SAP Launches Predictive Analysis for Big Data
SAP forges ahead with its predictive analytics strategy with this week's public launch of new software aimed at helping businesses spot trends from Big Data sources that may benefit the bottom line.
The product, called SAP Predictive Analysis, works on a standalone basis or can be integrated into SAP environments. Most notably, the software slots into setups running HANA, the company's in-memory database and analytics platform.
Drumming up HANA support has become a big priority for the business software giant of late. Last year, SAP rolled out two HANA-compatible predictive apps, Smart Meter Analytics for power utilities and COPA Accelerator software for financial firms. In April, the company launched a modeling and advanced visualization tool dubbed BusinessObjects Predictive Analysis Software as part of its early-access Ramp-Up program.
Opera Solutions got into the act in May when it announced that its Signal Hub tech and applications were coming to HANA.
Today, Predictive Analysis joins the fold, as software that has something to offer several industries and business functions, including sales, marketing, risk, governance and security, according to the company. Potential use cases include, “forecasting demand or product sales; identifying key influencing factors for sales opportunities or purchasing behavior; uncovering impactful trends; understanding business and data correlations; and spotting anomalies,” said SAP.
Features and capabilities include faster results encompassing bigger data sets via SAP HANA's predictive analysis library, R with SAP HANA support, and embedded, SAP Visual Intelligence-powered data acquisition, manipulation and results visualization tools.
SAP also put a priority on usability. The company touts an “intuitive, easy-to-use environment for designing predictive models” as one of its major features.
For one organization, the software is already proving its worth.CIR Food's CIO, Luca Baccarini, said in a press statement, “We have been using business intelligence solutions from SAP to analyze our business and the adoption of SAP HANA has brought tangible benefits. We now need to predict, more accurately, the fluctuation of demand and the habits of clients to optimize sales cycles and employee allocation on different tasks.”
SAP Predictive Analysis software is available now.
Pedro Hernandez is a contributing editor at InternetNews.com, the news service of the IT Business Edge Network, the network for technology professionals. Follow him on Twitter @ecoINSITE.
Pedro Hernandez contributes to Enterprise Apps Today, and 11Press, the technology network. He was previously the managing editor of Internet.com, an IT-related website network. He has expertise in Smart Tech, CRM, and Mobile Tech, Helping Banks and Fintechs, Telcos and Automotive OEMs, and Healthcare and Identity Service Providers to Protect Mobile Apps.
