The Essential Guide to "Disaggregate by Measure" in SAP Analytics Cloud

[filipponaggi]

Hello,

this is Filippo Naggi, currently a Solution Architect for SAP Analytics Cloud Planning.

Imagine effortlessly allocating costs, budgets, or other values in your SAP Analytics Cloud model, with complete control over the distribution logic. With the arrival of the "Disaggregate by Measure" functionality in the 2024 QRC Q1 release, this has become a reality.

This game-changing feature empowers you to:

• Define default members for any hierarchy, ensuring critical allocations land where they should.
• Override the standard allocation behavior, breaking free from rigid leaf-based distributions.
• Directly allocate to specific members, without writing a single line of code.

When inputting data at the top level of a Purchase Order hierarchy, you can now  define a default Line Item to receive the full input.

The previous limitation was pretty big: every time data is created or adjusted at the top level, it can be split at the bottom level only using the current leaf distribution as a driver. While customization was possible with advanced formula scripting,  it demanded additional logic and code development. The ability to split data at the bottom level using a custom distribution without writing a single line of code marks a substantial advancement.

Let's dive into a real example. With the standard disaggregation functionality, data is split across the base members’ levels. For example, in the below hierarchy, the value of 4000 is equally distributed among the four base members, resulting in an allocation of 1000 to each member.

Fig 1. Children's Allocation using the equal distribution 

With the new functionality, it's possible to utilize another measure as a driver for the allocation.

Let's enable the "Disaggregation" Measure as default for disaggregation with the new functionality in the data model:

Fig 2. The Measure will be disaggregated using the "Disaggregation" measure

and send 1 to the preferred child:

Fig 3. Selecting the "Disaggregation" Measure, to be used to specify default disaggregation members

Fig 4. Setting up the first leaf as the default member

Finally, we can delete the data on the Measure, and send it again.
The new value will be sent just on the default child:

Fig 5. The data is not getting disaggregated anymore, it is routed to the default child

To recap, we have shown a new SAC functionality just released in the 2024 01 release: the possibility of disaggregating a value not just according to the measure in which that value is created, but using another measure as a driver. This functionality is very useful during the Business setup of our SAC Model: we can define custom split rules using an initialization measure.

If you like this blog, please Like and Share it, and let me know in the comments if you would like to see other blogs with the SAC standard functionalities that can be used in SAC modeling.

Filippo