SAP Unveils Business Analytics for Industries
SAP (NYSE: SAP) today unveiled 10 business analytics applications aimed at key industries and verticals such as retail, consumer products, finance, healthcare, telecom and government.
“Our goal is to remain the number one business applications company in the world,” said co-CEO Bill McDermott, who spoke at a webcast with a number of the company's customers.
The SAP BusinessObjects analytic applications provide “the insight and best practices required to better understand risk, uncover opportunities and make the right decisions to optimize business,” the company said.
The applications can be deployed in about two months and work with structured or unstructured data from any SAP or non-SAP system. The solutions span finance, sales, marketing, risk assessment, patient care management, customer satisfaction and retention and military planning to address a wide variety of issues, SAP said.
SAP Services and systems integrators are also gearing up for the launch with implementation services and customized predictive analytics services. HP (NYSE: HPQ) and Teradata (NYSE: TDC) are also collaborating on the new offerings.
During the webcast, McDermott demonstrated a retail sales and inventory app on an Apple iPad, showing alerts and actions when a product was out of stock, for example.
“You can be faster, more agile, more competitive,” he said, adding that the solutions offer “real-time in-memory business analytics.”
SAP claims the new offerings combined with mobile technology are moving decision-making away from middle managers.
In a press release announcing the new products, McDermott stated, “From the CEO all the way to the shop floor, the power of effective decision-making, when duplicated across hundreds if not thousands of employees, adds up to significant value for companies through speed, agility and changed behaviors.”
The announcement comes as the company tries to rebound from lackluster growth and a slow move to the cloud.
McDermott and Jim Hagemann Snabe took over SAP's reins earlier this year in hopes of sparking renewed growth at the company, which still enjoys a wide lead over rivals Oracle (NASDAQ: ORCL), SAS and IBM (NYSE: IBM) in the business intelligence, analytics and performance management market, according to Gartner.
Paul Ferrill has been writing for over 15 years about computers and network technology. He holds a BS in Electrical Engineering as well as a MS in Electrical Engineering. He is a regular contributor to the computer trade press. He has a specialization in complex data analysis and storage. He has written hundreds of articles and two books for various outlets over the years. His articles have appeared in Enterprise Apps Today and InfoWorld, Network World, PC Magazine, Forbes, and many other publications.
