the security/authorization model for SAP HANA Live?

Please see this link for an overview on the authorization and security aspects: https://scn.sap.com/docs/DOC-59929

What is the minimum ERP release to utilize SAP HANA Live?

SAP recommends ECC 6.0 EHP7 to use the full content. The current minimum release is ECC 6.0 EHP4. for details please see the release notes in http://help.sap.com/hba

SAP HANA Live is also the foundation for SAP HANA Smart Business Cockpits:

https://scn.sap.com/docs/DOC-59898

How can I see the tables used for SAP HANA Live calculation views?

Please see this YouTube video for an example of a SAP HANA XS demo application which is utilized to get the list physical tables of views.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ah2p5Hdh_kY

SAP HANA Live has a browser to view the models:

How-to-Document: Utilize the View Browser Application Which Accompanies SAP HANA Live:

https://scn.sap.com/docs/DOC-40300

How does SAP HANA Live differentiates from SAP Embedded Reports and Operational Data Providers?

SAP Embedded reports became available with SAP ECC 6.0 and EHP 5 and Operational Data Providers with EHP 6. SAP HANA Live became available with SAP Business Suite powered by SAP HANA and is based on SAP HANA calculation views.

Which User Interface UI / front-end is required for the SAP HANA Live for Reporting?

SAP HANA Live reports can be accessed by HTML 5, native Excel or SAP BusinessObjects Business Analytics applications.

http://help.sap.com/saphelp_hba/helpdata/en/df/65d36d2bec49e189f5452da92669ea/frameset.htm

Which user interface is used to access the back-end modeling?

The application back-end can be accessed using the standard SAP HANA Studio functionality. In order to access the structures and elements of the virtual data model inside SAP HANA Live without installing SAP HANA Studio, the html-based SAP HANA Live View Browser can be used (also for documentation).

Which SAP BusinessObjects analytical solutions are available for SAP HANA Live?

Recommended (but not limited to) for the first version of SAP HANA Live are:

SAP Crystals Reports for Enterprise 4.0.4

SAP BusinessObjects Analysis (Edition for Microsoft Office) 1.0.3

SAP BusinessObjects Explorer

SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards 4.0.4

SAP Lumira - Lumira documents for HANA Live | SCN

[Former Member]

Excelent document but where can I find more about the link to GRC reporting and dashboarding?

regards,

pedro

[Former Member]

Thanks Pedro,

in addition to the SAP marketing websites yo will find information on SCN::

GRC: Governance, Risk and Compliance (SAP GRC)

Dashboarding: Business Intelligence

thank you

erich

[Former Member]

Hi Erich,

thanks for the reply.

I am looking for the SAP HANA integration with SAP AC...

regards,

pedro

[Former Member]

Hi Erich,

Many thanks for you Information about this Topic. We start now with our project implementation of SAP S/4HANA, on premise edition 1511 in our Landscape. I think it is the best if we start with the solution " S/4HANA Embedded Analytics" and not "SAP HANA Live". My impression is that this will be the best solution / technology for us instead of "SAP HANA Live" if we use S/4HANA, on premise edition 1511.

Is that right?

Many thanks and best regards

Marcus

[Former Member]

Marcus,

there are 2 different aspects:

1. Technology

2. Standard delivered content

1. Technology

• HANA Live is built on native HANA SQL views
• S/4HANA Embedded Analytics is built on ABAP CDS views.

Both are valid technologies with their unique advantages and will be supported going forward. One of the main differences is that CDS views can use existing Suite authorizations, while the native HANA views need their own set of profiles.

2. Standard delivered content

• HANA Live VDM's were originally developed on the Suite on HANA data model, and there are some updates to the S/4HANA data model. Please see the release notes for details.
• S/4HANA Embedded Analytics is being built on the new S/4HANA data model

To answer your question: "It depends".

My personal recommendation for anything Finance, where you need detailed security and cost center and profit center hierarchies, use CDS views.

For any agile reporting for example in sales and marketing, where your BI resources have extensive SQL skills and no ABAP background, the native HANA SQL views are a good option. Otherwise you risk that the non-ABAP resources start downloading data from your S/4 system into proliferated data marts where they can use their SQL skills.

My 2 cents

erich

[Former Member]

Hi Erich,

Many thansk for your informations.

Best regards

Marcus

[Former Member]

Hi Erich,

Thanks for the valuable information. This is certainly a rapidly evolving set of technologies. Could you provide some direction please...

