Business Analytics » Explorer

First Look at the New SAP BusinessObjects Exploration Views Prototype

Timo Elliott — Mon, 13 Dec 2010 16:26:27 +0000

SAP have just announced a new Exploration Views prototype, based on the BusinessObjects Explorer platform. It builds on the core strengths of Explorer (easy-to-use interface and fast, in-memory calculations) with more options for business people to customize and share their own views of the data, without requiring help from IT.

Exploration views is exactly what its name suggests: instead of having just a single view of the data in Explorer as you have in the current product, you can set up several different views at the same time, with user-defined alerts, and the ability to define filters that act on multiple views at the same time.

Here’s a quick walk through of some of the basic functionality. For more information (and a longer, more complete explanation of the features), you should consult the Exploration Views prototype User and Admin Guide (part of the download from the SAP BusinessObjects Innovation Center)

You first log on to the system, then either open an existing Exploration View or create a new one:

Each view has several “sheets’”, and each sheet can contain several charts or tables of data. To create a new chart, I choose the measures, dimensions, and type of representation.

It immediately shows me the requested data set:

To create an additional chart, I simple repeat the process, dragging the chart icon from the toolbox to the right-hand window (above, below, left, or right of the existing chart), and choosing a different measure, dimension, and representation:

At any time, I can use the “Explore” link in the top right to change any aspect of a chart (data choice, formatting, etc.)

In addition to charts, I can define a table view of data, or a “filter control”. I can define a new filter control simply by dragging it to where I would like it to appear in the workspace and choosing a dimension and type:

I can also add personalized alerts by choosing one of the charts, and adding the alert details:

As I change the values chosen in the “Year” filter at the top, all the charts and alerts change to reflect this:

I can also use the top bar to access and change the global set of filters at any time, which change all the charts on the sheet by default (I can “lock” individual views so they don’t change, if necessary).

Once you have the view, you can hide the toolbox, and freely change the sizes of each pane of the window.

There are some lovely touches in the prototype – for example, it’s very easy to select a value (such as “Alberto Ascari”, above), and then simply drag it to create a new window focused on that single value (which can then be easily modified to change to a different view, include a different dimension, etc.):

Using these basic building blocks, business people can quickly provide a customized view of the data, then share it with others using the “share” button in the top right, which allows you to create a “bookmark” URL for your view and send it to others (subject to security settings).

Exploration Views is currently a prototype. SAP is taking a 2.0 approach to innovation, by providing early prototypes that can be downloaded and installed by anybody who is interested. Anybody who has feedback on the ideas and interfaces is encouraged to contact the Innovation Center team. Once the feedback has been gathered, SAP will then work out how best to include these features in future versions of the product.

I view the new Exploration Views prototype as element of the next leap forward in analytics, and it is different from existing approaches in two important ways:

Exploration Views is designed from the ground up to take advantage of the in-memory processing power of Explorer. As in-memory infrastructures become more widespread, there is less need to separate the “design” and “consumption” aspects of the data access. Because each change to the data view is more or less instantaneous, we can give more power to the users to customize and control their own view of the data, without having a separate, complex “design” interface.
Exploration Views are focused on personal customization, and should be considered a complement to existing approaches that provide a shared “dashboard” view of data.

I’ll explore these (important) themes in more detail in a future post.

Some Fun SAP BusinessObjects Explorer, GRC, and EPM Videos

Timo Elliott — Tue, 09 Nov 2010 15:45:07 +0000

From SAP Asia’s YouTube Channel, here are a series of humorous, well-produced videos on various SAP BusinessObjects solutions – enjoy! Many of these are perfect for sharing with your business teams – don’t hesitate!

Governance, Risk and Compliance

IT and Finance: “We both work for the same company… so why is there so much tension”?

Product information about SAP GRC

BusinessObjects Explorer for Finance:

“I got the voice message when I was still at the restaurant. At first all I could hear was static, cars honking… and then the voice of James, my company’s CEO. He was stuck Mumbai traffic on the way to the airport…”

Product information about BusinessObjects Explorer

Explorer for Sales & Marketing

SMS from the CFO: “e.u.forecasts xtracold winter.pls correlate top hot snax/yr/ctry 4am board meeting”.

