Technology visionaries declare real time is now for SAP customers

SAP CTO and Member of Executive Board Vishal Sikka and Supervisory Board Chairman Hasso Plattner Reveal In-Memory Breakthroughs, Proclaim Disk-Free Future of “Supercharged” Transactional, Analytical and Predictive Applications
 

FRANKFURT, Germany and ORLANDO, Fla. - May 24, 2010 - Reinforcing the messages to customers delivered by SAP Co-CEOs Bill McDermott and Jim Hagemann Snabe in their keynotes at SAPPHIRE® NOW, SAP CTO and Member of Executive Board Vishal Sikka and SAP co-founder and Supervisory Board Chairman Hasso Plattner told audiences how SAP AG (NYSE: SAP) aims to eliminate the divide between transactional and analytical applications with in-memory technology. At SAPPHIRE NOW, held simultaneously in Frankfurt, Germany and Orlando, Florida, May 17-19, 2010, the high-tech visionaries highlighted the next wave of real real-time computing technologies that will enable new applications, dramatically increase the pervasive reach of SAP systems across mobile devices and empower people from the shop-floor to the boardroom.

Reinventing the Real-Time Enterprise
“We believe that enterprises are looking to unleash the power of the existing landscapes,” began Sikka, speaking live from Frankfurt and via satellite to Orlando. “And we believe in doing that without breaking continuity, without bringing disruption to your existing systems.” Sikka spoke of the “IT landscapes of choice” that have kept long-time customers with SAP throughout 30 years of technology and business changes. He underlined that, like cities, these “living landscapes” are in continuous renovation, operation and evolution, but without disruption. He then spoke of SAP’s fundamental areas of innovation: “real” real time, and reach.

“Every once in a while, a set of technologies converge that change everything; entirely new sorts of innovations and products become possible,” proclaimed Sikka. “We believe that we are upon that moment in time.” After hinting upon the real real-time applications for planning, forecasting and simulation that Plattner would later expand upon, Sikka announced SAP’s plans for a high-performance analytic appliance to enable real-time analytics on live transactional data (in SAP® Business Suite and SAP R/3® software) and to “supercharge” the SAP NetWeaver® Business Warehouse component and SAP BusinessObjects solutions. Sikka emphasized, “Today SAP is reinventing the real-time enterprise.” He then invited 20 customers to sign up to be the first to use the appliance, being built by SAP and partner strategic hardware partners such as HP.

In addition to speeding up existing SAP systems with real-time computing, Sikka spoke of SAP’s aims to extend the reach of these systems by liberating the information within them. Using the analogy of the growth and efficiency of the harbors and airports that enabled manufacturers in China to quickly expand globally, he conveyed the need for companies to have “gates” that enable their systems to reach out and touch the world outside – to evolve with new lines of trade and new forms of connectivity. Sikka announced a project code-named “Gateway” to create a product that would attach to any existing SAP system so that all types of developers from customers, partner companies and SAP could build and deliver simple applications that liberate the SAP application functionality and content for diverse mobile devices and presentation technologies. “The fantastic middleware that Sybase has around mobility gives us an unbelievable opportunity to unbind – to “unwire” – the existing systems that are sitting in your landscape,” Sikka added.

As a further example of expanding reach, Sikka noted that on-premise systems will be around for a long time. He cited on-demand solution SAP Carbon Impact as one of many examples of simple cloud extensions that customers will be able to add on without sacrificing the continuity and integrity of these systems. He also underlined that SAP NetWeaver remains SAP’s platform to enable business without boundaries, and that it was being extended into cloud and mobile environments and would include real-time computing components.

Sikka closed by underlining that this type of fundamental innovation without disruption, by unbinding customers and adding value to existing systems, is central to the concept of “timeless software” that he has outlined. “We believe that it can be achieved not by a vendor of one, but an ecosystem of the best,” said Sikka. Noting that customers need not compromise to enable the innovations that he had referred to, Sikka concluded, “When we bring innovation without boundaries, we get businesses without boundaries. And that is what we at SAP stand for.”

The “Real Enterprise 2.0” – Powered by In-Memory Computing
While Sikka talked about how the new innovations will improve businesses, SAP co-founder Hasso Plattner, talked in great detail from Orlando about the development work that went into these innovations, enabling what he calls “the real ‘enterprise 2.0.’” Plattner started by talking about how these are being realized by an innovation approach called “Design Thinking” and then launched into an explanation of how the new solutions bring the value of in-memory computing – fundamentally risk-free – to existing customers with ERP and business intelligence (BI)/analytics) systems. Throughout his talk, Plattner reiterated the theme of “thinking backwards to move forward” – i.e., bringing new capabilities to currently installed software in customer landscapes as opposed to only offering these for new releases.

As proof of success, he claimed that SAP had set up a parallel in-memory database in 48 hours at one of its larger customer’s sites. “For the average customer, the implementation time will be even quicker: about two hours” according to Plattner. “Best of all, the implementation will occur without changing any of the customer’s software or losing any data quality. The customer will receive the speed of in-memory computing without any risk to their investments or information base.”

Plattner presented the in-memory end result: that all users, including executives, can directly access SAP software to pull the information they need to take appropriate decisions and actions – answering any question they desire in less than a second. The speed and flexibility of business insight not only arms the CEO but can also be pushed across the entire organization to empower front-line business consumers. “This new type of enterprise interaction will change the behavior of boardroom interactions and place a greater emphasis on executives asking the right questions, not waiting for the right answers,” said Plattner. “As a result, executives no longer use energy and time to speculate or debate about what the question is, and instead get to the problem quickly.”

Plattner concluded with demos of production, sales and accounting scenarios illustrating the potential for real-time decisions and actions. “This will change how we do business,” Plattner said. “This will finally – now after all these years – include the managers and [enable] all levels of managers to work together and interact. And therefore we dare to say that this is enterprise 2.0.”

To view replays of the executive keynote speeches, please visit http://sapphirenow.blogs-sap.com/communications-center/.

SAPPHIRE® NOW
With SAPPHIRE® NOW, SAP marks the next evolution of its SAPPHIRE customer conference and networking events, offering SAP customers, partners and prospects even more opportunities to engage in dialogue with peers, participants and thought leaders around the globe. Being held simultaneously in Orlando, Florida, and Frankfurt, Germany, May 17-19, 2010, this enhanced, real-time event connects attendees on site with global participants through state-of-the-art broadcast studios and a newly designed online experience that incorporates the latest social media and community functionality. Whether onsite or online, participants can gain insight on how innovative business solutions from SAP are enabling long-term, profitable business growth. For more information about the Orlando show, visit www.sapandasug.com; for the Frankfurt event, visit www.sap.com/sapphire/emea. Join the conversation via Twitter at @SAPPHIRENOW and visit the SAPPHIRE NOW Social Newsroom at sapphirenow.blogs-sap.com.

Note to Editors:
Webcasts, announcements, media roundtables, keynote presentations and podcasts from SAPPHIRE NOW will be available in the event’s newsroom at: http://sapphirenow.blogs-sap.com/. To preview and download broadcast-standard stock footage and press photos digitally, please visit www.sap.com/photos. On this platform, you can find high-resolution material for your media channels. To view video stories on diverse topics, visit www.sap-tv.com. From this site, you can embed videos into your own Web pages, share video via e-mail links and subscribe to RSS feeds from SAP TV. Follow SAP on Twitter at @sapnews.