Did you know that many SAP S/4HANA users don’t fully tap into the powerful embedded analytics right at their fingertips? For both business users and IT experts, one common question arises when adopting SAP S/4HANA: How do I find and use pre-delivered content within the system?
While this might seem straightforward, the reality of navigating a new platform with so many features can be overwhelming. During the transition, it’s easy to miss out on critical tools like predefined queries, reports, and dashboards—the plug-and-play analytics content designed to provide instant insights without requiring custom development.
Many users find themselves focusing on adapting to new processes and overlook this ready-to-use content. The result? Missed opportunities to quickly visualize key metrics such as sales data or project performance, leading to frustration, inefficiency, and wasted time. But this doesn’t have to be the case. SAP S/4HANA’s embedded analytics is designed to empower users—offering insights that can transform how you make decisions, with minimal setup.
In this article, we’ll walk you through how to easily find and use these plug-and-play queries, ensuring you get the most out of SAP S/4HANA’s embedded analytics.
Unlocking Pre-Delivered Queries with Query Browser and Multi-Dimensional Reporting
If you’ve ever felt overwhelmed by the amount of data in SAP S/4HANA, the combination of Query Browser and Multi-Dimensional Reporting can simplify your journey from finding the right data to making actionable decisions.
The Query Browser is your first stop when looking for pre-delivered, plug-and-play queries. This tool makes it easy to search and filter predefined queries that provide real-time insights into your organization’s most critical metrics, such as sales orders, sourcing activities, or operational performance. As you browse through available queries, you can also view detailed metadata about each query—such as column name, description, and data type—helping you understand the context and structure behind the information. This way, users can easily identify the most relevant queries for their needs, ensuring that the right data is readily accessible without having to create reports from scratch.
Analyzing Data with the Multidimensional Reporting
After finding your query in the Query Browser, the next step in exploring your data is to click the “Open for Analysis” button, which will take you to the Multi-Dimensional Reporting interface. This tool allows you to perform insight-driven, flexible analyses of large datasets, all within a grid-like format. It’s designed for business users who need to visualize data across multiple dimensions, such as sales orders or cost centers, offering both table (grid) and graphical display options. The app provides a dynamic way to slice and dice, drill down, and customize your view of the data.
Key Features of the Multi-Dimensional Reporting:
- Presenting data in a pivot-like table for easy navigation.
- Allowing users to add dimensions and key figures to get a deeper view of the metrics that matter.
- Providing drilldown capabilities for a more granular look at your data.
- Sorting, filtering, and even swapping rows and columns to focus on the most relevant information.
- The ability to save personalized views (bookmarks) and share them with your team, enhancing collaboration.
Additionally, you can easily navigate to other SAP Fiori apps while maintaining context, ensuring that you can explore related data without losing your place. Whether you’re comparing sales performance across regions or analyzing cost centers, the Multi-Dimensional Reporting empowers you to explore and visualize data quickly and effectively—all in read-only mode, ensuring data integrity.
Real-Life Example: Analyzing Sales Orders with C_SalesOrderQuery
Let’s look at a practical use case to show how you can leverage these tools to gain insights into sales orders. Imagine you’re a sales manager looking to answer key questions about your sales orders, such as:
- What’s the overall processing status of my sales orders?
- How many sales orders are open, and what’s the overall open value?
The C_SalesOrderQuery provides a plug-and-play solution to answer these questions. Available through the Query Browser, this pre-configured query delivers real-time insights into sales orders at the header level. Metrics like Number of Sales Orders, Net Value of Open Orders, and the Overall Processing Status are easily accessible, providing a clear overview of your sales pipeline.
After locating the C_SalesOrderQuery in the Query Browser, you can further explore the data using the Multi-Dimensional Reporting. For example, you might want to analyze open sales orders by sales organization, sold-to party, or overall processing status. With the slice and dice functionality, you can filter orders by region or sales organization, allowing for a more granular view of your sales data. This flexible analysis helps you answer critical business questions without needing external tools or complex reports.
Bringing It All Together
The Query Browser creates a seamless workflow for users, from finding relevant queries to drilling down into the data for deeper analysis. It delivers the pre-built content you need and, with the “Open for Analysis” feature, allows you to launch Multi-Dimensional Reporting. This powerful combination enables you to explore and manipulate data, providing real-time insights at every level of your organization.
By utilizing the Query Browser and its Multi-Dimensional Reporting capabilities, both business users and IT experts can unlock the full potential of SAP S/4HANA’s embedded analytics, making smarter decisions faster with predefined queries and the flexibility to tailor those insights to their specific needs.
When Pre-Delivered Content Isn’t Enough
While Query Browser and Multi-Dimensional Reporting offer robust analytics capabilities, there are times when your organization needs more tailored insights. That’s where the Custom Analytical Queries app comes in. With this tool, you can easily build new queries, define your own metrics, and customize reports without needing extensive development work. In our future article, we’ll explore how to leverage Custom Analytical Queries to create dynamic, personalized reports that fit your specific business needs.
Unlocking the full potential of SAP S/4HANA’s embedded analytics can transform how you make data-driven decisions. If you want to learn more about how to leverage these tools effectively or need help with tailoring queries to your specific requirements, our team of SAP experts is here to help. Contact us today to discover how we can optimize your use of embedded analytics, empowering your business to make smarter, faster decisions.