Product information about BusinessObjects Explorer

Explorer for IT

“Wow – look at all the snacks we sold.”

Product information about BusinessObjects Explorer

Enterprise Performance Management: Consolidation & Management Reporting

“My daughter Anna drew this… this big puff of smoke? That’s supposed to be me, doing what my wife calls my seven-day-a-month disappearing act…hours stuck in spreadsheet hell”

SAP Enterprise Performance Management product information

Enterprise Performance Management: Planning, Budgeting, and Simulating

“Budgets and planning time… a recurring corporate crisis, but we have to do it… monthly, quarterly, or yearly, we decision-makers gather with all our reports and projections and then it begins! [‘oh please, this is so ridiculous…’]”

SAP Enterprise Performance Management product information

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

Timo Elliott — Tue, 12 Oct 2010 15:13:36 +0000

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, showing you how it works (the icons aren’t as jumpy now!):

Here’s a diagram showing how it works:

This diagram and some other mockups of how the tool might be used are available as a PowerPoint presentation – and you can create your own mockups by ungrouping the elements, replacing the pictures, moving the points, etc.

Some screen shots of the final version:

I also put together another sample data set, that includes some links to extra graphics, and generates a random set of numbers and locations around a point that you choose: download the Excel spreadsheet (after you’ve uploaded it to BI OnDemand, don’t forget to set the first column to “MIN” in the Explorer view!)

Finally, here are some graphics that may be useful for the Points of Interest, showing both a trend (the arrow), and whether it’s on target or now (the background color. It’s available in two ways, to make it easier to use in Excel calculations, etc: first as a straight 1-9:

http://sapweb20.com/blog/augreality/icon01.png

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Then as two numbers – the first indicates the type of arrow, the second indicates the background color (see the spreadsheet above for an example of how to use this)

http://sapweb20.com/blog/augreality/icon11.png

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Then some miscellaneous icons

http://sapweb20.com/blog/augreality/iconcircle.png

http://sapweb20.com/blog/augreality/iconoffice.png

http://sapweb20.com/blog/augreality/iconperson.png

http://sapweb20.com/blog/augreality/iconperson_green.png

http://sapweb20.com/blog/augreality/iconperson_red.png

http://sapweb20.com/blog/augreality/iconstar.png

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http://sapweb20.com/blog/augreality/iconstar_red.png

And finally, here’s a Photoshop file containing all the layers used in the icons above, that you can use to develop your own (you’ll need a public server to put them on)

Please provide the SAP Innovation Center feedback to make sure we know how you’re using this and things you would like to see it do in the future. Please remember, this is a prototype only and NOT for use in production environments.

Also stay connected with SAP BusinessObjects innovation center RSS feed or Twitter feed.

New Augmented Corporate Reality BI Prototype

sapweb20 — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 09:24:30 +0000

Based on a blog post and proof-of-concept application earlier this year, I have been championing a SAP BusinessObjects Innovation Center project to build an “augmented corporate reality” prototype.

The idea stemmed from one of the key themes of my BI future directions presentations: that for the first time in centuries, new technology comes from the consumer world, not from governments and businesses, and so we need to adapt and adopt these technologies for corporate use.

The mobile telephone is starting to become a “universal pointing device”: using the phone’s GPS location and compass, it knows where you are, and what you’re looking at. There is now a wide range of augmented reality mobile applications available on the market that help people find the nearest pizzeria, get information about a monument, or locate local twitter users.

How could this functionality be used in the business world? My first proof-of-concept blog post imagined examples of a manager getting information about a particular retail operation, a factory foreman getting maintenance records of machinery, and comparing sales between two different areas of a retail store.

