Chapter ELEVEN. SAP xApps Composite Applications for Analytics

SAP xApps composite applications for analytics enable people to take effective and timely action based on a thorough understanding of a business process and its context. By building on the ESA approach, SAP xApp Analytics help businesspeople leverage relevant information from wherever it resides, provide the analytic tools to gain a deeper understanding, and then offer the means to perform the necessary tasks or to collaborate with others.

SAP xApp Analytics fulfill ESA's mission to put more powerful, flexible, and role-based solutions in the hands of a larger population of users. In the past, users too often had to perform a context switch in order to take advantage of analytic functionality, or they had to rely on experts to do the analysis for them. The need to analyze a customer's credit profile or the patterns in past orders would arise, and to access information or to perform any analysis, businesspeople would have to leave the enterprise application in which they were working and do research and analysis using a reporting environment or an OLAP tool. Taking action required accessing an enterprise application, oftentimes not the same one as before, all the while being the "human integrator:" remembering key figures, actions, information, and people who need to be involved.

SAP xApp Analytics use enterprise services and standard application programming interfaces (APIs) to access relevant data and functionality. They can be standalone solutions or embedded in enterprise applications. Either way, a seamless, comprehensive environment is created that combines the process automation, information, and functionality in an enterprise application, building and utilizing SAP NetWeaver capabilities to manage processes, manage security, extend customized applications, manage master data, and of course, consolidate and normalize information from a wide variety of sources. SAP xApp Analytics also may use SAP NetWeaver capabilities for knowledge management and collaboration. With everything unified, businesspeople do not have to switch from one solution to another, and they don't need to be "human integrators" but instead can focus on improving their understanding and getting the job done. Because the analytic functionality is tailored to the needs of a user participating in a process, SAP xApp Analytics allow people to do their own analytical work and rely less on experts.

Model-driven developmentwhere IT and power users do not write code, but rather assemble modelswithin SAP NetWeaver Visual Composer that leverages existing functionality through services makes SAP xApp Analytics faster and cheaper to create and easier to modify and evolve as business requirements change.

This chapter will provide a tour of SAP xApp Analytics. In doing so, the way that ESA creates value will spring to life.