We are architecting an analytics solution for a client on the latest version of S/4HANA + Ariba + SuccessFactors + SalesForce.

At this point our simple architecture is to bring all data into S/4HANA and conform there. Persist there and store history there for up to 3 years - then Archive using HANA VORA.

Would you say that this solution would work with HANA Live Views on all but S/4HANA data, CDS views for that and the BOBJ Platform running across all (and HANA Vora)?

I can't find any technical reasons that this solution would not work, it just feels over simplified?

Thank you,

Paul

[Former Member]

Yes, Paul, that is a possibility.

Other options, depending on your current and planned infrastructure (like running Hadoop in the cloud or on premise and your S/4 Governance and its impact on BI self service) are BW on HANA, HANA side car, or agile data mart in HCP HANA Cloud Platform.

HCP is a low Capex high agile solution, where you can persist data from either source or use virtual consumption, depending on latency and data transformation requirements.

With HCP you could source data from S/4 using CDS views and native HANA views depending on the source, and standardize on HANA native views in HCP for use in BOBJ on premise or BOBJ CE aka C4A cloud for Analytics.

thank you

erich

[Former Member]

Hi Erich,

I understand that SAP will be coming up with S/4 HANA Embedded Analytics updates/releases on an quarterly basis. How about HANA Live roadmap ? Do SAP has releases planned for HANA live too or is it going in maintenance mode?

It will be helpful if you can provide link for SAP planned release road map for HANA Live as well as S/4 HANA Embedded Analytics.

Also you have mention that when migrating to S/4 HANA, existing HANA Live models needs to be modified  to the new data structure ? In that case is there a tool that SAP provides for such migration or too much of effort and modification will be required to continue using existing HANA live models?

Regards,

Jeet.

[Former Member]

Thanks Eric!

We are now very much thinking to use BW7.5 on HANA next to our S/4HANA for the following main reasons:

• Data from non-SAP systems harmonized with data from S/4HANA
• We require data transformation and cleansing to bring data in from non-SAP
• We work with time dependant master data
• We require historical snapshotting of data
• We require analytics that will be on long term trend analysis (over 10 years)
• We will require multiple & complex hierarchies

The data in BW will be over 20% of the size of S/4HANA (otherwise we'd have used BW embedded).

Anyone have additional comments /considerations?

Thanks!

Paul

[Former Member]

HI Erich,

Great document.. Can we have some info on the CRM Partner Channel Management HANA Live Views that are available.. Please let me know your comments

[Former Member]

Sorry Supriyo,

the only official information I am aware off is in the SAP help and release notes.

thank you

erich

[Andrea_Bosoni]

Hi Erich, suppose I have implemented HANA Live on Business Suite on HANA. In case I then move to S/4 HANA Finance or S/4 HANA EM, should I expect an impact on my Hana Live components? I know for S/4 HANA Finance there's an additional package available....but how is my existing Live for Suite on HANA baseline likely to be impacted? I'm considering for now standard HANA Live content. Thanks!

[Former Member]

Andrea,

As soon as the underlying data model changes, either adjustments need to be made or new packages will be provided.

The default solution for S/4HANA is S/4HANA embedded analytics content based on CDS views, therefore the focus for S/4HANA "BI content" is in the embedded analytics area.

thank you

erich

[Former Member]

Hello Together, What about the roles and authorizations for the S/4HANA Embedded Analytics solution? Which roles can we use in our 1511 System -> Transaktion pfcg? Thanks and best regards

[Andrea_Bosoni]

Thank you Erich for your prompt response!

Just two more clarifications.

1) What about the technical system conversion to S/4 (be it either Finance or EM)? Is the technical procedure, starting from Business Suite on HANA, likely to be impacted/disturbed in any way due to the presence of HANA Live artifacts on the system?

2) In case we build our virtual data model on the Business Suite on HANA (NW 7.4) leveraging CDS, would this affect the subsequent technical conversion to S/4 besides - in this case also - some adjustments required on the artifacts due to changes in the data model?

Thanks again,

Andrea

[Former Member]

In general,

if the the data model changes, then data will be physically deleted and/or moved from a set of old tables to a new table.

Compatibility views have and will mitigate the issues, but, of course , in order to take full advantage of the simplified data model you might want to make adjustments to your reporting sources either in CDS (S/4 embedded analytics content) or native HANA SQL views (HANA Live content).