These examples spurred a lot of conversations with customers around the globe about possible applications:

An oil company interested in getting information about equipment in refineries
A car manufacturer interested in providing information to managers of sales dealerships
A consumer goods company interested in tracking information and location of their vending machines

Based on those conversations, we have been able to validate the core concepts and refined the functionality of our prototype. The result is an iPhone / iPad application that works closely with the SAP BusinessObjects Explorer technology and the BI onDemand web site.

Before I tell you more about it, let me emphasize: it’s a prototype, not a product. The SAP BusinessObjects innovation center is modeled on Google Labs. We’re taking a transparent, Web 2.0 approach to innovation. Rather than working for years in some dark room and then unveiling a completed product, the team creates iterative prototypes and make them freely available for download, so that you can test them, use them, and give us feedback. They’re free, but not supported, and we give no guarantees that they will be developed further. The idea is that not-so-good ideas sink without wasted development, while good ideas get refined before turning into real products (our track record is very good: mobile BI, the Explorer product, and many features of the current BusinessObjects platform all started off as prototypes).

And please note that everything I mention below may change over time, based on your feedback. We are in the process of refining the prototype, and hope to make it available for you to download and use in the next few weeks or months.

How it works

You upload a data set that includes Point of Interest (POI) information to the BusinessObjects OnDemand platform at bi.ondemand.com (you can sign up for a free account), set some data configuration options, then access that data set from your iPhone or iPad. The prototype works out what information to display based on your location and the phone’s compass heading:

The prototype uses five fields of information to define the “points of interest” (POIs) that can be viewed: latitude, longitude, name, an associated image, and at least one data value.

Demonstration Screen Shots

First we install the Augmented Reality Explorer application (currently, this involves a specific build for identified devices – we will make it a free download from the Apple App Store as soon as we can). We then open up the application on the iPhone, and log into a BI OnDemand account:

We choose an appropriately-configured data source. The points of interest are then automatically displayed based on your location: you can choose to see either the closest POI first, or the one closest to the direction you are pointing your phone. The icons are configurable — in this case, I’m using them to indicate the current state of sales: the arrow indicates whether current sales are larger than the previous period, and the color indicates whether the current sales are above, equal to, or below the current sales targets.

We can choose to display the points on a map, and zoom in to get more detail by tapping on the radar to make it full screen, and sliding a finger to choose the radius of distance we’re interested in:

I can also view the points of interest superimposed on the real world, using the iPhone’s camera – as I move around, each POI seems to hover over its physical location, and I can choose what information is displayed as each point is selected:

At any time, I can choose to filter the points by any of the dimensions available in the data set, and clicking on a POI takes me through to the same interface as the BusinessObjects Explorer application. Any filters that are applied in the augmented reality view are applied to the Explorer view, and vice-versa, so I can easily and simply explore the information available (and it could be many millions of rows of data, if you’re using SAP BusinessObjects Explorer Accelerated)

And the prototype looks great on the iPad, too (the camera view is not available, obviously):

Other thoughts:

The possible uses are currently limited by the precision of the location services of the iPhone/iPad (GPS, cell tower triangulation, wifi triangulation). It works very well outdoors with GPS, but using cell-towers only tells you where you are within a few blocks (which is good enough to locate the nearest retail branch, but not for comparing one aisle of a supermarket with another). Various companies such as SkyHook and Cisco are working on increasing the available precision.
The Augmented Explorer prototype can also directly access a corporate Explorer server, with an appropriately formatted data set
The BusinessObjects data quality solutions include location coordinates for just about any address in the world. In an ideal world, you’d be able to submit a file with addresses, and we’d turn it into coordinates on the fly, and that’s something we’ll be looking into in the future. In the meantime, there are other free solutions out there.
Note that the locations that you’re looking at don’t have to be static: imagine pointing your device to get information about cars, trucks, or people (e.g. combining it with information from the Social Network Analyzer prototype). In the short term, data latency getting information into Explorer would be an issue, but better BI on event information will improve this area, too…

Next steps:

If you have an questions, comments, or feedback, or feel like you have a good case for getting a copy of the application even before we post it to the App Store (e.g. you’re an SAP employee with a customer who might be interested), feel free to contact me or the SAP BusinessObjects innovation center team directly. We’re particularly interested in finding real-world scenarios for this (it’s not about doing something just for the sake of the technology).

