What is our primary use case?
My main use case for SAP Business Data Cloud is to connect multiple systems and derive data products using customized as well as standard solutions. This includes a data transition to use BW/4HANA and other legacy systems to transfer data to SAP Business Data Cloud PC, private cloud edition, and generate data products based on this.
SAP Business Data Cloud can be used fundamentally in the same way as Databricks where we can send the data to zero-copy sharing data with Databricks and perform machine learning, and then write back data into SAP Business Data Cloud and utilize it in SAP Analytics Cloud. The challenge is based on machine learning that we cannot implement in another tool, so we can use SAP Business Data Cloud for this purpose.
What is most valuable?
The best features SAP Business Data Cloud offers is basically one solution for all analytics and planning applications. The integration of all the third-party as well as SAP data sources in one platform allows us to deliver machine learning, analytics, and planning. Using this, the decision-making process is very easy with one platform.
SAP Business Data Cloud positively impacts my organization because SAP provides built-in data products that we can easily install and share the results with clients. The implementation of our organization's requirements is more straightforward than with other platforms, and decision-making is easier because SAP provides the built-in data products app that follows SAP best practices. Based on this, any business can cover their scenario easily, and decision-making increases profit.
What needs improvement?
SAP Business Data Cloud can improve by reducing the licensing cost because each level requires clients or partners to pay different licenses based on its functionalities. For instance, if we purchase SAP Business Data Cloud only for SAC, we pay the SAC licensing, and if we also purchase Datasphere, we then pay for Datasphere licensing, Databricks licensing, and BW bridge licensing. At each step, partners or organizations requiring SAP Business Data Cloud pay licensing for every tool. If we can reduce the licensing cost, it may help small or medium organizations to implement SAP Business Data Cloud, making it more popular globally.
My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing of SAP Business Data Cloud is that it is very high compared to implementation costs. If we could reduce this cost based on capacity units, then small and medium organizations could also avail themselves of this opportunity.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using SAP Business Data Cloud for eight months.
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What do I think about the stability of the solution?
SAP Business Data Cloud is stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The scalability of SAP Business Data Cloud can increase based on users' requirements.
How are customer service and support?
The customer support for SAP Business Data Cloud is very good.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
Before using SAP Business Data Cloud, we used BW/4HANA and SAP Business Object. The reason we switched is that BW and SAP Business Object did not perform well for planning and lacked built-in functionality, leading us to shift to SAP Business Data Cloud, where any third-party data sources or SAP data sources are integrated in one place. We decided to switch to SAP Business Data Cloud because it provides AI, machine learning capabilities, and predictive analytics.
How was the initial setup?
I have done integration of SAP as well as non-SAP sources including third-party sources. There is a SAP Business Data Cloud cockpit where we can create a formation in which all the systems including third-party systems as well as SAP systems are connected into one place. This integration is also performed using SAP BTP for integration, and after the integration or formation creation, we can simply set up and create a connection on tools such as SAC or Datasphere or any other tool connected to it.
We can use workforce-related apps where we can identify how many workers are required to increase specific production or how many sales increase based on this workforce. For example, if we can increase sales, we can determine how much workforce is required. If we reduce the workforce, we then assess the impact on other sales or production. Based on this, we can easily generate profit or implement it in multiple organizations.
What was our ROI?
There is a return on investment with SAP Business Data Cloud, as it saves money because it performs results quickly and easily, facilitating integrations and speeding up operations compared to other analytics tools, thereby saving time and money.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
I did not evaluate other options before choosing SAP Business Data Cloud; I only chose it because I heard good things from different clients and colleagues, making my choice straightforward.
What other advice do I have?
My advice to others looking into using SAP Business Data Cloud is that it is a cementing platform that aligns multiple tools, both SAP and non-SAP, into one relationship and generates reports and dashboards very easily. Even non-technical users can work on standard SAP data products and generate results based on their business requirements, making SAP Business Data Cloud very helpful for any organization.
SAP Business Data Cloud is deployed in public cloud, private cloud, and hybrid scenarios because one organization might have a public cloud such as S/4HANA, another might have on-premises data sources, and a third could have both public cloud and on-premises sources. In this case, we can implement a hybrid scenario where we connect legacy data sources to SAP Business Data Cloud and generate results based on this.
The self-service analytics features of SAP Business Data Cloud provide fast results compared to manual input and enable multiple business decisions to be generated based on the speed of this service.
SAP Business Data Cloud support for AI and machine learning has enabled new use cases in our organization. For instance, we can use workforce-related apps, sales prediction, production prediction, and overall business scenario prediction. Using AI and machine learning, we can easily generate results and share them with clients.
When I connect SAP Business Data Cloud with third-party data sources, the reliability of data sharing is very easy and occurs quickly when connecting different data sources such as SAP data sources or any external data sources.
When keeping the same meaning or relationships when data moves between different systems, SAP Business Data Cloud can use data from multiple systems. Based on these multiple systems, we first define the relationships of the data, and when we share results with different systems, the meaning remains unchanged because we define the relationships before sharing results.
I find SAP Business Data Cloud to be a very good product, and I recommend every business organization use it. Based on these results, you can make decisions easily, and I gave this review a rating of seven out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Private Cloud
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer. Partner
Thank you for taking the time to provide feedback! I appreciate that you see the value in the built-in data products.
Also, please check out our Data Professionals Special Interest Group on the SAP Community (#datapro) to learn and engage. For example, write a blog to share a specific use case you have implemented with SAP BDC and how you accomplished it.