A New Era of Analytics: E. J. Kenney, SAP Americas
Data and analytics have been the cornerstone of consumer goods companies for decades. Leaders have focused considerable resources and efforts to gain actionable insights to better understand and influence consumer demand and to identify growth opportunities. Here, E. J. Kenney, vice president - Consumer, Distribution & Life Sciences Business Sector, SAP Americas (www.sap.com), reveals how to leverage in-memory computing to reach new heights in analytics. CGT: What new innovations can consumer goods companies use to drive competitive advantage?
Kenney: In the past, extracting insight from massive data sources in a proactive and timely fashion was challenging. Today, with the advent of new high-performance analytical appliances that leverage in-memory computing, we are entering a whole new era of analytics and business insight.
Analytics fueled by in-memory computing are able to process unprecedented amounts of data in real time, providing consumer insight, operational excellence and true business transparency. In-memory dramatically increases in computing speed allowing the processing of more than 50 Terabytes of data in real time, fundamentally changing how consumer goods companies view their business processes, and how they make rapid, insightful business decisions. In-memory computing will also enable companies to make fast, comprehensive analysis and decision support applications on mobile devices a reality.
CGT: How will in-memory computing change how consumer goods companies analyze their businesses?
Kenney: In-memory computing is not only fast and capable of cost-effectively managing massive data, it also eliminates several key limitations that prevent companies from making rapid market-based decisions. For example, today many critical business decisions are being made on highly-aggregated data that is 24, 72 or 168 hours old. In-memory eliminates this time latency, providing both real-time insight of operational and third-party data and provides the capability to view the information at any level of detail. Unfortunately, because traditional data marts rely on aggregation for performance, business leaders miss the true insights of the market. In-memory changes how analytics are built increasing the speed of development and the robustness of analysis on mobile devices.
CGT: In-memory computing appears to have significant business potential. Can companies of all sizes tap into these benefits?
Kenney:Unlike most disruptive innovations, in-memory computing at SAP is deployed without disruption. It can be leveraged along with existing data marts and analytical environments to provide immediate benefits. Because of its flexibility and unique design this innovation will benefit companies of all sizes and all technical architectures. Additionally, SAP has developed business applications to take advantage of the inherit benefits of in-memory computing to provide new capabilities in business processes, analytics, insight and mobile computing. The future of the real, real-time enterprise is upon us and consumer goods companies who aggressively pursue in-memory computing will benefit the greatest.