SAP and Google Partner for Geospatial Business Intelligence
SAP (NYSE: SAP) today announced a partnership with Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) to integrate Google Maps, Earth and Street View visualization with SAP business intelligence, and other SAP applications will soon benefit from the geospatial partnership.
Jonathan Becher, SAP’s executive vice president of marketing, told Enterprise Apps Today that the collaboration with Google is unique, giving SAP a custom API that goes beyond Google’s public consumer-based APIs.
The partnership will begin with SAP’s BusinessObjects business intelligence software and later expand to include other SAP apps, like Sales OnDemand CRM, human resources and supply chain management.
Becher offered a number of examples where geospatial, or location-based, visualization could help business intelligence, such as a financial services company predicting the spread of mortgage defaults or a wireless carrier comparing dropped calls and network congestion with cell tower location.
Manufacturers could plug their own video and pictures of their shop floors into BusinessObjects and find bottlenecks. With the help of SAP StreamWork collaboration software, call centers could pinpoint the location of customer complaints.
When the visual data is added to Sales OnDemand, sales people will be able to set their travel priorities by comparing traffic with the chance a client will sign a deal, for example.
“It changes it to a visual problem and opens it up to a much wider audience,” said Becher, who called the integration part of the trend of “consumerization” of enterprise applications.
SAP released a video of the new service, which is expected to be available later this year with BusinessObjects software and mobile applications.
Paul Ferrill has been writing for over 15 years about computers and network technology. He holds a BS in Electrical Engineering as well as a MS in Electrical Engineering. He is a regular contributor to the computer trade press. He has a specialization in complex data analysis and storage. He has written hundreds of articles and two books for various outlets over the years. His articles have appeared in Enterprise Apps Today and InfoWorld, Network World, PC Magazine, Forbes, and many other publications.