Unlock Business Confidence with AI-Driven Planning & Forecasting in SAP Analytics Cloud Compass

The world has always been uncertain, but in recent years, geopolitical strife, rapid technological advancements, and economic volatility have amplified the pace and breadth of change. Forecasting for businesses has never been more challenging, with the ever-present “what if?” looming larger than ever. Organisations are actively seeking tools to navigate this uncertainty with confidence. Enter Compass, a revolutionary native feature for SAP Analytics Cloud (SAC), recently launched in Q1 2025 for Planning-licensed users. Compass integrates Monte Carlo simulation into a user-friendly interface, empowering users to analyse multiple forecast outcomes, enabling more informed and confident decision-making.

Understanding Monte Carlo Simulation

Monte Carlo simulation might sound like a gamble, but it is a proven statistical technique designed to forecast systems or processes involving uncertainty. By employing random sampling, it generates multiple scenarios that illustrate how various factors influence outcomes. Instead of relying on a single estimate, the simulation performs thousands—or even millions—of iterations, varying inputs based on probabilities. This approach uncovers patterns, expected results, and the likelihood of specific events occurring.

Monte Carlo simulations can be applied across virtually every business function to provide greater certainty in decision-making where no singular “right” answer exists, such as financial forecasting, workforce planning, risk assessment, and inventory management.

Introducing SAP Analytics Cloud Compass

SAP Analytics Cloud Compass brings the power of Monte Carlo simulation directly to business users, eliminating the need for advanced statistical knowledge or complex IT setups. Simply select a data model and run it in Compass. This no-code integration redefines planning by allowing users to simulate a wide range of scenarios effortlessly. Activated by the SAC administrator with a single switch, Compass is truly a click-and-run application.

Key Features

1. Scenario Modelling: Users can create “what if” scenarios by adjusting multiple variables simultaneously. This feature is particularly valuable for comparing strategies or assessing the impact of unforeseen events. For instance, a company can model how fluctuations in inflation, labour costs, and revenue projections might affect operating income. Users can specify the number of simulations to achieve the desired level of accuracy, with more simulations offering higher precision at the cost of longer runtime and greater processing requirements.
2. Multidimensional Analysis: Compass allows users to configure performance fluctuations across various dimensions, such as geographies, organisational units, and product lines, and simulate their combined effects on target outcomes. This flexibility facilitates a comprehensive analysis of complex scenarios. Specific business drivers can be easily modified within the dataset, such as rising material costs, increased employee insurance contributions, or decreased component reliability.
3. Visualising Probabilities: Generative AI functionality generates visual representations of outcome distributions, enabling users to analyse the worst, best, and most likely scenarios. Customisable options, such as colour schemes and percentile ranges, help tailor the visuals to specific business contexts. These visualisations simplify the sharing of insights in accessible, business-friendly language, addressing “what if” questions with actionable intelligence.
4. Target-Finding and Risk Analysis: Users can focus on achieving specific objectives, like meeting a target revenue, and assess the likelihood of success under various conditions. This capability helps set realistic, evidence-based goals while understanding associated risks.
5. Built-in SAC Collaboration: Compass supports both private experimentation and public sharing of scenarios in SAC models. Teams can effectively collaborate by sharing insights or simulated data, either through the visual output or by sharing the data as a discrete forecast for further analysis. SAC’s AI Time Series Forecasts, which rely on historical data (rather than forward-looking probabilistic scenarios, as in Monte Carlo simulations) to create trend-based predictions, can also be run through Compass to assess their probabilistic viability. This combined approach evaluates whether such forecasts are realistic.

Business Value with Compass

Compass enhances SAP’s Extended Planning and Analysis (xP&A) suite, delivering deeper business value across the enterprise

• Strategic Planning: Assessing how market conditions could impact long-term business goals.
• Budgeting and Forecasting: Understanding potential variability in financial metrics to create more resilient budgets.
• Workforce Planning: Simulating staffing needs under varying operational scenarios to optimise resource allocation.
• Investment Analysis: Comparing potential returns and risks across diverse investment opportunities.

Integration with the SAP Ecosystem

Compass integrates seamlessly with SAP Analytics Cloud and SAP Datasphere within the SAP Business Technology Platform (BTP) and SAP Business Data Cloud (BDC). This integration ensures simulations are grounded in real-time data, enhancing the accuracy and relevance of insights. Moreover, it fosters a cohesive workflow, where data from multiple sources can be unified and analysed on a single platform with full traceability. Future integration with Joule, SAP’s agentic AI assistant, will further accelerate the speed of insight generation.

Make the Future a Bit More Certain

One of Capgemini’s global engineering clients sought to enhance their spare parts inventory management. By building a machine learning platform, we helped them analyse and predict stock burndown and requirements. Factors like material costs and supply chain timing could be further optimised using Compass to refine inventory forecasts and improve readiness. By embedding complex Monte Carlo simulation within an intuitive interface, SAP Analytics Cloud Compass empowers businesses to navigate uncertainty with greater confidence. It equips organisations to plan strategies, forecast outcomes, and allocate resources with reduced risk and enhanced precision. Don’t let uncertainty hold you back—embrace it as a catalyst for innovation. SAP Analytics Cloud and Compass can revolutionise your business planning and decision-making processes – contact Capgemini today to discover how.

Sources:

https://community.sap.com/t5/technology-blogs-by-sap/general-release-of-sap-analytics-cloud-compass/ba-p/13958001

https://community.sap.com/t5/technology-blogs-by-sap/introduction-to-monte-carlo-simulation/ba-p/13972777