Which of course leads potentially to the requirement to combine data originated in the old data model (maybe even 10 years or older)  and in the new data model going forward. In that case you might still want to use BW or any other data warehouse to manage your complete data history.

thank you

erich

[Former Member]

Marcus,

CDS views allow you to utilize standard SAP ABAP application-based security, which is very sophisticated and enabled database agnostic settings.

Native HANA views require HANA-specific security.

thank you

erich

[Former Member]

Hi Experts,

I'm looking for Hana live fo S4Hana, could you please tel me where download it?

Thanks.

Regards.

[MJUDI]

Hi Shahab,

Have a look at the SAP Best Practices for Analytics with S/4HANA (http://service.sap.com/analyticswiths4h)

Also, you can download the packages under SAP Best Practices section of Downloads in the Service Marketplace: https://launchpad.support.sap.com/#/softwarecenter/template/products/_APP=00200682500000001943&_EVEN...

Thanks,

MJ

[former_member195748]

Hey Shahab,

I am not 100percent sure, but if you need hana live on S4hana, you need to have Enterprise license also, as HANA live is not part of S4hana.

[former_member289665]

Hi Erich -

Good info as always. However, did one of your blogs got discontinued?  S/4HANA Finance aka Simple Finance aka sFIN? Received alert that it is currently unavailable due to SCN content that was not migrated to the new SAP Community experience.

My main question today are:
1) For the single source of truth, Universal Journal, only one BI Extractor is needed if BW is still in place. What is the name of the BW Extractor?
2) What version of BW do you have to be on in order to install this Extractor (i.e the relevant BI Content)?

I appreciate your response.


regards,
Isaac

[Former Member]

Isaac,

yes we decided not to migrate the blogs - long story.... going fw please refer to Sven Denneckens blogs.

An update on BW datasource w regards to sFin is in note 2270133.

In general all new simplified tables can be sourced via CDS views.


Thank you
erich

[Former Member]

Hi Erich

This is an excellent document. Is there any place where i can see a list of all HANA live views and the information each view provides. We are using ECC on HANA. I am specifically looking for any Accounts Payable HANA live view. Unfortunately i do not see any HANA live views for AP. Only thing i can see closest is “AccountingDocumentGLView” which unfortunately goes to BKPF, BSEG, FLAGELFLEX etc (and not BISK or BSAK). I am not sure whether it is designed by choice, to keep with the strategy of only using 4 Fin tables in S4HANA , or whether i could not find the right views to create my Accounts Payable reports. Really appreciate if you can point it to the right palce

Kind Regards

Sanjit

[Kris_S]

Hi Sanjit,

You should be able to get all your AP info using the following:

GL Account Line Item Entry View (GLAccountLineItemEntryViewQuery)
GL Account Line Item GL View(GLAccountLineItemGLViewQuery)
Query view of profit center receivable payable(ProfitCenterReceivablePayableQuery)
Compact Document Journal (AccountingDocumentJournalQuery)
Profit center master data index (ProfitCenterMasterDataIndexQuery)
GL account list in chart of accounts (GLAccountListInChartOfAccountsQuery)

These are straight from the SHAL Documentation.

You do not need BSIK/BSAK as all the relevant data is held in BKPF/BSEG, you just need to apply logic in your selections i.e. set the cleared flag or where flag is empty, account types, posting keys, doc types…it is all there. Going forward, BSIK/BSAK…and others…become compatibility views and no longer store data.

Also have a look at the GRIR App for HANA live as that also provides very relevant Purchase to Pay information.

If you want to stay within the SAPGUI environment then try the FBL1H/FBL3H/FBL5H transactions/line item browsers as these should provide you with most of your needs in AP/AR/GL.

Cheers

Kris

[former_member289665]

Hello Erich,

We just implemented S4 16.05 (SP4), which is still on our Q system for testing before deployment to production in matter of days.

However, we noticed that some Z-tables, which are heavily in use are not compatible (or visible again) once the installation was done on our Q.

How do we avoid or say ensure these tables works in production? I was under the impression that existing Z-tables works well with S4? We cannot afford to loose these tables, please what is your advise?

 

regards,

Isaac

 

 

[amkhan]

Hi Erich,

Thank you very much for such an informative document.

You mentioned at the time of moving to S/4 HANA “At that time, it is possible to either modify existing SAP HANA Live models to the new data structures of SAP S/4HANA or migrate to the new technology using CDS.”

My question: Is there a migration tool for HANA Live Views -> CDS Views in place now or coming in future? I will appreciate your response. thanks!

-Aslam Khan

[Former Member]

Can anyone advise if Hana Enterprise Cloud comes with Hana Live by default?