FAQ Business Process Analytics

What is the main purpose of Business Process Analytics?

A: Business Process Analytics is the supporting root cause analysis tool for activities in the area of Business Process Improvement for SAP solutions. So implementing Business Process Analytics should not necessarily be a goal by itself, but should rather be a mean for the Business Process Improvement goal.
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Which prerequisites have to be met in order to setup Business Process Analytics?

A: The technical prerequisites are very similar to those for Business Process Monitoring described in SAP notes 784752 - "BPMon in SAP Solution Manager - Prerequisites" and 521820 - "Availability of Business Process Monitoring". Further prerequisites are described in the corresponding Setup Guide for Business Process Analytics at (SMP login required) http://service.sap.com/bpimp > Media Library > Technical Information.
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Is there a list of available key figures that come out-of-the-box?

A: Yes, there are more than 800 out-of-the-box key figures. Please visit the KPI Catalog at (SMP login required) https://go.support.sap.com/kpicatalog. An introduction to the KPI catalog can be found in this blog .
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Can I configure my own (customer-specific) key figures?

A: Yes, Business Process Analytics offers a complete Customer Exit framework in order to develop customer-specific key figures. This is described in the SCN Blog Customer Exit: Create your own key figure for BPMon AND Business Process Analytics . In this case you should also have a look at the document "Setup Guide - Customer Exit with ABAP OO" under (login required) https://service.sap.com/bpm > Media Library > Technical Information or SAP note 1556760 - Documentation for BP Monitoring: Customer exit in ABAP OO . back to top

Who is the target group for Business Process Analytics?

A: In general the target groups are global/local business process owner or global/local SAP module owner who have a supervisory role and want to understand if all organizational units and process variants have the same problem or not and if all organizational units are adhering to the same template processes. Although Business Process Analytics can be used from "normal" end users, it is not desinged for this purpose.
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How can I involve my manager and get the Business Process Analytics data to him?

In order to provide Business Process Analytics (or Business Process Monitoring) data to managers who are only interested in the information itself but do not want to actively work with the data, so called Business Process Operations dashboards are provided since ST400 support package 26. For more information please refer to Business Process Operations dashboards - ALL AT A GLANCE for an overview and Business Process Operations dashboards - behind the scenes for some technical details. You can also read about Best Practice configuration of Business Process Operations Dashboards.
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Can I also access Business Process Analytics on my mobile device?

The Dependency Diagrams and the Progress Management Board applications are SAPUI5 application and run on any mobile device. Also the WebDynpro application Business Process Operations Dashboards can be displayed mobile. Business Process Analytics itself (also as WebDynpro application in SAP Solution Manager 7.1) can be displayed on a mobile but not all features are working. In SAP Solution Manager there exists an alternative SAPUI5 Business Process Analytics application which can be used on all mobile platforms.

There also exists a native iPad application "SAP Business Process Analytics" app is available for download in Apple's App Store since November 2013. But the support for this application will stop with the end of maintenance for SAP Solution Manager 7.1 end of 2017.
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What are typical use cases that Business Process Analytics in SAP Solution Manager can be used for?

A: The main purpose of Business Process Analytics is to help improve business processes as described in the blogs New functionality "Business Process Analytics" - how to improve your business processes and Protect your SAP ERP investment & improve your core business processes. The main idea is to cluster identified problems in two groups - systematic exceptions and "real" exceptions as was described in Systematic errors vs real exceptions or improving efficiency vs effectiveness. These activties typically have not only a positive effect on your business processes itself but also improve your Working Capital, Revenue Stream, Customer Satisfaction and Supply Chain Planning. More general speaking you will also see positive effects on your data quality as was outlined in Before you get started with SAP HANA...you should also consider cleaning-up your backend system first. If you want to learn what other customers did with Business Process Analytics you should also visit Customer testimonials on Business Process Analytics.
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What is the typical effort to implement Business Process Analytics?

A: The technical implementation of Business Process Analytics is very simple and quick, as so many key figures are provided out-of-the-box. A simple pilot can always be implemented within a day, e.g. during the SAP CQC service for Business Process Analysis & Monitoring. The time consuming piece is the root cause analysis why certain key figures return backlog documents. This root cause analysis has to be performed in a combined effort between business and IT and can take several days to weeks per key figure.
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Can I also analyze non-SAP and non-ABAP?

