SAP Turns “Big Data” into Useable Data with New Analytics Programs

Business software providers SAP teamed up with Canadian firm Roger Communications to complete a suite of new enterprise analytics software that provides self-service access to reports that scale as the database being analysed grows in data volumes.

The resultant product editions, SAP BusinessObjects and SAP Crystal Server, allow users to make sense of “Big Data” by accessing databases with easily optimised query times that use adaptive enriched embedded data structures. This means that users in SAP jobs can build their reports to quickly pinpoint the exact information that they need and spend less time trying the form intelligible trends from massive quantities of data. This then allows them to spend more time deciding how best to use the accurate analysis of the information, rather than searching futilely for the answer.

John Schweitzer, SAP’s senior vice president and general manager of analytics said: “With the new analytics editions of SAP BusinessObjects BI and SAP Crystal solutions, customers can start driving their own decision revolutions more cost-effectively than ever before. As technologies such as BI, data warehousing and data integration continue to come together, organizations large and small are looking for end-to-end solutions that can turn ‘big data’ into ‘intelligent data’ and quickly answer any business question. The analytics editions take this even further by offering the expert content they need to accelerate return on investment.”

These analytic editions have been specifically designed to be scalable so that as companies (and their data analysis needs) grow, the SAP software can provide the same level of support. This can be particularly important for small to medium businesses (SMEs) who often go through periods of rapid growth and can struggle with overwhelming masses of data as a result.

In another joint development effort, SAP AG and SUGEN have recently announced the launch of the Knowledge Transfer Platform; an online platform that allows SAP customers to intuitively navigate SAP information sources in order to pinpoint the product or resources that they are after. Previously, the multiple SAP information sources were thought to be cumbersome to navigate for customers who had a specific query or market need.

“A number of SUGEN User Groups collaborated with SAP AG to develop a solution to this problem,” said Richard Thorpe, SUGEN Core Leadership member and sponsor of the Knowledge Transfer project. “We have aimed to simplify the way information can be acquired in a manner that can be applied globally by involving the real usage of the knowledge transfer assets of each User Group and to focus on the processes inside SAP, from SAP to partners and from SAP to customers. This will make the User Group the main source of SAP application and technology information.”