Jeff Nolan has a longer note on our meeting with SAP’s John Schwarz during Brainstorm last week, but if I were to summarize the conversation about SAP’s future in analytics/business intelligence it is in 4 themes:
- Expand functionality along 3 vectors
- Internal versus external
- Structured versus unstructured
- Historical versus predictive (via SPSS partnership today)
- Move analytical tools more directly to end users rather than just depend on specialized analysts and Excel Jockeys (my words)
- Keep tightening the closed loop between transaction processing and analytical capabilities
- Better differentiate to business users the application and vertical knowledge SAP brings vis a vis IBM and Oracle’s own intelligence tools
John was extremely articulate – as Jeff says he is the “man with the plan”. Hopefully a plan that does not require companies to keep going through their annual planning ritual – 11 months of the year.
