by Charles Roe
In an effort to leverage the knowledge of several of the top minds in the Data Management industry, DATAVERSITY™ has been conducting a series of interviews on some of the most relevant topics in the field today. Recently, we interviewed SAP, the developers of Sybase Power Designer and many other prominent enterprise application software solutions for organizations of all sizes.
SAP is a Platinum Sponsor at the Enterprise Data World 2013 Conference in San Diego, CA from April 28-May 2, 2013.
The Sponsor Spotlight Column (and its parallel venture the Speaker Spotlight Column) is an ongoing project that focuses on highlighting several of the central issues represented at the many Data Management conferences produced by DATAVERSITY.
The primary emphasis of the interview was to question Laurie Baker and SAP on their current work and history within the industry, with particular importance on the products and/or services being highlighted at the upcoming conference:
DATAVERSITY (DV): Please tell us a little about you and your company (e.g. brief history, industry focus, primary product line etc.)?
SAP: As market leader in enterprise application software, SAP helps companies of all sizes and industries run better. From back office to boardroom, warehouse to storefront, desktop to mobile device – SAP empowers people and organizations to work together more efficiently and use business insight more effectively to stay ahead of the competition. SAP applications and services enable more than 176,000 customers to operate profitably, adapt continuously, and grow sustainably.
DV: What’s your company elevator pitch?
SAP: With SAP Information Management portfolio of solutions, you can model your information architecture to improve communication between business and IT, empower your business users to monitor the quality of information, and trust in the accuracy of information across the enterprise to optimize operational performance, improve decision making, and help ensure compliance. For more information, visit www.sap.com/eim
DV: What will you be highlighting or showcasing at EDW? Are you planning any product releases or announcements this year at Enterprise Data World?
SAP: SAP will be showcasing our market-leading software solutions from our IM portfolio that help organizations put trusted and timely information into the hands of decision-makers and enable the most accurate and efficient business processes. These include SAP Data Services, SAP Information Steward, SAP Master Data Governance, and SAP Sybase PowerDesigner. Together, these solutions enable data integration, data quality, data profiling, metadata management, master governance, and data modeling and architecture.
SAP will announce new software packages for information management (IM) that are designed to provide a complete offering, tailored to support the most important information management needs of the business. SAP will also announce how the next release of its SAP Data Services and SAP Sybase PowerDesigner solutions provide new integration links enabling tighter collaboration between the business and IT.
DV: What’s the unique selling proposition of your product or service versus your competitors? What do you do that nobody else does (or better than anyone else)?
SAP: SAP IM solutions are proven and trusted – powering the world’s leading global organizations. We have over 10,000 customers using our IM solutions with one of the highest customer satisfaction ratings in the industry. Our solutions are built with ease-of-use and simplicity in mind offering customized user interfaces tailored to business or IT users and roles. Our solutions support SAP and non-SAP sources and systems offering the most comprehensive, end-to-end data management stack to support big data, BI, and data governance initiatives.
DV: Why should the Enterprise Data World attendees stop by your booth this year?
SAP: In addition to understanding the SAP IM solution portfolio and seeing the solutions in action, SAP will be hosting a book signing during the May 1st exhibit hours. Please join us and receive one complementary book ranging from information governance, data modeling, and information management from some of the top experts on the subject.
DV: What do you see as the most significant trend happening at this time within the Data Management industry?
SAP: According to Gartner, “by 2015, half of all organizations with information-intensive operations with have an executive position of Chief Data Officer”*. This highlights the trend that more organizations are addressing information more strategically – through big data, analytics, business process initiatives – and using key performance metrics to measure the impact of governance initiatives. As a result, spending on data governance initiatives is increasing. According to Gartner, “Through 2016, spending on governing information must increase to five times the current level to be successful”.**
*Predicts 2013: The nexus of Forces Boosts Information Governance and MDM, November 26, 2012
**Gartner Predicts 2012: Information Governance Programs Gain Traction, November 23, 2011
DV: How is this going to affect your particular business focus? How does your product/service address that trend?
SAP: As the use of big data grows, the need for data management will grow. Many organizations already struggle to manage existing data. Big data adds complexity, which will only increase the challenge. The combination of new data and new technology requires new data management capabilities and processes to capture the promise of long-term value. SAP’s IM solutions help to deliver on that promise.
DV: What’s the next thing that your company will be working on in its products?
SAP: SAP’s IM solutions will continue to innovate and meet the market challenges of big data, information governance, and ease-of-use to allow organizations to:
- Gain a complete view of information
- Get unprecedented insight from data
- Ensure trust in information
DV: What’s the NEXT big thing in Data Management?
SAP: Big data is doing for data processing today what the data warehouse did for query and reporting in the early 1990s. The technology shift has broad applicability, particularly in industries with large data volumes or complex data analysis requirements, like the retail sector, CPG, etc. For example, if your merchandising group and your web analytics team aren’t using the same standardized product data, what good is the intelligence you’re producing? It’s a question of standardizing in ways that are cross-referenceable and linkable between the channels and processes. This involves data quality, in the sense of applying standardization at the point of data creation, along with notoriously thorny issues such as data stewardship across lines of business.
DV: What is something noteworthy or uniquely interesting about your company that most attendees and readers may not know about, but that you would like them to know?
SAP: The SAP team that is attending this show is passionate, driven, and empowered to ensure customer success. If you stop by booth #401 you will see first-hand the amount of enthusiasm and knowledge that Michael, Matt, David, Laurie, and Kristin want to share with you on the topic of data management! SAP may be a big company (and we have one of the best Information Management portfolios), but we act like a small and agile team when it comes to solving any and every unique data challenge!
