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SAP unveils new predictive analytics platform

December 10, 2013

Nearly 95 percent of organizations report an increase in the volume of data they have been dealing with over the last 12 months and 75 percent of organizations say it is difficult to reap the benefits of predictive analytics without specialized employees. To address these issues, SAP AG has taken steps to bring advanced analytics capabilities to a broad spectrum of users by today announcing the availability of the SAP InfiniteInsight solution. Based on patented automation technology from KXEN, a SAP company, the company said the solution will provide businesses the simplicity and productivity to deploy predictive analytics across the business.

"As data rapidly expands, more and more companies are finding competitive advantage by combining advanced analytics and business intelligence to capture, analyze and predict trends," said Shekhar Iyer, global vice president of business intelligence and predictive analytics at SAP. "Our research shows companies need new ideas and tools in order to capitalize on their data. We constantly hear that the lack of skilled resources, high total cost of ownership and the manual iterative approach that existing legacy solutions have are all challenges for broader adoption. Put simply, the old approach is not working. SAP InfiniteInsight, along with our existing advanced analytics capabilities, provides a platform to help analyze business in real time and provide predictive insight across the enterprise by integrating predictive insight into applications, processes and decision-making."

While 78 percent of businesses agree that investments in predictive analytics will be a priority over the next five years, only 29 percent say they are using predictive analytics today. Of the organizations currently using predictive tools, 94 percent see a positive impact.SAP InfiniteInsight is designed to bring greater insight to more people by extending the power of predictive analytics from data scientists to line-of-business users. Capabilities of SAP InfiniteInsight include:

• analytical data sets: With the explorer feature, power users define a broad set of reusable business components, called analytical records, that are designed to be applied over and over again to automatically create the analytical data sets used for predictive modeling. This innovative approach is faster and supports less human error than traditional handcrafted techniques.
• accurate models: The modeler feature automates the building of sophisticated predictive models for every data mining function and helps users quickly get to the right algorithm for their business problem with a model built for accuracy and optimal results.
• actionable scores: The scorer feature can deploy optimized scoring equations directly in database to SAP HANA and other major database platforms. Because predictive scores often feed into complex business rules and decision engines, open interfaces support integration to enterprise applications like call centers or websites.
• peak performance: With traditional predictive methods, it is difficult to optimize great numbers of campaigns, become overly granular in targeting or to retrain models on a regular basis without investing time and sacrificing other business priorities. With the factory capability, business users will be able to schedule model refreshes as often as needed by the business.

"We are excited that our leading predictive analytics solutions are now available to SAP customers bundled with predictive and visualization capabilities," said John Ball, CEO of KXEN. "We feel that we are in a unique market position to offer unmatched analytics breadth and depth in the marketplace and leveraging the real-time Big Data capabilities of SAP HANA can deliver predictive solutions easily consumed by the business and which provide tremendous value."

A winning combination for Russia's largest retailer

Eldorado is the largest retailer of consumer electronics and household appliances in Russia and has more than 700 stores and franchisees in 450 cities. And with more than 1.5 million point-of-sale transactions spanning 420 product groups and 8,000 products each month, the company relies on SAP to help analyze data stored in the SAP 360 Customer solution.

"We are pleased to have two of our most strategic solution vendors join together to deliver predictive insight across our business," said Elena Zhukova, head of analytics at Eldorado LLC. "SAP and KXEN complement each other and provide Eldorado with a scalable approach to creating accurate forecasts. We have seen a 10 percent improvement in forecast accuracy compared with prior forecasting techniques. Creating forecasts for pricing and promotion analysis, store clustering, store location selection and sales and purchasing planning has become faster and more accurate."