A Short Introduction to SAP HANA

SAP HANA is an in-memory data platform that is deployable as an on-premise appliance, or in the cloud.  It is a revolutionary platform that’s best suited for performing real-time analytics and developing and deploying real-time applications. At the core of this real-time data, the platform is the SAP HANA database which is fundamentally different than any other database engine in the market today.

SAP HANA has completely transformed the database industry by combining database, data processing, and application platform capabilities in a single in-memory platform. The platform also provides libraries for predictive, planning, text processing, spatial, and business analytics — all on the same architecture.

This makes it possible for applications and analytics to be rethought without information processing latency, and sense-and-response solutions can work on massive quantities of real-time data for immediate answers without building pre-aggregates. Simply put — this makes SAP HANA the platform for building and deploying next-generation, real-time applications, and analytics.

Whenever companies have to go deep within their data sets to ask complex and interactive questions and have to go broad (which means working with enormous data sets that are of different types and from different sources) at the same time, SAP HANA is well-suited. Increasingly there is a need for this data to be recent and preferably in real-time. Add to that the need for high speed (very fast response time and true interactivity), and the need to do all this without any pre-fabrication (no data preparation, no pre-aggregates, no-tuning) and you have a unique combination of requirements that only SAP HANA can address effectively. When this set of needs or any subset thereof have to be addressed (in any combination), SAP HANA is in its elements.

 

Real-time analytics – Run powerful in-database analytics leveraging massively parallel processing and in-memory columnar storage architecture.

Operational Reporting (real-time insights from transaction systems such as a custom or SAP ERP). This covers Sales Reporting (improving fulfillment rates and accelerating key sales processes), Financial Reporting(immediate insights across revenue, customers, accounts payable, etc.), Shipping Reporting (better enabling complete stock overview analysis), Purchasing Reporting (complete real-time analysis of complete order history) and Master Data Reporting (real-time ability to impact productivity and accuracy).

Data Warehousing (SAP NetWeaver BW on HANA) – BW customers can run their entire BW application on the SAP HANA platform leading to unprecedented BW performance (queries run 10-100 times faster; data loads 5-10 times faster; calculations run 5-10 times faster), a dramatically simplified IT landscape (leads to greater operational efficiency and reduced waste), and a business community able to make faster decisions. Moreover, not only is the BW investment of these customers preserved but also super-charged. Customers can migrate with ease to the SAP HANA database without impacting the BW application layer at all.

Predictive and Text analysis on Big Data – To succeed, companies must go beyond focusing on delivering the best product or service and uncover customer/employee /vendor/partner trends and insights, anticipate behavior, and take proactive action. SAP HANA provides the ability to perform predictive and text analysis on large volumes of data in real-time. It does this through the power of its in-database predictive algorithms and its R integration capability. With its text search/analysis capabilities SAP HANA also provides a robust way to leverage unstructured data.

Real-time applications –  Run powerful in-database analytics leveraging massively parallel processing and in-memory columnar storage architecture.

Core process accelerators –  Accelerate business reporting by leveraging ERP Accelerators, which are non-disruptive ways to take advantage of in-memory technology. These solutions involve an SAP HANA database sitting next to a customer’s SAP ERP system. Transactional data is replicated in real-time from ECC into HANA for immediate reporting, and then results can even be fed back into ECC. Solutions include CO-PA Accelerator, Finance, and Controlling Accelerator, Customer Segmentation Accelerator, Sales Pipeline Analysis, and more.

Planning, Optimization Apps – SAP HANA excels at applications that require complex scheduling with fast results, and SAP is delivering solutions that no other vendor can match. These include Sales & Operational Planning, BusinessObjects Planning & Consolidation, Cash Forecasting, ATP calculation, Margin calculation,  Manufacturing scheduling optimization (from start-up Optessa), and more.

Sense & response apps – These applications offer real-time insights on Big Data such as smart meter data, point-of-sale data, social media data, and more. They involve complexities such as personalized insight and recommendations, text search and mining, and predictive analytics. Only SAP HANA is well suited for such applications, including Smart Meter Analytics, SAP Supplier InfoNet, SAP precision retailing, and Geospatial Visualization apps (from start-up Space-Time Insight). Typically these processes tend to be data-intensive and many could not be deployed in the past owing to cost and performance constraints.

 

Write us at contactus@geniusbsi.com to learn more about how we can help you with your SAP HANA infrastructure.

Genius Business Solutions is an ERP/SAP Consulting firm headquartered at Moline -Quad Cities, Illinois with clients based throughout the United States and India. Call us now to achieve the most ROI out of your SAP ERP investments. With over 12 years of industry experience and certified industry experts with software and business knowledge, we can help run your business efficiently by optimizing your ERP system and re-engineering your business processes to achieve unprecedented business results.

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