SAP Makes Analytics Easy for SMEs and Lines of Business

WALLDORF, Germany, June 14, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- As part of its goal to bring customers of all sizes powerful, easy-to-use analytics solutions that lead the market, SAP AG (NYSE: SAP) today announced the latest offerings tailored to fit the needs of small and midsize enterprises (SMEs) and lines of business. Via flexible deployment options, SAP® Crystal Server 2011 software and the 4.0 release of SAP® BusinessObjects™ Edge Business Intelligence (BI) software are designed to help enable customers to get up and running quickly to better understand all facets of their businesses and make confident, data-driven decisions as events unfold, in real time.

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These latest solutions from the business analytics portfolio from SAP are intended to help SMEs and lines of business get the most out of their IT investments and maximize their available resources by putting analytics tools directly into the hands of the people who need them most. SAP Crystal Server (formerly, SAP Crystal Reports Server) is an entry-level BI solution for small companies and departments that will include self-serve data search and exploration in addition to the core functionality of report and dashboard viewing; SAP BusinessObjects Edge BI will help enable them to address virtually any BI requirement – from reporting, visualization and ad-hoc analysis to data integration and data quality.

Additionally, with user-friendly enhancements such as a consistent, customizable and more intuitive user experience as well as delivery to any mobile device, the analytics software will help empower all types of users – from novices to professionals – to make more effective business decisions, enabling faster response times to impact the business and ultimately help drive greater profitability.

"In a new era of economic growth, small and midsize companies constantly need insights that help minimize risk and capture fleeing new business opportunities," said Dan Vesset, program vice president of Business Analytics research, IDC. "The latest release of business intelligence software for small and midsize companies from SAP empowers growing companies to adopt brand new innovations such as integrating structured and unstructured data and even information from social networks. Newly refreshed and intuitive user interface and brand new mobility functionality help more users in the growing company get the relevant and accurate data on time, decide and act with confidence, and contribute to greater growth and profitability."

With the 4.0 release of SAP BusinessObjects Edge BI, for the first time SMEs and lines of business will have quick insight into structured information as well as unstructured information like data from social networks using new text analysis functionality. Regardless of where the most relevant information resides, it will assist anyone within an organization to analyze it and collaborate to make informed decisions based on facts rather than gut reactions – all without needing to rely on IT. With new event insight capabilities and 64-bit architecture, customers will be able to use SAP BusinessObjects Edge BI to monitor business scenarios as they happen in real time, formulate action plans accordingly and even compare and contrast historical trends to help predict future outcomes. The organizations will be able to equip their customer-care call centers with text analysis to watch what is being said on blogs, Facebook and Twitter, and help mitigate potential brand damage by creating alerts for product defects and recalls.

With SAP Crystal Server 2011, sales and marketing departments challenged with correlating the success of their campaigns with overall revenue will be able to use the included SAP BusinessObjects Explorer™ software to navigate and  drill down to granular levels and monitor how those campaigns are affecting return on investment (ROI) in real time. The goal is to help them to quickly cease investing in less successful campaigns in a particular global region and reallocate those investments to campaigns that are driving substantial sources of revenue.

"We are very excited about the release of SAP Crystal Server and SAP BusinessObjects Edge BI 4.0, thanks to enhancements around the semantic layer and the full integration across all products that will empower our customers with a highly intuitive environment for better decision-making," said Ryan Goodman, CEO, Centigon Solutions. "Innovations like event insight expand the reach of business analytics to real-time operational dashboards."

By delivering tight integration between its BI and enterprise information management (EIM) solutions, SAP helps customers better understand their businesses by supporting the entire information life cycle – from data to dashboard. Not only can they embed things like BI dashboards into other business applications, but with EIM they can help ensure the data comprising those dashboards is accurate, current and trusted.

"SAP Crystal Server and SAP BusinessObjects Edge BI are two perfect examples of how we are innovating to alleviate the pain points commonly experienced by SMEs and lines of business," said Eric Duffaut, president, Global Ecosystem and Channels, SAP, who leads SME business globally. "We work closely with our customers, and we are turning analytics into something that is easily accessible by making it more affordable and less time-consuming. A broader range of organizations and departments will now be able to get stronger value and insights to solve business problems efficiently and effectively."

SAP Crystal Server 2011 and the 4.0 release of SAP BusinessObjects Edge BI are planned for general availability in the third quarter of 2011. For more information, visit the Business Analytics newsroom. Follow SAP BusinessObjects on Twitter at @businessobjects and SAP at @sapnews.

About SAP

As market leader in enterprise application software, SAP (NYSE: SAP) helps companies of all sizes and industries run better. From back office to boardroom, warehouse to storefront, desktop to mobile device – SAP empowers people and organizations to work together more efficiently and use business insight more effectively to stay ahead of the competition. SAP applications and services enable more than 170,000 customers (includes customers from the acquisition of Sybase) to operate profitably, adapt continuously, and grow sustainably. For more information, visit www.sap.com.

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