Johannesburg, 11 Aug 2011
SAP announced its collaboration with Google to help customers manage large data volumes in intuitive, visual displays and facilitate faster, more-informed decisions.
SAP plans to enhance its business analytics software with location-based data capabilities, allowing people to interact with real-time information via Google Maps.
The plans continue a strong history of collaboration between the companies, most recently on advances for the SAP StreamWork collaborative decision application such as its inclusion in the inclusion in the Google Apps Marketplace, integration with Google Docs and OpenSocial adoption.
SAP and Google are working together to pair enterprise applications with the kinds of consumer tools that enrich millions of people's lives every day, such as Google Maps and Google Earth.
With location-based intelligence capabilities, SAP envisions bringing corporate information to life via Google's dynamic, interactive map, satellite and even street-level views. As a result, customers could analyse their businesses in a geospatial context to effectively understand the “where” of their information, as well as global, regional and local trends and how they are impacted by different scenarios - helping to increase efficiency and profitability, among other benefits. To see location-based intelligence in action, watch this short video: “Demo: SAP and Google Team for Location-Based Intelligence.”
Simon Carpenter, Director of Strategic Initiatives at SAP Africa, added: “This is an exciting development in our long partnership with Google. In developing economies, such as those in Africa, there is a great need for geospatial analytical capabilities. Public policymakers and public services organisations alike can make more informed decisions when they have a clear understanding of how information about topics, demographics, health and crime relates to regions and corridors. For example, understanding how particular types of crime are clustered spatially enables scarce resources to be deployed to maximum effect. Similarly, it becomes much easier to track disease outbreaks so that they may be effectively contained.
Having Google's mapping services integrated with SAP's market-leading business analytics capabilities is of immediate value to many different decision-makers. Even more exciting is the opportunity to leverage SAP's revolutionary and super-fast In-Memory Appliance (HANA). HANA offers unprecedented performance improvements when it comes to analysing terabyte scale datasets and delivering the results to an increasingly large and mobile audience. Also, according to Carpenter, the reality in Africa is that the majority of information consumers will be mobile so the synergies that flow from SAP's acquisition of Sybase - the world-leading mobile platform - mean that SAP is able to bring all of these components together in a “perfect storm” of transformational capabilities. “Our customers now have the ability to visually explore huge data in real-time with a geospatial perspective while on the move in the field. The possibilities are endless and profound for private and public sector alike.”
SAP has been driving a convergence of enterprise and consumer software, giving an increasing number of people the ability to make important business decisions through the lens of mobile and social technologies, while navigating the complexity of 'big data', or the growing volume, variety and increased velocity of information.
With comprehensive global coverage, Google Maps is the world's most popular online mapping tool. For enterprise customers, Google Maps delivers a cost-effective and easily deployed mapping platform that makes it easy to visualise geographic data. Companies large and small can use Google's infrastructure to quickly process vast amounts of geographic data and gain better insights into their businesses.
Following are examples of how organisations running SAP solutions with Google Maps API Premier could benefit from overlaying enterprise information onto intuitive mapping tools:
* A telecoms operator could use Google Earth and SAP BusinessObjects Explorer software to perform dropped-call analysis and pinpoint the geo-coordinates of faulty towers.
* A state department of revenue could overlay household tax information on a map of the state and group it at various levels to track the highest and lowest tax bases.
* A mortgage bank could perform risk assessment of its mortgage portfolio by overlaying foreclosure and default data with the location of loans on Google Maps.
* With SAP StreamWork, a team of customer support representatives in a consumer packaged goods company could collaborate and pinpoint the location of consumer complaints within specific geographies and make a decision regarding how to address and prioritise resolution.
* A petroleum retailer could use the Google Maps API Premier and get real-time traffic information with SAP BusinessObjects solutions to determine where to invest in new sites.
* Census data could be overlaid on a Google map of the country, grouped by state or province and drilled down on at the local government, municipal or suburb level.
The new enterprise offerings from this collaboration between SAP and Google are planned for availability in the upcoming releases of various SAP enterprise products, including SAP BusinessObjects solutions and mobile apps. For a closer look at how the on-premise, on-demand and on-device solutions can allow people to view specific details by location and even analyse data directly within the interactive maps, visit: “Screenshots: Location-Based Intelligence from SAP.”
For further information, including screenshots and a demo video, visit the Business Analytics newsroom. Follow SAP BusinessObjects on Twitter at
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