Early press coverage:

SAP working on augmented reality for business, Jennifer Scott, IT Pro, July 8, 2010
Q&A: Timo Elliott, BI evangelist at SAP, Jennifer Scott, IT Pro, July 9, 2010
SAP working on augmented reality for business, TechCentral (Ireland), July 12, 2010
SAP working on augmented reality for business, Leo King (Computerworld UK), Network World, July 9, 2010

New Augmented Corporate Reality BI Prototype

Timo Elliott — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 16:27:40 +0000

These examples spurred a lot of conversations with customers around the globe about possible applications:

An oil company interested in getting information about equipment in refineries
A car manufacturer interested in providing information to managers of sales dealerships
A consumer goods company interested in tracking information and location of their vending machines

How it works

The prototype uses five fields of information to define the “points of interest” (POIs) that can be viewed: latitude, longitude, name, an associated image, and at least one data value.

Demonstration Screen Shots

And the prototype looks great on the iPad, too (the camera view is not available, obviously):

Other thoughts:

The possible uses are currently limited by the precision of the location services of the iPhone/iPad (GPS, cell tower triangulation, wifi triangulation). It works very well outdoors with GPS, but using cell-towers only tells you where you are within a few blocks (which is good enough to locate the nearest retail branch, but not for comparing one aisle of a supermarket with another). Various companies such as SkyHook and Cisco are working on increasing the available precision.
The Augmented Explorer prototype can also directly access a corporate Explorer server, with an appropriately formatted data set
The BusinessObjects data quality solutions include location coordinates for just about any address in the world. In an ideal world, you’d be able to submit a file with addresses, and we’d turn it into coordinates on the fly, and that’s something we’ll be looking into in the future. In the meantime, there are other free solutions out there.
Note that the locations that you’re looking at don’t have to be static: imagine pointing your device to get information about cars, trucks, or people (e.g. combining it with information from the Social Network Analyzer prototype). In the short term, data latency getting information into Explorer would be an issue, but better BI on event information will improve this area, too…

Next steps:

Early press coverage:

SAP working on augmented reality for business, Jennifer Scott, IT Pro, July 8, 2010
Q&A: Timo Elliott, BI evangelist at SAP, Jennifer Scott, IT Pro, July 9, 2010
SAP working on augmented reality for business, TechCentral (Ireland), July 12, 2010
SAP working on augmented reality for business, Leo King (Computerworld UK), Network World, July 9, 2010

Xcelsius Dashboards on Your Android Mobile Phone

Timo Elliott — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 20:04:38 +0000

The latest release of Android, v2.2 (“Froyo”) supports the Adobe flash technology used by Xcelsius (now called Dashboard Design) and SAP BusinessObjects Explorer. So now you can access your dashboards, reports, and exploration spaces directly from your mobile device without requiring a separate application (e.g. as you do for the iPhone and iPad).

It also means you can reuse all the effort you’ve put into developing Xcelsius dashboards and make them into slick, use-them-on-the-fly interfaces for your road warriors. Here’s a quick video demonstration of my Google Nexus One phone running Xcelsius, WebIntelligence, and Explorer, based on a Formula One data set (SAP is a sponsor of the Vodaphone McLaren Mercedes racing team, and the McLaren team use SAP’s PLM software).

Here’s a step-by-step picture view of the same demo:

1: open the xcelsius dashboard, using a bookmark link, or typing the dashboard link directly: http://assets.timoelliott.com/docs/formula1_android_open.swf

(Note: the Xcelsius icon below is NOT an application that you have to install, just a shortcut to the URL, which opens in a browser)

The flash file will open up in the browser:

To make it full screen, press and hold your finger on the flash file until the bar below appears

Then click on the left-hand icon to make the flash file full screen:

From here, you can explore the dashboard, for example, press the “Driver” button:

Or the “Engine” button:

You can also “drill through” to information using the other SAP BusinessObjects products. For example, touching the “Report” button can take you directly to a Web Intelligence report (this won’t work with the link above, because it’s a report only available to my account – the link takes you to the generic bi.ondemand.com page, and if you’re previously logged on – you can sign up for a free account – it will take you directly to your data sets, reports, etc.)

