Thursday, July 16, 2020
ASUGForward – W.R. Grace – SAP Analytics Cloud & Google BigQuery
Congratulations to ASUG on their very successful ASUGForward virtual event in late June. This virtual event was scheduled in response to the global lockdown caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, and while it was not business as usual, I’m sure this gathering in cyberspace was just what the doctor ordered for many of us. So, a big thankyou to ASUG!
Grace implemented SAP Analytics Cloud about a year and a half ago. Their challenge, as outlined by Sebastian Rogge (Sr. Data Analyst), was to move to a broader finance data set, provide self-service analytics capabilities, and reduce or eliminate many of the manual processes in their workflow.
They found that they were essentially creating a 1:1 story to data model relationship with a great deal of overlap. They and APOS partner Analysis Primeundertook to build a FICO-based data structure for use with the SAP Analytics Cloud solution. The new SAP Analytics Cloud Finance data foundation was designed to increase productivity, automation and data integrity, while mitigating risks and enhancing decision-making capabilities. The data foundation needed to be comprehensive, flexible, and consistent.
Google BigQuery figured heavily in their data foundation, providing a resilient, strong, Cloud-based data warehouse, with data blending capabilities and speed.
While the majority of their reporting requirements were fulfilled by replicating their BW data in Google BigQuery, they had a number of use cases that required immediate, high-volume, live data access.
Sunil Kumar (SAP Enterprise Architect) described how Grace used the APOS Live Data Gateway solution to give SAP Analytics Cloud live access to Google BigQuery data. In one use case, APOS Live Data Gateway provided live and immediate access to millions of records for real-time analysis.
Sunil said they have been using APOS Live Data Gateway successfullyl for over a year, that all Grace business users appreciate the live functionality provided by it, and that the APOS team has also been very supportive in helping them reach and maintain their technical objectives.
You can view this and other ASUGForward presentations
here.