New research released today by the UK & Ireland SAP User Group has revealed that 54% of SAP users don’t think that their organisation has the business or data analytics skills to make effective use of all their data. Similarly, 51% didn’t think they had the necessary technology either.
At the same time, 87% of respondents stated that there was now a focus on getting more value from their data. The research revealed that the biggest challenge facing organisations was gaining business intelligence from data spread across multiple platforms.
The second biggest challenge was identified as being unable to process and analyse data fast enough; followed by data accuracy/consistency challenges.
In order to help address these challenges, nearly three-quarters of respondents (73%) said they were currently using or planning to use SAP’s business and data analytics offerings.
SAP BusinessObjects was the most popular product with 85% of users currently using or planning to use it. This was followed by SAP BW (78%), SAP BI (53%) and SAP HANA (15%).
In fact, the survey revealed that an increasing number of users (78% in 2014 compared to 75% in 2013) saw the combined value of using SAP’s ERP platform and SAP BusinessObjects for business and data analytics across their organisations.
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“Big data continues to be one of the most talked about IT topics, yet it is clear that many organisations still face a challenge in getting more value from their business data,” said Craig Dale, chief executive of the UK & Ireland SAP User Group.
“Considering this, it is understandable that many SAP users have invested in, or are looking to invest in, the company’s business and data analytics offerings. The next step for these organisations is ensuring they are effectively using these products and maximising their technology investment. At a time when data processing speeds are a concern, it is interesting to note that only a limited number of users were currently looking at SAP HANA.”
Just over half of respondents (51%) believed that SAP hasn’t been clear in communicating its business and data analytics product roadmap to users.
39% stated that they didn’t know whether the in-memory computing capabilities of SAP HANA would benefit their organisation’s future business/data analytics strategy, while 42% didn’t know if SAP’s recently announced HANA Cloud Platform would make it more attractive for organisations to utilise HANA technology across their business.
“SAP HANA certainly has the potential to help many organisations when it comes to business and data analytics," said Dale. "Yet our survey findings demonstrate that there is still a lot of user uncertainty.
"Whether organisations decide to deploy SAP HANA now, in the future, or not at all, they need to ensure that they are making a well-informed choice. In order to understand the business benefits and how to best utilise the technology, users want to see more real-life customer examples. Certainly this is an area where we’d encourage SAP to continue working very closely with the User Group, especially as the HANA product roadmap continues to evolve."
