Here Comes HANA: SAP In-Memory Processing in Action

SAP’s “HANA” (High-performance ANalytic Appliance) was a big hit at last week’s TechEd in Las Vegas. Here’s a video that shows in-memory processing in action, with real-time simulation and taking action on the results.  Read More →

What Does a World-Class BI Program Look Like?

I was asked this question last week at an internal meeting for the BI teams of a large Nordic telecom company, who had invited me to do a presentation on BI trends. Here’s my answer: “It’s one where that successfully changes the information CULTURE of the organization” Business intelligence is about business and people, not information and technology. Information is useless unless you actually change something in the way your organization... [Read More...]

IDC Business Intelligence Roadshow in Prague

I attended the IDC BI Roadshow today in Prague, in the Czech Republic. Tom Vavra, the IDC research director for the CEMA region, started off the day with a presentation entitled “The Next Wave of Business Intelligence”. He was under unusual pressure, because (1) his family was in the room, and it was the first time they’d seen him speak, and (2) part of the room fell on another IDC employee in the middle of his speech (he literally “brought... [Read More...]

Demo Jam Analytics at SAP TechEd Berlin

The Demo Jam evening at SAP Tech Ed Berlin featured Craig Cmehil as host, a packed audience, and lots of analytics. You can see the full selection of demos on the Virtual TechEd site. Here’s a selection that used analytics as part of their demonstrations. First up were Gregor Wolfe and Phil Loewen, the winning team of the Berlin Innovation Weekend, with a project that was just 30 hours old, to help non-profits improve their marketing and donation... [Read More...]

SAP BusinessObjects Augmented Explorer Now Available (+Resources to Test It)

The SAP BusinessObjects Augmented Explorer prototype mentioned in previous posts, created by the SAP BusinessObjects Innovation Center now available, as a standard part of the BusinessObjects Explorer for iPhone / iPad download from the Apple App Store. You’ll find some pictures below taken from official blog post and you can download the official documentation and samples here. Here’s a video demo I did of a slightly-older version of the prototype,... [Read More...]

SAP TechEd Berlin 2010 – Vishal Sikka Keynote Highlights

In true Web 2.0 fashion, I’m attending the SAP TechEd event in Berlin by watching the virtual TechEd stream, with live coverage of the main keynotes and interviews in key areas. You can watch a replay yourself on the Virtual TechEd site. The session started off with the new (excellent) “run better” SAP ad, featuring a wide selection of SAP customers: Mark Yolton then stepped up on stage to welcome the crowd and members of the SAP Community... [Read More...]

ASUG SAP BusinessObjects User Conference 2010 Keynotes

It was the ASUG SAP BusinessObjects User Conference this week at the Walt Disney Dolphin hotel in Orlando Florida, with around 1600 people and 140+ sessions of BI goodness. The conference included customer presentations from Harley-Davidson, Pepsico, AT&T, Intuit, Allstate, T-Mobile, Disney, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Amtrack, and many others; partner presentations from companies including APOS, Mellmo (RoamBI), Antivia, Centigon Solutions, Infosol,... [Read More...]