Source: SearchSAP.com
For years, companies paid little attention to mobile device management platforms like Sybase Afaria, according to analysts. After all, there wasn’t much of a need for them, given that mobile enterprise computing was in its early stages.
Source: eWeek.com
In 2010, Apple sold 15 million iPad units. Now, the company is selling the iPad 2, and around the United States, the device is practically impossible to find. Even those who order the tablet online need to wait weeks for it to arrive at their homes. But it’s a much different story on the Android side.
Source: ASUG.com October 26, 2010
…The Americas’ SAP Users’ Group (ASUG), the world’s largest community of SAP professionals, has announced the creation of a new ASUG Strategic Special Interest Group (SIG) to represent and respond to the needs and interests of users of the SAP® BusinessObjects™ solution portfolio within ASUG’s membership…
SINGAPORE: The use of analytical software to make better business decisions appears to be on the rise.
Observers said the Asia Pacific ex-Japan market for business analytics is set to hit US$2 billion in 2030, growing 6.5 per cent each year.
And they said such data processing is fuelling a new form of computing using memory chips.
A customer buying a product, could be blogging about it a few hours later. And being able to crunch such data as soon as possible can help a company make better real time business decisions.
That’s where software for business analytics can help.
Business analytics is typically used to uncover trends, patterns and links behind loose data.
Industry players said this can help companies make more informed decisions by identifying problems early and predicting future trends.
Observers said there is also increasing use of it in the financial sector which needs to constantly assess its risk position and liquidity.
But with growing volumes of data being generated from various sources, there is a push to speed up the process of analysis.
Praveen Sengar, research manager, IDC, said: “The trends are that you’re increasing your data volume and second you need to optimise very quickly and fast.
“You need to react to the market reality. You don’t have time and this is all leading to the need for the system that can do rapid processing which can take a huge amount of volume of data. So you can do a lot of data compression. You need a system that can handle your queries very fast which in turn is driving in-memory appliance that is coming into the market.”
This is where in-memory computing comes in.
This form of computing uses memory chips for data storage instead of traditional hard drives.
They can speed up processes by up to 200 times compared to traditional magnetic hard discs.
Simon Dale, SVP, Business User and Platform Organisation, SAP Asia Pacific and Japan, said: “In-memory computing is all about removing the bottleneck which today is disc storage which is just to slow. What we’re looking at here is a way of really speeding up the way people look at information and discovering the insights in that information that can help them run their business better.”
In-memory computing has been given a boost by falling memory chip prices and growing capacity in recent years.
Krish Datta, president, SAP Southeast Asia, said: “Memory chips are getting cheaper and cheaper. So very soon it will approach a price point where it is viable.
“So you get the advantage of storing data in a much more efficient and compressed form. You’re looking at a compression of between 10 to 30 times so compressed data, much larger volume of data, far better access and affordable.
“I would say over the next two to three years, this will catch on. It’s difficult to put on an exact time but we definitely see in the next five years, a significant amount of analytics and other data repository shifting to in-memory and making it viable for customers.”
Software maker SAP is banking on the trend towards in-memory computing as one of its growth drivers.
It is among several IT vendors that have recently made product offerings in this area.
But observers said while in-memory computing may ultimately be more cost efficient, companies may hold back because they have already invested heavily in conventional systems. – CNA/vm
Taken from: Channelnewsasia.com
Source: ZD Net, USA / Internet – January 31, 2010
…Blogger Brian Sommers cites one CIO who this December spoke about the hundreds of millions of dollars his company spent standardizing on SAP software… What this firm freed up in working capital the first year of its shared services operation was a form factor more than what they spent installing SAP…
Pat Hume, senior vice president of SAP’s Global SME Channel, detailed a number of initiatives and changes to SAP’s channel partner approach, most notably the company’s goal to have 100 percent of new SME business to go through the channel.
While Oracle made it clear last week that it is placing its bets on a much more direct-sales go-to-market strategy in the wake of its acquisition of Sun Microsystems, rival SAP is moving in quite the opposite direction. Long-known for its enterprise-focused direct-sales machine, SAP over the last couple of years has been ratcheting up its investment in the indirect channel and is touting 2010 as the year to open up the available market opportunity to even more partners.
In an interview with Channel Insider, Pat Hume, senior vice president of SAP’s Global SME Channel, detailed a number of initiatives and changes to SAP’s channel partner approach, most notably the company’s goal to have 100 percent of new SME business go through the channel. In 2008, 32 percent of SAP’s SME revenue flowed through partners; the percentage for 2009 is expected to have climbed to 52 percent, Hume said.
Previously, SAP defined the SME market as comprising deals worth $300 million and below, and confined partners to that threshold. However, as part of the channel changes being made this year, SAP has raised the SME ceiling to deals of $500 million and below. That’s the universe the company wants to be handled 100 percent direct, Hume said. The only exceptions will be in cases where partner coverage is lacking, she said. For example, if the deal called for a partner with pharmaceutical industry expertise at a specific geographic location and that partner just didn’t exist, SAP would take the business direct.
These changes reflect an ongoing mindset shift inside the company to recognize the necessity of a robust channel, she said.
“When I joined [SAP two years ago], I said there was a lot of work to do to really get SAP to embrace a commitment to channel,” she said. “Now when we tell partners about going 100 percent direct, we resolve conflict and demonstrate through real proof points, we got the message across. Our go-to-market makes sense, and the fact that SAP corporate recognizes the value of multichannel is highly indicative of their trust in our partner community.”
From an investment standpoint, SAP recently hired channel executive veteran Kevin Gilroy to head up its North American channel organization. Gilroy, who among other recent roles was a longtime channel chief at HP, will be tapped with several key initiatives, according to Hume, among them recruitment of new partners in industries and subregions that need coverage. The goal is not to build a high-volume channel, however, but rather one that consists of a smaller number of value-added partners, she stressed. In order to cultivate these partners, Hume has instructed Gilroy to raise the bar on channel management activities.
“We want to make sure we are giving them the support they need to stay loyal,” she said.
Additionally, Hume said she has asked Gilroy to spend some time focusing on the $100 million and below market, where SAP sees untapped customer opportunity. Part of succeeding there will be to nurture a subset of partners that are more transactional in nature, she said, which is not the typical SAP partner today that is largely consultative and focused on system integration.
Other moves in 2010 include moving SAP’s volume distribution business under Hume’s purview. Her group will now be managing relationships with the broadline distributors, including Tech Data and Ingram Micro, as well as the DMRs that largely handle fulfillment of SAP’s Crystal analytics products picked up in the $6.8 billion acquisition of Business Objects in 2007.
From a programmatic standpoint, SAP is simplifying the means in which partners earn value points and access MDF dollars, she said. These changes are a result of feedback from partners.
“We are listening,” she said.
