Jim Hagemann Snabe

Global business software company, SAP, is making big investments in mobile business intelligence (BI), cloud computing and in-memory analytics. This was announced during the recent SAP Sapphire Now and TechEd Conference, in Madrid.

SAP achieved a 32% revenue growth in the previous quarter, and according to the company’s co-CEO, Jim Hagemann Snabe, this growth was spurred by its latest technology investments.

According to Snabe, SAP has reached a tipping point in the organisation’s history because of its strategic decision to combine mobile, in-memory BI and cloud computing, to enable enterprises to make faster and more accurate decisions, where data can be accessed and processed in real-time.

“SAP is driving a structural change in the industry and is reshuffling the opportunity for innovation in business software. We believe in openness and giving customers choice,” said Snabe, adding that SAP has chosen to innovate in a number of categories: the core, which is SAP’s business suites, and analytics, mobile computing, cloud computing and in-memory.

Business needs to continuously innovate in order to stay competitive, he noted: “By changing the way we build software, we have changed the game and understand business pain points and challenges.”

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Vishal Sikka" />One of the biggest highlights at the event was Hana, SAP’s in-memory high-performance analytic appliance. According to SAP data analysis, calculating profitability usually takes hours and sometimes days to process, and is now being processed in seconds with Hana.

Vishal Sikka, SAP executive board member and head of technology and innovation, said technology can reduce the time taken to process complex data queries from hours to just a few seconds.

The organisation is also looking to the channel to drive its strategy. Eric Duffaut, SAP global president of ecosystem and channels, indicated that by 2015, 40% of SAP’s business will come from alternative channel partners, as the software giant seeks to accelerate growth and its global footprint.

SAP recently acquired e-commerce firm, Crossgate, in a deal that closed on 1 November. The Crossgate platform has enabled SAP’s customers to connect electronically in the cloud with thousands of partners and extend a company’s business processes to its community.

Gartner predicts that, on average, enterprise data will grow by 650% over the next five years. According to the research firm, costs to administer, manage, and maintain multiple data marts, warehouses and transactional systems are soaring, while IT budgets are being slashed.