SAP and Google put ‘big data’ on the map

The announcement, made at the AlwaysOn Silicon Valley Innovation Summit, in Santa Clara, California, last week, is a continuation of SAP's collaboration with Google, which will enables users to better visualise large data volumes, in terms of additional geo-spatial displays. Most recent developments from the partnership include advances with the SAP® StreamWork application, such as inclusion in the Google Apps Marketplace, integration with Google Docs and OpenSocial adoption. With location-based intelligence, SAP envisages bringing corporate information to life via Google's interactive map, satellite and even street-level views. Users could, for example, analyse sales and forecasts in a geo-spatial context. Sanjay Poonen, president of SAP's global solutions business, argues that the software giant has been driving a convergence of enterprise and consumer software, giving more people the ability to make informed business decisions through the lens of mobile and social technologies, while better navigating big data sets. "Today, more and more information is being geo-tagged, and it is unlocking an entirely new dimension for enterprise data," states Poonen. Google Maps delivers a cost-effective and easily deployed mapping platform that makes it easy to visualise geographic data, he explains. Companies large and small can then use Google's infrastructure to process vast amounts of geographic data and gain better insights into their businesses. Pooonen gives the example of customer support representatives in a consumer packaged goods company using SAP StreamWork with Google Maps. "They could collaborate and pinpoint the location of consumer complaints within specific geographies and make a decision regarding how to address and prioritise resolution," he says. "SAP's work with Google marries powerful enterprise software with the world's most popular mapping platform to create entirely new ways for people to understand and interact with business information. We aim to provide our customers the opportunity to tap into the power of business analytics combined with location intelligence through a geographic view – and use rich, interactive analytics to respond to events as they unfold." The new SAP and Google software offerings are planned for availability in the upcoming releases of SAP enterprise products, he says, including SAP BusinessObjects solutions and mobile apps.