In today’s fast-paced business environment, effective planning requires more than just accurate data—it demands real-time collaboration, transparency, and agility. SAP Analytics Cloud (SAC) redefines enterprise planning by enabling seamless collaboration in planning, empowering teams to co-create, analyze, and adjust plans dynamically and collectively.
This article explores how SAC facilitates collaborative planning, the features that enable teamwork, and best practices for leveraging collaboration to drive better business outcomes.
Traditional planning processes often operate in silos, where different departments create disconnected plans using isolated spreadsheets. This approach leads to:
Collaborative planning solves these issues by enabling departments to work together on a single version of the truth—making the planning process more integrated, transparent, and agile.
SAP Analytics Cloud is built to facilitate real-time collaboration in financial, workforce, and operational planning. Here are the core features that support teamwork:
SAC allows multiple users to work simultaneously on a shared model. Changes are reflected in real-time, ensuring that planners see up-to-date figures and assumptions instantly.
Create, compare, and manage multiple versions of plans and forecasts to evaluate different scenarios and foster discussion around “what-if” analysis.
Scenario: A multinational retail company is preparing its annual budget across marketing, sales, and supply chain departments.
Without Collaboration:
With SAC Collaboration:
Design a Unified Data Model
Build a centralized planning model that aligns structure and terminology across departments.
Establish Clear Roles and Permissions
Use SAC’s user management to define who can view, edit, or approve specific sections of the plan.
Enable Real-Time Communication
Promote the use of comments, discussions, and tagging to clarify assumptions and decisions.
Use Version Control Wisely
Encourage scenario planning with multiple versions but define clear guidelines for publishing final numbers.
Leverage the Calendar and Tasks
Break down the planning process into actionable tasks with ownership and timelines for better accountability.
Collaboration in planning is no longer a luxury—it's a necessity. SAP Analytics Cloud empowers organizations to bring people, data, and decisions together in one platform. By fostering transparency, real-time interaction, and unified modeling, SAC helps companies make better, faster, and more aligned planning decisions.
For teams looking to move beyond siloed planning and embrace a modern, collaborative approach, SAP Analytics Cloud offers the tools and capabilities to lead the way.