Section 11.6. What are the benefits of SAP analytics?


11.6. What are the benefits of SAP analytics?

Several themes are present in the examples just mentioned. First, there is the idea of role and process orientation. Each Analytic xApp ties together previously disconnected information and functionality into a form that lets the user take action to advance an automated processto overrule a blocked order and increase a customer's credit limit, for example.

The second theme is consolidation. Context, process, and information gathered from disparate places are consolidated into a unified form in SAP xApp Analytics. Unlike previous forms of reporting that also consolidated such information, analytics use the unified context as a starting point to add deeper analytical functionality and put process insights, along with the means to take action, at the user's fingertips.

The third theme is accessibility. Analytics are simple to use, yet full of powerful capabilities. This is amplified by the ability to embed these applications into an enterprise application in order to better support a process. In this way, analytics enhance existing enterprise applications with analytic functionality in a seamless fashion.

The fourth theme is improved decision making, leading to faster and smarter actions. With ready access to more relevant and timely information about decisions conveniently at hand, as well as the means to take action, the speed and quality of decisions should be improved.

The fifth theme is speed of development and associated cost reduction. The number of analytic composite applications is growing rapidly because they can be built and modified quickly. SAP xApp Analytics use application patterns that give developers a solid foundation to build upon. In a recent experiment, SAP trained a team of business analysts to create SAP xApp Analytics. The business analysts built more than 100 such applications in just three months. Most of the development time they spent on each application did not concern coding, but rather, choosing and gathering the right services, data, and functionality from systems of record.

The ease and speed of development and deployment are perhaps the most important aspects of SAP xApp Analytics. Without them, analytics would be interesting but impractical. Today analytic functionality is available to only about 25 percent of employees in an enterprise. Because SAP xApp Analytics are affordable to create and deploy, analytics should be available to virtually everyone in the enterprise, from heavy-duty information consumers to occasional users. ESA makes the expansion of analytics practical and unlocks the door to the host of business benefits outlined earlier.




Enterprise SOA. Designing IT for Business Innovation
Enterprise SOA: Designing IT for Business Innovation
ISBN: 0596102380
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2004
Pages: 265

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