This report is rendered in HTML, and full interactable – all drill-downs, etc. will work, and you can use the standard “pinch” gestures to zoom into part of the report, scroll around, etc.:

Click on the “back” arrow on the phone (left-most icon on the bottom row of buttons on the phone) to get back to the previous dashboard (note, I occasionally came across a flash bug here, where the top bar would still appear, throwing off the tracking location of your finger. If this happens, hold your finger until the full screen icon appears, then click below it to get back to full screen)

Next, click on the “Explore button” to open a new pop-up window (you need to have enabled pop-ups in your browser options, or nothing will happen), and it will load an Explorer session with Formula One data (why do this via a pop-up? to make sure that the screen proportions are correct for the next step):

(Note: this data is stored on a corporate SAP server, but you can do the same thing using data you’ve uploaded to your free bi.ondemand.com account)

As before, hold down your finger and make the flash full screen:

This interface requires precision to use, but with a bit of practice, it’s feasible. Here, for example, I click on the pie chart icon to change the chart type:

Next, I click on the “Advanced” section under “Nationality” to get this window, and I chose “British”:

And by clicking on the little arrows to the left of the “Items to Select” section, you can expand it:

Or you can click on the little arrow to the left of “Visualize the data” to expand that part:

Here’s a copy of the Xcelsius dashboard I used (you can also download the flash and Xcelsius file) – the report button links to bi.ondemand.com, rather than the exact report, because I haven’t yet found a way to share it with everybody:

A few best-practice tips if you’re interested in recreating a demo like this:

The screen size for the Google Nexus One is 480×800. When I designed the dashboard, I found I had to make the buttons and fonts extra-big in order to make them useable on the phone.
To get a flash file to show full screen on your Android phone, simply press and hold. A bar will appear with a button to make the flash file full screen.
Explorer automatically resizes to the available browser size available. Unfortunately, this means that even when you make it full screen, it doesn’t have the right proportions to fill the screen. I got around this by using a popup window set to 480×800, and enabling pop ups in the phone’s browser.
Obviously, all this will be a lot easier as a new range of Android devices with larger screen sizes become more widely available, such as the French Archos 7 tablet

So. There you have it: Xcelsius, Web Intelligence and Explorer all running smoothly on your mobile device, no apps required!

Please share your best BusinessObjects-for-Android dashboards, reports and hints and tips, and I’ll put them in a follow-up post!

SAP BusinessObjects Explorer for iPad Demo

Timo Elliott — Thu, 27 May 2010 15:48:08 +0000

Here’s a short demo that shows off the new free SAP BusinessObjects Explorer for iPad interface. Use it against our demo server, your own corporate Explorer server (VPN permitting, of course), or sign up for a free account at http://bi.ondemand.com and use Explorer online, or on your iPhone, or your iPad…

SAP BusinessObjects Explorer for iPhone Now Available on Apple AppStore!

Timo Elliott — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 05:46:54 +0000

The iPhone version of SAP BusinessObjects Explorer from the SAP BusinessObjects Innovation Center was (finally!) released today on the Apple iStore, available as a free download

Here’s the description of the application:

“Your business at your fingertips”

With Explorer for iPhone, insight into your business is never more than a few flicks away. Through simple keyword search, navigation and visualization, Explorer allows you to ask and answer business questions that pop into your head regardless of where you are. Whether you are visiting a customer and need to see what orders they’ve placed, at a café dreaming up a new marketing program, or in the board room discussing this quarter’s revenues, Explorer for iPhone puts all of your business information at your fingertips.

