SAP Digital Boardroom is the vendor’s ad-hoc tool that aims to give decision-makers an interactive analytics experience on large touch screens in a presentation format. The original iteration of the product was aimed at C-suite executives specifically. However, SAP has recently unveiled more options for SAP Digital Boardroom aimed at supervisory board members who require less in-depth interaction, and operations leaders at the director level, which needed a lower cost of entry point, according to Mike Flanagan, SAP SVP of analytics.
“SAP Digital Boardroom will be a portfolio and not a single product,” says Flanagan. “We received a lot of feedback that a deeper level of data exploration flexibility may not be desirable for supervisory members—it needs to be limited to some extent, and there is a product under development that will be a digital boardroom for directors.”
With the expansion of SAP Digital Boardroom to a broader user base, I thought it prudent to reach out to Pravin Datar, senior director of product management in analytics at SAP, as part of my regular series of conversations with SAP Press authors. Datar penned the e-bite “Introducing the SAP Digital Boardroom.” Below is our chat about what readers can expect.
ASUGNews: What is your background with SAP and with SAP Digital Boardroom? How does that make you an expert on the subject?
Datar: I have been working with SAP for the last 14 years and have worked on various solutions of SAP in planning and analytics including SEM, CPM, BW, SAP BusinessObjects, BPC, etc. Also, over the years, I have worked in various organizations within SAP such as consulting, RIG, solution management, GTM, product management, etc., handling the topics of planning and analytics. I have written over 30 blogs, articles, how-to guides, etc. on various topics in planning and analytics. I have been with product management from the first version of EPM cloud and then Cloud for Planning which then became Cloud for Analytics and now SAP BusinessObjects Cloud. Digital Boardroom is built on SAP BusinessObjects Cloud. Hence I can talk about this topic from a historical perspective, functional perspective, and technical perspective.
ASUGNews: Can you highlight a particular section of the book? One that best exemplifies its contents?
Datar: First, we’ll discuss the features and functionality of SAP BusinessObjects Cloud, of which SAP Digital Boardroom is built atop. Though we will provide an overview of the functionality, it would help you understand how we can leverage those features in using SAP Digital Boardroom effectively. Next, we will talk about Agenda Builder functionality of SAP Digital Boardroom that helps you to create and sequence the stories on the SAP Digital Boardroom screens. After, we will see how you can do live data connections to SAP Digital Boardroom and unleash the potential of SAP Digital Boardroom to revolutionize meeting experience. Then, we will talk about how we can take the SAP Digital Boardroom from the top floor to shop floor and beyond corporate boardroom. In the last section, we will discuss some technical aspects of touch screen monitor set up, online meeting as well as non-touchscreen setup.
ASUGNews: Is this book simply informational or does it get into how to implement and utilize SAP Digital Boardroom?
Datar: This book provides the necessary knowledge to understand the value proposition of SAP Digital Boardroom to suit the business scenarios and use cases as well as provides basic information about configuring SAP Digital Boardroom. Hence this book is useful for those who want to use as well as those who want to implement SAP Digital Boardroom.
ASUGNews: Can you give examples of how early adopting companies have used SAP Digital Boardroom, perhaps even an example from SAP itself?
Datar: Early adopting companies have surely benefited from SAP Digital Boardroom. SAP itself has transformed its board meetings using SAP Digital Boardroom. With this digital transformation, the turnaround time for decisions has gone a complete overhaul. The decisions that took weeks before now take minutes and hours since the required details and simulated results of the decisions can be obtained instantly.
ASUGNews: Finally, who should be reading this book?
Datar: The target audience for this book is anyone who wants to get a basic understanding of SAP Digital Boardroom. Hence the target audience can include students who are studying Business Analytics or SAP customers who are evaluating whether SAP Digital Boardroom provides the value proposition that they are looking for or SAP partners who want to implement SAP Digital Boardroom for other customers or who want to contribute to developing content for SAP Digital Boardroom.
ASUGNews: Is there any other information you’d like to add?
Datar: SAP Digital Boardroom is built on SAP BusinessObjects Cloud. Though this book provides an overview of the functionality SAP BusinessObjects Cloud, for a deeper understanding of the functionality of SAP BusinessObjects Cloud, the readers may refer to the e-book on SAP BusinessObjects Cloud, and that may complement this book.
To purchase “Introducing the SAP Digital Boardroom,” head to the e-bite’s landing page or explore titles covering a broad range of SAP topics.