Infotech Lead Asia: SAP has launched SAP Business Suite powered by SAP HANA, a new option for SAP Business Suite customers.
SAP claims that it is now the only provider of an integrated family of business applications that captures and analyzes transactional data in real time on a single in-memory platform.
SAP Business Suite powered by SAP HANA empowers customers to run their business in real time within the window of opportunity to transact, analyze and predict instantly and proactively in an unpredictable world.
Ovum analysts said SAP Business Suite on HANA has the potential to be a game changer by making SAP much more relevant to its customers. But in the near term, SAP Business Suite on HANA should be seen as opportunistic upgrade for existing customers or greenfield opportunity for new ones.
“Few if any enterprises currently rank replacement of enterprise systems as top priority. Convincing customers that the “transformative” benefits of Suite on HANA will be non-disruptive technically is the challenge SAP faces with an entrenched Business Suite customer base. Companies don’t swap out their database and ERP investments overnight,” said Tony Baer, Madan Sheina, Nicole Engelbert, Carter Lusher and Warren Wilson at Ovum.
SAP Business Suite powered by SAP HANA redefines speed and innovation for businesses and opens up a whole new world of growth opportunities. Customers can manage all mission-critical business processes in real time such as planning, execution, reporting and analysis by using the same relevant live data.
The new real-time SAP Business Suite provides an open environment allowing operational analytics and reporting on live data. SAP has developed a non-disruptive service pack to get the new SAP Business Suite benefit, and also if customers choose to migrate their database to the SAP HANA platform, SAP has made rapid deployment solutions available for fast implementation.
Vishal Sikka, member of the SAP Executive Board, Technology and Innovation, said: “Now the software at the heart of thousands of the world’s best-run companies can work and think as fast as our imagination. We can now eliminate the traditional trade-offs between cost and performance and reinvent real-time business while dramatically simplifying our customers’ landscapes, together with a strong open ecosystem of partners.”
According to Ovum, SAP’s challenge is brand and messaging. HANA has evolved over the last two years from a database to an analytics platform to simply a “platform.” How SAP avoids confusing the market will be a key factor in driving competitive advantage.
