Experience the SAP Business Data Cloud

Your expert for questions

Nico Reichen
Partner at PwC Germany
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Unlock the power of data with PwC and SAP Business Data Cloud

With the launch of the SAP Business Data Cloud (BDC), SAP introduces the logical evolution for a sustainable data strategy. By integrating components like Databricks, large-system options within SAP Datasphere, and a clear focus on AI and data products, BDC becomes a powerful solution for the future.

At the same time, SAP enables a smooth transition of legacy BW systems into the cloud, meaning businesses can continue leveraging their data effectively while modernizing their data landscapes. This marks only the beginning – BDC lays the foundation for a modern data ecosystem, but the journey toward the ultimate data management solution continues.

At PwC, we are your hands-on specialists from day one. Our extensive experience enables us to deliver exceptional results, helping clients successfully implement SAP BDC – always with the bigger picture in mind.

Unlock strategic advantage with SAP Business Data Cloud

Empower your business with SAP Business Data Cloud: Unified insights for faster decision-making

SAP Business Data Cloud is a fully managed SaaS solution that unifies data and analytics with your key business processes, empowering leaders with complete context for faster decision-making. Deliver tailored insights and actionable recommendations out-of-the-box with Insight Apps – a collection of pre-built applications on SAP curated unified semantic model. SAP Business Data Cloud seamlessly integrates with your essential business applications, automating critical daily decisions in areas such as working capital management, sales and distribution, and people analytics. As a complete data and analytics solution, Business Data Cloud establishes a harmonized data foundation, enabling you to utilize AI across all your data.

Looking to the future with BDC

At PwC, we are the ideal partner to support you in transitioning your BW system to the BDC. Our team consists of true specialists in data modeling with SAP Datasphere, backed by years of experience in the SAP BW environment. We are adept at utilizing modern technology to assist in developing further requirements. Our technical proficiency ensures a seamless integration process, providing you with a robust, data infrastructure tailored to your specific needs.

Revolutionize your data integration with PwC and SAP

Data Products will transform the speed at which you can onboard new data from various systems into your unified data landscape – reducing the process from weeks to mere days and hours. In collaboration with SAP and leading companies, PwC participated in the Data Product League to explore how Data Products can be designed to be both versatile and user-friendly.

This collaboration has led to the development of an initial set of Data Products based on SuccessFactors, which will soon be available in the SAP Business Data Cloud.´These products will empower you to quickly integrate relevant HR information in no time. Additionally, the upcoming Data Products are ready-to-use as inputs for PwC’s award-winning CSRD solution.

Leveraging SAP BDC and customizable data products to expedite CSRD manager deployment for streamlined sustainability reporting

PwC’s CSRD Manager Solution fully harnesses the advanced capabilities of the new SAP Business Data Catalog (BDC), offering a seamless and robust approach to sustainability reporting. At the core of this solution are predefined data products that serve as the foundation for efficient and comprehensive data management. These data products are designed to be easily customizable, allowing you to adapt them to meet the unique requirements of organisations. Furthermore, the solution is available as an Insight App, providing an intuitive and user-friendly interface that streamlines the process of accessing and analyzing PwC’s clients sustainability data. This integration ensures that clients can efficiently manage their Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) obligations while benefiting from the cutting-edge features of the SAP ecosystem. 

• One-stop shop: the ESG Reporting Manager – CSRD is the solution that maps all CSRD requirements fully integrated in SAP – you do not need any other systems and benefit from the usual integration advantages of SAP.
• Our solution consists of predefined business content to extend your existing SAP landscape with all the necessary requirements via an installation package.
• Data collection – capture all quantitative and qualitative CSRD data points via predefined questionnaires and workflows.
• Data models – calculation of all relevant KPIs using predefined data models and calculation logic
• Dashboards & AI – additional analytics functionalities via predefined dashboards

PwC’s ESG software is designed to prepare you for audit and is continuously updated to ensure compliance with all legal requirements, even as legislation evolves. The content can be fully customised to the individual needs of PwC clients after installation.

The CSRD Manager Solution takes full advantage of the new SAP BDC capabilities, offering predefined data products that are easy to customize and available as an Insight App.

PwC boosts planning & reporting with world’s largest SAP Datasphere

The project initiates from the challenge of financial reporting in a heterogeneous system landscape, necessitating a suitable data management concept and a central data platform for data-driven decisions. There was no integrated data platform, leading to outdated data and extensive manual effort. The S/4HANA Public Cloud system was heavily burdened by non-centralized data access, with partial manual data provision for planning and reporting. A key goal for the new management reporting and planning is the standardization and reduction of reports, KPIs, and underlying data sources, focusing on consistency and data quality. The SAP Datasphere was utilized as a crucial component for harmonization and integration from various data sources.

In addition to the already integrated sources, other sources such as SAP Concur and Coupa are planned to be integrated in the future.

Some technical details: 

• Delta loading from various sources now with over 600 million records in the Datasphere and growing
• Integration of more than 200 CDS views from S/4HANA Public Cloud
• The Datasphere models now contain over 1.000 Datasphere objects
• Implementation of more than 85 analytical models
• Over 16.000 users in SAC access the Datasphere data

Despite the relatively short implementation phase of six–seven months, quick successes were achieved through agile release management. The high acceptance of the solution was not only due to the rapid delivery of reports in various waves but also due to its performance and user-friendliness.

Further releases for the continuous expansion of content are planned and already in implementation. 

The project has been and will continue to be delivered almost exclusively by our PwC specialists. From the conceptual design by our Finance Transformation team to the technical implementation by our Datasphere and SAC specialists.