Analytical Scenarios

Analytics works best when the provided structure and visualizations and has clear Purpose and Objectives.
This section defines 4 scenario types - Monitoring, Planning, Reporting and Exploration - that align the time horizon (present, past, future) with the intent (inform, act (now), investigate, explore, plan, decide).

By standardizing page purposes, layouts, and interaction patterns, teams get faster insight, cleaner handoffs, and a consistent user experience.

Please note:

The list of the various analytics scenarios is intended primarily as a conceptual structure. Depending on the use case, the content and objectives of the selected scenario—and its visual implementation—may overlap with others.

Monitoring Scenario (What´s happening right now?)

The goal of Monitoring scenarios is to track status in real or near-real time, detect deviations or alarms immediately and enable rapid response.
The visual focus is placed on areas that “blink red” or are otherwise highlighted due to their relevance.
Monitoring scenarios are clearly structured: they typically include KPI tiles, threshold definitions, trend displays, and anomaly indicators. Interaction is minimal; when deeper analysis is required, it is performed on one or more additional pages.
Intelligent systems assist users with root-cause analysis and recommended actions.

Planning Scenario (What could the future look like?)

The Planning scenario is an interactive workspace for defining business targets and strategic goals and then determining how to achieve them—for example, by creating annual budgets, tracking progress in forecasts, and simulating scenarios to identify new opportunities.

To that end, users adjust assumptions related to the targets (e.g., price, volume, inflation), write directly into planning grids, and compare versions (Actual/Plan/Forecast/Scenario A/B).

Overall, a planning scenario addresses cases in which company-wide targets and strategic objectives need to be created and maintained while simultaneously improving the efficiency of business and management processes—among other things by running different scenarios that take market trends, risks, and opportunities into account.

Reporting Scenario (What happend?)

For users who want a comprehensive overview of business performance in a predefined, consistent formal structure, the reporting scenario is a visualization with a relevant storyline, high information density, and a consistent business notation system (e.g., IBCS) that provides interpretations and summaries.

The reporting scenario is deliberately well-structured and repeatable (month-over-month, quarter-over-quarter) to make the underlying messages immediately clear to viewers and comparable over time. It prioritizes standardized comparisons (Actual vs. Previous Period/ Year/Plan), explicit variance reporting (absolute and %), and concise management commentary that answers, “What happened?” and “What are the implications?”. Interactivity is purposely limited to simple period switches or drill-through details, preserving a stable reading flow.

Exploration Scenario (What's the cause?)

Exploration pages aim to let users explore data interactively. The goal is to understand causes or test hypotheses—moving from “What happened?” to “Why did it happen?” and “What does it mean?”. Therefore, it’s important to equip users with a high degree of interactivity. Examples include Linked Analysis in SAP Analytics Cloud, where a selection in one chart filters other dashboard widgets. In addition, drill-down capabilities and comparability of data are essential.
Ideally, AI features support the analysis by providing insights and suggestions to the user.

Data Relation

This illustration shows how temporal data layers — past, present, and future — connect to the underlying intent of the question we aim to answer.

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