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Thingalytics - answering the digital business question

Through the incorporation of thingalytics, valuable information is pulled together and managers can detect events and determine their relevance, says Riaaz Jeena, sales director of Software AG SA.


Johannesburg, 09 Apr 2015

The event of digital business is disrupting organisations and processes like never before. According to research[1], an incredible 30% of big businesses have absolutely no big data plan in place, while a further 51% of these organisations are not aware of what can be gained through effective big data management and leveraging.

"The Internet of things (IOT), highly connected customers, and the increase in the need for risk mitigation practices mean that these disruptions are happening everywhere, all of the time," explains Riaaz Jeena, Sales Director of Software AG South Africa, who addressed this year's IDC CIO Summit in Johannesburg. Jeena went on to explain that while just a few years ago, 90% of business data was stored on disk-based databases, a major shift has seen more than 90% of this information stored in-memory today.

"The major question posed by innovations in digital business is how do we take advantage of this 'big change', especially the fast moving big data that flows from the 'digital planet'? The answer is something that we call 'thingalytics'." Jeena explains that thingalytics is a concept coined by Dr John Bates, Software AG's CTO for Intelligent Business Operations and Big Data, and a member of the Software AG Group Executive Board. The term thingalytics describes a composite of 'things' and 'analytics', which shows organisations how to use real-time analytics and algorithms to seize the opportunities presented by the IOT, while simultaneously minimising threats. This composite solution manages and combines volumes, velocity and variety of data from the ever increasing number of information sources presented by cloud, mobile, IOT and social media, among others.

This means businesses need to use this data to understand the context of their customer base and how their processes are aligned to continue to serve them effectively. Jeena explains that while many organisations are unable to combine these unique customer insights with their inventory and competitor data in real-time, it is imperative that the right solutions are incorporated.

"The core digital business challenge here lies in the ability to automate core business service processes within the organisation, such as maintenance scheduling and procurement," he says. "In order to effectively achieve this, it is crucial to have the capability to combine historical and current streaming big data immediately."

At the same time, new and developing regulations are also causing significant and continuous change in businesses, according to Jeena. "It is no longer viable for an organisation's controls to be slow to respond to these types of events in the current business environment. Non-compliance of regulations can cause a myriad of issues, and as such, it is vital for businesses to ensure they have sufficient capability to manage this automatically and effectively," he continues.

In any business context through the incorporation of thingalytics, valuable information is pulled together, and managers are able to detect events, determine their relevance, and launch the appropriate processes needed. "Essentially, the event of big data and streaming analytics solutions from the IOT means that we must change how we manage and analyse data, to help reinvent our organisations for the new era of digital business," says Jeena. "Winners in the IOT race will not only profit - they could even avert disaster," he notes.

"The phrase 'time is money' has received a face-lift - now 'real-time' is money. For example, 0.1 seconds lost by Amazon means 1% lost in sales, while 0.5 seconds lost by Google means a 20% loss in search traffic. In this day and age, 'always on' business offerings are the only way to ensure companies stay competitive and relevant in terms of their performance and scale."

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Software AG

Software AG (Frankfurt TecDAX: SOW) helps organisations achieve their business objectives faster. The company's big data, integration and business process technologies enable customers to drive operational efficiency, modernise their systems and optimise processes for smarter decisions and better service. Building on over 40 years of customer-centric innovation, the company is ranked as a leader in 14 market categories, fuelled by core product families Adabas-Natural, ARIS, Alfabet, Apama, Terracotta and webMethods. Software AG has more than 4 400 employees in 70 countries and had revenues of EUR858 million in 2014.

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Learn more at www.softwareag.com/za

Editorial contacts

Caitlin Robertson
Epic Communications
(011) 784 4790
Caitlin@epiccommunications.co.za