In today’s dynamic business landscape, data is the lifeblood of competitive advantage. However, managing this data effectively can be complex, especially when it originates from diverse sources and comes in various formats.
Building on its commitment to data innovation, SAP recently unveiled SAP Datasphere. This comprehensive data management solution empowers companies to unlock the true value of their information. By streamlining data unification, SAP Datasphere enables businesses to integrate data from both internal SAP systems and external third-party sources. Strategic partnerships with leading data and AI players like Collibra, Confluent, Databricks, and DataRobot further bolster this capability. Notably, SAP Datasphere simplifies complex enterprise data landscapes. By leveraging a combination of SAP’s tools and those from its partners, the solution grants access to all data assets while ensuring the critical preservation of business context and logic.
What Benefits Does SAP Datasphere Provide?
SAP Datasphere, the successor to SAP Data Warehouse Cloud, is a cloud-based data management platform. It empowers companies to unify data from any source, structured or unstructured, SAP or non-SAP. Leveraging advanced analytics and machine learning transforms data into actionable insights for data-driven decision-making.
SAP Datasphere offers a comprehensive suite of functionalities:
- Data Acquisition: Ingest data from any source, cloud or on-premise.
- Data Integration: Seamlessly integrate data using pre-built connectors.
- Data Processing & Enhancement: Ensure data quality with various processing tools.
- Advanced Analytics & Visualization: Leverage tools like predictive analytics and interactive dashboards for deeper insights.
- Governance & Security: Maintain data security and regulatory compliance.
How Do Businesses Gain from SAP Datasphere?
SAP Datasphere unlocks business value by
- Empowering data-driven decisions: Gain real-time insights for smarter choices.
- Boosting operational efficiency: Automate tasks, improve productivity, and cut costs.
- Enhancing customer experiences: Personalize offerings with deeper customer understanding.
- Securing a competitive edge: Identify opportunities and adapt to market shifts quickly.
- Mitigating risks: Ensure data security and regulatory compliance.
Existing SAP Data Warehouse Cloud customers automatically transitioned to SAP Datasphere in March 2023. They can continue using the platform seamlessly while enjoying its expanded features.
Why Was Self-Service BI Complex Before SAP Datasphere?
In the past, companies faced several challenges when providing BI self-services to users:
- Understanding the relationship between data and business context.
- Requiring IT involvement for data provision.
- Implementing necessary restrictions through permissions.
- Lacking post-processing capabilities for data in SAP Analytics Cloud (SAC).
The last issue, resulting from the first three, was particularly problematic. Users often resorted to tools like Microsoft Excel, Power BI, or Qlik for data enrichment and visualization due to rigid data models and incomplete information. This practice undermined authorization concepts and led to shadow IT, posing risks to data governance.
Imagine a scenario where users could independently model data within their business environment. IT’s role would then primarily be to ensure data access and provide occasional support, greatly simplifying the process for users.
How SAP Datasphere Simplifies Self-Service BI
With SAP Datasphere, the prerequisites for providing BI self-services are evolving significantly. Two key aspects are crucial:
- Rethinking the relationship between data and business.
- Expanding the range of user-friendly tools for business users.
SAP’s data warehouse solutions and analytical tools are designed with end users in mind, ensuring quick, harmonized, historicized, and centralized data from various sources. Strong authorization concepts provide audit-proof access, making data usable for planning and individual applications.
The SAP HANA database addressed performance issues, and SAP BusinessObjects and SAP Analytics Cloud enhanced reporting solutions. The shift to software-as-a-service solutions on the SAP Business Technology Platform has eliminated slow innovation and costly release cycles.
SAP Datasphere departs from the obstructive approach of inventing everything internally, evidenced by strategic partnerships with Collibra, Confluent, Databricks, and DataRobot. End-to-end integration and additional partnerships will further enhance this ecosystem.
Separation of the business layer and data layer
The rethinking of the relationship between data and business is reflected in SAP Datasphere’s separation of the business and data layers. While this separation concept was present in SAP Data Warehouse Cloud, SAP Datasphere takes it further, enhancing the distinction and functionality of each layer.
In the SAP Datasphere, a key data storage and modelling principle uses data “as is.” Data can be loaded into SAP Datasphere in a harmonized and historicized form or accessed directly from its source without moving it. This approach simplifies processes and reduces time-to-value.
Direct access eliminates the need for complex ETL routes, allowing business users to model and view data in SAP Analytics Cloud quickly. Users can make certain adjustments themselves without waiting for IT, though IT can still handle complex requirements.
Additionally, the new data catalogue and expanded business catalogue support demand-driven modelling, complementing the traditional data-driven modelling. The business semantics in the business catalogue bridge the two approaches.
SAP Datasphere: Focusing on Business Needs
As a result, SAP Datasphere offers business users new possibilities to create analytical models tailored to their specific needs within a secure environment. Whether the underlying data originates from the company’s ERP system, third-party systems, data lakes, public data providers, or other hyper scalers like AWS, Azure, or Google Cloud, SAP Datasphere enables logical data warehousing at its finest. This paradigm allows SAP Datasphere to support the unique capabilities of its users.
The collaboration between IT and business, along with the modelling frameworks in SAP Datasphere, is set to evolve in the future. This enhanced business-IT alignment will ensure the synchronization and integration of business strategies and IT resources, leading to optimal results and a competitive edge. SAP Datasphere offers powerful tools to support an intuitive workflow, facilitating this alignment.
Enormous potential of business-centric analytics
IT departments, BI Competence Centers, business departments, and decision-makers must let go of familiar notions to transition from heterogeneous, insecure, costly, and error-prone analytical environments to a robust, secure, flexible, and future-proof analytical ecosystem. This shift entails moving from a standard data fabric to a business data fabric.
Business-centric analytics, offering users maximum flexibility and high security in creating their analyses, are crucial for companies seeking competitive advantages. SAP Datasphere’s advanced approach provides robust support for essential analytics in sustainability, transparency, supply chains, resource management, and employee satisfaction.
Conclusion
The data landscape is dynamic, and companies need robust solutions to stay ahead. SAP Datasphere empowers businesses to unlock the true value of their information through comprehensive data management functionalities.
VE3, your trusted technology partner, brings deep expertise to your SAP Datasphere journey. We’ll help you:
- Unify your data: Consolidate data from diverse sources into a secure, unified environment.
- Empower business users: Provide intuitive tools for self-service BI, fostering collaboration and faster decision-making.
- Gain actionable insights: Leverage advanced analytics and real-time data to optimize processes and gain a competitive edge.
- Ensure data security & compliance: VE3’s expertise ensures robust governance practices within SAP Datasphere.
Beyond core functionalities, VE3 offers specialized support in sustainability, supply chain optimization, and employee satisfaction.
Ready to unleash the power of your data?
Contact VE3 today to explore how our SAP Datasphere expertise can help you achieve your business goals. Let’s turn data into a strategic asset, driving digitization and long-term success.
