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Packaged apps based on homegrown SAP technologies, and those from 2007 purchase of Business Objects
ComputerWorld, By Jaikumar Vijayan, September 15, 2010
In a sign of SAP's stepped-up attention to the business analytics market, the company released a set of real-time analytics products on Tuesday that are customized for use in various industry sectors and for specific business functions.
The products are based on technologies that SAP acquired in its 2007 purchase of Business Objects and include new tools designed to let enterprises set up mobile access to business intelligence (BI) applications.
The initial products in SAP's new BusinessObjects analytics application family have been customized for organizations in the health care, consumer products, financial services, retail, telecommunications and public-sector markets.
SAP's new applications are designed to deliver real-time analytics capabilities to help people working in areas such as finance, sales, marketing, planning, risk assessment and customer satisfaction at companies within those vertical segments.
The new products build on SAP's strategy to deliver packaged business analytics applications for specific industry segments, said Mark Smith, an analyst at Ventana Research. Competitively, they are an important step for SAP because they put the company in a stronger position vis-�-vis big rivals like IBM and Oracle, which have also launched efforts to deliver packaged line-of-business applications for specific vertical industries, he said.
One significant differentiator though could be SAPs growing focus on helping mobile users access business analytics tools, Smith said. "SAP has been pushing hard to provide mobile access," he said. "It's something that is becoming very important for businesses."
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