SAP steals limelight with cloud, mobile and always-on BI

Claimed to be capable of transforming the way people work – in much the same way as Infor's new Infor10 – the system is claimed to be lightweight, fast and simple, and SAP says it will "strengthen the collaborative decision-making process". SAP also says that no training is required, and that planned features intend to allow users to analyse data collectively in SAP StreamWork – including accessing information stored in SAP HANA, for rapid retrieval. Additionally, SAP has unveiled new mobile apps from its BusinessObjects portfolio, aimed at helping users across organisations to incorporate business analytics into their day-to-day work on a range of mobile devices. The new software will be available on the Applie iTunes Store, and will provide instant access to individuals' favourite business intelligence reports, metrics and real-time business data – with interactive graphics to ease understanding. Other mobile solutions will include global risk and compliance solutions in the form of SAP GRC Access Approver and GRC Policy Survey mobile apps. Separately, SAP is also claiming advances in enterprise cloud implementations, following completion of its acquisition of Crossgate – most notably, with business transactions and collaboration facilitated in the cloud extended to customers, business partners and suppliers. SAP says that, as cloud computing becomes more important, it is moving to deliver everything from business networks to platforms and virtualisation as a service. Away from the analytics, cloud and mobile headline, however, the software giant also revealed that SAP NetWeaver Business Warehouse software, which is powered by the SAP HANA in-memory computing platform, can now enable customers to move their databases onto the platform. If you're looking for speed and agility, this may be for you. SAP HANA dramatically enhances query performance and provides faster data loads in SAP NetWeaver BW. Migrating the database simplifies administration and streamlines the IT landscape, with reduced data layers. "By replacing the traditional database layer underneath SAP NetWeaver BW, with SAP HANA, we are completely rethinking and renewing the traditional database approach, " comments Dr Vishal Sikka, member of the SAP Executive Board. "More than 13,000 of our customers can now experience the unbelievable speed and flexibility of SAP HANA to support their businesses, and we can bring this innovation to customers in an entirely non-disruptive way." Incidentally, he also says that, as part of the strategy to bring in-memory computing closer to the data, SAP HANA now has both business function and predictive analysis libraries to dramatically improve business process performance. That means business functions such as sales forecasting based on linear regression, for example, are available as reusable functions directly in memory. Business users can also harness data mining and statistical algorithms, such as decision trees, to analyse the issues that matter most, without deploying additional packages.