A: No, currently Business Process Analytics only supports the pre-configured key figures for the different SAP Business Suite ABAP environments.
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Do I need process models in SAP Solution Manager for Business Process Analytics?

A: No, unlike Business Process Monitoring it is not required to have process models in place in order to use Business Process Analytics. You are typically collecting data across different document types, i.e. different process variants. Due to this fact the setup for Business Process Analytics happens only in the context of a Logical Component (system/client) and not in the context of a specific business process.
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Is it possible to compare different organizational units or process variants?

A: Yes, as was explained in the blog New functionality "Business Process Analytics" - how to improve your business processes the (internal) benchmarking is one main functionality in order to see if you identified a general problem or if the problem only relates to certain organizational units or process variants.
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Is it possible to see trends?

A: Yes, as was explained in the blog New functionality "Business Process Analytics" - how to improve your business processes the trand analysis is one main functionality in order to see if the situation is stable or gets better/worse.
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Is it possible to compare the age of underlying backlog documents?

A: Yes, as was explained in the blog New functionality "Business Process Analytics" - how to improve your business processes the age analysis is one main functionality in order to see if you identified a problem that happened in the past and was solved (but the corresponidng documents have not been cleared, or if the problem just started some months ago, or if the problem happened in the past and is still persisting.
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Is it possible to see also values in a certain currency?

A: Yes, with the latest Business Process Analytics version described in New Business Process Analytics features with SAP SolMan 7.1 SP5 it is now also possible to show the value of the counted documents (if the respective key figures provides values) in a selected currency as part of the Advanced Benchmarking functionality. If your SAP Solution Manager 7.1 is even on support package level 13 or higher, then you can migrate to a new TwinCube concept and then you would be also able to use the "normal" Benchmarking and historic trend reporting with values.
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Is it possible to analyze also charecteristics with thousands of different characteristic value combinations (e.g. materials, FI accounts)?

A: Yes, with the latest Business Process Analytics version described in New Business Process Analytics features with SAP SolMan 7.1 SP5 it is now also possible to benchmark characteristics which are not stored in any InfoCube. This is part of the new Advanced Benchmarking functionality and allows to evaluate material/plant combinations or benchmarks across FI accounts or customers (if the respective key figures provides this information).
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Is it possible to measure lead times or cycle times for a business process?

A: Yes, the first set of lead times for an Order to Cash, Procure to Pay, Plan to Produce and Request to Settle process were introduced in 2011 with ST-A/PI 01N. Since then further out-of-the-box lead times were introduced across the different SAP BusinessSuite components.
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Is it possible to measure the degree of utilized automation in the SAP system?

A: Yes, the first set of automation rates were introduced in 2013 with ST-A/PI 01Q. Since then further out-of-the-box automation rate key figures were introduced across the different SAP BusinessSuite components in order to check how many business documents got automatically in the SAP system versus manually created ones.
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Is it possible to create calculated key figures, e.g. the percentage of backlog documents versus throughput documents?

A: No, this is not yet possible.
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How is the time frame in the selection screen related to the document date in the result list?

A: There is no such relation. It is a common misconception that the two things are somehow related. The time frame in the selection screen is referring to the date under which a data collection was stored in the InfoCube - this is especially important for the Trend Analysis functionality. The document date or billing date or any other date in the document itself are not important for the storage in the InfoCube itself (except for throughput key figures). The dates in the documents are analyzed via the Age Analysis functionality in Business Process Analytics.
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How is the performance of the backend affected by Business Process Analytics?

A: So far no customers reported significant performance decreases on the backend due to Business Process Analytics. A system resource consumption of 2% is already considered as high for Business Process Analytics. Every key figure is typically just collected once per day or even less frequent.
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Can I transport my Business Process Analytics configuration from my development SAP Solution Manager to my production SAP Solution Manager?

A: No. As the Analytics configuration is considered as master data, there is no transport mechanism available.
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What is the difference between Business Process Analytics and the traditional SAP NetWeaver Business Warehouse?

A: Please refer to the blog Traditional Business KPI approach vs Business Process Monitoring in order to understand how the bottom-up approach with Business Process Analytics can possibly complement your current top-down approach when it comes to Business KPIs.
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If you are interested in further reading. The following blogs provide further details about Business Process Analytics functionalities within the SAP Solution Manager.

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