SAP plans to expand its focus on business intelligence
software over the next year.
"Business intelligence software is an area in which we aim to
expand in 2005," said SAP spokesman Markus Berner. "We already have
an offering in this space and substantial expertise, but we want to
increase our focus. We're planning to devote around 100 people to
this effort.
Asked about a possible acquisition, Berner said nothing is
planned but it's a possibility.
Business intelligence software is designed to quickly cull
relevant material from massive amounts of data collected by
business systems. It allows companies to put critical data into the
hands of business users who need it to do their jobs.
Retailers, for instance, can use business intelligence software
to make decisions about merchandising, inventory management,
financial reporting and store operations, alerting them, for
example, to impending out-of-stock conditions and suggesting
solutions such as reordering merchandise or transfering products
from one location to another.
Currently, the business intelligence market is dominated by a
group of smaller suppliers, including Business Objects, Cognos and
SAS Institute. One of these could be flashing on SAP's radar
screen.
SAP has a history of moving into niche software markets, such as
supply chain management and CRM, and later becoming a key
supplier.
At its SAP TechEd conference last week the company demonstrated
a prototype of a new business intelligence technology for searching
inventory or profitability information stored across different
systems. The technology could provide responses 10 to 1,000 times
quicker than using traditional techniques, the company said.
John Blau writes for IDG News Service