Convert Big Data insights into processes with SAP’s ‘HANA’ platform

SAP AG (NYSE: SAP) announced on March 19 a new intelligent business operations bundle that helps organizations infuse Big Data insights in real time into their processes to work smarter and improve responsiveness to threats and opportunities.

Today’s organizations accumulate massive volumes of structured and unstructured data from business applications, machines, social media and more, said SAP. However, enterprises are challenged to exploit the value of this information within the context of end-to-end processes such as procure to pay, order to cash, idea to offering and plan to inventory, among others.

Many organizations struggle to have one single view of their processes and make use of Big Data in a way that empowers line-of-business users to improve their operations.

The intelligent business operations bundle from SAP addresses these challenges, allowing organizations to streamline their operations and embed Big Data insights into their processes in real time. Line-of-business users will be empowered to gain full visibility into end-to-end operations to improve decision-making and to take corrective actions when or even before issues occur.

“The full value of Big Data only comes when you embed its insights in your business processes,” said Sanjay Chikarmane, senior vice president and general manager, Global Technology Solutions at SAP. “With the new intelligent business operations offering, we aim to help organizations to make use of Big Data in real time to run their processes more efficiently and intelligently. This solution lets customers take advantage of the convergence of process technology and operational intelligence which is considered to be the next generation of business process management.”

The offering is based on the SAP HANA platform and combines:

• SAP Operational Process Intelligence software for analyzing large volumes of process data that can come from any data source, offering real-time visibility into end-to-end operations to line-of-business users.
• SAP NetWeaver Process Orchestration software for implementation and dynamic, rules-based execution of business processes that can span across multiple applications in heterogeneous system landscapes.
• SAP Event Stream Processor for gathering events from legacy IT systems, along with social feeds, unstructured events and any kind of data source, and correlating them to aggregate and filter complex events that are meaningful to the business processes.
• SAP® PowerDesigner software for enterprise-wide process modeling and documentation.

The intelligent business operations bundle allows for complete upstream and downstream visibility among process documentation, implementation and analysis by sharing common standards-based process, data and interface models.

“The intelligent business operations offering from SAP helps companies to improve their operations by gaining end-to-end real-time visibility and making sense out of the Big Data created by their big processes,” said Owen Pettiford, co-CEO, Comprise IT, a UK-based consulting firm. “For example, the solution can provide real-time predictive insights into the order-to-cash process at a line-item level and sends alerts whenever KPIs are in danger of being breached, often helping to resolve fulfillment issues before they occur.”