SAP AG has announced new business intelligence (BI) innovations to bring customers richer business insights. Now generally available, feature pack 3 for the 4.0 release of SAP BusinessObjects BI solutions – including SAP BusinessObjects BI, Edge edition, for small and midsize enterprises – and the 1.0.1 release of SAP Visual Intelligence software equip users with analytics tools that are easy to access and use. The feature pack release for SAP Crystal Server software is planned to be generally available this month.
Feature pack 3 for the 4.0 release of SAP BusinessObjects BI solutions extends the core of customers' BI foundations with new capabilities in the following areas:
Mobility - By giving workers direct access to critical reports and metrics on their mobile devices, organizations can mobilize information assets in a collaborative, self-service environment. New support for Android devices and mobile BI for iPhone also enables greater device choice.
Big Data - Support for Apache Hadoop and deeper support for the SAP HANA platform are intended to enable high-performance analytics on petabyte-scale data, in order to uncover more data value and improve business velocity.
Insights - SAP BusinessObjects Explorer software offers users a simple, intuitive experience for gaining immediate, interactive access to data to create visualizations and answer business questions on the fly.
Social - Integration between the SAP StreamWork application and BI documents increases social collaboration by bringing together people, information and business methods for fast, meaningful results.
Integration - Deeper SAP application integration enables customers to run operational reporting off of the SAP ERP application and multi-source universes. Access to the SAP NetWeaver Business Warehouse (SAP NetWeaver BW) application across all clients reduces total cost of ownership (TCO) and complexity.
According to SAP, by bringing creative, self-service BI directly to the desktop, the 1.0.1 release of SAP Visual Intelligence lets people use personal data sources such as Microsoft Excel spreadsheets and CSV files, in addition to data from SAP HANA. It also features SAP StreamWork connectivity for collaborative BI. Announced in May, SAP Visual Intelligence is a desktop BI solution that works with SAP BusinessObjects Explorer and has read and write integration with SAP HANA. The software helps lines of business, departments and individuals discover and analyze information to find answers regardless of technical skill level and also enables them to easily visualize data and apply key findings to decision-making processes without having to rely on IT.
"As the market share leader in BI, SAP is committed to helping customers run like never before by maximizing their analytics investments," says Adam Binnie, global vice president and general manager, Business Intelligence Solutions, SAP. "With the most complete BI portfolio available today, SAP is also working hard on the service and support front to make our five-pillar BI vision a reality for any sized business, industry or line of business."
More information about the feature pack 3 for the 4.0 release of SAP BusinessObjects BI solutions and the 1.0.1 release of SAP Visual Intelligence software is available now.
A feature pack release for SAP Crystal Server software is planned to be generally available this month.