The Power of SAP Analytics Cloud: The University of Helsinki’s Proof of Concept with Purpose

Founded in 1640, the University of Helsinki is the oldest and largest academic institution in Finland. By fostering a vibrant academic community of over 40,000 students and staff, the university promotes collaboration across disciplines - from climate science and health to digital technologies and social equity. The University of Helsinki is ranked in the top 1% of the world’s research universities.

From SAP Business Planning and Consolidation to SAP Analytics Cloud for Planning

The University of Helsinki’s legacy SAP Business Planning and Consolidation (SAP BPC) financial planning system was nearing the end of its lifecycle. As part of their modernization efforts, the university explored a range of financial planning technologies available on the market. However, given their positive past experiences and wide investments with SAP solutions, they were particularly interested in evaluating how SAC Planning could meet their evolving needs.

Before committing to full implementation, the University of Helsinki prioritized understanding how end users would interact with SAC Planning in a real-world setting. The goal of PoC was to assess whether the platform could provide modern, intuitive, and flexible planning user experience that met the expectations of financial planners and department users alike.

From the very first discussions, it was clear that the University of Helsinki’s goals aligned well with Scandic Fusion’s expertise, relevant project experience, practical understanding of financial planning, and SAC demo that inspired bringing their ideas to life. What stood out most was the shared emphasis on both functionality and user experience - an alignment that laid a strong foundation for effective collaboration.

Scope of the Proof of Concept and timeline

The scope of the PoC focused on financial planning at budgeting account and budgeting unit level. To ensure a realistic and practical evaluation, the PoC was based on actual data. To simplify the process and focus on the look and feel of the solution, the University of Helsinki opted to work with an Excel-based dataset, which accurately reflected their financial planning needs without the need for immediate system data integrations.

Additionally, the PoC was to be delivered using the SAC Planning free tier license, which was valid for 90 days. This time constraint added an important requirement: the PoC had to be completed within this period. The limited time made the team concentrate on evaluating the core functionality of SAC Planning, including its usability, scalability, and ability to handle actual financial planning workflows.

The total duration of the project was set to be 8 weeks. The team successfully followed this schedule, ensuring that the PoC was delivered on time.

^“Working on this PoC with the University of Helsinki was a valuable experience, and I found the project highly rewarding.

It was a great opportunity to showcase the power of SAC Planning - not only in terms of technical capability but also in delivering a truly modern and seamless user experience. We focused on building a relatively simple financial model while incorporating advanced calculation features to support the planning algorithms. Additionally, we aimed to create engaging and intuitive story designs to make the planning process both user-friendly and valuable for end users.

I’m proud of our collaboration and excited to see how this solution will continue to evolve and support their ongoing needs.
_{Rūta Andersone, Project Manager & Data Analytics Consultant}

The scope of the PoC was:

• 1 Financial Planning Model covering:
  
  • 6 dimensions, measures and best practices for object naming
  • Data actions for advanced calculations
• 3 BI Stories covering:
  
  • Planning welcome story
  • Planning input story
  • Planning overview story
• Solution Documentation to support ongoing use and future development

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Collaboration and Knowledge Transfer

A key element of the project was the transfer of knowledge and expertise from Scandic Fusion to the University of Helsinki. From the very beginning, the university wanted to involve the core team in the project to ensure they could share their perspectives, discuss planning needs, provide feedback, and start engaging with the solution. Both teams understood that this was not just about testing a new tool but about ensuring that the university’s internal team gained the necessary skills and understanding to prepare for the future implementation projects well in advance.

To facilitate ongoing communication and collaboration, both project teams participated in weekly meetings, ensuring that the proof of concept remained on track and aligned with the common goals. As the project neared its completion, Scandic Fusion held an end user training session to ensure that whole project team fully understood the planning workflow.

^“Right from the beginning Scandic Fusion demonstrated exceptional professionalism in all areas of the project: from day-to-day communications down to the actual technical implementation. We were working as one team for common target and in the end the actual deliverables did exceed our expectations.

I can highly recommend Scandic Fusion as a partner for projects where fresh thinking and excellent technical delivery skills are required.
_{Ilkka Rantakari, Financial Specialist at University of Helsinki}

Key Takeaways from the SAC Planning Proof of Concept

The proof of concept confirmed that SAC Planning is a strong fit for the University of Helsinki’s financial planning needs - offering both modern usability and powerful functionality. Throughout the project, several takeaways emerged:

• Validated technology fit: SAC Planning met the university's expectations in terms of functionality, user experience, and flexibility, providing a clear path forward for refactoring the legacy SAP BPC system.
• Fast, low-risk start: The combination of a clearly scoped use case and the use of the SAC Planning free tier tenant proved to be an efficient and low-risk approach to evaluating the solution.
• Scalable for future use cases: Discussions during the project broadened from financial planning to including future needs on project and workforce planning. This demonstrated the scalability and versatility of SAC Planning beyond the PoC scope.
• Strong and aligned partnership: The collaboration with Scandic Fusion brought not only technical expertise but also a shared commitment to quality, user experience, and knowledge transfer. A solid foundation for a long-term partnership.
• Foundation for future planning needs: The university recognized the strategic role of SAC Planning, setting the stage for a wider transformation of how planning and analytics will be done across the organization.

Shaping the Future of Planning & Analytics

Following the successful PoC, the University of Helsinki was convinced that SAC Planning was the right tool for their needs. As a result, they decided to continue their collaboration with Scandic Fusion. In spring 2025, the university initiated a project to replace their legacy SAP BPC system with SAC Planning.

The goal is to have the new financial planning system fully operational by the end of 2025, marking a significant step forward in modernizing their financial planning processes.

^"Our Proof of Concept together with Scandic Fusion met all the targets and honestly exceeded our expectations in many ways. This experience answered to the open questions we had about SAC Planning as our next planning platform - making it easy to commit to the solution for the coming years too. Our co-operation with Scandic Fusion was top-notch from all perspectives. All in all, this joint adventure guided us to the first stage of our planning platform renewal. Looking forward to see the end result later in 2025.
_{Ilkka Rantakari, Financial Specialist at University of Helsinki}

In the beginning of 2025, SAP introduced the Seamless Planning concept, next level synergy between SAP Datasphere and SAC Planning. This allows planning models to be stored directly into Datasphere, reducing data movement, enhancing harmonization, and enabling new analytical use cases.

Recognizing its potential, the university committed to being an early adopter of Seamless Planning. SAP Datasphere was also selected to support the integration of SAP and non-SAP data ecosystems - providing a unified, flexible platform for analytics and planning.

The architecture below reflects the university’s potential future direction of its data analytics ecosystem.

Conclusion

The University of Helsinki’s journey toward modernizing its financial planning capabilities began with a clearly defined proof of concept and led to a broader initiative of digital transformation. By selecting SAC Planning and partnering with Scandic Fusion, the university successfully validated a modern, scalable, and user-friendly planning solution.

The project demonstrated that even a focused, time-constrained initiative can deliver concrete value when executed with the right tools, expertise, and collaboration model. Encouraged by the results, the university committed to replacing its legacy SAP BPC system by SAC Planning and is now exploring innovative features like Seamless Planning and utilizing SAP Datasphere to further expand its planning and analytics capabilities.

With these steps, the University of Helsinki won’t only improve its financial planning processes but also lay the foundation for integrated, data-driven decision-making across the organization well into the future.