Key features:

Simple and fast access to your business information. Just type in a few keywords and let Explorer guide you to the answer.

Explorer automatically displays your data visually – so you can get insight in a glance – and stop scrolling through sheets and sheets of numbers.

Share your results instantly with others right from your iPhone

Access huge volumes of corporate data by deploying SAP BusinessObjects Explorer, accelerated version in your organization.

Explore Your Business at the Speed of Thought

For effective decision making, business users require quick, easy answers to off-the-cuff questions and a better understanding of their business, without extensive training and dependence on IT. Even more important, everyone needs fast access to relevant, decision-quality information anywhere inside and outside the enterprise.

With immediate insights into vast amounts of data, you can explore business at the speed of thought – and improve your ability to make sound, timely decisions.

For questions and feedback about Explorer for iPhone, please email us at innovation_center@sap.com

And some of the screen shots available:

Here’s a video demonstration of the application (there may be some small differences between this and the final version):

Other resources

Article on SDN
Link to the video of Alexis Naibo demonstrating the solution, and winning the SAP TechEd EMEA Demo Jam (skip to around 00:37): http://www.sapteched.com/live/emea/demojamfull.htm

Twitter and Text Analysis to Help You Surf Through Traffic

Timo Elliott — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 11:48:22 +0000

The first official SAP iPhone application is already available on iTunes. Unfortunately, it’s probably not much use to you unless you happen to be reading this in Brisbane, Australia.

But the free application, created by the folks in the SAP Research center who brought you the Google Wave / SAP “Gravity” prototype, is a wonderful example of what Web 2.0 technology can do in today’s increasingly wired world.

Here’s the blurb from the application’s page on iTunes that gives an overview of the application:

Stuck in traffic? An event at Suncorp Stadium clogging up William Jolly Bridge? An accident on Gympie Road? Wish you simply took the other way? BNE Traffic is here to help — life is too short to be stuck in traffic!

BNE Traffic is a research prototype created by SAP Research, the global technology research unit of SAP AG, acting as your personal crystal ball for the streets of Brisbane. Before heading out, make an informed choice of routes by viewing what others have already encountered — we leverage the information of hundreds of users. The application shows a map of the greater Brisbane area and displays information about current traffic conditions. Pins on the map allow you to easily recognize where obstacles have been identified. Based on the information associated with these pins, you can adjust your route accordingly and avoid traffic jams. With the help of BNE Traffic, you do not have to be late for that movie, important meeting, or dinner date again.

Features

Displays traffic incidents around greater Brisbane graphically

Leverages information from hundreds of users through the Twitter platform (#bnetraffic)

Works in read-only mode and therefore does not transmit any of your private information

Uses cutting-edge text analytics technology

And here’s a video that gives an overview of the application and the technology used: it extracts tweets tagged with “#bnetraffic”, then uses the SAP BusinessObjects Text Analysis technology to extract the geolocation information and place the information on the appropriate place in a Google map. And the whole thing is hosted using Amazon’s cloud technology. Interestingly, the researchers claim that the application took only three days to put together (but getting authorizations to put in on the iTunes store took another three months).

[Update] Check out the blog post on SDN, An Unconvential Use of SAP Text Analysis by Marek Kowalkiewicz of SAP Research describing the project.

Surfer photo by “d.i.”

SAP’s First Official iPhone Application

sapweb20 — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 11:06:56 +0000

Not What You Might Think

No, SAP’s first official iPhone application is NOT the BusinessObjects Explorer iPhone Application that Marge Breya demonstrated during the keynote of SAP TechEd Vienna, and which Alexis Naibo of the SAP BusinessObjects Innovation Center used to win the Demo Jam contest.

That application isn’t quite yet available on iTunes (but will be shortly). For more information about this forthcoming application, check out the demonstration video on Vimeo and Craig Cmehil interviewing Alexis in Vienna.

Stuck in Brisbane traffic? This App’s for You

The first official SAP iPhone application is already available on iTunes. So why haven’t you heard of it? Well, it’s unfortunately not much use to you unless you live in Brisbane, Australia.

