Article
What mission-critical process doesn’t require analytics automation? None!
Analytics power nearly every strategic business decision, but only when they’re delivered in context, on time and aligned with the end-to-end processes and stakeholders they’re meant to inform. That’s why forward-looking insights are no longer optional.
Whether you need to spot cash flow risks before they affect liquidity, adjust production plans before disruptions ripple downstream or re-forecast inventory before you notice a sales dip, your ability to predict and respond depends on analytics that move with your operations.
SAP Analytics Cloud (SAC) was built for exactly this kind of intelligent analysis, forecasting and agile planning. It brings together business intelligence, planning and predictive analytics in one place so you can always know where you stand and model future scenarios to be ready for what’s coming instead of what has just occurred.
But insights alone don’t create outcomes. Unless they’re integrated into an operational process, even the most advanced insights can’t drive impact. Worst case, they could guide you to wrong decisions and negative consequences.
The hidden liability of siloed analytics
Even in a powerful, cloud-based platform, analytics can still fall out of step with the business. Your systems might be automatically refreshing and publishing dashboards or verifying outputs, but if they’re doing so while disconnected from your end-to-end processes, you won’t be able to apply these outputs meaningfully to your role.
You shouldn’t have to wonder whether your numbers reflect just a small snapshot of what’s happening or the full sequence of updates across systems. That uncertainty chips away at trust, and it’s more than frustrating. It’s costly.
Take a high-stakes industry like manufacturing, in which a day-old production forecast can misalign plant operations with actual demand. Or healthcare, where even brief gaps in staffing or patient volume data can impact care and compliance. Siloed analytics workflows aren’t useful or timely in supporting complex, mission-critical processes that need to run continuously.
SAP Analytics Cloud: Built for insights, ready for orchestration
SAC is already a strategic hub for business insights. It connects natively to SAP S/4HANA, SAP Datasphere, SAP BusinessObjects and Databricks. It helps unify planning and analysis across departments and roles. But what transforms SAC from a great tool into an essential one is where it fits in the big picture of your business.
Think about it this way: SAC tells you what’s happening or what’s about to happen. It can publish dashboards and refresh models on a schedule, but to act on those insights in time, you need analytics to match the continuous rhythm of your operations instead of sitting still.
Orchestration with an advanced workload automation platform can embed those steps inside complex, multi-step job chains that include dozens of tasks, from ETL and ERP updates to file transfers, reconciliations, condition checks or even alert triggers. Reports can be triggered by events, conditions or thresholds from within SAP or external systems, then distributed, published or escalated based on logic.
Instead of standalone data, you get analytics in motion. What does this look like in the real world?
- A multi-step financial close process automatically refreshes and publishes the appropriate dashboards at each stage as part of the normal process chain of the closing cycle — without needing to be managed in a separate analytics workstream
- A disruption in supply chain data from SAP S/4HANA or SAP Datasphere triggers a refresh of demand forecast models in SAC as part of your continuous supply chain processes
- Executive dashboards are scheduled within a larger workstream to update nightly and adjust to special schedules around holidays, peak seasons or system maintenance windows
These reports don’t stay isolated. They’re embedded in your broader business workflows and reacting to real-world conditions. In other words, they align with your operational priorities.
What full automation delivers
With SAC jobs built into your end-to-end business processes, you see the value compound across your organization.
There won’t be a need for separate analytics workstreams anymore. Dashboards and models, connected to your end-to-end processes, will update based on the logic you define at the cadence your business needs.
Analytics will follow the pace of your business, not the other way around. That means your leadership team can get ahead of issues and make proactive decisions. Everyone will see the same numbers, which are built on the same trusted foundation.
Instead of ad-hoc report refreshes or support tickets, your analytics will run as part of a monitored, auditable job chain, giving your key stakeholders insights as they happen in the everyday flow of business.
Ultimately, you’ll be automating business readiness — not just accurate or timely reporting.
Making insights flow: SAP Analytics Cloud + RunMyJobs by Redwood
The new RunMyJobs connector for SAP Analytics Cloud makes it easy to orchestrate your analytics processes within broader, mission-critical job chains without adding complexity or rework.
With the connector, you can:
- Include SAC alongside ETL jobs, S/4HANA transactions, file transfers or external alerts
- Monitor your analytics within each complete job chain from a single pane of glass
- Refresh and publish reports automatically as tasks in end-to-end process rather than siloed triggers
- Tie analytics tasks to business events, conditions or schedules from SAP and non-SAP systems
There’s no need to replace SAC’s native scheduling functionality. With RunMyJobs, you elevate its capabilities by embedding them into more complex and interdependent processes. SAC gives you top-notch insight, and RunMyJobs makes sure it’s delivered at the tempo you need and as part of the complete picture.
Know what’s happening and be ready to act on it. Explore more about how to orchestrate your SAP data pipelines with RunMyJobs.
