SAP: Big data not integrated with transactional platforms is 'worthless'

Technologies like big data can level the playing field for SMEs in Latin America and enable them to compete on a global stage if they integrate these technologies with transactional platforms, according to German corporate software provider SAP.

"Businesses have to be able to learn from the data they obtain from the market. This learning has to be converted into transactions, otherwise it is worthless," Claudio Muruzábal (pictured on stage), SAP Latin America president told BNamericas.

Speaking on the sidelines of the SAP Leadership Summit in Cancun, Mexico, this week, Muruzábal said that he has encountered clients that have systems that can generate interest from millions of potential customers but that they are limited by their transactional platforms.

"The transactional world has to be integrated with analytics, machine learning and artificial intelligence... otherwise it is just an academic exercise," the executive said.

HANA ADOPTION

Speaking at the conference, Muruzábal said that Latin America has over 4,000 customers now using SAP's HANA in-memory data base, the largest percentage of clients for any region worldwide.

HANA is designed to eliminate 40% of the IT workloads of systems like CRM and ERP by running applications on one system. It allows companies to interact with different areas of their business and then analyze the data.

SAP announced this week that the fastest growing area of its business is SME clients (that bill under US$500mn a year), and there lies the opportunity, Muruzábal said.

"If you have the HANA platform, which is very efficient in use of resources, your investment in infrastructure is lower and allows companies of smaller size to do the things that currently only larger companies do,

"Today with these tools we can generate opportunities and potentially compete on a leveling playing field anywhere in the world," Muruzábal said.

INVESTMENT PRIORITIES

But this can only be done if Latin American rise to the occasion, invest in innovation and offer "best-in-class" solutions, Muruzábal said, mentioning the well cited prediction that 40% of Fortune 500 companies will be out of business in the next 10 years.

"That could accelerate," he said. "We all have the right to a place at the table, but there is no room for 'me too'."

A global study carried out for SAP by Oxford Economics which included 400 SMEs in Latin America, showed that Big Data & analytics, cloud and the internet of things are the three core technology areas where Latin American SMEs will make most investments in the next two years

Other technologies of much lesser importance included: robotics; machine learning/AI; block chain; VR/AR; human-computer interaction; and conversational applications.