SAP to Help Companies Unlock the Value of Contextual Data

BARCELONA, Spain, March 2, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- SAP SE (NYSE: SAP) today announced that it will develop a Big Data solution tailored to the needs of the telecommunications industry. The solution intends to help simplify IT and unlock business innovation for communication service providers (CSPs). Powered by the SAP HANA® database and designed to run on SAP HANA Cloud Platform, the data model is expected to provide real-time, contextual data processing and analytics for telcos. It is planned that customers will have the option of running the Big Data solution on premise, in the cloud or in a hybrid deployment. The announcement was made at Mobile World Congress (MWC) being held March 2–5 in Barcelona.

To remain competitive in today's hyperconnected, saturated markets, telcos must leverage their massive stores of data in order to achieve deeper customer engagement and streamlined omnichannel commerce, gain insight into network usage and drive cost-efficient operations. A recent report from McKinsey & Company says that telcos are uniquely positioned to use Big Data and advanced analytics to capture a potential opportunity worth US$300 million by the year 2020.*

"We are hearing from our customers that the need to access, control and understand massive amounts of customer data has never been greater," said Rick Costanzo, executive vice president and general manager, Telco Industry and Mobile Solutions, SAP. "That is why SAP intends to streamline access to Big Data for telcos, with the deployment option of their choice. They can use information to create innovative new services designed to increase customer retention, reduce churn and drive revenue. By developing an industry-specific Big Data solution, we intend to provide our telco customers with simpler, more rapid access to the power of SAP HANA, provide them with the deployment options they need and provide them access to a strong network of application developers."

According to an IDC study, the amount of data in the world is set to grow ten-fold in the next six years to 44 zettabytes or 44 trillion gigabytes.** By leveraging next-generation technologies to harness this data, service providers can gain insights into the behaviors and preferences of customers, as well as into how they interact with the world. They can extract maximum value from their Big Data by combining the in-memory processing power of SAP HANA and Apache Hadoop's ability to store and process huge amounts of data — up to 100 petabytes or more — regardless of structure. As a result, they'll be able to tap into valuable sources of data in the organization and find hidden insights that lead to new revenue opportunities.

With immediate access to data and real-time analytics, telcos can achieve better customer segmentation, superior customer insights, improved customer retention and increased customer profitability. The planned Big Data solution is the logical next step in SAP® offerings to its telco customers, drawing on deep industry experience as well as customer feedback. SAP is already helping some of the world's most successful telco providers achieve their business goals. Telcos using SAP solutions have increased average revenue per user, enhanced customer engagement and improved customer retention with the ability to analyze large amounts of data.

Industry-Standard Data Model Will Allow Partners to Co-Innovate

SAP and trade association TM Forum plan to collaborate to develop an open, industry-ready data model that is expected to allow SAP customers and partners to tap easily into the speed and power of SAP HANA. Built on SAP HANA Cloud Platform, the data model plans to enable co-innovation with third parties to provide advanced solutions to the telco market. SAP's extensive ecosystem of partners, including network equipment providers, system integrators and independent developers, are expected to be able to leverage the industry-ready data model to build and run applications to solve complex business problems. These applications are planned to tackle such challenges as identifying customer churn, designing and deploying targeted customer offers as well as rapidly optimizing network operations.

Big Data Solutions powered by SAP HANA Will Help Telcos Engage with Customers and Improve Operations

In the second quarter of 2015, SAP plans to release enhanced functionality in the SAP hybris® Marketing solution and SAP Billing and Revenue Innovation Management solutions. SAP hybris Marketing is powered by SAP HANA and tightly integrated with SAP Billing and Revenue Innovation Management software and the SAP Convergent Mediation application by DigitalRoute. With the SAP hybris Marketing solution, telco marketers are expected to be able to combine operational, network and customer billing data into one application, unleashing the power of truly contextual marketing. By combining data sources that have traditionally been in silos, telco marketers are expected to be able to provide real-time, contextual, consistent and relevant experiences throughout a customer's journey, regardless of the marketing channel or device. Using advanced analytics and reporting functionality built into SAP hybris Marketing, carriers are expected to gain valuable insight into customer behaviors and be able to identify problems, predict actions and proactively provide personalized offers and solutions.

As telcos fight for customers, understanding the impact of pricing changes has never been more important. As a result, SAP has enhanced SAP Billing and Revenue Innovation Management to provide improved pricing simulation features. This gives marketing, finance and pricing managers the ability to gain near-immediate insight into how a pricing change might impact their market based on their own historical data.

For more information, including additional news from SAP at Mobile World Congress, visit the SAP News Center. Follow SAP on Twitter at @sapnews. and @SAP_Telco.

*Telecom, Media and HighTech Extranet (McKinsey & Company, March 2014)

**Digital Universe Study (IDC, April 2014)

About TM Forum

TM Forum is the largest global trade association focused on bringing together the digital ecosystem, including communication service providers, digital service providers and enterprises, working with our members to enable an open digital world. There are more than 900 member companies today who have joined the TM Forum. These member companies are widely recognized as industry leaders and they represent every major region from around the world. The Forum members help shape the future by collaborating with other members on the development of best practices, standards and tools like APIs that support a vibrant and open digital ecosystem.

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 282,000 customers to operate profitably, adapt continuously and grow sustainably. For more information, visit www.sap.com.

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