Article
I remember walking out of our final finance transformation project meeting and thinking, “We did it.” Months of requirements gathering, vendor demos, late-night testing and change management efforts behind us.
We had gone live. Our systems were talking to each other. Teams weren’t buried in spreadsheets anymore. It felt like reaching the summit. But after the celebration faded, a quiet realization crept in: This wasn’t the finish line. It was the starting gate.
Once the systems are humming and close cycles are faster, the real question becomes: Now what?
You don’t invest in digital transformation just to do the same tasks faster. You do it to elevate the role of finance from task execution to strategic partner. Here’s how to make that shift — and realize the full return on your investment.
The dawn of a new finance function
Once automation is implemented, the most visible benefits come quickly: faster close cycles, streamlined reconciliations and a noticeable drop in manual errors. These are all crucial, well-earned wins, but they’re only the beginning.
With rote tasks off their plates, your Finance team finally has the time and mental space to think, analyze and engage. This is the moment to pivot from transaction management to strategic contribution. It starts with redefining what “value” looks like in the modern finance function.
No longer burdened by data wrangling and rework, your team can step into a more collaborative role. They can become internal consultants shaping the decisions that key numbers inform.
Imagine what’s possible when finance professionals are empowered to:
- Break down the financial impact of complex concepts like tax strategies, depreciation and regulatory credits instead of simply recording the results. They can help operational leaders understand the “why” behind bottom-line changes and where there’s room to optimize.
- Offer suggestions to reduce expenses, not just track them. Through detailed cost analysis, benchmarking and comparative reviews, they can identify areas of savings that directly support business health and profitability.
- Analyze the revenue effect of pricing changes before they roll out. Finance can help model what a small price adjustment means for revenue, customer churn and margins.
- Help business leaders understand customer-level profitability. Teams can then prioritize sustainable, high-margin growth.
- Equip product managers with unit economics insights. These help enormously with budgeting, product redesign and rationalization.
This is the kind of work that elevates the finance organization, but it won’t happen unless you have a structure, sponsorship and a plan after your new tech is in place.
Start with strategic pairing
Assigning Finance team members to support various departments takes more than a quick shuffle of names. Random assignments won’t work; you have to match business units and Finance team members intentionally.
Some staff have natural communication skills. Others are more analytical. Align those competencies with the business strategy of each department. Got a Product team that’s working on a margin turnaround? Pair them with an FP&A professional who has deep data analytics skills. Is your supply chain under cost pressure? Assign someone who’s skilled in performance review and standardization.
Support from CFOs and senior leaders is critical here. When business partners see this shift as part of the broader operating model, they’re more likely to lean in and collaborate.
Set the stage with clear communication
Any transformation requires clarity. That’s especially true for cross-functional initiatives like this.
To your Finance team, communicate that this is about more than just expanding their scope. They’re going to have greater influence, stronger business relationships and more impact on the company’s direction.
To your operational teams, emphasize how this new model brings faster answers and better insights. This isn’t “extra finance.” It’s the embedded, ongoing expertise that helps them hit their goals.
Make data more accessible — and more useful
Even with automation, the path to insight isn’t automatic. The challenge is empowering your team to deliver information that supports real-time decision-making.
Here’s how to make that happen:
- Train them to segment reports and move beyond surface-level metrics. Break down results by customer segment, region, channel or product line.
- Focus on action, not just observation. What changed? Why? What can the business do about it? Delivering answers is far more valuable than just showing numbers.
- Use visual tools to communicate. Dashboards, graphs and interactive visualizations simplify complex data and make it more digestible for non-financial stakeholders.
If your team doesn’t yet have access to customer data, campaign performance or supply chain inputs, now’s the time to open those doors. These insights are often what unlock the biggest contributions to business performance.
Provide a partnership playbook
Most finance operations are built around structured periods like close, review and report. Business partnering requires more dynamic interaction. To succeed, your team needs a roadmap. Give them tools and templates to launch effectively.
- Recommend an initial cadence (monthly check-ins work well) and flexible timing based on the partner’s role and current goals.
- Share templates for meeting agendas, forecast review and KPI updates.
- Offer reporting frameworks that include commentary, risk assessments and recommendations.
Help your team transition from reporting outputs to driving business outcomes.
Coach by showing up
This is where leadership matters. If you want your team to shift their identity, they need to see you model that shift. Join early conversations and observe how your team interacts. Offer feedback in a supportive, mentoring tone. Are they asking the right questions? Are they tying insights back to what the business cares about?
Your involvement sends a clear message: This isn’t just a side experiment but part of your larger finance strategy and how the function will deliver business value in the future.
The transformation journey doesn’t end at go-live. It begins there.
By empowering your Finance team to move closer to the business, you turn process improvement into a strategic advantage and go from cost center to value driver.
If you’ve invested in digital technologies, automation and an updated finance operating model, now is the time to double down on how those tools get used and who gets to use them.
Want to see how others are doing it? Explore how real finance organizations are turning efficiency into influence: Read the case studies.