Here’s the blurb from the application’s page on iTunes that gives an overview of the application:

Stuck in traffic? An event at Suncorp Stadium clogging up William Jolly Bridge? An accident on Gympie Road? Wish you simply took the other way? BNE Traffic is here to help — life is too short to be stuck in traffic!

BNE Traffic is a research prototype created by SAP Research, the global technology research unit of SAP AG, acting as your personal crystal ball for the streets of Brisbane. Before heading out, make an informed choice of routes by viewing what others have already encountered — we leverage the information of hundreds of users. The application shows a map of the greater Brisbane area and displays information about current traffic conditions. Pins on the map allow you to easily recognize where obstacles have been identified. Based on the information associated with these pins, you can adjust your route accordingly and avoid traffic jams. With the help of BNE Traffic, you do not have to be late for that movie, important meeting, or dinner date again.

Features

Displays traffic incidents around greater Brisbane graphically

Leverages information from hundreds of users through the Twitter platform (#bnetraffic)

Works in read-only mode and therefore does not transmit any of your private information

Uses cutting-edge text analytics technology

[Update] Check out the blog post on SDN, An Unconvential Use of SAP Text Analysis by Marek Kowalkiewicz of SAP Research describing the project.

And if you ARE in Brisbane, note that BNE Traffic isn’t the only SAP technology that’s helping you speed towards your favorite surfing spot. IBM and SAP worked together to provide a “motorway that thinks” for the Queensland Government:

…Queensland Motorways identified the toll plazas on the Gateway and Logan motorways as a major pinch point. The need to have vehicles either slow as they passed through the toll plazas using electronic tolling or to stop and pay with cash at a toll booth was significantly slowing the speed of traffic.

“Free-flow tolling was seen as beneficial for two reasons,” explains Phil Mumford. “First, if we could automate the tolling process and eliminate the need for drivers to stop, it would immediately increase the average speed of traffic flow, improve safety and the traveling experience of motorists. Secondly, the solution would allow us to digitally capture and analyze information about the vehicles that use our roads, which would help us make dramatic improvements to traffic management in the future.”

The roadside solution replaces the traditional toll booths with a Thales/Vitronic road-side gantry that utilizes video cameras and dedicated short-range communication technologies to capture information on passing vehicles. Vehicles are identified either by an in-vehicle tag or by analyzing footage of their number plates using two optical character recognition (OCR) engines, one at the roadside and a Dacolian engine at the central system.

The vehicle data is then matched to the appropriate customer account, and an IBM-developed rating engine assesses how much money is owed. The billing information is passed to back-end SAP ERP Financials and SAP Customer Relationship Management (CRM) applications, which either deduct the total from a prepaid customer account, or generate an invoice. Business reporting is handled by SAP NetWeaver Business Warehouse, and integration by SAP NetWeaver Process Integration.

“The whole process is automated and instantaneous, and there is no need for drivers to stop to pay their toll,” explains Phil Mumford. “Moreover, except in certain cases where a vehicle cannot be identified by OCR, there is no need for manual intervention by our staff. This not only improves traffic flow – it also cuts down the cost per transaction, which will help us offer better value to our customers.”

More importantly, the introduction of the SAP CRM application is leading to a fundamental change in the way Queensland Motorways interacts with its customers. Now it can see what vehicles are using the roads and how often and at what times they use the roads. In the future, Queensland Motorways will be able to tailor its services to individual drivers – with a profound effect on both customer experience and traffic management.

“With SAP CRM, we have achieved a better understanding of who our customers are,” says Phil Mumford. “In the future we’ll be able to offer customers useful information about the transport network. For example, a customer making regular trips to the airport on a Monday morning may want to receive congestion reports direct to their phones. The whole experience has the potential to be much more personalized.

“The idea is to have ‘a motorway that thinks’ – a more intelligent solution that will give our customers a better range of options for their journeys.”

Surfer photo by “d.i.”