In today’s fast-paced business environment, decision-makers need tools that allow them to simulate outcomes, assess risks, and adapt strategies in real-time. What-If Analysis is a powerful feature of SAP Analytics Cloud (SAC) that enables businesses to explore alternative scenarios, anticipate the impact of changes, and make data-driven decisions with greater confidence.
This article dives into the concept, capabilities, and best practices of What-If Analysis within SAC, showing how it supports strategic planning and operational efficiency.
What-If Analysis is a scenario modeling technique that allows users to change input variables and assess the potential effects on outcomes. In SAC, it is an integral part of planning and forecasting, helping users evaluate different business situations, such as:
This helps organizations proactively prepare for uncertainty and make informed choices.
SAC allows planners to create private and public versions of plans or forecasts, making it easy to test different assumptions without altering the actual data.
A visual model that maps out relationships between key business drivers. You can manipulate drivers (e.g., price, quantity) to immediately see how changes affect KPIs and financial results.
Dynamic controls allow users to adjust variables in dashboards, enabling real-time What-If simulations.
Combines What-If Analysis with predictive analytics to forecast the impact of hypothetical scenarios based on historical patterns and machine learning.
Automate complex calculations and simulations using business rules, enabling deeper analysis across dimensions and time periods.
Define Business Objectives
Build a Planning Model
Create a Story or Planning Application
Use Input Controls or Value Driver Trees
Run Scenarios
Compare Results
What-If Analysis in SAP Analytics Cloud transforms planning into a proactive, strategic process. By allowing organizations to simulate different business scenarios and assess their outcomes, SAC empowers decision-makers to choose the best course of action under uncertainty. Leveraging this capability is essential for building a resilient and agile enterprise.